A Movie Review of Midnight in Paris

What can I say about this film? Its amazing! Its not what I expected. I don't even think it qualifies as a romantic comedy. A story about a writer that is on vacation with his fiancee on the lovely city of Paris. Everything is normal to him, until he begins to see Paris after midnight. I don't know where to start, but I'll just say this: I know why its nominated for an Oscar in Best Picture of 2012.

I love the way the movie starts. Music and Paris. It really shows you that Paris is a beautiful city. In the movie, the intro sequence introduces the city of Paris; not only as the setting, but also as a character. The opening monologue given by Gil is a continuation, and you really feel that Paris is going to play a bigger part other than just be the backdrop in the movie.

The actual plot of the movie is very ingenious. Midnight in Paris's story is excellently written, towards the end it gets a little bit Inception-ish, but its all a good way. It is not a hard hitting, challenging story, it lets you focus on the character development which is what the movie is about: characters.

Characters are very well rounded, but the most developed is of course the protagonist. Since the start you get a good idea of what he is, where he stands and what you can expect from him. Throughout the movie he grows and changes, in a convincing way. Gil is very well written and fleshed out. Other characters are more superficial, but I think it was a conscious decision to make them that way. It works well with the movie, specially when you meet Hemingway and Adriana, whose characters are very well established much like any other character from the 20's Era.The contrast in character from different Eras makes the movie work so well that you can't wait for the clock to strike midnight again.

The acting was very solid. I specially liked Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway, I really enjoyed the character and the way Stoll portrayed him was very believable. Of course Owen Wilson drives the movie, and although I'm not a fan of his work (I think his delivery is weak in comedies), in here he felt like a near-perfect fit. I also want to add that having Adrien Brody play Dali was genius!

About Woody Allen. Midnight in Paris has Woody Allen's signature all over it; and I love it. The dialogues, the characters, the low key quirkiness. One thing I've always enjoyed about Woody Allen is the way he writes monologues for the characters, even small ones like in Midnight in Paris. It really brings forward what each character represents in the movie, and how they feel. I enjoyed the fact that Woody Allen kept Paris present throughout the film. It always came back to Paris. If this story could not had taken place anywhere else, and Woody Allen constantly reminds you of that. I also loved the thing about the rain, its a little tiny thing, but it adds so much more to the character that I can't imagine a Gil that doesn't like the rain.

Overall the movie is fantastic. The cinematography is great, the editing is great; every scene has its own individual rhythm, and in the end the movies flows nicely from start to finish. The music for this movie is perfect. The songs, the theme, everything fits into place, I ended up enjoying the music most often than not, I even let the credits roll all the way till the end just so I could hear the music.

I would definitely recommend to anyone. I would gladly watch it a second and third time. If you are a literature fan you might get more kick out of this movie. I feel sad if anyone saw this and didn't immediately recognize the names. You should all be familiar with all the writers and artists that show up, if you aren't then you have bigger problems. The movie is great, a very valid nomination. I encourage all to see this movie.

MOVIE SCORE:

• 9/10
• O (O.W.L.)

A Movie Review of The Birds (1963)

Staring Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor, Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" is Horror/Thriller about a small town in Northern California that is inexplicably attacked by a swarm of vicious birds. Almost 50 years later, this movie is still as chill-inducing as it was when it was released.

A great movie, one of Hitchcock's best. Still some movies don't age as well as others. The Birds, as well as other movies of the time, has a very slow start, it takes too long to get to the action, a lot of set up, it takes way too much time. Of course this could just be me, as modern cinema is more fast paced in nature and I'm used to it. The best parts of this movie are, of course, when the birds are attacking.

You never knew how terrible birds could be until you have seen this movie. And a flock of birds is even worse. There is a scene where Melanie (Tippi Hedren) is trap in a glass phone booth; that scene has to be the most anxious I was the entire film! The sound of countless wings flapping up and down against the glass, the raging chaos going on outside, the anticipation of birds breaking the glass and attacking! That scene is pure horror. I wont spoil other scenes, but the way those scenes were filmed and edited works amazingly well, the way the birds' attacks were handled is where the movie shines the most.

Of course this review won't do the film any justice, simply because I can't put myself in a mind state to say: "watch this movie in reference to it's time." It's extremely hard for me to watch a movie and not compare it to other, more recent, movies that have better effects and better cinematography in general due to technological advances. Still I think The Birds has aged quite gracefully, and you can still enjoy it without the age of the movie bringing you out of the experience.

The Birds, it's a classic movie that will have you fearing birds for at least a week. If you are looking for classic Horror you can't go wrong with this one.

MOVIE SCORE:

• 8.5/10 (adjusting slightly due to its release date)
• EE (O.W.L.)

A Comic Review of iZombie #21

First off I want to point out that i have never even tried to write a review on a comic. Ok, here we go:

iZombie is the story of Gwen, a zombie girl that lives in Eugene, Oregon. But she is not your typical droning, mindless zombie. Gwen retains her intelligence, but must eat a brain once in a while to keep it. She has a ghost friend named Ellie, and Spot, a were-terrier. Her life was ok, well despite the fact that she was a zombie, but recently more monsters have been appearing in Eugene; vampires, zombies, a mummy, not to mention monster Hunters and a Government branch called "Dead Presidents". Gwen seems to find herself in the middle of all of it.
Written by the amazing Chris Roberson, and drawn by the talented Mike Allred, iZombie quickly became one of my favorite comics.

Now on to the current issue. The comic opens up to a story about how the Dead President where started, and awesome story about Zombie Lincoln. But it quickly returns to current time to address pressing matters. This issue is all about setting up the next, Amon teaming up with Diogenes' team and The Dead Presidents, Galatea and Dr. Kovsky setting their plan in motion, and everyone pretty much ready for an attack. While Gwen is stuck in a plane she is still relevant, and Spot is still with few answers. 


Excellent writing by Chris Robinson, as always. However this issue features a guest artist: J. Bone. I think he did a good job with the characters, but I miss Allred, thats just me. Not a good issue to jump into the series, but it was pretty good, compared to past ones, I like the fact that we are not left in the dark about what is going on, and it seems that everything (or most of it) will be resolved in the next issue, hopefully with an epic battle! 


ok now this is the part where I don't know what I'm doing, like for instance I don't think I will be giving comics a grade of any kind, at least I dont think i should. I will just put a um, "must read"? I will figure it out next week, for now, i will end the review on:


This issue was very strong in story, can't wait for #22. Great job by the guest artist, and as always excellent job Mr. Robinson.

SHORT REVIEW: I said I was going to do X-23, but this issue dealt with a lot of back story (NYX) and I felt it would had been a bad review on my part, I wouldn't have much to go on, I still liked it though, and I really want to see which decision she made.

A Movie Review of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

I just saw Sherlock Holmes, initial reaction: Awesome.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a great movie, and sequel. Robert Downey Jr. delivers an excellent portrayal of Holmes; a little more out there but at the same time more reserved than in the first movie, a performance that only Robert Downey Jr. could had given. Jude Law's Watson is as solid and enjoyable as in the first one.

The movie opens at a fast pace, but quickly slows down. Do not fear though this is a good thing. The story is picked up, and the first encounter with Moriarty sets up the character. Then there is the scene where Holmes and Moriarty formally meet. I thought the scene was really well done, and the dialogue between the two was exactly what I expected. I think Jared Harris does a Moriarty that is very meticulous, very sharp, and above all he gives him that aura of always being in control of the situation. An almost perfect balance between Holmes and Moriarty, you certainly feel that they are equally matched, yet you get the sense that Moriarty could possibly have an upper hand. Very well done by both actors, in fact i would say my favorite scenes are those that include Moriarty and Holmes exchanging words.

But as strong as the performances by Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, and Jared Harris are; other characters seem to fall short. I felt that some characters like Sim fell a bit to the side, specially Mycroft; good performance for sure, but the character was underdeveloped in my opinion.

Acting aside, the movie was very good. The fights where fast paced but you never got lost following them, the cinematography makes the movie flow smoothly and the effects are amazing. There where however some shots that confused me, not in the sense of "I don't know whats going on here", but in a more "why is it like this" sort of way. Some shots where very different from the rest of the movie and they stand out, but im not sure why they are there.

Overall a good movie, I would recommend you go watch it if you like action packed detective work.

MOVIE SCORE:

• 8/10
• E.E. (O.W.L.)

A Movie Review of Pieces (1983)

First thing you need to know about this movie is that its a B Movie, no high expectations.
Pieces is "exactly what you think it is". A chainsaw wielding killer murders college girls.
The story is very limited, not much is developed throughout the movie, effects are great (considering that its a B movie and it came out in the early 80's), acting is ...standard. Music is ok.
So the movie centers around a college in New England, where various girls are mutilated by a killer. The story does not go beyond that, except for the opening scene (which was one of my favorite scenes), there is no back story. But that is not the point of the movie, it is all about the murders. Some are ok, some are laughable, none are scary; still I found it entertaining.
Although the movie lacked in many places, I felt that the influences where very visible. I got a very strong 'Dario Argento' vibe from the killer; the gloves, the shot of the hands, the music for the killer was also like Dario Argento's films. In fact the whole movie has a Dario Argento feel to it, too bad it doesn't even compare to any of his movies. There was also a scene that could have easily been a reference to The Shining.

As far as horror movies goes, this one is very low on the "horror scale", but if you are a horror fan like me, and a B movie enthusiast (like me) you will find that there are far worse movies you could see instead of this one. I would see this movie right before watching an actual good one, or just to laugh at, which i did.

seeing as this is my first review I don't know if i should give them some sort of score, or what scale to use, so for the time being I will use several different scoring systems.

MOVIE SCORE: 

• 6.5/10
• 2/5 stars
• D- 
• P (O.W.L.)

but I think i might be reviewing more B movies (i enjoy watching them even if they are generally bad) so i should make a separate scale for B movies right? ...well it on B movie scale its a solid 8/10...

Hey there

Hello there, welcome to my review blog. I will be posting reviews shortly, maybe as soon as tomorrow. I am excited about starting this blog! I don't care if no one will read it, I will continue with this blog until I ran out of things to review.
So right out of the gate you know I will be posting on here forever, that's called commitment guys, and its hard to find these days.
First review will come later this week!