Sunday, May 13, 2007

Spinal Tap

This movie was hilarious!!! The British rock group called "Spinal Tap" were the most ridiculous people ever. It was funny to see how the show venues they played at went from bad to worse...and they didn't even seem to mind. I thought it was so random/weird that Fran Dreshure aka "the nanny" was in a good portion of this movie. Through out the whole thing I was wondering if it was a fake movie, but it's a real documentary! Everyone was so weird! Especially the part when one of the band members tries to be diva-like and complains about the small bread and deli meats, like for real? Or what about when they go play somewhere and the board says something like "petting zoo ............. and Spinal Tap". The girlfriend even seriously said, 'Oh man, i told them to put Spinal Tap before petting zoo' like if it sounded better. Everyone in the band just seemed pathetic, they were old and washed up, and didn't know when to stop. It was funny that in class you correlated them to the Rolling Stones. It really is so true, when the Rolling Stones played at the super bowl not too long ago, I actually felt bad for them. They just looked so old and sounded horrible, I think they don't realize that it's time to retire. Another funny part of the movie was when the interviewer was telling them other peoples feedback about their albulms, and after like the 5th rude comment the band was like 'ok,,thats enough'. Haha, overall great movie! I think it was a perfect end to a documentary in film class aka best class ever!

Inside Deep Throat

I thought this movie was pretty good. I can't believe how strict rules on filming pornographic movies was not too long ago. I haven't seen the actual "deep throat" movie, but from what I saw did not look tooo explicit. Well I guess it just isn't half as bad as what porno movies look like nowadays...even though I wouldn't really know :) I also found it suprising that the actor who played the part of the doctor almost got arrested for simply acting in the movie. Another thing I found funny was when the film showed told how Jackie Onasis saw the movie, and then the movied gross doubled the next week. This documentary was so funny, especially when they were interviewing one of the guys that had relations with the mob and his wife was in the background yelling at him. She was pretty much yelling at him for nothing, and she didnt care that he was being interviewed on tape. The thing that confused me through out the whole movie was that it was so extremely successful, however, none of the actors got any money from it. You would think that the most watched and most popular pornographic movie ever made would make you somewhat rich and/or famous if you were an actor in the movie. However, the everyone was penniless and the guy that played the doctor was even homeless after it was made. Overall, great movie, very funny, and certainly not disturbing if you are mature enough for it.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Soldiers of Conscience

This was a really good movie! I have never seen a movie quite like this or from this point of view. Usually when you see true stories about men in the army whether it be on tv or in movies they are all about fighting and even excited. However, this movie showed soldiers who didn't want to fight anymore, and wanted to be at peace with themselves and the rest of the world. This movie wasn't shown from just one point of view, but from both sides. Some soldiers and commanding officers disagreed with the ones that wanted to be contientious objectors. And the soldiers who wanted to be contientious objectors gave very valid points of why they wanted to be, and had strong opinions about the matter. I just would have never of thought that people that join the army wouldn't want to kill. It makes me so happy that there are people like the contientious objectors in this world, because maybe some day there can be and end to the fighting. I disagree with the army completlely when innocent people are being murdered for no reason. It made me sick when one of the contientious objectors was telling an audience how his fellow soldiers treated prisoners and dead Iraqi's. I have a good friend that is going to Iraq in three months and he is really excited about it. I recomended this movie to him because hopefully he can change his excited mind set about going there, and actually decide if he wants to really go there. Overall, gooood movie!

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Run Lola Run

This was such a fun movie! I really enjoyed watching this movie because it was a rainy day and I didn't feel like watching a documentary. I thought it was cool how random cartoons were incoperated into the movie and the music went along perfectly. I thought it was interesting how the storyline was set up and how it showed three alternate scenarios if only you did one thing differently. At one time or another I think everyone thinks about what could have happened if they just made a small change. It was interesting to watch a German movie because I'm not sure if I have ever seen one. At first I was kind of dreading reading subtitles because I wasn't in the mood, but the story was so interesting I really got into watching it and didn't mind reading them. I'm happy that Lola and Manni didn't really end up robbing the store and getting killed because it was such a disappointment in the begining. I think that the third ending was definately the best because not only did they get the money to the gangster guy but Lola had that whole bag of money for the both of them that she won from the casino. I also was happy that in the end Lola's dad didn't end up leaving and disowning her. I thought this was a good movie and a good change of film for this class.

Born Into Brothels

I really liked this movie because it is about a topic that is rarely ever discussed. It definately made me appreciate my life more and the childhood I went through after seeing those poor children in India. I have heard about brothels before, but I had no idea that children and families lived in them. Prior to watching this movie I thought brothels were rundown houses where a bunch of prostitutes lived. This was a very depressing movie for many reasons. Firstly, the children that were portrayed in this movie were so innocent that it was heart breaking to see where they lived. While watching this movie you get a strong sense of hope for these children, but no sooner does it diminish after reading what happened to them once the documentary was over. One girl ran away from home, another one wasn't allowed to go to school, etc etc. Only a couple of kids ended up staying in school out of the whole group. I was amazed that at this day and age that one of the girl's mothers not only didn't allow her to go to school, but confined her to the brothel. I would think that no matter which country it is, a mother would want her daughter to have a better life than her. I guess it just goes to show how different cultures are. The lady that made this documentary and also starred in it is truely an amazing person. I can't imagine living in India and helping poor children grow up. Overall, this was a great film but very sad!

Monday, April 30, 2007

Children of Men

I am happy that we watched this movie in class for many reasons. First of all, I liked how we watched something other than a documentary, but some of the time it seemed like a documentary; especially during the war scenes. The camera action was very realistic, and when the blood hit the camera it seemed like it actually happened. I thought the story line was genius, and I like to see how other people perceive what our world could potentially look like in the future. The casting in this film seemed perfect, and everyone played a believable character throughout the whole movie. It was surprsing to me that Julian Moore got killed off so early in the movie. After that happened the suspense was set up for the rest of the movie, and I was ready for anything to happen. Overall, this was a great movie and full of vivid action shots.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Holy Watergate

Wow....what a powerful movie. When the whole scandal about Catholic priests abusing boys in the church broke out a few years back I remember feeling really shocked by it. It just didn't make sense to me for these "holy" men to do such an unthinkable things. I thought this documentary was really powerful in the sense that it did not just show one side of the story, but it unmasked the scandal that has been going on for almost 2 decades from the victims as well as the abusers. This film did not only interview one or two victims, but 5 of them to create a stronger unified voice from the victim's point of view. It was heart breaking to hear each of the victim's explain their side of the story, and have them re-tell the torture they went through at such a young age. The film also made me extremely mad that higher ranking priests, such as cardinals, knew about the abuse that was going on, but still let the priests who were predators travel around to different parishes. I felt sick to my stomache when the priest (I forget his name) who admitted to abusing a few young boys explained the things he did. He brought the boys to his cabin, offered them alcohol, and then preyed on them. Overall, this was a great and very emotional movie. I'm happy that some of the predator priests were punished for their actions, and the victims got a sense of justice.