12 Angry Men

Usually, when a movie is described as confined, the accessibility of the movie is called into question, and the average viewer tends to shift their thoughts onto the latest Hollywood epic instead. In fact, most of the time even film aficionados tend to avoid movies that feel stuck in one place, with the relief of outside exposure almost assuredly laying at the end of the picture, and there only. No lies though, that is EXACTLY what 12 Angry Men is, and that's EXACTLY what makes it brilliant, and upon seeing it for the first time, I'd recommend it over the latest glamorous retelling of history that Hollywood seems to constantly conjure up year after year.

12 Angry Men's setup isn't complicated at first. These men, like all people are at some point or another, are all called in for jury duty and must decide, in a 12 to nothing vote, whether the the defendant of a homicide case is guilty or not. The verdict pushes between freedom or the death penalty with no fidgeting room in between, laying the pressure down very hard on some of the "12." Simple enough so far, though the plot slowly develops throughout, utilizing excellent scriptwriting, acting, plot twists, and character development.

This movie just feels organic. The pacing is perfect though it never lets off the feeling of confinement, making the viewer both anticipate the end of the picture while greatly enjoying how it plays out while the suffering lasts. The characters represent several different personalities and just how varied opinions can be based on prior experience, attitudes, prejudices, and morals. There's a character here for everyone, and those that the viewer can't relate to will still provoke empathy at one part or another (besides one purposely aggravating character whom shall remain anonymous).

The script, as mentioned before, pits stroke after stroke of genius, performed to perfection by Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, and others, and provokes just the right reaction at just the right time for both the 12 and the audience. The only "flaw" I can think of is the fact that a lot of times the movie came down to reason why he should die reason why they can't be so sure with a plot twist argument to that argument to that, plus another plot twist and so on and so forth. It works wonders, but by the final argument conclusion I knew how it would play out down to the timing.

The movie pulls some long shots during the times of rest from the argument, with the first of which in the room lasting at least 5 minutes (though don't quote me on length, it's long though and consistent) which contrast with the quick camera changes during the argument, giving a relaxed, smooth feel when it should be, and a quick, sharp feel when necessary. The camerawork emphasizes what's important without forcing what it needs to in our faces, and never lets us forget just how confined we are through some well-portrayed camera angles. So overall, the camerawork is fitting in the most complementary way.

I had HIGH expectations for this movie going in, through all the constant praise it recieves and the performances it casts. My expectations were bested, and I can safely say this movie belongs in my top 20 at the very least. This is also my first experience with Sidney Lumet, and his movies Dog Day Afternoon and Network are high on my "must watch" list already.

9.5/10

I Love You, Man

As soon as I saw the trailer for this movie, as I'm sure was the case for every single person who's ever seen a comedy, I thought it looked like a conventional comedy that'll have its moments, maybe a little more.

Well......I was right.

I Love You, Man sets itself right in the middle of bromance and rom/com, with a little fidgeting for "Finally finding who he really is" mentality that everyone must still think is just the most original thing in comedy, hence every other movie ever made centering around it. Yet this movie fights its conventions, which I really liked. I got to root more for the movie instead of just rooting for the main character, especially seeing as you can pretty much see everything coming from a mile away.

The characters aren't exactly deep, but the performances from the semi-star power cast are perfectly pretty good. The cameo appearance is really weak IMO, (just to enforce to itself the fact that this movie is conventional and should never not be) Of course Paul Rudd is the star, and (contrary to my prior thoughts of him being far overused in comedies) he's hilarious and original. He plays exactly the guy many a man might've been at some akward phase of their life or might still be, and he does it with spot-on delivery. Jason Segel is probably the most memorable, but that's pretty much because his character has to be or else the film commits hari-kiri based on its own design.

Their chemistry is what this movie bases itself on, and the contrast of the two yet the very natural feeling link to each other just makes the movie work. This is one comedy I can honestly say I couldn't imagine the two roles in the hands of other actors. For example, a scene in which they first both find out each other holds a love for the band Rush made me laugh with just one line because of the delivery and the reaction.

Not gonna lie though, some jokes just fall flat, of course unless you just hit pruberty and you are so proud of this newfound identity as a MAN that you seem to laugh heartily at every "mature" joke in movies such as this (that is, unless your new deep voice doesn't crack halfway through the endless guffaws) and those that don't laugh just are too stuck-up when it comes to comedies.

The movie works, does what it does well, and honestly has some genuinely really funny moments. Being so conventional is kind of a drag, as I thought it should've taken some things a little further than it did, or should've held back on some things it didn't, but overall the fact that it pushed conventions with its well-done performances helps out a lot.

7/10.

American History X

If I learned one thing in this movie, it's that when you think back on past events, you think them in black and white.

Quite profound if you ask me.

I don't really know how to react to this movie. On one hand, Edward Norton's acting is spellbinding. The movie has many scenes that really resonate and stay with the viewer. On another hand, the movie is inflated, confused, and ends cheaply.

The plot takes place with Derrick and Danny, two skinhead brothers doing what skinheads do (in the flashbacks of course) hating other people that aren't white protestant, until one of them has a stunning revelation. At the beginning of the movie, the director pretty much says to you "Hate these guys for now, but later I want you to sympathize with them." If it wasn't for Norton's genius acting that would have fallen through, and hard.

The movie can't really find a balance in the way it tells itself. Sometimes the movie strives for realism, yet sometimes they take the operatic route and overwhelmingly cliche orchestral music ensues. The cast hold themselves well throughout, even when they're forced to toggle between acting like an actual human being and exaggerating every movement to its fullest for "dramatic effect." American History X works best when, like they should, the actors portray an actual family dealing with racial strife. The realistic approach helps the events resonate more, as we as the audience can relate with the constant racial tension in daily life. When the movie decides to be overdramatic, the audience is torn away, and are once again just watching some pictures on a screen.

The movie works, and I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it, but it suffers some hard flaws. Not to spoil anything, but the ending is such a cheap fill of an ending. Almost as if the director strived to balance the racial seesaw with just one more disastrous event, yet ended up flinging the whole thing right back where the movie started. My point is, the movie deserved a better ending, and the one it got really forced itself into standing on the edge of Just Another Politically Driven Movie.

5.5/10

Werckmeister Harmonies

At one point during this movie I had to stop for a couple of reasons. To most movies this isn't that huge of a deal. You press pause, you do what you want to do, and then you come back and enjoy the rest of said movie. I came back to my computer on which I was watching the film after doing what I had to do, and I had to stop for a second. I stopped because part of me wanted to start the entire film, of which I was already an hour and some minutes into, and begin it again from the start. The effect this movie, if you enjoy its style, had on me was hypnotizing. It might be humble and human, but at the same time it's as if this movie represents so much more. Let me explain.

The movie's plot is simple, but unique. In some small town a very odd circus has arrived with a strange attraction: a dead whale, supposedly the largest ever recorded. With this strange arrival also comes hundreds of strangers to see just what is happening. The town is very close-knit with each other, making this presence uneasy for them to see. Such happens from that point on, but I'd rather not spoil anything.

The movie starts off with a bunch of drunks simulating a total eclipse with the guidance of the main character, Janos. This'll set the mood for the rest of the film, sum up way more than the film, and, if all goes well, glue you to your seat for the rest of the movie.

Symbolic, organic, political, ethereal, human, and above all else impressive. I can't really say much more than just that. The film is an absolute joy for those who enjoy the more artistic approach to film making.

If you can't tell I enjoyed the movie more than I've enjoyed any movie in a long time. I'll just talk about one more thing before I stop, and that's the cinematography. It's both down to earth and enchanting at the same time, helped by the fact that some cuts last literally up to 6 minutes. In the totality of its 2 hours and 25 minutes, the camera only cuts 39 times to a different scene. For any film junkie I think it's apparent just how much skill this takes without ruining or under/over acting any particular part of the scenario.

I might've just watched it, but the film deserves so much for being relatively unknown. An easy, easy 10/10.

Seven Samurai

3 hours and 10 minutes long. How this movie never bored me, even for a second, is unbelievable. Looking back at it now, I can see just what an excellently made movie it was, especially for its time, but the beginning felt slightly off to me. My thoughts:

"Mmmkay, some guys are riding on horses. Oh okay, they're bandits, that makes sense, they're in shadows. Shadows = Bad, gotcha. Okay, they're leaving. Shoot, gonna have to wait for some action. Oh, now villagers. Yeah villagers are usually afraid of bandits. Wow, that afraid? Gonna kill themselves afraid? Well, there are other solutions but killing yourself isn't that bad I guess......Oh okay, gonna get some samurai instead. Idk both ways would've made a pretty cool movie.....................................................meh."

That was the first 10 minutes. After that, this movie went from one memorable scene to another, elegantly introducing seven different main characters, not including the two main farmer characters. I can't remember their names for the life of me, but I'll definitely remember how they were introduced, all of them.

The acting is a little cornball at times, but overall it definitely works. The first samurai the farmers obtain is probably the best actor in the movie, with the others just complimenting their roles. The farmers for the most part feel like they were picked off the side of a road, asked for a job, and given one in exchange for some rice or something I don't know what they'd want.

The cinematography goes from passable to excellent in some scenes. The first scene where the cinematography really did wow me was early in the movie, during a duel between a very cautious samurai and an overly excited one. Although the scene ending just as expected, the way it was presented was really well done.

The last hour is most definitely the highlight, as finally the build-up is payed off with some well-done action scenes that still hold the charm of the rest of the film. This is the movie's greatest strength, as it really shows off the director's main talent. The scenes are urgent, relentless, and surprising.

I can't honestly I say I enjoyed this movie as much as so many people try and hype it as. It is definitely an experience, though I wouldn't say the definitive experience. It's influence, however, can never be undermined. Just watching it, I could tell that every feudal Japan-era movie/show/anime ever made gathers influence from this. Even huge movies like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly almost certainly gathered influence from this (one samurai is sure to remind anyone who's seen TG,TB,ATU of the Ugly) Overall, the movie was highly entertaining, expertly crafted, and surprisingly fresh even for this day and age.

8/10.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

If there's one issue that can even compare with gay marriage in terms of controversy and division of opinion, it has to be abortion. What other issue gets religious zealots riled up in such a picket sign-waving frenzy like abortion can at the first mention of the word? As it is with forms of art, where there is controversy there are a few movies to tackle the issue with fervor on both sides of the argument.

Such is 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. In a very subtle way, however, the movie sends out a very anti-abortion vibe. The movie involves two twenty-something year old girls living in communist Romania (obviously towards the end, considering the widely spread black market-esque smuggling of cigarettes and bus tickets) attempting a very roughly-strewn plan of getting an abortion. This is illegal, very much so, though the crumbling of the government's tight control has allowed even naive young women to bend the rules. The abortion, and the process of it itself, brings about several revelations about themselves, their lives, and of course the main topic at hand.

First off, the positives. The acting is absolutely stellar. Stellar in how subtle every emotion is presented in every scene. Stellar in how sometimes the camera doesn't cut for literally 10 minutes, and the entirety of those scenes are acted in one go. Stellar in how the characters are made to be exact representations of people you could literally meet in the house next door to you, yet are still made interesting without breaking out of this shell.

The pacing is very well done, as we're slowly drawn into the situation at hand instead of the director just shoving the characters down our throat like that godawful adaption that the director's thought it would be funny to call Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It has an unusual air of tension. Just think when you were a kid and you were in school and you knew when you got home your parents would be mad about something, possibly school-related or not. That lingering feeling of something bad coming, but coming slowly, is what drives this movie. And as awful as that sounds it works wonders.

This really comes into such genius fruition during a dinner scene, which might be one of the finest directed scenes in recent history.

The negatives come with a few lines of forced dialogue, an odd beginning that definitely could've been a bit better, and the fact I had to keep looking down at subtitles when so much of the acting is in the subtle facial movements of the two lead roles.

Overall, 8.5/10. Download and watch, because there's no international release. Enjoy watching an abortion.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Seeing as this movie is based 10 years from the present year, I'm guessing in a couple we're heading for a complete and total mind-warp, considering the flying cars, severe overpopulation of chinese folk (though most of us are kind of used to that by now) and the giant chinese-speaking advertisements that will surely give those with an abnormal oriental prejudice vivid nightmares. The world of Blade Runner is not one that can be summed up so easily in words, yet for the sake of reviewing I must. The environment we are brought into from the very beginning is one of dense overpopulation, highly polluted air, and a sense of capitalism that has taken on its own form of dystopia. So right away it gives us an uplifting feeling and an optimistic look at the bright future ahead.

/sarcasm

Blade Runner, for many, many reasons, is genius in a bottle. That is, if films came in bottles. The movie, made in 1982, gives us not only a vivid and believable look at just where our planet might be headed, but also views into life, man, God, and many other facets those of us think of every day. To summarize the plot without giving anything away, is that Rick Deckard, a "Blade Runner" is assigned a mission by force to find and "retire" machines referred to as replicants. These replicants, made by the seemingly all-powerful Tyrell Corporation, mimic life in utmost accuracy so as to be used for various services, such as slave labor, militarity, and prostitution, though lacking the feelings of a normal human being. However a slave revolt on a space colony immediately makes all replicants on Earth illegal, and subject to being terminated, or retired. Deckard's responsibility is to kill 4 replicants who have come down to Earth for unknown reasons.

Although reviews, for the sake of the reader, should be short and accurate, for Blade Runner it's extremely hard to do so. For time's sake, I guess I'll say this. Almost everything in this movie is a metaphor. Every movement of every character's face represents something, every line of dialogue is there for a reason, and every character could have a movie of their own and not bore the audience in the slightest. The beauty of this movie doesn't come from getting everything the first time around, but after a few viewings, where more and more things become apparent as an intricately thought out symbol, or an intelligent view on our future.

Take the Chinese overpopulation for one thing. If our world were to overpopulate, why would Blade Runner's main culture be Chinese? The vast majority of Asian people in the world compared to any other race makes it obvious that in a state of world overpopulation, Chinese would indeed be the over-running race, leaving the rest of the races to scatter, mostly. Now, this might seem apparent now, but the film was made in 1982, and such a clever and subtle prediction in the movie just shows how genius this movie is.

Another example is when Deckard is in the Tyrell Corporation early in the movie. This scene is the only scene in the movie where the Sun is shown. Knowing this, notice how Tyrell uses his power to polarize the sun itself with his advanced window technology, just to darken the room. This very low-key symbolism could very well represent the god-like power of the Tyrell Corporation.

Performances are key in all great movies, and Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer offer characters so intriguing and complex, simply one viewing of this movie couldn't possibly sum them up. Nor could this review, for those who haven't seen the movie. So if you consider yourself a movie-goer in any sense of the word, you'll delight in these characters. Every other character is well thought out and interesting themselves, namely Gaff, the fellow police-man who's origami sums up far more than it's simplistic shape, and Rachel, an emotionally confused replicant.

I saw this movie in its newly released Blu-Ray edition, entitled The Final Cut. Although this version isn't essential to enjoy the movie, I really do recommend this. It's such a huge leap over the original Director's Cut, in every way. To any movie it's a compliment that it can be watched twice, and huge if it can be watched 3 times in a small time frame. I saw this movie 4 times in 2 months. If that doesn't say anything, hell I honestly don't know what does.

This film gets an easy 10/10 from me.

Gonna Review Movies.

The plan as of right now is to review movies. Well, there it is. A friend of mine also has a movie review blog and it seemed like quite the idea at the time, so here's little ol' me to balance the spectrum.

As you can see I've already put a bunch of work into this blog, what with making up a name and all, and just that alone has tuckered me out. So adios.