It would appear that I have been struck down with a wee bit of JPitis (that is when you get really behind on your Alphabetical Movie Project reviews and it'll take forever to catch up). I know I have JPitis because this morning he emailed me the latest reviews he'd done and he's now caught up with me and we are BOTH five reviews behind what we're watching. I hope to rectify that now. . . .
"The Breakfast Club" is old school - starring the '80's brat pack of teenagers - Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilo Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald.
This motley group of teenagers are assembled in the school library on a Saturday morning for detention. They fit the molds of your typical school stereotypes (the jock, the brain, the kook, the princess and the rebel). They are there all day with only a piece of paper for an essay and each other for company. At 7.30am they don't know each other, and at the end of the day they know way to much.
I remember hearing about "The Breakfast Club" a long time before I saw it. Molly Ringwald was hyped up to be the golden child of the 80's, but I never really understood what made her so amazing. Meanwhile, for some reason, I've always had a thing for Emilio Estevez - something about him being so hot in "Mighty Ducks" and yes I was a teenager at the time!
All these actors do a great job at portraying their sterotypical roles seperately and together. However, I have always thought there was something slightly missing from the movie. I just can't put my finger on it. The pacing is ok and the music is ok, and the end is ok. Perhaps it's all just ok? There's no big finish or any big plot lines, it all hums along at the same pace the entire time.
Should you watch it? Yeah, sure. You will probably enjoy it and it is a 80's classic, but you aren't missing much if you do decide to pass it by.
"Brick". JP spent several months tracking this one down for his collection, hoping to get it before we got to the "B-R-I"s. And he did.
What's it about? Good question. It's set in what I assume is a typical American high school in the naughties. A young teen is trying to track down his missing ex-girlfriend who appears to have gotten herself caught up with the 'wrong' crowd. To find her he befriends the local drug king.
What really stands out about this movie is the script - if you watched this movie with your eyes closed you'd be forgiven for believing this was a 1930's black-and-white detective movie. It takes a while to get used to it, especially when you're trying to connect it to the high school setting. After a while you have to forget trying to connect the two and just go with it.
"Brick" has a cast full of actors more famously known for their TV roles - Nora Zehetner from "Grey's Anatomy", Emilie de Ravin from "Lost" and Joseph Gordon Levitt from "3rd Rock From The Sun". He made a name for himself as a geeky teenager, and while you'd think this was the same type of role, here is manages to show a much wider range and great acting skills.
It took me a while to realise that I'd seen this before. I don't know if that means I didn't watch it properly the first time, or if I didn't like it enough to remember it. In fact, I found myself getting frustrated at the detective speak. While it's a cool way of portraying a story, I just found it annoying.
It's a good story, but it's not really something I was really that interested in. You'll probably enjoy the detective story in a high school, it makes the normal movie storyline much more interesting. I don't need to see it again.
Now here's one of JP's movies that I expected to be a boring war movie. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a war movie, but it wasn't as big a bore as I thought. In fact, I even managed to follow the story and actually CARE about the ending. haha.
"The Bridge on the River Kwai" is about a British Colonel that leads his men to build a bridge over the river kwai - a project run by a Japanese PoW camp. What he doesn't know is that his own side are planning on blowing up the bridge as soon as it's finished. Do they build it? Do they blow it up? You'll have to watch it to find out.
Filmed in 1957, it won lots of awards including Best Picture in 1958. It stars actors I don't know (yes I'm a modern movie chick, and no I don't care if you think that's stupid) like Alec Guiness, William Holden and Jack Hawkins.
The movie is easy to follow and has a good storyline. You start to feel a sense of compassion and respect for what they are doing despite believing it's perhaps the wrong thing to do. But when the same side are planning on blowing up the bridge you don't know if you should be backing the British, booing the British or flipping sides and cheering for the Japanese. And then you decide that that's not the best thing and you go back to 'which side am I on - the British or the British?'
Do I think you should watch it - sure. Just like "The Boys From Brazil" you'll have to get past the grainy, old movie-ness of it and enjoy it for what it is. And, if you're lucky, you'll earn some big brownie points when you agree to watch this with your fella or impress the boys when you can actually talk about this movie becuase you've seen it :)
"Bring It On" was a movie that I was looking forward to mainly because JP wasn't. Mean? Nah, he has some doosies of his own that he tortures me with. The thing is, JP decided he kinda liked it, only because it stars lots of young, pretty girls in short skirts. When I tried to annoy him with "They are all barely legal teenagers" he quips back with "yes in the movie, but in real life they are adults playing teens, so it's ok." hmmm. ok JP, whatever helps you sleep at night.
"Bring It On" is about a cheerleading squad that wins national titles every year and this year should be no different. Torrance Shipman is promoted to captain and recruits a new team member, who delivers the news that their routines are stolen. Oh dear, now they must come up with new routines in order to compete against the squad they stole them from, at the Championships.
Kirsten Dunst stars alongside Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford and Gabrielle Union. Not stand out roles in any way for any of these actors, but I like them all. They do well in other movies and I suppose this movie is a stepping stone for them. It was made in 2000 and definetly feels dated now that we are watching it 10 years later. It was such a cult film that it spawned several sequels - none of which star any of the original stars.
The movie is fun - lots of dancing and singing and teenage angst. It's a no brainer really, but that's ok - sometimes it's fun to just sit and watch and have fun. There's a bit of a romance thrown in for fun. The only thing that brings it down is the racism of the movie. The wealthy, champion team all happen to be white, while the down-on-their luck, poor team are the black kids. In 2000 that seemed to be ok but these days you wouldn't see a movie so blatantly colour divided. At worst you'd see one black kid on the white team and vice versus. It's not so much a critiscism but merely an observation.
Should you watch it - Yes! If you don't have fun with the cheering and hilarity, then you'll enjoy the girls jumping up and down.
It's at this point that JP does a happy little dance. I've been threatening to buy "Brokeback Mountain" and it would be here that we watched it. However, by hitting the play button on "A Bugs Life" he's avoided the horror. Lucky man.
"A Bug's Life" is awesome! It's Pixar - my favourie animated movie makers. It was made in 1998 at the beginning of Pixar's career. They were just starting to make a name for themselves as animators in the movie business. Since "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life" they have continued to make great strides in animation. Their yearly movie release is always highly anticipated by both children and adults alike. personaly I own all of them made since "Toy Story" was made in 1997.
Anyway, back to "A Bug's Life". Flik is a worker ant sent to find warrior bugs to help the colony collect enough food for themselves and the grasshoppers that terroise them. He beliefs he's found them in a group of circus bugs who help them to fight the grasshoppers in a way that they hadn't expected.
This is the third movie that we've watched so far that sees us going inside an ant hill. What I like about this movie, more than the others, is the involvement of the other bugs. There's the mexican beetles, the whiney stick insect, the dramatic praying mantis, the hefty caterpillar and the manly ladybug. They make a great ensemble and a great contrast to the colony of ants.
This movie has some great actors lending their voices - Dave Foley, Bonnie Hunt, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phyllis Diller, David Hyde Peirce and a young Hayden Paneittere. All great actors and all great voices that make for great characters. Sometimes movie makers make the mistake of getting big name actors for their voices but they aren't great voice actors. But Pixar get great voice actors and if they happen to be big names, then great, but it's not the most important.
JP and I were discussing what makes this movie so great, or any Pixar movie so great. I think it's the way they use light and texture. "A Bug's Life" has some amazing light shots. The texture shots are still in development here. I can only say that having since seen their later work, it was still pretty good and ahead of the animation pack for it's time.
I could go on and on about how wonderful this movie is and give you a hundred reasons why you should watch it, but I'm not going to. You should just watch it! WATCH IT! It's brilliant. It's fun. It's sweet. Watch it - you'll enjoy it, I promise.
What's next? - The end of the B's: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Butterfly Effect". Then we're on to the C's. There's 28 of them - I counted. That's the most of any letter we own. Crikey.
