Snatch

After watching Guy Ritchie's "Lock,Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," I was very entertained by the unique style he used in his films. The other night I watched another of Ritchie's films, "Snatch." It was undoubtedly one of my favorite movies, just after one viewing. The witty, fast-paced dialogue drives a pulsing crime movie played out by an outstanding cast. Quick scene cuts and a well put-together soundtrack add to this incredible movie.

The film contains two seperate plots that intertwine towards the end of the movie. One follows the story of a lost stolen diamond (84 carats) and the other tells the story of a boxing promoter excellently played by Jason Statham of Transporter fame. Along the way, many characters pop up along the way inluding Frankie Four-Fingers (Benecio del Toro) and the violent Irish pikey Mickey O'neill (Brad Pitt.) The movie flows so smoothly together it seems like the movie goes by in an hour.

I would like to focus on the dialogue in "Snatch." Nearly all of the characters have some type of accent, from Statham's thick British to the incredibly done heavy Irish by Brad Pitt. Some times you can't even understand what they are saying, and it adds to the overall comedy of the movie.



This exciting trailer gives the overall tone of the movie and I think it does a great job of making people want to see it. As you can see, the accents are ridiculous but the dialogue is great.

Secondly, the film has an amazing soundtrack. Each song chosen perfectly fits the scene and it is always a new type of song to keep the plot moving.

In general, I would highly recommend this movie to just about anyone who is able to keep up with the accented dialogue. It is an amazing work of art and I look forward to watching more of Ritchie's work.

Eternal Sunshine

We recently watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in class. The movie, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, involves a pair of opposites that fall in love but eventually each gets their memories of each other erased. This bizarre plot was creative and intriguing, but I felt the story in itself was a little too confusing and jumpy. The acting is great but its just not my type of movie

I would like to focus on the directing and screenwriting. Directed by legendary Michael Godry and written by Charlie Kaufman, it is an excellent example of out-of-the-ordinary film techniques.
The film mostly takes place in Joel's(Carrey) head, while he tries to desperately hold onto memories of Clementine (Winslet.) This allowed for many creative possibilities from Godry and Kaufman, and they delivered.

I was most interested in the scene in the kitchen, where grown-up Joel is reliving his memory of being in his family's kitchen, only the kitchen is in the same respective size as when he was little. This was achieved by brilliant perspective props, which allowed Joel to look tiny but still have the appearance as when he was grown up.

Kaufman is known for his simple techniques to achieve incredible results in his movies, using minimal special effects. Afrter watching a DVD extra on the making of the movie, it was interesting to see that Carrey was able to move across the room three times behind the camera in the same scene.

This unique type of approach to cinematic effects is very interesting and I highly respect both Kaufman and Godry, as well as all the actors, for pulling off such a difficult film.

Easy Rider's Soundtrack

For this blog I would like to focus on the film I watched for my last journal, Easy Rider. Directed by Dennis Hopper, who also stars alongside Peter Fonda, it is a classic American road movie. The film depicts Hopper and Fonda as two young men from LA that after recieving a large amount of cocaine, smuggling it back to LA and selling it, set off on a lengthy adventure to Mardi Gras.


Along the way, classic music of the time is played mostly during scenes when the pair is just biking, with no dialogue. Starting with "The Pusher" by Steppenwolf, a song clearly about drugs, sets the tone of the movie very early on. In one of the most famous opening credits sequence, "Born To Be Wild" (also by Steppenwolf) blares out as the two hop on their bikes for their trip. This excellent pairing of music and American scenery is incredibly done, and the songs perfectly match the feeling of the movie. Along with Bob Dylan, The Band, and Jimi Hendrix, there are many other classic artists that contributed to this great movie.

Opening Credits Scene- "Born To Be Wild"

Is film going in the wrong direction?

I don't know about you, but lately it seems like the majority of new movies look like they are horrible. I can't say that they are horrible because i don't want to risk spending my hard earned money on them. Also, 9 dollars to watch a movie??? That seems just a little steep to me.
Back to my point, every other commercial i see for a movie doesn't entice me to see the film, it just makes me angry and annoyed that somebody would spend millions of dollars to make it.
Ice Cube's new movie, First Sunday, completes his turnaround from a respectable musician to a joke of an actor. He should have stuck with N.W.A. when he was in his prime. He is just not the right actor to play a suburban family man.
Secondly, Larry the Cable Guy needs to learn where to start. I personally don't find his stand up to be funny, but now hes trying to make it on the big screen. His recent film Witless Protection looked just as bad as the title sounds.
To rap things up, i think the ENTIRE world is tired of these Scary Movie knockoffs (Date Movie, Epic Movie, not to mention scary movie 3, 4 and who knows how many else.) The first two Scary Movie's were genius, but they are just trying to hard now. Making fun of other movies only goes so far, but I guess enough people like them for them to keep making them.
I could probably keep ranting, but i'm tired.

Is film going in the wrong direction?

first blog

So that art of film test was really hard. Im supposed to write a paragraph but i have nothing to write about. I want to see Miracle At St. Anna i think it comes out pretty soon. Spike Lee's movies are all usually good and this one looks good too.
My favorite movies include both Waynes World's, just about anything by Quentin Tarentino, Boondock Saints, V for Vendetta, half baked,and alot more. I could think of more...but i dont really feel like it right now.