Journal 2 - Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction (1994) - This Quinten Tarintino master piece is one of the best movies ive personally ever seen as well as number 46 on Times 100 Best Movies List. Pulp Fiction is a story of 4 septrate lifes that intertwine in a hardcore action film that will have you on the edge of your seats. The cast alone makes the movie worth seeing staring such actors as John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, and Bruce Willias. The movies plot is a twisted scheem of editing and high action shots. For a majority of the movie the viewer does not really know what is going on, but never the less the movie holds your attention. The reason this movie is such a highly regaurded film is largly i beleave to the incredible editing, it doesn't let the viewer know very much about what is going on in the movie.

Journal 1 - Critique The Critic

I Am Legend (2007) - I chose this movie simply, because it's the last movie i saw in theaters. I choose to read a review by a man that calls himself General Disdain from a website called The Critical Critics. The review was very easy to read largly due to the fact that i agreed with almost everything he said. Quick history lesson, I Am Legend is a collage of two movies Ubaldo Ragona's The Last Man On Earth(1964) and Boris Sagal's The Omega Man (1971).

"The Hollywood remake. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re a steady part of our cinema diet. I Am Legend proves once again that Hollywood believes the easiest path to success is to either: make a sequel or take a movie from years past and dress it up with an updated storyline and fresh graphics."

I completely agree with this statement, that fact of the matter is that most movie remakes are horrible. In fact most have nothing more to offer us besides a barrage of CGI and a famous face. I Am Legend does nothing short of this. Best put this movie is an extravagantly rapped empty box. I like 90% of the film and even find Will Smith enjoyable, but no amount of CGI or Will Smith can ever make up for an almost absent ending. I like the idea, but the film is just not executed as it should be.

"What I do know is, from a casting perspective, big Willie would seem like the perfect fit. He’s got himself an ego that a super-carrier like the USS Nimitz would have trouble carrying. He does do an admirable job mixing in his style with the seriousness of the situation, but a Tom Hanks he is not."

I once again agree with the critic on this statement. Usually Wills random swearing and high pitched yelling I can do without, but he worked out incredibly well with this film. The Fresh Prince played a sorrowful character very well and at the same time played his usual kick ass take names later character very well. The obsession of Bob Marley in the film also makes it a winner! Go Green!

"Once again marketers sold me one product and delivered something altogether different. When the action did come into play, every attempt was made to heighten the moment – multiple camera angles, darkened settings and deafening silence – all unfortunately with little effect. I actually found it comical in a strange way."

This is the almost I had mentioned earlier. I do agree with the statement about the attempts of camera techniques that try to spice up the scene. Although I think that this critic mistakes the action scenes for something they are not, because he was expecting a regular Will Smith shoot 'em up mixture of Independence Day and Bad Boys. When in reality the movie has some content to it and some what of a plot line that were eventually all blown to pieces by the bullshit excuse for an ending, but that's another topic for another day.

The Usual Suspects - Restricted Narration & Duration

The Usual Suspects (1995) - This part of the film shows great examples of both restricted narration and duration. In the very beginning of this clip the director uses very short clips to make things very dramatic, not to mention it makes it easy for us as the viewers to put all the clues together very quickly. Every time the clip changes the viewer gets another piece to the puzzle and then is finalized with a very long slow motion shot of the coffee cup falling. The restricted narration is very interesting in the clip because the entire movie the we believe an entirely different story and in two minuets it complete changes and actually makes sense in a weird way. It’s strange, because the man telling all us his version of the story, Roger 'verbal' Kint, played by the great Kevin Spacey knows more then us and everyone in the movie. He fools not only the characters in the movie, but also us. By the way this is a hell of a movie!

The Usual Suspect - Restricted Narration & Duration

Curious George (2006)

Curious George (2006) - There is hope! HBO's film library is not complete garbage believe it or not. If you haven't noticed I have a habit of having nothing to do after school, but simply catch movies I have never seen before and todays movie happened to be Curious George. This very fun happy movie is almost certain to put anyone in a good mood, as long as you're willing to lower you're standards to be entertained by possible the cutest cuddly thing ever! George makes Gizmo from the Gremlins look like a rugged pit bull on the cute factor. The movie has a very simple plot Will Ferrell stars as Ted (The Man in the Yellow Hat), a gentleman who looks after his pet monkey - a fun and wonderful creature whose enthusiasm often gets the best of him. They're story is spotted with fun and adventure. Will Farrel does a great job, he makes it enjoyable both for young youth and adults. I recommend this movie it makes you feel good for no reason, kind of like a drug with no side effects.

The Number 23 (2007)

The Number 23 (2007) - Once again I fell into the world of crappy HBO movies that happened to just be starting as I was sitting down in front of the TV. The Number 23 claims to star Jim Carrey, but the fact of the matter is that Jim should just stay with his funny faces and noises he makes, because at least there entertaining. It is literally impossible to take him seriously after playing such characters as Lloyd Christmas and Ace Ventura. This film was a failed attempt of a great idea once again not executed well at all. The random bits of scariness were all shattered by the ending, which I am going to ruin for you, in the hope you will never attempt this movie. Of course like all Hollywood movies that don't have a ending they simply just make the character a schizophrenic! Which works if you’re dealing with a great movie such as Fight Club, but you’re not you’re dealing with a sorry excuse called The Number 23! Jim stick to comedy you jerk! And if you look for something hard enough you will find it!

My Favorite Movie

Heat (1995) - This action packed crime drama is easily one of the best films ever made. The cast alone makes it worth seeing. Heat was released on December 15, 1995 and was written and directed by Michael Mann; who later would go on to direct such greats as Collateral and The Kingdom, not to mention already having directing The Last Of The Mohican's. Heat stars Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Pacino a LAPD homicide detective who is completely obsessed with his work and consequently is on the way out of his third marriage. DeNiro a calm collected highly professional thief that has a trusty and loyal crew made up of Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, and Tom Sizemore. DeNiro's Crew plays by one rule, "you wanna be making money on the street. Have no attachments, allow nothing to be in your life that you can not walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the conner." After a heavy string of very detailed robbery's have taken over LA, Pacino catches wind of DeNiro this puts the two on a collision course that erupts onto the streets of LA after an attempted bust of DeNiro and his crew. Heat combines the lives of men that have very much in common except what side of the law they are on. This epic twister will have you on the edge of your seat the entire movie.

The reason that this movie holds such a great interest with me is largely due to one thing and i am fine with admitting it. About half way through this film DeNiro is in the middle of a bank robbery that has a score value of 12.5 million dollars, earlier DeNiro makes it clear that this is his last heist, the robbery is going all as planned until Pacino on a small lead shows up just as Deniro and his crew are walking out the front door! This leads to a large scale gun fight that pours on to the streets of LA, in which Pacino looses his right hand man and same for DeNiro. This gun fight is one of the most realistic and fantastic scenes in any film ever! The ending of this scene puts closers to somethings and opens others. This film is a remarkable balance of action and reality. Not to mention that this film has one of the best casts I have ever seen in a movie before. Natalie Portman made her debut in this movie as Pacino's step daughter who he deeply cares about. Not to mention it is the first time DeNiro and Pacino are put on screen together!

This movie was a commercial box office hit grossing over 60 million in theaters alone. Eventually it went on to gross almost 200 million world wide. The New York Times called it, "one of the best movies of the decade" and it is highly proclaimed as some of Mann's best work. Although it is a remake of a made-for-television movie called L.A. Take Down, they were both written and directed by Mann. RockStar Entertainment has Heat:The Video Game on schedule for 2009, both DeNiro and Pacino our signed on for voice overs! Hopefully this video game will rekindle the films success to a generation that is satisfied with garbage like 300 and Smoking Ace's. Thats all.