The Full Monty

The Full Monty is a movie about Gary "Gaz" Schofield and Dave Horsefal who were once steel mill workers who after being laid off decide to make their own strip tease show after they see a crown of women lined up to see the popular Chippendale dancers.  When they get everything set up they acquire a few more dancers including Lomper, Gerald Cooper, Horse, and Guy.  The men set up their routine advertising that they go “the full monty” which means that they fully expose themselves in the show.  Dave gets self-conscious and decides to leave the group but comes back minutes before they go on stage because his wife encouraged him to do it for the money he would get.  They go on stage and perform a very successful dance which is loved by the audience. 

            This movie was put together well as an entire piece. The different scenes played into each other well in order to be successful.  The transitions between scenes were also good because they helped make all of them fit together.  In some spots the movie moved slowly but these parts are integral to a movie because this is when things get set up.  Without these lulls in the action where characters are defined and the plot is set up the movie as a whole will be lacking.  Nowadays when we see movies we look for action, adventure, and for things to be brought up instantly; but movies like this are the ones that someone can really get into and sympathize with the characters.  The characters also help make the movie good as a whole because if there is a good plot but not so good actors the plot will suffer.  In The Full Monty the characters are forced to do what they have to do in order to survive which is what many people in our would have to do today.  They convinced me that their struggles were real and showed that in order to get through our tough times we have to do what is necessary. 

            I thought that this movie was put together well as a whole.  Many times films depend on one or two different aspects of a movie to carry the whole thing.  But in The Full Monty they use all aspect to make the movie as a whole strong.  Each piece was done right and carried its own weight in the movie.

Cider House Rules

Cider House Rules is about an orphan, Homer, who lives at an orphanage having been returned by foster parents twice.  The director of the orphanage, Dr. Wilbur Larch, is an ether addicted abortionist who teaches Homer how to perform abortions.  Homer never goes to high school so he is forced to learn to perform abortions.  He doesn’t believe in abortions though so he runs away with a couple that came to Larch for an abortion.  He works on their apple farm with Arthur’s crew, Arthur is another worker.  Arthur rapes and impregnates is daughter Rose who comes to Homer to get an abortion.  Although Homer doesn’t agree with abortion he decides that in Rose’s case he will do one.  After this Rose decides to run assay, Arthur, her father, goes to say good bye; when she sees him she stabs him and fleas.  Homer comes upon Arthur and his dying wish is that he tells the police that the cause of death was suicide.  Homer then returns to the orphanage to find out that Larch has died, but Larch adjusted Homers medical records so that he couldn’t go to war and also that he adjusted his educational records so that he would be next in line to run the orphanage. 

            This movie was intriguing because of the concepts it dealt with.  Abortion is a hot topic today and this movie gave a view of it that others don’t.  It showed how people struggle with tough decisions and how tough some people’s lives are.  The things that I noticed in this film were the acting and the tough moral decisions that each character had to make. 

            The acting was great in this movie; they all convinced me that their part was an actual part in a story going on.  Homer was in a tough position in multiple spots like when he decided to run away from the orphanage and at the apple farm but he kept his composure showing confidence in his job.  Rose’s acting in the film was also good because she had to show worry, anger, and a large amount of stress. I believe that she did a good job convincing the audience that she was in a troubling time in her life.  The acting helped bring the film together as a whole, it the acting was lacking the film would have a large hole in it that could not have been filled by anything else. 

            The tough decisions that people were put in also helped the movie as a whole.  It kept the movie interesting and fed it well.  When Homer was put into the situation with deciding whether to be an abortionist whether or not he agreed with it brought stress to the movie because it is a popular topic that in today’s world is hard to deal with.  Rose was in a tough situation as well because she was raped and impregnated by her own father, she then was forced to decide whether an abortion was a good idea.  Homer ended up putting his own moral fibers aside in order to help Rose. 

            The movie altogether was good.  Some aspects really helped the movie as a whole be what it is.  I think the topics that they covered in the movie were an important part of the movie as a whole because without interesting topics there isn’t anything to be interested in.  The whole thing was constructed well in order to make a successful popular movie.  

High Noon

The movie High Noon is an interesting movie even though it was in black and white.  The movie is about a man, William Kane, who is the sheriff of a small town and when he was going to retire to move away with his new wife he hears about a guy who is coming to town who is not a good guy.  So he decides to stay in town in order to protect his town.  His wife says that she will not wait to see if she will be a widow so she gets a train ticket headed out of town.  When the train gets into town and Frank Miller, the bad guy, gets off the train he is after Kane because he is the one who put him in jail.  Kane tries to round up townspeople to help him defend his town but with little success, no one wants to fight or risk dying.  When Miller gets into town a fight rages, guns drawn and shots ring through the town as Kane’s new wife, Amy Fowler, runs through the city trying to see if her husband was still alive.  Kane takes down Miller’s posse and eventually takes down Miller in the middle of the street. 

            In High Noon there are a few key aspects that stuck out to me, they included the acting, the lighting, and the music played.  These three aspects help make up for the movie being in black and white.  Without these strong aspects in the movie it would not have been as good because the black and white would have been distracting.  I thought that the director did a good job of convincing the audience, me, that the plot was real and possible.  When we think of westerns we picture what would happen in this movie, an antagonist comes to town to seek revenge and a battle surges ending with the protagonist prevailing.

            The acting was great in my opinion.  Every character did their job in order to bring the film together.  Kane defending his city with his emotions focused on bringing security to the town.  His wife with her anger towards her husband for deciding to stay in town to risk his life. When Kane went around searching for help to fight against Miller and everyone turned him down they all seemed to have a look of fright on their face and even in their voice.  When Kane goes to the church to get help and the preacher says that he doesn’t want to send his people out to fight he sees very concerned for the wellbeing of them but there is also a sense of worry about what is coming in the future.  All of the actors did their job well to convince me and make me believe the actors were real. 

            The next aspect is the lighting, when a movie is in black and white it is hard to keep the lighting right in order to be sure that everything can be seen by the viewer.  Along with that, since most of the movie was shot outside with the bright light, the director had to make sure that the contrast was right so that there wasn’t too much glare.  The movie was shot well enough so that I could clearly distinguish what was going on and who was doing what.  In the scene where Miller is holding Kane’s wife hostage and they were out in the street, it was a little bright making it harder to see the action but it wasn’t enough to make the lighting poor.

            The last aspect is the music that was played during the film.  Music is a very important part to a movie because, even if we don’t realize it, sound plays a huge role in bringing the piece together.  Without sound it can be hard to make the scenes dramatic and make the viewers feel the suspense in the movie.  I thought that the music played in the movie was good for the scenes.  When there was action going on they used drastic differences in volume and types of sound in order to heighten the suspense and make the viewers wonder what is next to come.

             Overall I thought that High Noon was well put together and a very interesting film.  The fact that if was in black and white had no effect on how I viewed the movie because the key components were strong enough to keep my attention.

The Sting

The sting is a movie about con mans and their how they stole money.  Then after they stole 11,000 dollars the policy is after them.  It involves a dirty cop who they end up paying off with counterfeit bills because they spend all of their money they stole.   A bookie from Chicago named Shaw steals/cheats his way into 15,000 dollars from Lonnegan, the main character. 

                This movie has a few less interesting parts in it, this could be because it is an older movie and I have a hard time getting into older movies.  Also there are so many characters in the movie that it is hard to keep them all straight and keep what they are doing in order.  Some qualities that I am going to talk about are the sound effects and dialogue, the musical side of the film, and the acting in it.

                The sound effects and dialogue in the movie were at the top of what was available at that time and did all that it could do to add to the film.  But I didn't like some of the choices that were made in it.  During the poker game I thought it was hard to hear and understand what was going on.  The dialogue was a little troubling to understand and the sound effects didn't do justice to the atmosphere it was in.  I believe that they were not able to keep the rhythmic patterns in tact because of what the movie did with the dialogue; the movie was rather choppy and didn't flow as well as it could have.  The potential with this kind of movie is way higher than what I got out of the movie, partially I think because the dialogue.  The sound links that helps transition from scene to scene were, in my opinion, the best parts of the sound effects and dialogue.

                The musical side of the film was good.  The audio of a movie is important because it helps the audience relax.  If there is too much silence in a film the audience will get restless and feel weird.  In the book it talks about how the musical score of a film is very important and for a couple of reasons.  The first of which is how it strengthens the emotional content of the image, this helps leave a lasting impression on the audience and allows them to take more from each individual scene.  The second is how it stimulates the imagination; sometimes the visual effects are not enough to do this, so we rely on the music to do it for us.  I believe that the film did a good job using the audio of the movie to stimulate imagination.  The third and final is how it suggests emotions that cannot be expressed by visuals alone.  This takes some responsibility off of the film itself and gives it to the audio.  It is easier sometimes for the music to do this because it allows us to use our own imagination and it draws on us personally.  Also, because many people are so driven/moved by music it makes stimulating emotions easier. 

                The acting of the movie was alright.  It was probably some of the best acting for that time but since we have such good actors now it is hard to compete.  The primary goal of acting is to convince us that the character is real, I just wasn’t getting this feeling throughout the movie.  I thought that they could have put more effort in their performances to make me believe what they were trying to do.  I also believe that the acting in the movie was more stage styled acting rather than actual movie acting.  The best thing that the actors did was how they reacted to what happened in the film, I liked how Lonnegan reacted when Shaw cheated him out of 15,000 dollars in poker.  I liked it because it was relatable, when someone beats me in something I get very upset when I thought he did well.  

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is the second movie in the Batman trilogy and is widely popular with many different kinds of people.  It is about Batman’s biggest rival, the Joker, terrorizing the city without any sort of motive.  His biggest goal is to corrupt the batman.  He robs, kills, and bribes people throughout the city in order to hurt the mob bosses who think they are running the city. Batman then fights back in order to protect his city from a psycho maniac; the Joker kidnaps the mayor of the city and tries to ransom him back but Batman helps him get free.

            This movie is very popular for a number of reasons like its action, its character, and many people just like batman.  But there are some hidden features that make it great as well, like color, sound effects and dialogue, the acting, and the director’s style.  Each movie depends of certain qualities to separate it from the rest, but each movie also has some things that take away from it.  In this movie I believe that the sound effects and dialogue, the acting, and the director’s style all help bring the movie the success it has.  Whereas I believe that the color in the movie was not what it could be.  I thought it could have been better to make the movie even better than it was.

            Color, although it did the job, I believe that it could have been better.  I think that the director depended too much on the action scenes in the movie to make up for the color and lighting.  The movie could have used more surrealism to give it a little different perspective throughout.  But the expressionism was used well to show the true personality of the characters, especially the Joker, that is a tough role to portray correctly but I believe they did well with it. 

            Sound Effects and Dialogue are very important in this movie.  Sound Effects are always important in action movies, but it a movie like this where the hero most go through so much, it is important to have strong sound effects.  The best part was when the underground tunnels started blowing up.  The sound effects made the explosions sound so real and so up close.  The dialogue is also important because it helps us understand the plot.  I believe that the dialogue was good as well because I got the messages that were being sent and the plot throughout.

             The acting was phenomenal, Christian Bale did and amazing job as Batman always keeping his identities separate and staying relate able.  Heath Ledger also did an amazing job as the Joker.  That is one of the most difficult roles to fill in batman, but he did it without hesitation.  There were times in the movie that without strong actors the movie would have struggled.  Without these guys who did so will the movie would not be able to be where it is at right now. 

             The director’s style was good as well because he kept it like a true/real action movie and the way he set up kept my attention all through the movie.  I like the way he portrayed the characters and their own individual style.  I also believe that without the quality of the director the movie may have been extremely poorly put together.

Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is a movie that is entertaining yet we can learn something from it at the same time.  The movie is about an odd family that goes on a road trip so that their daughter can join a beauty contest in California, they are from Albuquerque.  Along the way they experience a few troubling moments such as the grandfather passing away, the son realizing that he will never be able to fly because of his color blindness, and the bus not working unless pushed.  But through all of this they make it to California so that Olivia, the daughter, can perform in this pageant that she so desperately wishes to perform in.  The best things to take away from this movie are that family is always there for you no matter what happens and to always keep pushing through the troublesome times in our lives. 

            There are a few key aspects to look at when watching the movie Little Miss Sunshine, they are:  color, sound effects and dialogue, the acting itself.  These all combined make the movie what it is in the end.  Without them there would be something lacking in every scene of the movie.  But I thought that all of these characteristics added up to help the movie be somewhat relatable and comic.

            The first aspect to look at is color.  Without the correct color the shots will always seem a bit off and it will draw from the overall quality of the film.  Color is so important because of everything it does to humans, in the book it talks about how different colored rooms don’t only have visual responses but also psychological responses, like when restaurants have red colored rooms it triggers the appetite to so increase whereas putting children in a bubble gum pink room will make them tired and possibly fall asleep. Color is also very important because it attracts the human eyes before any shape or form can capture our attention.  In this movie the tint, colors lighter than normal, and the shading, colors darker than normal, are used effectively to keep the movie bright enough to be seen and enjoyed by the audience.  Colors also contribute to three-dimensionality, without this aspect of three-dimensionality it seems like we are watching a flat cartoon, but the way the film used color really help show three dimensions.  Another major effect of color is how it can change the mood of the scene, with one color change the scene could go from relaxed to dramatic in a matter of seconds.

            The sound effects and dialogue are also important to films.  In most films we more or less just accept the soundtrack and pay more attention to the dialogue that is in the movie.  So it is important that the dialogue really sends the message in a clear way that the audience can  pick up the needed information.  The use of visible sound effects was prominent in the movie, from the bus horn honking to when Olive was dancing.  The use of invisible sound effects was also used, when the family was at the hospital after hearing about the grandfather’s death we can actually hear noises from other parts of the hospital that we cannot actually see, this make the scene stronger and more believable.  It was also an example of ambient sound, which is a noise or sound that would be natural to the environment.  In a hospital we expect to hear hospital like noises, such as doctors, machines, and other people, which we heard. 

            The last part to look at during this movie, which may be the best part of all the film, is the acting.  Each character was given a different role in order to clash with each other giving off the odd family affect.  In the film, Steve Carrel did an excellent job acting the part of a depressed man who recently attempted suicide but failed.  When visited at the hospital by his sister she says that she’s happy he is alive to which he responds “That makes one of us.”  This took me by surprise because right off the bat he was setting a high expectation that he did end up meeting.  The grandpa who played the loose and reckless guy who was always getting into trouble was necessary because in this odd family the teenage boy wasn't the one to play this role like usual, so someone had too.  Olive was just an innocent girl who wanted to compete in a pageant, she practiced and worked hard in order to achieve her goal but when she finally got there she ended up getting kicked out of the tournament for her dancing.  

Memento

Memento is a story about Leonard Shelby who has short term memory loss from a blow to the head he received when two attackers came to his house raping and killing his wife.  Leonard killed one attacker but the other one got away.  Leonard then makes it his life’s mission to hunt down the second attacker.  Due to his lack of memory, Leonard must take Polaroid pictures, leave himself notes, and tattoo important things onto himself.  He works with Natallie and Teddy who he thinks will help him.  Teddy tells him that he has already killed the second attacker because in reality Teddy is the second attacker, so he wants Leonard to think that he has no need to keep his hunt going.  After gathering clues and gaining information Leonard finds out that Teddy is actually John Gammel.  So Leonard finds out that Teddy is who he is and takes him to an abandoned place where he kills Teddy. 

The main parts in this movie that put it together are color, order, and time control.  These three concepts put the movie together but also make the movie very confusing.  At times it is extremely hard to follow because of the way the movie is set up.  In some movies these help lay out the plot but for this movie it just makes it confusing. 

Color in this movie is used sparingly.  When the color is being used it is used effectively showing action going that is going on.  When there is color in the movie is going on in reverse chronological order showing what has already happened and then it explains what happened before.  But the use of color is good.  Things are vibrant and show action well.  The use of different colors also helps to show how confused he really was about what was going on. 

Order, the order of this movie, in my opinion, is very poor.  Nothing makes sense because of how it is placed.  If the movie had gone in reverse chronological order the whole time it would have been easier to understand but the fact that it went back and forth throughout made it hard to keep the plot in line.  The order did not sit well with me because it was hard to tell who he was going after at a given time.  The order of this movie was poor and could have been executed in a much better fashion.

Time control was probably the best thing in this movie.  I believe that they used time well and was used effectively to keep the rhythm of the movie going.  Time control can be one of the best things in a movie if it is used correctly; I believe that it was used correctly because the movie didn’t drag on.  The producers of this movie used this aspect to their advantage, especially when the rest of the movie was laid out horribly.  Time control is the only thing that this movie has going for it.  They managed to control the time well enough to keep me watching.