Blade Runner

I’ve never seen the last 10 minutes of this film! I’ve seen the rest a couple of times but never the ending, how weird! Anyways, I watched this with my dad as this is one of his favourite movies and its nice to watch a movie with someone who loves it. I think I don’t love it as much as my dad because of the time difference and I’ve been completely spoilt with sci-fi/CGI movies that I wasn’t impressed by it. Well, I say that but I can appreciate that back then [1982] it was pretty amazing and, actually, I was impressed by the landscape parts, where we see the ruin that is now LA. It does make you wonder whether we’ll all be living in constant smog and rain in 9 years time [the film is set in 2019].

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Its pretty darn good! I’ve never actually seen this movie the whole way through before! Or the first one, actually. Anyways, you don’t need to see the first one to get this sequel because its pretty much self-explanatory and you understand what happened via little hints in the script. Its not as awesome as Aliens was [which still remains my favourite sequel EVER] but its still pretty good.

2001: A Space Odyssey

I’m sorry! I watched the first 51 minutes of this film 10 days ago and have only just found the time to watch the rest of it. Please forgive my short and vague review, I’m so tired as I’ve been going nonstop for over 10 of theme parks and shopping. I know this may sound like a luxury [and I’m so grateful that I can do it and that I’ve been able to be with my great friend Laura and my cousins] but its a whoooooole lot of walking and waking up early and going to be late. What I’m trying to say is that I AM TOO FREAKING TIRED TO WRITE A PROPER, LONG REVIEW!!!

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Wow, I thought I’d seen all the Star Wars but it looks like I forgot the main one >.< I’ll be honest, most of my notes are identical to the ones I wrote for the Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. So I’d go back and read that and then come back here for the news ones;

I have to keep reminding myself that this is the first of the Star Wars movies and therefore everything seen has never been seen or explained before. So the first shot being of space and then a massive spaceship flies across the screen, clearing in war with another ship, is pretty amazing. I can just imagine people going ‘woooow’! it’s a pretty awe-inspiring first shot.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but throughout this film I kept thinking of the Family Guy movie, Blue Harvest, which is a complete parody of New Hope. I kept giggling at moments I wasn’t supposed to because I kept getting reminded of Stewie as Darth Vader talking about why there should be a flaw in the design plan of the Death Star.

I think Princess Leia’s costume and hair is world-known. I think if someone dressed up in her costume, everyone would know it was from Star Wars.

Aliens

This movie is pretty awesome and a million times better than the first. I think it’s the best sequel I’ve ever seen.

We return to where we left off, with our heroine Ripley in hyper sleep after she escaped from the first film. Sorry if you haven’t seen it but you must know there’s a sequel and everyone knows that someone from the first film has to survive to continue to saga. Anyways, the first film was called Alien because there was just the one alien. This one is called Aliens because there is more than one. A whole lot more than one.

I’ll be honest, I got so wrapped up in this movie that I totally forgot to write notes so I only have a few but I’ll try to make up for it with my ending paragraph.

There is slightly more CGI in this than the first but its only for shots of the ships in space, not the aliens. Thank goodness they stuck with ‘real’ aliens and not CGI because I feel that them being real is what made them so terrifying.

Futuristic sets. 80s clothing. Hmmmm…

Its all 57years into the future. Suddenly we learn that Ripley had a daughter. I don’t like this part because there was no mention of a daughter in the first film [at least not what I could hear, which to be honest, wasn’t much] so I felt it was a bit forced to suddenly mention that Ripley was a mother. I say ‘was’ because its 57 years in the future and therefore her daughter is dead. I would care if I’d known in the first place but I didn’t so alas, I don’t. I suppose it builds the grounds for the Newt [the little girl] & Ripley bond which I think they could of easily done without the daughter part. Actually… now that I remember, I was watching the special edition so that included the deleted scenes into the movie and I think that was one of the deleted scenes. So it depends on what version you watch, though there’s only a 15 minute difference between both movies and the daughter scene was the only one I could think of that wasn’t needed.

The court scene was infuriating! I totally felt Ripley’s frustration as no one believed her story about the alien. She’s in ‘court’ because she blew up ‘an expensive piece of equipment’. I think this is a proper dig at the government and special businesses, they don’t care who died or what happened, they only care about the fact they lost millions of dollars worth of equipment. Even though there is a female in the court [aside from Ripley], the whole scene feels very male-orientated and Ripley is talked down to and patronized. However, this is also done by the woman so its not just the men’s fault. Anyways, Ripley can’t prove the alien is real because she blew up the evidence on the ship and blasted the alien into space. Its incredibly frustrating to the audience because we know! We saw it! I want to run into the scene and hand them the Alien DVD and go “HERE’S YOU BLOODY EVIDENCE YOU TWAT!”

Like I said before, the government or special business or something has created a living environment on the planet that the alien comes from, being fully aware that there are dangerous aliens on it. Twats.

A Clockwork Orange

I oddly really liked this movie! I feel like I can appreciate the filmmaking and editing that went into it. Obviously the violence and rape are never easy to watch but with the right music, it can become a great scene. Not great as in what’s happening in the scene is great because its far from it but the way its shot makes it a great cinematic scene… I’m not really helping myself here, am I! Its hard to explain unless you watch this film with an open mind.

Suppose that wasn’t the best opening paragraph either… The film follows Alex and his gang of ‘droogs’ and their little tour of violence and rape. Then Alex gets caught, taken to prison and under goes a ‘rehab’ via psychological conditioning. Then he’s released upon the world, not being able to do bad and karma continues to kick him up the arse. Basically.

I knew about Alex’s eye make-up and ‘costume’ before I’d ever seen the film. I remember seeing it in random things but mainly Rupert Grint [Ron Weasley in Harry Potter films] dressing up as him for Halloween. The costume is very iconic and you can see why. You’ve seen costumes like it but at the same time its like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

The way the beginning is shot [before Alex is captured], almost shows the violence and rape as happy times thanks to the choice of music. The music is almost a happy tune so we know the gang doing it all is happy and loving it. However, we as human beings know that what they are doing is beyond terrible. The way the film is shot does not change your view on these horrible acts. In fact, I think it heightens them because it shows us how truly horrifying it is. We know its wrong even those there’s happy music. Ooooo there’s a film studies word for this… when the music is the opposite to what the feeling is on screen… oooo what is it!!! Dammit, I wish I’d now kept my film notes from A Levels! OMG no wait! I still have it! Hurrah! Its called contrapuntal sounds! There we go. I’m happy now. Anyways, this is used throughout, and even more so when Alex singing ‘Singing in the Rain’ all joyful and happy, just as he’s preparing to rape someone. It’s a very good technique that never fails to get the hairs on the back of your neck raised.

Alien

Meh. I jumped a few times and the set is awesome but that’s about it. Its too slow for my liking.

For those who hadn’t figured out by the name, this movie is about people in space and an alien comes aboard and he’s not a friendly alien.

The opening credits are incredibly slow and boring. This turns out to be a recurring theme. The director tries to create tension with large scenes having no music and very little dialogue which is supposed to make us go “OMG didn’t see that coming!” when the alien appears but instead makes us go “finally, something’s happening…” which you really don’t want in a horror/thriller/thing. EDIT: However, after reading & replying to some comments on this post [thank you very much MYMHM, Geeky Fem, moviesandsongs365 and JOnKEnna for taking the time to comment!], I have learnt that the reason I have this view on the suspense scenes is because I was distracted by my brother’s texting [*smacks her brother*] and me and my mum talking to each other, trying to figure out what the characters are saying. So, I recommend you watch this movie in a setting and with people that are least likely to distract you. It will only work if your mind doesn’t wander and you don’t go up for a pee break.

The sound quality is terrible! Me and my mum can to explain to each other what we’d heard. We’d heard different things but managed to piece it all together in the end but most of what the actors say is inaudible.

You can tell this is a 70s film because a majority of the crew is smoking. No one is supposed to smoke in space! What the hell?! Also, mum pointed out that the black guy is always eating, which feeds to stereotype a little.

The cat did some great acting, though! Very good cat acting.

We analyzed some of the scenes in this movie in film studies so I kept pointing out to my mum about all the hidden ‘sex’ that was in this movie, like the fact the alien looks like a penis with teeth, the scientist guy gags the woman with a newspaper in a sexual way and its insinuated that the alien rapes one of the girls before killing her. However, this could just be my teacher reading into things too much but the fact the main lady at the end strips to her underwear does kind of prove my teacher’s theory.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

We all know the storyline. I would say a majority of you have see this movie. However, you may be the small minority, like myself, who have never seen it. I know. Its quite bad of me. But sorry, I was just never that interested in it. And… I’m sorry to say that I didn’t find it to be that amazing. The ride at Universal Studios was better than the movie. Please don’t hate me for this. I think I’m just the wrong generation for this or something, I don’t know. I know there are people my age and maybe younger who like it but that’s what I’m going to blame it on so please don’t hate me! I do have some notes… if you’d care to read… if you haven’t already clicked the ‘x’ in anger.

At the beginning, you can tell that alien = good and adult humans = bad thanks to the music. I loved that the government and teacher’s faces weren’t shown for a majority of the movie. I wish it had stayed like that because it really made me go “go, kids, go”.

The lighting in this is incredibly good, this is the basic handbook of what you can achieve with lighting.

Little Drew Barrymore is the only reason I’d watch this film again, she’s the cutest thing ever and was a great actress even then!

ET looks like an old man and sounds like a car with a fur ball. They could have been a tad more imaginative but oh well. About half way through I realized what he looks like… the ants in Antz.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

This movie feels kind of like all of Spielberg’s films rolled into one. This was one of his earlier films but you can totally tell its his work. This is actually the first time I’ve watched it the whole way through, I’ve always walked in on it on TV about half of the way through. The plot is about aliens [duh, its Spielberg] and they’re little holiday on Earth. I don’t feel we’re ever given the idea that its an invasion, they just look a little curious. Anyways, I’m a little tired and I’m loosing [once again] my determination for this blog. I don’t mind watching the movies, its just the reviews that I dread. Sorry. I don’t even know why I’m doing this, its not really benefiting anyone… suppose its giving me something to do so I don’t go completely dumb and forget how to write English… Sorry, enough of that, here are my notes, sorry if they make no sense. Watch the movie, then they’ll make sense!!!

Scary sci-fi music at the beginning, know what we’re in for.

Where did the pilots go?!

“Do you want to report a UFO?” The flight center jumped to that conclusion a bit too soon… however, I think we’re supposed to get this feeling that the government or official people are expecting alien contact or something… or just bad writing, who knows!

Great child acting from the cutest little boy ever! So adorable!

Stuff is moving!! Scary monkey! What’s happening?! I know it’s the aliens but it almost has a ‘haunted-by-poltergeists’ feel about it which terrifies me!

I Am Legend

This review will probably turn into an more of an analysis rather than review. I will put the parts of my ‘review’ with spoilers to the storyline in the cut [click ‘more’ to see them] as I feel that if you haven’t seen this movie that some of the things I say will spoil it and that’s the last thing I want to do.

Before I get started, this movie isn’t in Empire magazine’s Top 500. It was on TV and my dad and brother wanted to watch it and I had an opening in my list so I’ve chosen to review this. I think a lot of people have seen this movie but there may be the odd few who were like “hmmm I dunno, I might like it… but…”

I hate horror movies, I get scared soooo easily so I have no idea why I can watch this movie. I guess because the ‘infected’ are just that, infected, is why I can close my eyes and sleep after watching it. I’m scared of zombies and ghosts and stuff because they’re dead, but I guess I’m not so freaked out by the infected because they’re still alive… I can’t describe it at all, sorry. They’re still scary, don’t get me wrong but… I dunno, I can sleep at night. Maybe that’s a bad thing, I don’t know. Anyways, lets get on with the review shall we!

It opens with a news report on the cure for cancer [so we can blame Emma Thompson]. Then we see 3 years into the future and the whole of New York city is abandoned and is slowly turning into an actual jungle [sometimes New York is referred to as the skyscraper jungle]. So, we have the reason why its all abandoned, because Emma Thompson found the ‘cure’ for cancer but buggered it up and now everyone is dead. Or so we think! Anyways, I think that’s a great opening because it gets straight to the point and doesn’t actually say this is the reason but the audience works it out and therefore the audience feels clever.

In strolls Will Smith in a flashy red sports car [like you do] and starts hunting, HOLLYWOOD!Human style! And we see he’s not alone because he has a gorgeous dog called Sam. Anyways, Will Smith is shown as the big action guy but still relatively normal as he doesn’t hit his target [a deer]. I think that’s what makes this so different to other movies, the fact that he may be the ‘hero’ of the movie but he’s far from perfect, especially HOLLYWOOD!Perfect. Anyways, he’s this tough guy who looks like he wouldn’t be scared of anything. Then his watch goes off and you can see the pure terror in his eyes. As an audience, you think “man, if Will Smith is scared of it then we’ve got to be scared of it!” Someone else’s reaction and the sound of the infected’s screams is worse than seeing them. I love this effect because I always believe that hearing is worse than seeing because your imagination runs wild. That’s probably why, in the end, the infected aren’t really that scary.

This movie has flashbacks to what happened before Will Smith was alone. You can tell when the flashbacks start because there’s people in the scenes. I know this sounds dumb but unless you’re going to have the flashbacks in black and white or do some kind of LOST sound, no one is going to know you’re in flashback so to have Will Smith go from on his own to loads of people is a sign that this is a flashback. Then there are other hints that it’s a flashback with all the panic, the quarantine and his family. The flashbacks are in chronological order but are spaced apart, mostly on cliffhangers. The last flashback is the worst, be ready with tissues.

My brother pointed out that Will Smith hardly talks in this movie. Well, I disagree as there is a fair bit more talking in this movie than say Castaway [another ‘on your own’ movie, and a fantastic one at that, please watch it!] but for Will Smith, there is hardly any talking.