Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Perfectly constructed. Perfectly acted. Perfectly directed. This is the kind of movie that inspires me to be a screenwriter. It’s also the kind of movie that leads me to believe I never will be. How could I write something this extraordinary? Even the end credits – a dance number by the cast […]
Entries Tagged as 'Color'
Slumdog Millionaire
November 8th, 2009 · No Comments · 2008, Adaptation, Color, Danny Boyle, Dev Patel, Drama, Freida Pinto, India, Pathe Pictures International, Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire, Widescreen
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Departed, The
November 6th, 2009 · No Comments · 2006, Adaptation, C-Word, Color, Composer: Howard Shore, Departed, Drama, F-Word, Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, N-Word, Nudity, Sex, Warner Bros. Pictures
Few movies are as violent, foul-mouthed, and bloody as The Departed. I can’t help but wonder what audiences in, say, 1939 would have thought of The Departed had this film been inserted into the projector instead of Gone With the Wind. I dare say every last one of them would have run, screaming, out of […]
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Crash
November 5th, 2009 · 1 Comment · 2005, Color, Crash, Drama, F-Word, Lions Gate Films, N-Word, Nudity, Original Screenplay, Paul Haggis, Racism, Sex
I honestly thought Paul Haggis was a better writer than this. After all, it was his script – a first draft no less! – that became Million Dollar Baby, the Oscar-winner a year before the release of Crash. According his entry on Wiki, “Paul Haggis is the award-winning filmmaker who, in 2006, became the first […]
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Million Dollar Baby
November 4th, 2009 · No Comments · 2004, Adaptation, Clint Eastwood, Color, Drama, Mid-Point, Million Dollar Baby, Morgan Freeman, Paul Haggis, Plot Point I, Plot Point II, Screenplay Structure, Warner Bros. Pictures
I think I’ve seen this movie before – when it was called Gran Torino. Or was it Rocky? Or maybe it was The Wrestler. Or Who’s Life Is It Anyway? I don’t know. There’s a little of each of those movies in Million Dollar Baby. There’s something very familiar about this movie. Maybe I think […]
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The Lord Of the Rings: The Return of the King
November 3rd, 2009 · 2 Comments · 2003, Adaptation, Bernard Hill, Color, Composer: Howard Shore, Fantasy, JRR Tolkien, LOTR: The Return of the King, New Line Cinema, New Zealand, Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings, Viggo Mortensen
Where do I even begin to comment on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King? I feel like falling to my knees and shrieking “I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy!” The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King surpasses even Gone With the Wind for sheer scope. Director Peter Jackon’s […]
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Chicago
November 2nd, 2009 · No Comments · 2002, Adaptation, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago, Color, Miramax, Musical, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere
Did I say that I hate musicals? Silly me. I meant to say I hate most musicals. Chicago is a musical, sure. But it’s so damn fun that I forget that people are singing their way through the story. Plus, it’s about hoofers, dancers, people who shake their booties and tap their toes. Chicago harkens […]
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A Beautiful Mind
November 1st, 2009 · No Comments · 2001, A Beautiful Mind, Adaptation, Color, Composer: James Horner, Drama, Dreamworks Pictures, Ed Harris, James Horner, John Nash, Mid-Point, Plot Point I, Plot Point II, Ron Howard, Russell Crowe, Screenplay Structure
Now this is a movie that showcases both great acting and fantastic direction – and does so in such a way that neither calls attention to itself. The end result is a movie that doesn’t look or feel like a movie. A Beautiful Mind is a an incredibly moving experience. For me, a lot of […]
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Gladiator
October 31st, 2009 · No Comments · 2000, CGI, Color, Composer: Hans Zimmer, Derek Jacobi, Drama, Dreamworks Pictures, Gladiator, Oliver Reed, Original Screenplay, Richard Harris, Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe
Gladiator is over two and a half hours long. But I can sum up the moral of the story in 20 words: Next time an emperor tells you he wants you to be the ruler after he dies, get it in writing. I don’t like how Gladiator was directed. The jerky, hand-held camera work during […]
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American Beauty
October 30th, 2009 · No Comments · 1999, Allison Janney, American Beauty, Color, Drama, Dreamworks Pictures, Drug Use, Homosexuality, Kevin Spacey, Mid-Point, Original Screenplay, Plot Point I, Plot Point II, Screenplay Structure, Sex, Swearing
I love movies that start at the end. Like Sunset Boulevard, and Memento (sort of – who can tell where that one starts?), and Gandhi, and The English Patient, and Citizen Kane, and, well, you get the idea. When a movie starts at the end, the audience knows more than the characters in the movie […]
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