Top 5 Christmas Holiday Movies

#5

Elf

            Will Ferrell gives another unforgettable character in Buddy the Elf, a grown man working as one of Santa’s elf’s goes on a trip of a life time to New York City.  This non-stop laughing comedy is great for all ages and really helps get you in the Christmas spirit mood. 

#4

Die Hard

            You might not think of this as a holiday movie, but the fact of the matter is the original Die Hard, which is full of classic one liners, takes lace on Christmas Eve.  I don’t know about you but nothing gets me more in the Christmas spirit than watching Bruce Willis single-handedly take down a group of terrorist.   

#3

Home Alone

            Macaulay Culkin became a child star over night after he gave Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern a good old fashion Christmas beat down.  It’s a great family film with a fun entertaining plot.

#2

Love Actually

            If you love Christmas and romantic comedies, you’ll love Love Actually.  Its 8 (maybe more) romantic comedies in one all twined together over the Christmas holiday.  Some characters give more memorable performances than others, but either way you’ll be singing Billy Mac’s Christmas hit throughout the holidays. 

#1

A Christmas Story

            The story of a young mans quest to get his hands on a Red Ryder BB gun is an instant classic that will be around forever.  The whole movie is full of memorable moments, but none more memorable then the Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant, the kids tongue getting stuck to the pool, and of course the fragile leg lamp.  A Christmas Story is the clear winner of Christmas holiday movies.



Must See Movies Coming Out In 2012

The Bourne Legacy

Release Date: August 3, 2012

            The Bourne franchise has been amazing thus far, with three all around great movies.  However, The Bourne Legacy has switched things up and starting new since Jason Bourne’s (Matt Damon) storyline ended in the last movie.  The new star of these films is Jeremy Renner; a very talented actor that I think will do just fine in filling Damon’s shoes. 

The Avengers

Release Date: May 4, 2012

            I have high hopes for the Avengers movie since Ironman, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk were all solid films.  With the additions of Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, The Avengers is a can’t miss.  The storyline is, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency brings together a team of superhumans (the avengers) to help save the Earth from extinction by extraterrestrial invaders. 

James Bond: Skyfall

Release Date: November 9, 2012

            Daniel Craig’s first two Bond films have been two of the franchise’s best in my opinion, and I expect Craig’s third installment as Bond to just as good as the previous two. 

The Dark Knight Rises

Release Date: July 20, 2012

            After 8 years of retirement, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is forced to put back on the suit when the terrorist leader Bane arrives in Gotham City; Bane forces Batman to his breaking point and beyond.  Director Christopher Nolan made the previous two Batman movies which where both flat out amazing.  With Nolan directing again and Bale back as Batman I expect The Dark Knight Rises to be the best film of the summer and maybe even the year.  It is definitely the movie I am looking forward to the most, just talking about it gets me fired up and ready for July 20.

Great Movie Site's!

When you’re on the fence about whether or not to see a movie and you want to know more about it then just watching the trailer on YouTube, there a some other site’s I find very useful. 

Rottentomatoes is an excellent site that uses a rating system that tells you both what critics thought of a movie and what regular viewers thought of it as well.  I also find Rottentomatoes helpful, because every movie has dozens of short little reviews that let you know what critics thought of the movie.   

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/     

The other site that I use a ton and find to be quite reliable is IMBd (Internet Movie Database).  It is similar to Rottentomatoes in a lot of ways, but also has some things that set it apart.  What I enjoy the most from this site is it has a top 250 movies of all time which is a great list to go find a really enjoyable movie that you haven’t seen before.

http://www.imdb.com/

P.S.- If you have a smart phone Flixster is a great movie app to download.

Is 3D Overrated?

3D is currently Hollywood’s newest craze, it seems everyday more and more movies are coming out in 3D.  Everyone’s always waiting and excited when any new advancement in technology comes out.  However, I am not a fan of 3D, sometimes things are best left alone and in this case I feel Hollywood should leave the latest technology advancement alone. 

Here is my reasoning:

• It adds nothing important to the movie going experience
• Having to wear the 3D classes can create an annoying distracting to some people
• In some cases the glasses can cause nausea and headaches for the viewer
• I can’t picture any serious movie being filmed in 3D its just wouldn’t work, 3D only works for an action movie
• It’s more expensive, it can raise the price of a movie ticket by almost 5 dollars!
• Great movies don’t need to be in 3D

For these reason I feel the 3D movies are unnecessary and overrated.  Unfortunately Avatar gave Hollywood its biggest payday ever, which makes me fear that 3D movies aren’t going away anytime soon.

Hollywood

          In this post I’m going to take a set back from reviewing movies and instead talk about the history of Hollywood.  Hollywood has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century and has helped the U.S. film industry make more money each year then any other country since 1920.  Hollywood’s history can be divided into four main parts.  Theses four parts are known as the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period.

The silent film era (1894-1929) refers to a film with no synchronized recorded sound or spoken dialogue.  In silent films the dialogue is transmitted through body gestures such as hand motions.  The classical Hollywood cinema is defined as a film which designates both a visual and sound style for making motion pictures and a mode of production used in the American film industry between roughly the 1910s and the early 1960s (Monaco).  New Hollywood refers to the time between the late-1960s and early 1980s when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in America and influenced the types of films that were produced by their production and marketing values (Cox).  New Hollywood is also called the Hollywood Renaissance because it changed the way major studios approached filmmaking.  The contemporary period, which is the current period we are in began in the 1980s, is known for the development of blockbuster franchises, large scale marketing campaigns, and an increasing emphasis on special effects.

When it comes to Hollywood films one of the biggest factors that can make or break a film are the reviews it receives by film critics.  Positive film reviews especially have a big effect on independent films with smaller marketing budgets, an example is The Hurt Locker the film would never have been as successful if it was not for the positive reviews they received.  However, a bad review can do just the opposite and turn the film into a box office disaster.  Eddie Lew, a journalist for the New York Times, recently stated that “critics should wait until a show’s official opening before they delivered their verdict in a review.”  By doing so it gives the film a chance to do good in the box office before a review ruins the movie, plus it also gives a chance for the movie critic to see the film multiple times which allows him to write a more fair evaluated review.

Bibliography

Cox, Gordon. "Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood." Daily Variety 17 May 2010, Sec. 3. Print.

Lew, Eddie. "What's Fair is Fair, Unless It's Not." New York Times [New York City] 7 January 2011, n. page. Print.

Monaco, Paul. “A History of American Movies a Film-by-Film Look at the Art, Craft, and Business of Cinema.” Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2010.

Abrams' Tribute to Spielberg

Super 8

            J.J. Abrams worked his magic again, as Super 8 was a box office hit and one of the best movies of the 2011 summer.  The mystery-thriller gives you a chance to relive the classic movies such as ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Many critics have been calling Super 8 a tribute to Steven Spielberg. 

            In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a movie on there super 8 camera.  The 5 kids were the only people to witness and discover that the crash was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and unexplainable events begin to take place in town.  With the sheriff gone it’s up to the local Deputy to try and uncover the truth, which turns out to be something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined.

            The young casts of actors are outstanding in the film.  The film also delivers stunning visual effects which helps add to the magic. 

The Call

Many times in sports coaches learn from one another; whether it’s by taking plays, a strategy, or even what it takes to be great.  J.J. Abrams Super 8 is just that, by learning from Spielberg, Abrams is able to mimic Spielberg’s early work to help him create a nail-biting mystery-thriller!  Super 8 is the most intensely Spielbergian film you'll ever see that Steven Spielberg didn't actually direct himself. 

Halloween Pick: Paranormal Activity 3

If you want a nice scare before Halloween, which is only a few days away, I suggest you go to the movie theater and see Paranormal Activity 3.

The newest installment to the Paranormal Activity franchise is a prequel to the previous two films.  It’s focused on the two girls Katie and Kristy as little kids and shows the start of this demonic ghost attacking and tormenting there lives.

Much like the two films before it this one uses the same technique in how it is shown as a home made video through different camera’s set up around the house.

This film sets itself apart from the previous two in that it is not as suspenseful as the two before it but instead more action packed. This demon doesn’t take long to attacking the home owners and creating havoc. 

I think it’s safe to say that Paranormal Activity 3 has the most likable cast which delivers some pretty honest laughs.

The ending of the movie is by far the craziest and most intense of the three films. 

It will have the entire theater at the edge of there seats yelling and screaming.

Paranormal Activity 3 did its job.  It’ll make you jump and be terrified, so try not to cover your eyes and let Paranormal Activity 3 start your Halloween on the right foot.