How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup on his awesome dragon, Toothless.
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This week the random number generator gave me 174. That corresponds to How to Train Your Dragon. Now, some people may have been upset about getting an animated movie, but I absolutely loved the opportunity. I think there's something that a lot of film creators are able to get out of kids movies that real movies miss. Up, The Incredibles, Lion King, the list goes on and on. Maybe it's the innocence, maybe it's the subtle undertones put in the movies so parents can enjoy them too, I don't know. All I know is that kids movies are awesome.

How to Train Your Dragon follows the trials of Hiccup (yes, I know a ridiculous name, but it's explained in the movie) as he tries to become a Viking like his father, the ruler of their village by killing dragons. He's very unlike everyone in the village, but he still tries to make his dad proud. Things get extremely tricky when he downs the most elusive of dragons, and essentially becomes friends with it. Without giving too much away, there is of course a happy ending, but that's not what I want to focus on.

What I found so great about this movie was that it displayed a strained father-son relationship in the midst of everything else it was doing. The relationship was not the main focus of the movie, but it was the main motivation behind almost all of Hiccup's actions. There is only one mention of the mother, but she is obviously out of the picture, and it's hinted at that she is dead. I would have liked a more direct confrontation of this HUGE issue considering a young boy's development, but it is a kids movie, so I understand. The handling of the relationship between Hiccup and his father is exceptional. Much better than that in most "adult" movies. I was extremely happy with this movie and would recommend it again and again.

Worth your time.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One of my favorite lines from the movie.
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The random number generator gave me number 10 this week, and that corresponds to the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." It just so happens that my mom had advised me to see this movie about two weeks ago, and seeing that I highly regard my mom's taste, I was excited to see if I felt as highly about this movie as she did.


The basic premise of the movie is that we follow Jack Nicholson's character who everyone calls Mac, a new patient at a mental health facility who we learn is not in the institution because he is crazy, but because he would rather spend his days in a mental hospital rather than a prison. He has a long history of fighting, and that doesn't leave him when he comes to the mental facility. We basically follow his escapades throughout his stay at the hospital, which are pretty outrageous. The star of the movie, to me, is Chief. Chief is a Native American who must be at least 6 and a half feet tall. He doesn't talk to anyone, but follows Mac's instructions in how to play basketball. As the movie continues, we witness possibly one of the deepest and most complex movie relationships to ever exist.


The strange part about this movie is that it's listed as a drama, but it's not quite that. There are moments when I laughed out loud. But the movie is far too dark to be considered a comedy. It's somewhere in the middle, but definitely not the definition we give to sad romantic comedies, a dramedy. It is something completely different, and I have never seen a film that confused me emotionally, but that I still thoroughly enjoyed. The only one that compares is "Inception," and that's for entirely different reasons.


"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" depicts the mental health industry in a stark way, but isn't trying to critique it at all. There are no true heroes, there isn't much of a traditional plot line, the differences between right and wrong are as gray as can be, and by the ending you won't know who's side you are on. But that doesn't mean it isn't a fantastic ride.


Worth your time.

Life of Brian

This week, I got the number 166 from the random number generator, and that corresponds Life of Brian. This movie was made by the immensely famous comedy group, Monty Python. My dad was a HUGE fan of Monty Python, so I was pretty excited, since I'd never seen any of their work. All I really knew about them was that their works are very inappropriate.

The hilarious final scene. i.telegraph.co.uk

And boy was The Life of Brian inappropriate. The film follows Brian, who was born on the Original Christmas, and is mistaken for Jesus his entire life. This results in hilarious situations when he gains a following he doesn't desire. Every time he attempts to rid himself of his parish, so to speak, they find various miracles and signs that they interpret as more important than his actual words.

This movie is obviously not for those who can be easily offended in their religious beliefs. I believe in God, or more I believe that the sheer unlikeliness of our lives would require some type of creator, and I perceive that creator as God. I'm not super religious, I sometimes pray and occasionally read the Bible (the armchair preacher), but am not a fundamentalist by any means. I don't take the Bible as pure fact. With that said, anyone who is extremely religious will be offended immediately at the start of this film, and probably all the way through. I found the antics of the characters to be so ridiculous that it was hilarious. But that's me, and I'm not super religious. I can see why people would be offended, sympathize with that, and would urge them not to watch Life of Brian.

As I said, Life of Brian is so ridiculous I couldn't help but laugh. With characters like Biggus Dickus, who has a horrible lisp, or the final song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," played while many characters are being crucified, you can't take this movie seriously. And as long as you see it how it really is, a comedy trying to be as silly as possible, you'll have as good of a time as I did.

Worth your time, if you're not super religious.

The Wrestler

For this week, I watched number 202 on the top 250, The Wrestler. Now, I had already seen the last scene of this movie when I was on vacation a couple years back, I walked by as my sister was just finishing up watching it. I was pretty excited to get the chance to put some flesh around the ending I'd already seen, which I thought was pretty good.

Mickey Rourke, giving the performance of a lifetime.
philmology.org

The basic premise of The Wrestler is that we follow Mickey Rourke's character, a professional wrestler called "the Ram" who has long passed his prime. He suffers from all the abuse his body has taken over the years, and a doctor tells him he needs to stop wrestling or he will face severe consequences. We follow the Ram's trials to fit into normal society, his attempts to connect with his daughter, and his love advances towards a stripper.

First things first, Mickey Rourke is absolutely fantastic as the beaten-down wrestler. You forget you're watching a movie and start to truly consider Rourke to be the Ram. It reminded me of a biopic, because it seems so real. I read that Nicolas Cage was going to be given the role, and I think we can all thank the heavens that didn't happen (nothing against Cage, but he hasn't been in a great film in a loooonnnnggg time). The line that got to me most was when the Ram was talking about how hard it was to cope with life away from wrestling. He said, "The only place I get hurt is out there. The world don't care about me." I thought, among other powerful lines, this quote made The Wrestler transition from just a good sports movie, to an incredible overall film. We can all on some level connect with transitioning to an unfamiliar part of the world and recognize how difficult it can be.

For some reason, I did not become as emotional involved to The Wrestler as I thought I would. There were many scenes where I would usually be bawling, but I held it in this time. Not sure what it was, but I felt the emotions all the same.

Worth your time.

Pulp Fiction

The iconic image of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson
internetvideoarchive.com

The random number generator gave me the number 4 for this movie, and that corresponds to Pulp Fiction on IMDB's top 250. I've been told many, many times to watch this movie, but could never truly get up the motivation to make it happen. It didn't really excite me from its premise, a crime film basically just following the actions of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson's characters. I didn't really hold John Travolta in the highest regard for acting before I saw his performance in Pulp Fiction but I was sure swayed by what I saw. And as a whole, I completely underestimated what Pulp Fiction really was as a movie.

Pulp Fiction follows the classic Tarantino formula: lots of dialogue to develop the characters and a nonlinear plot line. I love nonlinear plots because I don't think the human mind is meant to simply think in terms of A-B-C. Sometimes it comes out B-C-A, or whatever other formula there may be. And the idea of knowing the ending of the overall story, but continuing on with the plot of the movie is so innovative and risky. There has to be enough in the story to entice the audience to keep watching the film if they know what's going to happen to the protagonists.

What, among many other elements, I feel made Pulp Fiction special was how easy it was to watch. I've said this before to describe other movies, but Pulp Fiction runs around two and a half hours and it felt so much shorter. When it was over, I was shocked at how much time had passed. I can't tell how exactly filmmakers are able to achieve this, but it seems to be present in almost every great movie. I think part of it is creating a story or narrative rather than only a movie. Also, the character development has to be fantastic. The audience has to be completely interested and almost desperate to see what happens next to the characters. Pulp Fiction does this so well its almost unfair. Whether it's the pretty crazy story of Butch trying to escape the far-reaching grasp of a powerful gangster, the hilarious banter between Vincent and Jules, or Mia's trials with drugs, every character is easy to relate to and adds complex elements to the plot.

This not only is worth your time, but should demand it. If you haven't watched Pulp Fiction, I suggest seeing it as soon as you are able to. You won't regret it.

The Matrix

This is another one of those movies I've just been waiting to see. It is #20 on IMDB's top 250 and I was thoroughly excited when I saw this was what the random number generator gave me.

wikipedia.org

The basic premise of The Matrix is that our entire reality is a construct by autonomous robots that engages us so much we perceive it as reality. All humans are actually encased in devices that allow the robots to live off of our heat and energy produced. Keanu Reeves plays the protagonist who is seen as the chosen one, a person gifted enough to lead the humans in this war against the robots. We follow his journey as he battles to find out if he actually is the chosen one, his coping with this new reality, and the crushing pressure that the future of the human race is potentially all up to him.

The Matrix reminds me of Inception in that it made me reevaluate my entire perception of reality. Just as Inception made me think this life could simply be a dream, The Matrix made me think this life is all made up by evil autonomous robots. This can be somewhat distressing at times, especially late at night when I think the divide between reality and whatever else there may be is thinnest, but I always end up truly valuing the experience. When a film can make someone think about their role in society, what the future of our society may hold, or what society does/doesn't do for them, I think it has the chance to go beyond simply a commercial success. The Matrix offers a fair warning to our future, as the technological advances could end up hurting us (hopefully not in a way that imprisons us for our entire lives). It also warns about the dangers of mindlessly going through life, as this is as good as being controlled by these robots. Overall, The Matrix makes for a great watch and some lengthy discussion afterwards.

Definitely worth your time (if you are willing to possibly question your existence afterwards).

The Godfather

This week, I have to admit to violating my rules a bit. I saw that The Godfather was going to be on TV and decided I had to watch it. This is one of, if not the most, iconic movies in America cinema. People have been telling me for years that I am a fool to have not seen this movie earlier. So, I sat down, flipped on the TV and watched away. And I didn't think it was all that great.

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Before I get crucified for saying that, allow me to explain myself. First things first, this movie is long. Very long. I was watching TV for four hours. And that's where I feel my problem with The Godfather lies. I learned that watching a movie as intricate as this on TV was a huge mistake. The commercial breaks made the plot line incredibly difficult to follow. I also had the volume jacked up pretty high, but still found myself missing some of the dialogue. Maybe that is just due to me usually watching movies and such on my computer with my headphones in, but that is unrelated.

For the movie itself, I can definitely see why people would like it. As mentioned, the plot line is so intricate. I actually had to pull up the Wikipedia article near the end of the movie just so I knew what was happening for the ending. And the acting is world class. Marlon Brando is perhaps my favorite actor of all time, and he was so superb in this role. I knew Al Pacino was in The Godfather, but it took me halfway through to realize who exactly he was. He didn't talk or look like the Al Pacino I have grown accustomed to, so that was a bit of culture shock.

If you aren't paying close attention to The Godfather, like me, then you will surely miss out on all the good this iconic film as to offer, as I did. I definitely plan to rewatch it, just to get a full experience of this movie. Every small, seemingly unimportant little action proves to be ultimately important. If not for the plot itself, then in the forming of the characters. The characters are so full and robust in The Godfather, they feel like real people.

Worth your time, if you have the adequate time and attention.

12 Angry Men: Worth Your Time?

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This week I got #6 with the random number generator, and that corresponds to the movie 12 Angry Men. I watched part of this movie last year in AP Gov, but we never got to finish it. I remember enjoying the parts of the movie that I did see, so I was pretty excited to get the chance to see the entire thing.

12 Angry Men is a pretty old movie, being made in 1957. The plot behind this film is that we follow a jury of 12 men who initially almost all agree to send a young man to death for allegedly murdering his father. Only one juror, played by Henry Fonda, disagrees in sending the boy to death without at least first talking about the crime for at least an hour. As the drama unfolds, we see the various motives behind why various jurors wanted the boy sent to death, and watch as the tension builds. That's what I think this movie does so well that most movies today neglect to do: it builds tension. When a film gets the audience to feel uncomfortable because of what's going on in the plot (as opposed to crude jokes or nudity), it is truly making a connection with its audience. Once you feel the tension, you begin to have a stake in the plot, and root for a particular outcome.

Another thing I feel 12 Angry Men does so well is developing its characters. The audience finds out so much about every juror as the debate wages on. I think that modern films decide to only focus on the main two or three characters, but this movie fully develops all 12. I honestly would not have watched this movie had I not gotten it from the random generator, simply because of when it was made. This project has made me appreciate older films so much more, and I am very thankful for that.

Totally worth your time.

The Shawshank Redemption

With the random number generator, I got #1 this week. So I was told by fate to watch what people have proclaimed as the best movie of all-time: The Shawshank Redemption. This movie is widely considered to be one of the best of all-time, showing itself on tons of accredited best movie lists, so the only question is whether I will consider the best I've ever seen.

wikipedia.org

First things first, Morgan Freeman is in this movie, so that already made me love it. Just an incredible actor with the best voice in the world. Back on topic, a short synopsis of The Shawshank Redemption is that a man (Tim Robbins) who claims his innocence is convicted of killing his cheating wife and her lover, sent to a prison amongst some of the worst criminals in the world, and we get to watch how it all plays out. It's based off a novella by Stephen King, who is perhaps my favorite author ever, but it lacks the supernatural elements that made me love him. That doesn't detract at all from the movie however.

The main theme of the movie is, to me, that it is important above all to have hope in a hopeless place. Tim Robbins' character is faced with every reason to lose hope, but he never does. He keeps his integrity in a place so lacking it, and refuses to give in to the nature that so many other people have. Not only does he fight for his own integrity, but he fights for the integrity of his fellow inmates. He takes those that society have given up on and lets them believe in something good for the first time in a while.

While I think this movie is very, very good, I do not think I would proclaim it as the best movie of all time. I'm a sucker for a great plot twist, so Fight Club and Inception will be hard to usurp from my top spot. That being said, this movie does an incredible job of telling its story straight with no unnecessary scenes. Every shot was meticulously picked and adds immeasurably to the plot in its own way. While not my favorite movie, this may be the best done movie I've seen, if that makes sense. Adapting works from written versions is NEVER easy, but this film pulls it off beautifully. Definitely in my Top 10.

Worth your time.

Reservoir Dogs

My access to my laptop might be compromised for the next couple days, so I watched a movie over the weekend just in case I am not able to watch one on Thursday night, as I usually try to do.

chelsea.theoffside.com

The best jacket in the world. www.moviemarket.com

The random number generator gave me 67, which corresponded with Reservoir Dogs. This is a movie I've always wanted to watch, but again, I could never really find the time to watch it. This was Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut, and it gained a huge cult classic. Steve Buscemi is in it, and I think he is absolutely brilliant. This movie is worth the watch just for the fact that you'll understand a lot more inside jokes because of it (one of which being Mr. (enter color name here), for example Steve Buscemi is Mr. Pink, which was I think first done in this movie).

The plot of the movie centers around a team of criminals recruited by a mob boss and his son to pull off a diamond heist and what happens when the heist goes horribly wrong. What I thought was interesting was that Reservoir Dogs doesn't show the actual heist of the movie, and is still incredibly interesting. It also employs a nonlinear storyline, which I really enjoy. It's not like some movies where the changes in time are really hard to follow, the staff on the movie did a very good job conveying what was the present, the past, and who's past it was.

I didn't find my mind wandering off at all during this movie, just like Groundhog Day, my attention didn't swerve off point at any time. The ending is incredible, and that's all I'll say, so I don't ruin any of it. I wished for a different outcome, but it was realistically the only possible and best one possible. I really got a feel for all of the characters, which I think is something modern movie lack a lot. Instead of having some boring opening qualifying scenes to introduce the audience to the characters, however, the movie rushed along with the plot and shows the characters through the time splits in the nonlinear plot line, so as the plot develops, you start to gain an affinity (or dislike, depending) for the characters involved. Also, Steve Buscemi complaining about getting the name Mr. Pink is one of the best scenes I've ever seen.

And Chris Penn (who plays Nice Guy Eddie) has the best jacket in the world that I looked online in an attempt to buy for hours, but sadly it was nowhere to be seen.

Definitely worth your time.

Groundhog Day

For this week, I watched a movie that's long been on the list of movies I've wanted to see, but just never seemed to have the time to watch it. However, I first got 8 from the random number generator, which corresponds to a movie I'd previously seen: The Dark Knight. I absolutely loved that movie, but I'd seen it so many times I couldn't justify watching it again and writing a blog post about it. The main point of this blogging experience is to open myself up to movies I haven't seen and ultimately come out of my comfort zone culturally.

Anyways, back on topic, after getting 8 and choosing to roll the figurative dice again, I got 168 from the random number generator, which corresponded to Groundhog Day. I have some kind of stigma against earlier movies, especially comedies, because I always think what was funny or considered good then would be so far from what I like. This is proven wrong every time I watch a critically acclaimed older film, but the stigma still remains.

ragbrai.com

Groundhog Day has become such a fixture in American life, I feel. The phrase is commonly used to describe something repetitive, as Bill Murray finds himself living the same day over and over again in the movie. It wasn't as funny as I've been led to believe by some people, but I definitely did laugh and even laughed aloud a couple times, so it does accomplish it's job. What I found more impressive was how fast the movie seemed to go. It's an hour and a half long, which isn't long for a movie at all, but it seriously felt like a half hour at the most. The plot line was so driven that I never felt myself getting sidetracked and thinking about anything else while watching. That's something I feel helps to make films as timeless as Groundhog Day is. The story flows so well, nothing feels out of place or unnecessary, and every scene feels, at least to me, completely integral to the story.

Now I understand why people love Bill Murray so much, because he is truly an incredible actor. He made Groundhog Day, since he was the main focus of the film. I actually do not think there is one scene where he's not only not in it, but even not the main character of it. He owns the camera like few people can, and it truly shows.

This movie is definitely worth your time, even if it's just to tell people that you've finally seen it so they get off your back about it (but I promise that you should enjoy it).

Mystic River: Worth Your Time?

www.wikipedia.org

First, I want to quickly explain how I'll be choosing the movies I'll watch. Here is the list of the top 250 rated movies on IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/chart/top). Users vote on what they believe to be the top movies, and the ones with the highest ratings make it to this list. Next, I use a random number generator found at http://www.random.org/ to give me a number between 1 & 250. The resulting number corresponds to the movie I will watch for that blog post. The only times when I will use the random number generator more than once are if I cannot find a place to watch the movie, or if I have seen the movie already (and remember enough of it to make it not worthwhile watching again).

So, with that settled, I used the random number generator and got the number 230. That corresponds to Mystic River. Now I hadn't heard much about Mystic River, except that I knew Sean Penn won the Oscar for Best Leading Actor (Tim Robbins also won the role for Best Supporting Actor). The film also stars Kevin Bacon (who went to my highschool!!), Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laura Linney. It was directed by Clint Eastwood, who I absolutely love.

I don't want to spoil too much of the plots in case anyone wants to watch this movie at some point, so I won't go into too much detail. I will say that Mystic River had a lot of similar themes to some more recent films. It's a crime thriller set in Boston that has a bit of a twist at the end (The Departed, Gone Baby Gone, The Town, etc).

I thought this movie was very good. It took a genre that seems overdone now, but was completely original, maybe only because it was an original theme when this movie was made. The acting is great, as evidenced by the Academy Award wins. Something I always pay particular attention to in movies is the music. I think music can really make or break a film, without many people even realizing it. The music can set a backdrop perfectly, or ruin a movie entirely. The movie for Mystic River was good, but not great. That's something that held this movie back from being one of my all time favorites. If it was just a little more haunting, it would have fit the theme perfectly and set this film up to be a masterpiece. As is, the movie was very good, and I recommend it to anyone who thinks crime thrillers are overdone, because this shows what most aspire to be. The only part about it I didn't like was the obviously forced Boston accents, but that could be neglected.

Worth your time.