Movie Review: Pocahontas (1995)

It's funny when your a movie critic and you see a great movie, but all the reviews online are either trashing it or very mixed. I did this with The Amytiville Horror a while ago and now I'm back to do it. Pocahontas is a 1995 historical - romance movie directed by Mike and Eric Goldberg. This was one of Walt Disney Pictures movies that came out during the nineties, which is often referred to as their golden age. The film stars the likes of Mel Gibson, Christian Bale, and Linda Hunt. The film explores the story of a young Native American woman named Pocahontas who falls in love with John Smith, an English explorer who is looking (along with his men) to take down the Indian territory and industrialize their land. As Pocahontas meets Smith, the two fall in love and John Smith gradually begins to except her culture and understand what the Native Americans are all about. Without even speaking, Walt Disney's interpretation of Pocahontas is fascinating. This woman doesn't have to utter a word and just by seeing her and looking at how she's drawn, there is a natural poise and elegance to this character. She's very lifelike and not unlike a force of nature herself. This is a character who has a lot of power without even saying any lines and that is a huge plus. This is a great movie, and while it might not be as nostalgic or even as good as The Lion King or Aladdin, it's still a fantastically animated film. There are several scenes in this movie where my mouth literally dropped open. It's filled with great imagery and some of these scenes had shots that felt truly realistic and surpassed the typical Disney cinematic experience. As far as criticisms go, I suppose I should start out with why this movie has a very mixed critical reaction. Upon viewing this movie, a lot of people critiqued how Native American culture and even just their people were portrayed. Now I'm well aware that this movie is horridly outdated and even is quite offensive just by looking at Pocahontas. However, while I respect people's concerns about how a certain group is represented in cinematic production, this is a work of fiction. Walt Disney is a company where table spoons and tea kettles talk, where mermaids are like fire hydrants on the side of the road, and where beasts actually do reside and exist. Since it's very fictional, I think focusing on the portrayal of Native Americans and the history is one of the last things to look at. Don't get me wrong, I respect all the people, but this film doesn't need to be critiqued for that. As far as my own flaws go, there are a few. First off, I didn't like the slapstick elements of this movie. There are far too many scenes just made to make little children laugh and I did not find any of this even entertaining. It's definitely slapstick done wrong and there is WAY too much of it. Also, I wasn't really interested in the bad character of this movie. These two aspects actually led me out of the film and I felt less interested in the production. However, the story between John Smith and Pocahontas is really great and it reminds us that instead of hating, we should love. It's a great message for kids to see and I do understand that this movie is nowhere near as good as some of the other Disney flicks of the time. I also do see how it's portrayal could be viewed as bigoted, but we have to look at it for what it is: a children's movie. Overall, Pocahontas is heartfelt, has a good message, but there are a few scenes where the film does lag. Three stars= B

Movie Review: The Shining (1980)

Finally! The moment does arise! I'm finally going to talk about The Shining. This is a review I've been wanting to write for so long now and just yesterday I watched the abbreviated version of the film on Netflix. I'm going to make this review mainly for the entire feature film, but I'll talk about everything. Also, just a heads up, from now on my reviews are going to have a star rating and a letter grading next to them. It allows me to express my feelings on a film more evenly and it's just FUN. The Shining is a 1980 horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, and stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers. The movie focuses on a small family who decide to take care of a hotel during the closed and vacation season. The isolation mounts and mounts and mounts until Jack (Nicholson) hits his breaking point. I love this movie. The Shining is one of the greatest movies ever made and is one of my personal favorite films. It's SO VERY scary and it will give you nightmares, but holy crap if you haven't seen this, well,...where you been? This is a great movie for a number of reasons, but let's talk about the acting. Nicholson is perfect for this role. His personality in real life fits so well into this character that it's hard to separate his character from himself. It's a fantastic, bold, risky performance that lives in the classic and nostalgic hallways forever. Shelley Duvall is also surprisingly scary because her facial expressions and reactions to the haunted hotel are so believable. Her acting in this movie is very physical and it works from our perspective as well. Danny Lloyd as Danny was fantastic casting and he himself is also very scary. Then there's Scatman Crothers who's one of my favorite characters in this entire movie. Another character who seems a little darkened and even creepy. That brings me to my first pro about this flick, which is that no character is ever morally innocent. Often times Stephen King (the author) writes stories where no character is good or bad. Everyone just falls into the grey area. That's what works about this movie. It's uneasy and hard to watch because we never believe that anybody on camera is fully good. Their morals are obstructed and twisted which makes this movie very dark, eerie, and suspenseful. Then there's the scary aspect. This is the second scariest movie I have ever seen (The Exorcist is number one) and part of the reason it's scary is because of the way it's edited. This movie doesn't use a score increase to indicate when a scare is about to happen. The musical number is great for this film, but the scary elements just appear on screen without warning. That's uneasy as heck and sometimes the best horror movies are the "quiet" ones that sneak up on you. Now I won't go too in depth with this, but there's an entire body of critics and literature analysts who have researched very extensively into this film. The movie Room 237 is an entire documentary that fully explores the hidden meaning behind this film. If you haven't seen that it's very cool, but I will definitely say that The Shining has fascinating color contrast. Even just looking at the pattern on the carpet brings chills to my spine. This film was colored in such a way that it's actually scary. Red on white is a big one. It's a very visual movie and while the dialogue and performances are all excellent, it's not that aspect that I've taken away each time I see this masterpiece of a film. Now looking back on this film, it's hard to pinpoint flaws (if there are even any of them). I will say that I couldn't find a single one. The Shining doesn't really have any flaws on it's own two feet. King himself denounced this movie and having read that novel, I can honestly say he does have a point. This movie's tone is slightly different than that of the Stephen King tale. Overall, The Shining is scary, brilliantly directed, and is one of the greatest films ever put to cinema. Four stars= A+

Movie Review: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events came out in 2004 and was directed by Brad Siberling. The film stars Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Kate and Shelby Hoffman, Billy Connolly, and Meryl Streep. This Friday, Netflix is debuting their series and I thought it would be fun to travel back thirteen years ago and review this one. The plot follows three children who after the destruction of their home and the death of their parents in a mysterious fire, are sent to live with Count Olaf. Olaf is a vile man who seeks one thing only: to steal the fortune from these kids that their parents had left behind. When I was younger, the Lemony Snickets books (All 13 of them) were a staple of my childhood. Those books were great and I loved every one of them. I bet one can picture my surprise when I discovered there was a full feature movie of the series starring Jim Carrey. Positives first. The acting in this film is all really great. There's not one bad performance and there isn't a single performance where someone breaks their character. These feel like actual people and that's definitely a pro. Another great thing is how emotional and deep this movie gets. Not only do we feel for our protagonist leads, but this is a movie that explores the depths of human nature. It can be very dark, but at the same time light hearted. The movie at hand is one of the only I've seen to ever successfully blend black comedy and pure lightheartedness. It's a great combination and it really helps set up this universe. This is a childhood favorite of mine and so it's hard to pick out flaws, but there are a few. One negative that I realized is that Carrey while great, does have a tendency to overact a bit. This is a great character and he brings all the right traits to it, but sometimes he does go a bit too far. Granted, he's a great villian character and he's nothing but pure evil. Yet sometimes that line between acting and bringing a little too much was crossed. Now this movie is older, but the CGI in a few of the scenes is atrociously bad. There's one scene where an entire person is composed of CG up close and it's not functional. However,  this is up for debate because while there are some CGI fails and flops on screen, there's also a lot of really amazing even gorgeous imagery that really brings the story to life. Finally, I hit the biggest problem most fans of the books have with this movie. As I stated, there are thirteen books in the series of novels. This movie doesn't really adapt a lot of the series, and what it does, it comes out rather oddly. You see, the film starts out with the first book, goes to the second novel, and then moves over to the third. The ending is the end of the first book, plus an ending that we never even get in the books. The movie ends the series before the book series ended. It's complicated and really hard to explain, but if Harry had killed Voldemort in the first film, what would be the point of even making the movie? A Series of Unfortunate Events was indeed a planned new franchise, but how could there have ever been one if the film ties up all the loose ends? Actually that's not true, the movie gets into VFD (the secret organization), but only a mere touch. We're never given any real information on what it is, and you'd have to read the books more to learn about it. Overall, A Series of Unfortunate Events is a good movie, but has a bizzare narrative structure and storytelling, with great acting, and is a personal old favorite of mine. If you've never seen this or read the books, give them a try..they are truly wonderful and lively storytelling. Three stars