Top Five Overrated Movies

One thing I dislike doing for a film is being to over hyped, that's why I am a pessimist. But if there is one thing I hate is being drawn in by other's over hype, even critics. Just because a film is said to be good by a top notch critic or even one of your friends doesn't mean you should take his word, form your own opinion.

To commemorate these films I have formed a list of five Over hyped, overrated and just overdone.

Number 5: The wizard of Oz

This may be a bit of a shock, but yes I do believe that Oz is a bit overrated. Don't get me wrong, I love this film, It's nostalgic and cultural significance, it being the first film I ever saw and a landmark of cinema. But after the arrival of 'Oz the great and powerful' it got me thinking,'can we ever get an Oz adaption without the comparison to the old, bright and cheery original. We can not. You might think I am being too hard, but please it's just my opinion. It was a good film, but others like 'Oz tgap' and 'Return to Oz' can never get a chance if this film continues to poke its head around every corner of the Emerald city.

Number 4: To kill a Mockingbird

Now I know that many love this film and see it, like the Wizard of Oz, as a classic. But for me it was just boring. The pacing was slow, the acting for the most part was wooden(Mary Bedlam and Gregory Peck are my only favorite actors) and I had recently read the book and it was a very decent read even if it didn't teach me how to kill a mockingbird(bad joke I know, it's my only one). I had a completely different idea to the film's portrayal. I may also be biased as this film was released the same year as 'Lawrence of Arabia', a well shot, well portrayed and well paced film. It won the best picture, but Peter O'Toole lost to Peck in Best Actor, which I consider an absolute travesty. Peck did well playing the all american hero, but Peter portrayed a HERO OF WAR, a successful one at that. I'd like to see these two in an Epic Rap Battle of History with Lawrence winning. I might give it a chance in the future and who knows maybe I will get a better appreciation for it.

Number 3: Twilight 

You may seem surprised to see this so low or on this list at all, but yeah, this is what I think of it.

Like the Music today, it's trash but still a hit, critics pan it and yet it still continues to be a box office hit. I suppose a good example of the diversity of badness can be found in the nostalgia critics "Is Twilight really that bad?" . But it was way too over hyped and it was the winner of many Razzie's so I can't complain too much. I'll say that I only liked two character the dad and Alice, the rest were horrible. Not much else to say but really bad AND SOMEHOW POPULAR!

Number 2: Avatar

Yeah....everybody seem's to have the same opinion on this film. It kept us waiting and waiting, stories shifted around, rumors, tales. that James Cameron took nearly ten years to make this film just waiting for the right technology. And what was our reaction to it in the first month........YEEEAAAAHHH! THIS IS FREAKIN AWESOME! The action, the design, the ideas. That was until we found out it was a combination of Ferngully, Pocahontas and Halo. The action is good, but only in 3D. the world is vivid and impressively designed. But alas it was meant to be a standard film and ultimately a tired and over used one at that.

Number 1: Argo
What a major let down. this film is a much too over hyped film. I mean winning the Best Picture over Life of Pi, Les Miserables or even Django Unchained is just mind boggling. I know I have gone on and on about this many times, but I cannot be the only one who dislikes this film. The first half is kind of tense and the supporting cast like John Goodman and Alan Arkin are quite good. But there are just too many historical inaccuracies, the plot is predictable(being a historical drama) and I don't think it really took much risks other bringing up a very delicate subject like the Iran hostage crisis. I have too many qualms for one list and will do a review in the future. But I think it's just too over hyped, overrated and underdone. My verdict: watch Avatar instead.

That's my list, I hope you enjoyed. I realize my opinion will garner some negative feedback, so please keep in mind this is my opinion. If you have your own opinion please comment and tell me if I forgot anything or if there is a review you want me to do. Thank you for your time.

Donnie Darko

What many consider to be an underrated classic, Cult classic and one of the greatest Indie films of all time, I would tend to agree. This film is a perfect film hardly anything is wrong, the characters are multi-dimensional, the plot thought provoking and the logic reasonably realistic. Starring now even more popular Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Holmes Osborn and Jenna Malone. The film also features Seth Rogen in his first feature film, so something for fans of Seth, but we will get to him later.

The film revolves around the life of a brilliant, yet psychologically disturbed young man named Donnie and his interactions with the people of his town. Oddly enough I can relate to this character, not the psychosis, but the fact that none understand him or how he works. He has quite an impressive understanding of philosophy, time/space and parallel dimensions and can have deep talks about society and emotions. He starts seeing a being dressed as a rabbit known only as Frank, who tells him that the world will end in, and I quote, "twenty eight days, six hours, forty-two minutes and twelve seconds  ". The film delves into the science and philosophy of why this might be happening as Donnie begins to develop a rather nihilistic attitude and becomes slightly more pessimistic, much to his family and friends discomfort.

This film astounds me for its impressive story telling, in that most films will just focus mainly on the protagonist and/or antagonist, but this film develops the main, the villain, the secondary characters, the secondary villains and progress with teachings on high school life and as science-fiction. It is actually a high school drama with a bit of sci-fi thrown into the mixture. this would be my favorite tv show, sci-fi, psychology, philosophy as well as be something relatable through the medium of high school(I won't lie, season 1 of Glee, I actually liked it, because it was something new with singing and characters, but that wore off quickly.).

The characters are hilarious and interesting. Donnie's father is the coolest dad ever, understanding he needs someone to talk too and he usually finds humor in every scene(His reaction to why Donnie got in trouble is hands down the funniest moment in this film). His girlfriend, Gretchen as she is known, is supportive, kind, but has her limits and is trusting of Donnie enough to come to him about her missing mom. The teachers are awesome, someone must have had someone like Karen Pomeroy, she is a sassy, no-nonsense, revolutionary. Her methods are different to say the least, but that cannot be said for Kitty Farmer, I realize know that name suits the likes of conservative christian idealist versus Karen Pomeroy, a Bourgeoisie. Kitty is the pain in the ass religious eccentric who pushes for purity when the man she looks up to is absolutely not what she thinks he is. These Idealists are a pain in my ass, I see them in Easy A and they believe anyone opposed to them should be shunned. The only problems I really have is the screen time of other characters like Maggie or Seth. They receive hardly anywhere near as much screen time as everyone else, Seth I understand as he is new to the scene. Maggie on the other hand is a very important character. Through her Donnie secrets are revealed to his parents, she has a most peculiar Boyfriend and mainly she is his sister, dissapears for most of the film and doesn't show up till the end. This is my only real problem with the film.

So, overall this is one of my favorite Indie movies and I can see where the Cult may have come from.The film bombed at the box-office, but critics praised it for what it was and I am glad it has received a larger fan base, but I still consider it underrated as not many know about it. It's a thought provoking, intelligent and sometimes moving SciFi/Drama. The characters are well thought out and developed, Donnie is a relatable, enigmatic hero of every day life.

So, here I shall reveal my new scoring system(what! every critic has one!). It is scored on Five Aspects:

Premise(is the premise even good enough for a script fix)

Actors(Are the actors even interested in the film they are in)

Behind the scenes(Effects, lighting, music,etc.)

Script(Does it say what it needs to say in the time given)

Director/direction(can our interests be maintained throughout in such an artistic way), they don't fall into this specific order.

So far the premise is good *

The actors give a damn *

The Effects are only okay, 1/2

The script is intelligent and interesting *

The director has good vision *

Four and a half stars, Verdict: Worth seeing a second time......and another time after that.

A Clockwork Orange

This one is a bit tricky as I do not know how to feel about it. Should I look past it's cultural status and look at it plainly as a film or judge it for the reasons it has a cult. I believe I will go for the former. As for story, Interesting to say the least, I had no idea where it was going. In fact I had an idea in my head about what took place. Seeing only clips, trailers and snippets of what people discussed, I had come to the conclusion that one young man has been taken in by this dystopian future of Britain and is transformed into the ultimate criminal mastermind and anarchist, but the actual story is the opposite of what I had come to believe. It was a gritty, surreal and disturbing film. It's visuals, it's scenarios and it's characters. Alex DeLarge is by far one of the most peculiar and at the same time inviting characters in cinema. He come's off as a villain, an anarchist  and possibly the most horrible person we have ever met, with his beatings/attacks on friends and civilians  rape, disobeying and lying to his parents and persons of authority. But he so enjoys his role as chaos, you can certainly see that Malcolm McDowell giving this his all, in what many consider to be the single biggest snub in Oscar history(I still think Life of Pi should have won over Argo). In one scene he improvised singing the song 'Singin in the rain', to which Stanley Kubrick bought the rights to use in the film and has since become so chilling a scene, it rivals that of Reservoir Dogs 'Stuck in the middle with you'.

But my only problem with this film is how unpleasant it is. Many scenes were cut out at first release for good reason. In the second half Alex really begins to suffer after a now infamously popular psychological treatment that has been parodied in many forms of pop culture(eg The Simpsons, Ned's declassified school survival guide). I say the reason this film became so popular is due to bad press that it got on release and the inner message and artistic message it conveys. Alex is good fun to watch and the way he reacts in such a nonchalant manner to how bad everyone and everything is treating him and vice versa, is so cool had he not become such an insufferable wimp for most of the second half of the flick, I would have put him on my Top ten bad-asses list. I will not say how it ends, although I will say it's rather bittersweet. I won't tell you to not see it because of its grim nature, nor see it for it's impressive scenario and characters(well alex, I thought every one else was either a Jerk or a bland, one dimensional plaything of Alex), So I shall leave it to you good sir's and madame's of the internet to see it at your own will. If you want me to review anything in particular or have I forgotten something please comment. For it shall be gorgeousness and gorgeousity to hear from you all. 

Music Today

I regret to inform, but I have become a politician or rather one of the aspects of a politician. I say one thing one minute and something completely different the next. I found this out when I was contemplating my favorite songs for list I am going to do( or maybe bands TBA) and I realized that some songs I enjoy are techno, rap and mainstream-pop. In the past, I disliked anything to do with lip-syncing or auto tuning.

But for some reason I am drawn to the likes of Epic Rap Battles or Barely Political on youtube. I don't know what makes them so interesting, maybe it's the draw towards there satire of modern music. Music parodies are some of the funniest on the internet. I probably enjoy the satire and at the same time commemoration of the artists work. I find that I cannot hate or make fun of an singer, musician or artist just because they have made it and I have not or as they are doing something with their lives. Yes they have it easy, not working to get where they are, just smile and sing in front of a camera and don't screw up.

One thing I suppose I dislike most about them however is the publicity and fame. I have read statistics that say things like Ke$ha out-selling the Beatles, Glee having more Top 100 hits than the Beatles, more people bought Spice girl over Bob Marley, the list goes on. It really makes me feel bad.

I need to realize that these "artists" do not need to dominate the lifestyle around me, on radio just play my Ipod, on television change the channel. If I ignore them they will no longer have an influence on my thought, with their beat playing over and over in my head. 

The Director's Chair

This segment is focused on the director of a movie. I will usually discuss something like his role as an icon or what has changed for him due to societies backlash on his/her films. Today is Stanley Kubrick, regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time. Or is he? This question only sprung up the night before, with me wondering; how has this man become such an icon. He has made only 16 film's, some of them barely made back there budget and a lot of them were considered much too controversial for there time.

 A Clockwork Orange, for example, was banned in England and had only received a limited showing in America, receiving an X-Rating. I had never heard of such a thing. Must be EXTREMELY risque and EXTREMELY EXTREME. Scenes of explicit violence, rape and nudity was prevalent and his political/social undertones suggest he was dissatisfied with the society he was living in or was poking fun at the running of the world at that time.

As for being a director, he was not a 'good' one. Let me elaborate. He had good vision. His cinematography, for the time, was perfection, leaving many wondering to this day how such a feat in the camera work was done, as the technology for such was not available at the time. He wrote very good screenplay's, mainly adaption work, 2001, clockwork, shining, Dr Strangelove, etc, were all based off of book's. But this often led to the original authors having to defend against any bad press the movie may have gotten due to Kubrick's vision. In fact, Kubrick was renowned for loosely adapting the novel's, leaving out scene's of key importance or adding in new characters. Stephen King even complained that the adaption of 'The Shining' was "the only one he had ever hated" of his novels.  

 I have devised a point system that for directors, whereby the amount of nominations they get in the Oscars(being the award that claim's you are the best of the year) gives you 1 point for win and a 1/2 point for nomination. The Razzies, on the other hand, being the award that say's you are the worst of that year, subtracts 1 point per win, and a 1/2 point per nomination. Eg. Steven Spielberg is 6, while Michael bay is -2.5. This of coarse does not reflect how good or bad a director is, it just a tab thats all.

Stanley Kubrick is 1.5. Another aspect is that he was nominated for a razzie for the shinning. the film was good, but his direction and how he handles the situation. His lead actress was stressed from constant abuse by Kubrick who in a way sort of wanted her to become a method actress and portray a more flustered, scared mother. this got so bad she fell ill and had even started to lose her hair. His methodological nature led to him having to repeat a scene many times in hope of getting it right or to try a new method. The lowest amount of takes he has ever taken was probably six, only because the camera broke on the final take. He actually retook a scene from the shinning 125 times before settling on one.

But once we get down to it, he is an innovative director. his camerawork spawned from his year's as a photographer. He developed new lenses, including one that can use the natural light of candles to provide enough light for the scene. this was eventually used by NASA to photograph the sun. His political undertone's are an interesting look at society. the reason his films has become iconic is because of there style, depth, atmosphere and his devotion to the film. So is he a "good" director, no. But he is an innovative and imaginative Director. He has made some of the best films ever made, I recommend you check them out.

The Evil Dead Trilogy

Spoiler Alert!

These are, by far, my favorite horror films of all time. They have not only redefined how to make a film on such a low budget scary, but also come up with  incredibly original ideas. I say original, this practically satirizes the dingy cabin in the middle of nowhere, a group of party loving teens arriving unsuspectingly and each being killed off. What is original is there is no cliches like the Nerd, the jock, etc. and instead they are just normal guy's and gal's, the humorously large amounts of blood and gore in this movie, the cinematography giving a POV look at the victims, his dutch angles(slanted) and the way he could make the movements more fluid and flowing. The film really gave off a surreal, thrilling and suspenseful atmosphere, with the foggy lake, concealed space of a log cabin and some cheap scares that were made all the more creepier with the build up behind it. 

The films, in a way, sort of link up to each other. The first film, considered to be the scariest, had five college students hang out in an abandoned log cabin, find a mysterious book, the NECRONOMICON, and awaken evil spirits. At first, I thought that this was going to be a zombie film, which it sort of is except for the bodies are more carriers for evil spirits called deadites, the body rots away as soon as the body is taken over and the beast can no longer remember who they are(Yeah that is pretty much a zombie). In the past zombie origins are never explained, especially in George A. Romero's living dead series. But according to witch lore and black magic, zombies are bodies that are re-incarnated with the souls of the dead. These beasts however can change appearances to lower the defenses of those around them, fly, transfer themselves or other deadites via bites to others and infest anything from tree's to furniture( that tree scene is still more creepy than some of the deadites in the film, don't look it up, buy and watch the movies thy are worth it!).

In the second film, the best one, there is more comedy, gore, action and Ash Williams like you have never seen him before. he has a wide array of one liners, goes through a whole amount of torture and wields a shotgun and a CHAINSAW HAND! Freaking awesome. He is also becoming more mentally unhinged, hallucinating and even becoming a deadite himself. The effects are also upped and the methods used(eg. puppets, stop-motion, camera angles, etc) should be used by many others for years to come. There are new characters including the daughter of the archaeologist who found the book of the dead, who is so much better than the last film's female lead. You can forget the introduction scene and connect it to the previous film to make them interlock, but it was meant to be a reboot, so you should try to watch the film as its own. 

As with the last one, completely new set up, but still connected. Ash has been transported back to the middle ages and is proclaimed the prophet from the sky(as he fell from it when they found him) and is sent to search for the book in hopes of it sending him home and ending the deadites. This film has way more slapstick than horror, but an army of skeletons, schitzo-ashes(see the previous film) and a whole new collection of one-liners are worth it.

What makes this collection of films have such a large cult following is anyones guess. Maybe its the pioneering effects of such a low budget film, instead of using lame CGI is a reason, maybe the high gore content at a time in the UK when films like these where video-nasties and banned, making it even more thrilling to see them knowing they are sort of illegal or perhaps its the legacy of the film with each film becoming an experience on how to be innovative with your money( for cheap props check out Backyard FX on youtube), how to build tension and atmosphere and coming up with an original Idea is more innovative and fun than just ripping or adapting. I recommend you see it and tell the world about it. If you have an opinion please leave a responce and thank you 

PS Sorry for the Delay, I have been busy.