Going into Boy in the Heron, I had a lot of high expectations. I had never seen a Studio Ghibli Film before because I had always thought they were some sort of anime-type film. Of course, I know now that the notion was wrong. But watching the trailer and seeing the cast for the movie on top of the Oscar buzz made me think this movie was going to be the best animated movie I had seen in a long time. However, all of my expectations were let down. This movie was good. Rather, this movie was supposed to be one of the best things I had ever seen but instead was kind of a mid-animated movie which makes me hate it even more. In reality, I think this is a mid-movie but my anger for the amount of hype this movie gets kinda supersedes my opinion. Overall, this movie was beautiful with a great voice cast and a complex plot. However, what was lacking for me was that the movie itself was kind of too complicated and also did not make sense in terms of basic logic. I first want to talk about how beautiful this movie was. The way each still of this movie could be used to create a piece of artwork is astounding to me. The way movement is drawn in this movie is unlike anything I have ever seen before. What I mean by that is how water, fire, and air are drawn to show the movement of the characters through these elements. Now, usually what an animator or artist does is have the character move along with the elements moving against it, however, in this film, it was drawn differently. Now I did not pick this up until I watched the trailers after watching the movie. For example, when Mahito was running through the fire or surrounded by water, the elements themselves were the only things that were animated in movement. This causes a cool effect and illusion of having the character move while also emphasizing the character's struggles. Overall, the animation was top-tier and unique. It was the thing that made this movie stand out to me. Now we could spend hours going into each animation detail and how he uses different art elements along with new techniques, however, most of these don't have to do with the opinion of the film. So if you want to talk to me about it just comment or ask me. Now I want to talk about the plot. Going into this movie I knew it was going to be confusing. After my friends told me that this movie wouldn't make any sense until the end, I knew this movie would be good because I think a good movie needs a confusing plot with a beautiful conclusion where the director can weave all of the ideas together. However, this movie in my opinion was not able to do that. I am not sure if it was because the plot was too confusing or if it was the sudden ending where all of the magic just vanished forever, but the conclusion did not work. I liked the metaphors and ideas that were taking place in the movie about Studio Ghibli coming to an end as well as the character being a reflection of Miyazaki. Specifically, the idea of the world and magic being a dream that reflected the end of Studio Ghibli is just a chef's kiss. However, I think these messages get lost because there is just too much symbolism and comparison that causes the audience to not find the intended meaning or no meaning at all. In the attempt to do all of this comparison, the movie lost its connection with an audience and became a cohesive film but rather a piece of art. I like comparing this movie to a piece of art, especially because when you look at a piece of art, you look at it for five seconds to 2 minutes and think “Man, that's beautiful” and move on. Now the painter probably intended there to be certain emotions and comparisons to be made but most of the time you don't understand them because art is meant to be subjective. This Miyazaki film is just that, something that is so confusing that the audience just doesn't understand the message but instead looks at it and thinks that it is cool. The boy in the heron I think was a great idea on paper. I mean if you watch the trailer this film just looks like not the best animated but the best movie of the year. However, it just does not match all of the Oscar buzz. The one thing that got me excited for this movie was the cast. I mean Robert Pattison’s accent was so random and so perfect, it made the character. Voices from Florence Pugh and Dave Bautista also made the movie so much better. However, the plot and conclusion were just not there for me. This movie in my opinion was mid and should not beat out Across the Spider Verse. This movie had such great potential but I think it just left me disappointed. 6.3/10
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I have wanted to watch this movie for a while. So sunday morning, I grabbed a cinnamon crunch bagel and rented the movie. I sat down and thought I hope this was a good movie and it did not disappoint. This movie was 3 hours long but was still captivating every single second. This movie really could have been two movies but together it made such a better movie. The way this movie was edited and put together with a combination of different film techniques made it ten times more enjoyable. The amount of just skill put into the movie was mind boggling. I mean I loved how many close ups of cillian murphy's face there were. I know so many talk about this movie and everyone says it is one of the best things to come out of film. But in a certain way they are kind of right. This is one of the few biography movies that actually is interesting and captivating. The acting in this movie is also so top tier. I mean Cillian Murphy deserves every award that comes to him because he did a great job. His supporting cast was french kiss. I mean Emily Blunt should also win every award to. Josh hartnett just proves that scientist are hot. I think however the best performance of the hour is Robert Downey Junior. This role showed that he has range and can play other things besides Tony Stark. He showed the evil of the arms race and nuclear weapons using the traditional. There are also 100 other actors that are top tier that are just in the movie. I mean Rami Malek who is one of the best of our generation is literally in it for like 3 seconds. This film was able to take a somewhat complex topic and turn it into a beatiful story. The who story was suspenseful and wonderful wrapped into a physic nerds dream. Like some of the stuff they were talking about in the movie I learned this past week. Oppenheimer is only known for inventing the atom bomb but he was kind of revolutionary in his theory. Anyways I thought this was a beautiful movie. Nothing really wrong with it. 9.8/10This movie was great. It was different from other spike lee movies in that the plot had a lot less action. Also instead of showing the struggle of that of black people versus the world this film focused for on a singular person trying to navigate his way through black culture. It is a coming of age story. I really love though the focus on music. There are times were music is played for 8 minutes without any dialogue. You are just watchin denzel washington and wesley snipes playing jazz which is really enjoyable. The fact that spike lee was able to show the plot and the feelings of bleek through music was impressive. Lee did a great job himself making sure the audence saw all of bleek through both the music but the actual shots. He did this using the doly on doly shot making a sort out of body experience for the viewer. This caused the viewer to feel when bleeker was in his zone or when he was thinking about a women. I also liked how he used edits and his camera work to show the relationship between the two girls bleek is going out with. Also watching this film i though there is no way there is goign to be any violence. Then out of nowhere Samuel L Jackson comes out of nowhere and sucker punches spike lee until his eyes are swolen shut. That scene was really unnecessary to the scene but it just goes to show how much spike lee likes violence.
Other than denzel, the plot, and spike lee. the movie was kind of lack luster. I did not like the way the two female roles were portrayed. I also did not like Ginocarlo Espistio in this film. I think this role was not meant for him. I also did not spike lee as an actor. He is not really good but it is what ever. Overall there were key parts of this film that made it great but these aspects were brought down due to other bad aspects. Overall I thought this film was good I went to see this over the weekend with some friends who are all in film class. This was a great movie. I am just going to talk about the technical aspects first. Like the film was just beautiful. I looked and felt more like it came out of the hunger games than the previous movies. It looked like an old panam and the characters themselves looked like a younger version of there future selves. The homage to the previous movies and books was definitely there but I would say this movie does a better job of getting the feel of the stories better. I also thought this acting was top tier. Viola Davis carried. I mean she brought a certain evil and villainous that carries what the hunger games are about. Peter Dinklage's closing monologue to just brought so much more depth to the character along with the actual plot. Also thought the guy that plays snow did a great job of capturing how he went crazy and lost all actual sense. I would say the actual movie is not as good as the book though. I read half of the book but kinda forgot to finish it. Everything I read though was kind of a lot better than the movie. The movie itself fel kind of forced and shortened. I think they could have made it to where it was two parts. However, in the time they were allotted the movie did a great job and was honestly a great movie but the book is just so much better. The book allows you to think and imagine a more vivid story than what the movie provides. 8.0/10 Over the break I had an hour or two to kill so I wanted a some what short watch that was kind of gory. I know that sounds kind of weird but I had been watching bluey and spiderman all weekend cause my cousins were in town. So I looked on netflix and I saw the new david fincher movie called the Killer. My parents watched it and said it was good movie. So I sat down, got me a bag of popcorn. I was first expecting it to be kind of bloody at the start because I have watched some of his other movies but it wasn't at first. Instead you start the film with one of the slowest starts to a movie I have ever watched. It was still interesting, the starting monologue was suspenseful and mysterious. But when he kills the hooker, man o man was I surprised.
My favorite part of the film was Michael Fassbender. His acting was somewhat top tier. He was able to portray fear and anger through an emotionless face which I thought was pretty cool. I also thought his monologues were really cool as well. My least favorite part of the film was how slow it was. I mean it was very suspenseful but it got to the point to were it was just boring. I mean it was filled with action, the movie was filled with action but when there was nothing, there was actually nothing. It was him just sitting around or walking around. But overall that was not that much of a problem because the action itself was really good. The Brute scene was my personal favorite because of how like action filled it was and how even though this really relaxed precise character could throw a bunch. And when he is just walking away from the house which is one fire, i think i said omg out loud. Overall would highly recommend great watch. This is my second spike lee film I have watched and man did it not disappoint. At first, I thought it was kind of boring, when the bloods are just there in Vietnam, there is not much happening. But then when you cut on Chadwick Boseman, I knew this was going to be good. The whole flashback sequences were great. The fact that the actors were in the sequences and not just younger versions of themselves was cool. I also loved how violent it was which sounds kinda dark. But it allows the message of the story to be told in full. I also love the Mcguffin of the gold in this film. The movie also just kept going. I would normally say this is a bad thing but I kinda liked it. Lee could have ended the film like an hour earlier but just was like screw it. This movie was probably like 5 separate plots just squashed together into one movie.
I thought this movies acting was also really good. From Chadwick Boseman to Johnathan Taylor, this acting was top tier. I really also like the use of the old dudes. I dont really know these actors but they did a great job. My favorite scene was were he was hallusianting and like just was a mounted tracking shot. That scene just drew me in so much more. Overall it was a great movie and I would highly recomend. This movie was really good. It is not my favorite Hitchcock out of all the ones I have watched but it is not my least favorite. I both loved and hated this movie. What I mean by that is that I thought it was super cool how the setting of the movie was the same throughout. I also liked the idea and reminded me a lot of Lord of the Flies. However, instead of seeing man become chaotic it was sort of the opposite. Once the evil was killed the group reverted back to their normal selves. Overall the movie felt more like a book rather than a movie because it tried to delve deeper into the situation and each character than telling an actual story. I loved the overall story arc especially how they treat the new natzi was kind of reverse in my mind. They start out as equals with no one above the other but as the story goes on, they start to hate each other more until they kill Willie were they then all of have a somewhat equal hatred of Natzi’s. Like the nurse character, the person that would never killed, was one of the main people that killed willie. I want to talk about the acting for a minute because it was good. John Kovac is a hot man, I mean his voice and face to me were just hot. Him and the person that played Connie Porter was also good and I can see why see won an award. Her acting as a pessimist was a take I think was somewhat new during the time especially for it being played by a female role. Joe was also a good actor and was kind of revolutionary to in the fact that they had a black actor who was somewhat of a major role. The character did somewhat fit in the stereotype of the “Black Helper” however I think there were some characteristics like the fact that he did not join in the killing of Willie that makes him stand out. Overall, I think this movie was good but no great. It really did feel like a great book but not a great movie 6.4/10 Going into this weekend, I told myself I was going to watch a scary movie. Personally, I dont mind scary movies but ever since I watched Smile last year, I haven't been able to watch another scary movie. So this weekend, I picked a scary movie that Mr. H has recommended so much: Scream. I had no clue what I was getting into when I started watching this movie. Personally, I thought it was just another slasher film with a bunch of hot people and I was right. This film is not necessarily bad but kind of predictable. Like the twist ending, I kinda guessed because those were the only two characters who talked about death and killing in such a normal that it had to be them. I think though this was all done on purpose. I think the point of this movie was to show that scary movies are predicable. Like the entire movie they talk about how the girl who is going to die always run upstairs or that the person who is about to be murdered does not realize. I think this movie just does an overall great job of making fun of the basic murder movies.
I think the acting was actually really good. I did not think that this movie would have great acting because it was like a teenage slasher and they usually have horrible acting. The way the scooby doo guy and the other killer acted the entire time gave the movie its underlying creepy and scariness. I also think that the movie itself was not necessarily that scary but the music and the acting kind of carried. I mean there were moments were I did not think it was scary then I would turn up the volume and here the music and it automatically got scarier. Overall, I think this film is good but no way it is great. P.S. It was kind of upsetting that Drew Barrymore was literally only in this movie for like 5 seconds |
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February 2024
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