The Great Debaters Vlog

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/94ae97c4e9a8229f24d45d5eba45f11b/video/91074321

This link is for our vlog on the film The Great Debaters. Enjoy

Best Films

1. V for Vendetta
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. The Graduate
4. Psycho
5. The Simpsons
6. Cinema Paradiso
7. The Great Debaters
8. Gone With The Wind
9. Ben-Hur
10. Citizen Kane
11. Rumor Has It

My Top All-Time Films

1. V for Vendetta
2. Step Brothers
3. Talledaga Nights
4. Superbad
5. Land of the Lost
6. Watchmen
7. Avatar
8. Forrest Gump
9. Toy Story
10. The Lion King

-Nick Carignan.

Shawshank Redemption

Shawshank Redemption

“9 out of 10”

I don’t know how much more clever of a movie there can be. This movie has everything; It has a guy who didn’t do it, did do it, crooked guards, and a warden hell bent on looking like a good Christian while he embezzles money and accepts bribes.

Tim Robins played Andy Dufresne, which he did amazingly. In some scenes he had such a creepy sad man. He also was very believeable even in his lies. Morgan Free played the kind, wise Red. Red was in jail for killing someone, yet he was the nicest guy in the movie. My favorite scene is the one where Andy approaches the mean guard on the ceiling out of pure manliness and says he can get him 60,000 dollars tax free, so then the gets them all 3 beers each for the rest of the day.

This movie was Independent film so it pretty much told it like it was in a prison; Andy got raped furiously weekly until his favor with the guards drives them to beat the living hell out of the saudamist. Another thing was how crooked a prison can be and how this stuff is really going on. The best part of the movie though was the ending. It made me so happy when that happend that I just got the biggest smile while watching a movie. It was a little weird.

I rated this movie a 9 out of 10 for great acting, an awesome twist, great plot, feel good ending, and just an overall good feeling when i was finished. This would rank as my second favorite movie ever if I had to rank my movies. Please go out and watch this movie if you are old enough to understand bad things. I would recomend this movie for 16 year olds and on. Thank you and I hope you have a nice movie day!!

PHS Paradiso

We recently watched Cinema Paradiso. This is my Cinema Paradiso

This is a friend by our school mascot

An angry teacher

One of the many parking spaces where people like to leave school

I hang out in this courtyard a lot before track practice.

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta

“9.5 out of 10”

“No one escapes their past; no one escapes fate.”  This is an ironic quote and is just one small example of one of the governments ‘faith’ in their government and how in a fascist state how they have one faith, one government, one people, and most of all one idea. The irony is that they believe in whatever higher power is for them, but on the other hand a fascist state tries to downplay religion so you will only believe in the government.

In this movie there are two big roles that of Evee and V. Evee is played by Natalie Portman and V which is played bye Hugo Weaving. They both were very believable in their roles in the movie almost as if it were real life (In a crappy time period in England). The overall plot of the movie was really cool because it reminded me of like a modern day Hitler type thing. Just how in crisis he rose up and eliminates all other competition so he can stay in power. Another thing is his secret police of “Finger Men”

I noticed in this movie there was a lot of oppression. Which made me just think about how some people can be just beaten down and restricted so much that they think what they have is a good life, when all they have is their little hamster cage of a house and their dead end job. Again with the Nazi thing, I feel like Chancellor Sutler slowly took away peoples liberties until they expected nothing from their government and they feel that they as a people have no power.

There were a ton of symbols in this movie that I noticed. The chancellors’ small group of brain washers there was 5 of them which is ironic because he has five men after “V” which is the roman numeral 5. There is also a thing called a iambic pentameter which stresses a specific word every 5 words which Shakespeare used in his plays. I know this is very obvious about how he got his name in the movie because he was in cell number “V”. In the movie when both V and Evee were cleansed away from their fear they had the exact opposite. V was cleansed at the Hospital through fire and Evee was cleansed with the rain. Earlier in the movie she said “My mother told me God is in the rain.”

I gave this movie a strong 9.5 out of 10 because it has strong actors, strong plot, and its message is right on for what things would be like. This is actually my favorite movie and I’m glad I got a chance to review it. Thank you for your time.

The Simpson Movie

Irony

1.      That the government guy stated that they for once found someone

2.      when homer asks Marge to go with him she does, but when she asks him to go with her he says that’s stupid.

3.      When you thought he was going to hit his thumb with the hammer he hits himself in the eye

4.      When you though Homer was going to hit himself in the eye again he fell through the roof

5.      Cops like doughnuts

                                                

Puns

1.      Duff bear had their sign say “binge responsibly”

2.      They had the church play American Idiot after Green Day died

3.      “They’re busy praising their phony bologna savior”,” Praise Jebus.”

4.      They had their big tough actor be the president just like Arnold

5.      All of the church people went to drink and all the drinkers went to repent

Top 5 quotes

1.”For once in your life be cool.” –Lisa
2.”Don’t look where I’m pointing!!” –Crazy Cat Lady
3. “If you can find a greasier sandwich, then you’re in Mexico!” –Krusty
4 “awe, code black, that’s the worst color of them all! No offense Carl” –Larry
5 “It’s not leaking, it’s overflowing” -Homer

Parody

1. Spider Pig
2. Harry Plopper
3. When Homer and the pig were standing like on the movie Titanic; the ships bow seen
4. The Green Day barge went down like the Titanic
5. The U.S. government is evil


Satire

1.      They had Itchy walk around like that one movie where the president had the hard decision.

2.      This lake is one piece of trash away from being catastrophic

3.      they had a redneck try to put a dead possum in the lake to check if it was idiot proof

4.      They had the monkey clapping when Homer was trying to pay attention

5.      They had cops love doughnuts

Psycho

9/10

Alfred Hitchcock movies are all the same but very different in almost every way. They are the same in the sense that you never actually know whats going on with all of these little trifles that happen throughout the movie until the end that wraps it all up and you have an epiphany. I personally am a fan of Hitchcock and I went out and bought his whole collection.

Now lets get into the movie a bit. I feel like this movie is one of the movies that will never be tempted with great thriller movies. Going on just the story it is not miraculous, but it is in the construction in which Hitchcock does so that makes it a great. The first image that comes to my or anyones mind at that is that of the shower seen where alot of big things happen; they show the toilet and they have that screechy little "Eeh Eeh" that has been featured in many  many more movies do to the nature that it puts people on edge and makes them think something big is going to happen.

One hilarious thing I found in this movie is how badly Hitchcock wanted to go over the line of social norms. He was the first movie to show a toilet flushing, he showed a man in a womans dress, a man said "transvestite", and showed a woman in her underwear.(Its weird that people were edgy about something as insignificant as toilets back then.)

I really enjoyed the film that the black and white mood to it all made it seem all that much more real. I liked alot of the symbols in this movie. One that I thought I noticed was that Norman kept all of these stuffed birds around his office? That got me thinking, if birds ment freedom, then did him killing them and stuffing them up for show maybe mean he was trapped in that place because of something? Another thing was that I noticed most of the birds were predatory birds? Something for you to think about after you see this wonderful movie.

I would recomend this movie from any common folk to big movie buffs alike. It has one of the best ending I ever witnessed and I think just about anyone should see this movie.

Ben-Hur

8.5/10


"Your eyes are full of hate, forty-one. That's good. Hate keeps a man alive. It gives him strength." I thought this quote was an accurate depiction of the whole movie. Throughout the film I felt that Ben never forgave Messala for making him a slave and hate and revenge kept Ben alive through the whole movie. Although he may have tried as hard as he could to get back to his family that was a duty he was supposed to do back in those days, but the reason he wanted to get back so bad was to have his revenge on Messala.



Judah Ben-Hur

In this story that I actually enjoyed thoroughly we see a man named Ben-Hur who doesn't like the Roman Empire and refuses to follow what they stand for. In a small little nut shell the movie is a man is sent into slavery and through hard work and determination Ben gains his freedom and returns home and seeks revenge through an elaborate chariot race. Also a lot of bad has happened to Bens family which only fuels him more in wanting to kill Messala. His father loses his ability to walk, his mother and sister become lepers in the prison

 In this movie we meet such names as Pontius Pilate, Judah Ben-Hur, Messala, and even Jesus himself who I don't believe talked in the whole movie. Judah Ben-Hur was played beautifully by Charlton Heston with a lot of emotion and poise. Messala was played by Stephen Boyd and I thought he played a very good cocky, mean Roman. An enjoyable character I thought was Hugh Griffith who played Sheik Llderim. A quote from him made me laugh a bit "One God, that I can understand; but one wife? That is not civilized."

Ben-Hur won 11 Oscars and I think it could win more. The cool thing I saw about the movie is that it didn't seem old by any means, I mean sure the graphics weren't up to par, but the story could have been made by a now a days producer. The movie has a running time of 212 minutes long and if I had to put this movie in a genre I don't think I would be able to due to the fact that it has so many different parts to it that I couldn't do it.

If you are between the ages of 16 and 115 I think that you would like this movie. It was an enjoyable yet long movie with lots of twists and turns. You would like this.

Gone With the Wind (1939)- Review

6 out of 10 (10 being high)

 “I’m going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill.” Which is exactly what Scarlett did in the movie Gone With The Wind. Right from the beginning I couldn’t get into the movie which apparently has been a huge box office hit for quite some time now. So if you like movies with war, love, losing, back stabbing, marriage, and horse related deaths you should definitely see this movie, but if you don’t, stay far away.

Directed by Victor Fleming, Starring Vivien Leigh, Ann Ruthford, and George Reeves. This movie had a powerhouse of a cast back in the day, and boasts the all time best seller taking into account inflation. Scarlett was the girl every guy wanted before the war in Atlanta, Georgia. She had it all, but after the war her plantation went down the tubes and she was officially poor which inspired the quote above. Throughout the whole movie she had this weird little love triangle thing with both Ashley and Rett Butler. The one thing that really bothered me was the only thing she ever cared about was money.

Let’s describe some characters now. I would have to say Mammy is my favorite character because she is a head-strong black character and she only wants the best for the whole family. Rett Butler is a very wealthy man because he ran a blockade and probably sold ammunition and other things to the south. Ashley is a decently not poor man that is in love with both Scarlett and her cousin Melanie, but he can’t choose between the two, so he just stays with Melainie. Melainie is Scarlett’s always jealous cousin because she thinks Scarlett does stuff only to hurt her. Those are the characters that really stuck out to me the most.

In conclusion, if I were you I would only see this movie if you are really into 1939 movies, and you don’t have much to do on a Friday night. Also, the movie I thought was a bit too long for how little they got us into the psych of all of the characters. Another thing was that I didn’t see any clear plot; first it was the war, then her love life, then tragedy. I found it hard to follow. So I’m giving Gone With the Wind a 6 out of 10, it was a love hate relationship.