Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Genre: COMEDY

Genre: is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humor. (Wikipedia)

Like:
Good for a laugh and entertainment.

Dislike:
In a movie I believe you need to achieve three key things: great storytelling, aesthetically pleasing art, and entertaining. With most Comedies only the entertiament category is fulfilled.

Websites Top's:


AFI
IGN
Filmsite
IMDb
Maxim
Wikipedia: Films Considered the Greatest Ever


My Top Films In This Genre (alphabetical order):


COMEDY
(as a whole)

Big Lebowski, The
Clerks II
Dogma
Dumb & Dumber
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Man Who Knew Too Little, The
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Office Space
Tommy Boy
Wayne's World

Black / Dark Comedy


Burn After Reading
Fargo
Fight Club
Little Miss Sunshine
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The

Drunk/ Stoner / Frat Comedy


Animal House
Dude, Where's My Car?
Friday
Half-Baked
Hangover, The
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Knocked Up
Old School
Pineapple Express
Revenge of the Nerds

Parody


Airplane!
Blazing Saddles
History of the World, Part I
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Scary Movie
Spaceballs
The Life of Brian
This is Spinal Tap
Tropic Thunder
Young Frankenstein

Romantic Comedy (Romcom)


(500) Days of Summer
Dan in Real Life
Definitely, Maybe
It Happened One Night
Juno
Pride and Prejudice
Sleepless in Seattle
The Truth About Cats & Dogs
When Harry Met Sally
You've Got Mail

Teen / Sex Comedy

40-Year-Old Virgin, The
American Pie
Chasing Amy
Knocked Up
National Lampoons Van Wilder
Porky's
Risky Business
Superbad
Tomcats
Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Musicals

Across the Universe
Chicago
Grease
Hairspray
Moulin Rouge!
Phantom of the Opera
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
West Side Story
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Wizard of Oz, The

The Future of Comedy:

Youth In Revolt
A Serious Man
I Love You Phillip Morris


Directors:

Kevin Smith
Terry Gilliam
Rob Reiner
The Coen Brother’s
Wes Anderson

UPDATE: Movies I Want to See

I have two list circulating my indie list of movies I want to see and my Top 20 list. These two list still apply to this list, heck there may very well be some overlap of moves on the list. I want to break it down for you. Any movie on the list with a (*) in front of is an Independent Movie or (Indie). So here we go.

October 16

Where the Wild Things Are

November 6

*Men Who Stares at Goats

November 13

*Up in the Air (limited)

NOVEMBER 25

*The Fantastic Mr. Fox
*Me and Orson Welles
Ninjia Assassin
*The Road
*Up in the Air (expanding)

December 11

The Lovely Bones (limited)

DECEMBER 25 Christmas Day

*The Imaginarium of doctor Parnassus
The Lovely Bones (expanding)
Sherlock Holmes


January 8

Daybreakers

January 15

The Lovely Bones (wide)


March 5

Alice In Wonderland

March 25

Clash of the Titans


Saturday, September 19, 2009

Exclusive Review: Sunshine Cleaning

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Title: Sunshine Cleaning
Distributor: Back Lot Pictures (Overture Films)
Director: Christine Jeffs
Writer(s): Megan Holley (written by)
Staring: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Jason Spevack
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language, disturbing images, some sexuality and drug use.
Running Time: 91 min (1 hr and 31 min)
Synopsis: In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school, a mom starts an unusual business -- a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service -- with her unreliable sister.

Other Sites:

At The Movies: Ben Mankiewicz: See It, Ben Lyons: Rent It
Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 72% (Fresh), Top Critics: 76% (
Fresh), RT Community: 86% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 61 out of 100, Users: 6.9 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 66: (13.5% A, 53.7% B, 55.9% C, 5.3% D, and 0.0% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: B- Users: B+

My Review

Source Material: An Original written by Megan Holley.

Acting and Dialogue: A: I Like the cast not only are the two leads babes but they also put in a decent effort of acting. I also like the Alan Arkin and Jason Spevack combo and how it becomes the comic relief.

Art Direction: B: The actual art direction in the film didn't move me or inspire me, but for the indie quality it was great.

Cinematography: B+: I believe where the art direction lacks the cinematography gains because I think it has interesting camera shots

Direction: B:Christine Jeffs is very new to America filmmaking from what it seems she is more of New Zealand and British filmmaker, making Sunshine Cleaning her first American film. As far as pace it was very well paced, I didn't have boring time.

Screenplay: A: I like the story very much. It did a good job at captivating family rivalry between sister. There is this underline tone that blood is ticker than water, meaning family is important.

Sound and Music: B+: Mainly indie rock artist and score that blended well with the film.

VFX: B: Mainly the make-up and practical effect teams were used on the film and as far as that goes well, it was good.

Overall: A-: For a indie film this film works on many different levels, I do recommend it

Friday, September 11, 2009

Review: 9

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Title: 9
Distributor: Focus Features
Director: Shane Acker
Writer(s): Pamela Pettler (screenplay), Shane Acker (story)
Staring: Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, Fred Tatasciore, Elijah Wood
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for violence and scary images.
Running Time: 79 min (1 hr and 18 min)
Synopsis: When 9 first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they'll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.

Other Reviews

Critics:

Roger Ebert: 3 Stars
Michael Phillips: 2 ½ Stars
EW: Lisa Schwarzbaum: B+

Other Sites:

At The Movies: A.O. Scott: See It, Michael Phillips: Rent It
Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 56% (Rotten), Top Critics: 65% (
Fresh), RT Community: 79% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 60 out of 100, Users: 6.8 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 60: (5.0% A, 44.5% B, 39.5% C, 11.0% D, and 0.0% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: B- Users: B+

My Review

Source Material: Based on Shane Acker's original short with the same name.

Acting and Dialogue: B+: Look at the voice talent one can see there is wide range of people: Christopher Plummer (Charles Muntz in Up), John C. Reilly (In almost every Will Ferrell film), Crispin Glover (George McFly in Back to the Future), Jennifer Connelly (Sarah in Labyrinth), and Elijah Wood (Frodo in Lord of the Rings)

Art Direction: A+: The animation was beautiful therefore the art direction and cinematography gained bonus points.

Cinematography: A: As you can see from above, the animation was so good that it gave art direction and cinematography bonus points.

Direction: B+: Shane Acker is a very new filmmaker. If you look at his filmography you will see he only has three film on there, two of which are in the 9 universe. I would say both 9's had good direction.

Screenplay: B: I like how this was still the classic man vs. machine story form but with a spiritual/ sci-fi twist.

Sound and Music: B: I know a lot people are going to see this because the trailers used Coheed and Cambria's music; but if my memory severs me correctly the only music in the film is scored.

VFX:
A+: I believe that Shane Acker really knows his stuff when comes to VFX if anything was awesome from this film it would be the CGI. He may have pick up this from working as an animator at Weta Digital during the making of the little film Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Overall: B+: The films I see at the Oscars this year for best animation: Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox , Ponyo, Coraline , and 9. I place 9 on this list because of it's stylized VFX and animation. I do recommend it to watch from a aspect that movies can be animated and not for kids.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Genre: ANIMATION: Traditional Animation

My Top Films In Traditional Animation (alphabetical order):

Aladdin
Alice in Wonderland
Beauty and the Beast
Cinderella
Dumbo
Fox and the Hound
Jungle Book, The
Lion King, The
Little Mermaid, The
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Peter Pan
Pinocchio
Robin Hood
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Sword in the Stone, The

Genre: ANIMATION: Stop-Motion Animation

My Top Films In Stop-Motion Animation (alphabetical order):

Chicken Run
Coraline
Corpse Bride
Jack Frost
James and the Giant Peach
Nightmare Before Christmas, The
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Year Without a Santa Claus, The

Genre: ANIMATION: Computer Animation

My Top Films In Computer Animation (alphabetical order):

Finding Nemo
Horton Hears a Who!
Incredibles, The
Kung Fu Panda
Monsters, Inc.
Polar Express, The
Ratatouille
Toy Story
Up
WALL·E