To Kill a Mockingbird

As I watched this film, I was full of different emotions. Sometimes, a smile just spread across my face and I couldn`t stop it. Other times, my shoulders slumped with the more depressing notes of the film. To Kill a Mockingbird is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made; it is an adaption of one of the greatest books ever made. Surprisingly, it did not win Best Picture in 1962, it lost out to Lawrence of Arabia. Gregory Peck, who plays lawyer Atticus Finch, won Best Actor for this role. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning three. From what I`ve just said, you know this is a great film.

This story starts out with the Finch family. Atticus: the father, Scout: the daughter, and Jem: the son. It is told from Scout`s perspective, she is very young and about to start school for the first time. She is very smart, she has been reading with her father for a long time.
They live in small, simple town in the south. Atticus is a very smart, well spoken lawyer. He is approached by the town judge and is asked to defend a black man Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus takes the case but is criticized by the town people. During this entire time, we are told about “Boo” Radley. A man who none of the children have seen, because he is in his house all day, held there by his father. But apparently at night he walks the streets, watching people in their beds. The trial comes up and after Atticus not only proves Tom innocent, but also gives sufficient proof that she was beaten by her father, a very racist alcoholic. Atticus and Tom lose the case, and I will talk about this later. Tom tries to escape from jail, but is shot down. Near the end, Jem and Scout are walking home at night and are attacked by a man later identified as Bob Ewell, the father of the woman Tom was accused of raping. “Boo” shows up and saves them and kills Bob.

This film obviously deals with racism. Racism is a topic I feel very strongly about. I`ve looked at racism and I have found no reason for it. This film was excellent, but at times very tragic. One of the most tragic scenes in when Tom is found guilty after being proven innocent by Atticus. It just shows the idiocy and arrogant thinking of the town’s people. At other times it was very touching. One scene shows the town`s people storming the jail to try to kill Tom, but Atticus is guarding him. Scout shows up and says “Hello” one man. She has no clue what is going on, her childishness and naivety is what saves Tom and possibly Atticus.

If you haven`t seen this film, you need to. This is a film everyone needs to see at least once in their life. Gregory Peck was absolutely brilliant, he played a father figure perfectly, and he captured the image of a well spoken lawyer perfectly. Another performance that was very well done was the character of “Boo” Radley, who`s actual name is Arthur Radley. He was played by Robert Duvall. This was near the start of his career and he soon became one of the greatest actors living. His character has no lines whatsoever but he leaves such a huge impact, that it sends shivers down your spine. There were some scene`s that were terrifyingly suspenseful.
An amazing film, please, watch this film. Amazing.

Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs is a film I`ve been looking for, for a very long time. After a few months of looking I finally found it, and watched it right away. I was really excited about this film, and it stood up to me.

This film was released in 1971, and it was directed by Sam Peckinpah. It stars Dustin Hoffman in one of his earlier role`s. It also stars Susan George, playing Dustin Hoffman`s wife.
The film is about David and Amy Summer. They move into a nice house in England in a small village, far into the country side. We notice right away that David is slightly shy and almost cowardly, whereas Amy is wild and provocative. Their new house is not quite ready in parts, so there are villagers helping to build the roof on part of the house. The people building the house keep looking at Amy very sexually. It is also brought up that she never wears a bra, and that might be a reason they keep staring at her, according to David. Eventually, David finds their cat hanging in the closet, dead. He then goes hunting with the builders, but they trick him into staying there, while two of them sneak back to the house and rape Amy. David never finds out about the rape. On the way back from a church social, David and Amy hit Niles with their car. Niles has a reputation with the village as someone who keeps getting in trouble with girls, and he is clearly not mentally well. David takes him into the house, despite Amy`s pleads not to. The rest of the men come to their house with guns, demanding to have Niles. David refuses and the villagers start breaking the windows. The whole climax is David keeping them out, while leaving his cowardice behind and becoming brave and strong.

This film was released in 1971, along with A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry, and The French Connection. These films caused a huge controversy in 1971, because of their increasingly violent content. Yes, this was a violent film, and I have no problem with violence in films, and if you do, I think you should relax and not take things so seriously. This film was also very controversial because of a rape scene that is considered very brutal. I did not get why this was such a big deal, because it is not brutal. It is rape, so it is very bad, but thinking of what it was hyped up to be, it was nothing. In a way, this entire film is sexual by nature, or at least sex plays a huge part in how people behave in this film. I guess I didn`t find it all that shocking because of the generation difference, again, it was released 1971.

All in all, a very good film. Definitely not for everyone, but if you can sit through the violence, it’s very good. Dustin Hoffman`s performance is excellent. This film was remade in 2011, but it did not get very good reviews, except from Roger Ebert who said that it was better than the original, but I don`t agree.

Caddyshack

I bought this film not know much about it, but I heard it was pretty good. It was great. It was one of the funniest films I`ve seen in a while. Caddyshack was released in 1980 and starred Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, and Michael O`Keefe, and some other actors, but those were the big ones. It was one of Bill Murray’s first starring roles, and the same for Chevy Chase. As I said, I bought this knowing nothing about it except I heard it was good. It was very good. It is about a teenager named Danny, who is a caddy at a up-scale golf course. He wants to win a caddy scholarship to college because he can`t afford college, so he starts to caddy for Judge Smails, who decides who gets the scholarship. Eventually the Judge and Dangerfield create a golf tournament for $20,000. That’s basically the plot.

This was full of so many funny things; it’s hard to list them all. All the actors did a good job, but there are three actors in here that are always great, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield. I didn`t like Rodney Dangerfield prior to watching this, I now love him. He was just joke after joke after joke. I don`t think he can say one sentence without making someone laugh. Despite his countless laughs, Bill Murray stole the show for me. He was the best for me even more so because all of his lines were apparently improvised, he made everything up. That is why Bill Murray is a legend.

All in all, this was a very funny film. Some great lines from Murray and Dangerfield, and all the other cast were great as well. There was a sequel, but it didn`t have any of the original cast returning except for Chevy Chase, and it didn`t receive very good reviews.
Check it out, very funny.

Breakfast at Tiffany`s

I`m just going to say this right away, I did not like Breakfast at Tiffany`s. This is one of Audrey Hepburn`s most famous films, and she was good in it. She is acknowledged as one of the greatest female actress`s of the 20th century. Breakfast at Tiffany`s was made in 1961 and won two Oscars, Best Original Song for Moon River, and it also won Best Score. Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress for this film but lost out to Sophia Loren for Two Women.

This film is about Holly Golightly, played by Hepburn, and Paul Varjak, played by George Peppard, and their relationship. Holly is a very social, elegant woman living in New York, and Paul is a struggling writer who moves into the same apartment building as Holly. There is a sub plot that is introduced right away involving Holly going to visit a mob boss in prison and pass on messages to his lawyer. Holly and Paul soon become friends, and Paul finds out that Holly is actually a southern girl named Lula Mae, but she moved to New York and changed, and that her brother is coming out of the military soon, her ex husband comes to her in New York to bring her back but she refuses. Eventually Holly and Paul start getting serious but she tries to get money by marrying the richest man she can find. That’s basically the plot.

Again: I didn`t like this film. But there were certain things I really hated. The first and probably the biggest problem I had with this movie was Mickey Rooney. Mickey Rooney is a very famous actor and is still living in his early 90`s now. In this film he plays a stereotypical Asian man even though he is white, and it’s awful. He has makeup on to make him look Asian, and he portrays a very annoying character. Another thing I didn`t like was the character of Paul, in his opinion, if you love a woman, she is yours. He drags on about this point until he comes off as sexist; he basically calls women property, as long as its love. I also didn`t like Holly. She was whiny, when she had a problem she would get drunk and do something stupid, I was annoyed by watching her character get drunk and complain.

This was my first look into Audrey Hepburn, and she was pretty good, it was her character I didn`t like. The acting was all round pretty good, except for Mickey Rooney, casting him as that character was dumb. The writing was ok, but I didn`t like the characters. To me, it was technically a good film, but I just really didn`t like it.

This was a relatively short pot, but I didn`t have much to say on this film.

Child`s Play

Childs Play was actually, really good. I was sort of surprised with it. I thought it would be slightly cheesy, which I like, but I just wasn`t expecting a good movie. Childs Play is a 1988 horror film, which eventually evolved into probably one of the most famous horror franchises ever. It spawned four sequels, Childs Play 2, Childs Play 3, Bride of Chucky, and Seed of Chucky. These were horror movies until Bride, then they became horror/comedy, which I love, but from what I hear, the last two films are not very good. The character of Chucky is very famous now, having dolls made after him, quite ironically. As I said, the movies and Chucky himself become more comedic over time, and Chucky eventually starts spewing one liners, some of which are actually very funny, my favorite being “Don`t fuck with the Chuck”. But in the first movie, he is not comedic; he is evil and determined to live.

So basically this movie is about a serial killer, named Charles Lee Ray. He is shot by a police officer, Mike Norris, during a chase. Charles hides in a toy store and just before he dies, he transfers his soul into a doll named Chucky. Later, a child named Andy wants a Chucky doll for his birthday, and he gets one. He gets a special one. He befriends Chucky, and starts talking to Chucky, and Chucky talks back. Anyway, eventually Chucky starts killing, and finds out how to get back to human form, he needs to transfer his soul into Andy. The thing is, no one believes Andy. He is eventually put into a psychiatric ward, but escapes when he sees Chucky coming for him.

That’s all I`m going to say about the plot, now onto what I really liked and disliked.
This film was really good in the sense that you were really into it, this was because it played on the age old idea that adults can`t see what children see. Except in this, the child is right. Andy is not imagining that Chucky is talking and moving, but everyone is getting mad at him for making up stories, and eventually he starts pleading Chucky to talk in front of other people, and Chucky, being the cruel person he is, doesn`t. Also, we don`t hear him talk in his real voice until over three quarters way through the film, nor do we actually see him clearly move, but we know he is, yet it is still tense. I was waiting for him to talk or to move, in the background, but he doesn`t. This created a very tense atmosphere every time Chucky was on the screen. When it came to acting, I had mixed feelings. The main character, Andy, was at first very good, he portrayed a very excited young boy, but as the movie went on, I feel like his performance went down and down. The rest of the cast were very good, I especially liked Chris Sarandon, who played Mike Norris, and he was also in Fright Night, directed by the same man, Tom Holland.

All in all, this was a good movie. It was a fun way to spend an hour and a half. I`ve seen clips of most of the other films, but I don`t think any of the other films quite matched this one.

American Psycho

Umm, wow. Yeah, that sums it up, wow.

This movie was insane. It was scary, intense, and sometimes it bordered on comedic, and the fact that I found a movie about an insane killer comedic worries me.
Christian Bale stars as Patrick Bateman, which right away makes me think about Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock`s Psycho. This movie is based off a 1991 book, with the same title.
So yeah, it’s about Patrick Bateman, a 27 year old man with a very prestigious job on Wall Street. The film chronicles his will power weakening as his lust for violence grows more and more uncontrollable. Right from the start you can see he is insane, but in a slightly subtle way, like when he is describing his morning routine, and it’s got around 20-30 steps to it as he is talking about how he has to keep fit and be young. You see how gets furious when he sees that other people have nicer business cards then him, but he hides when in front of them.

I went into this film looking for a lot of violence and gore, and sure, I got it. But not for roughly the first half hour at least, and the first kill is bloodless. Nevertheless, I was still entranced by it. There is beautiful music playing as the camera just watches him get ready for work, most of the music was great, and the color was really nice. Mainly because a lot of his apartment is shockingly white, as he is a clean freak. Not just the color, but the design, it’s all very clean, modern, and artistic. Bateman eventually kills one of his business partners and an investigation is started. As I said before, Bateman starts losing control and just starts killing people left right and center. There is a very intense scene where he is in bed with two women, and of the women gets out of bed and the other women in bed starts screaming and she sees blood on the sheets and she starts running, Patrick chases her down with a chainsaw as she discovers more and more of his victims. It was brutal what she saw around his apartment. Near the end, he is on the run from the police and he lets himself take over and he goes out of his way to kill everyone he sees, and the thing is, he is never caught. Even if you just listen to him talk, it is weird. He is talking about how he has all the physical components of a human, but he is not, he is not there. And every time he kills someone he talks about the music that is playing. His first major kill, he puts on music and he is almost dancing he is so ecstatic, as he brings the axe down.

Christian Bale was excellent in this role. He took it on, I believed that he was crazy and I didn`t know what he was going to do next. All the supporting cast was very good as well, but Bale stole the show.

Repeating what I said earlier, wow. Great movie, there is a sequel, but it doesn`t look very good. You should watch this if you are into this type of movie, if you aren`t, it might be a bit extreme, but overall, I loved it.

Get Him to the Greek

When I bought this film, I was expecting a pretty standard comedy. What I got was a surprisingly great, smart, very funny movie.
It stars Jonah Hill and Russell Brand, I like both actors very much, especially Jonah Hill. It is basically about Aaron (Jonah Hill), who works for a musical scout company, and they are looking for ideas. Aaron comes up with the idea to do a anniversary concert at the Greek Theatre with Aldous Snow, his favorite rock star. So Aaron has to fly to London and get Aldous to the Greek Theatre in 72 hours. Aldous, played by Brand, is very eccentric, and rock star-ish. That is the basic plot, and it only takes 15-20 minutes to set that up, the rest of the film is just what happens to them as Aaron tries to complete his goal, and it’s great.

Again, I was very shocked at how good this film was, and there are some brilliant moments. These moments range from comedy to drama. Both style`s are brilliantly portrayed. One of my favorite scene`s is when Aaron purposely spills Aldous`s heroin, and he freaks. He says that that is his medicine, and it was very powerful and quite dark, and one of the reasons I liked this scene so much was because I was shocked that something this dark would be put in this type of comedy. Now, this scene led to another very funny scene, so this film kind of balanced comedy and drama very well, without it seeming contrived.
Another thing I really liked was Aldous`s father, played by Colm Meaney, who I know as Miles O`Brian from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He was great and the relationship between him and his son, Aldous, was very well played. His father abandoned him and his mother when he was young, and at times it`s quite awkward between them, and eventually they start fighting in a Vegas hotel room, and it goes to hell. It was great!

This was the first time I`d seen Russell Brand in a movie, and he was awesome. He portrayed a struggling rock star perfectly. Of course, Jonah Hill was awesome, as always.
Again, this film was surprisingly great! I would definitely recommend it.