Romance Genre (Must-See)

Editors Note: I wrote this before valentines day, so thats why it was written in past tense. Don't be hatten...

Valentine’s Day is coming soon and no matter how you feel about the holiday of love, either it’s a gimmick or truly the lovers last bastion of hope, its celebrated by most people who are in a relationship or by children in elementary school giving out those silly cards with cartoon characters on them, with the candy that tastes like chalk. Point being, Valentine’s Day is holiday and we all celebrate whether we like or not. Hollywood celebrates it too, by releasing a slew of films that plague movie theaters every mid-February claiming they know the true meaning of love, or that they are this year’s best Romantic Comedy. These films are my favorite movies about love, hate, and the trials and tribulations that most people in love go through. These are the 5 movies you must see during Valentine’s Day.

5. The Last Kiss

“The Last Kiss” is one of few movies that Zach Braff, of “Scrubs” fame, stars in. Like his previous movie that he wrote and directed, “Garden State,” this movie is about love. But not the kind of love that movies normally show. In a normal Hollywood movie about love the lovers are thrown apart, the lovers go through extreme circumstances to come back to each other. This movie throws that unrealistic perspective out the window and shows the true face of love. The movie throws at you like a ton of bricks the reality of love, that it is tough and not only can we make mistakes, but love is at a price. This movie was done so brilliantly that when audiences came out to see it, they did not expect the “real” take on love and relationships that this movie had. It was advertised as a romantic comedy, but this isn’t your moms “Wedding Planner,” or “Gone with the Wind.”

4. Garden State

Again, Zach Braff knows Romance movies. With “The Last Kiss” he showed us all the reality and consequences that come with love and having children, pretty much starting your new life. But a few years before “The Last Kiss,” he showed us what love can do to our soul. It changes us, whether we want it to or not. Zach plays Andrew, a man who is prescribed anti-anxiety medicine and for a long time he is passive and doesn’t make any effort to change his life, until he met Sam, Natalie Portman’s character. She changed his life, and his taste in music. After meeting Sam, he was thrust into feelings and a whole new perspective on the world that only love and being with the person you adore can do. Zach Braff truly made a special film with this one. Let’s just hope he makes another film soon…

3. Amélie

“Amélie” is a special kind of love story that only the French could tell. “Amélie” is about our titular character Amélie, a young girl who resorts to her own fantastical dream world to view her visions of love and beauty. She meets people in her life who only see her as an object, a woman to sleep with and idealize as a goddess of sex and monetary beauty. Yet, she is much more than any of that. The audience starts to see the real beauty in the world through her eyes and her dreams. “Amélie” will take you on a journey like no other through her world and give you a fresh perspective on love and beauty like no other American film has done.

2. Love Actually

First, I have to say that I really enjoy all things that are British. The Brits really know how to make a wonderful love story. Like the French, they understand that love is far more than just sex and looks. In “Love Actually,” we see a large ensemble cast go through love, hate, loneliness, regret, and sadness; all within the span of the day before Christmas. And to be honest, isn’t that what love is? It’s a mixture of all these feelings and emotions, and this movie truly understands the sentiment of unrequited love. Whether that be for a friend, a family member, a person you just met, or the women of your dreams. Love is all around us. This movie understands love, and like The Beatles song that this film plays at its climax, “All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

1. Lost In Translation

The reason why I put this at the end of my list is because of many reasons. Yes, I love Bill Murray. Yes, I love Scarlett Johansson, and yes, I love Sofia Coppola, the writer and director of this film. But, I am not putting this film on this list because of those reasons. It’s on here because of one simple fact. This movie shows that love doesn’t have to be loud, obnoxious, and screaming out at the top of your lungs for the whole world to hear. Love can just be quite, it can be between friends or somebody you just meet over a short weekend and will never see again. You don’t have to sleep with someone in order to love them. This movie understands that. Bill Murray plays a character lost in Tokyo, Japan. He meets Scarlett Johansson character, a lonely newlywed who is locked in her room without her husband. They meet, they fall in love. But they don’t kiss and they don’t have sex. They just love each other; they love the moments they spent together. Isn’t that what love is?

Portugal. The Man

Portugal. The Man has been my favorite band for quite a while now. No other band in the "indie" genre, I use "indie" in the most loose form, has been as rock n' roll as Portugal. The man have. Releasing 6 albums in 5 years, having the most visceral and proggy live performances, they are a band to keep an eye out for. Its fascinating, because their live shows are more like Pink Floyd, then their indie rock contemporaries. They change their songs to suit the live setting. It's groovy.

Check out Aka M80 The Wolf. 

"Unknown" Movie Review

As a film critique I am supposed to be as critical as possible. I am supposed to watch a film in an un-biased viewing, yet, still critique in the upmost critical way. Have you ever seen a film where in the first 15 minutes of the run time you think to yourself, "Hey, this movie has a lot of potential?" Most movies start off with that same promise of entertaining, but intelligent story telling. Then bam, the transforms into a meandering mess with a rushed third act and an ending that really is not developed enough, nor do you care enough to really be dazzled by the end product. "Unknown" falls into this category of could have, would have, and should have.

"Unknown" tells the story of Dr. Matthew Harris (Nesson), a professor of biotech engineering and his wife Dr. Liz Harris who fly into Berlin, Germany for a medical conference, where a famous Biotech engineer will unveil his top secret research project. This is only the begging of where things get a big foggy, literally for our titular character, and metaphorically for the poorly executed plot. After Matthew leaves his briefcase at the Airport, he rushes back there to go find it, but his cabdriver ends up getting into a car accident where he is hit on the head from impact and forgets portions of memories.

The problem with this story is not the specific events that occur during the unfolding of this thriller action film, quite the contrary actually, the individual events that happen in this film are interesting and well developed, but how they are executed and unfolded for the audience is mundane and rushed. This movie could have been a unique entry into the "memory-loss" genre. But, the filmmakers behind "Unknown", respectively Jaume Collet-Serra, obviously saw too many films like his own, ala "The Bourne Identity" and tried so hard to imitate that formula, but lost sight of what makes a movie revolutionary; intelligence, uniqueness, and entertaining, not copying an already trite formula and calling it "new."

Believe me; I understand that the running theme in this review is "could have been so much more." "Unknown" really could have been surpassed other films in the same category. Except, with a rushed third act and a supposedly "twist" ending, the film really didn't know where it wanted to go, and how it wanted to be taken by its audience. The ending was truly the icing on the shit cake.

Normal thrillers place key story elements throughout the movie, not rush everything into a 5 minute scene that doesn't even really feel that important. That is where the writers of this film, Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell, really went down the wrong path. "Unknown" is just a plethora of poorly shot fight and chases scenes, with no actual semblance of thrill in the plot, and, instead opted to put all of the important information at the end of the film in a poorly executed scene.

With actors like Liam Nesson and Diane Kruger giving out spectacular performances, you start to think of this movie being on par with "The Bourne Identity." But, immediately in the beginning of the film, you start to see a bustling of bad acting, especially from January Jones, the amazing actress from Mad Men whom I expected so much more from here. But, you can obviously tell that she did not put as much effort in as the always great Liam Nesson, or even Diane Kruger.

Those fight scenes. If there is one other large complaint about this movie, other than the rushed third act and poorly executed plot, is that the fight scenes and chase scenes weren't shot well. I did not get the real feel of these men fighting, nor did I feel the thrill of these chase scenes. More than anything, I thought to myself "When will these scenes be over with?" It's a complaint that I've had for years now with modern action and kung-fu films. They don't show the damned fight. All the cinematographers do is shot a half second clip of, let's say a fist punching someone in the face, then a half second clip of a knee hitting someone in the ground, you get where I'm going with this. It's poorly shot, and the audience does not really get the scale or the thrill of the fight. It's annoying, trite, and to be honest the antitheses of exciting, boring.

Though "Unknown" has many flaws, and it probably does come off as I hated this film, there were some redeeming aspects to the movie. The characters where at least interesting and no matter how much I see Liam Nesson nowadays, I still think he's an awesome actor who pours every fabric of his being into his rolls. The "twist" ending, though it was rushed and kind of unoriginal, was still pretty cool. The writers just needed to execute the ending better, but like I said in the beginning, would have, could have, and should have.

It really is tough critiquing a movie. Sometimes I want to see a film and just watch it for what it is. Enjoy it, and just absorb the entertaining and thrilling aspects that bring you along for the ride. Everyone else in the theater with me was well over 50. They all loved it. Seriously, they all thought this movie was spectacular. When walking out the theater all I could here was, "Wow I did not expect that," or "That girl was so good, she really did put on a good performance." Sometimes I wish I couldn't be as critical as I have to be, but this is the line of work I choose. This movie sucked, and I will stand by my word.

Frank Zappa craziness

Have you ever listened to Frank Zappa before? If so, good for you. Most likely if you have, and you liked his music, you're a geek like myself. If you haven't though, heres a good starting off point into the enlightenment of mustache-dome that is Frank Zappa. He's pretty ridiculous. Enjoy!

Twist Endings (Must-See)

It is very tough to make a film with a good twist ending. Many filmmakers attempt it, but it can either break, or make their film. M. Night Shyamalan did it perfectly with The Sixth Sense, a film on this list, but he ended up ruining his films Unbreakable and The Village with their so-called “twist endings.” No matter how you feel about them, they do add certain amount of suspense to the film, because if you go into a movie aware of a twist ending, then you try to add up the pieces to the puzzle during the run-time. It is also hard to write an article on movies that involve twist endings without giving away any spoilers of the actual ending. I will do my best to keep away from any spoilers about these films. This is my “must-see” films with the best twist endings. (In my own opinion at least.)

5. Shutter Island

Shutter Island tells the story of U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels, played by Leonardo Dicaprio, who goes to an isolated insane Asylum on Shutter Island. Things only get stranger from there as Teddy starts to investigate a disappearance of one inmate. It seems as though the nurses and orderlies from the hospital are conniving on imprisoning Teddy at the hospital. It even seems as though Teddy’s partner Chuck, played by Mark Ruffalo, has plans of his own while on Shutter Island. This film is filled with paranoia, schizophrenia, hallucinations, and most of all more twists and turns that I haven’t seen since a Hitchcock film. This movie really does its best to emulate the Hitchcockian genre. But, it’s all in the ending; it will move you, rock you, and most importantly, as you watch the film again countless times, it will be an entirely different experience the second time around.

4. Psycho (1960)

Hitchcock was the master of suspense. He created countless films thathad people of all ages on the edge of their seats, and his films still hold that same resonance today. From his movies North by Northwest to The Birds, his films have a special quality that only few have emulated, I.E. Shutter Island. Psycho is a perfect example of how talented of a filmmaker that Alfred Hitchcock was. He used music, camera angles, and acting in a way that only he pioneered. First of all, he made the first film to feature blood in a gruesome way. He also used music not as a tool for enjoyment, but to make the audience cringe, and to set an uncomfortable feeling of dread and insanity throughout the films runtime. This is a horrific film, with an amazing twist ending that is so unexpected, you will watch the movie over again to just catch the suitable hints that Hitchcock lays out for the audience throughout his masterpiece.

3. The Usual Suspects

Who is Keyser Soze? Is the seminal question that the audience will be asking themselves throughout the entire film. The Usual Suspects is a fascinating film about a group of criminals who have just heisted a truck and are looking for the man they call Keyser Soze. As each man has wronged Keyser Soze in the past, they are killed off one by one, and the police are left with the same question that all of the characters are asking throughout the film, who actually is Keyser Soze? The Usual Suspects is the best film, in my opinion, from director Bryan Singer. No other film of his holds the award for best twist ending like this movie does, because, when you find out who Keyser Soze is, you will scream at the television with fiery anger, then hold your breath for a moment to gasp in the genius of what you just witnessed.

2. The Sixth Sense

Was this film just a fluke? I mean, really. No other film by M. Night Shyamalan has been as good as The Sixth Sense, and this filmmaker continues to make bad movies. Maybe Unbreakable was good, but no other filmblew us away as much as The Sixth Sense did. First time viewers of this film have no idea what is in store for the ending. So many movies and television shows have made fun of people ruining the ending of this film for new viewers. It’s funny because, no matter how many times I see this film, it still shocks me every time. “I see dead people,” is the perfect line, because I did not see that ending coming. Also, who can’t complain that Bruce Willis was bigger than ever after this movie came out? He rocks.

1. Memento

What is there to say that hasn’t already been said about this movie? It is told in backwards chronological order, Guy Pearce, the lead actor, is phenomenal in his portrayal of Leonard, and Christopher Nolan in his sophomore effort created a masterpiece as simple as telling a story backwards about a man who cannot make new memories. Whether or not you think this is a confusing plot, it really isn’t. Chris Nolan’s intensions where to put the audience in the same dilemma with this man who cannot make new memories, by telling the story backwards to keep them as much out of the loop as possible. And that is exactly what Nolan does. The ending to this film is so mind blowing; you will want to watch this film over and over again to see the insanity for a second, third, or even fourth time. Memento is talked about, critiqued, analyzed, and dissected in most film classes across the world, and there is a good reason for that. This film is so well done, it begs the question. Why aren’t other films daring enough to tell a story backwards?