Alfred Hitchcock

Many see horror movies as lowbrow, low-intelligent films. And while most horror movies are terrible, there are some that are really well done and are a work-of-art. It is a genre that can be dire when done wrong yet magnificent when done right.

The problems with most horror movies is they rely heavily on those cheap tactics like pop-outs to get a quick scare out of people.That is not what makes a horror movie great. While people are jumping out of their seat scare, they aren't emotionally invested into the movie. What mainly makes a horror movie great is dread. The best horror movies make its watchers anticipate something bad to happen.

Alfred Hitchcock was amazing at doing this. His movies made people scare and feel like there's no way out, yet make the movie so suspenseful and so engaging that they don't even consider shutting it off. Many are lucky to make one good horror film. Hitchock made a handful of them. He was the master of horror movies and really paved the way for the more famous ones to come along.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Growing up, I was a huge Disney fan. I watched all the movies. Every...single...one. My grandmother worked at CVS and she would get all the VHS movies for me at a discounted price. Although Snow White is not my favorite - that would go to the Lion King - it is without question one of my favorites.

I actually watched this movie a little while ago with my little cousin, and I was amazed how well made it was. The picture quality was amazing, considering how old the movie was. It's an awesome movie with a lot of underlying messages...especially one that tells kids not to trust strangers, which, of course, is a great message for all kids.

While Walt Disney wasn't the first person to create cartoon movies, he was the first person to really make them wrong. He was the brains behind some really great movies, arguably more than any other producer in the history of movie making.

Citizen Kane Review

Citizen Kane is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is one of those highly-acclaimed movies that I never wanted to watch but was glad I did. Of course, it's not really appealing to people my age. 22 year old generally dislike any movie in black and white. Hell, we don't even like videos anymore not in HD. But when you put all that aside, usually, older movies are much better written.

Citizen Kane is a deep film about a group of reporters that try to figure out the Charles Foster Kane last said word: Rosebud. It stars with a reel that details Kane's life and flashbacks of his life. Eventually, there is a see a highlight reel of a rich, complex man's rise to glory and downfall. 

While I cannot call it my favorite movie, I can call it one of the most influential. It integrated the film language until 1941 as well as broke innovative places in focus, sound and storytelling.

Boyhood is a must-see film

We live in a society of people who hate having to think or concentrate, and this has unfortunately had a major impact on the film industry. In order to cater to the majority, producers simplify movies to make them intelligently undemanding. This has created a win-win situation for Hollywood, since they are profiting billions of dollars off substandard movies — and anything that exceeds an audience's lowered expectations they hail it as a triumph. Fortunately, there remain some individuals in the business who are unwilling to sell themselves out for money because of the amount of pride they take in their work. With Boyhood, Richard Linklater solidified himself as being one of those people.

Linklater filmed Boyhood for over 12 years and used the same exact cast. The movie is a compelling story of growing up. The movie is seen through the eyes of an adolescent named Mason (Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on the screen. Both Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette play Mason's parents and Lorelei Linklater stars as his sister Samantha.

Without spoiling it, I will just say: you need to see this movie. It is an impeccable specimen that demonstrates how to develop characters, how to tell a compelling story, and how to flat out direct a movie. Boyhood is a compelling magnus opus, for sure. 

 

Black-ish pilot is a promising start

The previews did this show no justice. It looked like it was going to be very clichéd and stereotypical. While some parts were stereotypical, other parts were genuinely funny. The writing could be better, though. Although the pilot's writing was rather all over- the-place, Anthony Anderson carried it, as he embraced and fit into his character impeccably.

Dre Johnson (Anthony Anderson) is an upper class African American. Despite his success, people are still disrespectful towards him. Due to his kids go to a primary white school, he is seeing his kids become less black. He consequently tries to do certain things to "keep it real". In essence, he does not want his family to turn into a white family or "sellout".

The story and characters' motives, as stated above, were a little vague; however, the acting is very good and the characters are likable. They would be better off allowing the characters to bring the laugh, because the laughter from the writing fell short. The "them vs. us" scene, for example, was unrealistic, prejudice and flat out cringe worthy.

This show is worth giving a shot. It has promise and it is something different. Although the pilot was not great start, it has promise and it will be interesting to see

My Experience Researching

I'm sure similar to many others, I had a problem finding 100 year old newspapers and/or magazines online. So, I emailed our professor and he told me that everything is not on the Internet. Sometimes, you have to look other places. Consequently, I decided to go to the Taunton Public Library last week to find some old newspapers and magazines. I asked the librarian where I could possibly find them. She directed me and also helped me find everything I needed. She was very helpful and it seemed as if other people had to do similar assignments akin to this one.To be honest, this was my first time at an actual Library in, at least, a decade. Every time I had to do research for a paper, I found it online.

Overall, it was a different experience. Like I said before, I haven't been to a library in over a decade. The place looked extremely different than before. As expected, though, I was the only one there. Which begs a question: how long will Libraries be around? With everything going digital, Libraries are becoming a dinosaur. 

Chapter 3 Summary

Today, I didn't know what to write about, so I decided to summarize chapter three, "A Short Guide to Writing About Film", which was a very interesting chapter. The author writes about the analytic phraseology of visual arts and literary The author says that the visual arts are the characters, the plot and the point of view. On the other hand, the three literary critic's assessments. The author explores these three elements, deciding how properly they are. Critics have their personal judgment on what they think or feel about a said film, and they will also have their own point-of-view on the film prior to watching it.

Indisputably, it is a poor idea to originate viewpoints on a movie prior to watching it. Sometimes, there have been movies that did not look good because of its preview. We have all learned before that we shall not judge a book by its cover. Thus, it's illogical why a critic would judge a movie based off its trailer.