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Film Reviewer - Classic, Modern, Obscure, Genre... It All Gets Watched

[ May 2009 ] [ July 2009 ]

After borrowing the first two X-Men movies from my older brother I had the thirst to see X-Men 3- the Last Stand again. X-Men 3- the Last Stand was the one X-Men movie I had seen in movie theatres. Now that I had actually watched the first two X-Men movies from start to finish I would have a greater appreciation for X-Men 3- the Last Stand. Lucky for me I had the opportunity to watch X-Men 3- the Last Stand hanging out with my cousin while I was on vacation.

Just like the first two X-Men movies, the film is filled with intriguing characters and a thought provoking plot. What separates X-Men 3- the Last Stand from the first two X-Men movies is the amount of symmetry in the movie. By symmetry I mean the ability for the film producer to take something at the beginning of the movie and come full circle with it by the end of the movie; for example Storm and Wolverine’s dialogue from the practice battle. Such symmetry is often an overlooked element of films.

Another overlooked element is special effects. Considering how advance our technology is we can take special effects for granted. However, special effects are an art to be appreciated. I can’t imagine how much work went into special effects for X-Men 3- the Last Stand but I can say they did a great job and deserve to be recognized. I would highly recommend any of the three X-Men movies.

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Airplane Movies

June 29th 2009 16:43

Recently I rode on an airplane for the first time. I was really nervous because I didn’t know what to expect and I knew my mother hates airplanes. It turns out I have the exact opposite feelings towards airplanes than my mother. I found riding an airplane to be pretty cool. And while up in the air two movies came to my mind that remind me of airplanes- The Wedding Singer and Snakes on a Plane.

Being on an airplane reminded me of The Wedding Singer because of the final scene in The Wedding Singer where Adam Sandler’s character gets to confront his love interest, played by Drew Barrymore, on the plane by singing her a song. The whole scene is romantic and hard to forget.

On the other hand Snakes on a Plane is one movie I would love to forget. Snakes on a Plane is hilarious. The trouble though is the movie isn’t supposed to be a comedy. Snakes on a Plane is funny because the plot is so over dramatic. But the laughter doesn’t last too long. Soon enough you will be itching to turn the film off because it is so bad. What I’m waiting for is more movies like Snakes on a Plane; maybe "Spiders on a Submarine" or "Monkeys on a Minivan".

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Review: X-Men 2

June 15th 2009 18:13

Today I finally had the chance to sit down and watch the second X-Men movie which I had borrowed from my older brother a month ago. Parts of X-Men 2 were familiar to me but I had never seen the film from start to finish. I really enjoyed X-Men 2; in fact I think X-Men 2 may be better then the first X-Men film. The X-Men characters are multi-dimensional, the plot is intriguing, and the special effects are sights to see. But what makes X-Men 2 stand out is the blurring of the line between the good guys and bad guys.

Plots are usually black and white- there are the bad guys and there are the good guys. The X-Men have always been more complex than that though. You have your “good” guys in the X-Men and your “bad” guys like Magneto and Mystique. The complication is the humans. Humans fear the mutant population because they are different. Professor Xavier and the X-Men try to be diplomatic and work with the humans peacefully. Magneto and his villains are ready to go to war with the human population. Both Professor Xavier and Magneto have justification for their beliefs and actions proving there is no simple right or wrong solution.

With such tension between the two groups of mutants it hard to imagine the two sides working together but that is exactly what happens in X-Men 2, at least for a certain period of time. Magneto and Mystique must team with Wolverine, Storm, and Jean Grey to save the entire mutant population from the diabolical plan of Striker. With Wolverine, Storm, and Jean Grey are their star pupils Bobby (Iceman) and Rogue. Bobby and Rogue are left behind in the X-Men aircraft when the rest set off to spoil Striker’s plan, leaving the young mutants somewhat vulnerable.

After Magneto and Mystique spoil Striker’s plan by reversing it, putting all humans in danger, they leave. In the process they could have taken Bobby and Rogue because they were left unprotected by the X-Men. However, they don’t. This makes me wonder why. Is there some ethical reason Magneto decided not to prey on the unprotected, future X-Men? I’m sure the question could be debated on for hours by X-Men enthusiasts.

It is these small things that elevates X-Men 2 from a good film to a great one. I would highly recommend X-Men 2 to anyone who hasn’t seen the film.

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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A Review of Rocky Balboa

June 11th 2009 15:54

Rocky Balboa, released in 2006, is the sixth installment of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky films. When plans for Rocky Balboa were initially announced the idea was met with much criticism from critics and for good reason. The original Rocky movie was made in 1976 when Sylvester Stallone was 30 years old. Sylvester Stallone was looking to achieve the impossible by trying to recapture the success of Rocky with Rocky Balboa, three decades later.

With father time against him, Sylvester Stallone was able to overcome the obstacles and make Rocky Balboa one of the best films in the Rocky series. The reason Rocky Balboa is such a great film is the movie stayed true to the roots of the original Rocky. After failing to get Talia Shire, the actress who played Adrian in the Rocky series, to sign on for the Rocky Balboa project, the movie was written with the plot point that Adrian has passed away. Despite Adrian being gone from this world, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky continues to be faithful to her, even visiting her gravesite on a regular basis

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Gone in 60 Seconds

June 8th 2009 15:43

Yesterday my brother was flipping through the channels on television and came across what I consider to be one of the best movies ever made- Gone in 60 Seconds. Gone in 60 Seconds is so good I get goose-bumps when watching it. There were a few times when I was in college that I would watch Gone in 60 Seconds with a group of friends. You could ask any of those friends and they would tell you how much I love Gone in 60 Seconds.

Gone in 60 Seconds is about a retired car thief Memphis Raines (played by Nicholas Cage) who is forced to return to his criminal ways in order to save his younger brother’s life. Kip Raines (played by Giovanni Ribisi) failed at a huge 50 car boost and if his brother isn’t successful, Kip will be killed. Memphis gathers some of his old partners in crime to team with Kip’s team of young car thieves to try and steal 50 cars in one night without getting caught by the cops

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Review of X-Men

June 6th 2009 20:32

Triggered by seeing X-Men Origins: Wolverine last month and from reading Superheroes and Philosophy by Tom Morris and Matt Morris, I asked my older brother if I could borrow X-Men and X-Men 2 from his DVD collection. Watching the first X-Men movie earlier today made me realize a couple of things. First- I must have lived under a rock before college. I remember seeing one of the X-Men movies in the theatres but couldn’t remember which (turned out to be X-Men 3).

I figured I had probably seen parts of X-Men before but apparently I hadn’t. The movie had come out while I was in high school (2001-2005) but somehow it totally missed my radar from back then. Sitting down today to watch the movie made me wonder how I missed such a good film

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Take Over!

June 4th 2009 14:58

Good day to all readers of the Film Reviewer blog. My name is Zach and I am a fairly new blogger to orble.com. However orble.com has offered me an opportunity to take over this inactive domain and I have gladly accepted. I hope my posts will keep you entertained and keep you reading. If you want to know more about me please check out my posts which have been transferred over to this domain especially the “Let Me Introduce Myself” post.

I already have a number of ideas of what my next posts are going to be. I have borrowed the first two X-Men movies from my older brother and I plan to watch them and post my commentary on both. In addition I have been itching to go out to theatres to see “Anvil: the Story of Anvil” and as soon as I do you will find a review of the rock documentary here. Other ideas I’ve been flirting with include re-visiting the movies of summers past and taking a close inside look into some of the classics

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Take Me Out to the Ballgame

June 1st 2009 19:42

Being a fan of the Cleveland Indians it seems only natural as June rolls around I find myself all wrapped up in the Tribe. Baseball season is now two months in which means we are approaching the meat of the MLB season. Pretty soon baseball fans, like me, will be voting on the All-Star game and speculating about who will go where at the trading deadline. In honor of all this I decided to take some time to write about my two favorite baseball movies- Major League and For Love of the Game.

My initial attraction to Major League was I’m from Cleveland and the movie was about the Cleveland Indians (albeit a fictional Cleveland Indians). As I grew older I came to look past the Cleveland bias and appreciate the film for what it was- an entertaining movie filled with interesting characters. Major League is rich with a variety of characters including a catcher past his prime, a star bullpen pitcher with a criminal record, a third-baseman full of himself, and an announcer who can make even the worst game of baseball sound entertaining

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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March 2010

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February 2010

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January 2010

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