What genre of drama do you prefer:
1) A good drama/thriller film? (ex Gone Girl)
2) A one year beginning-to-end television drama? (ex. True Detective)
3) A multiple year drama spanning many seasons? (ex. Breaking Bad)
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Friday, October 31, 2014
List: Top Holidays for Film
Happy Halloween!
I decided in the spirit of Halloween, to do a ranking of holidays based off the movies released.
1) Halloween: I will admit that I am not a big fan of horror movies. For this reason, as a testament to the genre, I have to put Halloween at number 1. Halloween is the holiday of scares and thrills, and the fact that the movies made for Halloween are scary means the movies are doing their job.
2) Christmas: This is what we call in the world of statistics as n*p. Although the probability (p) of a Christmas movie actually being good and not overly corny is extremely low, there are so many Christmas films (n) that there are enough quality films (n * p) to earn the #2 holiday.
3) Independence Day: The beauty of July 4 related movies is that there is a combination of modern presidential flicks and historic 1776 related movies. Thomas Jefferson fighting aliens could be the next great flick idea.
4) St. Patrick's Day: A lot of wild things happen on St. Patrick's Day. There are the drunk comedies, which is the obvious interpretation of the holiday. Also, any movie that involves Irish characters and an emphasis that these characters have an Irish background makes St. Patrick's Day an common setting device.
5) Thanksgiving: There are actually a lot of possibilities that can go along with a Thanksgiving story. A director could go in the direction of familial relationships or in the idea of having to be in a certain location at a certain time. This may be the most untapped holiday in film, but it does not have enough hype for weeks before to release a film.
6) Passover: Regardless of your religious beliefs, the story of Passover is one of the most compelling stories. We shall see with Exodus: Gods and Kings how a great story finally mixed with modern special effects will do in the box office.
7) New Years: Essentially a less romantic version of Valentine's Day, which makes it a better category of films.
8) Valentine's Day: Unlike Christmas, which also produces a high quantity of holiday related films, Valentine's Day produces no high quality stuff. I will actually debate whether there really are more than one romantic V-Day comedy, or if they are just the same movie somehow CGI'ed to fool the audience,
9) Hanukkah: If this was a top holidays in television list, you Hanukkah would be much higher, but the holiday has lacked on the film side.
10) Easter: Like Hanukkah, Easter would be ranked higher if it were based off of half hour animated specials alone. There was a scene with an Easter Bunny though in Mallrats. Does that count?
I decided in the spirit of Halloween, to do a ranking of holidays based off the movies released.
1) Halloween: I will admit that I am not a big fan of horror movies. For this reason, as a testament to the genre, I have to put Halloween at number 1. Halloween is the holiday of scares and thrills, and the fact that the movies made for Halloween are scary means the movies are doing their job.
2) Christmas: This is what we call in the world of statistics as n*p. Although the probability (p) of a Christmas movie actually being good and not overly corny is extremely low, there are so many Christmas films (n) that there are enough quality films (n * p) to earn the #2 holiday.
3) Independence Day: The beauty of July 4 related movies is that there is a combination of modern presidential flicks and historic 1776 related movies. Thomas Jefferson fighting aliens could be the next great flick idea.
4) St. Patrick's Day: A lot of wild things happen on St. Patrick's Day. There are the drunk comedies, which is the obvious interpretation of the holiday. Also, any movie that involves Irish characters and an emphasis that these characters have an Irish background makes St. Patrick's Day an common setting device.
5) Thanksgiving: There are actually a lot of possibilities that can go along with a Thanksgiving story. A director could go in the direction of familial relationships or in the idea of having to be in a certain location at a certain time. This may be the most untapped holiday in film, but it does not have enough hype for weeks before to release a film.
6) Passover: Regardless of your religious beliefs, the story of Passover is one of the most compelling stories. We shall see with Exodus: Gods and Kings how a great story finally mixed with modern special effects will do in the box office.
7) New Years: Essentially a less romantic version of Valentine's Day, which makes it a better category of films.
8) Valentine's Day: Unlike Christmas, which also produces a high quantity of holiday related films, Valentine's Day produces no high quality stuff. I will actually debate whether there really are more than one romantic V-Day comedy, or if they are just the same movie somehow CGI'ed to fool the audience,
9) Hanukkah: If this was a top holidays in television list, you Hanukkah would be much higher, but the holiday has lacked on the film side.
10) Easter: Like Hanukkah, Easter would be ranked higher if it were based off of half hour animated specials alone. There was a scene with an Easter Bunny though in Mallrats. Does that count?
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Kaggle Time
So I decided for the purpose of this blog to enter the Kaggle competition: Sentiment Analysis on Movie Reviews.
https://www.kaggle.com/c/sentiment-analysis-on-movie-reviews
This should be a fun thing to do over the next 4 months. I will share some insights and analysis with you guys along the way (what I am legally allowed to share). I will not be sharing code until after the results are all in (for those of you interested).
https://www.kaggle.com/c/sentiment-analysis-on-movie-reviews
This should be a fun thing to do over the next 4 months. I will share some insights and analysis with you guys along the way (what I am legally allowed to share). I will not be sharing code until after the results are all in (for those of you interested).
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Movie Review: The Skeleton Twins
The Skeleton Twins may still be in theaters, so I will avoid too many spoilers.
There are three perspectives in which I am going to split this movie up as I go through it.
1) Kristen Wiig: There is not much bad that can be said about Wiig's performance. Who knew she could act this well? She may not have given an Oscar nominee performance (pending the heavy hitting movies that will gain a lot of buzz later in the year), but she deserves to be in the conversation. Her ability to portray a realness that alternates between hilarity and heartbreak is something that even the best should be jealous of.
2) Bill Hader: Wiig's former SNL counterpart on the other hand, struggled in his first dramatic role. Do not get me wrong, I am as big a Hader fan as anyone, and what actually got me to buy the ticket to this movie was the fact that Hader was in it... not Wiig. I do not regret the purchase of my ticket either. My point is that I just felt that Hader did not put in the strongest performance.The character shallowness gives him such complexity, but the credit should be mostly given to writing and direction. Hader gave it is all, but I did not buy him. I bought the character if I were looking at it from a script perspective, but Hader counted too much on pretending than on actually becoming this character.
3) Kristen Wiig + Bill Hader: I am not done with seeing Bill Hader though, and I look forward to his next role. There were moments of greatness and potential, and that happened when he was able to share scenes with Wiig. Especially in the more goofy of scenes, Hader was no longer acting; he became the character. The chemistry and history between the two actors gave them excellent back-and-forth chemistry, and I hope this is not the last movie the two of the share.
Grade: B
There are three perspectives in which I am going to split this movie up as I go through it.
1) Kristen Wiig: There is not much bad that can be said about Wiig's performance. Who knew she could act this well? She may not have given an Oscar nominee performance (pending the heavy hitting movies that will gain a lot of buzz later in the year), but she deserves to be in the conversation. Her ability to portray a realness that alternates between hilarity and heartbreak is something that even the best should be jealous of.
2) Bill Hader: Wiig's former SNL counterpart on the other hand, struggled in his first dramatic role. Do not get me wrong, I am as big a Hader fan as anyone, and what actually got me to buy the ticket to this movie was the fact that Hader was in it... not Wiig. I do not regret the purchase of my ticket either. My point is that I just felt that Hader did not put in the strongest performance.The character shallowness gives him such complexity, but the credit should be mostly given to writing and direction. Hader gave it is all, but I did not buy him. I bought the character if I were looking at it from a script perspective, but Hader counted too much on pretending than on actually becoming this character.
3) Kristen Wiig + Bill Hader: I am not done with seeing Bill Hader though, and I look forward to his next role. There were moments of greatness and potential, and that happened when he was able to share scenes with Wiig. Especially in the more goofy of scenes, Hader was no longer acting; he became the character. The chemistry and history between the two actors gave them excellent back-and-forth chemistry, and I hope this is not the last movie the two of the share.
Grade: B
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Movie Review: Her
Her is one of the most interesting movies I have had the pleasure of reviewing over the past year and a half due to the olive oil and water mixture of greatness and ehhh.
On the one hand, Joaquin Phoenix is amazing.
Of course, Harry S Truman once asked for a one-armed economist, and Spike Jonze probably wishes he had a one-armed movie reviewer.
On the other hand, I felt manipulated by the message Jonze was trying to portray. Let me explain. I did not think what he was attempting to show in his movie was bad. In fact, the premise was clever and interesting, which is why I spent the $15 to see the movie in the theater.
The problem arises with Jonze's clear attempt to manipulate an audience's emotion. Instead of letting his art do the talking and allowing the audience to naturally come up with a conclusion of what message Jonze was trying to portray in his film, Jonze basically was one level away from explicitly saying "this is the profound message I want you to think about."
Great movies with this type of theme do not that. I felt cheated. I felt as if he was basically saying, "you are not smart enough to come up with the conclusion I want, so let me help you...A LOT." The great filmmakers, even the most manipulative of documentary directors, do not get to this level. Maybe he did not know how to appropriately show what he wanted to show. I am not going to speculate, but the final product was high schoolish.
Despite these shortfalls, Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as usual, aesthetically it is fun, and Karen Oh wrote a great song for it.
Grade: B
On the one hand, Joaquin Phoenix is amazing.
Of course, Harry S Truman once asked for a one-armed economist, and Spike Jonze probably wishes he had a one-armed movie reviewer.
On the other hand, I felt manipulated by the message Jonze was trying to portray. Let me explain. I did not think what he was attempting to show in his movie was bad. In fact, the premise was clever and interesting, which is why I spent the $15 to see the movie in the theater.
The problem arises with Jonze's clear attempt to manipulate an audience's emotion. Instead of letting his art do the talking and allowing the audience to naturally come up with a conclusion of what message Jonze was trying to portray in his film, Jonze basically was one level away from explicitly saying "this is the profound message I want you to think about."
Great movies with this type of theme do not that. I felt cheated. I felt as if he was basically saying, "you are not smart enough to come up with the conclusion I want, so let me help you...A LOT." The great filmmakers, even the most manipulative of documentary directors, do not get to this level. Maybe he did not know how to appropriately show what he wanted to show. I am not going to speculate, but the final product was high schoolish.
Despite these shortfalls, Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as usual, aesthetically it is fun, and Karen Oh wrote a great song for it.
Grade: B
Monday, October 27, 2014
Academy Award Retrospect
The first Academy Award for Best Animated
Feature was first awarded in 2001 when Shrek won the award. There certainly were deserving winners before
that though, and for the most part, animated movies have been neglected when
considered for other awards. So I am
going to go back in time and start handing out the nominees and hardware that
these greats deserve. I will be using
the Rotten Tomato score as the main determinant, but ticket sales and my own
opinion will certainly come into play.
Let’s first look at the decade of the 90’s:
1991 through 2000.
1991
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
Beauty and the Beast – WINNER. Fun fact: this was the first movie I ever saw
in theaters.
A Wish for Wings That Work
1992
Aladdin – WINNER. Not even close
Bebe’s KidsTom and Jerry: The Movie
1993
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby
The Nightmare Before Christmas – WINNER. Grade A Movie. You can see my review a few days ago.
1994
The Lion King – WINNER. I hope to review it soon
Thumbelina
The Swan Princess
1995
A Goofy Movie
Pocahontas
Toy Story – WINNER. I mean, this was a revolution of film making.
A Goofy Movie
Pocahontas
Toy Story – WINNER. I mean, this was a revolution of film making.
Beavis and Butt-head Do America
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
James and the Giant Peach – WINNER. It was a tough matchup, but this is actually a great movie.
Space Jam
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
James and the Giant Peach – WINNER. It was a tough matchup, but this is actually a great movie.
Space Jam
1997
Anastasia – WINNER
Hercules
Hercules
I Married a Strange Person!
1998
Antz
A Bug’s Life – WINNER. The Rotten Tomatoes winner was Antz, but c’mon…the Academy loves PIXAR
Mulan
The Prince of Egypt
Antz
A Bug’s Life – WINNER. The Rotten Tomatoes winner was Antz, but c’mon…the Academy loves PIXAR
Mulan
The Prince of Egypt
1999
Fantasia 2000
The Iron Giant
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Tarzan
Toy Story 2 – WINNER. 100% Rotten Tomatoes.
The Iron Giant
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Tarzan
Toy Story 2 – WINNER. 100% Rotten Tomatoes.
2000
Dinosaur
The Emperor’s New Groove – WINNER.
Rugrats in Paris
The Emperor’s New Groove – WINNER.
Rugrats in Paris
What did we learn? For the most part, the decade started with
one box office animated movie from Disney and nothing else. The three most important years:
1)
1995 – For the first time, multiple animated box
office hits were released.
2)
1996 – The first year Disney did not have the
best animated film.
3)
1998 – For the first time, multiple critical
hits were released.
@CowGoesMovie
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Housekeeping: Doc With All My Reviews
Here is a document that will continuously be updated with my reviews. It will be a nice quick reference as to what has been looked at and what has not.
Review of Reviews
Review of Reviews
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Friday, October 24, 2014
Movie Review: A Nightmare Before Christmas
Ok, you have waited long enough, the first
movie review.
I am going to start with one of my favorite
movies of all time: The Nightmare Before
Christmas. I have never done a ranking
of my favorite movies for different genres (but maybe I should start), but Tim
Burton’s classic may rank at the top of my favorite animated, musical,
Halloween and Christmas movies. By the
way, is this movie a Christmas or Halloween movie?
What’s
Good: Can I say everything? I guess
I will have to start with the music. It
is a little odd that I will be starting by saying the music. This may be a bad president. I am not a huge musical guy, but come on, how
can you dislike the music? Here is a
Fiona Apple cover of one the classics:
What’s
Not So Good: The thing with any
great movie is that it is often hard to criticize. If I had to make one criticism, the love
story between Sally and Jack was kind of weak.
It was a children’s movie, so it is hard to make it a true Sally and
Harry story.
Final
Grade: A. I did not want to start with a bad grade. This is the type of movie that gets an
A. Not everything will. I promise.
@CowGoesMovie
@CowGoesMovie
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Housekeeping: How I Review Movies
Grade A: See this movie ASAP. If it is in theaters, it is worth the $15 price of admissions.
Grade B: Very good movie. Stream it on Amazon Instant, iTunes, or rent it on DVD if you can still find a video store.
Grade C: It is what it is. If you happen to see this movie on television or Netflix, it might be worth your time if you want to watch a movie.
Grade D: If you are forced and have to no other choice but to watch a movie, watch this movie. Think if you are on an airplane.
Grade F: Why? Why is this movie made?
There are also +/- aspects to the grade, except to the A grade. It is impossible for an A+. An A+ would mean that there is something even more urgent than seeing a movie now, and until I figure out what that is, A+ is just a mythical grade.
I am working on two assumptions:
1) The average movie in a movie theater is a C. On the one hand, most movies are not worth seeing in theaters. Day 1: A movie is released. Tickets are $15. Day 120: A movie is on some sort of instant stream service. Cost is $4. Day 360: A movie is on television or Netflix. See what patience can get you. On the other hand, a lot of money is invested in a movie if it goes to theaters, so it won’t be horrible.
2) The average movie I see will be a B grade. I am a biased. I will only watch a movie if I think it is going to be good. So I expected a skewed distribution.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Movie Review: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
SPOILERS: I try to avoid spoilers, but I apologize just in case.
Facts are difficult to remember. Cold hard facts are something we as people are not supposed to remember. In evolution terms, how does remembering a batting average or state capital actually help a person survive as an individual or as a species? Not much, yet we are able to contain so much data inside our personal hard drive. We fill our heads with facts, but the coding behind them is the same coding behind why you cry or why you laugh: emotion.
When asked, "remember something" with no context is extremely difficult. Try it. Harder than you thought, isn't it? Under the right setting with a few details you are able to visit a part of your mind with ease. Somehow all of your surroundings caused you to feel an emotion which then let loose that memory.
A good movie is a movie that entertains you. On the one hand there are movies that distract. These movies provide a service. These movies cause you to forget your surrounding, and there is no problem with that. They may not be "intellectual", but they are fun. Fun is a good thing.
On the other hand there are movies that will aid in remembering an emotion. It could be an emotion which makes you laugh or cry or fear or just feel unsettled. I am neither a wordsmith nor a poet, and I will not pretend to hit on the depth that a movie hits me, but sometimes you just feel something. After the movie plot has left your mind, the feeling you got from watching that movie still is remembered. That is what makes a good movie great.
I had been looking forward to Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) since I first learned of its making, and it did not disappoint. Michael Keaton was great, and just like his character in the movie, Ed Norton tried to steal the show. The brilliance behind the single shot camera did not distort; rather, it smoothed the action. For a movie that may be described as a "black comedy", I found myself laughing out loud.
In the end though, this movie made me feel something. It did not hit right away. Minutes after walking out the theater and stepping onto the subway platform I felt the emotion of the movie. Maybe someday we will all be fortunate (without the aid of a tool) to have that moment of clarity where we will be able to just get up an fly away because flying is what we were meant to do.
Was this movie a parable, an imitation of life, or a satire? Maybe it was all of those.
Grade: A- ... go see it.
-@CowGoesMovie
PS
On a scheduling, here is how the rest of the week will look:
-Thursday: An explanation of my grading system
-Friday: Another movie review (one that was supposed to be meant for today)
-Saturday: A discussion question
-Sunday: Miscellaneous housekeeping
-Monday: A look back in film history
Facts are difficult to remember. Cold hard facts are something we as people are not supposed to remember. In evolution terms, how does remembering a batting average or state capital actually help a person survive as an individual or as a species? Not much, yet we are able to contain so much data inside our personal hard drive. We fill our heads with facts, but the coding behind them is the same coding behind why you cry or why you laugh: emotion.
When asked, "remember something" with no context is extremely difficult. Try it. Harder than you thought, isn't it? Under the right setting with a few details you are able to visit a part of your mind with ease. Somehow all of your surroundings caused you to feel an emotion which then let loose that memory.
A good movie is a movie that entertains you. On the one hand there are movies that distract. These movies provide a service. These movies cause you to forget your surrounding, and there is no problem with that. They may not be "intellectual", but they are fun. Fun is a good thing.
On the other hand there are movies that will aid in remembering an emotion. It could be an emotion which makes you laugh or cry or fear or just feel unsettled. I am neither a wordsmith nor a poet, and I will not pretend to hit on the depth that a movie hits me, but sometimes you just feel something. After the movie plot has left your mind, the feeling you got from watching that movie still is remembered. That is what makes a good movie great.
I had been looking forward to Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) since I first learned of its making, and it did not disappoint. Michael Keaton was great, and just like his character in the movie, Ed Norton tried to steal the show. The brilliance behind the single shot camera did not distort; rather, it smoothed the action. For a movie that may be described as a "black comedy", I found myself laughing out loud.
In the end though, this movie made me feel something. It did not hit right away. Minutes after walking out the theater and stepping onto the subway platform I felt the emotion of the movie. Maybe someday we will all be fortunate (without the aid of a tool) to have that moment of clarity where we will be able to just get up an fly away because flying is what we were meant to do.
Was this movie a parable, an imitation of life, or a satire? Maybe it was all of those.
Grade: A- ... go see it.
-@CowGoesMovie
PS
On a scheduling, here is how the rest of the week will look:
-Thursday: An explanation of my grading system
-Friday: Another movie review (one that was supposed to be meant for today)
-Saturday: A discussion question
-Sunday: Miscellaneous housekeeping
-Monday: A look back in film history
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Welcome to Cow Goes Movie
Hello world.
Welcome to Cow Goes Movie, the official blog of an average man trying to explain film in an above average way. I am a pretty simple guy from a small farm town who has been living in the big city. With early movie releases (narrows the cities down to two in the USA), I have no excuse not to watch movies and movies and movies.
Fact: I have seen around 150 movies over the past year and a half. I will only write about movies I have seen recently and written down notes. If you have a request, I will rewatch and then write about it. I am not going to trust my memory.
Fact: I have written some observations of these films and have graded them.
Fact: I will be sharing these observations with you.
You may not like what I have to say, but I will say it. That is the point. I am not a critic. I have never taken a film class. I have worked at a film festival (with a legendary story I will share at some point).
I will make typos. I don’t care at this point, but I will in the future.
So enjoy, comment, and email me at CowGoesMovie@gmail.com or Tweet Me at @CowGoesMovie
Good luck!
-Adam
Welcome to Cow Goes Movie, the official blog of an average man trying to explain film in an above average way. I am a pretty simple guy from a small farm town who has been living in the big city. With early movie releases (narrows the cities down to two in the USA), I have no excuse not to watch movies and movies and movies.
Fact: I have seen around 150 movies over the past year and a half. I will only write about movies I have seen recently and written down notes. If you have a request, I will rewatch and then write about it. I am not going to trust my memory.
Fact: I have written some observations of these films and have graded them.
Fact: I will be sharing these observations with you.
You may not like what I have to say, but I will say it. That is the point. I am not a critic. I have never taken a film class. I have worked at a film festival (with a legendary story I will share at some point).
I will make typos. I don’t care at this point, but I will in the future.
So enjoy, comment, and email me at CowGoesMovie@gmail.com or Tweet Me at @CowGoesMovie
Good luck!
-Adam
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