The Royal Tenenbaums is a comedy-drama about a family of three gifted children who excel early in life, only to experience disappointment and failure later in life when their father leaves them. Chas, Margot, and Richie are the three children. Chas is a math and business genius at a very young age, Margot is a great writer and is awarded a grant for a play she wrote in ninth grade and Richie is a tennis prodigy. The mother and father, Royal and Etheline, separate and it really affects the children. Twenty-two years later, Royal is kicked out of the hotel he is living in because he is out of money and he proposes a plan to get the family back together. Richie is following the world on a cruise ship following a breakdown; he is in love with his step-sister Margot. Chas becomes extremely overprotective of his two sons, Ari and Uzi, following the death of his wife Rachael. Margot is married to a neurologist named Raleigh St. Clair, whom she hides her smoking habit from. Etheline's accountant, Henry Sherman, proposes to her and in order to win back Etheline and the love of his kids, Royal devises a plan. Royal tells Etheline that he has stomach cancer and moves in with her, all of the kids come back as well. He does not really have stomach cancer he just fakes it and takes tic-tacs as his "medicine," After his lie is exposed, Royal realizes that he just wants Etheline to be happy so they get a divorce and all of the kids move on with their lives and become rather successful. Royal dies at the end from a heart attack.
The film is portrayed as if it were a book and it goes through chapters with narration. Make up and costume design play a large role in this film and both are used to describe and complete the characters. For example, Margot wears a lot of dark eye makeup and it shows that she is a dark and complex character.
The cinematography reveals the worlds that Anderson has imagined and carefully forms a foundation for characters and subtexts to be exposed and present meaning to the audience. Anamorphic widescreen framing, sweeping and smooth crane shots, and the seldom use of handheld camera is on display in this film.
Character development is one of the main focuses in this film as each character has his or her own backstory and specific life, personality, etc. You can see how each character changes from childhood to adulthood and how the separation of the parents affects the lives of each person.
This movie is both a comedy and a drama and even in some of the more darker scenes, there are still some comedic elements that can make you laugh. I thought Wes Anderson did a great job combining drama and comedy to create a very entertaining film.
I liked this movie and I would give it a 7.5/10. There were some really funny scenes, some sad scenes, and some weird scenes, but the movie stayed interesting and entertaining throughout.
I watched Good Will Hunting in my AP Psych class last week. This movie is about Will Hunting, an orphan who works at MIT as a janitor. Will spends the majority of his time hanging out with his friends, getting into fights, and he does not really spend his time wisely. Will has a gift for math and he has an incredible memory. He can remember exact pages from books and his ability to do math is unbelievable. Professor Lambeau notices Will's mathematical genius and offers to get him out of jail as long as he sees a therapist and studies math with him. Will agrees, but does not take any of the therapists seriously and the therapy is unsuccessful. Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams, is the next therapist to attempt to help Will. Unlike the other therapists, Sean pushes back at Will and gets over his defense mechanisms, and Will begins to open up. Sean and Will ultimately come very close to each other and they both help each other out. Sean helps Will realize what is important in life and Will helps Sean cope with the death of his wife.
This movie was very successful and received great reviews. At the 70th Academy Awards, Robin Williams won the award for Best Supporting Actor, and the film won the Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay.)
The cinematography in this movie is very good, and at the beginning you realize that Will lives in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Boston, because his yard is kind of trashed and the look of the neighborhood surrounding his house looks gray and dull. One of the main settings is a local bar which has the look of a neighborhood bar with Christmas type lights strung and normal looking people filling the place. Another setting is a Harvard classroom and a community college classroom. In the Harvard classroom the students appear to be attentive, clean cut, well dressed, and enthusiastic, while the students in the community classroom are barely awake, not dressed too well, and aren't paying attention to what the professor is saying. The camera angles in this movie are very effective. When Will is trying to solve a formula he writes his work on his mirror with a dry erase marker. The camera blurs out Will and focuses on the formula and also does the opposite. While writing the formula out, the shots fade to the same shot but at a different angle creating a feeling that some time is passing by. Also, to support this feeling each time the formula is showed there is more added to it than one can write in the brief moment that it took to come back to it with the camera. Additionally, the benefit of having the scene of him writing on the mirror lets the viewer see him concentrating on the formula and lets the viewer see the formula being written out which shows the viewer how intelligent Will must be, since the formula probably made little to the viewer. Another effect was a fight scene captured in slow motion. After the fight scene the cops showed up and many flashes of the scene from different camera angles appeared creating a feeling of confusion and made it seem faster without it being filmed in fast motion. There were also several close ups of people in which the only thing that was in color was the person's eyes.
My favorite scene from the movie is when an MIT student is trying to look intelligent in front of a couple of girls at a Bar by talking about history and then Will, because of his photographic memory, says something along the lines of "do you just memorize pages from textbooks so you can recite them and look all smart in front of others?" because he remembered word for word that what the student was saying was directly out of a certain history textbook. The student then becomes embarrassed and walks out.
Overall I really liked this movie and it was entertaining and had a good message as well. The storyline was exciting and funny at times, but also touching and sweet. I would give this movie a 9/10 and I would recommend it to anyone. This was definitely one of the best movies I have ever watched in school.
For our 1975 film, we created Incubus. This film begins with a family traveling through the woods in northern California and they get a flat tire. The family dog then proceeds to jump out of the car and wander into the woods, with the family following close behind. The dog leads them to a cult, which the family had been warned to stay away from because of the cult's crazy and satanical practices. With no where else to go for help, the family approaches the cult. The cult members are very nice to the family and offer them food and a place to sleep for the night. The family graciously accepts the offer and spends the night. This cult is an all male cult and the father and son in the family are treated well by the cult members. The women, however, not so much. The family spends more time in the cult then they were expecting and the women get ultimately raped and killed. The father and son get trapped in the cult and are forced to join.
We chose to do a horror movie for our 1975 film because horror was a very popular and successful genre during this time, for example The Exorcist. Movies during this decade were also known for "pushing the envelope," which we think this movie certainly does.
Our cast consists of Dustin Hoffman as a cult member, Clint Eastwood as the leader of the cult, Richard Dreyfuss as the Dad, Julie Christie as the Mom, Melissa Sue Anderson playing the 12 year old daughter, and Jason Bateman playing the 6 year old son. Dustin Hoffman was a prominent actor during this time and was known for playing the roles of anti-heroes and vulnerable characters. Clint Eastwood was a very famous actor at this time and played many serious roles (Dirty Harry films), and I think he would be perfect for the leader of the cult. Richard Dreyfuss and Julie Christie were two very successful and established actors/actresses during the 70's and had leading roles in movies such as American Graffiti, Jaws, and Don't Look Now. Jason Bateman began his career at a very young age playing an orphaned boy in the show "Little House on the Prairie," and he was 6 years old in 1975. Melissa Sue Anderson also starred in Little House on the Prairie at the age of 11 and was a child star. She was 13 years old in 1975.
For our studio we chose Laurel Group Inc. who produced several horror films including one of the most famous horror films of all time, Night of the Living Dead. We thought this studio with their horror film-making experience would be the best for us. It is also an independent and pretty low-budget film studio. For our distributing company we chose Bryanston Pictures due to their great horror film experience with movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the Devil's Rain.
I watched three Tarantino films for my formal film study: Django Unchained, Kill Bill I, and Pulp Fiction. Tarantino's movies are known for their intense action and violence, cinematic dialogue, unique themes and story lines, and neo-noir characteristics. All three of these films fit this bill. The brutal violence, big-name casting, and unique plots of all of these films made them very captivating and enjoyable to watch.
Django Unchained was the first movie I watched and I was very excited to see it. I had heard great things about this movie and it received pretty good reviews. This film is about a former slave named Django, who joins a white Doctor named Dr. King Schultz, and the two become hit-men, hunting brutal slave owners and wanted criminals. This movie takes place in the 1800's before the Civil War, in the South. Being an African-American in the South during this time period, Django did not receive much respect from others. Django and Dr. Schultz visit several plantations and hunt down wanted criminals, killing dozens. They later visit a man named Calvin Candle, and they stay on his plantation for a good part of the film. My favorite scene from the movie took place in Candle's "big house" towards the end of the film after Dr. Schultz is killed and Django proceeds to kill about twenty to thirty men who are attempting to kill him. The action, violence, and just overall excitement of this scene was unlike any other I had ever seen. Tarantino is not scared to show a lot of blood, and there was a ton in this scene. This movie was also full of harsh language, which is typical for Tarantino films and makes the movies seem more realistic. The casting in this movie I think was also very good and Jamie Foxx, Cristoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio all did a great job in creating riveting and unique characters. The camerawork and cinematography in this film was also incredible. There were a lot of quick camera movements in the action scenes, point of view camera angles, and long dialogue scenes. The music in Tarantino films is also very unique because the songs playing in the background usually do not correspond to the time period, for example there was a Tupac song in Django Unchained.
The second film I watched was Kill Bill I. This is saying a lot because of how violent the other two films were, but I think Kill Bill was the most violent of the three. This film is about "The Bride," a former assassin, who is shot at her wedding by her former boss Bill. The Bride was also pregnant at the time and she falls into a coma for five years. After waking up from her coma, without her baby, she is hungry for revenge. She sets out to find and ultimately "Kill Bill." She collects several deadly weapons along the way and fights a number of Bill's accomplices. At the end of the film, she finally tracks down Bill. This film was probably my least favorite of the three, but I still really enjoyed it. I found the story lines of the other two to be more interesting and I thought this one was just too much senseless violence, however it was still very entertaining and full of great action and fighting. A unique thing about the cinematography in this film is the use of black and white for parts of the movie. I have researched this online and many people said that black and white was used as a "homage to past films," but others have said that because the movie was so violent, black and white need to be used in order for it to earn an "R" rating and be able to be shown in theaters. The characteristics that were evident in Django Unchained continued in this film, intense action and violence, harsh language, unique plot, and incredible casting.
The third film and final film that I watched was Pulp Fiction. I keep going back and forth between this and Django about which one is my favorite, but I thought both were fantastic. Like Django Unchained, this movie is about two hit-men, however these are modern day hit-men. This film was yet again, very unique. The movie was broken down into three separate tales. The Bonnie situation is about Jules and Vincent attempting to get rid of a dead body that they accidentally shot in their own car, and they go to their friend Jimmie's house to get help with the situation. Another tale involves the two hit-mens boss' wife, who overdoses on Heroin and Vince has to perform a miraculous recovery to save her life. The third tale is about the Gold Watch. This is all about timing, and how different things would be if you waited another few seconds. This is on display here because Butch is obsessed with this "Gold Watch" and time. He enters his apartment in which he finds Vince in the bathroom. Had Butch entered the apartment a few seconds later he may have been killed, but because of his good timing, he was able to save his own life and kill Vince, due to the fact that he was in the bathroom. My favorite scene was the "Pumpkin and Honey Bunny scene" in which two pretty crazy criminals are attempting to murder a diner, but Jules and Vince decide to intervene. The hilarious and also intense dialogue that takes place in this film make it really entertaining. Jules and Vince are these violent hit-men, however they have some of the funniest and most ridiculous conversations. I really liked this film and the incredible action and violence was on display once again. I also thought John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson were really cool and perfect characters to the play the roles of Jules and Vince. The camerawork and cinematography was also very cool with fast camera cuts, long dialogue scenes, and also some comedy mixed in there as well.
These three films were all very different from each other, but also similar in a few ways. The violence, language, and action was consistent throughout the films. Each film was also somewhat dark and depressing at times with Mia overdosing on Heroin, The Bride waking up from her coma only to find out that she had been getting raped by her nurse, and the horrible whipping and violence of the slaves in Django Unchained. Each movie also had a few comical scenes however, more so in Django and Pulp Fiction than Kill Bill, but there were at least a few scenes in each movie that made you laugh or smile. The plots of each film were also like no movie I have ever seen, and Tarantino definitely does an incredible job creating a story that will keep you captivated and not knowing what is going to happen next. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YujYTVQ4_S0
I saw Dodgeball for the first time when it came out back in 2004 and it was one of my favorite movies. Due to the fact that I was nine years old when I first saw it, I didn't really understand some of the humor and jokes, yet I still found it to be hilarious. I noticed that Dodgeball was on TV the other day and I watched it. It was even better than I remembered. Almost every scene in this movie makes me laugh and I think this is the best i've ever seen from Ben Stiller. Stiller's character "White Goodman" is a selfish, cocky, and ridiculous character who gets even crazier as the movie goes on.
I think almost all teenagers and young adults have seen this movie because it was so popular when it was first released. The movie is about a man named Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) who owns a gym called "Average Joe's." White Goodman, the owner of a rival gym wants to buy and takeover La Fleur's gym and the only way that Peter can save his gym is by raising a lot of money. To earn this money, Peter and a few of his friends assemble a dodgeball team and attempt to enter a national dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas. They receive coaching and help from "famous" dodgeball coach, Patches O'Houllihan. With Patches' help they are able to make it into the tournament and get to the final round. In the final round they are set to play against the Purple Cobras, White Goodman's team, but before the match, La Fleur sells Average Joe's Gym to White for $100,000. Later, however, the Average Joe's win the tournament and you learn that Peter bet on his team to win the match and he ends up winning five million dollars. Peter then uses this money to buy Goodman's gym and takeover the business, sending White into despair and ultimately obesity.
I really like this movie and even though its just a made-up and kind of stupid comedy movie I think it was very well done. I think the characters in this movie were the best part of the film because each character is so unique. Stiller's character, "White," is very cocky and selfish and he thinks that everything is about him and he pretty much thinks he is the best person to ever walk the Earth. He gives stupid and ridiculous comebacks that make no sense and overall he is just a crazy and hilarious character. Vince Vaughn's character, "Peter," is a very down to Earth, modest guy that runs a gym called "Average Joe's." He is pretty much the exact opposite of White and he beats White in the dodgeball tournament and ultimately takes over his business. All of the other characters were pretty ridiculous including "Steve" who thinks he is a pirate, "Fran" the female Russian dodgeball player, and many more.
My favorite scene in this movie is when dodgeball coach Patches O'Houllihan tells the Average Joe's team that "if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball," and he begins throwing wrenches at all of the players. I think this scene is one of the funniest in any movie I have ever seen. He then goes on to tell them that if you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball, and the middle-aged, overweight "Gordon" from the Average Joe's team runs into traffic, only to get hit by one car and then as he is telling the team he is okay he immediately gets hit by another. ]
I would give this movie a 9/10 and I recommend that anyone who has not seen this movie or has not seen it in a while should watch it. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard watching a movie and it is certainly one of my favorite comedies of all time.
I saw this movie a few weeks ago and I am a big fan of all of the Lord of the Rings films. I was very excited when I learned that they were making three hobbit films because I had seen the other three Lord of the Rings movies and I thought those would be the last Lord of the Rings films made, but I was wrong. I thought that this movie would not be as exciting or action packed as the others, but I was mistaken. This movie was full of action and although the movie is very long, the tome flew by because there was so much exciting action going on.
Lord of the Rings movies are known for having great special effects because of all of the created characters and structures. The effects in this movie were again very cool like the others and they make this made up world seem very realistic. The Orc's and other monsters are very intimidating due to the effects and make up work. The music in this movie is also great, another thing Lord of the Rings movies are known for.
This movie is about a young Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who goes on a journey with a group of Dwarfs and Gandalf. They are on a journey to reclaim the lost Dwarf kingdom of Erebor. They set off on their journey and Bilbo doesn't really fit in with the group because he does not have much experience with fighting, but he later saves the life of the groups leader Thorin, proving his importance and worthiness of being in the group. They fight several Orc's and giants on the journey and Bilbo has an encounter with Gollum. Bilbo takes Gollum's sacred Ring and takes it with him, not knowing of its special powers. This movie is the first of the Hobbit trilogy so the journey will continue in the next two movies.
My favorite scene was when the group was in a Orc cave and they had to escape. They were running through the cave leaping from bridge to bridge with a horde of Orcs chasing after them. This scene was a little unrealstic because they fell hundreds of feet to the ground off of a bridge and were fine after the fall, but other than that the scene was exciting and my favorite of the film.
I would give this movie a 7/10 because it was really well done and intriguing, but the beginning was kind of slow and because of how long it is I don't know if I could sit through the whole movie again. Overall though I would recommend it to anyone who liked the other Lord of the Rings films.
I watched Life of Pi a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. I didn't really know what to expect before watching it because I hadn't really heard much about it, but the storyline, cinematography, and special effects were all great. It also won a few Oscars this year. An adult Pi tells the story of his life to a man who wants to write a book about him, narrating the story.
This movie is about a family moving to Canada from India. The family had a lot of exotic animals because they owned a Zoo, and they brought all of their animals with them on the ship to Canada. A violent storm at sea caused the ship to sink and the main character, Pi, escaped on a life boat. After the storm settled, he realized there were other occupants on the life boat. There was a Zebra, Hyena, Orangutan, and Tiger all on the boat with him. Pi spends a lot of time on the boat and the animals and Pi try to coexist. The hyena kills both the zebra and the orangutan. The tiger then kills the hyena and Pi and the tiger live together on the boat for a long time. Pi keeps his distance from the Tiger and he even builds a small raft off the boat to stay away from it. As the movie goes on, Pi and the tiger get closer to one another and Pi feeds the tiger by catching fish. The tiger, "Mr. Parker", serves as an inspiration for Pi and keeps him motivated to go on.
You later learn that all of these animals are symbols for other people. I believe the orangutan symbolizes Pi's mother, the hyena is the "evil" chef from the ship, and the tiger represents Pi himself.
I really enjoyed this movie because the plot was exciting, the special effects were some of the most interesting I have ever seen, and the symbolism really made you think.
My favorite scene was the huge storm sinking the ship because the special effects were amazing and the scene was exhilarating. The boat was getting destroyed, there were animals floating everywhere, the camera focused on Pi struggling to stay out of the water to catch his breath.
The camerawork in this movie was incredible. The effects and cinematography really made this movie special. The effects were pretty unrealistic at some points, but they were still fascinating. There is one scene where Pi is laying down on his raft watching the stars and the camera is above him looking down, and all around him in the water you can see glowing fish under the water. This was a very cool scene and probably the most memorable to me.
I really liked this movie and I would recommend it to anyone. I watched it with my family and we all enjoyed it.
The Royal Tenenbaums is a comedy-drama about a family of three gifted children who excel early in life, only to experience disappointment and failure later in life when their father leaves them. Chas, Margot, and Richie are the three children. Chas is a math and business genius at a very young age, Margot is a great writer and is awarded a grant for a play she wrote in ninth grade and Richie is a tennis prodigy. The mother and father, Royal and Etheline, separate and it really affects the children. Twenty-two years later, Royal is kicked out of the hotel he is living in because he is out of money and he proposes a plan to get the family back together. Richie is following the world on a cruise ship following a breakdown; he is in love with his step-sister Margot. Chas becomes extremely overprotective of his two sons, Ari and Uzi, following the death of his wife Rachael. Margot is married to a neurologist named Raleigh St. Clair, whom she hides her smoking habit from. Etheline's accountant, Henry Sherman, proposes to her and in order to win back Etheline and the love of his kids, Royal devises a plan. Royal tells Etheline that he has stomach cancer and moves in with her, all of the kids come back as well. He does not really have stomach cancer he just fakes it and takes tic-tacs as his "medicine," After his lie is exposed, Royal realizes that he just wants Etheline to be happy so they get a divorce and all of the kids move on with their lives and become rather successful. Royal dies at the end from a heart attack.
