High Noon

High Noon is a suspenseful western film made in 1952. It is about a man who refuses to leave town, against the advice of everyone, to face some criminal gunmen that plan on killing him. Even though he is freshly married, and a retired marshal, he feels morally obligated to protect the town he worked so hard to keep safe. It wasn't as much shooting, and fighting as we typically see in westerns. The big showdown between the ex-marshal and the gun slingers wouldn't take place until the end of the movie. Each scene was building to this climax.
High Noon was all about suspense. It was filmed in actual time. What I mean by that is for every fifteen minutes that pass in the movie it takes fifteen minutes to watch. This created suspense because you constantly could see how long until the showdown. Another technique involving time is the close-ups of the clocks at various moments in the movie. The clocks had swinging pendulums that really emphasized each passing second. They also repeated a scene of chair with a voice-over. The voice belonged to a spurned convict threatening to kill the protagonist when he gets out of jail. That criminal will be at the showdown. I think they use this scene to strike home the point that he really is in danger and it will be a fight to the death.
He is trying to recruit people to help him but he has a lot of difficulty. No one wants to get involved in this gruesome ordeal. The viewers don't know whether he'll be able to get help by the end. You also don't know if he'll leave town before it's too late (this is an option constantly brought up by his anti-violence wife). Everyone is prodding him to leave and with the lack of eager volunteers you never know if he'll leave or not.
*SPOILER* The best part of the movie is at the end after he kills the four bad guys basically on his own, he throws down his tin star. To me it was like he was saying "I've cleaned up your mess, no thanks to you. You don't deserve someone like me protecting you." I was disappointed that no one was willing to step up and do what was right.

Citizen Kane

Rosebud. One simple word leads to the basis of the classic, 1941 film, Citizen Kane. Newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane is one of the richest, and most powerful men in the United States. With his last breath he utters the enigmatic word: Rosebud. A newspaper reporter digs into Kane's past to find the significance of this mysterious word. The film shows his rise and eventual down fall. A man who seemed to have everything would have traded it all for something that most take for granted- love.
I liked this movie, it's not my favourite by any means but I did enjoy watching it. This classic film had many great moments. The scene that was my absolute favourite was the scene after his second wife left him and he trashed her room. He walks out of the room and he is reflected down the hall of mirrors. This was a stunning shot for a few reasons. It emphasized the feeling of loneliness that was so important at that moment in the film. It was also an impressive technical shot. At the time the movie was made they didn't have the technical skills we have now. They were able to get the numerous reflections without reflecting the camera.
I thought that Mr. Kane was an interesting character, he never let anyone or anything deter him from what he wanted to do. When people tried to influence his choices he would blatantly go against them, even if that made life harder. I didn't like how he treated his first wife, he shouldn't have cheated on her and he should have done his best to keep her, and their son out of the scandal. I also didn't like his second wife. She was whiny and immature.
I would recommend this movie for the simple fact that it is said to be one of the best movies of all time. I personally didn't think it met that expectation but it is a good movie, and a classic. I think Family Guy did the best sum up of it and would suggest watching that after you're finished watching the movie.

Kick-Ass

I thought this was an awful movie. It completely didn't advertise what it turned out to be. I was under the impression it was going to be a comedy but it turned my stomach numerous times. The movie is based off the comic of the same name, it is about an average New York teen who dons a wet suit and takes it upon himself to rid the streets of crime. After a mishap on his first stint he ends up in the hospital. This far from deters him, while in the hospital he had to have metal plates put in. Between that and his messed up nerve endings he is able to take beating after beating. He calls himself Kick-Ass, and before long is a local sensation. He inspires a father daughter pair to take on a mob that the father has a personal grudge against. They do a decent job of dismantling Frank's sizable underworld empire when Kick-Ass gets drawn into the fray. In an attempt to catch Kick-Ass, Frank's son Chris becomes Kick-Ass' first arch nemesis. A clever ruse causes a showdown that could end kick-Ass' life.
There were very few parts that I liked in this movie. The cons far outweigh any possible redeeming qualities. I found the scene where the man was microwaved alive disturbing. Another graphic scene was when the man was put in the car crusher, or when people were beat almost to death. I'm usually not too squeamish when it comes to violent scenes but this was over the top. There are plenty of techniques that they could have used instead of showing everything. Another unsettling quality was the father-daughter duo. The father is teaching the daughter in the area of deadly weapons and she is quite lethal. That isn't the disturbing part, this little girl is swearing and has completely lost her childish qualities.
I'm racking my brain to think of something that I liked. I guess one thing that I liked was The Mist's (the arch nemesis) car. It is tricked out and actually kind of cool. A bit of a stretch for something good but I really didn't care for this movie. Perhaps part of the reason I disliked it was I payed 7 dollars to watch it in the local theater and the sound was awful and the man did little to fix it. Now, 7 dollars isn't much money but I'm more upset about the time wasted watching this atrocity. I had actually watched a blog of this movie that warned me not to watch, I didn't heed their advice and went to it anyway. I strongly advise anyone who reads this blog to avoid this movie. No part of my being can justify recommending this movie.

My Sister's Keeper

The other night my family and I watched the movie My Sister's Keeper. The movie is based on the novel by Jodi Picoult and directed by Nick Cassavetes. This touching drama is about a loving family challenged by a child's illness. The Fitzgerald's are devestated when the daughter is diagnosed with leukemia and none of the family are matches. This is why Anna is born. She was genetically engineered to be a donor for her sister. From birth she has been donating to her sister and at eleven years old she's had a enough. She demands the right to her own body and goes as far as hiring a lawyer to achieve this. This choice causes turbulence in the family but ultimatley it is the first step in the realization of what it means to be a family.
This movie made me laugh and cry, I thought the actors did phenominal portraying the myriad roles. Even though I didn't care for the character she played I thought Cameron Diaz did an excellent job. I enjoyed seeing her play a serious role, when previously I had watched her in comedic movies. I also thought Sofia Vassilieva, the girl who played the dying girl Kate, did a a wonderful job. I imagine it would be quite difficult to play the role of a sick child.
The scenes I liked in the movie were the ones where Anna and her lawyer were discussing her situation. I liked how mature and intelligent her character was. Something I didn't care for was Cameron Diaz's character. I think she played the role well and it was necessary for the story but I was angry at the character. To me it was clear that she didn't care about Anna as much as her other daughter and did things that I was appalled at. At one point in anger she slaps Anna and I thought, as a mother, it was uncalled for.
I would only recomend this movie if you know what you're getting into. Make sure you keep a box of kleenex close at hand becuase this is a tearjerker.