Boardwalk Empire Review (First Two Seasons so far)

Boardwalk Empire debuted in the fall of 2010. It received a ton of publicity and was being pumped up to be the best crime drama on HBO since the Sopranos. The buildup it was receiving was understandable, because the legend Martin Scorsese was named director for the pilot, the  mastermind behind the Sopranos, Terrence Winter, was named the chief writer, and the main character was said to be Steve Buscemi, who is an incredibly underrated actor.  If none of that was enough, the show set the record for most money spent for a TV pilot ever. So, given all that information, one would have just assumed that this show would be producing some of most top of the line television ever seen

Sadly, that has not been the case so far.

But before we nosedive into why its been underwhelming, let's start off by naming some of the good traits the show has. For starters, the acting has been about as top-notch as you are going to get for a TV series, as everyone portrays their character exquisitely. Moreover, the clothing, setting, music, weapons, and the dialog are precisely similar to the 20s-esque lifestyle. And, the directing has been just flat out superb. The directors have done an incredible job of making scenes exceptionally intense and vivid, picking the most suitable camera angles, and really getting the best out of cast.

So, what seems to be the problem then? Well, that would be the writing. 

Originally, Terrence Winter’s strategy seemed a good idea. He slowly articulated the story and was very anal about not leaving out any critical details. He wanted it to be as clean and unadulterated as possible.  He tediously kept building and building storylines up to the point of where everyone was anticipating a massive eruption. And there is nothing wrong with all of that. However, there aren't many eruptions at all. Because just when Winter would foreshadow something massive to happen, the story ends up spinning into a completely different direction. Throughout most of Boardwalk’s existence, Winter became excessively fixated on preserving storylines and has done this by putting them on the shelf and relaunching them at a seemingly later time. Those actions have frustratingly resulted in a handful of caution-free episodes where the fans were left with feeling of emptiness. 

At the end of the season two finale, Winter finally wanted to payoff something he wrote in a newsworthy fashion, as in a shocking twist of events, Nucky Thompson murdered his once protégé Jimmy Darmody. It was admirable that Winter finally wanted to do something would spark emotions out of its audience, but it was unfortunately a poor choice. The reason it was a poor choice goes farther than them killing off one of the most interesting and beloved characters in the series. The real reason it was a poor choice was that it made Nucky Thomas invincible as possible heading towards the next season. Nobody stood as even a minuscule threat towards Nucky, which is, for a lack of a better term, boring.

This is far from a terrible show. As stated previously, the acting, directing, and the setting are magnificent. The writing, however, is holding this back from developing into a great show. As a result, Boardwalk Empire is nothing more than an average show that is failing to come anywhere close to meeting its expectations. To be quite honest, it would have been better suited fulfilling a 30-minute commercial free show, or by simply doing fewer shows, because of handful of lifeless and aimless scenes that serve no purpose other than being filler that stretches the show out far enough to meet its time duration.

What Makes a Movie Good?

Although the criterion is mostly subjective, there are certain things a movie should have in order to be qualified as a good movie. 

The first thing a movie must have is a good idea. Now, what is a good idea? Well, a good idea is something that someone can relate to or believe. Theoretically, a movie is a piece of entertainment that allows people to escape from reality. People want to pretend to live out an interesting lifestyle without any consequences. For example, tons of people who would love to be Batman, but they do not want to put their life constantly in jeopardy. The Batman movies allow them to pretend to be their hero without any consequences.   

This brings me to my next point: characters. A character needs to be believable and have a defined role. Are we supposed to like them or hate them? Are we supposed to want to see them get their comeuppance or are we supposed to sympathize for them? Is the character a stereotypical character or is it multifaceted? A movie needs to create believable well-defined characters, with a clear motive and purpose. 

In order to have good characters, a movie must have good actor to fill the roles. Now, this does not mean a movie should just go and get a bunch of A-list actors because that (a) costs a lot of money and (b) sometimes does not work. The best thing for a producer to do is get the best actors for the role. In the past, there have been great actors who bombed in their roles. The reason they bombed was that they did not fit the role. Actors, even the best ones, have certain strengths and weaknesses. A movie must accentuate the actors/actresses' strengths and hide their weaknesses. 

The movie, also, needs good dialogue. Dialogue and actors both complement each other. They depend on each other and need the other. Without good dialogue, an actor's lines are not going to be that good. And without a good actor, the dialogue will not sound that good. 

Lastly, the movie needs good director. A director is the person who puts the idea movie together. He/she brings the script to life by envisioning it out in his mind and then structuring it.He is in control, and the movie's success mostly depends on him. 

When a movie has most of these things, it is a good movie. When it has all of these things, it becomes a classic. 

I could have gone more in-depth about this. Maybe someday I will. However, I did not want to make it too wordy. So instead of going in-depth, I was rather vague. 

The Devil's Advocate Deeper Meaning

So, I examined the Devil's Advocate last night, eyeing for the deeper meaning behind the film. I have seen this movie a number of times, although the last time I watched was a while ago. Because I viewed this movie with a different point of view, I enjoyed this more than before. 

The Devil's Advocate is not a perfect movie by any means. Critics have scolded it due to its tediousness, miscast main character and cop-out ending. I vehemently concur with all of those assessments. The movie does take a long time to shift into a more enthralling gear. Keanu Reeves has the charisma and believability of a block of wood – and the ending does render the moot as well as causes everything that happened before to become essentially meaningless. 

Despite its imperfections, there are lots of things to like about this movie. Al Pacino, who is disputably the greatest actor ever, does a compelling job in his antagonist role as the supernatural pioneer of the purity of evil, and the movie does an adequate job expressing its message.

Kevin Lomax, played by Keanu Reeves, is one of the best attorneys in the world. He manages to find a way to make his clients innocent in the court of law, no matter how guilty they are. Lomax is a deceitful and unlawful person, but he claims that his dishonesties are a part of his occupational description. It is transparent that he is subconscious about his decisions. However, the more he lies, the more money he receives and the more famous he becomes – and that causes his vanity and self-worth to become more important to him than his morality.

His life vicissitudes when he meets his new boss John Milton (Al Pacino). Lomax’s mother encourages him to leave New York City, because she believes NYC is the dwelling place of demons. Milton urges Lomax to stay and causes him by making him an offer he cannot refuse. It is discovered later on that Milton is more than just an evil person. He is Santon, the epitome of all evil, and is trying to use Lomax, his bastard child, to mate with his half-sister to create a demon baby.

Before I spoil anything else or become too wordy, I will cut to the chase. The movie's theme is about temptation and vanity. All Lomax’s clients are the scum of the earth, which means nobody with a conscious mind would ever defend these sadistic people. Conversely, they would likely want to see them receive the comeuppance that they deserve. However, power, fame and money have the power to persuade nearly anyone into making decisions that they know are erroneous and deceitful. 

Vanity and temptation have motivated people to do unethical things to gain power and control and to protect their reputation and self-worth, regardless of how sadistic or wrongdoing it was. Many politicians, actors and other celebrities’ actions are solely done for their image. Most of them have also sold their souls to the Devil (per se) to gain money, fame and power by taking an easy, albeit unethical, passageway.

 In essence, the Devil's Advocate exhibits how far one man will go to become rich, famous and powerful.  

Deeper Meanings

As the book alludes, there are deeper meanings to movies than perceived. In order to find those deeper meanings, though, one must pay attention carefully. As a casual movie critic myself, I am always searching for deeper meanings, because (a) I like to write about them and (b) sometimes it is fun to dissect a movie.

Before I watched the Lego's movie a few days ago, I had no intentions of writing about this movie whatsoever. In fact, I was rather skeptical about watching it in the first place. Sometimes, kids movies have the tendency to insult my intelligence, although Lego Movie did not end up insulting my intelligence and it didn't even come close of doing so.

Inside and out, the Lego Movie was a beautiful picture. The animations and effects were incredible, as it was one of the most surreal visuals ever designed, in addition to being funny, loving and endearing. Most of all, though, it had a compelling plot. Even though the majority will simply comprehend this movie as an enthralling and happy-go-lucky movie, wherein good triumphed over evil, it actually has a more elaborate and deeper meaning and story than one would believe.

The plot is mainly about a president (whose name is Business, ironically) who relishes power and will obtain that power by any means necessary. In fact, he is so narcissistic that he wants to rule the world, and to do this, he builds an army and uses brainwashing and propaganda tactics to convince the majority that he is an ethical and good-willed person, so the nation will not see it coming in advance.

Long story short, before I give away the entire movie, Lego Movie's purpose was to convey to people that leaders and businesses are not always who they say they are, and what they say is not always true. It is up to the people of the nation to formulate their own opinions and think for themselves, in contrast to believing everything the government tells them to believe. It also showed the evil side of business and showed that the average man or woman can still build things just as good as machines can, if not better.