Blow
Blog Entry #7
Blow is based on the true story of George Jung (Johnny Depp), who grew up in a Massachusetts household with financial problems. George's dad (Ray Liotta) has always done what he was supposed to and has always been in debt, even verging on bankruptcy. George's mother Ermine (Rachel Griffiths) gets into frequent, fights with her husband and periodically walks out. George, a product of the '60s, is young, shiftless and sure of one thing: he does not want to end up like his father.

In 1968 George takes off for the land of milk and honey (California) with his friend Tuna (Ethan Suplee). They move themselves in a beachfront house in Manhattan Beach, where the beer flows freely and babes everywhere. "Every girl was a stewardess," George observes. "People were liberated and independent and used words like 'right on' and 'groovy,' and in the early morning were often stoned."

One of the people they meet is a gay hairdresser named Derek (Paul Reubens), who is also the neighborhood pot source. It occurs to George that this might be a business opportunity; he discusses it with Derek, and soon they are making more money than George ever dreamed possible, just by cruising the beach for customers.
George realizes that this business could easily go national; when his old buddy Dulli (Max Pertich) visits, they set up a marijuana delivery system at Boston's Logan Airport. The courier will be George's new girlfriend (and stewardess) Barbara (Franka Potente).
By 1970 he is rich enough to buy a huge casa with swimming pool in Acapulco for himself and Barbara. When his parents come to visit, mom is blown away by Barbara's two-carat diamond ring.

But nothing lasts forever; in 1972 he is busted in Chicago with 660 pounds of marijuana. His lawyer pleads his sentence down to five years; he serves two. Meanwhile Barbara dies of cancer, the old gang breaks up, George violates parole and is on the lam. He ends up in prison again, where his roommate is a car thief named Diego (Jordi Molla).
Diego has drug contacts, and as soon as George is released he graduates to pushing cocaine, introduced to Colombian drug king Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis) by Diego. He meets Mirtha (Penelope Cruz), the wife of a Colombian, and decides to make a move on her. They eventually marry; only after the birth of his daughter Kristina does he begin to question what he's doing.
Depp tends to take challenging roles. I'm not sure why he took this one, which doesn't really require much of him. Cruz, who looks spectacular in a red spangly dress when she is first seen, actually has a more interesting part than Depp's, as she finds herself trying to explain Depp to Kristina.

George didn't set out to get into the distribution business, but the cash was to good to pass up. His story is a cautionary tale presumably told to dissuade others from doing likewise. George was in fact the first American to import cocaine into the U.S. on a large scale. He had it all for a while, but got caught and will be in prison until 2015, when he will be 72. He has lost everything, including contact with his daughter.

I suppose this is an important story; it tells history about an individual that has a dream, but all dreams come to an end. The acting is okay, the filming is okay. I, for one, am suspect of stories about drug dealers and drug warfare, and one thing that bothers me is the use of the f - bomb. Other than that I did enjoy this film.

Oceans 13
Blog Entry #6
Oceans 13 is a movie directed by Steven Soderbergh and released in theaters in 2008.
Oceans 13 is the third movie the Oceans movies (11 and 12 the other two). This movie is a high stakes all to take movie filmed in the city that never sleeps Las Vegas. Big time casino owner Willie Bank (Al Pacino) makes a deal with his partner Reuben (Elliott Gould) to open a luxuary hotel and casino, but when Reuben does the leg work Bank double crosses and Reuben has a stroke. That rubs Danny Ocean and his (George Clooney) crew the wrong way and go to work to bankrupt Bank’s casino. All bets are on.

The best part of the movie is watching the cast of all-star actors gelling together and making this film work. Watching this movie I couldn’t tell that there were any eagos from the actors themselves. The charachers they play within the movie are cheesy, but they are right on the money and that’s what makes the movie funny.

This movie is a see because of the hard hitting Vegas action and also some of the biggest actors in Hollywood today that dazzle the mind in trying to break the Bank.

Blog Entry #5

Blog Entry #5
Gone in Sixty Seconds
“Gone in Sixty Seconds” is directed by Dominic Sena and produced by action thriller producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “Gone in Sixty Seconds” is a movie that originated from a 1974 movie called “Gone”. “Gone in Sixty Seconds” stars Nicolas Cage (Memphis Raines), Giovanni Ribisi (Kip Raines), Angelina Jolie (Sara Wayland), TJ Cross (Mirror Man), William Lee Scott (Toby), Scott Caan (Tumbler), James Duval (Freb), Will Patton (Atley Jackson), Delroy Lindo (Detective Roland Castlebeck), Robert Duvall (Otto Halliwell), Christopher Eccleston (Raymond Calitri), Chi McBride (Donny Astricky), Timothy Olyphant (Detective Drycoff), Grace Zabriskie (Helen Raines) and Master P (Johnny B.).
“Gone in Sixty Seconds” for the most part is shot in Long Beach, California and Memphis Raines comes out of retirement from stealing cars to save his brother Kip Raines from the ruthless Raymond Calitri. Kip pulls a job for Calitri and botches the job and Memphis Raines friend Atley Jackson, who now works for Calitri, finds Memphis and tells him Kip will be killed if the job isn’t finished. Meanwhile, Detective Castlebeck notices that Memphis is back in town and waits for Memphis to slip so he can put him in jail for good.
The job is to boost fifty cars so Calitri can sell them to a South American buyer. Memphis and his crew would get $200,000 dollars for delivery of the boosted cars. The crew scouts locations and make deals with car dealerships for car keys. While Memphis and his crew scout cars, Detective Castlebeck and his men scout Memphis’s crew. The first forty-eight cars get boosted without problems. Kip, Tumbler and Toby steal the forty-ninth car from an upscale neighborhood and get caught. Neighborhood security shoots at the car and Toby gets shot.
However, the fiftieth car is (Eleanor) a 1967 Shelby Mustang that Memphis has a long relationship with. In the past Memphis has attempted to boost the Mustang several times, but the car gave him problems every time. Detective Castlebeck knows that Memphis will steal this car. Kip has his own problem so Atley wants to get him out of town. Atley tells Calitri that Kip evated him. Time is running out for Memphis’s crew. Memphis boosts the Mustang and the chase is on with law enforcement and Memphis gets stuck in traffic on a bridge then he sees an opportunity when he jumps the car off of a flat bed of a tow truck. Memphis gets the car back to Calitri but he is twelve minutes late and the Mustang gets destroyed. Calitri says the deal is done between Kip and Calitri. The problem is now with Memphis and Calitri.
When Calitri’s men are ready to shoot Memhis, his brother Kip saves the day and life of big brother Memphis by hitting Calitris’s men with a car lift at the scrap metal yard. Memphis goes after Calitri and tells him that he made a mistake by not killing Memphis. Calitri pulls out a gun and Memphis has to find a way of not getting shot. Detective Castlebeck hears gun shots, but knows Memphis came back to town to save little brother Kip from Calitri, and pursues the sound where the shot came from. Calitri shoots at Castlebeck and the detective drops his gun and Calitri has him at gun point. Memphis sees whats going on and jumps at the chance to knock Calitri over the rail to his death. He falls into the casket that was made for one of the Raines brothers. Castlebeck lets Memphis go because he understands he was there to save Kips life.
At the end of the movie the crew gets together for a barbeque and they thank Memphis for helping out and Kip presents keys to Memphis. Kip bought Memphis a 1967 Shelby Mustang (Eleanor) that was stripped down to be refurbashed. This movie is packed with a lot of action and thrills in my opinion. If I had to compare this movie to another it would be “Gone” or “Grand Theft Auto”. This movie is a must see.

Rear Window Blog #4

Rear Window was a brilliant film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film was great for its time and is also enjoyed today. L.B. Jefferies played by (James Stewart) is a photographer with a broken leg sitting in a wheelchair board people watching out of his apartment rear window. Jefferies can’t go anywhere so his nurse Stella takes care of him during the day. Also, his fiancée Lisa Freemont played by (Grace Kelly) and his friend, detective Thomas Doyle visit Jefferies often. Out of all the windows in the courtyard Jefferies notices the window of Mr. Thorwald. Jefferies sees Thorwald and Mrs. Thorwald arguing a lot. Mrs. Thorwald has a condition and stays in bed all of the time.
Then one evening Jefferies sees Thornwald leave his apartment at 2:30 in the morning with his large salesman briefcase then comes back and leaves again. This grew Jefferies suspicions about the disappearance of Mrs. Thornwald. Jefferies told Lisa Freemont about Thornwald but she and nurse Stella did not believe him until they watched for themselves out of the rear window. All three set out to investigate what was going on and Lisa ventured to Thorwalds apartment and she found herself caught red handed by Thorwald. Lisa signals to Jefferies that she found the wedding ring of Mrs. Thornwald. Thornwald saw the hand signal and looked directly into Jefferies window. Thornwald walks over to Jefferies room opens the door and starts to attack Jefferies not before blinding Thornwald with the flash from his camera, which really makes this movie a Hitchcock by the way. Thornwald tries to throw Jefferies out the rear window, but the Doyle and his police force save the day and get a confession from Thornwald and the case is solved.
This movie is a must see in my opinion because this movie has suspense and a touch of romance and a villain that thinks he can get away with murder. I think this movie will be enjoyed in the future as it was in the past. Rear Window is classic.

Starsky & Hutch(2004) Blog #3

Starsky & Hutch (2004) Review
I just recently viewed the 2004 movie Starsky & Hutch. The movie stars Ben Stiller who plays strict and follow the rules cop David Starsky and Owen Wilson who plays the brash and smooth Ken Hutchinson. Their boss is the 1970’s star Fred Williamson whom plays Captain Doby. Also, in the movie is funny man Vince Vaughn who plays the villain Reese Feldman and his “baby on the side” Kitty play by Juliette Lewis. Rap singer Snoop Doggy Dog plays informant Huggy Bear. I also want to say that I consider the 1974 Gran Torino a character because it makes the character of David Starsky.

Starsky is probably one of those detectives who don't deserve the by-the-book speeches from their commanders, in this case Captain Doby. Starsky is paired with another loner -- cool, shaggy Hutch -- who's a step away from being bounced from the force for dancing around sticky procedural guidelines involving payoffs and consorting with criminals. I don’t know about about everyone else, but I like these two actors (Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson) together in movies, they have a great chemistry that flows well together. Other movies they have played together in are Shanghi Knights, Meet the Parents and The Royal Tenanbombs.


The movie takes place in Bay City, California. This movie is based off of the 1970’s T.V. show of the same name and also drives a 1974 Gran Torino. Starsky & Hutch is a comedy that has some sappy moments in it, but has a crafty can-you-dig-it flare to it. The movie is about two bell bottom, fly away collar under cover policeman looking to bust two bit drug dealer Reese Feldman and his band of accomplices only to out that Starsky & Hutch’s assumptions are wrong when they find nothing a couple of times and get thrown off of the investigation. The cops finally get their man at a fake charity car giveaway and Starsky & Hutch find the drugs stashed in the trunk of a Volkswagon.

The chase begins and Starsky & Hutch pursues the villain and his “baby on the side” to a boat and the heroes try to jump the car onto the boat, they miss and the car sinks. Feldman and Kitty thought they got away but Huggy Bear was there to save the day and also not to mention a case with five million dollars stashed in it.

I think this movie is pretty funny because of the 1970’s drug thing and the costumes set the mood of the era, but I already stated that I like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson together and throw in Vince Vaughn and it is a pretty comical situation.

Bride of Frankenstein

Review #2


The 1935 version of the Bride of Frankenstein is the sequel to Frankenstein. The Bride of Frankenstein was directed by James Whale. This became a movie by a story told by Mary Shelly about a monster that is portrait as a beast that no one in the town understands. The only friend that the monster has is the blind man and he teaches the monster how to speak. The creator of the monster is Dr. Frankenstein. He is bullied by Dr. Pretourius a “mad” scientist who comes to Dr. Frankenstein’s home and basically tells him that he has no choice to help Dr. Pretourius create a mate for the monster so he is not lonely. At first Dr. Frankenstein refuses, but in a cowardly act the monster kidnaps Dr. Frankenstein’s wife. When the bride was created she wanted to have nothing to do with the monster.


The first thing I want to talk about is the lighting and effects. I have to admit for a 1935 film the lighting and effects were top of the line for that era. The lighting on the face of Dr. Pretorius makes him look like a villain or “mad” because the lighting effect used to light up his face is from a low angle underneath him. Also, the lighting effect used on his face and a few others of the characters is the hatchet lighting effect. There were also a lot of shadows and the monster coming from shadows to show the mood of suspense.


There was also a lot of studio lighting used in the movie, even though the shots and lighting were supposed to make scenes look like it is outdoors. The lighting used in the blind mans fire place could not convince me that there was a real fire because when there is a real fire there are shadows that hit the wall and have a twinkle to it.

Bride of Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein Review

The lighting in the 1935 version of the Bride of Frankenstein was successful because of the way lighting was used to shape and mold the characters into the scary and dark figures that was intended for the audience. First I would like to start with the lighting on a close-up. On Elizabeth’s close-up shots the lighting has a glow and also a fuzzy feel to the lighting effect. The lighting on Elizabeth’s face has even light.

The lighting on the face of Dr. Pretorius makes him look like a villain or “mad” because the lighting effect used to light up his face is from a low angle underneath him. Also, the lighting effect used on his face and a few others of the characters is the hatchet lighting effect. On the faces of the “evil” or “mad” characters the lighting made the eyes have really dark shadows. The lighting used on Dr. Pretorius was chiaroscuro lighting which had a fast fall off. The lighting effect used on Frankenstein looked to be a star lighting effect to him because the lighting on his face was even and his face was hotter or brighter than other characters.

There was also a lot of studio lighting used in the movie, even though the shots and lighting were supposed to make scenes look like it is outdoors. The lighting used in the blind mans fire place could not convince me that there was a real fire because when there is a real fire there are shadows that hit the wall and have a twinkle to it.

Overall I thought the lighting and effects were pretty good for a 1935 Horror film. The way the lighting was used got the point across to make the characters look “mad” or look like the star.

The camera work in the movie has a few shaky moments in it. Especially when a scene calls for a truck shot. There is definitely a lot of movement. There were some camera angles that had interest to them. The first angle that I would like to talk about is when the camera turned to a tilted horizon when Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Pretorius were in the lab and the camera had a tilted horizon to make the scene look unsettled or have a feel of confusion to give the scene a dynamic mood.