A Changing of the seasons

As I leave the summer behind for the halls and studies of the school year I would like to say that my post will, in all likeliness, get closer together once the school year is here.

With that being said, I would also like any readers out there to know that starting this year I am thinking about doing some more "meaty" projects on this blog that will entail more than brief plot summaries and what I think of the overall affect of said film. I plan on doing a couple (between two and who knows how many) pieces on a subject that is very near and dear to my heart as a movie fan.

I do not wish to divulge all of what I am planning on doing, but I can tell you that the photographs in this blog will have a lot to do with some of these articles that I would like to write.

With that being said, I will leave you to enjoy the pictures and ask for any suggestions for ideas that I might write about, or movies that I should watch and write about in here. If there is any input at all, it will be greatly appreciated. I hope that this upcoming year will be a time of great films and great insights into them.

Top Trilogies - 1 - The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola

Was there any question? If you've not seen it, do. Sure there's a hick-up in the third installment named Sofia Coppola (an astounding director in her own right). The first two pictures, however, are perfect...perfect, and that leaves little room for any other saga to come into focus.

Top Trilogies - 2 - Trois Couleurs by Krysztof Kieslowski

In 1993 the Polish master, Krysztof Kieslowski, unleashed Trois Couleurs: Bleu on the world of cinema. With its unpeccable use of color and a moving performance by French beauty, Juliette Binoche, he told a story that was at once heart wrenching and heart warming. at the center of the film was the theme of liberty (represented by the color blue in the French tricolor) through loss.

A Year later he would release Blanc and Rouge both of which used the colors of the French tricolor to explore the themes of Equality and Franternity, respectfully. Both films, but especially Rouge staring Irene Jacob, uses lush cinematography rich in the color of the title to help set the emotional and visceral map for the trilogy.

These films are devestating, funny, maddening, and soothing simaltaniously, but more than anything these three films by Kieslowski are, in their very essence, beautiful. No more, no less. In saying that, however, I do not believe we have the right to ask for anything more.

Hancock by Peter Berg

Peter Berg's Hancock begs a question that has really only been asked in one other superhero film, 2004's Spider-Man 2. What happens when the personal weight of being a super hero gets in the way of being a hero and makes you a super jerk.

The film is flawed, to be sure, and the last 20 minutes or so is a little clunky. However, this film is driven by the star and artist, Will Smith, and the way that he has sold John Hancock as a man with a lot of power and a lot of problems.

The film follows John Hancock as we watch him meet a publicist (Jason Bateman) and his family. John Hancock as do other persons have some secrets that we will not reveal here. The film is quite smooth for the most part and it is quite entertaining throughout.

***

Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language.

Top Trilogies - Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson's epic trilogy is one of the most stunning trilogies ever made. The epic nine hour (theatrical release, 12+ extended cuts) trilogy tells the tales of four hobbits, a dwarf, an elf and two men who take it upon themselves to destroy an ancient ring made by the evil Sorcerer, Sauron.

Of course, given the fact that the three films raked in $2,954,933,388 world-wide, you already knew that much. These films took a simple story about a small group of unlikey heroes who take it on their backs to save the world. Jackson, with the touch of a master shows this romantic tale initially penned by J.R.R. Tolkien based off of stories in the Bible and his own war expiriences in WWI.

Eagle Vs Shark by Taika Cohen

Eagle Vs Shark got lost in New Zealand half-way between an American and a British comedy. It has the biting wit of the great British comedies that the American comedies often lack but it added a tenderness to its romance that is often lost in the British films. The lead male is Jemaine Clement from the popular HBO series Flight of the Conchords and the leading lady's name is Loren Horsley, an awkwardly beautiful girl who also happened to write the story that sparked the screenplay and the film as a whole.

The film plays like an adult version of Napoleon Dynamite and is in its own way much more endearing because of its more mature nature.

***

Rated R for language, some sexuality, and brief animated violence

Wall-E by Andrew Stanton

There is little that I can say about Pixar Pictures latest film, Wall*E, that you haven't heard or seen for yourself by this point.

The film is an absolute masterpiece, and at this point in the year it stands as the best film released to this point. From its message to children to apprecriate what we have here in this planet and to take care of it to its wonderful homage to the late Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Wall*E is far more than a childish entertainment or a cartoon that can get to the soft side of a hardened adult. It is a tender film about taking care of our planet, it is a comedy about a cute robot and it is a romance story for the ages.

The first half hour has little to no dialouge and the film is all the better for it, the only dialouge in the opening sequence comes from a song from Hello, Dolly and from Fred Willard setting up most of the plot for the rest of the film through a left behind video. This is an animated feature for the ages and it may well be the first animated masterpiece since Disney released The Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King both in the early 1990's, long before most of Wall*E's watchers were even thought about, let alone born.

****

Rated G