Forest For the Trees

It's a German independent movie about a woman, Melanie, who moves to a new town to teach. the movie is just the followings of how she tries to adjust to life in a new town, new school, and no friends. She is an Uber-creeper, she tries to make friends but she tries too hard and ends up pushing her only "friend" Tina away by acting that way. She finally realizes at the end of the movie that being afraid is useless and she experiences true freedom. It is a terrible movie and I recommend to burn the movie on site if it is seen in one's home.

Order of films: Best to Worst

1. V for Vendetta
2. The Dark Knight
3. The Graduate
4. Gone With the Wind
5. Psycho
6. Ben Hur
7. Citizen Kane
8. Unforgiven
9. The Secret Window
10. Cinema Paradiso
11. Billy Madison
12. Simpsons Movie
13. Rumor has it
14. Never Back Down
15. Forest for the Trees aka the Worst Movie Ever Created

Billy Madison

Top 5 Funny Scenes

1. When Billy starts to say that peeing ur pants is cool, I relate this to just making fun of yourself to make a little kid feel better about themselves after they've done something bad.
2. When Billy lies about how High school is awesome and that one fat kid says he can't wait and Billy starts shaking him telling him to enjoy elementary school, I would say that Billy's advice is true and thus funny.
3. When Billy's girlfriend is beating billy up in the pool and his two friends are like totally smashed and the friends think billy and his girlfriend are playing Marco Polo. I just think it's funny how they act and how useless that scene was
4. When the O'Doyle family drives off the cliff, funny but totally useless scene
5. When Billy chases the penguin, just plain funny.

The Secret Window

The movie is just a psychological nightmare for people who really don't like plot twists and suspenseful scenes, some like Tiff. I thought it was an enjoyable movie, just like the days of old with an Alfred Hitchcock sort of feel.

Its the story of a writer, whose played by Johnny Depp who plays it very well, and the turmoil he is put through by a man named John Shooter, played by John Tuturro, he's a dairy farmer from Mississippi who claims that Depp stole his story and made it his own. Depp's ex-wife(Maria Bello) and her lover are also terrorized by Depp and his problems with shooter. The story is full of twists and brain-melting plot shifts.

I'd give this movie a 8/10, a good movie but i felt it didn't live up to potential to be a great psychological thriller like Psycho.

UNFORGIVEN

Unforgiven directed by, he also plays the main character Will Munney, Clint Eastwood delivers a western unlike I've ever seen before. It is the story of a washed up hire-for-peacekeeper Will Munney and the lives of his partners Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), and the Scofield Kid (do not know the actor) before, during, and after being hired to kill to young cowboys who cut up a prostitute.
Before the money was offered, Will Munney was the father of two young children who only cared to give them better lives and trying to escape his past which was filled with killing and drinking. So one day, a kid comes riding up to the Munney homestead. He's there to offer Munney a job to get some money but to get it he would have to find his spirit to kill again. The kid says he is the Scofield Kid, whose used to killing folks. Munney turns down the job at first, the offer of money to renew his life for himself and his kids finally turns him west to go to Big Whiskey, Wyoming. He brings along his old partner Ned Logan, who is played by Morgan Freeman and any movie with him in it is always good, Munney persuade Logan to come along.
The Movie from that point on is awesome, with Lil' Bill (Gene Hackman) beating the crap out of people and he's just a B.A. in this movie. The plot is twisted between the good and evil that people possess. It is just a plain ol' good movie, I'd give it 9/10.

NEVER BACK DOWN

Here is the podcast that we did
http://www.box.net/shared/9c4iz9q486

V For Vendetta and Dark Knight C&C

The similarities of these two movies are too obvious to miss. Both are vigilantes who are looking for the betterment of the world that they live in. They wear masks. They both hate having to use guns. They use martial arts to subdue their victims. They both have found love and are willing to give up their fight for it. They both wear mostly black attire. Both Movies are based off DC Comics and Graphic Novels. Both are friggin' great movies. Both are visually stunning movies.

The differences are always very apparent. V uses his ability to kill and cause chaos to bring down the totalitarian government that is oppressing his country. Batman doesn't kill anyone, his style is coerce information by martial art tactics. V is fighting the government. Batman is helping the city government catch the joker, who is more like V in the fac that V uses the people's anger and wants the chaos to create anarchy and a revolution. V uses big knives, while Batman uses technology advanced weaponry. V shows blood more, while the Dark Knight doesn't. V gets the people to rise up against their government. Batman wants the people to put their trust in the Gotham Government.

Overall both movies are awesome and I would give both a 9.5/10 rating.

Cinema Paradiso

Top Ten Memorable Moments:

1. When Toto, in his teens, kissing his girlfriend in the rain


2. Alfredo showing the movie across the street on the building


3. The little boys in the front "doing their business" while watching a half-naked girl


4. Alfredo getting burned in the fire and Toto saving him


5. Alfredo telling Toto to leave his town forever and never return


6. When Alfredo has to take the elementary exam and asks Toto for help


7. When the priest is censoring the movies before the town can see them and ringing his bell every time he deems something "inappropriate"


8. The couple having sex in the back of the theatre


9. The kids putting the bug in a sleeping man's mouth


10. When Toto returns to his town after being in the army and the town is totally changed

The Simpsons

The lovable yellow family is up to their old shenanigans again, in their first full length movie. The whole movie is about how The Simpsons try to save their town form utter destruction. But there are a few good twist and turns. Great satirical work by the writers and the movie is just plain funny.
The movie starts out with the family watching an Itchy and Scratchy movie, which involves Scratchy get left on the moon while Itchy returns as a hero. Itchy becomes president and has to face a JFK-like Crisis with Scratchy returns from the dead. Icthy firs a bunch of nukes at the moon and blows up Scratchy, and while that sequence is going on Homer yells out "Boring" and gets yelled at and then turns towards us, the real audience, and says were suckers for paying movie to watch something we get for free on the TV. The first of many good lines and satire. I laughed though the beginning part of the movie, because it was hilarious.
As I said before the movie plot is how The Simpsons, Homer and his new love a pig, destroy Springfield's environment, and EPA has to come in and clean up his mess. They do that by putting a dome over the town. The residents soon find out that Homer is the culprit and try to kill him and the family, but they escape though a sinkhole. Homer knows that he has screwed up and knows of a way to get them out of it, by going to Alaska, where they can create a new life. His plan goes array when Marge and the kids find out that Springfield will be blow up to create a new Grand Canyon. Homer soon find himself alone while his family tries to go save their real home. Homer, heart-broken, doesn't know what to do and go off to kill himself, but an old inuit women saves him and shows him the light. Homer, with a new found purpose, goes to save Springfield.
The movie is full of laughs and satire of American politics and current events. the movie is just plain funny, I'd give it an 8 out 10.

The Graduate

Starting with the hopeless future of recent graduate Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman in his first star role), The Graduate follows the life defining moments in the man's summer and follows his escapades. The movie starts out with Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" which plays beautifully with the picture director Mike Nichols wanted us to see. A young man who is lost in the real world and trying to find his way.

Upon arriving home, his parents throw him a huge party where Ben feels uncomfortable and is soon discovered by Mrs. Robinson (Ann Bancroft) the very attractive wive of his father's business partner. Mrs. Robinson lures Ben away from the party by asking him for a lift home. She uses her powers to lure young and ignorant Ben into her house and then asks Ben if he wants a drink, She talks about her life's problems and Ben stupidly asks, "Mrs. Robinson are you trying to seduce me?" She laughs at such a question and Ben feels very awkward and tries to leave but Mrs. Robinson is trying to seduce him, and tells Ben that anytime that he feels the "urge" to see her that he can call. This whole encounter becomes very funny and extremely awkward.

Ben does soon feel the urge and calls Mrs. Robinson, and Ben her that he is at the Taft Hotel. She responds by saying she'll be there in a n hour. Ben Not really knowing how these things work tries to talk to the clerk at the front desk, the first thing Ben hears is "Are you here for an Affair", a very good play on words, Ben is surprise but then finds out that there is a ball going on. He wants at the bar and meets up with Mrs. Robinson. He tries to get a room and stumbles through it all and it is very funny. He gets the room calls Her from a telephone booth that is only 20 feet away. He goes up to the room and tries to prepare it. Mrs.Robinson shows up and the whole scene is awkward and hilarious. They get "down to business".

Ben is soon caught between his affair and the girl who he wants, Elaine Robinson(Katerine Ross) the daughter of Mrs. Robinson so yeah it gets pretty messed up. The rest of the movie is for anyone who reads this to find out. It has been paradied many times over by ever genre and generation after the movie was made. It is that good, Simon and Garfunkel got a boost by the movie because it was their soundtrack that palyed thoughout the movie, and the most famous of their songs, "Mrs. Robinson" shot up the charts after the movie was released. It is filled with laughs, good music, and cultural reflections of the sixties. I would give it a 9/10 on my rating scale.

PSYCHO REVIEW

Alfred Hitchcock creates another masterpiece of horror with his 1960 movie Psycho. Which has become a classic in American Cinema and a cult classic for those who are mentally disturbed, like myself. The twist and turns do manipulate the mind into believing one thing, then WHAM! something else comes up and one changes the perspective of the movie. The neat thing is is that the movie is based off a book which in turn is based on true events that happened in Plainview, Wisconsin. The book is based on the murderous escapades of Ed Gein, a very disturbed man, who killed most of his women neighbors,skinned them, and wore their skins. Truly a disturbed man. But Alfred doesn't really dabble into the blood and gore of the events of the book, he manipulates it to hide the true killer in a very sophisticated way. A quote that he used was "Evil should look and act mundane" and that is beautifully portaried in the character of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) , a lonely motel manager with a sick mother.

The first victim of "psycho" is Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who is running away from her job where she stole $40,000 and wants to go and give it to her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin), the first plot. She stops in at the Bates Hotel, where her and Norman have a great conversation on how we are have problems and are stuck in our own personal traps and can't escape them. Marion soon realize that she will always be stuck in her trap that we created for herself and decides to return home and return the money. But that night while taking a shower to cleanse herself from the guilt but is stabbed to death by an unknown killer. The rest of the movie focuses on the finding this killer and the following the twist and curveballs that Hitchcock throws the audience's way.

I would give it a 9/10 on my scale of movie ratings. It has the best of Alfred Hitchcock taste, the twists and turns, suspense and the cinematography is absolutely stunning, it's as if one was there and living the nightmare, and the music is simply unforgettable. So the next time one takes a shower, just don't listen to High-pitched, short, suspense music and lock your door, cause one doesn't know when Psycho will come.

Ben-Hur Review

To listen to the greatness of Film Studies Class, then click on the link below, download, and sit back and enjoy

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My Top Ten Movies

MY TOP TEN MOVIES OF ALL TIME

10. Schindler's List

9. Sin City

8. No Country for Old Men

7. V for Vendetta

6. The Big Lebowski

5. Little Miss Sunshine

4. Forrest Gump

3. The Dark Knight

2. Saving Private Ryan

1. Shawshank Redemption

I have many more but at this time in my life I feel that these are my favorite movies.