Kellie's Red Dragon Review

Red Dragon, the prelude to Silence of The Lambs, was a very scary movie for me. I hate suspenseful/scary movies and movies where you see people get stabbed or shot. Even though I really dislike scary movies, this was probably the least painful to watch. I actually sort of liked the overall plot of the movie even though there were some nasty parts. The one actor that really stuck out to me was Emily Watson. She played a blind lady in the film who liked the Tooth fairy, Ralph Fiends, who was the same actor that played in Schindler's List. Emily is not really blind and she did an amazing job acting in this movie. My favorite part was when she was holding her arms straight out as Ralph Fiends held a shot gun to her chest. I loved this scene because her arms were completely open and she was vulnerable to the shot gun. This scene was very powerful because it also showed that Ralph did not let The Red Dragon take over his life. If The Red Dragon did take over his life, he would have shot Emily. Overall, I loved this plot but I hate the scary parts in the movie. I would recommend this movie to a friend but I will certainly never watch it again or the next movie in the series.

Calvin's "Red Dragon" Review

                The genre of horror movies is filled with some of the worst movies ever created. Most horror movies are generic, straight forward, and filled with mindless gore. Directors of horror movies must think that plotlines and acting are not important when compared to how much gore and suspense they can fit into two hours. Luckily, this is not the case with “Red Dragon.” “Red Dragon” is filled with all the things that everyone expects from a horror movie: suspense and gore, but it also has a strong plot to back it up.

                “Red Dragon” is the prelude to “The Silence of the Lambs,” therefore the director had the added pressure of staying true to the story and not destroying the series. “Red Dragon” was able to do both of these things successfully, however the director might have tried a little too hard to reference, “The Silence of the Lambs.” The movie starting with Hannibal getting caught put Hannibal in a completely different perspective for the rest of the film. Hannibal was caught mere minutes after he was introduced and made him look unintelligent for being caught so easily. Trying to convince the audience that Hannibal is in fact a genius after showing them him being caught seemingly by accident is impossible. If I hadn’t previously seen “Silence of the Lambs” I would never be able to respect Hannibal while watching “Red Dragon.”

                A strength of “Red Dragon” was their incredibly strong actors. Anthony Hopkins dominates as every role he takes and this movie was no exception even if the script painted him in the wrong light. Ralph Fiends, who plays the main villain, shows that he can not only play a likeable character like Schindler  in “Schindler’s List,” but that he can also play a character that can get the audiences blood pumping by simply being on screen. Emily Watson, an actor I had previously not even known about played a blind woman so well that I actually believed she was blind. One of the most stunning images in the entire film is when blood splatters on her face and she doesn’t bat an eye. Having such control over her body is something few actors have.

                “Red Dragon” is a very good movie that is worthy of being a piece of the “The Silence of the Lambs” series. Without giving anything away, the ending is superb and brings the audience on a rollercoaster ride. “Red Dragon” is one of the few good horror movies. 

Calvin's Snatch Review

                “Snatch” is yet another movie that follows the parallel lives of seemingly random people and their random encounters with each other. Each character in the film was unique and interesting. The chemistry each of them had with each other made each scene thoroughly enjoyable. The plotline was clear and concise, but complicated enough that at no point throughout the film did the audience know what was going to happen next. Overall, “Snatch” is a great movie.

                That’s not to say “Snatch” is perfect. One particular error is the sheer volume of characters the film introduced at the same time. During the opening credits there is a montage that gives three second introductions to what felt like twenty characters each with names like “Franky Four Fingers.” This is a lot of information to dump on the audience at one time. Throughout the rest of the movie I didn’t even think there was a surplus of characters simply because the movie did a good job of introducing them one at a time when the characters were actually needed. Even if the movie had the montage, but did not have the characters names of the characters displayed during the montage that would have fixed my problem with having too many characters introduced too fast. As it stands now however, this one scene overwhelmed me and almost scared me off from watching the rest of the movie.

                Another fixable error that could have made the movie more enjoyable to watch if fixed is the character’s accents. Some of the characters have great accents like Turkish. However, some of the actors over did their accents and this not only made the movie seem fake, but also made the movie hard to follow. When I say some characters, I do not mean Brad Pitt’s character. Brad Pitt’s character was supposed to have an accent that the audience would have to strain to understand and he did a great job of achieving this goal. One character whose accent was subpar was Brick Top. Brick Top having a very thick accent added absolutely nothing to the movie and nearly every one of his lines is crucial for plot development. Giving Brick Top a hard to understand accent only raised the chance of the audience falling behind in the plot and forcing them to put in the effort to catch up.

                These two complaints were minor things in a sea of great directing and acting. The director clearly went out of his way to be creative and original and that alone is a sign of a great film.

                                  

Kellie's Snatch Review

Snatch was the one movie where I could not figure out the point of it. The plot really did not make any sense. I knew they were looking for a diamond but they were also trying to find someone to fight for a mobster who fed the people who betrayed him to pigs. The only good part of the movie was Brad Pitt’s acting. Brad Pitt (Mickey O’Neil) was a gypsy who was really good at bare knuckle fighting. Brad Pitt overpowered every other actor in this movie with his gypsy accent. The accents were very hard to understand in this movie. I often felt like I had no idea what was going on because you could not understand what the actor was saying. However, I did like the fact that the multiple plots came together at the end and you were able to see how they were related to one another. It reminded me a lot of like the structure of American Gangster. During the movie, the dog was the only thing that really related the two stories together. Overall, this movie was not really the best movie I have ever seen but it was also not the worst. Nothing really stuck out to me in this movie to put it over the top, but a couple laughs came from it. I would have never watched this movie myself and I do not think I will ever watch it again.

Red Dragon

Red dragon

Red dragon is a thrilling movie staring the greatest actor of all time Edward Norton. Red dragon plays off of the popular and successful Hannibal Lector story. Hannibal, played by Anthony Hopkins, is an ingenuous doctor who murders people and devours parts of his victims. This movie answered the popular question as to how this brilliant murderer was caught and put in jail. Unfortunately I feel the director did a poor job showing this partly because it went by so quickly in order to get the actual plot. It seemed almost impractical the way  Hannibal was caught because he is supposed to be this magnificent genius.

Red dragon tells the story of a retired detective Will Graham, who had originally solved the murders of Hannibal Lector, who is attempting to solve a mystery of the Toothfairy. Graham, being a great detective, helps the police in their investigation. The murderer, “the Toothfairy”, magnificently played by Ralph Fiennes, was a man who had gone insane from years of abuse from his mother. He believed he was the “red dragon”, with unforgettable tattoo of a dragon that covered his entire back. Ralph Fiennes is well known for his compassionate and good characters from movies such as the great Schindler's List. Fiennes take a drastic change in this movie cast as an insane murderer. Fiennes nails this role giving a great performance that convinces his audience that he truly is insane.

- Maxwell Brown

Maxwell Brown

Snatch

Snatch takes place in London, where a man named “Franky Four Fingers”, played by Benicio Del Toro, is given the task of returning an enormous diamond that was stolen, back to New York Where another man named Avi Denovitz played by Dennis Farina. Franky Four Fingers is given the nickname because he has a major gambling problem and couldn’t pay someone back so they cut his finger off. At the same time a man named Turkish, played by Jason Statham, who is a boxing promoter sets up a deal with Brick Top for his fighter to fall in the fourth round. Unfortunately things go wrong when a gypsy knocks out their boxer. Turkish then proceeds to get the gypsy to fight in the set boxing match but runs into even more trouble.

The director Guy Richie does a fantastic job filming this movie. He uses a fast action camera shots. Using this fast action type of directing he will shoot a quick scene then move to the next scene in just a short amount of time. Guy Richie chose to direct the movie in this fashion in order to portray the fast pace and confusion of the plot. The director also chose to have the gypsies speak with an unrecognizable accent n an almost unrecognizable accent that takes concentration to understand what they are saying. Guy Richie is trying to give the idea that these gypsies are different, that they are separate ideas and values because of how they were raised. The most interesting thing I found about the movie was the way they depicted the gypsies. They showed them as dirty people who live in tiny trailers. Guy Richie also portrayed them as being people who you cannot trust.

Calvin's Review on "Memento"

                “Memento” is a masterpiece. Simply attempted to create a movie as complicated as “Memento” shows the courage Christopher Nolan has as a director. Creating “Memento” successfully shows that Christopher Nolan does not only have the drive to make good movies, but the tools to do it as well.

                “Memento” is so confusing that simply trying to explain what “Memento” is can be a challenge. Leonard Shelby, played by Guy Pearce, suffers from short term memory loss and uses notes and tattoos to hunt down the man who killed his wife. If Nolan filmed the movie normally, Leonard would not be a good main character for a movie. The movie would mostly entail the audience yelling at Leonard for being such an idiot and making constant mistakes due to his short term memory loss. Nolan solved this problem by having the movie play in reverse. The first scene in the movie is Leonard killing someone, and every scene after that shows the steps Leonard went through to find and kill this person. Leonard still makes quite a few mistakes through the movie; however the audience is making these same mistakes with Leonard and don’t realize their own mistakes until a few scenes after.

                 “Memento” keeps the audience trying to figure out what is really going on and when the movie finally reveals the answer at the end, or rather the beginning, there is a twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan jealous. This twist, which I will not say, made the movie especially challenging for the actors. Often times scenes in the movie had multiple meanings and the actors had the impossible job of portraying their characters so they could fit both meanings.

                “Memento” is a movie that I would strongly recommend on the condition that the person I am recommending it to is not looking for a relaxing movie to watch on a Saturday night. As long as the audience is willing to think while watching it, they will get more enjoyment out of the film than they will ever expect from a film that tells the story backwards.

Memento Review

Maxwell Brown

Memento

Memento is a suspenseful mystery following a man named Leonard, played by the actor Guy Pearce, who is chasing down the man who murdered his wife and take revenge. Leonard suffers from a neurological condition where he has no short-term memory. Because of his condition, Leonard is forced to carry a Polaroid camera taking pictures of the things he needs to remember. The more important things he needs to remember he tattoos to his body. The obscene permanent tattoos symbolize how his life is overcome by the murder and he has dedicated the rest of his life to solving this murder. This was truly a fantastic movie and it had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

What makes this movie so fantastic is the way it is told. The movie is told from the end backwards. This was something I have never seen or thought of before. The opening scene of the movie is the conclusion to the murder mystery; Lenard takes a picture of the murderer who he confronts and shoots. This opening scene represents how the movie is filmed, by starting with the end and working its way backwards. The director chose to film the movie in this fashion in order for the audience to become engulfed and understand the situation the main character is going through. The audience knows no more than what Leonard knows. This was a magnificent idea because it gave the movie a stronger sense of mystery.

Along the way Leonard meets two other characters played by Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano. Moss had a great performance as a woman who “out of pity” helps Leonard solve the mystery of his wife’s murder.

            The only thing I can complain about in this movie is that if someone does have this type of condition, they wouldn’t know they have the condition. If the last thing Leonard remembers is witnessing his wife’s murder, the that would be the only thing he would remember. This of course would ruin the whole plot line of the movie.

Calvin's Sixteen Candles Review

“Sixteen Candles,” is just another movie made in the 80’s about high school drama. As per every other 80’s movie, “Sixteen Candles” spends most of it’s time trying to get that perfect mix of drama and comedy that makes films from that time period popular to this day. However, simply having the right mix of drama and comedy is and never has been, nor should it be, an indication of whether or not a film is good.

                The direction the movie is headed was made blatantly obvious after just the first scene and for the rest of the movie the audience was forced to endure the awkward scenes in between. Time and time again the love interests in the movie almost stated their feelings for each other, but then through some weird coincidence, they were both pulled apart forcing the audience to endure this painful process again from square one.

                If that seems bad, the worst part is yet to come. The director actually wants the audience to root for a side character, a nerd played by Anthony Michael Hall as he goes on his horny pursuit to get laid. Hall finally becomes successful when he takes advantage of a drunk girl at the end of the film. Although Hall’s antics were funny throughout the film, when I realized I was actually supposed to be rooting for him to get laid by a drunk girl I felt disgusted.

                There were some parts of the movie that were good. For one, the little problems that each character seemed to be getting in were clever and earned a chuckle. Also, although there were quite a few side plots, the film did a good job of keeping them simple and avoiding confusion. I have seen better 80’s films, but this was certainly not the worst.

Kellie's Memento Review

Memento was probably the most confusing movie I have ever seen. I would have not figured out by myself that when the movie was in color, the story was movie backwards and when the movie was in black and white, the story was moving forwards. After I found out what they both meant, I really started to get into this movie. I really enjoyed the plot because it was original and very unpredictable. Usually, I can predict what the ending will be, but this movie had me guessing all the way through. The only thing that really stuck out to me was at the end of the movie when Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and Leonard (Guy Pearce) were talking in the abandoned house. I felt like Teddy gave us too much explanation about Leonard’s life in a matter of a few minutes. I wish that the director spread out the explanations of what happened in the movie and why Leonard acted the way he did in a different manner. I honestly felt like it was just a quick way to wrap up the movie and have the audience leave satisfied with the fact that they understand Leonard's life and why he acts the way he does. I was also a little frustrated by the way Natalie treated Leonard. I honestly thought Natalie was a good guy but when we reached the scene where she provoked Leonard into beating her up, I was really upset. I thought she was really helping Leonard but then it turns out she was using him. The scenes that had to do with the drug deal was another confusing part for me. I had no idea how Teddy and the drug deal fit into the movie. Was the drug deal helping us explain why Natalie started talking to Leonard in the first place? Was it because Leonard was driving a car the drug dealer used to have?  I wish those questions would have been answered before the movie ended.

My predictions for the movie were way off. I though Natalie was a good guy and I also thought Teddy was the guy who killed his wife. I was so sure that Teddy was the guy until I realized he was a cop who helped Leonard find the real guy. Teddy seemed like a very sketchy man to me. I think the director did that on purpose so you are made to believe it is Teddy who raped and killed his wife. I think the director did an amazing job making you believe Teddy was the guy. I also thought that Leonard would start to remember at the end of the movie. I was hoping that the memory loss was all physiological. The acting was amazing in this movie and I was very convinced of Leonard's illness. I did not feel like he was faking it at all. 

I really liked this movie even though I was very confused at some parts. I thought the plot was original and it was not a predictable movie at all. I thought the directing was incredible because it really made the audience think and also proved their assumptions about characters wrong. I never would have picked this movie if I was walking in a video store, but I am glad I had the chance to watch it.

Calvin's American Gangster Review

“American Gangster” follows the parallel lives of Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington, and Richie Roberts, played by Russell Crowe. Richie is one of the only uncorrupted cops and has the heavy task of bringing down Frank, who becomes a very powerful drug dealer throughout the movie. “American Gangster” is a very unique movie simply because the movie follows the path of two completely different characters and tells the story of how their lives intersect with each other.

                However, the greatest strength of the movie is also the greatest flaw. At times I was confused as to who I was supposed to be rooting for. Do I want Richie to catch Frank or do I want Frank to get away with all the crimes he committed. Every time a Frank scene started I was amazed by the poise and charisma Denzel was able to give him, and although he was a drug dealer he was very noble, and these facts caused me to hope Frank would not get caught by the cops. However, after those scenes when a Richie scene started, I was even more amazed by how much Richie was sacrificing simply to catch Frank and I wanted him to succeed at this. The actors did a wonderful job of making the audience like them; the confusion was because of the directors choices. The director, Ridley Scott, seemed to want the audience to root for Richie, but he did a bad job of actually doing this. Ridley Scott showed his true intention by trying to dehumanize Frank Lucas throughout the film so the audience could not relate to him. Frank Lucas would often brutally kill people in public spaces to simply prove a point. Unfortunate for Scott though, Denzel was still able to make his character appear human in the scenes where he was not having a temper tantrum and therefore re-humanizing him and recreating the audiences bond with him. Perhaps the script needed fixing or maybe Denzel was too likeable an actor, either way, this fatal flaw made the movie confusing to watch.

                Overall though, the movie was quite well made. It had a strong plot with strong actors to match. Best of all however was the script. I had no idea how the movie was going to end until the movie actually ended. This may have been caused by mistake, because of what I previously complained about, but watching a movie that doesn’t have a clear plot line can be a real treat whether it was done on purpose or not. “American Gangster” is the unique mix of a gangster movie and a detective movie.

Kellie's Review for Sixteen Candles

Sixteen Candles is a classic 80’s movie with big curly hair, white sneakers and off the shoulder shirts. The movie follows Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) on her sixteenth birthday and the day of her sister’s wedding. The movie takes place over two days where you go inside her school, he house and inside her crush’s, Jake Ryan’s, house. You are able to see her relationships with her family and friends and learn more about her as a person. By going to the party at Jake Ryan’s (Michael Schoeffling) house, you are able to see how he interacts with others and how he really feels for Samantha Baker. The main conflicts of the film may be typical to an average teens life. Sam is trying to get Jake to notice her while The Geek ( Anthony Michael Hall) tries to get Sam to notice him. The most heart wrenching part of the film is when Sam’s family completely forgets her sixteenth birthday because they are spending too much time focusing on her older sister’s wedding. 

I think this movie was very well made and accurately portrayed the thoughts and actions of a teenager. At some points, the movie was a little too corny and unrealistic, but I think that it was still true to the emotions of the teenagers. Obviously Jake and Sam ended up together at the end of the movie, but I think for this type of movie. there needed to be a predictable ending. The movie was just an enjoyable movie where you don’t have to sit and think about who might be the bad guy or how someone will get themselves out of a situation. This movie was purely funny and enjoyable and the actors did an amazing job. I think the actors did so well because they were teenagers in real life when they were filming so they really only had to act like themselves and let their teenage emotions take over. Out of all the characters, my favorite was Long Duk Dong who was played by Gedde Watanabe. His random outbursts and the way he handled himself at Jake’s party really helped make a movie about some sad events, become funny. This is an amazing movie for when you are having a bad day or you want to see a kid without his permit drive around in a Rolls Royce. Either way, you will love this movie for the truthfulness it portrays of teenagers all over.

Kellie's Review on American Gangster

            American Gangster tells the story of a rising drug dealer in Harlem in the 1970’s. Denzel Washington plays the character of Frank Lucas who takes over ‘Bumpy’ Johnson’s business after he dies of a heart attack. The plot seemed like it would be predictable because of all t he other “gangster” movies out there, butt his movie proved all of my guesses wrong. There was never any doubt that Frank (Denzel) would be caught at the end, but what I was most surprised at was the way it was handled by Frank. Denzel portrayed Frank Lucas incredibly well. His character did not like to show emotion but Denzel’s body movements and actions really gave us an idea on how he was feeling. When Frank figured out that the cops were starting to look into him and his business, he burned the fur coat his wife got him. This action showed how angry he was and how he didn’t even care if he hurt his wife. Frank lived his life by not being too flashy. He did not want to look like the other drug dealers and be easy to pinpoint. He wore the fur coat to a boxing ring where he had better seats than people higher up on the social ladder than him, and he was picked out from the crowd by the detective, Richie Roberts. In my opinion, that was the turning point of the movie and Denzel had to be more careful after that mistake. Since Frank did not show his emotions easily, I feel like this made the movie a lot stronger because Frank handled himself with class (for the most part) which is completely unlike the typical “Gangster” movie cliché.

Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) was forced to make tough decisions throughout the movie about his job and family. He made it his mission to stop the drug deals in Harlem and he worked on finding and punishing the cops who were taking part in the drug deals. Russell stole the show with his acting. The passion and drive for finding Frank and busting the drug deal was clear through his motions and words. When Frank was caught by the police and talking to Richie alone, Frank bribed Ritchie with millions of dollars to drop the case. Ritchie was so intent on making sure Frank did the time for his crime that he did not take the bribe even when he needed the money. Ritchie also assembled a whole new team to try and catch the drug deal leader. Richie was an unselfish man who did not want to go against the law even when his friend needed him to. His friend was dealing drugs and when the sale went down, he shot the guy who was selling him drugs. Richie’s friend was his partner and when he wanted Richie to file a false report, Richie couldn’t do it. There was a lot of scenes where you see the corruption of cops and a lot of people trying to persuade Richie to bend the law for them. His character stayed strong throughout the movie even though you could see him struggle with his decisions.

Overall, this movie was better than I expected. I thought it was going to be a predictable, bloody movie with a lot of gun fights and car chases. Instead, we actually got to look into the lives of the drug dealer and the detective. You were able to know the characters on a more personal level instead of just seeing their mean side. I felt like at some points the sub-plots became a little too much to handle. I felt like the sub-plots were necessary to understand each character, but it became overwhelming at some points. I also felt like we were introduced to too many unimportant characters and it was confusing on who was which person. Maybe the director did this on purpose to show how the littler characters meant nothing to Frank, but I still wish that we were able to figure out who played what character. Sometimes I have a hard time with character names and putting names to the faces, so maybe the confusion with names was just an issue with me. I thought the ending was very creative by having Frank walk out of jail and stand on the street and not knowing what to do next. I wish that we were able to see what happened to the characters after. I wanted know what happened to Frank’s wife and family and what happened with Richie’s family and his custody battle.

Maxwell's 16 Candles Review

16 candles written and directed by John Hughes, is a great love story about a young girl named Samantha Baker, played by Molly Ringwood, whop feels she is not beautiful and imperfect, who admires the most popular guy in school from a distance. The movie takes place on the day of Samantha’s birthday but she soon finds out that her family forgot about her birthday and completely neglected her. Eventually everything turns her way when the man of her dreams leaves his current girlfriend for the lonely Samantha. This movie had a great group of child actors. This big hit in fact helped to jump start Molly Ringwood’s in Hollywood carrier, where she would later star in the famous “Pretty In Pink” and “The Breakfast Club”. This was a very difficult role because of the character molly had to play. She had to be a very serous teenager who also acts like a valley girl at the same time. Her performance in this movie helped to make it a big hit as well as an all time classic Romance Movie. Also, the director did a great job in I showing how teenagers act in high school. He portrays high school using a lot of goofy humor, showing the funny side of a teenager’s life. There was a surprising to me in the casting when I saw John Cusack playing a minor role as one of the geeks, Bryce. This was in fact his second movie he had ever been in, and of course his carrier improved to became a more popular and successful actor than Molly Ringwood.

Maxwell's American Gangster Review

In my eyes this was a fantastic movie. It tells the true story of an African American gangster Franc Lucas, played by Denzel Washington, and his unexpected rise to the top of the America drug world during the 70’s. Denzel Washington was truly fantastic in this movie. As the leading role, Denzel portrayed exactly the type of person Frank Lucas was. In the opening scene we see a man covered in his own blood tied to a chair with gasoline being pored on him. Then Denzel lights his cigar and tosses the lighter igniting the man into flames. Denzel then proceeds to put four bullets in the man’s head. This portrayed how much of a hard ass he is. In another important scene at Frank Lucas’ boss Bumpy Johnson dies you see Frank taking care of Bumpy’s things by placing a coaster under someone’s cup, this shows Franks loyalty and respect to his boss even when he is dead. In this same scene a gangster asks Frank to find him a lighter after he put a coaster under his cup. This was a sign of disrespect to Frank, telling him he is no better than servant. This same man disrespects Frank again when he asks for Frank to work for as a driver. No one believed Frank was going to make it anywhere in the drug world now that Bumpy was gone, but frank had an idea that was so brave and risky that  no one was crazy enough to do the same. Frank Lucas travelled to Thailand where he bought directly from the source, buying pure 100% heroin. Because of the war in Vietnam frank was able to smuggle heroin into the states through dead soldier’s caskets.

The ending of this movie was superb. The climax of the movie takes place as a major gun fight in an apartment where Frank Lucas packaged heroin, this is where Frank’s empire ends abruptly. After taking his mother to church like he always does on Sundays, Frank was arrested just outside the church doors. Frank preceded top give up all the corrupt cops in the New York Police Department. The closing scene showed Frank exiting the jail 17 years later. This was my favorite scene, as the gate closes behind him the aged man looks at a world once familiar to him.