Chinatown

Chinatown was one of the more interesting film noirs in this unit. It might have been my favorite film for this unit if it didn't take us like 3 weeks to watch the hole movie.

It didn't exactly feel really film noirish, in the sense that it was more of a detective movie to me. Most of the movie in the beginning of the film was in brood day light, and it didn't give you the feeling of hopelessness or powerlessness like many people describe film noirs as. Instead it felt almost optimistic and upbeat. JJ wasn't in too much trouble if he didn't investigate the murder case it was just showing that he had made a mistake when he got hired to see if molry was cheating, since it wasn't really molry's wife that hired him.

At any point in the film he could have stopped investigating the case and carried on like nothing happened. In the other film noirs we watch the main characters were in it no matter what from the beginning, like Mike Hammer watching the naked girl being killed or in Out of the Past, having the main character have no choice but to do as he is told or he will get killed.

The ending of the film was the only real film noir scene in the movie and Beau R. pointed out. It was the only scene with obvious shadows and low lighting plus it was the only time you felt the hopelessness. The confusion with the police and Cross, plus Cross being the girl's father and grandfather which is just nasty. Then having evil win over good just made it feel dirty and in a sense more noiry.

Over all I did like the film even though it didn't give me the noir sense in its entirety but it still was a great movie. I would recommend it to just about anyone.

Kiss Me Deadly

What is there that one can say about the movie Kiss Me Deadly. Honestly after viewing the movie I thought it was a joke ending. Nothing against you Mr. K but this was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. And justifying it by saying it was meant to be a B list movie jsut shows they know it was a dud.

The entire story doesn't really make any sense. Hammer picks up a naked girl who escaped from a mental hospital who makes sexual noises. Then gets kidnapped with her, watched her die and is almost killed himself. Then the FBI shows up and there is a big deal around this box.

I know it was a movie and everything doesn't have to work like it does in the real world but you're expected to think that a wooden box in a leather case in some random gym locker holds an nuclear weapon that brings the holocaust. Now what kind of drug was this person on when they made the plot. A group of monkeys with a pen and paper in a room could write a better plot then that. Hell my 3 year old cousin is Shakespeare compared to this.

And in genarl the Mike Hammer character is just some asshole who is looking for a fat check to come out of this one. Plus if I got a brand new jaguar from some random guy, bombs or no bombs you take that car and keep you mouth shut. That car probably cost the entire movie bugdet.

Well all in all I think you know my opinion of the movie and my review. so low writing about it is making me think about it which is giving me a headache.

Out of the Past

I have to admit coming into this film, I was expecting to watch some corny, cheese detective story. You know the kind. The ones with the private eye in a trench coat, calor popped, and a hat pulled down low. Because that is what I thought of when I thought film noir. And in some cases that is true but in this film out of the past i was pleasantly suppressed because I actually liked it a lot.

I mean what more can you ask for then a kickass hero who basically does every hot girl in the movie, even the bad ones. He's even got a deaf mute sidekick who doesn't even get a real name just "The Kid". Here's a guy who at the beginnign of the film just wants to move on in his life live a motist existance running a gas atation in some small town. But no his past comes out of nowhere to finish what he started. You might even say it came "Out of the Past" if you will.

Jeff was definately no of the coolest characters we have seen so far in art of film. But the way the movie makes him quietly appear and have low key lighting on his face just makes it that much more intense. And even though you never actually see a gun shot every time you hear one you know someone just died, usually by the hands of Kathie.

Now which this movie being followed by Kiss Me Deadly it makes it look just that much better. So if you have yet to see this movie and like old style crime solving films, pick it up sometime you might just be suprised.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotles Mind

This was a movie unlike any I have seen before. And I can honestly say it made me think about school on the weekend. I found myself going "I can't wait til Monday so we can finish the movie in class". For those of you who know me you will know that school is not what I'm interested in outside of the classroom, and usually in the classroom too.

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was on of the most artist films I have ever seen. Everything in the movie was done on purpose. The small things too, like when Joel walks into the kitchen to find the nose and the TV shows his body, and the words slowly disappearing from the street signs and the books. And having the car crash out of nowhere when Joel talks about how his world is falling apart. It was the small things like this that show just how much thought was put into the making of this movie.

And the plot of this movie was unbelievable. A love lost and the anger impulse that follows to erase the memory. Then in the possess realizing why you fell in love in the first place and trying to stop the memory lose. You find yourself throughout the entire movie feeling for Joel, wanting him to somehow sucseeded and keep his memories just to watch it all slowly slip out of his hands. No matter how hard he tried to resist the memories just disappear. And the side plot between Frodo and Clementine, stealing Joel's past with Clem to win her heart. Then the Doc and Mary having a history and Mary not knowing it. The though of losing your most dear memories is frightening, and it makes you think about your own past relationships that when wrong. Then you realize yourself that you were only remembering the end, the bad times. The fight that ended it, the build up of anger, the break up. Well this movie, at least for me, made me think of relationships like that, then I started thinking of how the bad overshadowed the good times. I gives you a new perspective on you past as a whole. All the bad times you had don't seem as important, but the good seem stronger. And I think that that is one of the many ideas from the movie.

Plus this movie had a comic side to it. A movie that had very serious ideas behind it also had pothead jokes. The friend who was a stoner kept adding in comments about it, talking about how the smoking even out his drinking, then saying he can't see a thing. And Jim Carey being Jim Carey at some points, making it feel like a more manageable movie.

This is now a movie I am willing to add to my favorites list, and I recommend it for anyone who breaths, and even some people who don't.

His Girl Friday

The movie that we just finish watching in class earlier this week was His Girl Friday. This was to cover our screwball genre for the class and I felt it was a great choice. Now normally I don't really like the older style movies or the romantic take a girl to see it movie. But this one was not unbearable.

I won't lie it isn't making my all time favorite movies list but at the same time I've seen worse. The thing that I like about this movie is you don't have a chance to not pay attention. The movie moves so fast, the action happens quickly, the characters that at a ridiculously fast pace, they have multiple phone conversations at once, and you can never see what's coming next. Maybe that is because you don't have a chance to stop and think about it but that's besides the point. A movie that can keep me on my toes, trying to keep up with what is going on appeals to me. I mean I liked the Matrix trilogy cause it had the same kind of thing going for it where there is so much happening. Now It's not like you can compare The Matrix to His Girl Friday, since they are completely different styles of movies but they both keep you thinking.

But I also didn't like this film for the way that they expect you to think that this all happened in like one day. Hildy and Walter were married and got a divorce. Hildy just stopped by to say she quites and Walter starts trying to win her back. Then conveniently there is this huge story going on that Hildy has to report on for one last story. Then this story gets huge and they act like they never had the divorce. Now I've had friend with divorced parents and sometimes they can remain friends, but those two were ready to jump in bed together. And at the end of the day they want to get married again forgetting that they already tried that just a little while ago.

So over all I have to stay neutral on this movie. There were too many conflicting things to have me make a choice to like or dislike. I'll have to stay on the fence.