Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Michael Moore directs another documentary that centers around the moralistic nature of something happening in America, alrighty no big big bang here, the norm. However, it being by Michael Moore, the film interested me due to my experience with him as being not only a biased documenter, but as one that serves to bring what would probably be an extremely boring collage of rants against American right-winged ideologies, to a level that most high school students would probably enjoy. Moore has a reputation of making an audience very staunch against an issue, but many question the evidence behind his words and whether or not he explores the coin fully.

Bowling for Columbine focuses on the issue of gun purchasing in America, but also points toward some things such as the history of gun control, weapons of mass destruction manufacturing, the school shooting at Columbine high school, and the climate of fear in Americans. Moore does a good issue in presenting the American government and the facet of their military and its possible links with violent crime in parts of the US. His evidence is usually first-hand, traveling and talking directly with those he thinks might have some hand in these crimes or not; Marilyn Manson accused of causing the Columbine shootings, Charles Heston and his role of making gun purchases easy for people, Evan McCollum and the Lockheed factory producing WMDs, and a survivor of Columbine who went on to direct the comedic show “South Park.”

The aspect of the film that radiated to me was Moore’s biased nature and further exploration of the film allowed me to see where he watered down what he felt wasn’t essential to his point-of-view, and what he let in. Matt Stone, one of the creators of South Park, was shown before a cartoon titled “A Brief History of the United States of America” which was done in a similar style to South Park, perhaps confusing the audience into thinking that he directed it. Stone shot back by making an overweight, hot-dog eating Moore become a suicide bomber in his film “Team America: World Police.” Moore also begins the film by talking about a bank that gives a free gun for those who open an account, but not only does he fail to mention the bank does background checks and ships the gun to a licensed dealer, he also convinced the employees to present the gun on camera (to further advance his point.)

Surprisingly, audio was a big part of the film and really served to enhance the scenes in which it played. Louis Armstrong was juxtaposed alongside American military operations, the Beatles alongside people buying and firing firearms, and a racist song titled “Take The Skinheads Bowling”. Camera work was not too big, as some scenes have the camera hidden as to hide those who don’t wish to be directed. Photo montages and grainy historic videos also made up some portions of the movie, but their role was minute in innovation, probably taken from VHS tapes and internet sites.

Bowling for Columbine is a movie to be not only watched, but understood. I would advise those who watch it to do further background checks on evidence, and things that may seem shoddy. Overall, the film presented a point well, and those that are affected by it.

Innovation: 7.5
Entertainment: 8.0
Audio: 7.3
Overall: 8.7

Personal Rating*: 7.9

* The personal rating differs from the others as in I don't take factors of how the film would be in the industry and audiences in the normal ratings. The PR is based solely on my overall liking of the film.

Kids (1995)

A movie like Kids is one that leaves the viewer thinking after he/she finishes it. It causes one to think more deeply about certain issues that they might otherwise ignore, and the movie accomplishes it well. Other notable movies could be any Michael Moore documentaries, God Grew Tired of Us, Hotel Rwanda, Jesus Camp, et al. When movies like these appear out of the film industry, they usually come in the form of a documentary, and in turn, do not receive much publicity. Sharing underrated movies like this is really enjoyable for me, as it allows me to turn others away from the recut and revised crap that the film industry churns out every month.

Kids deals with four characters; Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), Casper (Justin Pierce), Jenny (Chloe Sevigny), and Ruby (Rosario Dawson). Telly and Casper are a pair of friends who run around New York doing illicit activities like graffiti, smoking pot, stealing and drinking alcohol, ganging victims, etc. Casper is an interesting character of the two, as his cult of personality really serves to liven the actor’s performance and, from personal experience, his actions don’t seem played out for a movie at all. Telly (with the exception of looking extremely like McLovin) is a more hesitant character, although he doesn’t mind doing the morally wrong activities alongside his buddies, he tends to seem nervous beforehand at certain points, as when he’s offered a dose of nitrous oxide (in a balloon, as is commonly seen) he refuses to ingest it, but has no problem in doing more drugs later in the scene. Telly is also on his peak of hormone levels in the film, and has sex with a 14-year old girl who later finds out she has tested positive for the HIV-simplex virus. The director points a hint of irony out here, because as the girl has only had sex with a single boy, the scene is juxtaposed with a girl who has had sex with 8-9 men and tests negative for all STDs.

The film achieves success in numerous aspects, the most being how it explores such in-depth issues while seemingly showing an average scene of drug use. In one part, four young boys (ages 9-11) are sitting around smoking a joint and one of the boy’s starts to  talk about how cool a crucifix that one of the other boys is wearing is; “Jesus man? He was a cool guy…that’s cool….”  The movie also left me with an extremely strong feeling towards AIDS and the damage it has caused (1.8+ mill/yr), and how safe sex advisory is very important for pre-pubescent kids to learn.

               

The camera work of the film is amazing, not only does the cinematography not only focus on what is at hand, but the numerous angles the audience is shown serves to give them different perspectives. New York is also shown to a greater extent than in most NY films here, and it was practically immediately clear that the film took place there. The audio in the film isn’t minimal, but it doesn’t play a very huge role, however when it did appear, I felt it was a great addition to the scene at hand and the movie as a whole.

Kids isn’t a movie to be taken lightly, and for good measure. It explores a constant issue the world still battles in-depth and leaves the viewer questioning the horrendousness of disease and sickness.

Innovation: 9.5
Entertainment: 9.5
Audio: 7.0
Overall: 9.4

Personal Rating*: 10.0

*The personal rating differs from the others as in I don't take factors of how the film would be in the industry and audiences in the normal ratings. The PR is based solely on my overall liking of the film.

The Island (2005)

Certain movies that abide in terms of genre can often have distinct differences in content that completely separate one another. Movies that have this type of vividness are rarities these days, at least they come up much less often than what was once common. The Island is a movies that can be placed into this category, and to compare the differences one can look at I, Robot vs. The Island. I, Robot deals with robots who are cloned for public civil services and are thought to not have much brainwork besides punching in and calculating, which is offset as the creator of the robots finally gives a single one the ability to think and dream. The Island deals with the same aspect, in a sense...

Set in the year 2019, somewhere around the Los Angeles area, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) are two subjects who are part of a living facility in which they long to win a lottery of sorts. This random picking decides that, amongst all the members of the facility, whom gets to leave to an inhabited island. This island, with the exception of the facility, is a sole survivor of a “contamination” that took the majority of the world’s survivors. Lincoln is also appointed to meet with the doctor of the building in order to discuss nightmarishly vivid dreams and thoughts, and starts to point out that he wants “more” to come out of the facility. Soon, when entering restricted areas of the structure, Lincoln discovers to find members of the medical staffis catering to people unwillingly, and busts himself along with Jordan out.

Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are no shining stars in the film, and have middle-grade levels of acting, nothing too awe-inspiring nor falling asleep. The dialog between the characters is very developed, and emotion pours through many of their words. Steve Buscemi also plays in the film, and despite being a minor character, is very effective as the engineer role he plays. Audio is lackluster in the film and, despite some action sounds and music during high tension seems, little background music can be heard. The beginning and ending both have intro/outro music, but it doesn’t seem well-composed or livid in its playing, but does an outstanding job of carrying into the film, and gradually leaving it. All of this isn’t to divulge the assumption that the music aspect was very ignored, just not very well developed.

The film is most gifted in surviving around the central plot and going through the story well, along with that it features great cinematography and camera work, along with an overall sense of setting during many of the film’s scenes. At one point in the film, McCord (Steve Buscemi) is in the bathroom of a bar not far outside the facility borders and Lincoln Six Echo happens to enter the bathroom when he and Jordan Two Delta discover the bar after breaking out. This instance was a nice transition and blending of the story, and luckily, it proceeds with this degree of creativity throughout the latter story of the movie.

Even though The Island lacks in a few aspects that are expected of most films, it succeeds in enough others to set itself apart in this respect. Personally, it was an emotional tale with good storytelling and I would no doubt recommend it.

Innovation: 9.5

Entertainment: 9.0

Audio: 4.5
Effects: 8.5
Overall: 9.3

Personal Rating*: 9.8

*The personal rating differs from the others as in I don't take factors of how the film would be in the industry and audiences in the normal ratings. The PR is based solely on my overall liking of the film.

Trainspotting (1996)

Not a single movie has characterized the horrors of the heroin industry as well as Requiem for A Dream. But the lackluster effects of drama that dwindles over almost all of the movie, along with an eerie sense of emotional clusters of anger, hatred, sorrow, insanity, etc. makes the movie one that cannot be cherished by those who prefer comedic films, or those that have mixed emotions of laughter, love, madness, and so forth. Trainspotting differs in this aspect as the movie delves deep into the psychedelic rollercoaster of joyfulness, fiendishness, and the crashes that come from the end of the heroin ride.

The movie is set in Edinburgh, Scotland revolving around 4 major characters. Nicknamed "Rent Boy" (Ewan McGregor), "Spud" (Ewen Bremner), "Sick Boy" (Johnny Lee Miller), and "Franco" (Robert Carlyle). We follow Rent Boy as he rides along his drug addiction path and the eventual quitting of the drug. As he views his friends in the scopes of sobriety for the first time, he begins to fully understand the nightmarish horror of heroin. Rent Boy's narration covers the majority of the film, and we see him and his understanding and true thoughts of those around him. A great positive of the film is that Rent Boy's narration is emotional, the vividness that radiates from it allows you to truly engage in feeling like you can understand the character and those around him.

While dialog makes much of the film and most contributes to its greatness, I've always had a real love for the camera work. Low-angled shots, close face shots, slow panning shots, and so forth, make up only a minuscule portion of the very varied camera work. When in a scene, the camera will shift to whatever is the subject at hand, only to return to the individuals immediately after. Audio also makes a partial portion of not only the discussion amidst different characters, but the music that plays during scenes as well. In a dramatic scene involving a baby and Sick Boy, the silence between the characters makes for an emotional collage of anger and frustration and sorrowful sentences. Music in the film only seems to appear at either high-paced scenes involving different drugs, or when Rent Boy narrates over an event and the music serves to liven the scene. This works in numerous ways, the foremost being it serves to not leave a lackluster bore in the midst of the movie's action, and heightens the mood of the viewer in order to more closely relate with Rent Boy's speech. To give an example, the movie begins with a soccer game of the main characters playing against some no-names, as Rent Boy gives a speech of how people "Choose life", the music has a fast rhythm but slows down as the players stop playing and get in position for a "free-kick".

Trainspotting has a legacy of destroying the "cool" factors behind heroin use. With all its aspects, be it directing, dialog, audio, or cinematography, it succeeds at least on a minor level with all of them. It's been voted the best Scottish film of all-time by Scots, and was given the 10th spot on the "Top 100 British films of all-time".

Innovation: 7.5
Entertainment: 9.5
Audio: 8.5
Overall: 9.0

Personal Rating*: 10.0

*The personal rating differs from the others as in I don't take factors of how the film would be in the industry and audiences in the normal ratings. The PR is based solely on my overall liking of the film.

Weird Science (1985)

Nerds creating a woman by cutting magazines up, inserting them into a computer, and obeying her command to tell her to operate on their every whim, show-and-tell. This was the recipe for one of the greatest comedies I've ever seen; a perfect summary of every hormone-crazed teen in the mid-80's. It still baffles me that this film goes underrated by some of the biggest film freaks around.

The film revolves around the story of Gary and Wyatt, who are two sociopathic nerds who long to be in the party life. They desire to be immersed in the lifestyle of the prototypical popular high school students, looking for every chance to live with sex, drugs, and rock & roll.  Throughout much of the film, one can easily notice the surprise on the boys' faces as they cannot believe the lifestyles that they so longed for.

Character development is strong throughout much of the film, with the audience being able to understand the "horny" psyche of both characters. It doesn't nearly end at this point though, and the viewer can see a mature growth within both boys' mind, an understanding and, eventually, opposition of the trendy, social lifestyle that much of their fellow peers share. Kelly Le Brock's character, "Lisa", is also developed through the film. Whilst starting out oblivious to how high school students function socially amongst each other and among those older, she ends up feeling for the boys cause and how they think and act. Her personal development isn't meager to say the least, but it is varied well enough as to not play a major role and stay the same.

On the comedy aspect, the film focuses on much of the social awkwardness of the boys and their uneasiness to adapt to those around them. Bill Paxton plays the role of Chet, Gary's brother, who often humiliates the two in front of others; wedgies, putting them to labor, spitting in their drinks, dumping food, and so on, the typical tough love big brother. Slight nudity, language, and small violence bear in the PG-13 rating, but if one can be mature about it, I see little to no reason the film couldn't be a family flick. With all the laughs it can bring out, it should be seen by all. :D

Overall, Weird Science sets itself apart from other comedies in the sense that it doesn't rely too heavily on cheap gags, toilet humor, (too) adult-oriented jokes, and other cliché-d forms of entertainment that the comedy industry has seen 100 times over. Where the film succeeds in differentiation, it has failings in "slow" parts, and a few stupid jokes here and there. Despite being no supporting pillar of the whole comedy genre, it definitely stands out amongst some of its repetitive predecessors.  It doesn't steer too far out to be a comedy film as it does have some dramatic tidbits, but it still is able to retain to that comedic aspect that can make it so lovable and popular to so many different types of film students and fans alike.

Innovation: 8.5
Entertainment: 9.0
Audio: 7.0
Effects: 9.0
Overall: 8.8

Personal Rating*: 9.5

*The personal rating differs from the others as in I don't take factors of how the film would be in the industry and audiences in the normal ratings. The PR is based solely on my overall liking of the film.