Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Movie Review: Across the Universe

I havent seen this movie about the beatles but it seemed pretty interesting from the commercials and some reviews. The Review I read didnt really change my opinion about the movie because I already had an idea about it. I knew that the Beatles were a very liberal group and understood what they thought society should be like. The critic didnt have anything "bad" to say other than basically tell you the whole story was about finding true love and having peace among everyone. The critic seemed unimpressed by the basis of the film because of the commoness of the story.

It's the oldest story in the world: Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl joins radical student organization hell-bent on ending the Vietnam War, boy's passion devolves into paranoia, boy returns to work in a Liverpool shipyard.

I was interested when the critic mentioned the Lion King and the simularaties of the two movies becasue she directed both of them. Across the Universe supposidly has lots of graphic expressions and illustrations in the characters. I do know that if you dont like the "drug scene" that this movie isnt for you. The Beatles evolved from drugs and used them in success for their rise to fame. From the critics point of view this film didnt move him so much as to give him information in a visual representation that he already was very aware of. Even though I havent seen this film, its obvious that if you know who and what the Beatles were, its fair to say you have a decent understanding of it.

After reading another critics review, it make me think about how they used 33 of the Beatles hits to tell how it all started to how it all ended. Every song forshadows another scene in the movie, but really understanding what they mean before the scene is shown is hard.It doesnt seem like anything easy to do but in order to make the movie realistic, it was necessary to show the drugs and "most realistic" acid trip created by Julie Taymors.

Clearly, if you're not a Beatles buff, this is no place for you, and anyone else who has grown weary of the pop-cultural mythologizing of that long-ago decade is liable to dismiss this enterprise as a collection of silly musical and visual cliches.

This statement made by one critic basically sums up the divided opinions. Either you like it or you dont like it. Although there are critics who arent either but say that parts of the movie could be better or more disicesive.

When I see this movie I'm sure it will be what I expected with lots of left-wingers that "use drugs" and find different ways of life that would have been considered different or not acceptable to society.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Smokey and the Bandit


I first saw this movie a couple of years ago not really knowing what it was about at first. Then I started to get into it and seemed to really enjoy it. The movie is based on this semi driver and his acomplice who are running from the law due to an illegal shipment of coors that wasnt allowed in east texas. By doing this though they could earn 80 grand but along the way they run into lots of law enforcement attempting to take them down. Their form of communication was via the "citizens band radio" better known today as a CB or truck radio. In the 70's these were popular among anyone living in rural areas becasuse of their distance and cost efficiency. This comedy is more of a thriller but also gives you accurate info on the truck and outlaw lifestyle of the 70's when convicts werent so hardened criminals.