Chinatown

Chinatown has easily been my favorite movie that we have watched this year. It kept my attention they entire way through and I was really interested in the story. I loved the character of JJ Gittes and I really liked the way that Jack Nicholson portrayed him. I really want to watch it again so I can catch more of what I may have missed. I thought that the film did a lot for film noir. It wasn't the typical film noir setting with the typical lighting and venetian blind effect, but it has the same sort of story (mystery) and the big rememberable ending. I thought that it was really interesting the way that the plot had so many twists and turns, and everytime that I thought I knew the answer to the question of who killed Hollis, I was suprised again by another key piece of evidence.
Overall this was an excelent film and again, I plan on renting it so I can review it at least once more.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I loved the movie Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. I had seen the movie before seeing it in class but I had never analyzed it as closely. I really love the cinematography and editing that it has. Michel Gondre is easily one of my favorite directors and I cannot wait to see more of his films. If you liked Eternal Sunshine, I recommend The Science of Sleep which has a lot of the same elements, but is still a completely different movie.
I thought the acting in Eternal Sunshine was great too! I really liked seeing Jim Carrey in a film that asked him for a little more dramatic role rather than just the physical comedy of Liar Liar and Dumb and Dumber (even though those films will also always have a place in my heart).

His Girl Friday

I liked His Girl Friday a lot. It kept my attention and I was excited to go back to class the next day to continue it. The two main characters were both equally funny and entertaining, and given the limited amount of camera tricks in the 40's, I thought it was pretty good cinimatically as well. A lot of the camera shots were long and steady, but that just showed the audience how great the actors were. At parts, it became a little frantic and frusterating because of all the confusion dealing with Hildy's new husband and the entire Earl Williams case, but that added to the comedy. It was probably my favorite movie that we have watched this year, but I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind might pass it by. I guess we'll have to see though!

Unforgiven

Unforgiven was the second western that we watched in my art of film class. I liked the movie for some reasons, and strongly disliked it for others. It was more entertaining to me than stagtecoach, but still not the kind of movie that I would pick off of the shelf. There were a lot of cinimatic elements to Unforgiven that made it interesting to watch such as the lighting that casted a lot of shadows, and the character development (which I felt was absent in stagecoach), but I also wasn't very interested by the plot and the somewhat predictable ending. I don't think that the unneccesary killing of people is that entertaining, but then again im not much of a hardcore action fan. I like action that shows some skill within the fighting like martial arts. Shooting ten people in a row with a gun is just not that interesting to me.
Overall, Unforgiven was alright. I liked it better than stagecoach (since more that half of the characters actually seemed to have a purpose), and the camera shots and lighting were interesting, but as far as plot and entertainment go, it wasn't for me.