This IS PODCAST!!!!!

okay folks:

As promised, here is the reel cafe episode 1. Please, leave us some feedback. Like it, hate it? What works, what doesn't? I am so glad we were able to complete this project; now we are hungry to continue and improve upon it. Thanks for tuning in everyone, looking forward to completing more episodes regularly (SPOILER: we already have more audio recorded). We are currently looking into embedding the podcast in the margin, or linking to a separate page. but in the meantime...

PODCAST!!!!

Update/notes: the fountain has in fact fallen out of my top 3, but remains in my top 5.

-Alex

UPDATE!

Okay folks, some quick updates:

1. Yes, the page has been totally redesigned (though this is not the final design, we are getting there).
2. You can now post comments, share posts via email, twitter, or facebook.
3. Unfortunately, the poll has been reset. So all you folks voting for singing in the rain. Get those votes in again.
4. The podcast is on the verge of launching, we are awaiting Piecar's seal of approval.
5. The first classic will become part of a segment on the podcast currently called "Movie Homework" (working title). Our goal is to assemble a list of classic films we have not seen and review them as a group on the podcast.

...

I think that is all for now, thanks for sticking with us. This will be a place of swift and constant change over the next few weeks, thanks for hanging with us.

-Alex

Technical Difficulties.

It has come to my attention people can't post comments on our blog.

Super Mario flag POST reference?? No? Anyone?









Rest assured we are aware of the issue and are going to fix it ASAP. Facebook and twitter functionality is also on the horizon, so keep an eye out for that.



-Alex

This is not the review you are looking for.

Star Wars has been released on blu-ray and has apparently broken all kinds of sales records. In one weeks time it has become the best selling blu-ray of all time.

I find this interesting because some of the most vocal "fans" of these movies seem to be filled with rage over Lucas' treatment of these movies and the less than stellar prequel trilogy. It seems Yoda was right, the dark side is not stronger. Hate has not made them powerful. The overwhelming amount of negative criticism from Star Wars fans on the web seems to merely show that (especially on the internet) negative voices always seem louder than the positive.



On to business: I am not going to review any of these movies (at least not yet). At this point it has been done to death. So many people have seen and spoken about these 6 movies, and so many have posted reviews online. They beat me to the punch, I can think of few new things to say that hasn't already been stated many times over. Instead I would like to use this opportunity to do something refreshing with the internet. Something few have chosen to do with their voices.

Thank you George Lucas.

While it is unlikely you will ever read this, I'd like to take the time to be grateful for all the great memories. The original Star Wars trilogy was the first VHS tape I owned (after dumbo and a few sesame street movies I grew up with). These three movies introduced me to the wonders of film, and the timeless magic of mythology. You took a fun and entertaining idea and elevated it into an art. The fact that people feel so passionate about your films says so much about the quality of those original three.

I confess, I am among those who criticize and scrutinize the new trilogy. However, despite my criticism I still watch them at home and enjoy the moments that recapture the wonder of the originals. I think of the younger audiences watching the prequels and hope they are as captivated by them as I am of the later episodes.

I may not agree with all the changes you have made to the classic films, I do still own and watch the original cuts. I hope they one day receive the restoration they deserve, so that the films that started this franchise can be maintained and enjoyed in their original form. That said, the work your team has done enhancing these movies for high definition is outstanding. My eyes now notice colors and textures that did not exist before this high definition release. It is as though I am seeing Star Wars again for the first time. Despite being married with a child now; the films still take me back to when I was a small boy in pajamas, sitting on the floor looking up at my small tube set, clutching my Obi-Wan action figure as the Milenium Falcon takes off on a grand adventure.

Thanks for the memories Mr. Lucas.















-Alex




P.S. The Podcast is nearly finished. Also, my next post will be the first in a series, details on that tomorrow.

The Recruit

Look past the fact that Colin Farrel doesn't look like a nerd who graduated top of his MIT class, is fitness-model ripped, AND apparently boxes in his free time. It's Hollywood. It doesn't make sense, I know, but you need to get over it. Why? This is a great spy movie. Really, it is.

It's ironic that the reason it's so great is also the reason it was so poorly received by critics. This movie does all of the conventional spy movie things. It has the technology, the drama, the intensity and the action that a spy movie should, yet it's criticized for not doing anything special or innovative. That's like saying "You know I really like Rage Against the Machine's song 'Wake Up', but everything on the album sounds just like it... it's kinda boring." I say yes, 'Wake Up' is an awesome song, and if all the songs sound like this awesome song, then ergo, visa vie, concordantly, therefore, and no shit, all the songs are awesome. If you like a good mystery, with some plot twists and some good action sequences, then this is a good movie for you. In fact, the action isn't even that over the top. A few chase sequences (on foot), but the drama and mystery make up for the lack of action; what's there feels appropriate for the movie. I felt like I couldn't trust anyone, just like the main character. I was totally engrossed while watching the movie, waiting to see what would happen next.

The reason spy movies are so great is that they deal with the idea of trust. The foundation of this country is born from the idea that too much power in one entity or tyrant can corrupt and hurt the people. So we spread the power throughout a system of checks and balances and a large bureaucracy, and even then we keep an eye on the people who are supposed to protect us. The fact that spy movies deal with multiple government on government actions usually means we're in a no holds barred battle where nobody can be trusted. The possibilities of backstabbing, double crossing, and the plot twists are endless. Who's telling the truth? Is the government really out here to protect me? And what's even MORE important, should my government lie and exploit other people for the good of our country? All very compelling, but I'm not opening that can of worms...

Chase Brandon is the adviser for this movie, making every attempt for accuracy on the technical aspects of the CIA. Apparently this guy is to the Hollywood CIA as Capt. Dale Dye is to the Hollywood Army/Marines. When he's involved you know you are getting a good movie. Brandon also consulted on the Bourne trilogy. On the behind the scenes segment, he talks about how tough the job is and stresses all the cons of being a CIA operative: The moving around, the being in harms way, the long hours, the low pay, the lack of recognition. Yet, the one glaring pro that outweighs all of it is something that he has trouble putting into words, basically Honor and Duty. My favorite scene in this movie comes early on, when Al Pacino is conveying this message through a brilliantly delivered speech to his young recruits. It is excerpted below.

So, why are you here?
Why are you here?
It ain't the money.
A GS- pay grade officer, yours truly --
I rake in about, what, grand a year?
You can't buy a decent sports car for that.
It ain't sex.
Hey, being here won't get you laid.
Oh, you're a dental hygienist?
I'm a member of the ClA, Moscow Station chief.
-Hello?!
What about fame?
Our failures are known.
Our successes...are not.
That's the company motto.
You save the world,
they send you to some dusty basement at Langley,
give you a little lemonade and cookies,
and show you your medal.
You don't even get to take it home.
So it ain't money, it ain't sex, it ain't fame.
What is it?
I say we are all here in this room
because we believe.
We believe in good and evil,
and we choose good.
We believe in right and wrong,
and we choose right.
Our cause is just.
Our enemies...everywhere.
They're all around us.
Some scary stuff out there.
Which brings us here... to the farm.
You have all just stepped through the looking glass.
What you see, what you hear --
nothing is what it seems.

-Chris

Bueller?... Bueller?

I know I've been absent for some time now. I just wanted to submit a quick update that I will publish a new post this evening. Circumstances in my life pulled me from the site for a few weeks, but I'm happy to see we have some more followers and that Chris and Piecar have kept the site active. That said there are some exciting updates planned for the immediate future (*COUGH* Podcast! *COUGH*), and there should be more regular content coming soon as well.

-Alex

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

     The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is one of those movies that got a lot of buzz during Oscar season a couple of years back. Indie and Foreign. Yeah, it had followers for sure. The premise is of a man that has a stroke and finds himself paralyzed, only able to blink his single eye to communicate. Based on a true story, it follows him on the quest to...um... find what it means to live and be human. Pretty obvious plotline, right?
     I ain't gonna lie, I was feeling a bit trepidatious starting this movie. Clearly, this was not gonna be an easy film to sit through, and often I find that there needs to be a certain mood. But since I rarely find myself in the neighborhood of such a mood, the only way to get watch it is to just barrel through my hesitation and go for it. And it was worth it. Let me harp on presentation. At the very least, the first half of the film is in first-person perspective of the character. You are locked in there with him. It's grueling to be so limited by the camera in a way that is rare in a film and the conceit truly works. Once it leaves from that perspective, it feels like a breath of fresh air, but you still feel how limited the man is in his own body.
      Also, unlike in other movies that take the inspiration for such a viewpoint from video games with horrid results, here it actually fits. Video games are created to simulate stories or act on fictitious events. In movies, this perspective rings false, since we as the audience are not interacting, but remain observers. In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, it works PERFECTLY then. We are as trapped as this man is. We as the audience can only observe, as can only Bauby (our protagonist). I think it is no coincidence (and fits into the backstory of Bauby) that the women in this movie are all amazingly beautiful. Achingly beautiful, even. We always see gorgeous females on the big screen and watch our hero gallantly win said beauty(s). But not this time, at least not in such a Hollywood manner. She is as close, and yet as untouchable as we are to her. It's tantalizing and rending.
      That's just smart film-making.
      Bauby goes through the story as you would expect, starting with desperation and his eventual rise to grace. But, it's not so crassly done. The only thing that felt a bit hard pressed is that the movement between despair and grace is too quick. Then again, maybe that actually is how it goes, but it somehow rings false. Bauby just declares, "I have decided to stop pitying myself." Is it that simple? Maybe. There was a lot of hurt, but it was a bit tough to see where the turnaround came. But that's fine. Because the movie is about how one finds meaning in life. You have to DECIDE to get meaning. And Buaby does that, even if the film doesn't show how it came about.
      This is hard movie to watch, but one that is just as hard to dismiss. Watch it for an emotional turn. Do it.

- piecar

War is Awesome, Sort of

That’s the impression you might get from me based on some of the movies I like. The truth is, I like War movies because a good one can stir emotions up in you, convey important messages, and educate you about sacrifices that people like you and I have made. It is most certainly not because I enjoy watching other people kill or be killed.

In fact, every great war movie that I have ever seen has been an anti-war movie. Even the good movies that are about wars that were unarguably necessary like The American Revolution and World War II, still convey the horrors and the ultimate waste of human life that the wars result in.

What’s so compelling to me is theme of sacrifice for an idea, ie. what you fight for. Patriotism and camaraderie are the major heavy lifters when it comes to these movies. Mel Gibson’s The Patriot is the obvious choice here when you talk about Patriotism. It’s basically Braveheart in America…and it is glorious. You see, it’s not all about authenticity and accuracy (though the battle scenes are very authentic), because then it’d be a documentary. Mel Gibson is great at putting emotion into his stories and making the plots personal. The reluctant hero that loses two sons for his country, the man with a haunted past, the man who rises to lead a new nation. The man who literally stabs the evil pompous Brit with the American Flag. Movie magic! Throw your fist into the air, it’s ok I know I did! Patriotism isn’t always this romanticized, but you get the idea. It’s great when it’s done well.

But there is also another kind of emotion called camaraderie. That you would sacrifice your own life for the man next to you. We’re talking about life and death here people. This is heavy stuff. As someone who regularly falls into existentialist and religious pondering, it compels the hell out of me. I mean, even if you’re not like me, maybe you don’t believe in anything. Still, the idea that without a blink you could end it all for a friend? And what’s even MORE compelling is that this stuff really happens. It’s not made up. It happens all the time to real people, not actors. When movies do that idea justice, in some infinitesimal way, we honor those brave people. Band of Brothers probably does the camaraderie idea the best justice I’ve ever seen.

But that’s not enough anymore. Too many great movies, too many good authors, too many high budgets. We’re a sophisticated audience, and sometimes we get saturated of awesomeness. (Disgression: This happens with boxing movies too, so make sure you space out these kinds of movies so you can properly appreciate them). So what’s the new standard? I’ll tell you.

Do what you always do, but tell me stories I’ve never heard before. History is littered with them. Tell me about a group of people who did something great. Maybe it was something small. Maybe it doesn’t even seem that great at all. Maybe it wasn’t extraordinary at the time, maybe it wasn’t appreciated at the time, maybe, even worse, nobody knows it even happened. Tell me those stories. That’s the stuff that will take patriotism and camaraderie, and push it to the next level and make a good war movie a great one.

-Chris

You sunk my... SOUL!

So I was at the cinema with Chris and Piecar recently when we witnessed something so offensive I nearly left the theater before our movie began. Be warned, once you have seen this it cannot be unseen.

At first I thought it was another transformers movie, but when I realized it was based on the battleship board game I was overwhelmed with fury. Is this really an economically viable idea for a film? I find it difficult to believe there aren't better scripts or ideas out there than basing a big budget blockbuster film on a board game (especially one this shallow).

I understand that from a marketing standpoint it makes sense to make movies that cater to the audience's sense of nostalgia. This way you already get people in the theater solely based on a familiarity with the plot, or curiosity... BUT COME ON???!!!!! BATTLESHIP!!!!????

This offends me so deeply. This trailer, more than any other tells me that this studio really thinks we are all nothing more than cats that would be entertained by rattling keys.

"hee-hee... it's like the robot is playing that game I liked when I was 8... yay! I LOVE THESE FEATHERS! How do they get them to float like this?!"



Stand up folks. Challenge yourselves and the hollywood system. Go online and look-up a film you've never heard of. Or rent a classic you've never seen, enjoy the ART of movie making. For the love of all that is good DO NOT go see this movie. If everyone boycotts this it will send hollywood a message, we are more sophisticated than this. You cannot keep spending this much money on the lowest common denominator. Let the artists working in your industry make movies.

The real crime is, for the same budget this crock got, the studio could have funded 10 small good movies, and each of them would have earned a small profit. Never mind this will likely bomb.


-Alex out.





P.S. Liam Neeson???!!!! WHY??? COME ON!!!!! I respect you as an actor. You are better than this.

Red Riding

Red Riding is a trilogy, with 3 distinct directors, but with the same actors. I'll try to tackle each of these movies as a whole.  Each of the three movies takes place during a different year, 1974, 1980, 1983, respectively. They are subtitled as such.

The production is British, and takes place in Yorkshire specifically. Ostensibly, the films are about a serial murder(s) that seems to not get caught. That is not what these movies are about. I was taken for a loop when I realized that this is actually a movie dealing with police corruption in Yorkshire. Which is fine, but, it wasn't marketed that way, so if you're expecting Hannibal you're going to have a dive a bit deeper into this review to see if you actually are interested.

Another misrepresented point is that this is based on a true story. Let's backtrack on that also, from what I now understand, only one movie is based on events surrounding a serial killer and very weakly at that. This is a work of complete fiction. For the most part it stays true to a realistic feel. The three movies, even though they are different in plot points and view points, seem to follow a similar story. I'll summarize each story..

The first movie is from the point of view of a journalist, played by Andrew Garfield, who looks into a series of missing cases and murders of little girls. All of this leads him to find a shady business man played by Sean Bean and his control over the police force. The journalist gets beaten for his investigation and retaliation ensues.

The second one deals with a Manchester detective that comes in to find who is killing these girls. All of these clues lead him to see how corrupt the Yorkshire police force really is. The detective gets harassed for his investigation and he sees how deep it all goes.

The third film deals with two viewpoints, one of a detective and a lawyer (called a solicitor). The detective is searching for a missing girl, while the lawyer is trying to find out why innocent people are being rounded up for murders. All of this leads the lawyer to find that the Yorkshire police force is corrupt. The detective gets midle harassed for the investigation. It all ends rather well.

Yeah... pretty similar-ish. With the first two being closest in tone. I'm harping on the negatives here, but each movie really does show off a scary group of people. The police have never looked dirtier than here. And you truly feel that the characters are trying to break through a wall or being broken by it. There is just one horrible police officer after the other. Not only are they negligent, but willfully evil. Maybe too much so. The first movie was spectacular, but the ending...it just didn't feel right. It did not fit the tone of the rest of the film, and it was a bit outlandish. The second film is the best one. It really goes foward in looking at what an utterly corrupt group looks like. It's also the most like a thriller. Finding out that it was directed by the same man as Man On Wire wasn't too surprising. The third one is probably the most watchable, because of the redemption felt at the end, but is about on par with the first one, due to some plot missteps and some confusing chronology.

The actors are all quite good and the directing was capable and even great at times. But the writing and editing needed some more work. If you have the time, I'd say, see the three movies. But if you only had time to see one, watch the second film. It's undoubtedly the tightest, but also the most depressing. There isn't too much you'll miss from the first. Ultimately, the movies were okay. I don't regret watching them, but there are better things out there.

 - piecar