"The food here is terrible. And the portions are so small!" Annie Hall

So, I am going to have a very hard time doing a synopsis for this movie, because it doesn't follow a linear path. So I guess I will sum up the movie kind of how Woody Allen does it in the opening sequence. He basically says that this is a movie about his relationships with women and how they've failed. Annie Hall is his most recent girlfriend, and the one he seems to be the most attached to.

Right before I started this movie, I spied a few adjectives that Netflix used to describe Annie Hall. One of those words was cerebral, and I don't think that that word could describe any other movie better. A lot of these jokes in this movie I wouldn't laugh at until a few minutes later... when I actually got them. Granted, the jokes were funny, they just took a little thinking. For instance, the title of this blog. Alvy (Woody Allen) tells a joke at the beginning of the movie that goes something like "There are two women having dinner, and one of them says to the other 'The food here is terrible' and the other says 'I know! And the portions are so small!'" Get it? Okay, take a minute... I'll tell you. Why would you want big portions if the food is terrible? See, that's funny. It just doesn't seem like a joke at first.

I have to say that I don't think that Annie Hall is a romantic comedy. I don't know if anyone has ever classified this movie as such, but if they did they would be sorely mistaken. Sure, this is a movie about relationships (although there isn't that much romance in it) and there are some really funny parts, but I wouldn't lump this movie in with say... Sweet Home Alabama or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. The feeling of this one was different.

I thought Woody Allen was hilarious, and not in a conventional way, which was nice. It was perfect the way he would address the audience in the middle of a scene. It didn't feel cheesy like it can in other movies, it was natural. He was filling us in on things we needed to know in a way that we could understand. I liked that we could see some of the things that were going on in his head, even if they were a little paranoid, like when he envisions Annie coming out of her body and sitting bored in a chair when he is trying to have sex with her, or when he imagines himself looking like a stereotypical Orthodox Jew when he is at dinner with Annie's family. I could really believe that Alvy was actually having these thoughts and feelings, which made them real. It isn't over the top, which was nice.

Annie Hall (Diane Keeton) as a character kind of got on my nerves. She represents pretty much everything I hate about women in movies. A lot of them have this stereotypical attitude that the world is against them and they have to fight the power to get what they want. Well, that's annoying. At first, Annie was so cute. In the parts of the movie before she starts seeing an "analyst" (or a psychologist) she is very sweet. She laughs a lot, smiles, has a good time. Then, as the movie progresses, she starts to see this doctor, and changes, and there is this whole scene where she is talking to her shrink about how if she has sex with Alvy (Woody Allen) then she would be going against her feelings or something. She becomes so much more serious and less fun. She moves to California and becomes so different and un-fun. It's lame. I say bring back the old Annie. There wasn't anything wrong with her. Everyone is a bit crazy, right?

Probably my favorite scene in the whole movie (besides when Annie is being all cute when she meets Alvy) is after Annie and Alvy have broken up for the first time, and she calls him at 3 in the morning telling him to come over and that its an emergency. When he gets there, she tells him that there's a spider in the bathroom. While there really is a spider in the bathroom (actually two), it becomes very obvious that she just wanted him to come over, and the two of them say that they miss each other and they get back together. However, the excitement I felt at them getting back together was flushed down the toilet when she asks him if there was another girl in his room when she had called him to come over. There was. He had been on a date that evening and they had gone back to his place. He, of course, lies and says there wasn't, and while I can see why he would lie, its situations like that in movies that I hate, because it is an immediate red flag that while things may be good right now, eventually, they are going to turn ugly. So frustrating.

However, in that scene where Alvy saves Annie from the spider, I loved that there were framed pictures of Alvy on the wall from the day where they try to cook lobster but all of the live lobsters escape and Alvy has to pick all of them up and put them back in the pot. Its little things like that that make movies real for me.

I also found it almost charming how Alvy doesn't like publicity. He is a stand up comedian that everyone seems to know, and yet when someone tries to take his picture or get his autograph, he seems almost annoyed by it. It just adds to his character, how he is in this profession where people will recognize him, and even though he doesn't like being noticed, he still keeps getting on stage. It's like he likes the torture.

I didn't really understand Rob's (Tony Roberts) character at all. He is supposed to be Alvy's agent, I guess, but he just seems to come in and out at random moments. Also, he calls Alvy Max because Rob thinks its a better name, which would be fine, except he says it EVERY LINE. I guess he was trying to make the name stick, but it was really distracting.

So, I'm going to ask the question that I'm sure a lot of people ask themselves when seeing this movie. Does Christopher Walken ever have a leading role in anything? He's this famous actor and yet, the only roles I can remember him for are ones where he plays very minor roles. Pulp Fiction, America's Sweethearts, Wedding Crashers, Annie Hall, the list goes on. It's very strange, just like he is very strange. He gave me the creeps in this one, partially because he goes on this long tangent about how when driving he sometimes gets the urge to crash head on into an oncoming car, and partially because his face was so smooth. I barely recognized him. Ugh, I can't get the image out of my head. Gives me chills...

I feel like this blog is very scattered. I can't stay on topic very well, but I think that Woody Allen wouldn't mind. Annie Hall, as a whole, is a scattered movie. As I said, it doesn't follow a natural timeline, but in the end it does end up making sense, and the ending is actually very nice. It is just this montage of all of the high and low points of Annie and Alvy's relationship. It isn't too cheesy, but really genuine.

So what would I rate this movie? Hmmmm... There are parts of it that I would give five stars, and then there are other parts that wouldn't even make me give this movie an honorable mention. So... let's give it a 3.5... Above average for the awesome parts, but not quite perfect. Don't worry fans, this is only my first Woody Allen movie. There are more out there that I will try to get to someday soon.

The Godfather series is coming up soon. I think I might want to watch all of them all at once, which would mean I would need a long time to watch them. I still have From Here to Eternity and Close Encounters of the Third Kind on my list. I guess we'll see.

It's too late, i've already paid a month's rent on the battlefield. Duck Soup

Okay, so for those of you that are looking for a bad review, this won't be it. However, those of you that love the Marx brothers are are looking for a stellar review, this isn't it either.

The basic plot is thus: The country of Freedonia is in financial trouble. The leaders of the country have come to Mrs. Gloria Teasdale to bail them out once again with the money her husband left her when he died. She says that she will give them the money on one condition: that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) is named new president of Freedonia. Reluctantly, the leaders of Freedonia agree. At the inaugural ball, we run into Ambassador Trentino of Sylvania, who is looking to marry Mrs. Teasdale for her money, even though she is sweet on Firefly. Trentino teams up with a beautiful dancer, Vera Marcal. She will attract Firefly while Trentino moves in on Mrs. Teasdale. Firefly shows up late to his own ball, even though all of the guests sang a song about how he's never late. As the new president of Freedonia, Firefly instates a bunch of new laws that are a little absurd (like if a woman has an affair, they will make her choose between her husband and the other man. If she likes the other man, then they will take the husband outside and shoot him.). Trentino does not trust Firefly, so he sends in two spies, Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx), to watch Firefly. It is evident after their first meeting, with all of the shenanigans that Chicolini and Pinky get into, that they aren't doing as much spying as just messing around. In fact, the pair get into a fight at their peanut stand with another vendor selling lemonade.They steal his hat and burn it on their peanut roasting wagon. One day, while Chicolini is selling peanuts outside Firefly's office, Firefly calls Chicolini up to get him to stop yelling about peanuts, and makes him the secretary of war by mistake. From there, the two go over to a party at Mrs. Teasdale's house. He comes in just in time to get in between Trentino and Mrs. Teasdale, and after slapping Trentino in the face, Firefly causes a war to break out between Sylvania and Freedonia. Mrs. Teasdale tries to get Trentino together with Firefly to settle things in a civilized way, but Firefly ends up slapping Trentino again, and the war is still on. That night, everyone stays over at Mrs. Teasdale's house. Firefly gives Mrs. Teasdale his war plans, and Chicolini and Pinky are sent in to steal them. It ends up that Chicolini and Pinky both dress up as Firefly and sneak into Mrs. Teasdale's room. Firefly catches on to the impostors, and Chicolini is caught and put on trial for treason. However, after a lot of fast talking and a song and dance number at the trial, all crimes seem to be forgotten because its time to go to war and Chicolini is the secretary of war. After the war wages on for a little while, Firefly finds himself trapped in a shelter with Mrs Teasdale, Chicolini, and Pinky. However, in a stroke of luck, after the Sylvanians attack the shelter, Trentino himself gets caught in the door, as if he were in stocks, and Firefly, Chicolini, and Pinky begin to pelt him with fruit until he surrenders. When the war is over, Mrs. Teasdale begins to sing the Freedonia national anthem to celebrate the victory, and Firefly begins to pelt her with fruit.

You know, for a movie that's barely an hour long, that synopsis took forever to write. And I left out some of the bigger slapstick parts.

Anyway, the great part of this movie is its comedy. It was absolutely hilarious. I had only seen references to Groucho Marx, never the real thing, and I was surprised by how uproariously funny he was. With the way he stomps around, to his fast talking quips, he kept me laughing the whole movie.

However... I never knew that he painted on his mustache? You can totally tell though, and it kinda distracted me.

Another thing that I didn't understand was why Groucho/Firefly was so mean sometimes. Like, he was really funny, but a lot of the time he would say really insulting things to Mrs. Teasdale, someone he supposedly wanted to marry? I don't know, it was funny, but confusing.

Something I asked myself after the movie was over was, "Why was THIS considered one of the greatest American movies of all time?" Then I thought that maybe it was a satire on something, so I did some research, but it turns out that it wasn't directly a satire of anything, but just really funny. I will hand it to them, its refreshing to watch a movie with all clean humor. However, there are a lot of movies out there that are really, really funny. Maybe I'll let this one slide because Groucho Marx had such an outstanding performance. He's an icon and deserves to be revered.

This movie was pretty short. It was very different from all of the other movies that I've been watching off this list. Most of the time, the movies are longer, and the makers have packed everything they can into about two hours. Duck Soup was 68 minutes, and they didn't really develop the characters at all. I felt like they set up Vera trying to woo Firefly, and then it got dropped pretty quickly. I understand that the fight for Mrs. Teasdale's affection was what started the war, but I didn't feel like it got developed enough. In their defense though, I don't think that Marx brothers movies were really about the plot as much as they are about the humor, but still, don't set it up if you're not going to finish.

I did enjoy the creativity with some of the jokes. Like the mirror scene between Chicolini and Pinky, I can totally see how that became iconic. Basically, Chicolini and Pinky are dressed up as Firefly, and they are walking by a place where a mirror used to be and mirroring each other's every move. I also loved that during the war scene Firefly kept changing into different outfits from different wars (union and confederate uniforms to name a couple). This was definitely smart humor at times, which was awesome.

The singing in this movie was so out of nowhere, but it was funny. I didn't expect for everyone to break out in song, but it really worked. Plus, all of the lyrics were just as funny as every other line in the movie. It was a surprise, but in a good way.

So... this movie gets... a 3.5 out of 5. I liked it, but I didn't think it was as spectacular as the other movies I've seen so far. Groucho Marx gets a 4.5 out of 5 for best male performance in a leading role (what?). I mean I couldn't just give him a poor grade without throwing some good props his way.

I'm going to try to watch From Here to Eternity soon. I hear its one of the best romance movies ever, so get ready for a sappy post.

You talkin to me? Well I'm the only one here! Taxi Driver

So, may I just start out by saying that I loved this movie. The ending totally surprised me. I was waiting at the end for Travis to be dead and for it to be sad, but then, as the camera pans across the newspaper articles taped to the wall of his run down apartment, the news slaps me in the face that he is in fact not dead. He survived being shot multiple times, including once in the neck. Outrageous.

So... the plot. Let's see, we first meet Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) applying for a job with a taxi company. He is a Vietnam war vet that can't sleep so he gets a job driving people around at night. Travis narrates for us in a voice over as he writes in a journal. We see him frequenting X-rated movie theaters, but the look on his face seems strictly (and oddly) innocent and inquisitive, as if he were just watching a movie with a very complicated plot. After a few weeks of driving the taxi, Travis sees Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) for the first time, walking into he job at a political campaign headquarters. He thinks she is beautiful, and seems to be alone, just like he feels. He sits outside her building watching her for a few days, freaking out Betsy's co-worker, who seems to have a bit of a thing for her too. One day, Travis gets up the nerve to walk straight up to Betsy at work and ask her out. He accepts, and they go for coffee. They have a strange chemistry, and she seems as taken with him as he is with her. They go out for a second date, and Travis takes her to a dirty movie. She is appalled by this and leave him promptly. She refuses to take his calls, and he gets kicked out of the campaign headquarters when he tries to come see her. Travis decides that Betsy is cold, just like everyone else in the world, and he goes on a downward spiral into mental instability. On another night, a very young girl (Jodie Foster) gets into Travis' cab, looking very distressed. She tells him to drive, but he gets caught up in writing in his ledger, and a burly man (Harvey Keitel) drags her out of the cab telling her to "Be cool" and throwing a twenty at Travis. That night sticks with Travis, and he holds on to the twenty the man gave him, never spending it. Travis sees the young girl a couple of weeks later, and he follows her, freaking her out. Travis has also begun to stalk Senator Palantine, the representative that Betsy is trying to get elected president. He also buys multiple guns, and learns how to shoot them. We quickly learn, through his shifty behavior, that he is plotting to assassinate Senator Palantine. In the meantime, Travis tracks down the young girl, buying some time with her with the twenty that her pimp had thrown at him, whose name is Iris, and befriends her, trying to convince her to go back to her parents (She's a prostitute at 12 years old!). She says she'll leave if he will, and he says he can't because he has "government things to do." The day finally arrives where Travis is going to carry out his plot on the Senator. he shows up at a rally with a mowhawk and sunglasses. He has his guns tucked away in his jacket. Just as he gets close enough to shoot the Senator, he is spotted by the secret service and is chased away. It is then that he decides that he wants to kill someone else, Iris' pimp. He walks right up to the pimp, called Sport, and shoots him. He then goes on to shoot another man that is a part of the prostitution ring and a man that has paid to have sex with Iris. Iris is there and she begins to cry as Travis is shot in the neck and shoulder by the bleeding, dying Sport. Travis unloads his entire gun before passing out from blood loss. We think he's dead, but as I stated earlier, he survives. He is the hero. Iris is returned to her parents and Travis goes back to work with a new found fame, which he is actually pretty humble about. Travis has one more run in with Betsy in his cab where she tries to ask him about the stories she reads about him in the paper. He is very short with her, but doesn't let her pay for her cab fare.

I've never seen Robert De Niro look so sweet before. He is supposed to be this rough vet that has come back from fighting in a war, but he is so gentile which is extremely surprising. Every time he meets someone new, he sticks out his hand and says "My name's Travis, what's yours?" He doesn't even give up when people are mean to him, he's still just trying to be nice and rational. That's why it is hard to watch as his plot against the Senator begins to unfold. It is obvious that he is unstable, and I wanted to scream at the screen for someone to help him. That's why the ending is so good. I wanted so bad for him to survive and be the hero, because he honestly was one, and he did. The movie ended exactly how I wanted it to, but it wasn't how I expected.

I was so annoyed with Betsy. Why did she have to be so stuck up about everything. I get that times were different then, but she allowed herself go into the dirty movie, and then gets mad at Travis when the content of the movie is offensive. Its female characters like that that make me so angry at all female characters. They think they're too good. However, at least this time, it moved the plot forward. Travis wanted Betsy to notice him in a big way, even if it ruined his life. Pretty intense.

Iris' character is probably the most entertaining. She brings the whole movie back to a more believable level. She is this true to life twelve year old (although she does look a older than twelve...) rebelling against her parents who got herself caught up with the wrong people. She's attracted to Sport who takes advantage of her. She calls Travis a square because he wants her to go home and wear dresses and stuff. Its all just so true and real. She also brings out the sensitive side of Travis just as he's getting out of control. She is the reason that he becomes the hero. And she's a female character that I didn't hate. Awesome.

How about the sound track of this movie. That was pretty ballin' as well. Jazzy, feel good, yet a little somber and sad as well, seems like something Travis would actually listen to.

Travis' friends are weird. They are very much like Travis, except a lot more shady. They play a good contrast to Travis' character. However, Peter Boyle plays a man named Wizard. There is a pretty touching moment between the two of them where Wizard tells Travis that you become your job. It is pretty sweet because Wizard is trying real hard not to get too emotional even though he wants to. He seems almost like a father figure to Travis who, through his narrative, tells us that he hasn't seem his parents in years, and shows us just how alone he really is.

I do have to say, that while Robert De Niro's body wasn't too bad at the time, he cannot pull off a mowhawk. It added to the character development, but it totally threw me off visually. He should have just stuck with the shorter haircut he had.

This movie was excellent. I would totally give it 5 out of 5 on whatever scale I was using. I'm going to have to watch more of Scorsese's stuff. The Departed is already on my top 5, and now this. Better hope next time for all of those people out there that want me to hate one of these movies. I'll come across one sooner or later, I know it.

What was your husband's name? ... Eddie. All About Eve

I have to say that this movie was surprisingly good. I genuinely liked all of the characters, although each of them had their moments where they just got under my skin... Let's see if I can sum this one up for you. I forgot to do that for Rebel Without a Cause... I'll go back and edit later.

The movie starts out with Addison DeWitt (George Sanders), a famous play critic, narrating over an awards ceremony. He introduces all of our main characters and talks about the theatre world and how there are two types of people in it and so on. We then see Eve (Anne Baxter) receive a prestigious award at said awards ceremony. Then we jump back to where it all began. We see Karen Richards (Celeste Holm) the wife of a famous playwright, walking into a theatre where Miss Margo Channing (Bette Davis) has starred in a play. Karen runs into Eve, who at this point as not had her break in show business, and Eve tells Karen how she just adores Margo and all of her performances. Being Margo's best friend Karen introduces Eve to Margo. Eve tells Margo a very sad story about how her husband died in the war and how now she lives alone and the only thing she does in her life is come see Margo's show every night. With that, Margo hires Eve on as her assistant. Everything seems nice at first, but then things start to take a turn for the sinister. It seems like Eve, who is young with natural talent, is popping up everywhere, and leaving Margo in the dust. Margo becomes very jealous of this, but because Eve is so sweet, everyone things Margo has just gone a bit crazy. So time goes on and Eve gets more and more fame and Margo loses all of her friends and even her boyfriend. One night, after Eve's performance as Margo's understudy, Addison DeWitt catches Eve coming on to Margo's ex-boyfriend, Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill). Bill turns Eve down, but that night, Addison begins to peel away at Eve's sweet facade to the lies underneath, and the two form an alliance. When Margo reads in Addison's column some of the terrible things that Eve has said about her, Margo's friends and Bill come running back to her side. Eve tries to gain back all of their trust, but its too late. Eve lands a starring role in a huge play, but no one is there to share it with her. Addison, Eve's only companion, finally uncovers the whole truth for the audience in one final scene. It turns out that Eve made everything up, from her name, to where she lived and grew up, to where she worked, and even made a up a fake husband who died in the war. She was just scheming to work her way into the limelight. So, at the end, when the story goes back to her receiving her award, she has crumbled to nothing. She thanks Karen and Margo and Bill and many others, but all of them just stare back at her with frowns. When Eve arrives at her apartment later that evening, she finds a young girl waiting there, claiming to be the president of one of the Eve Harrington fan clubs, and the cycle begins again.

Honestly, the thing that shocked me the most about this movie was how well the characters seemed to transition into their different character traits. Eve had to at first be this sweet, innocent angel who never did anything wrong. But midway through the movie, after she has said all of those awful things about Margo that got published in the newspaper, and she goes about trying to blackmail Karen for conspiring against Margo, we see a different, darker side of her. Her humble smile is replaced by a piercing stare that sent chills down my spine. She was literally a different person. And then, by the end, when the audience finds out that she was just fabricating stories and conning everyone, she really starts to seem a bit crazy. She is grasping at straws, and everyone knows it, and I definitely believed it.

Margo also goes through a transformation. She at first is this funny woman with a tough exterior but a good heart, who then starts to spiral down into jealousy and madness. Everyone, including the audience thinks that she's crazy. As the movie goes on, she made me tired listening to her go on and on about Eve and pushing everyone in her life away. But then, once she makes herself vulnerable, and breaks down in Bill's arms over the horrible newspaper article, we see a softer side of her. She and Bill get engaged soon after, and she really loosens up. By the end, she is the most likable character in the movie. That might partially be because we all (and by that I mean me and the rest of her friends and Bill) feel a little guilty for thinking that she was a nut and not believing her when she said that Eve was out to get her. But still, its a transformation nonetheless. Something about her relaxes, and allows the audience to relax.

I have to say, that the movie really had me going. I read the short synopsis that's off to the side of the movie title on Netflix, just to see what the movie was about, and it told me that Eve was a con artist, so it was spoiled for me from the start. However, midway through the movie, when Margo was on her downward spiral and eve was going up, I started to doubt myself. That's how much I believed Eve. I thought that maybe I had read the synopsis wrong or that maybe it was a different character, but no, Eve's character comes right back around, and its done beautifully.

I thought it was cute that Marilyn Monroe made a cameo appearance. She is only in the movie for a few minutes as a struggling actress who bats her eyelashes trying to get parts. It was cute.

When I saw how long this movie was (granted, its only two hours and ten minutes, but when you think about how most movies made today are about an hour and a half at most, anything over two hours can get a bit long) I was a little skeptical. However, I noticed that everything in this movie was necessary. Whenever I thought we were getting to a point where the movie should be winding down, there were still thirty minutes of movie to go. They packed story into those two hours. Everything was important and flowed well together. Today, writers are told to cut out the excess parts of their story, but back then they could add as much as they wanted in there. After the two hour mark, we are starting with a totally new plot point and what seems like a totally new story with the same characters. Sure, sometimes it gets boring, but I can't predict where the movie is going, which is nice, because in today's movies people can pretty much predict what is going to happen by just watching the previews.

I loved all of the little creepy touches that were added in about Eve. Like how she was creeping in on Bill, planning him a birthday party. And how she sneakily was able to get Karen to agree to land Eve the part as Eve's understudy. All of these things could be explained away as innocent, but behind the innocence is something dark and almost chilling.

I can't think of many things that I didn't like about this movie. Again, I really hope that maybe I'll get to one of these classic movies that I don't like and that I can just write a terrible review for, but for right now, I can't. All of the characters in this were great. Their clothing was great. Everything. Even in black and white it was beautiful, and I'd even argue that it was the black and white that made it beautiful.

If I had to give this a ranking? I'd say... Maybe like... 3/5 of an Academy Award. Maybe not best picture, but certainly a nomination with people rooting for it. I really need to think of a scale... If anyone has any ideas of a clever scale, leave me a comment and let me know.

I think I might watch Annie Hall next. That or maybe Duck Soup? A Clockwork Orange? To Kill a Mockingbird? ET? Whatever strikes me (and is on instant Netflix).

They called me chicken. You know... chicken. Rebel Without A Cause

"When the jester sang for the king and queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean..."
You know, I'll never really understand that song. However, I do understand why everyone thought James Dean was a knockout.

I'm not really sure where to begin with this movie. I really, really loved it, but that's not enough to say is it?

From the opening credits (which, by the way, I kind of like that older movies do all of the credits like that at the beginning. It makes people pay attention. In modern movies, I am always looking elsewhere when the opening credits are playing.) I immediately was drawn in. He just lies down on the ground next to one of those monkeys playing the cymbals. The big tough guy having a sensitive moment.

I really have to say that it seems like all of these actors and actresses that star in these classic movies seem to just be all around talented. I'm sure I'm idealizing them a bit... but I don't think James Dean had to get all buffed up for this movie that I a lot of actors do. I think he probably just was like that. Or at least he worked on it so that he could be like that on a daily basis. Actors back then had to have the total package: sing, dance, act, etc. Its kind of disappointing to see today's actors just kinda... not being lazy... but not exactly up to the same standards as they used to.

I noticed a lot in Rebel Without a Cause, as I do with a lot of these older movies, that a lot of the scenes seem hokey and fake. I get a little turned off towards them. But then, there are these moments, like when Jim is screaming at his father to stand up for him to his mother. Or when Jim overhears those guys from school saying they want to bring him down, it all just comes to life. What I love about those moments is that I'm even more engaged, even more amazed, than in a current movie that is just trying to shock me. I'm yanked out of my seat and pulled into the emotional realm of the picture. It is absolutely beautiful.

I totally did not see it coming when Buzz's car goes careening of the edge of the cliff during the chickie race (or whatever they called it). I was absolutely shocked when he gets his sleeve caught. I actually felt bad for him. Up until that point I didn't like him because he just seemed to pick out Jim to torment for no reason. Not very many of his friends seemed to be that upset about him dying though. There was one guy that got kind of emotional, but other than that, all of the other guys just didn't want to get caught. Even Judy, who I assume was his girlfriend, moves on to someone else in. the. same. night. You can blame it on the grieving process, but I was just wanting a little bit more of an emotional reaction.

"I wanna do something right!"

I was also surprised by how much this movie was about parents and their relationships with their kids. All of the main characters in this movie are either kids that were screwed up by their parents, or parents that don't know how to handle their kids. It was amazing how it all fit together. Judy was looking for a strong man that could be sensitive (like Jim) because her father abuses her. John was looking for some nice parents that would stick around (like Jim and Judy) because both of his parents left him. And Jim was trying to be the strong, sensitive, manly man that his father couldn't be. Jim coming to town seemed to momentarily solve everyone's problems, and for a moment, in the mansion, when Judy and Jim were acting like parents for John (what's with all the J names you ask? I have no idea...) everything was okay. But it wasn't really okay. Jim and Judy couldn't be John's parents. They both needed parents of their own. John needed more help that Jim could give him. When John dies, Jim is the one that needs the support, and his father finally stands up and is the man that Jim needs for him to be.

The whole final thirty minutes of the movie were so powerful. John is crying, holding a gun, and crying "help me!" because he thinks no one loves him. And then once the cops show up, Jim tries so hard to coax John out of the planetarium and into the custody of people that will take care of him, but only to have John freak out and get shot by the police. Then its Jim's turn to break down. He tries to laugh (like he always does, which I think is a nice choice for his character), but he just breaks down crying again. His father has to lift him up off the ground. It's so hard to see Jim, the guy that everyone sees as tough, being cradled by his father. Sublime.

They never resolved Judy's story though. I guess Jim was just going to be looking out for her now on.

I LOVED the camera angles in this movie. In the first few scenes in the police station when we can see Jim through the window when Judy and John are being interviewed for their individual petty crimes. Also, there was another shot when Jim's mother is coming down the stairs. Jim is lying on the couch, so he sees her upside down, but then the camera stays on her and rotates right side up. It almost made me sick to look at, but it was still fun to watch.

The usage of red in this movie is phenomenal. It seemed like whenever the story was changing hands, the new lead character would wear red, from Judy in her red coat with red lipstick in the beginning, to Jim in his red jacket, to finally John with his one red sock and Jim's red jacket. The red punches through the screen, makes you focus.

There were only a few tiny things that I really didn't like about this movie. Like... that John SHOT some PUPPIES? Yeah... the cop at the beginning of the movie asks him why he SHOT PUPPIES? Really? Who would or could shoot a puppy?

I also have a hard time believing that those guys could be so mean to him without even knowing him at all. They slash his tire and then ask him to get into a knife fight? What did Jim do? Its his first day of school. It just seemed a little bit outrageous to me...

Let's see... little things I did like...

I LOVED when Jim came in and was literally chugging the milk and then rubs the cool jug on his face.

I also like how Jim treats Judy. I didn't like Judy too much until about the last third of the movie, but after Buzz dies and Jim takes Judy home, and he grabs her by the scarf and says "You'll be alright?" and then he winks at her? I think writers should write more guys like that in movies. But then again, who would play them?

Buzz Gunderson. That was the bully's name. The guy that drives off a cliff. He totally sounds like the type of character that about 10 years after high school (you know... if he hadn't smashed his car into jagged rocks in the ocean) he would be bald and fat and divorced. That's how they would probably write his character if they remade this movie today. They also probably wouldn't have John die at the end. No teen movie, which is what this one felt like, could have the main character get shot at the end like that. Nope, not after the 1980s.

I didn't really buy that James Dean was supposed to be a high schooler. He looked just a tad too old. But I didn't really mind it after the movie really got going.

Jim Stark? Nice name. Tony would be proud.

Something I really like about this movies, and all of the other movies like it that I've been watching recently, is that they still seem to have their innocence. they are directed at an audience that will suspend their disbelief and just go where the movie takes them. The type of audience that this movie was made for doesn't need big explosions and the f-word being thrown around all over the place. They don't need to be shocked by a joke about crabs when the planetarium starts talking about a crab constellation. We see John crossing his fingers when Jim and Buzz start their chicken race. It just seems sweeter, nicer. They are easier to watch. They leave me wanting more.

Anyway, I feel a little rusty at this since its been a few months since my last entry. I hope things will get better as time goes on. I loved Rebel Without a Cause. I could and would watch it again and again.

Next up, All About Eve. Its a movie I'd never heard of before, but it was really good. Get ready.

"I wanna see ya Terry." "I'm right in front of ya!" On the Waterfront

So, I'm going to start this blog by saying something that they tell you in the English department never to say... I liked this movie. Why am I not allowed to say that? Because I'm supposed to say something more... But that is honestly how I feel about this movie.

The basic plot: Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a washed-up boxer that has gotten mixed up with the mob. We first meet him when he is setting up a man, Joey, to be murdered, although Terry thinks they're just going to "lean on him a little," and when he sees Joey dead, it is obvious that he feels bad. During all of the commotion over Joey, Terry runs into Joey's sister, Edie, a girl he knew from grade school. A romance sparks between them as she tries to get to the bottom of who murdered her brother. In the mean time, Father Barry, the priest at the local church, has taken it upon himself to gather the union workers that work on the waterfront to take back the work from the mob so that everyone can work instead of just the people that the mob bosses choose. None of the workers seem all that anxious to rise up against the mob because they don't want to end up like Joey. When the police come around asking questions, no one wants to say anything. However, when Terry's brother, Charley, is murdered by the mob bosses that Terry thought he could trust, he decides to testify against them in court. Because of that, everyone that Terry is close to, with the exception of Edie and Father Barry, turn away from Terry. He is no longer picked to work on the waterfront, and so he is forced to physically fight for his right to work on the waterfront.

What I find interesting is how much I liked the love story between Terry and Edie. She really seemed to soften him, and made him the likable character he was. When she asks him what side he is on (as far as bosses vs. workers) he says he's not on a side, "I'm just me." And the thing is that he really does stick to that. Sometimes he is on the mob's side, but there are times when he really does the right thing and fights against the evil in that town. Sometimes he plays the tough guy and other times he is guiding her gently through a crowd and making sure she gets home safe. She is "the nicest thing that's ever happened to" him, and he certainly does acknowledge it.

I found it funny how they kept saying "on the waterfront." Usually the title is just said once in this movie, but they all worked on the waterfront, so I guess they had to keep saying it.

I really liked Terry's interaction with his brother, Charley. When they are in the car together, and Terry is talking about how it was Charley that came down and told Terry to throw his last boxing match because the bosses were betting against him, it's just so moving. And then when Terry find's Charley's body hanging in the alley and he tells Edie not to leave him alone for too long and he's crying, it really shows the depth of the character. You really feel sorry for him.

It was absolutely gut wrenching when Terry comes home to find all of his pigeons dead. I was so angry at that kid for killing all of them. And then you see his big hulking man pick up these small, innocent, lifeless birds and it just breaks your heart.

I really liked the dialogue in this movie. I definitely think that the "I coulda been a contenda" quote deserved its rank on the AFI's top 100 quotes list. Like I said before, that scene is just amazing. It really drove the character home for me. Also, in the bar, when Terry has the gun that Charley gave him and he wants to kill Johnny Friendly, and then Father Berry comes in and says... well the quote in the title, that is one of my favorites. Finally, when Johnny has to swear "to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" and he says "right." oh man. Marlon Brando played that part so well. Being the tough guy that's trying to do the right thing. Perfect. Although I'm sure he was probably somewhat like that in real life, tough exterior but soft exterior. Made him perfect for that character.

The only thing I had a hard time with was why all of the union workers turned against Terry after he testified in court. I didn't understand why they would all be mad at him. They all still got to work, he was the only one that was shut out. Still they did end up coming through for him in the end and backing him up, saying that they wouldn't work if Terry didn't work. I just really felt like those men needed to man up a little bit. All of those union workers wanted someone else to do their dirty work for them, and only were willing to stand up once it was safe.

I give this movie a 4.101 out of 5. It was really good, and I enjoyed it. All of these old movies with their fresh ideas (fresh compared to all of the run of the mill movies I've watched for the majority of my life) are really awesome to watch. They are smart, and they expect for their audience to be smart too. I'm not saying that there aren't good movies that come out these days, and I'm not saying this movie is perfect. I did feel like it lulled at some moments, but over all it was a fantastic watch.

I'm not sure what I will watch tonight. I guess you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out. It is pretty much up to Netflix and whatever they have on instant. I hope you are enjoying reading as much as I am watching and writing.

Love to all of my readers, whoever you are.

What happened to the old bank? People kept robbing it. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Before I start, I would like to say that hopefully this blog will not be entry after entry of good reviews. I mean, I want my writing to be good, but don't some of these reviews need to be negative? I guess we'll see... If they are all good I hope they won't get boring.

So, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was absolutely amazing. From start to finish I loved it. I mean the very first line (as listed above in the title of this blog) the dialogue was amazing. I laughed, I was scared... I didn't cry, but I was a little sad at some points.

A little bit of the plot for you: Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) are famous bank and train robbers. Butch is the brains and Sundance is the sharp shooter. They are so famous, in fact, that the owner of a railroad company outfits a team of specialized trackers and lawmen to track down Butch and Sundance and kill them. For a good portion of the movie, we watch the team chase the duo all over the desert. After a few days of running, Butch and Sundance decide to take Sundance's girlfriend (and Butch's love interest) and escape to Bolivia. They begin robbing banks again, and eventually become so notorious that the team that was chasing them in America has followed them down to Bolivia. After a few attempts to get straight and lay low, Butch and Sundance get caught, and end up in a shoot out with the entire Bolivian police force.

The bad stuff: This isn't really a bad thing... But I've already told you that I'm hard on love stories in movies. Etta's love for Butch was sweet, but at times it just made me sad, like when she would be in bed with Sundance and Butch would be jealous. I was scared the entire time that she was going to break the two of them up (which is what usually happens in movies today.) I was relieved that she never really got in the way. And, this movie is based on a true story, so they couldn't leave her out.

On to the good stuff, which is the entire movie. I loved the witty banter between Butch and Sundance. They always had something funny to say, even in the worst situations (like when they first get to Bolivia and see all the pigs), even in the face of death. One of my favorite parts is when we find out that Sundance can't swim, but they have to jump off the cliff into the river. Sundance just kept saying the whole time they're floating down the river that he is going to kill Butch. So funny.

The ending of this movie is just awesome. The shoot out with the police is so cool. When the police back up shows up, they can't believe that so many police have been taken out by just two men. (Dos hombres?!) It was gut wrenching to see Butch get shot in the back, and then have Butch ducking under a rain of bullets. Still, even when they are all shot up and bleeding, they are still cracking jokes. Another one of my favorite lines comes from when they're talking about going to Australia next (even though they know they're about to die):

Butch: You could learn to swim!
Sundance: No swimmings not important!

Then, when they run out and face the police force, the movie stops on a snapshot of the two of them with their guns blazing. We can hear the sound of the head of the police force telling his men to fire on Butch and Sundance, but we don't see them get riddled with bullets. Instead they are allowed to live on in infamy as heroes. Even though they are bank robbers, they are still heroes. Awesome.

However, not only are these two funny, they are also real. Like how we find out in the middle of the movie that Butch has never shot anyone before, and they have to shoot those robbers. Afterward, Butch looks really torn up about it, and Etta is trying to calm them down. Also when Sundance returns to Etta from being chased by the special team, he pretends like he doesn't care and tells her not to make a big thing out of it, but then as she walks away, he pulls her back and says "No, make a big thing out of it." It is those moments, mixed in with the witty banter that makes this movie awesome.

I had to write down so many quotes while watching this movie. They were all so funny. I would give you a list of my top 5, but they wouldn't be as funny out of context. You really have to watch it.

This is my first Paul Newman movie. This is the first Robert Redford movie I've watched all the way though (I watched some of The Great Gatsby in high school English, and now I know what Mrs. Meadows was talking about.) Umm... how have I been missing out on these two all my life? They are some of the best actors I have ever had the pleasure of watching. I can't wait to watch more of them.

Also, this was my first western. I'm excited for more of them, especially some Clint Eastwood.

So... I give this movie a 5 out of 5. It was amazing. One of my favorites ever.

I was thinking though... If someone was going to remake this now, I have some ideas as to who they should cast. Butch would be Matthew McConaughey, because he talks fast, Sundance would be Brad Pitt (probably a younger version) because he can play the strong silent type, and Etta would probably be someone like Scarlet Johansson or Jessica Beil, someone they could make look trashy in western clothes. Also, I think they would probably play up Butch's jealousy, have the two split up or have an argument over Etta. Also, I think the end would have been a lot more bloody. Would it be nearly as good? Definitely not. Would people go see it? Definitely.

Okay, so next I would like to watch Cool Hand Luke, but it just depends on what I can watch instantly on Netflix. I hope this review was better than the last. I look forward to writing another one. I hope you look forward to reading it!