Saturday, February 9, 2013

Cold Bodies. Warm Heart.

"Cold Bodies. Warm Heart."

Quite possibly one of the cheesiest taglines for a movie EVER. The trailer? No better. After first seeing the preview for Warm Bodies, a zombie romance film, I had absolutely no intention of ever seeing that movie. However, the movie was getting rave reviews from everyone I knew, so, I just had to go check it out. And I can honestly say, I'm glad I did.

Warm Bodies is the story about a zombie named R who is different from other zombies. He thinks differently than they do. One day, he meets a human named Julie, and that's when things start to change. And by things, I mean the zombies. They literally start to change and cure themselves. It all stems from R and Julie, who start to fall in love.

It's a very Twilightesque type movie, but it also had it's Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers thing going on. It even had a balcony scene, like R&J. Who would've thought that even zombies could fall in love. All I know is, by the end of the movie every girl in the theater wished they had a zombie boyfriend. I know I wish I did. And it doesn't help that Valentine's is right around the corner... OK - I'm going to go eat a whole box of chocolates now....

But seriously, such a cute movie. A little weird at times, but if you can sit through the whole movie, I guarantee you, R will win you over, just like he did me. (3 Stars)

Friday, February 8, 2013

Don't Do Drugs

Had a little spare time this week and decided to watch a movie, or course. Today's review is about yes another "Must See" Drugstore Cowboy, the story of four junkies who steal drugs from pharmacies for an extra thrill.

Overall, a great movie, and I understand why it earned a spot on "The Book". I love movies that were made in the late-80s, early-90s (such as When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle) and this movie (1989) was no-exception. These movies have a certain quality to them that makes them so relatable and just so raw. In Drugstore Cowboy even if you aren't a junkie, or have never done drugs (which I fit into both categories) you can really understand what is going through the minds of these four characters.

The movie starts with just the thoughts of the main character, Bob (Matt Dillon), who is reflecting on his life as he is dying in the back of an ambulance. Right from the beginning, the movie really pulls you in. Soon, we find out the Bob is the leader of this crew that steals drugs. His wife, Dianne, is played by the superb Kelly Lynch (for any 90210 fans like myself, she plays Ivy's mom), and the other two members of the crew Rick (James LeGros) and Nadine (Heather Graham) also do a wonderful job portraying the drug addicts in their struggles. The plot continues on the simple road of stealing drugs and staying away from the cops. Then tragedy strikes which makes Bob rethink his lifestyle and he decides to get on an addict program and get clean. All of this leads up to the moment that Bob is fighting for his life in the back of the ambulance as a very poetic ending.

Druggie or not, I highly recommend you seeing this film at least once. It's a diamond in the rough, if you take the time to watch it fully and try to sympathize with the characters. (3 Stars)

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Movie of the Future From the Past

This Tuesday's movie was Metropolis, a famous German movie from the 1920s.

At first, I was really excited to watch this because it's one of those classics that almost everyone has heard about. Plus, it was in "The Book" (this makes 76 by the way). However, it had a VERY slow start. I'm talking, check your phone every two minutes, thinking it's been an hour slow start. Fortunately, after the first hour the movie really started to pick up and get suspenseful. however, last thirty minutes were, again, very slow.

So, a little bit about this movie:
It's based on a futuristic society in Germany. In this society, a man named Joh Fredersen has built the city Metropolis from the ground up with the help of the people of the city. The people do all the hard labor,and he pretty much sits back and watches. Joh's son, Freder, has grown up in a spoiled, high-class world because of this. But, one day, a beautiful woman named Maria crosses over into the high-society world and catches Freder's attention. He then goes underground (where the working class lives/works) and what he sees there changes his life. The rest of the movie is about Freder trying to save the city of Metropolis, with the help of Maria, Josaphat (a recently fired worker of Joh) and Georgy (a laborer). An inventor named Rotwang has cloned Maria onto a robot and the robot is creating turmoil within the city. The workers are now setting out to destroy the city of Metropolis because of the robot. Luckily, Freder and company are able to save all of the children of the city before it is completely destroyed, and eventually the workers see the mistake they have made.

Overall, it was an interesting movie, although slow at some parts. The suspenseful, fast-paced scenes were definitely more enjoyable than others. One of my favorite parts about my Film class so far is being able to see the transgression between movies as time progresses. This movie is much higher in quality than the one's we watched the first week, and without this class, I wouldn't be able to appreciate the quality and beauty of Metropolis. (3 Stars)