MYST#2: MockingJay 

The movie I watch over the weekend was MockingJay the third book now movie in the Hunger Games trilogy. Everyone loves these movies, boys and girls its does not matter. The boys love it for the violence the movie has in it which is a lot, if you haven't seen any of them before. Girls love it for the romance between the three main characters, the girls like the part of no knowing who she is going to pick. In MockingJay though there is not a lot of action or romance which is kind of for me at least I didn't really get into the movie the same way I did with The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. 

The Hunger Games trilogy has been compared to many movies like the Harry Potter Series, Divergent and Maze Runner. Even though these movies are very similar they all have things that are different about them from the others. The Hunger Games is about a dystopian world where kids have to kill each other in a arena. Divergent is about a dystopian Chicago but they do not send kids off to kill other kids, kids at the age of sixteen have to pick a faction where they will have to live the rest of their life. Its about a bunch of other things as well but I'm just telling you some differences between those two movies. The Maze Runner is about a group of boys who got put into a giant maze and they ahem to find their way out and this is very dangerous because there are Grivers in the maze that can kill you. Harry Potter to me is nothing like any of these movies, its about a wizard world and Harry is always getting attacked by Voldemort and that is nothing like those movies. These movies all have different things about them but some things are the same but for the most part I think that these movies are very different. 

When it comes to cinematic elements, this movie combines light and dark spaces well. When you are down under ground in district thirteen it is a very dark place, the sets have very plain colors to fill that set with. The clothes are also a dark gray color, everything about district is dark. Even Katniss's outfit is a really dark black and so is her hair. And by doing this I think they are trying to show that even though the capital tried to blow their district up they got their power back and are now stronger than the capital thinks. When we are at the capital there are SO many colors, any color you can think of the capital's people will be wearing. The one color that sticks out in MockingJay for the capital is white for President Snow, he loves white and he loves to use it towards Katniss. The two colors that are important are black and white and its kind of like the good and bad are fighting each other but the good are wearing black and the bad are wearing white which is a twist. 

The most important scene to me is the scene where Katniss and some other people from district thirteen go to district eight and go to see a bunch of people in a hospital to record Katniss in that atmosphere. I think this is an important scene because it just shows you how strong and power Katniss really is and how much love she has for people. It also proves to Katniss that people do look up to her for help but also to fight and be like her. Even though she doesn't like seeing people hurt she goes there and it makes her realize that she needs to do something about it. After she goes to the hospital and is about to leave President Snow see's that she is there and goes to blow up the hospital because people were talking to her. Katniss realizes this and she blows up the planes that are coming to blow up that hospital. This scares President Snow because she is strong enough to take him down and he knows it now. 

I give MockingJay 

MYST #3: Interstellar 

When I first saw the trailer for Interstellar I wanted to see it because it looked really good. I first saw the trailer when I was watching another movie in the theatre but I can't remember what movie I was watching then. So I finally saw it last weekend with a friend and my opinion changed a little. But here is the trailer for you to see.

The main character in Interstellar is Matthew McConaughey, he has been in a lot of movies but most of them I haven't heard of before. He usually plays main/side roles, where he is in the movie a lot but is not the main character but he does get a lot of notice from certain movies he's in. I haven't seen a lot of movies that he is in, but from Interstellar I can tell he is a good actor. Another main character is Anne Hathaway, I would say she is one of my favorite actresses because she has been in a lot of movies I enjoy and she is just a good actress. She was in The Dark Knight Raises, which is a good movie but its not a role that I would picture her in because she doesn't seem like she could play the mean girl, she's always played the nice girl. 

Like I said in the beginning, I saw the trailer and I liked it but when I saw the movie over the weekend my views changed. During the beginning of the movie I understood it and I liked it but when it got closer to the end I got really confused about everything that was going on. There were so many things going on at once that I didn't know what to think. In the movie they said that there are things that are trying to help them save themselves because their world is going to end. During the period of the movie Cooper (McConaughey) is in space and there are different time period then on earth so that is one thing that screws me up a lot while watching Interstellar. But at the end of movie Cooper and his daughter save the people on earth and bring them to Saturn where they now live and the world looks exactly the same except its a huge circle. So I would say that the whole movie just confused me a lot and didn't really enjoy it because of that. So thats why I give it a three out of five stars as my review. 

MYST #2: The Maze Runner 

For my movies in your spare time I'm going to write about The Maze Runner. The Maze Runner is about a boy named Thomas who is sent up into the glade and loses all his memories because a group named WICKED is trying to stop a disease called The Flare. They erase their memories so that they can watch their brain functions in serious situations and see how they over come the problems that they are being faced. Thomas is one of many boys to lose his memory, all the people in the glade are guys except one girl who comes at the very end and she is the last one to ever come up in the box to live in the glade. After this a bunch of the gliders go into the maze to try and find a way out, which they do. This is very dangerous because their are Grievers out in the maze. Grievers look like mechanical spiders, these things kill the gliders when they come out into the maze. 

This movie does a lot of wide views. like when it is showing to The Glade and how big it is they need to do a wide shot to fit the whole thing in. The Maze, Glade and even the WICKED compound are very huge places so to fit the rooms in or the stuff around them you need to make the shot wide enough to everything to fit in. There are also close up's when it is a very tense moments, they do close up's and then zoom out to freak out the watcher. There are a lot of close up's when people are in the Maze because you never know what will happen when people are in there. 

If you haven't seen this movie I think you should. It is very suspenseful because you never know what will happen next. It makes you think a lot because know remembers anything its not like they just give you answers they can't because they think living in The Maze is normal. But the reason I really love this movie is because the book series is my favorite. I know how people say the book is way better than the movie, but I can say here that the movie and the book were a lot alike. So I think thats why I like it a lot. But if you like action movies then you will definitely like The Maze Runner.

Formal Film Studies: Steven Spielberg

I watched three films from the production of Steven Spielberg. The movies are The Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Poltergeist, and Saving Private Ryan. These movies were very similar in the form of grossness and/or scariness. The Twilight Zone and The Poltergeist were scary because they were about ghost or monsters. Saving Private Ryan was about war and it showed scenes of peoples bodies cut apart from the very beginning of the movie. The Poltergeist and Saving Private Ryan weren't that similar at all. The Poltergeist is about a house being haunted because of a graveyard that wasn't moved when these houses were built over them, so they ghost were angry at the people for doing that and tried to harm them. Saving Private Ryan is about Captain Miller and his crew on a mission to save Private Ryan, but during the journey to save him they go through a lot of problems because the fact that they are in the war. He losing two men from his crew on the journey and when they find Ryan he loses two more men and in the end he also dies. The Twilight Zone is a bunch of stories out together but I will talk about the story he directed for this movie. The story was named "Kick the Can" it was about a bunch of old people who wanted to be young again because they thought they couldn't play games anymore because they weren't kids. One old man thought this was true until the end when he saw himself and realized that it wasn't true at all. Another old man said and granted their wish to be young again and made them realize that you don't have to be young to have fun. 

Saving Private Ryan was the only one with a good background with history because it is about the war it is about World War II and the Invasion of Normandy. It is said to being very realistic for the scenes of combat. The scene on Omaha Beach has said to "be the best battle scene of all time." The big message in this movie is risking two three lives is okay if you are saving a bunch of other peoples lives instead. But it is also about brotherhood. Showing you what these guys go through in war, and things like that make you feel the need to have people in your life when the people you love are not with you. So you have your brothers at war. I think it show Americans as being good people because of the way they treated others or treated their crew with respect. 

The Poltergeist special effects looked good for that time period but for watching the now in our time period they looked low budget. They were very unrealistic, weren't very scary either and it was suppose to be scary. But there were some parts that were actually scary or gross like the clown scenes you never knew what was going to happen in those scenes. The political influences on this films were things like house building. The people wanted to built houses so bad that they built over cemeteries and never moved the bodies, only the headstones. Not caring about anyone but themselves. The film is an American film and I don't think it is saying good things about us because of people not caring about others. It shows that we just love the money not care for the feelings. 

The Twilight Zone: The Movie was not very scary at all and it got very boring after watching it for awhile. I kind of just wanted it to end. I think horror films were low budget because of how not scary it was. Steven Spielberg's section of the film wasn't even meant to be scary at all, I think it was more of a life listen than horror film. I think the technology was very good for its time period because there was a lot of cuts and edits to different scenes or to different films/stories. Just to say that this wasn't one of my favorite movies of all time. The movie did have really good makeup or costumes, from the werewolf animal or the monster on the plane. 

The key thing that I have learned from watching a lot of Steven Spielberg movies is that he really likes horror films or stomach turning movies. From the one of first ones I can remember watching (Jaws) to Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg likes to make you sick in the stomach when watching his movies, he likes to make you feel like you are there feeling what the characters are feeling at that time in the movie. I would say even though Steven Spielberg directs really gross movies, he is my favorite director. 

Create a Movie Blog Post 

The for our movie was to follow an Italian mobster family, they use their powers to contra the elections, so that they can chose an elective that would benefit their family the most for their business. George Raft is our leading actor for Delvecchio 35', he plays the father of the family and the genius behind everything. The supporting actors and actress's who play his children are the ones that execute his plans. The message that we are trying to get through is that mobster families had a lot of power, the power to change votes in the elections. 

The studio we chose was Warner Bro's because they had a lot of success with gangster films. Some films that were popular were Little Ceaser and Public Enemy. Our main actor, George Raft was signed to Warner Bro's as well. He also seemed like he would portray a gangster in a really great way.   Our director Mervyn LeRoy, we picked him because we has directed gangster movies before and they were really good. 

The Hayes Code affects our movie a lot. Because our movie is a gangster film, there is a lot of swearing and guns and just things that you weren't allowed in movies because of the Hayes Code. So to get around things like shooting, when someone would shot we would move away from the person shooting and only let people hear the sound of the gun go off. We also tried to use other words that were not swear words because you couldn't swear in movies.

I agree with our choice in everything we choose because it was our movie. I think Delvecchio 35' will do really eel in the box office. It will do well because its out there, its affecting the Hayes Code hard just like the Hayes Code is affecting our movie. But we still made a really good movie even though the Hayes Code was really hard on us. 

Movies In Your Spare Time

One day at home I wasn't doing anything but watching television, so I started channel surfing. I saw on ABC Family that they were having a movie marathon, which I started to watch the movies. I watched one movie from the middle of it and then I waited for the other one to come on and watched it from the beginning. The movie I watched from the beginning and what I will be writing about is Grease.

Grease has been one of my favorite movies from when I first watched it and that was a long time ago. I have always loved Grease because of the singing and the story behind the movie. I have never seen Grease Two but if I did I don't think I would like it as much as the first one. I like Grease because I like sing along movies like Footloose, which is also on my top ten movies list. I love all the dancing, songs and I love the acting as well. John Travolta is one of my favorite actors because he can play any role very good. For example he played Edna Turnbald, Tracey's mom in the movie Hairspray. I thought his as a lady was actually pretty good. 

In one of the scenes they sing the song Grease Lightning, this scene is most likely my favorite because its up beat and is funny to watch, also I can dance to it because I know the dance. But in this scene the camera is more of a wide angle to show everything that is going on in this scene. Its also wide angle so it can show you the surroundings or the setting that they are in at that moment. In this scene they are in a car workshop trying to fix Kenickie's old car. In this seven the boys are making fun of Kenickie's car and Danny comes in a tries to make the guys see have grey this car can actually be, if they fix it up.

If you haven't seen Grease I suppose you do because its a really good movie.There is a lot of dancing scenes and the songs are awesome to sing along to and easy to remember. But most important its its good entertainment there are a lot of funny scenes as well. I really think people should watch Grease because its also a classic. If you haven't seen it you're missing out. And I will leave you with a trailer. 

Review of the Reviews 

The Negative:

While reading the review by Charlotte O'Sullivan, The normally excellent Chloë Moretz fails to summon up any convincing emotion. I was surprised about how she felt towards Chloë Grace Moretz acting. Charlotte said that in this movie she barely didn't show a lot of emotion when she was a ghost. She said that people were very dry eyed during the movie, that Moretz didn't get emotion out of people when watching the film. But I don't understand why she thinks that because during the movie when I saw it I was crying the whole time. Charlotte said that it didn't give Moretz justice of ruer acting but I think it did, there was one sense where Moretz had to scream, cry and hit the floor because she was so sad and angry about the things that were happening. When I saw that scene I thought she such an amazing job, she made it seem like it really hit her hard, like it was a true story. So I think this movie did give Moretz justice for her acting skills. 

Charlotee claimed that people were bored during the movie, which I can see because it is a slow paste movie. Throughout the movie you get flashbacks about her life before the accident, and that makes the movie go by slow because people just want to know what happens, does she survive or does she die. But that is what the whole book/movieis about, Mia (Moretz) making a huge decision about her life. I think they portrayed the way of the book into the movie into a good way, they didn't make it to fast moving or to slow moving. I read the book and that was really good and the movie was just like the book, I feel like it was perfect change.

The Positive: 

While reading the review by Allan Hunter, A life or death weepie squarely aimed at teenage girls. This review was nothing like Charlotte O'Sullivan's, Hunter thought it was actually good to see Moretz play as a regular teenage girl instead of her crazy roles she usually plays. Hunter says she has a such a smart and sympathetic presence that everyone loved her before the accident even happened. Hunter says that If I Stay is just like those 1940's life or death movies, with fake snow, studio setups, and fairytale endings. Which I agree with. 

Hunter thinks that people should cry when watching this movie even at the less subtle tear duct moments. Romantics will find it as a really good movie to watch because of Adam and Mia. Hunter says it is like The Fault in our Stars, which is true because they are both about teenagers who are in love and one, or in the case of TFIOS both of them could die. This element makes the movie completely sad and Hunter talks about that in his review. I agree a lot with this interview because I did see If I Stay, and I did cry a lot a. So I feel like if you don't cry you don't maybe just didn't get into it as much as others. 

2. "If I Stay is aimed squarely at teenage girls and if you don’t fall into that target audience you may well feel the manipulation and wince at some of the less subtle assaults on the tear ducts." 

-Allan Hunter 

I agree with this mostly because throughout the whole movie there are so many moments that just pull at your heart. This movie about something that can actually happen to someone you love or yourself. The movie makes you feel the pain of Mia's family and friends, which makes you completely sad. Throughout the whole movie, for me, I was crying because in the scenes of her wanting her parents and brother, I started to think like what if that happened to me, which made me really sad. 

From Charlotte O'Sullivan's interview I don't really agree with anything from her interview because I actually really enjoyed the movie from start to finish. I feel like she just didn't give the movie 

anytime, If I Stay was heart swelling and a cry feast, it was never boring. She possibly didn't even watch the movie from the looks of her review if didn't have any examples or evidence of why she thought the stuff she thought about it. So I just don't agree with her. 

3. If I haven't seen the film and I looked one of this up, I would be more convinced by Hunters review. Hunters review had information in it about the movie and why you should see it. He says that Moretz does a good job playing a regular teenager and its good for her to play a teenager like she is. She says that its for teenage girls, like me, so thats a plus one for me to see it. Hunter talks about life or death choices, the choices we make in life and how they are important. 

4. If I were to write a review on this movie I would want to include what type of people would want to see this movie, which would be teenage girls or just girls/women in general. I would say how moving it was watching her make a choice that will change her whole life. I would also include how sad this movie is so people will bring tissues. I wouldn't include the flashbacks because I feel like people should read the book to figure out whats going on. I also wouldn't mention any of the people who die in the book/movie, I feel like that should be a surprise.