The Assassination of A High School President

The other night Netflix had suggested The Assassination of A High School President to my roommate and I. We almost never watch what Netflix recommends but this particular night we had a lot of work to do so we decided to watch it. I was already skeptical of the movie because one, it had a coming of age theme which I don't usually enjoy and it seemed like a cheesy idea as well. But suddenly I was an hour into it and couldn't walk away. I was surprised to see Bruce Willis as the high school principal and thought that helped added to the absurdity of the movie. He actually did an excellent job and played the role well. For a movie set in a high school I think they played it well and made it more intense than most. It captured this real more mature world into a high school setting. It everything from corrupt school politicians to little girls who trade dirt on somebody for stuffed animal unicorns. It was almost
making fun of the fact the it was set in a high school which I think is tough to do well.

I also really enjoyed the characters in this movie. The main character Bobby Funke, played by Reese Thompson, was this investigative school journalist who would do anything to get the truth. Although he is the nerdy kid who discovers sudden popularity after he writes his biggest article, dethroning the current student president. He then meets Franchesca Fachini, played by Mischa Barton, the old school president's girlfriend who falls for Bobby. She seduces him and plays the beautiful misunderstood popular girl card to get in his head. The writing between how they react is actually really beautiful and brings things stated earlier around full circle without being cheesy. Overall every character was so developed and relatable to either parts of society or just friends you know from high school. There we're these to weird foreign guys played by Joseph Perrino and Arron Himelstein who I thought we're perfect. They were so open and vulgar about things which made you remember that these are all just kids playing detective.

The music in this movie also really stood out to me in this movie. Daniele Luppi did a beautiful job with the compositions and added so much more to movie. I actually think that his music is partially responsible for me getting so into this movie because it just shuts off the logical side of your brain and lets feel for anything on the screen. Also M. David Mullen did a magnificent job with the cinematography. There we're countless times where I would just stop and appreciate how beautiful everything looked. It almost broke the fourth wall for me a couple of times because of how surreal
some of the scenes looked. I put some examples below.

Overall I thought this movie was great and really enjoyed most aspects of this entire movie. That could be due to me going into it with really low expectations but I guess I'll have to watch again to see if I still feel the same watching it with a different set of hopes for it.

Die Hard 5? <--- Really?

     Okay so one of the most well known acton series is the Die Hard series.  Bruce Willis plays the role of John McClane, a New York cop saving the world.  The first Die Hard movie was unlike anything the theaters have seen before.  The non stop action and comedic language that Bruce Willis is noted for makes this movie a classic in action movies.  Since the first movie came out 4 others have followed.  The second film was not as good as the first but they came back with a third where Samuel L. Jackson co-starred with Bruce Willis and was a slight continuation of the story line from the first movie.

<---FIRST MOVIE

     The story of John McClane ended in 1995 until in 2007 when a forth movie came out to try and re-amp the series that everyone loved.  Live free of Die Hard was a good forth movie for not filming anything in 12 years, but that should have been it, there is now a fifth Die Hard movie!  There is a sense of over kill that has hit this well known and respected series.  A Good Day to Die Hard has been hammered by the critics and the script is said to be uninspiring.  Making Bruce Willis look like a bad ass has been done before!!!  For most of the time on set, articles have said that Bruce Willis barely acted, he really didn't care at al about the film, the producers should have just stopped then, if your starring actor doesn't care about the movie then there should be no movie.

   

<---FIFTH MOVIE
(See the difference)



     I am disappointed in the sense that a fifth movie was done, they should have left the series at 4.

The Sixth Sense is just so good!

I stumbled across  "The Sixth Sense" the other night, and with that being about the fifth time seeing it, it still managed to blow my mind. In case you haven't seen this thriller, (which I HIGHLY recommend you should) here is the plot in a nutshell...    A children's psychologist played by Bruce Willis, becomes heavily attached to one child's problem when the boy, (Haley Joel Osment) begins to claim that he sees "dead people" walking around his presence. During his case, the doctor's marriage begins to crumble, as he focuses too heavily on the child's issue.      

To begin the review, all I have to say is "woah," what an incredible ending. Every time the ending concludes, I just say to myself that it may very well be the best conclusion of any thriller to this day. It is simply moving and powerful, but words do not do it enough justice. I am obviously not going to spoil anything from the film, but the end of this film allows the viewer to see the plot from a completely different point of view, which is simply an incredible achievement by writer/director M. Night Shyamalan After the fifth viewing of this film, and also taking a lot of film classes I began to notice more aspects of plot development that really interest me. Something else that stood out to me was the fact that unlike its trailer, (that I watched after the movie) it portrays the film as a chilling thriller. BUT this movie is sort of a supernatural drama with a ton of emotional and heart-stopping scenes to support it. But I still refer to it as a great "thriller".       

I noticed that the film is also purposely very slow paced, which allows for plenty of time for the characters to mold and shape the subtle but important material at hand. Haley Joel Osment does a phenomenal job as the troubled child who is going through mysterious mishaps that no child should ever have to go through. Tough-guy, Bruce Willis even pulls off a fantastically solid performance, with an emotional side that we, the viewers, rarely see. But, the "twist ending" of the film raised it to a new level. My friends and I could not help but discuss the various intricacies of the plot which were The alterations of the plot through the captivating ending could not help but further my absolute appreciation for the film. With incredible acting, incredible film style, and an incredible score, The Sixth Sense is most-definitely one of my favorite thrillers of all time. Even though it may not be an all-out thriller, please believe me, you will definitely be startled in a lot of scenes, and sincerely moved in others. It is without a doubt, an impressive movie.      

Go watch it now, before someone ruins the ending!

The Siege (film)

Last night I watched the film The Siege starring Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis and Annette Bening and it was ok.  In a nutshell Denzel is on his A game (as usual), the supporting cast was alright, and the story was creative and fueled by action and conspiracy theories.  Unfortunately, The Siege's plot was let down by poor writers as the dialogue did not do the story justice. Also, after Wednesday's class I found a flash drive on the floor! So if you're freaking out don't worry, it's in good hands.
- Kofi  

Expendables 2

Now I know I was talking about this movie just a tad in class the other day, however, I think this movie deserves a post because it was that EPIC. The Expendables movies are about a group of "older gentlemen" who are considered mercenaries. In the first movie they did a job for Bruce Willis, Mr. Church. They team finished the job however, there was more killing that went on than he wanted. In this movie, Church comes back saying that the job wasn't done to his standard and then sends them on another job for him. The job was to pick up someone from another country. When they get there, they run into problem after problem and killing is happening left and right. Now me watching this movie I thought it was just pure awesomeness. Though, to others, like my girlfriend, don't like it much because they think it's either dumb or just too gorey. Me personally, I love the gore and I love the people, therefore, I love the movie. It was the most awesome people in the movie, including Chuck Norris.

If you're a person who likes the kind of movies where you see peoples heads come clean off with a .50 Caliber sniper or by getting pushed into the rotters of a helicopter then this movie is for you.

M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable

Recently, I revisited the movie Unbreakable (2000, M. Night Shyamalan). The movie is centered around David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price aka Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson). M. Night Shyamalan is not my favorite director due to some of his poorly executed works (ex. Devil) but some of his movies, such as The Sixth Sense (1999) and Signs (2002), are my favorite films. Samuel L. Jackson hasn't exactly been in the best movies but when he is in a well directed and well written movie, he does an amazing job (ex. Pulp Fiction). Bruce Willis has been in multiple movies that include Samuel L. Jackson but he is also an actor that seems to waste his talent in nonsensical blockbusters that include corny one liners and gratuitous explosions. Unbreakable highlights Willis's and Jackson's talents and is unlike any super hero movie I've ever seen.

The movie starts by showing the unusual birth of Mr. Glass, followed by the title sequence, and then shows Bruce Willis in a train. He removes his wedding ring as an attractive woman sits  in the open seat next to him, indicating that his relationship with his wife is disintegrating. He tries to seduce her but he says all the wrong things and she moves to another seat. The train starts to make strange noises and speed up and the scene cuts abruptly indicating a crash. The first shot is a one shot sequence and is about ten minutes long. The next shot is of Willis in the hospital and the doctor explains that he was the only one to survive on the entire train and walked away with no injuries at all. Willis leaves the hospital and passes all the families in the hospital mourning their lost ones. This sequence is one of my favorite shots ever.



The movie is about David Dunn (Willis) being indestructible and having super strength and Mr. Glass (Jackson) is extremely fragile and breaks bones often. Mr. Glass works in a comic gallery and when he hears about David Dunn surviving the train wreck, he finds him and explains that he believes he is a superhero. Dunn denies it and thinks that Mr. Glass is a freak. Dunn has the ability to sense what people have done wrong in the past by touching them and is able to bench press upwards of 600 pounds. He looks into his past and discovers that he was the only one to survive a car accident, a fire, a plane explosion, and has never been sick. The only incident where Dunn almost died is when he nearly drowned in a lake as a child. Dunn ends up saving a family from a murderer but almost dies when the murderer pushes him into the pool (water is his only weakness). Jackson's character is obsessed with Willis's. At the end of the movie, the audience learns that Mr. Glass (Jackson) has been following David Dunn (Willis) for his entire life and caused all the catastrophes to prove that David Dunn is truly "unbreakable."

Many shots in the film are long one shot scenes. Shyamalan also includes many indirect reflection shots such as a long shot pointed at a TV that shows the reflection of the characters in the room. Shyamalan also idolizes Alfred Hitchcock and pays homage to him by making a short appearance on screen. In Unbreakable, he plays a man that is suspected of selling drugs and says only three lines to Willis's character.

Unbreakable is by no means a traditional superhero movie and each character is unique and well developed. Shyamalan's cinematography is exceptional and unique and it is obvious, through each shot sequence, that he idolizes Hitchcock's style. There is no ridiculous action scenes and it focuses on the personal life of an unlikely superhero. Watch Unbreakable.

-Matthew Hadley

Moonrise Kingdom

In my small suburban town in New Jersey, there is a theatre that plays only low budget films; the movies that wouldn’t exactly be a blockbuster hit. This past summer I saw a lot of great independent films there: To Rome with Love, Friends with Kids, etc. But one movie I saw I am still thinking about today. And that movie is Moonrise Kingdom. I did go into this movie a little biased since I love Wes Anderson and the cast also drew me in; Bill Murray, Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand. The movie blew me away, it exceeded my expectations. It takes place in 1965 and stayed authentic to it’s time throughout the whole movie. The costuming was detailed, and the soundtrack was flawless. The island that the characters lived on was beautifully designed and it didn’t confuse me at all, and made sense location wise. 

Moonrise Kingdom is about two preteens who fall in love with each other via snail mail and attempt to runaway together. Their romance is only one aspect of this plot, with the chaos of the dysfunctional adults handling the situation making up much of the story. (Bill Murray of course played his usual depressing, alcoholic character who is the father of Suzy.)  Sam, the male protagonist is an orphaned boy scout living on an island with his troop for the summer. Although his romance with Suzy was adorable, I wasn’t too fond of Sam. It’s usually very hard for me to enjoy a movie when I can’t sympathize or relate to the main character however, the other characters made up for his lack of connection. 

Basically, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who hasn’t seen it. It’s not only aesthetically pleasing but the hilarious quirky characters make this movie very enjoyable.