Saturday, October 22, 2011

Review - Midnight In Paris

Before getting to this review, here's what I want to say first. I've only watched two films by Woody Allen. I haven't seen any of his masterpieces such as Annie Hall, Hannah and her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Bullets over Broadway or Manhattan. So Midnight In Paris is the third film so far I've seen from him. This is written from a newbie's point of view and most of the review would greatly identify and analyse the trademarks of the iconic filmmaker.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Review: Crazy Stupid Love


Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

There are some ways to change the wave of something that is a medium. That's how the term 'game changer' is described. For a movie that would make efforts to go against the norms of a rom-com using that term is fair enough because they're going for something different. For Crazy Stupid Love, it's not really a rom-com where the characters would find their soul mate but more of a dramedy trying to get back together. And that's all it is.

Friday, October 7, 2011

TV Review: Community (season 2)

There are many sitcoms on TV that are watched by gazillions of people. The "reboot" of Two and A Half Men is one and so is The Big Bang Theory and they're both two shows made by the same creator, broadcast by the same old TV network that doesn't really care how funny are these shows as long as they have a laugh track. An interesting note about these shows are that they're mediocre or if you wish to exagerrate "terrible" by any half of the masses because most of the jokes aren't funny or many episodes had never had the courage of trying anything new and many are wondering why are they so popular in the first place.

Enter shows such as Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm and It's Always Sunny. They're all shows well known to many people who likes their television to be smart, sophisticated and stretchly made. But they're not watched by many people because unless you're in charge of Arrested Development, it's on cable and viewers are afraid to be charged a few dollars a month for watching a show that is profound and groundbreaking. Arrested Development won a few Emmys and have never gained an audience it deserves from the critical acclaim. So all of these shows have their own niches. They're never made to be niche, but they are forced to if network executives cannot understand the appeal of television with the beliefs that you're staring for hours of a show you've made no decision whether or not you'll watch.

There's a reason why Community exist. There need to be a sitcom with a great emphasis of the word 'meta' or in this case a show that rely on self-referential humor at all times.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Lion King (IN F****ING 3D!!!)

Imagine being in a crowd of hundreds who are talking about the same subject in their conversation. What if it were a movie that almost 99.1% of the crowd had already seen and you're the odd one out. Seeing bits of it yet you haven't seen it full does not count. So then you get time off to go see that movie so you're not going to fit in with the circle but other circles including film and whatsawhat. But you got the choice from your reaction to that movie: be with or get out of the circle. That's how I feel about seeing The Lion King in 3D at theatres for the first time ever in my life.

I assume that some people have not seen The Dark Knight and you don't really need to see Batman Begins to start going along with Batman. This is my observation when there are people that still haven't seen it. When you complain that one haven't seen the movie that you and everybody had already seen, two excuses to persuade him to see it would be how good it is and how much money it made at the box office.  It suits so well for The Lion King. It made $800 million (including the re-release) in revenue and won two Oscars. It was released when kids aren't born enough to watch and understand Pulp Fiction or craves at the life of Forrest Gump while not realising the redemption at Shawshank Prison. It was released in the year when cinema was redefined.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Scarface


Many movies about gangsters are always great. Look at The Godfather, its sequel, Goodfellas, American Gangster and that movie I can't remember its name but it's about Al Capone. They're all great movies that has a certain character you would wanted to be in real life and admire them for that even though all they do is kill people, rips them off their money from hefty operations of drugs and gambling and the betrayals they make within their circle. Scarface proves an exception to that genre.