Movie Review: The Sixth Sense (1999)

Before I delve into this analysis of one of the most brilliant films ever constructed by man, let me just warn before hand that there will be spoilers. In fact, I don't think you can fully review The Sixth Sense without having spoilers in there. The Sixth Sense is a 1999 thriller film that includes horror elements, directed by M. Night Shymalan. Now in a very general principal, I enjoy Shymalan's movies. Even though I haven't seem them all, the ones I have seen have been all great (or great attempts) at movies. This film stars Bruce Willis as a psychologist who comes to the aid of a young man named Cole. Cole is a kid (Haley Joel Osment) who has the ability to see and communicate with the spirits of the deceased. Willis then helps Osment as he comes to terms with the "sixth sense" that he inhabits. I like The Sixth Sense for a lot of different reasons, but the thing that always sticks out to me is the ending. M. Night Shymalan is a director who loves to put twist endings into his works. Some are great (Unbreakable) and some are ones where you get where he was thinking, but it doesn't work out executionally as much (Signs). Now The Sixth Sense has an ending that was one of the first films to really ever be spoiled over the internet. Back in the days when they used to call it the World Wide Web. Hence www. However, one who read the spoiler would figure out that Bruce Willis's character as a psychologist, is a ghost himself, and that is why he is able to still communicate and engage with the role that Haley Joel Osment plays. When I first heard that, I instantly thought it was one of the smartest film twists I had ever seen. In fact, it may be the best film twist I've ever watched in any movie....ever. Now the movie does definitely have some elements of the film that lean towards horror. There's a scene where Cole sees the ghost  of a girl who has been poisoned by her own mother. That's disturbing crap right there. What makes Sixth Sense work the most, is the emotional parts of the film. This movie definitely implores lots of emotions through all the characters. Which in turn, makes for some really fascinating character archs. One of the scenes in the movie is Cole telling his mom that he sees and talks with her grandmother. Through a sad and real tear-jerker of a scene, Cole's grandmother makes up with her daughter. About a dispute that they had years before, when Cole's mom was just a kid. It's such an emotional scene, and that's why horror movies today don't do as well. There is no emotion in most horror movies. All classic horror's have emotions. Overall, The Sixth Sense is a great movie that excels at using paranormal and horror elements that allow emotion to flow through. Three stars.

Movie Review: The Giver (2014)

After eighteen years of planning and small interfering disputes, we finally get a movie adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver. Now I remember reading this book when I was in middle school. We had to read it the coming year and I went ahead (this was at the very beginning of the school year, well before we read it) and read it and fell in love with it. The book was revolutionary because it raised ideas that people toss around a lot into society today. Is being different good? Are emotions such as pain okay to feel? Should we give into our emotional urges? Now when I heard that this was going to be made into a movie, I was thrilled. It was rumored that Jeff Bridges was going to work on the project. He's a good actor, doing everything from The Big Lebowski to the remake of the original True Grit. I was excited to see how the book would translate into the movie's sets, themes, and different characters. Then I finally saw the movie yesterday. To tell you the truth, I was not dissapointed at all. The movie is the same plot as that of the novel. Jonas (Brandon Thwaites) is a 15 year old who is chosen to be "receiver" to the keeper of memories, well- named The Giver (Jeff Bridges). As Jonas receives memories from The Giver, he learns how the society that he was born into isn't one of perfection, but one lacking certain normality and human emotion. First, let me comment on the acting. And I am going to make it pretty basic. Jeff Bridges is the only actor who I thought went "above and beyond" with the part. Everyone in this movie is functional. Jeff Bridges is always a great actor, and his acting in this movie is so well composed. You can tell he was a fan of the book, because that character literally translates itself to the page. Brandon Thwaites and the younger kid actors and actresses are all functional. Not saying their performances were outstanding, but they had a functionality to them. Meryl Streep was in this movie, and to be totally honest she didn't add anything great. She wasn't bad, but she did less than what I've expected from her to do. Katie Holmes is one of my favorite actreesses and she is functional, but she's really good at making the intensity of the character she's playing come through. Everything in the movie is very good, until the elements of the movie that weren't in the book. I will not give spoilers, but the two characters who turn on each other at the end, let's just say that didn't seem realistic. The Giver in the novel was also a much more reclusive figure. He didn't like to be seen in public, and he wasn't just like the guy over there. He had a mysterious way about him. That was the one element of the character that Jeff Bridges didn't quite hit with his own translation of The Giver. Overall, The Giver is an acceptable adaption of the hit best selling novel. Very good. Two stars.

Movie Review: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

According to multiple internet sources, IMDB lists this film as the number one greatest of all time. Do I agree with that? It depends on how you watch the movie. The Shawshank Redemption is a flick that came out in 1994. It stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in the leading roles. The film follows Robbins character, a man who was accused of murdering his wife and the man she was cheating on him with, as he enters Shawshank prison. When he gets there, he soon makes friends with an inmate who was a seniority of 30 years. This is Red. He's played by Morgan Freeman. The movie then goes on to chronicle the prison shenanigans and also chronicles the relationship between Andy and Red. Now TBH, I don't totally believe that this is the best film ever. In fact, there are numerous moments in this film where we aren't really getting any action and instead, are receiving a pretty slow and forced script. The delivery isn't perfect in all areas. It took me many times to understand why people view this film in the light that they do. Today, I saw the film in it's whole. I understand why people like this film in the way they have for years at a time. This movie is so much more than it presents itself as. What really engages me (I think probably the most out of everything) in this film is the relationship between Andy and Freeman's character. Red is a prisoner of thirty years, Andy is a prisoner of maybe a year when they first meet, if that. What's fascinating is that as these two talk, we see that Morgan Freeman's role sees himself in Andy. I'd never realized that about this story. Now granted, I had not seen the full length film. Andy is who Red was, when he first came to Shawshank. That's the power of this movie. It's a reflection. Literally. One of the things that I didn't realize was how that is more apparent as the film progresses. The acting in this film is a great aspect. It's solid performances allow for a painfully honest delivery of life in prison. Overall, The Shawshank Redemption is a very good movie that has to be analyzed below the surface in order to appreciate the value of a movie, such as this film. Three stars.

Movie Review: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Very long time ago I reviewed Jurassic Park. And now, I'm going to review the next movie in the series, The Lost World. The Lost World is a 1997 film starring Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore. Out of the first two Jurassic Park movies, I've always felt like the first one is the best, but then this one is the next best thing. I actually really love this movie. It's so great because it's feeling and tone isn't of a sequel, but of a new movie that is about Jurassic Park. You could almost watch this movie without having seen the first one and make sense of what's going on. The plot is that Jeff Goldblum has to return to Jurassic Park, in order to collect his girlfriend Sarah (played awesomely by Julianne Moore) from the island, where she has been conducting her own type of research. Now this movie has a lot of great things, and then there is really only one thing that I didn't enjoy as much. The first thing that is awesome is the first scene. I won't spoil anything about this movie, but that scene is genius. We see how smalls those dinosaurs are, and we underestimate the power they contain. Even if it means going up against a young girl. When the thing does "go on" it has the Steven Spieldberg trademark which is to not show what is going on. The sequence with the RV in this movie is great because it's suspenseful and enough of an obstacle that it shows how much Jeff G's character cares for his girlfriend. I will say that the special effects are really cool, for the most part. There aren't any improvements from the special effects in the first movie, but they are still equally as good. Nothing has changed, but nothing is less or more. One thing that I definitely believe could be cut out, is the sequence where the dinosaur gets loose in the city. That's a great scene, but it is so long. I couldn't figure out, maybe it's because I get antzy during long films? Overall, The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a great movie that has some themes and plot points that weren't explored in the first Jurassic Park movie, making it a successful and beautiful follow up. Three stars.

Movie Review: The Graduate (1967)

In The Graduate, we are introduced to a character (named Ben) who is played by Dustin Hoffman. His character is what I think of when I think about 1960s cinema. The Graduate revolves around Hoffman as he is slowly seduced by a friend of his parents (Anne Bancroft). I have to say, this movie shows the act of seduction as perfectly as The Godfather portrayed the life of a hit-man. Dustin Hoffman's character then falls in love with Anne's (Mrs. Robinson's) daughter played by Katharine Ross. Since this is a great (really perfect) film, I am only going to focus on three particularly good areas where this film excels. The first thing that I love about this movie, is the movie's soundtrack. The soundtrack is composed almost entirely of Simon and Garfunkel songs. Every song works great with the movie. When Ben is riding on that slide thing in the airport (IDK what to call it), Sound of Silence is playing. That song perfectly captures what Hoffman's role is portraying. He feels sad, confused, lost. Which that song perfectly illustrates. The second thing that is really cool about this movie is what the camera does. The scene where Dustin Hoffman is under the water and his father (Willem Daniels) keeps pushing him back under the water. It makes you feel so clausterphobic and like your suffocating. Even though it's only on screen, which is cool. The last thing, the thing I think that works best, is pacing. This movie is pretty fast paced, but it's not so quick that it detracts from the film. It's scenes never get boring. It has a way of always hooking your attention into the film. Overall, The Graduate is perfectly paced, excellent soundtrack, superb acting. Making The Graduate a classic. Three stars.

Movie Review: Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997)

I'm going to have fun reviewing this short film. Michael Jackson's Ghosts is a 1997 short film that was a collaboration between author Stephen King and pop singer Michael Jackson. Now this movie is the first short film that I've ever reviewed, giving it that much more sentimentality. The plot of the movie is this, basically a mayor of this town leads a revolt (with lots of other people) against this guy who is a musical conductor (sort of). He's played by Michael Jackson, and he can do all this cool magic and make ghosts appear and all that junk. It's a great role for him, and he does an excellent job at it. The movie then goes on as Jackson performs a select # of songs from his 1997 remix album, Blood on the DanceFloor. Now I own BOTDF, and ever since I saw Ghosts, the album's tone becomes more and more like that of a movie soundtrack. Maybe that's because in a way, the album does have a movie's music aka the soundtrack on it. Makeup and visuals are incredible in the film. I will say, that this movie doesn't come close to the goodness and the quality of the Thriller music video. That, as many people know, is one of the best music vids I have ever seen. Everything about it was done perfectly. Ghosts is a great movie, but it has a different vibe to it. It seems like MJ is trying to resurrect Thriller through a longer and more in-depth movie. Speaking of depth, this movie has a lot of strong morals in it. I won't reveal what they are, but if you know about how Jackson was perceived (n the eye of the public, anyway) a lot of those lessons speak truth to himself. Overall, Michael Jackson's Ghosts is a great movie that entertains and maintains the quality of a good short horror story. Three stars.

Movie Review: Do the Right Thing (1989)

I think August may be the perfect time to review a movie like Do the Right Thing. It's a hot movie, literally. Besides that fact, it is and may still be one of the best Spike Lee films to date. What is it that makes this flick so good? To start, Do the Right Thing revolves around a neighborhood in the middle of a heat wave. The main character, Mookie (played by Spike Lee) is the main character, but I think you could take any character in this film and make them the main character. Each role has his/her own story. The movie really has one theme and one overtone, race. The movie is about the building racial tensions over the few days of this heat wave. When I say heat wave, I mean this movie does that in an excellent style. You can literally see sweat on the character's faces when the shots are up close. That's something that most movies forget to do. Spike Lee in this movie demonstrates so strongly that pictures and visuals.....AKA actually seeing something is more powerful than hearing several different performers talk about how hot it is. Yes, the characters do complain about these heat days, but it's done in such a way that it doesn't make the viewer feel less for that character. One other thing that this movie excels at, is the fact that the movie starts building tension from the first minute, till the last minute. That's something that most movies cannot do successfully. There's a moment in this movie where tension gets so built up, that it's not comfortable to watch any farther. Overall, Do the Right Thing is a great movie that doesn't deserve to be spoiled because it's such a masterpiece. Making it one of the finest movies I've had the enjoyment of laying my eyes on. Three stars.