The Blair Witch Project

"In October 1994, three film student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary...."

"A year later their footage was found"

This great quote in short tells the details of the Blair Witch plot. It is a plot that like most horror films can be questioned. How can the woods be the only setting? What is the purpose to this? Could it really work with only three cast members? Taking this all together, still The Blair Witch Project is something we could never have experienced or predicted what it was going to be.

By using a small budget of only $20,000 to $25,000 aside from the opening shots, The Blair Witch Project is set only in the woods. The setting of the woods helps this film break the norm for horror movies. The woods here have a strange eerie feel, and is very original. You have the feeling along with characters of never getting out and no doubt it will you make at wilderness quite differently.

With the small budget, the film only needs three cast members. Heather (Heather Donahue) is the only girl of the group and really emerges as the leader as they try to get out of the woods. Mike (Michael Williams) is a character who becomes very creepy once the harmful effects in the woods prey on him. Josh (Joshua Leonard) is the quiet member of the group in this bad situation. The cast really works due to the good acting by actors who are unknowns who we don't recognize making it realistic.

After a plot and story that seems like it can't get much better, the ending is one that REALLY can't much better. The ending comes out of nowhere as again it is in the woods and in a place that seems like it's in the middle of nowhere. It is a heart-pounding and very scary ending. The final shot is very clever as there are different possible theories raised about what just happened. This is one of the best endings in movie history, no doubt.

The Blair Witch Project is not normal horror. It is horror that goes way above the normal common ground and makes it's own mark on the movie world. We know we are going to get good horror films in the years to come but The Blair Witch Project will always be beside those at the top.

5/5

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Carrie

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While living in his trailer, a very young author Stephen King started writing "Carrie" for Cavalier Magazine. After writing three pages, he thew it in the garbage but was later pressured by his wife Tabitha to finish it. King, an English teacher at the time shaped the story from two girls he knew from high school and grade school. After successful profiting from the successful novel, King quit teaching and moved full time to being an author.
    
Only two years later in 1976, a film adaption was made and directed by Brian De Palma. A classic film for it's time, it made every actor in the film to what they are today and as the saying goes "The movie made the book and the book made Stephen King". You can also say that after the Carrie movie it was the norm to make as many as possible film adaptions of Stephen King novels.

Now in 2013, there is a Carrie remake. Actually, you could say it's the second remake of this story with a 2002 tv film being the first remake but no one really saw it. To me, remakes are always a mixed bag. It's puts an older story into the present world while putting new actors in. But usually there is a question of why do need a new story of one we have seen once before and it usually shows that the director does not a have creative bones. If a remake like this goes bad, it's a waste and just a bad film to usually good story or in the rare case sometimes, a bad film to a poor story (Prom Night).

Following the same story as original and using similar dialogue, Carrie is about Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) who is an awkward teen who does not fit in well at high school. After a tampon incident in the girls locker room, Carrie learns that she has telekinetic powers that changes her life dramatically.  This is a story of horror, teen life and culture.

Carrie is a movie and more important than most remakes, where the cast is important. The story works and revolves around characters more than the other elements of the film. Chloe Grace Moretz has been around since even before 2010 with small parts but then found herself cast in larger movies like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and "Kick-Ass". She is a child actor that really has had a lot of variety to her career. Being pretty as she is, it's very hard to envision Moretz ever being an outcast in school but it's a flaw that is overshadowed by a powerful performance where she really runs with this character.

To anyone that's been through it, we know that the high school experience sometimes is not a positive one. While trying to do all the schoolwork, you have to try to fit into the cliques and the popular groups of the school. While Carrie White deals with that, she also deals with a crazy mother played by Julianne Moore.  Unfortunately, we are given no background as to how she had Carrie along with a very confusing first scene of Carrie's birth. This character is very unsettling and awkward and you want her out of every scene though that's exactly what the character purpose is and why she is there. When we will look at Moore's career down the road, this no doubt this will be one of her most different and unique roles while being still very much a positive one in this movie.

As mentioned earlier, this is a different type of remake with a really good cast and the prom scene is also very important different due to how it unfolds and it's importance to the plot and the close of the movie. There are some negatives with bad digital blood and a dated 70's feel but the prom scene does what it needs to do. It definitely shows another side to Carrie and is the big and spectacular action scene as it should be and it is very much out there.

In the long run, Carrie has a lot of  messages. A teen who in the end finds herself even though it's not a positive experience. A teen who's living with a difficult mother who never really resolves the issues with her. It is also about what really high school is and kid's manners and how they relate to each other. As with the original, there may not be a main overall message but this movie is still very powerful.

While a good movie, its is still really unnecessary. I don't think it is something that there is a big audience for and there are still much better horror movies out there in 2013. Like the 2011 movie Fright Night even with it's flaws, Carrie is a positive remake that pays homage to the original as well as bringing a good new and fresh light to this story.

3.5/5    
      

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Gravity

In this day and age, when it comes to films about space, there are some very different kind of films. On one end, there are truly low budget horror films like Jason X , Critters 4 and Leprechaun 4: In Space. There are also some decent small, indie films about space like the popular 2009 Moon and Europa Report from 2013.

That said, Gravity breaks all traditions regarding space films. Gravity has a well known director in Alfonso Cuaron, two big name actors, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in the leads and is trying very hard to appeal to a mainstream audience. When you put it all together, Gravity is one solid space movie but not perfect.

With the exception of the very last scene, space is the setting as we follow medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney ). During a standard spacewalk to the Hubble Space Telescope, the crew learn from Mission Control in Houston that debris is drifting towards them from a dead satellite destroyed by the Russians. As the debris damages the Shuttle and eventually disengages them from the ship, Ryan and Matt find themselves stranded in space with no communication with earth and oxygen running low.

I do not know why big name actors were needed in this film. Some of the small space films I mentioned earlier were just fine without a big name cast and in some ways very popular actors can be a distraction to an original film with the interesting subject like space. None the less, these leads are accountable, and do some very fine acting with some well established characters. Ryan is kind of a loner with a rough past and has lost a young child and is still very much recovering from that and trying to find herself.  Ryan's lost daughter is her main source of motivation and support for her. The leads do have some chemistry and both are quite likable and this is good.

The plot is not complex and very simple and this lends itself to a short running time for this movie. One main focus of this movie is to simply show space. Through excellent design and cinematography, it makes space look spectacular and strangely claustrophobic and it really stands out. There are some highlights to the plot but it is still too thin. At times, I felt a little bored and it felt like there just was not enough to this movie. If there was just a little more to it, this film could have been something else.

 As credits roll, one question I had was, "What is the meaning of the film?". Frankly, there doesn't seem to be one. Without it, you could question why should I care about this. The film doesn't even touch this. Why not? It's a beautiful movie but so what?

Gravity is a good film and I guess I wouldn't call it overrated but you might say it's something of an unfinished movie. That said, this is a film that will be most important more on a second or third viewing.

4/5

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Rush

 

Along with being a film guy, the other passion in my life is sports and the credit for that has to go to my family. My dad played baseball throughout his youth and we have been Detroit Tigers season-ticket holders for years. My mother's family is a hockey family and my uncles and aunts have won numerous high school championships. My younger brother is a baseball and hockey player and I enjoy cheering him on during his games. One sport my mother and father were into before I was born was Indy Car Racing. Unfortunately that sport has declined in popularity and these cars no longer race at our local track, the Michigan International Speedway so I never had a chance to get into it.

Ok, so I went to see the movie Rush which is a movie from Ron Howard about Formula 1 Racing. Being a film person, I knew every actor in this movie but I knew absolutely nothing about the actual people depicted in this movie nor Formula 1 Racing which is a European and not an American thing. Frankly, this is a movie I should have not liked nor cared about at all.

Rush is based off a true story and set in 1970's, about Formula 1 race car drivers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl). The movie tells the story of the fierce rivalry of these drivers who were opposites in just about every way and how they interacted with each other and eventually became friends.

As he did in " The Cabin in the Woods",  Hemsworth plays playboy, fun-lover James Hunt. Hunt is a partier who drinks heavily, is frequently hungover, takes drugs and has a new woman every night. He is still a very good driver who is very fun to watch and in the last act shows a high level of determination chasing the championship. Olivia Wilde plays Hunt's wife Suzy Miller though the movie does not allow any development of their relationship as they are married shortly after she is introduced in the movie.

Where as Hunt is just thrown to you as a character and given no back story, Niki Lauda is depicted as a very in-depth character with a detailed history. Lauda is a character who's family has given up on him after choosing to be a race car driver instead of going into the family banking business. He is the exact opposite of James Hunt. Lauda is mean, anti-social, disagreeable and a "my way or the highway" type of guy. After throwing in the towel at a party, on his way home Lauda meets his wife Marlene Knaus (Alexandrea Maria Lara). The love and chemistry between these two is strong and the exact opposite of the empty marriage of Miller and Hunt. Lauda's character also endures a terrible fiery crash with extreme burns to his face and the movie does an excellent job with his makeup and the story of his very painful rehabilitation and return to the track.

For someone who had no knowledge of Formula 1 Racing, this movie was a perfect introduction and a way to get into it. The movie also depicts the 1970's realistically with the men's long hair, fashion and drug use. Formula 1 Racing is shown through the various racetracks and the film show it's cultural impact and popularity in Europe. Rush includes strong cinematography showing high level racing and anybody would be entertained by this movie whether you are into automobile racing or not.

When it's all said and done, Rush is a moving and powerful movie by director Ron Howard to add  his already great resume. Howard makes us care about a story that most Americans don't even know about. Rush is likely one of the top films of the year. No caution flags or pit stops are going to stop it.

4.5/5

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