The Flick List

Keep on watching

[theflicklist]

Mad Max (1980)

Mad Max is a pretty good movie about a police officer named Max, burdened by a gang of motorcyclists out for revenge for the death of one of their riders, Nightrider, we follow Max and his struggles through a dystopian future.

The filmmakers and Mel Gibson do a great job of portraying everything Max is feeling throughout the film. Which I’ve got to give them props for. There are a couple scenes where you completely relate to Max. I don’t know if it’s Mel Gibson, the music, the camera work, or everything put together but you definitely feel everything Max is feeling in certain scenes, one scene in particular.

I definitely enjoyed watching this movie, there are a few parts where the plot sort of lost me. I find it hard when they deliver important lines over a radio and they have the sound low and muffled. If it’s important they really need to find a way to convey what’s being said. That being said, though, I still enjoyed this movie. I mean, there are parts that are slow and other parts that could be better. I found that the ending was a little anti-climatic and when they brought the title sequence up I didn’t feel quite satisfied, but I still enjoyed what was shown.

I liked the wide variety of characters they had, and they had a lot of unique characters, at that. Each one perfectly belonged to the world and were presented in such a way. The main enemy, or at least the one leading the gang, is very well presented. He was mostly underdeveloped until the last couple scenes, but I enjoyed how the actor chose to portray him, and it definitely fit the theme.

The movie isn’t jaw dropping amazing, in my opinion, but I did enjoy watching it. I hope the following films tie up some of the loose ends, as I do feel that this movie did have a short ending, but I am left intrigued.

Watched on October 25. 2016

[theflicklist]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

I’m not sure why I always think of Star Trek as being low quality, cheesy and boring. Clearly, I’ve been misled.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a movie about a mysterious object that is approaching the earth. Lead by Captain Kirk, the Enterprise must investigate the object and handle it appropriately.

I like that the movie sort of jumps right into everything. I know absolutely nothing about the TV show, aside from a couple of the characters/actors, and I don’t know where the movie fits into the series, if at all. The movie, however, doesn’t waste your time with an exposition of the characters. I assume that this is because it is geared towards fans of the show, and they expect the viewers to already know, however, not knowing anything they do an excellent job at filling in what you need to know as it arrives.

I was a little confused at first, though throwing away expectations and accepting what the movie was telling me cleared most of this up. For example, I know Kirk is that captain going in, however, it starts off and he is an admiral no longer associated with the ship. However, they don’t establish this until he has a conversation with the current captain. This threw me for a loop, however, once I accepted that Kirk wasn’t captain, and I should come into this with no previous knowledge, I could then more easily follow what was happening.

I think for a movie based off of a source, such as a book or TV show, you need to keep in mind that this is a movie. A movie reaches a wider audience, especially one not familiar with the source, and if you rely on the source to tell your story, the movie won’t be as well received. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, however, does not fall into this trap. Having knowledge of the source, I’m sure, would enhance your experience, however, I enjoyed it with my lack of knowledge.

I do have some gripes and annoyances. This movie is not without its flaw. Aside from the main ensemble of the crew, the minor actors, those with just a few scenes, completely through off the feel. Whether it was them blatantly reading lines off camera, or just delivering no emotion or believability, it definitely paid into my thoughts of the movie not being good.

The movie dragged at times, and about halfway through I was shocked to find out I was only half-way through. That being said, the second half really picks up. The main cast was very well portrayed and the filmmakers definitely seemed to know what they were doing. I was able to predict a minor twist that they threw at you, though this definitely didn’t ruin the experience as they took it further than I anticipated.

In the end, I had a good time, to my surprise, watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It’s definitely not a bad movie, and not close to as bad as some of the others I have watched. This definitely leaves me hopefully for the other Star Trek movies I have coming up.

Watched on October 25, 2016

[theflicklist]

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Holy narration, Batman!

This movie has a lot going for it. It has a good cast of actors, including Martin Sheen, Robert Devall, and Marlon Brando, and really good, memorable, characters, it has a good story, and it has great visuals.

Seriously, the best part of this movie is the visual aesthetic. Each scene had a goal in mind, and the filmmaker’s pulled it off perfectly. If everything else in this movie was done poorly, the visuals alone would be enough to fully engage you.

With all that being said, though, I have to say I found myself bored a few times throughout. They did so much well, but they didn’t really know how to illustrate plot without having someone telling it to you point blank. Whether it was Martin Sheen doing a voiceover of Captain Willard’s thoughts, Marlon Brando doing a 10-minute monolog, or just everyone sitting around a table talking to each other, there is a lot of time spent on pure dialogue.

This movie has a lot going for it, and I feel that if they were able to include some of the dialogue into action, it would have saved a lot of time. As it is the movie is 3 hours long. I feel that some speeches weren’t needed, that, instead, they could have shown what was being said and for the most part we do see what’s being said throughout the action scenes. It’s like showing a bunch of people starving and fighting over bread, and then cutting to someone and having him say “We’re starving, fighting over the scraps”. Yes, we know that; we just saw it, let’s move on with the movie.

Not saying that all of the dialogue was not needed or done poorly. I enjoyed watching Captain Willard looking over Kurtz dossier and given just the bare minimum through narration, They could have just trimmed down the fat.

Like I said, though, this movie has a lot of good going through it. I think in the end, it’s not my style of movie. I’m not a big fan of movies with ambiguous, philosophical meanings, so movies like 2001 and Apocalypse Now escape me as being great movies.

Though, Robert Devall was amazing. That entire sequence with him is honestly on of the greatest scenes I’ve seen.

Watched on October 21, 2016

[theflicklist]

Moonraker (1979)

I want to say that I realize I’ve been going into the James Bond films recently with a bad attitude. So I decided I was going to go into Moonraker with high hopes for the franchise. I like Roger Moore, the last two were enjoyable.

That was my first mistake.

Moonraker offered nothing enjoyable. I feel that the writers saw Star Wars and thought “Yes, this is what we will do.” so they put James Bond in space, and went back to having absolutely no story to back it up.

Literally, nothing of interest happens throughout this entire movie. Their one saving grace is reintroducing Jaws, which is still my favorite henchman, and I’m glad they had a bit of cross movie continuity (well more than just Sheriff Pepper) but that was still a wasted effort.

If anything, Moonraker reaffirmed my previous notions on the James Bond franchise. It had a couple higher notes up to this point, but we’re back to the same old stuff. The movie is super forgettable, and it’s definitely not worth the time to watch it.

There have been decent James Bond movies in the past, but this is NOT one of them.

Watched on October 20, 2016

[theflicklist]

Happy New Year

Happy 2017 everyone!

In 2016, over the course of 4 months, I watched 55 movies, released between 1937 and 1980, of which I’ve published 49 reviews, and have written 4 others which will be up soon.

Of the 55 movies I have seen, my top 5 Least Favorite are:

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey 4. The Sound of Music 3. Live and Let Die 2. Moonraker 1. Dr. No 

Yes, I’m aware that my 3 least favorite are all James Bond, but I mean seriously... Actually, it’s quite hard for me to pick least favorites and most favorites. I’m watching classics, and classics are that for a reason, when I get to the 90s and 2000s I have a lot more movies that aren’t as acclaimed, so we’ll see. Taking off two of the James Bond, and just having James Bond as one movie, I would probably add on Jaws 2 and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Now, for my 5 favorite movies are:

5. The Shining 4. The Godfather 3. Psycho 2. Planet of the Apes 1. Star Wars

Hopefully in 2017 I’ll be a little more consistent. I want to watch at least 1 movie a week. A Movie a day is a little wearing, especially chasing a 1 year old, and a soon to be newborn.

[theflicklist]

Alien (1979)

I’ve been looking forward to this one.

Alien, is a movie about a group of people in space returning from a mining operative when they come across an alien signal. They then find the source of the signal on an alien planet and after one of their men has a run in with an alien lifeform they are forced to abandon the planet to try to deal with the aftermath.

I was talking about this movie with a friend, and I realized it’s essentially Halloween in space. Although, instead of a crazy psychopathic killer, we have an alien. Though I feel that this would be an understatement, and what this movie was able to do with the premise really shows the skill in the filmmakers.

First, we get a lot of very interesting scenes with the aliens. There are a lot of scenes from this movie that I’ve seen over the past years, and I feel that this really shows the standing power of the film as a whole. It’s really quite unique, disturbing and keeps you hooked.

Although, that being said. The last act of the movie, to me, wasn’t as interesting as it could be. The movie feels very claustrophobic as a whole, it taking place on a spaceship, in space. This definitely confines the characters as they aren’t able to “escape” like you could on earth. There is no one to come and bail them out, they have to succeed or die on their own.

In that aspect, it’s very good, but the ending is a lot of the Alien slowly picking them off one by one, just like we’ve seen in other Slasher Flicks. It is able to deviate itself with an interesting story, and there is a twist or two throughout the film. I feel that they are overshadowed, though, as we don’t get to know the characters too well before things start happening.

Really, there isn’t a whole lot to say about this movie. It has a simple premise, but the filmmakers are able to pull it off exceptionally well. It’s enjoyable to watch, and I definitely enjoyed myself throughout the film. It doesn’t necessarily keep you in suspense throughout, but it still enjoyable.

Watched on October 18, 2016

[theflicklist]

Rocky II (1979)

For a movie about a fighter, there’s a lot of non-fighting happening.

First off, right off the bat, we get 5 minutes showing the ending of Rocky. I feel that this was poorly handled. I understand that this fight is very important to the main tone of Rocky II, I just feel that they could have relayed the information differently. Perhaps just showing the very ending, an interview with Rocky or Apollo Creed on a tv, while Rocky or Creed watches in intensive care, something like this, so we don’t have to watch 5 minutes of what we’ve already seen and get more, new, character development.

Moving on, though, I feel that this movie is a lot of forced character motivation. It starts with Creed not wanting a rematch (as established in the last movie) to him, immediately following the fight, wanting one. I think that instead, they should have had the loss wearing on Creed, we already see that his fans have left him, calling him a fake, saying he threw the fight, and how “Rocky is a much better fighter”. If they waited to have him pose the rematch it would have been much stronger, in my opinion.

The next bulk of the movie is focusing on Rocky’s relationship with Adrian. I didn’t buy it in the first movie, and I definitely don’t buy it in this one. Rocky is a little slow on the draw, Adrian always acts embarrassed by him, I just don’t see it working out. I can understand Rocky’s draw to Adrian, sort of, and he does try his best to make Adrian happy, which I can see as endearing, I just don’t buy them being happy. Especially since Adrian is so clearly against fighting and that is all Rocky wants to do (besides making Adrian happy).

Back to the movie, though, it’s Rocky it’s about Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stallion, the southpaw boxer we want to see Rocky fight, so how come there’s over an hour of Rocky not fighting? I know they wanted to have a growing moment, but here is how it plays out: Rocky doesn’t want to fight because Adrian doesn’t want him to fight. A bunch of people trying to get him to fight, a bunch of stuff showing Rocky living a life without fighting, some stuff happening with Adrian (not getting into spoilers) Adrian immediately changing her mind, Rocky getting into a fight. I remember thinking to myself “Well, I guess the filmmakers are ready to end this movie now” it was completely forced, in my honest opinion.

For the rest of the movie, it’s passable. The training scenes are enjoyable, the end fight is fun to watch, I do enjoy watching Rocky going up against a much better opponent and seeing how well he does. It’s the underdog and everyone like rooting for the underdog. But in saying that this movie is a repeat of the last movie. Everything we see in Rocky II we saw in Rocky they didn’t break any new ground.

In the end, Rocky II is a means to an end. I don’t feel anything towards the movie, it’s not the worst movie ever but that isn’t saying much. I’m hoping that they can pick up this series. I hear good things about the next couple, so I’m definitely keeping my hopes up for this series.

Watched on October 16, 2016

[theflicklist]

Superman (1978)

Well, that was fun.

I don’t know why filmmakers feel that need to spend so much time on Krypton. Seriously, 1/5 of the movie is spent before we even meet Kal-El (Clark Kent aka Superman) and honestly what happens doesn’t contribute to the movie at all. The only thing is we get to see why Kal-El came to earth, but really Jor-El could have just said “Krypton was destroyed, so we saved you” in the Fortress of Solitude and we would have saved half an hour. I mean, they spend 10 minutes on Zod, Zod isn’t even in this movie. Save that scene for the next one, come on, people.

There are 3 different time jumps in this film, and that seems to be poor planning. We have Kal-El as an infant. Time Skip 4 Years to when he crashes on earth, time Jump 12 years to when he is in college, time jump again to when he is fully superman’d out. It seems to me that they could have started at this point, included a flashback when needed, or just use some clever exposition. Or they could have started when he was 16, there is a great scene where we meet Clark, we get a full explanation of who he is, what he is, and why he is the way he is. Then we can have the one time jump... or better yet, have no time jumps, because that last one wasn’t needed.

Finally getting into the bulk of this movie, we have a pretty enjoyable film. I liked how Christopher Reeve played Superman, his Clark Kent was a bit of a dolt, but that, I guess, was completely intentional? I know nothing of Superman lore, it just seemed to me that Clark was a bit over-the-top naive and it made him a little unbelievable... Especially since Lois Lane seemed attracted to him, which seems the most unbelievable part of a movie focused around an Alien from outer space fighting crime on earth.

The villain, Lex Luther, I feel would have been better if they didn’t give him any of his assistants. His whole character seemed like a joke villain, and he wasn’t overly villainous, in my opinion. I feel that they could have utilized his character much better than what we were left with.

The movie has a lot of scenes where nothing happens. Like I mentioned, the entire opening of the movie wasn’t needed, and then there was a lot of filler in the middle. I don’t think the filmmakers had enough content to make this a fully pictured movie, however, they filmed a lot of “stuff” to keep you interested.

I enjoyed a lot of the different scenes, it had originality and the characters were all fun to watch and follow. I enjoyed watching them interact and, honestly, Superman and Lois Lane have the most believable romance I’ve seen up to this point, so I’ve got to give the filmmaker’s some credit there, even if a scene between them was the cheesiest moment so far.

In the end, the movie is fun, it’s not amazing and over the top exciting, but it does have it’s enjoyable moments. If the filmmakers had better forethought and narrowed it down, cutting the fat, we could have had a great movie.

Watched on October 16, 2016

[theflicklist]

Awesome 80′s

I’ve finally made my way into the 80′s.

After 4 months and 51 movies, I have made it here. The number of movies is starting to pick up now for each decade. I had 31 movies from the 70s I now have 90 movies from the 80s.

So yes, I’ll be stuck in this decade for a while, but I’m definitely looking forward to some of the movies on this list. Including Indiana Jones, more Star Wars, Scarface, Back to the Future, Mad Max, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Keanu Reeves, and many, many more. This is hopefully going to be a fun decade to work my way through.

[theflicklist]

Grease (1978)

I feel like I don’t have a whole lot to say about Grease. I knew going into it that I liked the movie. This was really just a pleasure watch, more than anything.

The movie has pretty much stayed relevant over the years. People of all ages enjoy it. From the music to the characters, the acting and the story a lot of this movie just works, and it’s legacy shows for it.

The movie is first and foremost a romance between John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The movie focuses in on this and keeps you interested and engaged. The supporting cast is really good, and even though most of them are forgettable, the ones that aren’t definitely are memorable.

Grease has a good selection of music, with a good balance of how often to have songs. Too often a musical is either almost entirely singing, which annoys me, as I have a hard time following the plot when it's sung, or their songs are too little and far in between that you forget it’s actually a musical.

I really don’t have a lot to say about this movie. As such, I’ll keep this review short. I do really enjoy this movie, and I’ll definitely be watching it more.

Watched on October 15, 2014

[theflicklist]

Halloween (1978)

Well, I guess you could call it “scary”.

When I watched this movie, I made a post here saying how I was looking forward to my first legit “scary movie” I guess I hyped it up in my head. What we have is a man who is very good at standing in the corner, looking intimidating and refuses to die.

That’s not to say the movie isn’t suspenseful. Well, I mean, it’s not, but the last scene kept me on edge wanting Jamie Lee Curtis to get away safely, not matter how much of an idiot she can be at times.

The movie is super cliché. I’m forced to believe it was, even in 1978, I mean a killer escapes an asylum and is in your home town? It’s textbook campfire horror. It’s not even executed amazingly, just make Michael Myers a little competent at killing people. Here’s a hint, people don’t typically run towards someone who looks creepy in the distance, maybe try... walking?

Ok, maybe it’s not that bad. I’m giving this movie a hard time, because of expectations. I know “BAD REVIEWER” talk about this movie as if you hadn’t heard about it before. So let’s start again.

The movie is a lot of jump scares when it comes down to it. The final scene, the one where the protagonist discovers her dead friends, and desperately needs some help. This is where the movie earns it’s ranking for talked about scary movies. I was actually rooting for her to get away, I felt the horror she was going through, so bravo filmmakers.

Again, though, it’s all jump scares, I don’t find the movie scary. I found it a decent watch, and maybe if I was 10 years younger I would have had a completely different view. Maybe that’s the real problem, scary movies are made for teenagers, their demographic are the kids who sneak out to watch movies at night with their friends, and maybe they would enjoy this movie the most.

Watched on October 14, 2016

[theflicklist]

Jaws 2 (1978)

It seems that everything I enjoyed about the first Jaws, Spielberg decided to leave out of Jaws 2.

Things I liked about Jaws:

They had an amazing setup, where we couldn’t see the shark, but we knew it was there. This allowed them to add suspense with a simple underwater shot.

A cast of characters who were all original, likable , and vital to the plot.

A series of low-tension scenes to break up the high tension, leaving you on a roller coaster where they had perfect control over your feelings at any given moment.

Things that Jaws 2 did, instead:

The shark made an appearance every time. This let us know early that, if we couldn’t see the shark, we had nothing to worry about. The shark announced it’s presence well before causing trouble, and any trouble it caused was readily forecasted.

A cast of mostly filler characters. We got to know one or two of them a bit. Most were piggy-backing over their exposure in the previous film, which also wasn’t much.

When the climax happened you bet it was all suspense all the time! Which is another way of saying “no suspense ever”. If we’re expecting something to happen, and it does that’s not suspense, it’s predictability.

Jaws 2 managed to have the shark in it way too much and not even close to enough at the same time. It makes random appearances throughout the film, while the film focuses mostly on Brody’s life on Amity Island, and his dealings with the police department. Like, we came here for shark drama, let us have it. But then, as mentioned, they have the shark way to telegraphed letting us see and know everything that’s happening, leaving absolutely no suspense at all.

The climax is a mess, I do like how they circled back to scenes earlier on, and it leads me thinking that if they had a better vision, this could have been good. What we’re left with, however, is an unorganized movie. A lot of stuff happens that doesn’t mean anything at all. We don’t care about the shark attacks because we don’t care about who it’s attacking. When we finally do care, they don’t have the shark go after anyone we care about, we are left feeling completely safe in that the main characters would live, something we didn’t take so lightly previously.

In the end, there is a lot potential in this movie, but it just doesn’t deliver, there is no heart to it. I mentioned for the first movie it was the quiet times that really brought the movie home, this movie has none, and it proves what I thought. This is just another movie that attempts to be a thriller but doesn’t understand how to do it, at all.

Watched on October 14, 2016

[theflicklist]

Close Encounter of the Third Kind (1977)

All I can think about after watching this movie is that damn commercial for Meow Mix. You know, the one with the cat and the UFO singing to each other? Yeah. That one.

I’m at a bit of a crossroads here. I really enjoyed this movie but I really didn’t like it at all. Well, that’s not completely true. I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half completely lost me.

The movie follows around Roy Neary, who has a close encounter with some extraterrestrial life. As well as leaving him with a burned face, he starts having visions which drive him close to insanity before he makes his way to the place he is seeing in his mind.

The set up to this movie is amazing, it treads the line of being a mystery and a thriller without actually crossing over into either territory, which Spielberg is able to make it work, and work well.

We have quite a diverse (personality-wise) cast of characters. Each with their own motivations, and family, and I was drawn completely in. On an emotional, character-driven, level this movie is quite superb. That is, until, we get to the second half.

The ending of the film features a musical conversation between the aliens and the humans. However, there is no explanation to what is actually being spoken. I’m left feeling completely out of the loop of what is going on. It would be like if you were watching The Wizard of Oz, and right at the moment Dorothy wakes up the entire conversation is in latin, with no subtitles or any sort of visual queue on what’s happening, and then instead of someone saying or doing something that makes sense, the movie just ends. This is the exact feeling I’m left with at the end of the movie.

It’s not even that the ending is ambiguous on what happens that makes it bad.  The end of this movie is essentially a single event. Roy trying to get to the Aliens. This should feel super exciting, but it’s just slow, there is little to no action, and essentially no aliens.

The movie started off to be one of my favorite movies to date, but it left me feeling completely unenthused. Well, I was enthused enough to vent to my wife about how much better it could have been, which I don’t think was the intended result from Spielberg.

Watched on October 13, 2016

[theflicklist]

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Either I really like Roger Moore or James Bond might be starting to improve a little.

The Spy Who Loves Me starts off actually grabbing my attention. Being in a submarine was a new take, for one, but two they do a bit of “misdirection” and actually have a bit of unique set up, which was refreshing, to say the least.

The plot that you follow is easy enough to keep up with, but yet in-depth enough to keep you interested throughout. There is a bit of ambiguity in the film as to what the characters are doing, however, you do eventually catch up, and can follow along easy enough.

I’ve been skipping out on the Bond Ladies in the past few reviews, but I’ll take a minute to discuss Agent Triple X, Anya Amasova. I have a lot of mixed feeling when it comes to her character. First, she is actually quite useful, being trained as an agent of the KGB. She proves her worth on a number of occasions, and even proves to best 007, James Bond, himself, which was fun to see. However, her name is Agent XXX, and the fact that her being a woman is supposedly a “surprise” but when you think about it, is it really? These are, of course, the people that brought you Honey Ryder and Pussy Galore.

I can even mostly buy the love connection between James and Anya. It being the title of the movie, I would hope that would be the case. Where it falls flat is when you find out that Anya’s true love was murdered just two weeks before the events of the film. This and other forced plot points, really start to shake reality and remind you that this is, in fact, a piece of misogynistic propaganda.

The film does start to drag on, particularly halfway through, when they finish one mission and then start up the second; which to the filmmaker’s credit is a continuation, however, I feel the second half is a much slower pace.

I feel like, after watching this many James Bond movies, you start to notice a trend, and can predict different events. Such as when the Main Villain has a henchman, you know exactly when said henchman will appear and what he will do. This movie is no exception, and their tricks become very old very quickly. On that note, however, Jaws is probably my favorite henchman so far, due to the way he was presented. Actually, there are other characters previously who would probably be more interesting if they were handled as well as Jaws was.

The action set pieces are exciting but unoriginal. I don’t find myself raring to tell people about how awesome the car chase was, or the ski chase, or the heroic escape because there isn’t anything special about them.

In the end, James Bond is starting to get more enjoyable as the years go on, Roger Moore is definitely one of my favorite actors for James Bond so far and it will be interesting to see where it goes. I still wouldn’t consider this one to be a particularly great movie but it’s a start.

Watched on October 13, 2016

[theflicklist]

Star Wars (1977)

First, I’m going to say that I watched the original release. I didn’t want to watch any of the remasterings of the film stick to the original cut. I grew up with the re-edits, and I can now truly say that George Lucas should have left well enough alone, you don’t fuck with a masterpiece. That being said I’m not going to make any comparisons to the remasterings.

I’m not saying that Star Wars is perfect by any means... but it’s pretty damn close. I’ve never been a huge fan of the series in the past but watching it this time, after watching almost 40 movies made before it, I can truly appreciate the scope of the film. Visually, it’s far and beyond anything that was made before it. Even Planet of the Apes looks poor quality compared to the effects that this had. Granted it was made over a decade later, but even still.

I would say the plot of the movie is unoriginal. Hero gets power, saves the princess and defeats the big bad enemy. But, I mean, the journey itself is quite enjoyable. It keeps you engaged throughout the film, you care about the characters and what happens to them, and they have memorable scenes and events.

The star of the movie, though, without question is Han Solo, I can’t imagine this movie being as enjoyable without Harrison Ford. Han Solo is a badass, we’re shown this as soon as he enters the movie. From one conversation we know everything we need to know about him, and we can watch him grow throughout the film.

There really isn’t a whole lot to say about the movie. Everything in it works, the characters, the story, the music, the visuals, everything came together and we get a super enjoyable film, that has clearly passed the test of time.

One thing, though, as iconic as the opening scroll of the movie is, I’ve gotta say that it doesn’t really add much. The civil war is established from the beginning when we see the rebels fighting the empire, and it’s a theme that is well echoed throughout the film. We also find out that they were able to steal rebel plans because Leia tells us this in her hologram. The scrolled text, in my opinion, spoils the scene where the Death Star destroys Alderaan; we know that the ship can destroy planets going into this scene, but if we didn’t, seeing that would have truly resonated with us. I feel that the text prolongs the actual start of the film, and isn’t needed. Though it is super iconic, perhaps they could have said something more relevant that isn’t already explained, if they really wanted to keep it in.

But I mean, come on, it’s Star Wars. I really enjoyed watching the film. If you haven’t watched it yet, then do it, and if you have maybe it’s time you watched it again. I loved this movie and I don’t think I can give it much more praise than I have.

Watched on October 12, 2016

[theflicklist]

Rocky (1976)

I honestly don’t get all the hype for this one. Maybe I’m not the right demographic, but I do like sports movies if they’re done well, this one just seemed not to be that great. I mean, it’s still good but nothing that’s like over the top amazing, like I thought going into it.

Rocky Balboa is a very slow, naive guy. I enjoy Sylvester Stallone, however, it seemed like anyone could have played Rocky. Stallone did a great job, don’t get me wrong, it just seems like he didn’t try to push any envelopes with his acting, it’s as if he had two emotions, dopey and angry.

The storyline is a little shaky, Rocky Balboa is very lucky with all his opportunities, which they sort of hint at but that doesn’t make up for it. For instance, Apollo Creed needs to find a new fighter to go up against, he wants to pick someone who is unknown, he happens to choose Rocky, even though his agents advise against it because Rocky is a southpaw, that meaning he is left handed, this is the main driving factor of the movie, and it seemed a little forced.

Also showing the screenwriter’s influence is the fact the Rocky is able to swoon Adrian, even a little bit. The main love interest in this movie is very shy, supposedly very smart, and is definitely not a good fit for Rocky. Their first date is even very cringe inducing, and it makes you, or at least me, really want Adrian to run away. Rocky isn’t mentally able to care for her, and clearly doesn’t understand how a relationship works. An example, an actual quote from the movie “I’m wanna kiss you; you don’t have to kiss me back if you don’t wanna”. Adrian had shown no signs of being interested up to this point... just Adrian, run, run away now, but I digress.

The ending of the movie was a little chaotic, which is suitable for the movie’s theme with boxing, however, it was hard to follow. They don’t make it clear who wins the fight, which I know isn’t the point, but it is a little bit, really. Trying to follow what’s going on through Rocky’s mind is hard to do, as well. I feel that it’s the main thing that could be improved as it would have left me with a stronger feeling towards the movie, even if the rest of it was slow and drawn out.

The movie does feel slow, especially in the middle. They leave you a lot of story threads that trail off and pay nothing towards the movie. For example, Rocky is a thug/collector for a Loan Shark (or something similar) they show one scene with this, and then they sort of ignore it. It’s mentioned once as a reason for Tony’s trainer to not like him, and it’s shown again as a way to give Rocky money, neither of which paid anything to the story. Rocky didn’t need the money, and his trainer didn’t need a reason to be mad at Rocky, it was just filler for the movie.

In the end, Rocky is a very slow, mildly enjoyable movie. I hear that the series does pick up around Rocky III, and I enjoyed this movie more than James Bond (or the majority) so I’ll stick with the series, see if I like the others more.

Watched on October 12, 2016

[theflicklist]

Carrie (1976)

Let’s just dive right in, shall we?

Carrie is a movie about a girl who has no friends, a hard home life and is bullied by every single person in her life, except maybe one of her teachers, oh and she also can move things with her mind.

Carrie does a lot of things that I actually liked. It takes place over the course of a couple days, and the character’s actions, motivations, and growth make sense for the time frame given, which isn’t always the case.

I liked that Carrie had a goal set in mind, and everything we see is a cog in the filmmaker’s plan. They were able to establish characters in a way that progressed the plot, and there wasn’t really any time spent between characters that weren’t important to the story at hand.

I feel that this whole movie wouldn’t have even happened without Carrie’s mother’s influence. Which I’ve gotta say they did a great job with her. I mean, yes John Travolta and Nancy Allen were the film’s main “antagonists”, and actually drove the movie. The mother, thought, drove Carrie’s entire mentality, getting her into the situation, and the filmmakers are able to get you to truly identify with Carrie and understand her thought process throughout the film.

I went into this movie thinking I knew the entire plot. I’ve never seen it but I knew that Carrie went to prom, and got blood poured over her, but after having seen Carrie, what I knew going in was such a minor aspect of the movie that the rest of it was quite enjoyable. The movie leaves you guessing at what will happen, and who Carrie’s friends are and who isn’t.

People classify this has a horror, but from the entire movie having nothing really pointing towards this, the movie sort of gives off mixed signals. They spend so much time establishing Carrie and setting up the “horror” that we end up with a teenage drama with a tragic ending. I can’t even really say that the ending is scary because by the time it happens we understand what Carrie is thinking, and sure it’s an overreaction, but it’s still understandable.

In the end, I would say that Carrie is a good movie, I enjoyed it for what it was, it’s not the greatest movie made, but the filmmakers knew what they were doing and did it well.

Watched on October 9, 2016