Review: Newsies

Newsies, which came out in 1992, is a movie about poor young men, who have to make a living for themselves (and sometimes their families) by selling newspapers. It is a fictional story starring Christian Bale and Bill Pullman, as well as David Moscow. Christian Bale is "Cowboy," a rough teenager who really needs love. When the price of the papers that they sell is raised, Cowboy insists that they protest the increase. He isn't very good with words, so his friend, David (David Moscow) helps him rally the troops. They don't get too much support from the community, until a writer (Bill Pullman) starts to document everything, which allows them to garner more followers. The movie is actually a musical, and has some of the best music I've heard in any movie. Newsies is really a great, feel-good movie.

Review: The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada is pretty much one of my favorite movies. It stars Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, and is about an average girl who decides to work for a fashion magazine, Runway. The movie is based on a novel by Lauren Weisberger, of the same name. She wrote about her work at Vogue magazine, and her terror of a boss. Hathaway is Andy Sachs, and is dating a gorgeous guy (Adrian Grenier). When she goes to work at Runway, she deals with a horrible boss (Streep) who makes her bow to her every whim. Runway begins to take over Andy's life, and it isn't long before she makes sacrifices that she had no intention of making. She makes good decisions in the end, though, and all of the loose ends get tied up.

Review: The Last Kiss

The Last Kiss, starring Zach Braff and Rachel Bilson came out in 2006, among fair reviews. What appealed to me was the fact that Paul Haggis wrote it, and everything I've seen from him is awesome.
The movie focuses primarily on Braff and his girlfriend's relationship as an average couple in Wisconsin. They find out that they're about to have a baby, and Braff sees his life flash before his eyes. Just at the moment when he's feeling as if "there are no surprises" left for his life, Rachel Bilson steps in. They met at a wedding- she's a college sophomore, and really into him. He has to decide which life he wants to have. While this is going on, there are sub stories with 3 of his friends, as well as his girlfriend's parents.
All in all, this was an engaging movie with a great cast. As with all of Braff's movies (such as Garden State), it has a great soundtrack, as well. I'd call it a must see!

Review: Idiocracy

Today I rented Idiocracy, starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, and Dax Shepard. You won't find many copies at your local Blockbuster, because it's not an incredibly popular movie.
The movie begins with showing the viewer a common man (Luke Wilson) who works on a military base. He's not stupid, but he's not very smart, either. As part of an army experiment, he is placed in a freezer along with the only woman they could find, a prostitute (Maya Rudolph). Unfortunately, the military base goes under, and they are forgotten until about 500 years later. As a result of a garbage landslide, their freezers are opened, and they are released into the future. As the movie explains, throughout history, stupid, white trashy people had too many kids. Also, people with high IQ's do not have any, so the world has turned into a complete dumb biosphere. Pretty much everyone in the world seems to have a slight form of retardation. When they test Luke Wilson (by having him put a square peg in a square hole, add 2 + 1, etc), they find that he's the smartest guy in the world. As a result, they make him fix their problems, and he becomes president. It is a completely satirical film, but really makes you think about the future of humanity.

Review: Marie Antionette

I watched the DVD "Marie Antoinette" last night. We chose the film because we will be visiting Versailles in less than two weeks. I felt like we should have at least a small knowledge of the place. The movie has been touted as "Gidget in Versailles," so I thought it would be interesting. In general, the movie is very boring. It is slow, with very little plot points. Kirsten Dunst shines in her role, though. She is perfect for the role of Marie Antionette, and does a great job playing the spender, the young, fun queen. I think that the movie was slow because it focused on the historical aspect of Marie Antoinette and her life, rather than taking a major plot issue and making a big deal of it. All in all, this is a great movie for historical purposes, but not so great if you want an interesting movie.

Review: Hotel Rwanda

Gardner-Webb shows different movies on a closed-circuit channel each month. This month has a great lineup in store, and Hotel Rwanda is one of the better movies that are playing. It stars Don Cheadle, and focuses on the conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi in Rwanda, Africa. The genocide was horrible, and the movie really showed what it was about.

Hotel Rwanda is incredible. Paul, a hotel manager, and his family are documented as they try to save themselves, without sacrificing friends and family along the way. They use the hotel as a safe house for refugees, and end up housing over 1000 by the end. The people are abandoned many times, by all sorts of armies, even the UN.

The filmography in this movie wasn't exceptional, in my opinion. It was average work, but it didn't need to be greater than that. The storyline carried the film, high-paid actors and filmographers were not needed.

I almost want to say that the movie was too neat and tidy. I feel as if everyone who you really, really wanted to live, lived. Since the movie was based on a true story, it's understandable, but I felt as if parts of it were hard to believe.

All in all, this movie is a winner. Be prepared to cry.

Review: "Crash"

After hearing all of the hype about the movie "Crash," I decided to give it a try. Frankly, I didn't expect much. Even though the movie won 3 Oscars, and tons of other awards, I've had some strange bias towards the movie since I heard about it.

Wow, was I surprised. The cast list alone is impressive enough. Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Matt Dillon, Ludacris, and Ryan Phillipe all make appearances in the film.

The camera angles, lighting, and focus were great. I remember thinking that the movie seemed like great photographs blended into a movie. It seemed like the film could have been stopped at any time, any frame, and you would end up with a perfect photograph. Truly a work of art.

In terms of what the movie is about, it focuses heavily on racism. It follows a few different actors: a Hispanic man with a young daughter, the white district attorney of LA and his racist wife, a wealthy African-American couple, 2 African-American friends, and some others. Each has something to learn about their views on race and equality.

This movie has a few of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen. For those who have seen the movie, the scene where the woman's car catches fire, and the scene where the little girl gets "shot." At the climax of both scenes, all voices fade out, and a beautiful foreign song plays as the events play out. It's amazing to watch.

Although the movie has a thousand pros, I did have a few complaints. There was a brief scene of nudity, which I felt was unnecessary. The same effect could have been achieved, just by covering up certain points. Also, the cursing in the movie was a bit over the top. I'm normally not a stickler, I can tune certain words out, but this was ridiculous. According to numerous websites, there are around 82-98 uses of the "f-word." To me, that's just a bit much.

In all, Crash was a beautiful movie, and would have been perfect for most ages had the cursing been toned down a bit.