Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic romantic-comedy-drama film (genre hybrid) based on the 1986 novel Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field. The story beautifuly illustrates several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, a slow and naïve, but good-hearted and athletically gifted, man from Alabama who witnesses, and in some peculiar cases influences, some of the defining events of the latter half of the 20th century in the United States (the period between Forrest's birth in 1944 and 1982). The film is much different from the novel on which it was based, including Gump's personality and some of the events that took place.

The main sets took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate Gump (Tom Hanks) into archived footage and to develop other fun scenes. A compelling soundtrack was featured in the film, using music intended to pinpoint specific time periods portrayed on screen. Its commercial release made it a top-selling soundtrack, selling over twelve million copies worldwide.  Some of the songs include Hound Dog by Elvis Presley, Fortunate Son by Creedance Clearwater, Respect by Aretha Franklin, and many more American favorites. 

This famous film was released in the United States on July 6, 1994.  The film became a commercial success as the top grossing film in North America released in that year, being the first major success for Paramount Pictures since the studio's sale to Viacom, earning over $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run. Forrest Gump holds a high rating of 8.8 on the Internet Movie Database, which makes it the 13th best movie of all time for the website and in 1995 it won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay for Eric Roth, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. Forrest Gump also easily attained multiple other awards and nominations, including Golden Globes, People's Choice Awards, and Young Artist Awards, among others. Ever since the film was released, many variations of interpretations of its protagonist (Forrest Gump) and its political symbolism have been made.  

In 1996, a themed restaurant, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, opened based on the film and has since expanded to multiple locations worldwide.  If that doesn't show you have much of an impact this film made, I don't know what will!  One of the scenes of the American classic of Gump running across the country is often referred to when real-life people attempt the feat. In 2011, the Library of Congress selected Forrest Gump for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".  

After all these facts, can you even argue that this movie isn't the best movie of all time?! If you haven't seen this film yet, it's time to stop whatever you are doing, sit down, and focus your attention on the best movie of all time. 

A Film with a Thousand Films Inside

We have talked in class about Paramount's film Rango and how it is a film that has hundreds of film references throughout. Another film that caught my eye and does the same thing is 2000's Chicken Run. Essentially the film is a claymation parody of The Great Escape but with chicken famers instead of Nazis. In some parts the film is almost exactly the same but not only that the film references so many films on top of that.

From films like Psycho, Ace in the Hole, Enter the Dragon, and Alien. The list goes on and on. When Rocky is giving a inspirational speech he even directly quotes a line from the Italian Job. And even the famous Star Wars jump that wasn't even original in Star Wars. If you haven't seen the film I suggest you watch it, not only is it spectacularly written but it is also beautifully animated.

World War Z

I recently watched the trailer for World War Z, coming out in June of 2013, and was pretty impressed. While I wish the trailer concentrated more on zombies rather than Brad Pitt's hair, from what I saw this still looks like a solid zombie movie.

At first I thought they would make this book into a television series, as the book goes through the history of the zombie apocalypse. So at first I was disappointed because this is nothing like the book, but then I became happy again because it deals with zombies. I'm looking forward to seeing how this movie turns out, and hopefully Brad Pitt doesn't screw up too much.