Bringin Up Baby

Now this movie was one that I don't know I liked or disliked. I found some parts of this movie to be appealing but also just hated some of it. One of the things that I found to be somewhat funny were the characters. I thought that the stupidity played out by all the characters brought something to the movie. I find that sort of stupid humor to be amusing and thought that the actors were very good at all being stupid together and really played their parts. Now even though I thought that the actors played their parts well none the less I found a few certain characters to be annoying as hell. Susan probably was the most annoying character I have ever seen in a movie. First of all, her voice reminded my a a bird being defeathered and her childish attitude reminded me a a 5 year old girl trying to get whatever she wants. I found David's stupidity to be a little bit over the top and him giving in the everything Susan wanted was pretty annoying. Over all I think that this movie was not one of my favorites but there were a few parts of it that I liked.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

The movie that I decided to watch was from Robert Ebert's list. It was The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). This movie to my suprise when I went to Blockbuster to rent it was in color! I guess I don't really know when movies started being filmed in color but I was stunned when I found that this movie had color and good color at that. The Behind the scenes element that I decided to look at as I wantched this movie was set design. I couldn't find anything online about the set creation but under problems of making the movie there was nothing mentioned about the set so it must have been all good. The setting was very typical to all the other Robin Hood movies that I have scene in the past. The set designers did a good job on the two locations that this movie was filmed on and gave it a realistic look that brought me back to the middle ages.
First of all, one this that made my decision in lookoing at set design was that the movie was in color. I think that it adds a lot to the set when color is in the picture because it makes many things stand out while in black and white that is not quite the case. There were basically only two different sets in this movie. There was Sherwood Forest and the King's castle. The forest was not a fake set, it was just a normal forest full of oak green leafed trees. There were a few many different scenes in the forest and the director, Micheal Curtiz, did a good job of having the right scenes in the right locations of the forest. An example of this is when Robin hood and his men were setting up to ambush a nobleman and his soldiers the scene was set on a slender path with tall trees in which they could hide. When they would feast in the forest it wouldn't be in a cramed area but in a large opeing in the woods. I liked also that the forest was more or less undisturbed from industralization execept for a couple dirt paths because this made me feel like we were back in the medival age. The second part of the set that was used was King Richard the Lion Heart's castle. This castle was a built set that was used in many scenes as well. The castle depicted an old time castle pretty well except for a lack of windows. Exept for that it looked like it was made of strong stones and there were many torches used to light up all the banquet halls and corridors. Also the little things of the set were large dinning tables with big chairs for the nobles and even more luxourious for the king and prince, etc... There were large wood doors and wooden barracads to keep out the enemies which I think was very realisitc. The castle had one big fight scene in it where Robin Hood, Sir Robin of Loxley, was all over that place. He was running up and down all of the tall sprialing stair cases and it gave that castle an appearance of being massive as they indeed were. One thing that I think showed the movie being a little older was that there was never a long shot of the castle where you saw the roof or any part of the ceiling. Since I know that the budget for movies back in the day were not even close to what is spent today to make movies I assume that they had limitied funds for making the set super good but I though this movie's set was awesome for having been made so long ago.
Overall this movie had an excellent dipiction of the old days of nights and castles. I think that with the limited budget that they had they did a wonderful job pulling it all together to make this movie. For being made so long ago I was amazed at the color and I think that it added on a lot to the movie as a whole. I would have never guessed that this movie was made so long ago because I was very impressed. Overall I highly reccommed watching this movie.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Western Theme

One of the themes that I found to be most present in the western that we watched, My Darling Clemintine, was the Good vs. Bad. In this movie there was of course the protagonist who is introduced in the frist scene, Wyatt Erp, as well as the protagonist, the Clantons. I found that throughout the entire film there were many scenes in which these two parties were in conflict. This conflict was the real meat of the movie because this dispute kept the movie rolling on. In many westerns that I have scene the theme of this movie highly envolves the good vs. bad because that is basically what makes up a western.
In my opinion this is a good theme to have in a movie. Many movies have a theme similar to this because it is a commonality that usually are part of the plot in most movies. I think that when this is the theme for a movie I can expect a little more from the film because it causes more conflicts and action. In some movies like say mystery movies and maybe comedy's, which are great genres, are sometimes a little bit slow moving because of the lack of that protagonist vs. antagonist. There is no saying what the best theme is in my opinion because there are so many but this is one that I do enjoy very much and make westerns the great films that they are.

Citizen Kane

Well first of all I have not sceen too many black and white movies in my day so I don't have much to compare this one too. Even though my B&W experience is minimal from the ones that I have sceen I found this one to be pretty enjoyable compared to the others. First of all, I found the acting to be pretty good even though it said at the end most of the actors were new to acting and it was there first film. Also I did like that there were some special effects used even though they were nothing like we have today they still add onto the movie. Since this was based on somewhat a true events/people I found it to add to the mystery of the movie therefore getting me more excited to find out what would happen. Overall I did enjoy the plot of this movie and found it to seem very well done for a movie made so long ago.

Newer Movie Review

Once again we have another film about terrorism. Starring action super star Bruce Willis as John McClane, a NY police officer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. he is visiting his wife when the office party gets broken up by a group of terrorist who are trying to steal a large sum of money from the buildings vault. John McClane is the typical super police man who can take out the bad guys with ease. Being the man on the inside it is up to him to save the day. Director John McTeirnan has taken the aveage view of terrorism and played it out as usual in this film. One thing that was similar to most films involving terrorism is that the terrorist were all foreign. I don't like this stereotype because it gives people a misconception that all terrorists are foreign. Alexander Gunadov plays the role of Karl, the main terrorist in charge of the takeover. In the film he is a ex-German freedon fighter. For not being a very mainstream actor I think that he played out his role very well. I like his character as being very ruthless and to the point as I assume someone would be in this situation.

The director used many special effects which I think were fairly realistic for the time even though back then they didn't have the digital technologies that we do today. There were many gunfights and explosions which did end up briging a fialry realistic view to the film. Also the makeup that must have been fairly difficult to do seemed very realistic. The characters were constantly changing from bloody to bloodier and alive and dead. I think that the makeup job in this film was top notch.

One main thing that I noticed in this film was that the lighting was almost always fairly dark. I think that this was done because it was more of a dark film and therefor it fit the mood. Also the camera movements were clearly more advanced than older films. They was more than just pan and tilt used. Cameras moved up and down and all around. Also they used a heli-cam to film when actors were up in a helecopter which I think added to the intensity of some scenes. It was a pretty basic action film but now a days what isn't.

I would give it 2.5/4 stars because it was a good film but just didn't stand out as being all that speacial.