Planes, Trains and Automobiles Review

 

        John Hughes owned the 80s in terms of making comedies and drama. He wrote and directed many classics such as National Lampoon’s Vacation which is loosely based on his own account of going to Disneyland. After that, he revolutionized how high school was portrayed with The Breakfast Club. Many people consider that film to be his best all around. Personally, The Breakfast Club is one of his best films, although I will attest that Planes, Trains and Automobiles to be the definitive film.

1. Road Trip

        The film is simple to follow. Neal is an ad executive who is trying to get home for Thanksgiving. While trying to reach Chicago, which was John Hughes recurring city which any of his films take place, he meets Del. A traveling salesman who sells curtain shower rings who accidentally steals a taxi from Neal. A series of events bring the two together as Neal tries to make it home for Thanksgiving. 

        What makes the film work is the two main leads. The synergy between Steve Martin and the late John Candy manage to gel together as two strangers. Additionally, just the character development of the two show just how talented they were as comedians. Since we’re shown very little of Neal, we can interpret that he’s easily inconvenienced with anything. More so that nothing goes his way.

        Del meanwhile is that kind of guy who is an awe shucks person. He’s very endearing and as the film progresses and leaves Neal confounded, he manages to know people that owes him favors. Just the personality between the two showcases one of the various highlights in the film. One of my favorite scene is in the beginning. The two manage to find a hotel but it’s the last available room, with one bed. As Neal becomes annoyed by Del, he goes on a tirade. Del defends himself by asserting that he knows what he is. 

        It’s my favorite scene because it represents just how the two are. As the film progresses, they lighten up and get into more predicaments. Just to give the audience a break from the succeeding inconveniences we get to really know them. For Del, I don’t want to give anything away but the ending involving him is tragic. It really helps Neal change his personality as the film continues. 

2. Just Go with It

        If there’s a recurring motif that pops up is the idea of just going with it. This motif rears its head in the movie since Neal tries various ways to get to Chicago. With Del helping him and unintentionally annoying his new friend. As we see throughout the film, Neal faces obstacles that impede him from his journey. The best scene involving just him is the reason why the film got an R rating. 

        Neal reaches an airport to find a rented car, only to realize that it’s gone. He goes and complains to the clerk and proceeds to use the F word to her. The punch line is the best part, which I won’t spoil. It just represents how Neal has to take the punches and his new friend bailing him out. As I mentioned prior, Del doesn’t feel inconvenienced and does what’s right to help Neal.

3. Overall

        Planes, Trains and Automobiles is the best Thanksgiving film to watch in that time. I feel that it’s also a transition film since it involves getting home for the holidays. Anyway, the film is an absolute gem. 

Rocky Review

 

        Whenever you think of Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa will always be the one character that he will forever be associated with. It’s one of those down to earth and humble films where anyone can put themselves into any daunting situation and have Balboa be the representation. To this day, Rocky is the only sports movie to win Best Picture.

1. Rocky

        This is one of the most lovable characters ever to be put into any screen. As I mentioned prior, Stallone will always be associated with the boxer. We see him box inside a church and get paid a petty sum. At a glance, he appears to be a well-meaning guy, since he’s known throughout the neighborhood. The only thing is that he works for a loan shark and shakes money from people. What I like about the character is that he has depth.

        Everything about him is spelled out or shown when he interacts with people. He’s a tough guy but he’s a softie. The best moment is when he visits the pet shop and tries to make Adrian come out of her shell. Just by the conversation, Rocky makes her laugh. It turns the movie from a sports film to a drama. Due in part that Balboa is a good person, but what he lacks is the passion to go further. 

        Meanwhile, we see the main antagonist Apollo Creed. He decides to schedule an exhibition fight and picks out Rocky. The film is in no way a macho filled that you may think of. It has a blue collared feel to it that there’s emotion when Rocky interacts with the other characters and gets into arguments. In this one scene in particular, Mickey the boxing trainer visits Rocky to help him train. Rocky turns him down and gets mad that he wouldn’t help him years prior. 

        Much like in his future work in First Blood, Rocky’s personality is more than what he appears to be. With him dating Adrian and seeing her brother, we get to know him personally and overall care about him when the fight draws closer. Even before those moments when he walks a young girl home after he spots her with the wrong crowd. It’s a hidden gem to make a character relatable, since we have to empathize in order to really be invested.

2. Training Montage

        Everything in the film works its way to this famous moment. It’s the whole representation of what the whole movie is about thematically. Which is about persistence and going the distance for our favorite boxer. What can I say but it’s the one to really lay the foundation of how to do a montage. The music is what sells it as well. Lastly, the one shot where Rocky runs and jumps the steps of the Philadelphia museum of art and raising his arms has been the defining image of the character and the city. 

3. Legacy

        The film was a hit and deserved to win Best Picture in its time. It continued with 5 sequels, each feeling that it would be the last one since it got more personal with Rocky. Although, what I feel gets lost in the other films is that it couldn’t possibly top the first one. It focused more on the machismo instead of the personal drama that is going on with Rocky. Well, there are subplots where his health was hindering him and other aspects that hit close to home for him. 

        It seemed that it would be crazy to spin off the franchise. The expectation is that Hollywood was out of ideas and to have a spin off with Apollo Creed’s son was something that people didn’t need to see. Fortunately, Creed is the film that I will say is the definitive Rocky sequel and a good passing of the torch film. 

4. Overall

        This film is a must watch for any film lover and sports fan in general. Need I say more?

Taxi Driver Review

 

        It’s about time I get to review a Martin Scorsese film. Taxi Driver is the first Scorsese film that I bought and led to my ever-expanding collection of movies. How I heard of this film was out of all things a Seth Rogen comedy. His film Neighbors had a bit where the frat next door to Rogen’s family had a De Niro party. I think Zac Efron was in a Taxi Driver costume. Anyways, Taxi Driver represents why I love 70s cinema. 

1. Travis Bickle

        De Niro steals the show when he plays the loner Travis. We see him walk into the taxi place in search of a job. Everything that we need to know about him is in this scene. Additionally, just what he wears which is a U.S. Marine jacket when he and the interviewer make that connection that they fought in Vietnam. It's just crazy to seeing DeNiro young in this film. My first exposure was in one of the Meet the Family movies. 

        What I like about him is that he has a level of depth to him where we don’t know how to feel about him. He has monologues that we hear throughout the film that is from his diaries. We can interpret that as him being morphed from the conflict in southeast Asia. Which is why he’s a blip in New York City. He doesn't think what's normal to us. One of thing he does is going to a porn theater, which was a thing at that time. It's because he thinks it's normal and tries to take a woman to accompany him which i'll mention next. 

        To even expand on just how mentally not well he really is, he tries to date. For one thing it’s charming when he talks to Betsy. Since she is working for a politician’s campaign. Travis walks in faking wanting to help just to have a moment with her. It goes predictably south and to really drive the point even further. As he tries to apologize to her, the camera that is on him moves to the hallway. 

        The overall thing that is being communicated is this idea of alienation. Again, Travis is not well and he tries to stay sane when he drives. The little things make him go progressively to the deep end is attributed to what he sees when he’s driving. More so when Bickle picks up a customer who tells him he wants to kill his cheating girlfriend. It shows that Travis is becoming part of the rut of New York. 

        One last thing is that I want to bring up the music. I love it for the most part and it was composer Bernard Hermann’s last soundtrack he conducted before his passing. I like it because it’s somber and it doesn’t have moments where it’s too overtly depressing. It’s one of those soundtracks you can listen when it’s raining. 

2. New York

Those shots of New York from the 70s is really something to see. Looking at the film is like seeing a time capsule come to life. It serves the point that the environment is what Travis wants to get rid of since he sees it as a threat. Albeit he becomes part of the problem when he becomes intwined with the seedy parts. 

        I feel like people don’t know that New York City at that time was the opposite of what we think of the city now. It was notorious for being corrupt with the cops being sketchy. In fact, it was the basis for the Al Pacino film Serpico. Additionally, the city was just about unsafe for anyone since the subways were prone to mechanical failures. 

        Time Square wasn’t even a cool place when we hear the location. It was littered with drug users and prostitutes in every corner of the site. Just to put it in summation if you skipped what I just typed down, New York City was bad.   

3. Legacy

        The film was received greatly and it helped Robert DeNiro’s stardom reach further. I feel that since he has become an example of being a method actor, meaning an actor becoming the character in the movie and trying to live the lifestyle of the person in the movie. DeNiro and Scorsese had worked prior in Mean Streets, and they continued more in their collaboration such as King of Comedy, Cape Fear, and Goodfellas to name a few. 

        Whenever I bring up this movie, Joker from 2019 is usually associated with it. Just to make my opinion of that movie brief, it was ok. My main gripe was that it tried to be Taxi Driver, but the main character in the other film is too closely associated with the Batman villain. Meaning that any sense of unfamiliarity with him is nonexistent since we know just who the Joker is with prior media exposure. Maybe next year I’ll talk about Joker, but I feel that Taxi Driver is a better movie in comparison. 

4. Overall 

        Whenever you come across a review that has little to say about a classic, you know it’s well. I will say that the film may come across as depressing to some. Taxi Driver is one of Martin Scorsese’s best films in an ever expanding and illustrious filmography.

The Social Network Review

 

        I’ve never thought that this film would be one of my personal favorites. I tried to find where it was streaming to no avail. Of all the tv channels that were available, Freeform was the one to have it on demand. The film has everything I like that makes me appreciate film. It is the best film of 2010 and the best of the decade. 

1. This Generation’s “Citizen Kane”

        You may have heard of the film I just referenced. Citizen Kane is considered the greatest film ever. While it’s a general term since it was groundbreaking for the time, the gist of it is that it has an idealistic man rise in riches. Only to have his pride be his downfall. I’ll be talking about Kane some other time, but for the moment let’s talk about The Social Network.

        It’s mostly about Mark Zuckerberg co-creating Facebook with his friend Eduardo Saverin. Through a series of events, he manages to create an expansive social media site, while also making some enemies. What makes it great is that it’s mostly a non-chronological story. Meaning that the story is told any way but straight. Since, it would be boring to see it play out chronologically from the start to end.

        It just works since Aaron Sorkin is a great screenwriter. Every dialogue is snappy, and David Fincher is talented enough to have the entire movie be interconnected with scenes overlap to raise the tension in the scenes involving deposition. You can say that the film is a mix of various genres and sub genres that makes it interesting since every actor is in their A-Game. 

        This is Mark’s story, although I will admit that the film was too early to have been made. Generally, a movie about someone famous or in this case something changing the status quo tends to be made after the person is dead. At that time, it’s too early since the site was slowly becoming a juggernaut. With foresight, there could possibly be a sequel considering what has happened to the site. 

        Aside from Jesse Eisenberg portraying Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield steals the show. He plays Eduardo, which is weird since he’s British and Eduardo is Brazilian. Anyways, he’s Mark’s friend and usually tries to bring him down to Earth. That mostly involves being his only friend and keeping up with him. 

        Lastly, what I like is that we see a reason as to why Mark creates Facebook. We see that he’s just a regular Harvard student with gifted computer skills. He wasn’t in any exclusive clubs, and decided to create the site as his answer to the exclusive school clubs. It’s even referenced in the scene where Mark argues with Eduardo for freezing the company’s account. Mark doesn’t want to go back to being a nobody. 

2. Interconnected Legal Drama

        As I mentioned before, Mark Zuckerberg co-created Facebook and made some enemies. The way we see Facebook be invented was Mark being dumped by his girlfriend. In a fit of drunken rage, he created a site where he used pictures of girls in various dorms to rate. From there, the Winklevoss twins see him and invite him to create their exclusive Harvard social network. 

        Mark inevitably uses the twin’s idea to create his own social network. With that, he faces a series of legal battles about who create or stole Facebook. Within the legal moments, he comes in contact with Sean Parker. I’ve never thought it was possible to hate Justin Timberlake in a role. He nails it as being the slime who sees Mark and helps him grow the website.

        Part of the reason why the legal moments are interesting is that when you watch it, the scenes are cut together with Mark facing the Winklevi and facing his own co-creator. It weaves perfectly where it doesn’t feel jarring. Mostly it be boring to watch a legal hearing about who stole or created Facebook. The best moment is when Mark answers with his cold attitude and shutting down the Winklevi.

        Some may see this subplot as unnecessary, since the main focal point of the film is between Mark and Eduardo. Gradually the film shows the twins attempting to find ways to get Mark. Eventually suing him for stealing their idea. The moment with this twin is actually a special effect. Armie Hammer plays the twins, during the shoot he’d be one of them and a stand in would be in place for the other brother. To say they have bad luck, is amplified when they row in competition and come close to first. 

3. My Favorite Scene

        This is my favorite scene in the movie, it involves Sean and Mark. As Mark goes west to grow Facebook, he sees Parker again. He invites him to a club and from there, Sean has Mark where he wants him. The music is loud and they talk loud. Sean tells him a story involving the creation of Victoria’s Secret, which if you could switch the various parts of the story to fit Zuckerberg, it would work. 

        Aside from Sean telling the story, he brought up that he created Napster since the girl he liked was dating a jock. Mark asks if he ever thought about that girl. It still shows that Mark hasn’t gotten over his breakup. At another instance, he thinks he can get back together with his ex, who blows him off. It could be his “Rosebud”, the thing that motivated him to try and get back the person he lost that he cherished the most. 

4. Overall

        What can I say, I love The Social Network. It was snubbed for Best Picture, but I think it’s more memorable since it involves something that is part of our life now. The film works since at its core its about a friendship falling apart. And how one man tried to make 500 million other friends.

Se7en Review

 

        Aside from Stephen Spielberg being one of my favorite movie directors, David Fincher is my all-time favorite director. He didn’t go to film school, he had experience with being a cinematographer for the special effects studio Industrial Light & Magic. His directorial debut was Alien 3, it was mired in studio interference. It got to a point where he disowned the film and had the film use the name Alan Smithee to be the assumed director of the film. Se7en is what I consider a reset film. Where you had a stinker for a debut, but an utter masterpiece for a second film. 

1. The Opening Title Sequence

        Rarely does a film have a unique title sequence that I must bring it up. Let me back up a but for context. We are introduced to the seasoned Detective Will Somerset. He’s investigating a homicide and suicide at an apartment. He’s thorough and asks a detective if the new guy has seen the crime scene. The detective couldn’t care less, and thinks the crime is nothing.

        They talk and Somerset asks why Mills is in the homicide department. From there we see just how different the two detectives are. Somerset wants to personally know him, and Mills wants to get into the action. As the vet goes to sleep, he turns on a metronome to drown out the noise. 

        Now, I absolutely love the title sequence. It sets the immediate tone with what we’re going to see. Creepy is an understatement since we see someone clipping together a journal and various writings and pictures of people. To really punctuate it a remix version of Nine Inch Nails’ song Closer. Also, the credits themselves have the scraggly penmanship to it, to really emphasize that the person we’re seeing putting together the journal is not well. 

        Aside from the aesthetics, it shows just how meticulous the mystery killer is. While we don’t see him commit a murder, the overall attention to detail with how the journal is being assembled is scary. It works since it is being communicated to us, he’s precise and has everything planned out. Since we see other journals near the end of the sequence, we can assume that this isn’t his first rodeo.

2. Mills and Somerset

        These guys are the main detectives that see the recent crime scenes plaguing the city. The two have this nice dynamic that really works. As I mentioned prior, Somerset wants to know him while Mills wants to dive into the investigations. It’s established that Will wants to retire from the department but is paired with the new guy by the commissioner.

        Other than the title sequence being foreboding, when they first investigate the crime shows the two at their finest. They see a severely obese dead man, and the two have a unique way of investigating a crime scene. Somerset is very meticulous with whole crime scene, with looking around the room and seeing that the corpse has barbwire on his wrists. Mills meanwhile already has everything thought up to what could be the reason why the man is dead. 

        What the film does so well is that we don’t see the killings before the duo arrive. As they arrive and figure out the connection between the massacres, we can only imagine just how messed up it would’ve been portrayed prior. My favorite scene involving them, is actually when they aren’t together. But one of them actually scared me. There were even real SWAT members who are in the room. They even get startled by the surprise during the crime scene. 

       If I had to pick out my favorite moments between the duo, it's actually when they're apart. Somerset goes to the local library and picks out books to analyze. Meanwhile, Mills attempts to picture the reasoning of the killings, like he’s Sherlock Holmes. It sets the tone and really gives them depth with how they're attempting to rationalize and figure out who's carrying out the crime. 

        I feel like Somerset is a miserable character. Not that he's terrible, but having him be weathered as a veteran works since he's put to the test with the deadly sins crimes. Mills is implied to be going down the same path, with each crime scene getting progressively brutal and too close to home. There is one nice scene to break the tension, it's when Mills and his wife invite Somerset for dinner. It's a nice scene, but there's a moment where the subway passes and rattles the apartment. I think it's a warning of what'll happen. 

3. Surprise Twist

        I really don't want to elaborate but it's what makes the whole film great. Oh hell, I'll just be vague on purpose. The killer is finally revealed when he arrives into the police station. From there, we get to understand his reasoning as to why he fashioned the killings into the seven deadly sins. He sees that anyone innocent can be sinful. Where they deserve to die for living a lie or being unkempt health wise. John Doe is the perfect nemesis for Somerset, they're both tactile and intelligent. 

4. Overall 

        Without giving a lot away, Se7en is one of my favorite David Fincher films. Throughout his career, he would continue pumping out more films that were either great or developed a cult following. This movie is absolutely a must watch.