I Guess I Haven't Gotten Out Much

Alright. So I haven't seen a movie in a long time. I just haven't taken the time to sit down and watch something either at my house or in theaters, so I really am not sure what all to write about. Let's see... I guess I'll just write about what we've been watching in class. So we just started Battle of Algiers, and I have to say it's better than I thought it would be. The documentary review thing we watched in class to set up the movie made it seem like it was going to be some old, black and white, boring war movie like you always find on the History channel. I'm not saying the History channel is bad in any way, I actually love the History channel, especially late at night, but I'm just saying I thought it was going to be really not so good. Plus, when I found out that it was in French, I was actually kinda happy because I was hoping I would be able to understand everything without having to read the subtitles, but that is definitely not the case. The only stuff I can understand without reading is the voice over. Everything else, or just about everything else, is in Arabic or in very hard to understand French. That was kind of disappointing... But as for the actual movie, it's a bit hard to tell exactly what's going on, but I can tell there's a lot of action, or at least a lot of shooting people. Hopefully I'll understand the movie more as it progresses, otherwise this movie's going to pretty much go right over my head, and I definitely won't enjoy it.
Well anyway, here's the trailer for the movie. It makes it look pretty intense.

A Very Good Unit with Some Iffy Stuff

The last Romantic Comedy/Screwball Comedy unit was definitely my favorite unit so far. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a really good movie in my opinion. It was kind of confusing, but I like movies that make me think about things that I would not normally think about. Eternal Sunshine is now actually one of my favorite movies. I've never seen anything quite like it, and I really liked it.
On the other hand, His Girl Friday is definitely not one of my favorite movies. I really didn't like it hardly at all. Sure it was funny, but it really didn't do it for me I guess. I can't really explain why not, I just didn't enjoy it. I think it has something to do with how it was so fast paced that there was never any time to think or enjoy what just happened, stuff just kept happening and none of the characters seemed to pay any attention to what it was that was happening. I also didn't like how I pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen in the end right from the get go. I like movies that actually make me have second guesses as to what's going to happen, even if it is not what I want to have happen. I'd rather have something bad happen then know exactly how the movie will end. Knowing the ending seems to defeat the purpose of watching a movie in my opinion. I knew that Bruce and Hildy were going to end up together, so nothing that happened in the movie really held my attention; it seemed like a bunch of filler really.
So, I guess what I'm really saying is when it comes to any movies that deal with any amount of romance, I like them to be slower; I want to be able to understand what's happening and why it's happening and come up with my own conclusions, and have the ending be more or less of a surprise to me.

Funniest/Dumbest Movie Ever?

I recently watched The Three Amigos directed by John Landis and starring Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short as three "amigos." I watched it with a couple of friends, and it was probably the dumbest movie I have watched in a LONG time. There were so many moments that were absolutely ridiculous that I just had to laugh, like the "Singing Bush" scene (the clip below)

That was probably one of the dumbest and funniest scenes in the movie. The "magic chant" they have to say is absolutely hilarious in a really strange way. We had to pause the movie there and watch it over just because it was so ridiculous. There were many other scenes like this one (the dancing and singing in the bar while everyone thought they were cold blooded killers).

I have to say these two videos demonstrate the true nature of cowboys.....NOT! These completely contradict what is commonly accepted as a cowboy. It truly does what a parody is supposed to do: make fun of a certain genre. I found that this movie was pretty funny, but I would definitely not watch it again...

The Nightmare Before Christmas

I recently acquired the digitally remastered DVD collector's edition of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. It has always been one of my favorite movies, even though it is widely considered a kiddy movie. The basic plot of the movie is that Jack Skellington, who lives in Halloween Town, falls into a tree and ends up in Christmas Town. After exploring Christmas Town, he decides he wants to bring Christmas to Halloween Town. He tries and ends up failing, but it is thanks to Sally, the "woman" who loves him to fix things.
Even though I already own this movie on VHS, it is totally worth it to own the DVD version. First of all, my VHS player hardly works, and secondly, the quality of the sound and picture is greatly improved in the new remastered version. Plus, all of the bonus features in the set make it all more worth the while. If anyone was ever a fan of this movie, they should look into this collector's edition, especially if they don't own the original VHS copy. Learning all about how Tim Burton used stop motion and about the background information on the storyline and the characters really adds to the overall amazingness of this movie. And yes, it is truly amazing so it deserves "amazingness" to be made up for it.

*EDIT*
The music in this movie is also very cheesy, but that only makes it all the better. I never really managed to learn the songs, but i love them nonetheless. My favorite song is for sure the Oogie Boogie Song or the Halloween Town theme song... I can't decide... They're all so good.

Introduction

I'm a fairly average movie watcher in my opinion. I see a few movies a month, although most of them i just see sitting at home or at a friend's house. This year though, I'm taking 2 film classes: Art of Film and French Culture in the Modern World (which is pretty much a film class that had to have its name changed so it would be acceptable). I guess I'm taking a big step into the cinema world, so I'll just have to wait and see how it goes.