Screen Movie Reviews Samples For Students

For André Bazin, the famous film critic and theorist from France, cinemas were a realist medium. This is why majority of film theorists would perhaps argue that that if he got a look at the computer-animated film WALL·E (2008) by Disney/Pixar, he would turn over in his grave. His theories revolved around the notion that there is always a mummy complex underlying the origin of any form of art, including cinema. Bazin’s notion suggests that art struggles to immortalize the mortal, to preserve the physical existence on screen. According to Bazin, the medium that eliminates most of the distance between ...

This Darren Aronofsky classic has left many a critic dumbfounded, not just after watching the movie for the first time, but even after the second, third or even tenth views of this film. The sheer techniques used in Requiem for a Dream hits the audience with so hard a punch that they are left dazed for a few moments, wondering what had hit them, before finally recovering their composure. Perhaps people would have been less horrified by the vivid imagery of this film had Aronofsky classified it as a “Horror Film”. But horror films do not make it to the Oscars, do they? In ...

According to James Snead, marking, mythification and omission happens to be the three common devices which get applied by filmmakers to consign blacks to obscurity on screen. Snead postulates that, when these three devices get employed on screen, they succeed in showing the little significance of blacks (Snead 4). Therefore, this paper shall examine four films, which tend to support Snead’s ramifications; these four films are; “cabin in the sky”, “a raisin in the sun”, “nothing but a man” and a “killer of sheep”. Taking a closer look at these films will end u revealing the use of the three devices mentioned ...

A short film “Ghost Recon: Alpha” is the background to the game “Ghost Recon: Future Soldier”, released in 2012 (Alaux et al.). The French company, engaged in the video games production, Ubisoft performed the adaptation of the given film. After a bad start of the game Prince of Persia on the big screen, Ubisoft came to a more serious approach to this issue. Ubisoft decided to perform shootings of the acclaimed video game series “Assassin's Sreed” through its own efforts and at its own expense, thereby fully preserving copyright movies. Such a move is quite expected, as this will ...

Film/novel; Winter's Bone/Winter's Bone Daniel Woodrell/Debra Granik

‘Hope” is the beauty and the very essence of life. A day follows a night, every sunset is followed by sunrise, light at the end of the tunnel – you can ramble on and on so forth. Art in any form, be it a painting, a literary work or a movie is supposed to celebrate the gift of life and most of the time it does. Every fairy tale has a happy ending, a lovely piece of melody fills us with joy of living and a beautiful painting reminds us about the existence of God.
But novels and movies cannot always be preaching how good conquers ...

Probably killed by life's adversities, everybody has at least once dreamed about how it would be nice if Paradise and prosperity reigned on the Earth. Only a few of us thought about the fact than it can be troublesome. Paradise is not a panacea and living in it would be boringWhy? Everything is simple: constant satisfaction and the quiet tends to simply annoy the man so that he wants adventure and adrenaline. There is no good without evil and evil without good. If everything is so good, how do people distinguish good from evil, if the second simply will ...

The 1958 thriller Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is commonly considered to be one of the finest films ever made, and one of the best works of Hitchcock’s career. The tale of a former police officer (James Stewart) who must deal with his issues with heights while also tracking a woman through two different lifetimes, Vertigo is a masterclass in filmmaking’s most subtle and effective techniques, resulting in a work that stands the test of time. Through its innovative use of mise-en-scene, music, performance and more, the film allows for a stunning look into paranoia and duality, raising questions about identity and ...

The Color of Paradise, was a foreign movie directed by Majid Majidi in 1998, shows a young blind kid's involvements with God, his family, and community as a whole (Majidi). The director manages to succeed in reasonably and realistically and display the position of values, practices, cultural principles, and social arrangements of the Middle east and, yet more explicitly, Iran. All through the film, innovative and creative cinematography and audio aids Majidi in representing Iranian and Middle Eastern cultural values. The film was able to shows these values but are not limited to, family structure and the significance and definitive existence of ...

No other American film auteur in the modern era has had a greater impact on the industry than Steven Spielberg. The man who created E.T. and Jurassic Park has personalized the art of filmic storytelling to a greater extent than any other director. In fact, it could be argued that Spielberg has so popularized the auteurist tradition that directors who have been inspired by the Indiana Jones movies and Poltergeist believe putting their personal stamp on a movie represents the height of the director’s art, the norm rather than the exception. Contributions from the great European directors of Francois Truffaut’s ...

The movie “V for Vendetta,” directed by James McTeigue, follows the actions of a freedom fighter who operates under the alias “V” and uses guerrilla tactics to oppose the totalitarian regime established in England. When he rescues Evey Hammond from the secret police, he also gains an accomplice.
James McTeigue, the director of “V for Vendetta,” entered the film industry during the 1980s, and he became an assistant director in 1991. He was an assistant director known for participating in the creation of “The Matrix” series and “Star Wars Episode II.” The movie “V for Vendetta” was his debut ...

The Coen Brothers have, one may say created an absolute masterpiece of a movie, which some may say is an amalgamation of the Wild West movies of old and a horror story. “The wide open plains, cowboys, Texas, guns and horses but has the syntax of a film noir even sometimes a horror movie. There is a murderer, one could even call him an unstoppable force, he kills without mercy and with a semi-novelty killing device. It deals with a man who finds a loot of money and must escape his pursuers who are a bunch of dirty business men, corrupted by greed and the lust for power ...

Japanese horror films through the years had made astounding contribution to the movie industry and to the horror genre in particular. One of the notable directors of great Japanese horror flicks is Kurosawa Kiyoshi who is often compared to Andrei Tarkovsky and Stanley Kubrick in terms of directing style and influence. Most of his films are focused on ho a general society affects an individual and how the society also reacts to adverse irrational and disintegrated social mechanisms. Japanese horror movies are not typical to the usual western made fright movies. As observed from many western horrors movies, they incorporate ...

Cinematic Techniques Analysis

Generally, The Conversation (1974), directed by Francis Coppola, tells the story of Harry Caul, a surveillance expert, hired by the Director of an anonymous corporation to track a couple. His mission involves recording the couple’s conversation outdoors. He refines the technology to enhance his eavesdropping into the couple’s conversations and overhears of a possible murder. He does nothing to warn the couples and witnesses their killings. It haunts him to know that, through his work, he played a part in the murder of the couple by the corporation. In the end, his apartment is also bugged.

The implicit argument, here, is ...

The movie “Birdman”, filmed by the Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2014, created a furor in the cinematography. This film uses a lot of unusual cinematic techniques, which we are going to analyze in our paper.
     Let us start with the camera work done by Emmanuel Lubezki, who used quite interesting techniques when shooting. First of all, you need to say about the angles of the shots. Emmanuel Lubezki filmed shots from low angles. These pictures give the impression that the subject is of great importance, and has certain strength. These shots make the viewers feel ...

Broculture and The Hangover

Abstract
The concept of broculture and bromance in the movie, The Hangover provides a new understanding into the changing conception of masculinity in the modern man as depicted in popular culture. It is both a celebration of uber-masculinity and the liberation of the individual, in particular, the male from traditional conventions through the experimentation with drugs and alcohol.This paper seeks to examine the treatment of broculture in by Phillips in The Hangover. The first part provides a short synopsis of the movie and explores the choice and treatment of the setting of Las Vegas. The second part looks at ...

Essay 1: Auteur

X-Men series of film is an institution in its amazing way. Bryan Singer pioneered this popular comic characters and brought them to the silver screen. It is a very gigantic task to convert the fictional fantasy of an existence of a superhuman into a realistic visual treat. However, highly creative mind of Bryan Singer is capable of this task. The history is the evidence (The Usual Suspects) of the mastery of Bryan Singer in direction and storytelling. The thesis statement of this paper is the powerful auteur of the directorial team of the movie to bring his vision into reality.

Very few ...

Movie director Oliver Stone’s 1989 film “Born on the Fourth of July” is a vivid screen adaptation of antiwar activist Ron Kovic’s autobiographical account of his idealistic dreams of war to becoming the damaged bitter war veteran. This film review follows Stone’s story line of portraying the evolution of Kovic from a young boy playing war with his friends in 1950s Massapequa, Long Island, to his eventual recognition and acceptance as an articulate and respected antiwar activist. For many of the people today, references to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are little-known history because this generation wasn’ ...

Genre: Mockumentary

Director: Rob Reiner
Stars: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer
Objective Analysis: (give a few examples and provide text to support your examples)
1. Visual component (such as the art direction, camera angles and movement, cinematography, lighting, visual style, etc.):
Filmed like a documentary, Spinal Tap uses handheld camera and talking head interviews to make the documentary part feel real. The filmmaking is straightforward to let the actors improvise.
2. Editing component (like the pacing, rhythm, transitions, etc.):
The film is fast-paced, and uses flashbacks and “archival footage” to flash back to the ...

Genre: Drama

Director: Orson Welles
Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten
Objective Analysis: (give a few examples and provide text to support your examples)
1. Visual component (such as the art direction, camera angles and movement, cinematography, lighting, visual style, etc.):
Excellent use of Expressionist cinematography (canted angles), chiaroscuro lighting (stark contrast between black and white), low angles frequently used to make Kane seem larger than life, etc. Incredible use of deep focus, such as in the shot where Kane’s mother signs him away from his impoverished childhood (Kane in the background, same shot as adults in ...

Fists of Fury is also popularly known as the Chinese Connection in United States. It is an action movie that depicts the famous Chinese culture of martial arts. The plot of the movie revolves around the revenge of Chen Zhen. The entore movie portrays his struggle of finding the suspects of murder of his master and then killing them. In general, the movie has a political and nationalistic perception. It demonstrates the tension that existed among violent Sino-Japanese at that time .
Likewise, Yellow Earth is one of the highly famous Chinese dramatization movie. The movie was directorial introduction for ...

Aching audience often willing to forgive outcasts and love them with redemptive love almost as much as a sister in Christ, humble nun Helen Prejean, a real person, that in the book «Dead Man Walking» described her own impressions from a meeting with the offender, Matthew Poncelet on the eve of the death sentence for the fact of committing the crimes that he denied until the last minutes of his life. A screen adaptation of the work could be considered as an another example of the triumph of political correctness over the art.
In his second directorial work actor Tim Robbins ...

Sequence Analysis in Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Pride and Prejudice (2005) was Joe Wright's debut as a director of a feature film. It was a tough choice for the studio, because he had no real experience and didn't even read a Jane Austen's novel. But in the end it was the best candidate, because Wright managed to explore his nature talent and was later inspired to direct his other movies like Atonement or Anna Karenina. Pride and Prejudice was the first romantic film he worked on, but later he was admired for his work and the film was welcomed very warmly by ...

2013 was the year that saw F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, “The Great Gatsby”, brought into cinema, for the second time. Whenever a great novel is adapted for the screen, many pedants will try to scrutinize the film to see if there is any nonconformity to the original. The book is often regarded and sacred as consequently; many films often fail to reach the pedestal set by the book. If the audience deems the film to be an effective adaption of the book, the movie will more often than not be successful. The Great Gatsby (2013) is the perfect ...

In the summer of 1974 a then 26 year old Steven Spielberg is going about his business of making sure that his movie about a shark that had overshot the expected $3.5 million budget does not sink his career in Hollywood. Everything that could go wrong had already gone wrong and it was hard to see the light at the end of this very dark tunnel. The movie he was making was Jaws, a movie that is today classed as a master piece in many circles and topping many greatest films lists while being one of the most commercially successful films in movie ...

Little Background on the Cinematographer

American cinematographer George Walton Lucas Jr. is producer, director, editor and screenwriter; he was born in the town of Modesto, located in the state of California. George Walton Lucas, Jr. (May 14 of 1944, Modesto, California, United States) is a filmmaker States, creator of the hit film of Star Wars and later Indiana Jones, president of Lucasfilm, LucasArts Entertainment Company, and Lucas Digital Ltd, Lucas Licensing, and Lucas Learning Ltd LucasBooks. He was considered two consecutive years as the number 4 of the most powerful in the entertainment industry, just behind the owners of Time Warner, Turner and Steven Spielberg ( ...

Mise-En-Scene in Citizen Kane Clip

Mise en scene entails the principle aspects used in a clip to fully explore its meaning to the viewers. It involves the combination of aspects such as movements, background plays or insights, various opus amongst others. It’s basically the control of events by the director of the film.
The first scene on the clip is done on Mrs. Kane’s boarding house. At the background of the scene we see the small child Kane playing with a lot of naivety outside the apartment in the snow. This is seen through the white window screen. The mother inside the house ...

‘Instructor’s name’

Hollywood Indians- A Man Called Horse
‘A Man Called Horse’, is a movie directed by Elliot Silverstein, made in the year 1970. It is based on the novel of the same title published in the year 1968, by Dorothy Marie Johnson. The story of the film is about an English man named John Morgan, portrayed by Richard Harris, who goes on a hunting trip in the interior West of the USA. He is captured by a Native American tribe headed by Yellow Hand and he is made a slave/horse to a woman named Buffalo Cow Head. Morgan’s various attempts to escape foils ...

Introduction

Set in the timeframe of 1981, ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ is based on the real life story of Chris Gardner who ascended from a destitute to a stock market magnate. Cast in the role of Gardner, Will Smith did an astounding job in essaying the character to perfection. The movie bagged many accolades and awards upon its release in 2006. The most notable one was the Academy Award rewarded to Will Smith for best male actor. The opening scene gives a glimpse of the phrase ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ as mentioned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence that the Americans are ...

Introduction

There are a very few characters in the history of mankind who have captured the imagination of so many creators – writers, artists, musicians and auteurs. King Arthur for his leadership of Britain in the late 5th Century is one such figure who has inspired a plethora of work based on him. At a time when heroic literature flourished in England, reminiscent of the great wars fought and the personalities who fought them, there existed an entire collection of work dedicated only to King Arthur, now called Arthurian Literature.
Among the best known works of Arthurian literature is Sir Thomas Malory’s ...

Introduction

The Dark Knight brings to surface the fate of human society in the new century. Batman is the one who plays a major role in determining this fate. The occurrences of September 11, 2001is not perceived as a crime that was organized but is seen as an organized terror. It is hard to understand how the society could fight terrorism and they themselves had not become terrorists. From the beginning batman decided to,” strike fear into the heart of animals.” Since he lacked the superpowers, he used effective performance and psychology to scare the enemies.
These places the human society ...

Casablanca, a classic tale of romance mixed with the flavor of patriotism, redefined the film industry. The ambiguous yet enchanting dialogues, Bergman’s cynicism regarding the past and passion for Ilsa, the setting of a new era represented by the dazzling casino, the presence of the evergreen Ingrid Bergman, the impending doom and the supremacy of lady luck make this movie ageless and a classic.
This film produced some of the most famous dialogues, like, “I stick my neck out for nobody”, “and this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship”and“Play it, Sam”. These dialogues depicted the past and ...

Technological Analysis of King Kong (1993)

Eighty years have passed since Merian C. Cooper’s original, black and white version of King Kong was released in cinema. Many new technologies were presented in King Kong that made it possible to tell the chest-thumping story of a gigantic gorilla that goes on a rampage through New York City after being brought there from an island inhabited by dinosaurs. As a visionary, Merian C. Cooper, the director of the original King Kong dared to face a series of technological challenges to create a film way ahead of its time. King Kong is an epitome of the director’s intense interest in technology. ...

Introduction

This movie was written by Tom Eyen and Condon, directed by Bill Condon and produced by Laurence Mark. The actors and the actresses include Deena Jones famously known as Beyoncé Knowles, Curtis Taylor Junior whose real name is Jamie Foxx, James Thunder Early who is the famous Eddie Murphy, Effie, Lorrel, White, Wayne and Battle. The main songs that have been used in this film are compositions from Eyen and Krieger with four of Krieger’s new songs (Millner et al 5).

The musicians credited and the creditors of this movie

The creditor of this musical play, dream girls is the 2006 academy awards. This is attributed to ...

The Film: The Proposal (Lieberman et al., 2009)

The Proposal is a 2009 romantic comedy directed by Anne Fletcher for the California-based film production and distribution house, Touchstone Pictures. The story revolves around a talented book publisher, named Margaret Tate (portrayed by Sandra Bullock), who heads the fictional publishing firm Ruick & Hunt. Margaret is depicted as an emotionally distant person from the start. Around five minutes into the movie, for instance, employees at Ruick & Hunt are seen running frantically around the offices as soon as one of them sends an internal message stating, “It is here.” This clearly shows just how much she is both feared and detested.
...

The basic premise behind Director Judd Apatow’s comedy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, is obvious from its title: its main character, Andy (Steve Carell), is still a virgin and his friends at work want to help him remedy that “problem” by attempting various schemes to help him lose his virginity. As with other comedies, Andy experiences many pitfalls, embarrassing moments, and humiliating situations before finally marrying an understanding woman, Trish (Catherine Keener), and having his first sexual encounter with her.
A good comedy is difficult to make, but because the directing and acting in the movie is superb, The 40-Year-Old ...