Thursday, May 22, 2014

Godzilla

When I think about Godzilla I think a dinosaur knocking down buildings and squishing people. When I think about it, I remember the audio of every scene I've ever seen, even in cartoons,roaring, people screaming and scary intense background music.
Until learning about it in film studies class, I would of never thought that Godzilla was invented in Japan. It seemed to be Americanized to me. I guess I see it as a scarier version of Reptar from Rugrats lol. 

As the years have gone by the animation has definitely gotten better. The dinosaur went from being stiff to actually looking human like [ironically once was a man in a rubber suit has been replaced by CGI] like a real cartoon. I noticed it when I saw a Snickers commercial,  Godzilla surfing and playing, but then shows how dangerous he can be when he's hungry. Like the original one. Scary. But as soon as he gets a Snicker he's kind again. It's a good twist for a Snicker advertisement,  stating a Snicker is so good it can easily tame Godzilla. That's catchy,   but it kind of took him out his character. 

Godzilla is not supposed to do human things and be kind to humans, but then again all Americanized media attractions only get weirder and weirder nowadays. I never really understood how there were so many movies about the same thing but each and every one was relevant to society. Although I'm not a fan of the movies, the history is pretty interesting, and I might watch the new one out of curiosity.

Temple of doom

 I think that The Temple of Doom is probably the best out of all the Indiana Jones movies. The beginning to me was a good scene to start off with when the Asian man poisons Jones. That's a start off issue that made it attractive because it was a life and death situation that was added on to the real problem. Although it was pretty cliche, I also liked that he kidnapped the blonde women, and she was forced to tag along on his adventure. It gives it a little spice because she is a very funny and entertaining woman. 

The cliche part is them starting off despising each other but end up catching feelings for each other.
The movie also pointed out a lot about Jones's character.  For one, when they ended up in the middle of nowhere and the people offered them food, the blonde was very rude and refused to eat it. Jones put her in her place and told her to appreciate the giving from the needy. That shows that he is sincere and has a kind heart. Grateful and selfless. Also that he's smart to take what ever is offered. Survival of the fittest! 

One other thing that shaped out who he is, is that when in a life and death situation once again,  about to get locked in by a closing wall after finding this secret place, he took the chance of sending his hand back in for his HAT. Everybody knows Indiana Jones with the brown hat. But that symbolism showed me as if his hat was a part of him emotionally like he couldn't possibly go forward with his quest without it like Superman without his cape.
My favorite part is his little sidekick, Short Round, that little Asian is no typical Robin to Batman. A 10 year old driving? Completely unbelievable but makes it different from any other movie. It makes it weird but doesn't make Jones any less strong. Again just another good twist to a movie.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Outstanding Blog: Temple Of Doom


I didn't really get to watch the movie from beginning to end so I don't really know a lot about what went on in the movie. There are some segments of the movie I have watched that I thought were very interesting like I noticed that Willie Scott Reinforce female stereotypes by constantly screaming and complaining about a broken nail and being particularly squeamish about the insects.  Also I noticed how it was somewhat unexpected or ironic that ferans the actor into playing the sacrifice victim has fans. 




Outstanding blog - Wed.

When we were kings -

  • 1996 film ( year I was born ) dir. Leon Gast 
  • Just as the movie Malcolm X this movie involves someone that people honor Muhammad Ali (& George Foreman) 
  • This movie also has James Brown, B.B. King, Spike Lee, Jim Brown, Thomas Hauser and Norman Mailer in it. 
  • Won Academy award for best documentary feature 
  • This movie also had a focus on african americans just as "Malcolm X" ( the movie) did. 
  • The african people enjoyed Muhammad being there in their presence.
The blind side-
  • more recent than the other two movies Im making this blog about, this came out 2009 
  • Is still one of my favorite movies 
  • This also involves a figure that people can look up to though , movie is very motivational 
  • it was based on the book "The Blind Side: Evolution of a game" By Michael Lewis 
  • The dir. & writer was John Lee Hancock 
  • This was about 17 year old Mike being basically just on the street coming from a difficult family and going through it and getting rescued by a nice family who were nice , inspirational, motivational and just as moving as the other two movies 
  • They all seem to also have a theme of like unity , community , appreciation and togetherness.

Malcolm x- 
  • People admire Malcolm for what he has done 
  • Just like the other two movies this movie has someone that is very inspirational 
  • directed by and written by spike lee ( he was also in it) 
  • Just as in the blind side Malcolm was presented with a rough life , and difficult things 
  • after seeing this movie I learned things I never knew about Malcolm X 
  • It also just has that theme of community and togetherness, Malcolm was an activist who brought everybody together. 
  • It touches on how Malcolm got into drugs and etc and How he got over it to become who he was. 

Indiana Jones 
  • Temple of doom (prequel) 1984
  • dir.- Steve spielberg 
  • Harrison ford 
  • Themes- Adventure / entertainment 

We may not have watched The blind side in class but it seemed to relate in a way so this how I did my post . 

Temple of Doom

I felt that The Temple of Doom was not a good movie. I'm saying this because it seemed to fake [explain; it did win Best Visual Effects in 1984; also it is a cross-over fantasy/adventure. Don't you think by definition such a genre film would require a certain amount of realistic fallacy]. I felt that old feeling of just some boring movie you go see only once. Some parts were funny [please provide examples] but other parts did not seem to interest [e.g.]. I would only recommend this movie to people who love stupid love  [confusing and harsh] and adventures. NO REFERENCES MADE TO "TEMPLE OF GLOOM" or other secondary sources.

temple of doom

Cites: Curtis, Bryan. "Temple of Gloom." Grantland  August 31, 2012. NP ND. Web. April 23, 2014. http://grantland.com/features/explaining-indiana-jones-temple-doom/?print=1

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Dir. Steven Spielburg. Perf. Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, and Jonathan Ke Quan. Paramount, 1989. DVD.

TOD was okay to me, it wasn't all that exciting. Parts of the movie seem like a cliche to me. The scene where the camera just focused on the top of the ladder you just knew Indiana was still alive and about to climb up.

Then again i think I did not enjoy the movie because the cartoon show Family Guy recreated many parts of this movie. Like when Jones and the young boy was trapped in the room with the walls closing in on them.


I thought some parts of this movie was a cliche. Like how Jones gets the girl in the end I think it would have been more enjoyable if he didn't get the girl or she dies or something. Anything else would have been better than this cliche ending.


I thought when you make an action movie like temple of doom it should be filled with stunts some parts just was not believable to me. As many times as Jones got shot at how did he not get hit. At least let's pretend since were acting to seem like there is actually a struggle a fight for survival.

Temple of doom Indiana jones

Indiana Jones was a good movie in 84 by Steven spielburg it was a huge hit back in the 80s the tone was dark and some themes were adventurous and entertainment Indiana Jones is considered a successful franchise of films

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Robin- Temple of Doom

Sadly, I did not get to view the whole movie. However, what I saw and know brings me to believe that it is a great movie that anyone would enjoy. Believe it or not it is a pretty realistic movie to watch [i.e. the special effects were worthy of recognition especially given the time, thirty years ago?]. For example, this movie reminds me of prehistoric times and how civilizations did sacrifices [depictions of this can also be found to startling effect in Mel Gibson's 2006 film Apocalyptoand went after what they wanted (treasures) [as evidenced by the influence of early twentieth century Yale Professor Hiram Bingham III, often cited as the discoverer of Machu Picchu. "Peru has long sought the return of the estimated 40,000 artifacts, including mummies, ceramics and bones, that Bingham had excavated and exported from the Machu Picchu site" (citation needed).] 

I have actually seen movies like this one before that connect together to give us many massages [sicand show us how as we can tell, our ansestors lived and what they worshiped.

Also, Temple of Doom is a controversial film of the twentieth century; Lucas and Spielberg really out did themselves with a great entertaining dark movie. When I saw the ritual it was so realistic and kind of gruesome and made my skin crawl. This movie really is one to remember for a lifetime. I wish I got to see the whole thing though.












Monday, May 12, 2014

Corporative Blog Post


There are 28 soon to be 29 Godzilla films. Toho is the japenese studio that produced them. Products were being embraced because it was polished and high quality. The trailers we watched for Indiana jones were good. They were different parts of Indian's life where he had to face something. It was very action packed. 



Indiana Jones Temple of Doom by Ryan.C

George Lucas is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He wrote [Co-wrote? According to "Temple of Gloom" weren't "Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, the husband-and-wife team who’d written American Graffiti" the screenwriters?] all four of the Indiana Jones films; he is also responsible for the Star Wars episodes/franchise.

For the prequel [explain, what is meant by the term "prequel"?]  to 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Lucas rejoined collaborator Steven Spielberg, who is also a film director, screenwriter and producer.

I have seen all of the Indiana Jones films. Out of all of them I consider Temple of Doom more of a horror movie than an adventure movieI have read an article named "The Temple of Gloom" is explain the reason why the film is so dark for example the part where they preformed rituals of human sacrifice, the priest rip out the heart of a living man and while he was still alive they lower his body in a pit of fire. The reason why the film was so gloom is because Lucas and Spielberg was going through relationship problems around the same time of film making Temple of Doom.


This picture is from the scene where the priest Mola Ram played as Amrish Puri ripped out the heart of the sacrifice victim

Temple of Doom. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Pref. Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, and Jonathan Ke Quan. Paramount, 1984.





Thursday, May 8, 2014

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

This movie was about a guy named Indian on a mission to get stones back from people who stole it from a village. Not only did they steal that but they stole everyone's children. They kept them to work and would hit them with a whip to do what they are told. Indiana, the boy, and the girl soon find that out when they find the secret place they used to sacrifice people. Indiana gets captured and has to drink blood but soon breaks the spell and saves the children and stones. But another obstacle is in the way when they get surrounded by the bad guys on a bridge. But Indian and them survive and return the stone and kids back to the village. Everyone was happy again. This movie was filled with a lot of action and effects.



                                  

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom

After watching the Temple of Doom, I now consider myself to have a strong understanding on why this film was so dark and frightening, while being exciting and energetic.  George Lucas and Steven Spielberg teamed up to create one of the most controversial films of the twentieth century.  Lucas wrote the story of all the Indy films, having previously worked on the Star Wars franchise.  Spielberg was the director; his past works include Jaws, Jurassic Part, ET, and many more.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Harrison Ford, Kate Copshaw, and Jonathan KeQuan. Paramount 1984. DVD.

People consider this film to be controversial because of how dark and unnecessarily evil some of the scenes were.  Examples include the heart removal scene, child abuse, and lots of death.  While this movie was being filmed, both Spielberg and Lucas were going through breakups in their personal lives.  The idea behind making this film so dark was based on Lucas and Spielberg dealing with real heartbreak.  Lucas says during the heart removal scene, that symbolized his heart being ripped out which I find very interesting.
An article called "Temple of Gloom", Grantland: August 31, 2012. np. nd. Web. April 23, 2014.
http://grantland.com/features/explaining-indiana-jones-temple-doom/?print=1

This article is examining how Lucas and Spielberg's heartbreak influenced the film's dark behavior.  Film critics during the time this was released, were very offended by it.  One critic stated, "Taking your child to see the Temple of Doom is a form of child abuse".  Overall, I admire the fact that Spielberg and Lucas took a huge risk with making this film the way it is, and I believe it was a meaningful thing to do.