The story opens on a street gang composed of young boys bullying some older gentlemen to pay them to wash their cars, they later rob a store and seriously injure the clerk. The police catch up with these boys and the majority of them are sent to reform school, a brutish place where they are forced to do hard labour in a severe and unforgiving environment where the guards are likely to hit you for a wrong look. Things change however when a new manager is selected for the place, and the warden takes an immediate dislike to him. This new character seems a little too rough around the edges, and as it turns out he got the position for political reasons. This would have been your average 'bad school' story but for this new boss man falling hard for the resident nurse. He falls over backwards to get the girl, and fortunately for the boys, their nurse is something of a radical in her ideas of reformation and education. She feels that the school should be a model for the boys to follow, that they'll learn better by example than they will by being bullied into what to think. That they would embody correct social behaviour more earnestly if it was their own choice. Well the man tries out this idea, and it actually works very well. The boys still work, but they are able to buy things after having completed their labour. They elected a mayor (who is the ring leader of the initial gang we were introduced to) as well as chief of police and a treasurer. They also hold their own court trials to police themselves.
All seems to be going well until he begins losing the support of his public back in town. The reason our man got the job running this place is because he's popular with the people, but he begins to lose support and is forced to return to town and sort out the trouble. The trouble is actually with his own gang... of which he's the leader, and they're trying to oust him as boss, so he shoots a guy and is forced to go into hiding. At the same time, the old supervisor returns from a forced vacation, and upon hearing this news, decides to return the school to what it was. In an effort to make up for lost time, the old supervisor really cracks down on the kids and throws the old 'mayor' into solitary confinement. The other boys sneak him some food, but one of them gets caught in the process and is thrown in the cell also. The boy is very sick however and ends up dying. The entire school riots upon discovering and try the old supervisor in their court, and find him guilty of murder. Will our hero come out of hiding when he finds out that the school's in trouble? Will he be able to stop the boys from doing something drastic?!
This was a really good film about educational practice in relation to moral behaviour. How a person reacts to their environment, and what people with authority should consider if they are trying to change behaviour. A lot of the time people act in accordance with what others expect of them, and the general idea around delinquents and criminals in general is that they're just bad people, that they're always going to be that way and always were. It would be useless treating them like ordinary people, or allowing them any dignity or respect, because actually they are less worthy than your average, law-abiding citizen. More effort goes into 'managing' them or subduing them or ignoring them than any actual reformation attempts, and this film calls into question this logic. What if in fact these individuals were able to rise out of their situation simply by being provided with a place in a healthy environment? It's an interesting conversation to have in any case.
I have to start off by admitting to not watching a lot of Korean produced media... this actually might be the first one I've watched, so that's where I'm coming from.
So the story takes its main elements from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, but some of the details are kind of twisted around. The main character is a guy with a sick mother and a pregnant girlfriend. He's on the road to visit his mother in the hospital when he has a fight with his girlfriend on the phone and ends up flipping his car over the side of the road into the forest. When he wakes up it's night-time and he has pretty bad cuts on his head, a strange girl also discovers him and leads him back to her house where he can rest for the night. When he gets to the house in the woods (called the house of happy children or something) he meets a very weird family consisting of a mother, a father, and three children. They all seem creepily happy, but there's something a little bit off. The parents show subtle signs of great anxiety bordering on fear, and the children seem to be almost acting out what they feel a happy family should be like. Another weird thing about this place is that his requests to be lead out of a mysteriously confusing forest are always pushed aside or ignored. Then one day the parents 'go out' for the day and never come back. A different couple is found walking through the woods, are brought back to the house, and seem to eerily fill the place the parents did. The guy, who they now refer to as uncle, watches in horror as all of this happens. As he wanders around the house and interacts with the kids a little more, he begins to uncover some disturbing secrets, confirming that these kids aren't at all what they seem to be, and neither is the place he's stuck in. The kids in turn also seem to grow more and more attached to him, making the possibility of his ever escaping them seem slimmer by the day. Will he ever find his way out!?
It's supposed to be a horror, but it is more suspenseful than anything else. There are some deviations from the original story. The main character is some 20-something guy instead of the children, and it is he that gets lost in the forest, not they. In fact it is the children and only the children who seem to be able to find their way around the forest, everyone else get's lost and always ends up back at the house. Also, there is no witch in the traditional sense. There is magic which is being manipulated, but it's not by any old woman. Breadcrumbs are used though, and there is some abuse. All in all it was actually pretty well done and is worth the watch.
I actually watched this whole thing on YouTube, it might be amongst the suggested videos listed with the trailer.
This is the story of a robber who falls in love with a girl who witnessed one of his jobs. The guy is a part of this group who have been on the wrong side of the law for almost their entire lives, just like their parents. They're also professionals in the field and leave no traces for the cops to find. Well, on one job they rob a bank, and they end up taking the bank manager with them for security, an attractive, young, female bank manager. Well our guy follows her one day, is kind of captivated by her, and begins seeing her on the sly. Eventually his 'work associates' finds out he's dating her, and use her safety as blackmail when he tells them he doesn't want to steal anymore. The FBI is also getting closer and closer to catching them, making each job they do more risky than the last. Will they be able to pull off this last big job? And will the guy ever get to be with the girl?!
This movie was actually better than I initially thought it would be. There was a lot of action and suspense, but it wasn't cheesy or overplayed. Overall, I'd probably watch it again.
This is a movie about a murder told from the perspectives of 4 different people set in ancient Japan. A man and a monk tell the story of a hearing to a stranger at a shrine while the three wait out a storm. During the trial, we hear the story from the perspective of a bandit, who supposedly is the murderer, a woman, who was the wife of the deceased and was raped by the bandit, and by the dead man, through a medium. Each version of the story is slightly different, but the fact that the man died, and his death in some way related to the woman's rape is present in each of the versions. At the end, one of our narrators (who is also the one who found the body) stated that he saw the whole thing and he tells us what actually happened.
The story is kind of slow-moving. There is a lot that could have been edited out and the acting was kind of overdone. The narrators were speaking of the story as a sort of lament for the state of humanity. They kept commenting on how this was such a horror story and how the state of humanity is in a really bad place if something like this could happen, and because they set it up that way, the actually story was kind of a let down. All of the characters were pathetic and I wish they'd all died... a suicide pact or something. Something to redeem their pathetic natures, but they were all simpering and childish in their own way. None of them present a proactive way to overcome their situation, they just whine and cry and it gets to be tiresome to watch after a while.
This is an amazing movie. One of those ones that are just on another level, and almost can't be compared with any seriousness to 'films' that come out today.
The plot follows twelve jury members as they decide the fate of a boy's life. The boy is 18, lived all of his life in a slum, is what looks to be Jewish or Italian (aka, black in the 50's), and is being accused of murdering his father. We only get a short glimpse of the boy before the jury is sent off into their room to make the decision of whether or not this boy will be sent to the chair.
As the jury members walk into the room, the audience can tell they're not taking this case seriously. They're talking about business, or sports, or how fortunate they are to have something as interesting as a murder case and how fast it'll be over. The boy is no good, and it's clear to everyone that he's guilty. Everyone except one man. The man who thinks he's not guilty, at first doesn't even say as much. He just wasn't completely positive that he was guilty, and more than anything wanted to respect the fact that a life was hanging in the balance by having a conversation about it. So begins a very long conversation wherein, either through discussing possible flaws in the evidence against the boy or through recognizing that the case wasn't as clear as it first seemed, the other members of the jury slowly began to question their initial judgements.
This movie is just a long conversation. There is only one room we see, with exceptions to very short scenes in the court room and the bathroom. There is also a fixed cast, we don't meet any new people, and the people we do know don't go anywhere. It may all sound quite dull on the surface... but I challenge you to not be riveted. The room is so emotionally charged, with real emotion too. The acting is really phenomenal, and I don't think it can be compared to present day acting that needs special lighting, special effects, special music to set the mood of a scene. I don't even remember if this film has a soundtrack... but knowing older film, there are probably more than a few scenes without a musical backdrop to tell the audience what they should be feeling. The actors just take you there.
The individual characters are all very interesting as well. Because it's just a movie about talking and because we stuck with the same people in the same place, you can really get a sense of where they're coming from and what makes them tick. How they interact with the case and the evidence, how they interact with the other jury members, the ideas they bring to the table. It all creates a small picture of what that character's life must have been like before they walked through that door, and why they're thinking what they are about the boy on trial, some positively and some negatively.
On a slightly tangential side note, they did an episode in honour of this movie in the cartoon Pepper Ann (I might be placing myself on the timeline here), except it is obviously not for murder.
Anyway, amazing film that you must definitely watch before you die. Yes there is a colour version done in the 90's. No it is not better. Watch this one.
This is the story of a young boy who lost his father in the 9/11 attack and tries to keep his memory alive by trying to solve a mystery.
When I first heard about this movie I was reluctant to see it. I've seen and heard of so many 9/11 stories and conspiracies and propaganda that I thought this would be more of the same. That it would be trying to make me believe something. Instead, it was a very moving story about coping with loss and fear. I was in tears for many scenes, it was really moving.
The protagonist is a boy named Oskar Schell, a young boy who has many fears. He mentions at one point that he was tested for aspergers, but it's not clearly stated that he has this disorder. What is stressed is that he has many fears and that he's extremely intelligent. His father makes up mysteries for him to solve, the one we find them in the middle of is discovering what happened to the 6th borough of New York. So his father will pose a question and give very vague clues, or none at all, leaving Oskar to make his own way, giving him an outlet for his very inquisitive and capable mind. An important part of solving the mystery is having to talk to people, which Oskar has a lot of difficulty with.
Then, as Oskar calls it, the 'worst day' happened and his father died in one of the twin towers. Oskar is devastated, obviously, and eventually feels that the memory of his father is slipping farther and farther away from him, and around this time he breaks a vase that was in his father's closet. Inside that vase was a small envelope with the word 'black' on it, with a key inside. Oskar decides that the word must be a name, and then, in the style of the mystery he was solving with his father, he goes about trying to speak with every Black in New York to see if anyone knows what the key was for.
I think the most moving part of this movie for me was how afraid of everything Oskar was, and how he pushed on in his quest despite that. There's a lot of pain in this movie, we get to see a lot of people who are going through a rough time, and Oskar's search seems to almost give those people a voice. Going on this search also brings him closer to the people who are still in his life. A definite watch.
This is a movie about a girl from a broken family, in a broken culture, who defies her personal and collective past to create a new and possibly better future.
Paikea is a girl who, in the eyes of her grandfather, shouldn't have been born. Paikea was born into a patriarchal Maori tribe, of which her grandfather, and his grandfather before him, and his before him, etc. is chief. The story behind her culture is that they all came to where they're living now because one of their ancestors, a man named Paikea, rode on the back of a whale, and they really cherish whales because of this. The problem is that the blood of the community is growing weak, and not many people are choosing to follow the old ways. Paikea's father chose to leave the country instead of take his place as next in line, and her grandfather was hoping that his firstborn grandson would take his place and lead the people. Paikea was born along with a twin brother, but the boy didn't survive. Paikea's father left soon after her birth, and she was raised by her grandmother and grandfather.
One day, her grandfather decides to open a school for all of the young boys in the village, to teach them the old ways, and to choose one of them to be the new chief. Paikea tries to join in, but her grandfather gets angry and kicks her out of the school. She is of course upset by this and gets her uncle (her grandfather's second born, also not good enough for her grandfather) to teach her the traditional fighting style. To pick one of the boys to follow in his footsteps, her grandfather throws a whale tooth to the bottom of the reef and says that the one who can retrieve it will be chosen. Of course none of them can do it. And of course Paikea asks her uncle to take her there and successfully retrieves it. That night at her school she says a speech in her grandfather's honour, but he doesn't make it to the event because for some reason all of the whales have beached themselves. The whole community comes down to the beach to try to save the whales, but nothing seems to be able to fix this situation. Will Pai be able to do anything!?
This is kind of a slow-moving film, but I really love it. It's a story about inner strength, about fighting adversity, and most importantly, about valuing tradition and your heritage and fighting to keep it alive, even when doing so seems impossible or useless. Everything in Pai's life seems to be working against her, or falling apart. She comes from a tradition that seems to be losing it's place, where her place as a woman makes her voice a little bit harder to hear, and yet she's the only one with the power to speak. She's also from a broken family. She rarely ever sees her father who lives in another country, her mother died during childbirth, and her grandfather resents her existence because of her gender. But despite the fact that so many things in her life are 'broken', Pai keeps trying to fix them. A great scene symbolizing this is when her grandfather is trying to start a motor with a piece of rope and he explains that their ancestral line is like the rope, many small strands woven together to become something stronger. He then snaps the rope trying to start the motor and angrily goes off to find a better one. Pai picks up the rope and fixes it, ad then uses it to start the motor and her grandfather comes back and scolds her. She's able to gather people, and lead them, but because she's a girl, her value is overlooked and belittled. And what's so inspiring about the movie is that she barrels forward despite all of that.
I'm kind of a sucker for tradition and culture, and keeping your own alive in a modern world that does not immediately make room for older modes of thought and being, so this film always strikes a chord with me. I often feel the richness and beauty of my own family's culture and traditions fading slowly away with every generation, and movies like this one give me a confidence boost when I'm feeling like I'm the only one who wants to treasure that heritage. And it gives me confidence that I can adapt that older way to fit the new world I'm living in now.
Even if you're not female, and you're not very traditional, this is still a good movie about finding yourself and standing up for your beliefs or standing up to outdated thoughts or closed-minded adversaries. A definite watch.
This is the story about several house hold appliances that come to life (have always been 'alive') and decide to journey to find their master.
The story begins at an old cottage. At first it just seems like a regular, old cottage that hasn't been used for a while, but then we begin to see objects around the house come to life. A toaster, an electric blanket, and clock radio, a desk lamp, and a vacuum cleaner are the main appliances in the story. When they wake up they all go about their chores, stopping every time they hear a car coming, because they are constantly waiting for their master, a young boy, to come retrieve them and use them again. Well on one fateful day, they realize that the cottage is going to be put up for sale, and that they might never see their master again. Instead of just sitting to rot and waiting for their next masters to take possession of the cottage and them as well, the toaster convinces them to go off in search of their master. They travel through many forests and fields, and actually fall into a swamp at one point and are found by a man who repairs broken appliances. He takes them back to his shop, a scary place where appliances apparently go to die under torturous circumstances. Just as the radio is about to go, they create a diversion and make their escape and miraculously find their master's apartment in the city. When they get there though, the new furniture is jealous of the old furniture and tells them that their master doesn't need them anymore and throws them into a dumpster, and they are taken to a landfill. Little do they know, their master drove to the cottage to retrieve them, only to find them gone. When he returns home his old tv (friends with toaster and gang) direct the master to the dump, in hopes that he'd find toaster and bring the gang back. Things at the dump get a bit dangerous when a magnetic machine spots our appliance friends and tries to crush them. What will happen I wonder.
This is a great movie. And actually this is a terrifying movie. I can't believe I didn't notice the sheer terror this movie should have caused me when I first watched it, but kids are always stronger than we give them credit for.. and maybe it's adults who are more susceptible to fear, or knowledge of fear anyway. If you want to preview some of the scenes look up the clown scene, or the scene with the air conditioner. They're on YouTube. It's a really interesting movie to watch, and it has catchy songs too.
Another quality that is good about this movie is it really pushes the idea that you have to cherish and take care of the things you buy. So often we develop the mentality that everything is disposable, everything has an expiry date, and you don't need to care for what you have because if it breaks, you can buy another one just like it. Instead, if more people developed the habit of caring for and taking pride in what they own, we would waste less money on useless purchases and reduce our garbage.
An interesting scene in this movie takes place when Toaster and gang take a break from their journey in field and all of the animals and flowers start interacting with our friends, especially with the reflection they see in Toaster. There is one flower that sees it's reflection in Toaster and falls in love with it, but there's no flower there, and the reflection can't love it back, so the flower begins to wilt and die. It's a depressing part of the movie that doesn't immediately fit in. Of course it could symbolize the other side of the 'love your things' theme, where you can't actually love your things because they'll never love you back, because they're not alive. But it, like the whole movie, is really interesting in it's lack of fear to go to darker places, for a children's movie.
Each of the characters grow a lot in this movie, too (just keeps getting better and better, I know). Characters who begin afraid of everything find an inner strength, characters who don't show a lot of emotion really open up, etc. They all do their own part to complete their journey and make their own sacrifices to achieve a greater happiness.
I really recommend you watch this film. Okay, maybe not the most amazing children's film ever made, but a definite watch.
This is one of Disney's more serious cartoons, and one of it's surprisingly lesser seen or even heard of cartoons. It's about a young mouse named Olivia whose toy maker father was kidnapped, so she hires a famous detective, Basil of Baker Street, to track him down.
The story takes place in London and opens on a young female mouse asking a famous detective to help her find her missing father. When Olivia first tells Basil about her predicament, he doesn't take her seriously. He makes it clear that he doesn't really like children all that much and doesn't believe her case to be worth his time, until he finds out that the bat who kidnapped her father works for his arch nemesis, an evil rat named Ratigan. He then takes on the case along with his sidekick Dawson, unwillingly taking Olivia along as well. He uses his deductive skills and His pet bloodhound, Toby, to find Ratigan and Olivia's father. Ratigan then has Olivia kidnapped so that her father will do his bidding and create ingenious mechanical monstrosities (I might be exaggerating). Basil and Dawson then go about trying to rescue the pair and stumble upon a deeper diabolical plot to over-throw the queen and usurp the throne. Will Basil be able to out-wit the crafty Ratigan and save Olivia, her father, the Queen, and the day?!?
This is a great movie that I really enjoyed as a kid. It's one of the more suspenseful Disney flicks and imitates a sort of Sherlock Holmes vibe. There is also a lot of detective work going on, a lot of clue following, real gum shoe stuff. I'm always surprised to hear how unknown this movie is. I know there's no princess in it, and it's not a romance, but it rivals any of the newer Disney classics. It's a great detective story for kids, and there's a lot of action and suspense. There's even a fight scene in Big Ben. A definite watch for the kids.
This is a cute little story retelling a modern version of Beauty and the Beast. It takes place in a high school and we enter the story on a student election and the most handsome guy in the class is running for the president. The guy, Kyle, promotes himself by saying that he'll be chosen because of his looks, because in the world, people who look good are better off than people who don't. They're treated better, have more opportunity, are more well liked, etc. And he gets elected. There is a goth girl there (played by Mary-Kate Olsen) who it is hinted, he dated in the past, and she doesn't look too kindly on him or anything he does, the kids also joke around that she's a witch. He also meets a girl, Lindy, who was also in the elections, and they end up taking a picture together. She's sort of nondescript, if slightly alternative. Anyway, Kyle ends up pissing off his gothic ex by attempting to humiliate her, and she puts a spell on him. He will become ugly, and if he can't get someone to tell him they love him before a year is up and a tattoo on his arm blooms, he will look that way for the rest of his life. One thing leads to another, and he starts following Lindy around. He's living in a house by himself because his rich father has neither the time, nor the inclination to bother with him. He gave him a house keeper and hired a tutor so that he doesn't fall behind in school. One night while following her, he sees a couple of men attack her and her father, and her father ends up shooting one. The other promises to hunt down Lindy and take her life for the life of his brother, and Kyle then tells the man to give Lindy to him for protection, and after a slight hesitation, her father agrees. Then the two live in the house together, and I'm sure you can take a stab in the dark at how the rest of the story goes.
I didn't mind this movie. I thought the actress who played Lindy was a little too 'nonchalant' at times, too detached from the situation by her 'coolness'. And I didn't see a reason for Kyle to start obsessing over her so much. I understand the intent, but I think they could have set up the situation a little better to explain the obsession, and not have him obsessively covet some random girl he spoke to twice in his life without properly setting the stage. If you look past that though, the story is kind of cute, and it mas a good message, that substance is more important than good looks and that you don't need to care about what the entire world thinks about you... just what the select few you care about think. They didn't really go into Kyle trying to accept himself regardless of appearance, that would have been the next step, but at least it gets the audience thinking, hopefully.
As for some actor comments, Niel Patrick Harris plays his blind tutor, and I can't help but see him as his role in How I Met Your Mother, in which he's hilarious. So that was kind of distracting, but he was still good in it. The girl who played Lindy was ok too, but (and I know this is a weird criticism) she has a beak-ish upper lip that I rather not have had to look at for an hour. She seemed to be a decent actress though.
To sum up, cute teen romance trying to tackle the whole 'image' issue through a modern retelling of an old fairytale.
This is a re-imagining of the Sleeping Beauty Story in modern times. 'Sleeping Beauty' is a university student who holds several part-time jobs to pay the bills, and judging by her lifestyle, is unhappy with her current life. She meets random people in bars and does pretty much whatever is suggested to her, looking as though she doesn't care all the while. When the bills start to pile up, she applies for a job as an erotic server, and eventually ends up being promoted to being drugged and sleeping (no penetration) with paying customers. She has only one 'friend' she visits on a regular basis, a man whose relationship to her is unclear, but we only ever see her break down or cry when she's with him, and we never see them do anything sexual together. One day she's given her normal assignment, but the guest asks for a suicide and she wakes up to a deceased old man, and the movie ends with her screaming at realizing this, and maybe other things too.
I heard several negative reviews about this film, but I actually didn't mind it. It was a little more artsy than your average blockbuster, but all of the main elements were there. The girl is not present in her life, she's figuratively and symbolically asleep. She indulges in many forms of escapism, drugs and sex with strangers being prime examples. She attacks her body as violently as she can, without actually doing any physical damage, in effect attacking her mind. On more than one occasion she hooks up with strangers she meets in bars, or takes drugs some random person hands her. At the interview, the woman informs her that she need not worry because there would not be any penetration and that her vagina was a temple. She responded by flat-out denying that, and we can repeatedly see this disrespect she does to her own body. She actually burns some of the money she makes on her very first assignment, removing the practical reason for her degradation. What she does never seems to faze her either. She approaches everything with a cool disdain, if not with blatant apathy. The only time she shows any real emotion is when she's with her seemingly one and only friend, named Birdman. In a way, he might be her prince. **Spoiler** The turning point for her, the moment she begins wanting to break out of this apathy is with his death... so he wouldn't be her prince in the traditional sense, but his death is like a symbolic 'kiss' that begins to awaken her. In fact, he never even kissed her. He kept saying that he really wanted to, but wasn't good enough, or wasn't ready, and he was the most stable thing in her life. She often wound up on his doorstep after a rough night, and he would sooth her, no matter the hour. And that soothing was never sexual in nature either, unlike the damaging lifestyle she chose to lead. A good scene between them is him holding her on the pullout couch watching the nature channel on mute as he narrates, and she begins crying. He was more of a refuge for her than anything else. **Spoiler end** I also think the end of the movie is her full awakening. After her assignment she wakes up next to a corpse, and she is understandably shaken and disgusted and screams, but it isn't just a short scream of disgust or horror. She screams continually, like she's just woken up and can't understand where she is or how she got there.
There are also several situations external to the girl herself that accentuate and explore the idea of 'awakening'. There is this good scene with the first patron who comes to her in her drugged state and he tells a lengthy story about a folktale he read, and how he himself is inhibited and was in his own way 'asleep' for most of his life. The execution of this story was carefully thought out and there is a lot of symbolism and suggestion supporting the central theme of the story, which makes this one of those films you could watch several times and pick out something new with each viewing.
There is nudity in this film, but I wouldn't see anyone watching this to turn themselves on. Basically, if you've seen a naked person before it shouldn't upset you too much as they just walk around. There aren't any sex scenes or erotic dances or anything of that nature.
I think that this movie will mean something more to viewers of Italian descent in North America as it comes mostly from that culture. The story is about a guy named Marty. He's working as a butcher and is living with his mother, as all good Italian boys do before they're married. He's also getting on in years, and this is causing everyone around him to pester him about getting a wife and starting a family. The problem is that Marty isn't very attractive. He's been trying to find a girl, but none will give him the time of day. Then one night his cousin and his cousin's wife come over to ask Marty's mother if she would be able to take her sister/ his mother (who was at the time living with her son) into her own house, because she and the wife are not getting along. Marty's mother of course says ok, and in return the cousin tells her about a dance hall where Marty can go to meet girls. She brings it up to Marty who immediately refuses, but after a bit of an argument, Marty does as any good Italian boy does and listens to his mother. When he's there it's the same old story, all of the girls either refuse him or ignore him, until some guy comes up to him and offers 5 bucks to take home a 'dog' he's with. Marty is of course appalled that he would try to treat someone that way and refuses, but follows the situation and ends up talking to the girl after a guy he who does take the money still refuses to take her home because she's so ugly. Well they end up really hitting it off, and talking to each other till 2 or 3 in the morning, and he even takes her home for a spell and his mother meets her too. You'd think that this would be good news for Marty, since up until this point in the film everyone has been on his case to get a girl, and now he has one... but the opposite happens. His friends are upset with him because he wasn't with them last night, and want him to do nothing with them rather than call that 'ugly' girl and ditch them. His mother doesn't seem to like her either, sensing that maybe she won't have the same role to play in Marty's life if or when he gets serious about a girl. What will Marty choose to do?
This is an interesting look at the life of the Italian- American bachelor. With age, there comes a certain pressure, an expectation that a man must get married and start a family. However, there is also a contradicting expectation that a man will always put his mother first and of course his friends don't want to be left behind either. The story is cute. it's about two people who don't quite shine in their social spheres, finding happiness in each other. Neither of the two are actually as ugly as the movie suggests they are, but Marty is somewhat heavyset, and you probably wouldn't immediately pick out Clara from a crowded room. The main thing is that they've both felt rejection, and are both happy in the attention of the other. Not a fast-paced movie, but a worth-while watch.
This is an okay movie to watch if you're in the mood for watching a fairy tale... but otherwise it's quite bad.
The movie takes place in a more magical world than the original story. The story begins by informing the viewer that once upon a time a green fire landed on earth high on a mountaintop. The fire was magical and brought with it dragons and elves, which embodied its power. We then fast forward to a dragon killing a king, and then to his wife who is practicing her false sorrow for his funeral, who is obviously the evil step mother. The prince from the adjacent land has come to propose marriage to her because he fears that she will invade his country, though he doesn't really like her as she's killed off all of the elves and dragons living on the king's land. Little does he know, she is also planing to attempt a union with him because the magical green fire is rumoured to be on his land, and she is of course power-hungry. We see some of her greed and vanity when she does the whole mirror mirror routine, which they explain by having her use the power stones she stole from elves. This all changes however, when the prince sees Snow White, which takes the story off into a familiar direction, save for a few altered details and a prophecy that has to do with the magic fire.
I thought the inclusion of the magical fire and the elves was an interesting spin, and I thought the film pulled it off quite well, it wasn't too campy. There were elves instead of dwarves, and the magic fit in with the storyline quite smoothly. The acting wasn't that bad either. There were some predictable character sub-plots, but overall it was decent. The thing that really killed this movie were the special effects. I was shocked and appalled when I found out this was made in 2012, because watching it, I pegged the CG to be maybe late 90's early 00's. That animation that poor was still being used in this day and age is just disgusting. The worst of it was the dogs... they could have saved the money and just used real dogs. Even if the dogs weren't as ferocious as would be desired... it wouldn't have looked like crap. This movie wasn't a blockbuster or anything, it might have gone straight to video, but for me that's not excuse for shoddy quality.
Besides that, I did enjoy it. Snow White played a more active role than housewife and mock corpse (taking nothing away from Disney, I love their version) and actually saved the day in her own way. The cinematography was decent too, so it wasn't horrible to look at. Overall this was an acceptable version of the story, but there are better versions our there.
I've never thought to do a review on this movie, but what with the Hunger Games hype, I thought I'd go hipster and bring up this movie that came out over 10 years ago that has the exact same premise.
We enter the film with the narrator explaining that this is an unsettling time in Japan. The youth is out of control and the government doesn't know what to do about it, so to combat these crazy, moral-less adolescents, the BR act in introduced. The BR (battle royale) Act is a nation-wide lottery where all grade nine classes are automatically entered. If a class is selected, that class is transported to a deserted island where, in the span of at the most, three days, one student must kill all of their classmates and be the last one standing to 'win' or deadly necklaces they are forced to wear will explode, killing everyone. The students are each given a bag of provisions to last them three days as well as a mystery weapon, the weapon can either be good, or very ineffective.
The main characters are named Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, but several of the students play significant roles in the film and I believe that if you read the novel (from whence the film came) there is technically no 'main character' as anyone could die at any time. As an example of some not so good weapons, these two get a pot lid and binoculars for weapons, while others get guns and swords and the like. We are introduced to several of the students and their relationships with each other. For the students we do get to know a bit, we also get a bit of a back story on them as well, explaining certain relationships or characteristics. There are also two transfer students who are wild cards, and throw everyone off a bit. We get to see several different strategies on how different characters react to the situation. Some kill themselves, refusing to play all together, some try to fight the system, others try to gang up (though this would probably prove to be problematic if they did indeed kill everyone else), you of course have the crazy ones out to kill as many people as they can, and there are those just trying to survive till then end without killing or being killed.
What I like about this film, besides the lord-of-the-flies-esque gore, is that this movie is actually just like any other teen, high school drama. We get to hear about romances, jealousies, clique wars, etc., but instead of it ending peaceably with a sugar-coated happy ending, they kill each other. One of my favourite scenes is where a group of 'best friend' girls are in this lighthouse together, and after one of them sneakily tried to kill Nanahara with her weapon, who they have injured upstairs, she accidentally kills one of her buddies. They of course all break out in a shrieking, adolescent, immature argument, blaming and accusing each other for what happened. Under any other circumstance this kind of scene would annoy me so much... but then they all kill each other and die. It's so good.
There is a bit of gore in this and there is a disclaimer at the beginning stating that upon its release, children under 14 years of age were prohibited from watching it... but it was made in 2000 and I feel that our media has progressed enough technologically for this to not be as disturbing as it might have once been.
This is such an epic film that I recommend it to everyone. There really is something for everyone, and everyone over a certain age is sure to get some sort of enjoyment from watching it. It's like Lord of the Flies meets Kill Bill meets Sixteen Candles... in Japanese. On the DVD (it was just legally released for the first time in North America recently) it says this one of Quentin Tarantino's favourite films, which gives you kind of an idea... but it really doesn't need the recommendation. If you have not already seen this, you should go watch it. Now.
This is an animated movie about an agency that has developed a device that allows an agent to go into a client's dreams and provide therapy. Things start to get strange however, when the dreams start getting out of control and begin trying to take over people's waking lives, even influencing the to kill themselves. Kind of sounds like Inception (2010), doesn't it. Doesn't it. Well, it's not exactly like Inception, but there are several similar themes.
Paprika is the dream form of a young woman whose job it is to help clients work out psychological problems by participating in and interacting with their dreams. The company she works for has developed a device that allows the company to see the client's dreams, and interact with them in their dreams, but this new technology is still in the trial period and has not been sanctioned by the government yet. The government decides that these devices are too dangerous to be on the market, but before they can remove these products, one of them is stolen, and is being used to drive some of the scientists to insanity, and even death. The dream world slowly begins to seep into the real world, and it's up to Paprika to overcome the obstacles put in her way to find who is behind this madness, and to stop it before it's too late.
This is an amazing movie. The plot is interesting of course, but I would recommend that you watch this more for the visual and aural experience, and I guarantee that that will be what you will take away from the film, and what you'll be talking about with your friends (if you are a loser like me and talk about films with your friends). Watching this film is like watching a moving canvas. Because it takes place in the dream world (and because it's Japanese) weird is ok, which makes for an amazing visual experience. I can't stress this enough, you'll be tripping even if you're sober. There are one of two disturbing scenes, the film is rated R, but if you're a mature adolescent or older, I'm sure you'll be just fine. The soundtrack is also amazing. I don't usually go out of my way to enjoy a soundtrack if the film is not a musical, but I listen to this soundtrack on a regular basis. It's high energy and quirky.
The movie starts off kind of slow, but once it gets going you'll be unable to tear your eyes away... maybe in a good way and maybe in a bad way... but you'll remember watching it either way.
This is the story of a young woman who marries a cattle rancher, and about how Texas was changing in the '50's. The film has more of an epic quality to it, and there really isn't one storyline or theme running through the entire story. Actually, several very different movies could be made from different parts of the plot. The story begins when the two meet each other, and ends when they're old and grey.
The heroine's name is Leslie, and she's a spirited young woman from a rich family in Washington. She's got a mind of her own and a very strong will. A rancher named Jordan from Texas happens to come to her father's house to buy a very spirited horse (which happens to be Leslie's). He is immediately captivated by her spirit, marries her, and brings her back to Texas with him. Things are bumpy throughout their entire relationship. Various people, including her own husband, are at odds with her progressive ways, just as she is at odds with how they treat the aboriginals and their women. Leslie's struggles aren't the only main story. There is also the story of how times are changing, and how Jordan might not be able to keep up with those changes. Leslie and Jordan raise three kids, and Jordan is really looking forward to having a son to follow in his footsteps, but as luck would have it, his son was afraid of horses from a young age, and eventually becomes the opposite of his father in every way, from profession to choice of wife. There is also a farm hand who is half in love with Leslie, and strikes it rich with oil he found on land that was given to him by Jordan's sister. He adds another level to the story.
I think that this story is ultimately a story of the inevitability of progress, and Leslie represents that progress. There is a scene close to the beginning where Jordan's sister is very upset with Leslie moving in and taking her place as Jordan's wife, taking a place in the home she's moved to. She feels threatened by Leslie and feels the need to demonstrate her dominance. The horse that Jordan bought from Leslie's father was a wild beast, and only Leslie could ride it, but the sister decides that she will ride this animal because it was her ranch and her horse, etc. She ends up being thrown from the horse and dying, and for me that is where the story of progress begins symbolically. The sister represents the old ways... closed-minded and stubborn, and Leslie and her horse represent the new changes that are coming, that are inevitable and that will destroy all before it if too much resistance is met. There are a lot of changes that happen in the movie, many situations of resistance of the norm. A large part of the plot is how aboriginals were treated by the white Texans. Near the beginning of the film, before they were married, Leslie comments on how the land was actually stolen from the natives, which of course makes Jordan very angry. The movie also ends with this theme, and is what finally unites the couples (and brings new and old sensibilities in line with each other). Another area of tension is how women were treated. There was one scene in specific where Leslie makes a big stink about the fact that the men won't allow her to participate in their conversation about politics and business, and how they in fact send her to bed like a child. There is also, of course, the issue of their children growing up to be something other than what their parent's would have hoped. Their son takes after Leslie completely, which angers Jordan to no end. He wants to be a doctor instead of a rancher, and sin of all sins, he falls in love with and marries a native girl. The first daughter is not exactly what Leslie wants either, but the film focuses more on Jordan's wishes, and she disappoints even him, even though he wants to be a rancher. The third is also very aggravating to the two of them because she fancies herself in love with their former hired hand.
Even though the main events of this story happen around a married couple, and how they met and grew old together, I wouldn't exactly call it a romance. Their relationship was more just a fact of life than it was a romantic meeting of souls or star-crossed lovers or anything like that. It was an everyday affair that gave the audience an excuse for being involved in the happenings of the lives of these people. It's more of an epic. Part romance, part drama, part social commentary, part western. And it's over 3 hours long.
It's not my favourite movie ever, but I do love Elizabeth Taylor, and she is exquisite in this role. She's a strong, sensible woman who takes charge of her own life on the ranch and isn't some spineless, biddable wife lacking brains and drive. She carves out a place for herself amongst some very strong personalities that would rather she hold her tongue. I don't know that I will ever watch it again, nor would I say that I'm extremely thrilled at having watched it at all as I like films with more definite plot structure and well-defined themes, but it wasn't a bad film and if you have the time I say give it a go!
I came across this documentary by chance and was very excited to watch it. I've always been fascinated by the evil eye, by the fact that social scorn, or even social praise can affect one's physical well-being. It's a cross between the spiritual and the physical, which is a rare occurrence these days, as spirituality has taken a back seat to science in the social sphere, which has stunted societal spiritual growth in my opinion. Mal'occhio was something believed in and practiced mostly by the poor, peasant class. People who were uneducated in comparison with present day standards, and who were arguably closer to the natural world.
For those who don't know, Mal'occhio is the evil eye. The event where someone thinks ill or wishes ill of you, and that act can have physical results in your life. The most common (but not only) symptom is a severe headache, and there are several ways to protect yourself against this 'evil'. The documentary explored what the evil eye is, and how one can rid themselves of it. This documentary was interesting in that it explored personal perspectives of older people in the community as well as the practices and beliefs surrounding the idea of mal'occhio. Usually, it is very difficult to get elders in the Italian community to discuss these details, so hearing and elder's belief, practice, and ritual is an interesting experience. The film tries to explore possible flaws with the ritual, what may compromise the results, but mostly focuses on the possibility of its existence. I felt that the film could have gone into further depth in regards to the origins of the belief, and could have gone into more detail when explaining what mal'occhio actually means, and what happens to you when you have it. We get a vague idea from listening to personal accounts and one or two specialists, but the concept in itself isn't really explained in detail. More time is spent asking whether or not it's real, and if you are not a part of this culture you might be kind of lost.
I wasn't a fan of the filmography. There were more than a few transitional scenes following day-to-day actions that had no narration to tie in their relevance. Events such as lying on a bed, washing dishes, walking down a series of streets, observing art, etc. These scenes are simply presented without any explanation or signifying relevance, which ultimately leads to the frustrating feeling that they should have been cut and are just wasting the viewer's time. This fact, along with the lack of progression from academic and practical experts led the film to present itself in an amateurish light. The film seems like a college project rather than a full-fledged film. That said, it was informative in its own way. There were several perspectives represented and the movie was shot mostly in Italian with English subtitles, which adds to the authenticity. Overall the film was decent. I don't know that I would say this is the best source on the subject, but it is a useful film in introducing Mal'occhio to those who are already slightly familiar with the culture. Maybe not a purchase, but a watch at the very least.
This is the story of three drag queens who, on the way to a national drag queen of the year competition, get stranded in small town America, and bring a tired, backwater town to life.
The story opens with two drag queens, Vida and Noxeema, in New York tying for first place in a drag queen of the year competition, and as the grand prize, win two tickets to the national drag queen competition in Hollywood. As the two congratulate themselves on their victory, they come across one of their competitors, Chi Chi, crying in a stairway. Vida takes pity on Chi Chi and convinces Noxeema to let her go with them to Hollywood, so they sell their tickets and decide to buy an old, and questionably reliable Cadillac to take them to the competition. A sub story continuing throughout the film follows Vida and Noxeema telling Chi Chi the four steps required to become a true drag queen (as they called her a boy in a dress early on in the film). Before they leave however, Vida happens to spot an autographed photo of Julie Newmar saying 'To Wong Foo, Thanks for everything! Julie Newmar' and Vida steals the picture and takes it with them as good luck charm of sorts.
The journey seems to be going well until a racist sheriff pulls them over. he takes quite a liking to Vida and tries to sexually harass her... but is somewhat dismayed when he finds some extra parts between her legs, so Vida knocks him out and they drive away not knowing whether he's dead or alive. This guy will be searching for man-women for the rest of the film... will he find them I wonder. Their luck continues on this streak and their car breaks down a short while later. Chi Chi hitches them a ride to the nearest town where they have to wait for several days for the broken part of their car to come in.
The town they are stranded in seems to have a population of about 20, and they've never seen nothing like these 'career women' in their lives. Each person in this town has some sort of issue, alcoholism, domestic violence, self-esteem issues, douche-baggery, etc. and through the friendships and effort of our fearless hero(ine)s, each of these individuals overcome their personal problems and begin to embrace a life they seemed to have put on hold, or that they never truly started living. Trouble eventually catches up to them in the form of that sheriff (suspense killed), as the abusive husband tips him off to the whereabouts of these manly women. What will the town do when they find out the secret the girls have been keeping? Will they go to jail? And will they ever get to the national drag competition?!?!
I really liked this movie. I tend to like stories featuring cross- dressers or drag queens or transsexuals because it's a true story about discovering the self and choosing to follow your heart, despite the most definite censure you'll face from society, and your friends and family. This isn't to say that other soul-searching stories are not valid stories on the subject, but in that sense the whole 'finding yourself' theme is more about how you hold yourself back from being what you could be, it's usually assumed that others will come to accept your decision in time. Gender and sexuality is a very threatening subject for many people. Either they've been bred to ignorance, or they're not very self-confident or comfortable with their own sexuality and they find someone else's deviation from the social norm a personal attack. There are not very many things in life that are so constricting and taboo as how one defines themselves sexually. If you were born into a religious house hold, or have very expectant parents, you may be expected to follow a certain faith or enter a certain profession, but if you choose to deviate from that expectation, only a handful of people would be hurt, and since it is not an issue of life or death, they may even come to forgive you. If you tell your parents you're gay however, or that you felt that you were born the wrong gender, or that you only feel comfortable in clothes of the opposite gender, you'll have not only have (potentially, there are more and more open-minded people... or people who will just mind their own business if nothing else) your friends and family against you, but your society... and actually the entire world against you as well. It is the most publicly censured private affair in existence. So for a person to choose that kind of life is a very difficult and amazing thing, and is a more valid representation of the struggle of 'finding yourself' than a story about someone who doesn't know what kind of profession to pursue or whom to love.
Something else that really draw me to these sorts of films is that is seems like an innocent story of wanting to be accepted and beautiful, beauty not stemming solely from vanity and self-indulgence. It's kind of like watching a young girl's excitement as she dresses up in a fancy dress for a tea party, or for a day out with her friends. The pure joy one gets from indulging in 'girliness'. There is also a terror that someone will reject your joy, someone will spitefully spill juice on your brand new dress. Maybe this kind of struggle doesn't translate well for males, maybe that's why females seem to be more understanding when it comes to individuals of questionable or contrary gender/ sexuality. Because as girls, we've all known the difficulties and heartbreak that social acceptance can have, and we recognize that the societal 'other'. Who knows. All I know is that I like it.
Also, I never thought Patrick Swayze and Westley Snipes could be so feminine. The actors in this film definitely did an amazing job at capturing the essence of their roles. All in all, great film!
