When Two Paths Collide

In our latest viewing, our class took a break from fast-paced Sci-Fi flicks, deep film noir, and Alfred Hitchcock thrillers for John Hughes' comedy, "Planes, Trains, & Automobiles." Although very predictable, I really enjoyed the film. I found it extremely humorous, eye-opening, and touching. While viewing this film, the important message that resonated with me was people come into our lives for a reason to teach us important lessons that help us grow.

In this movie, Neal Page played by Steve Martin was an overworked business man who was trying to get to Chicago in time to spend Thanksgiving with his family. But fate proved to be very unkind as Neal encountered set-back after set-back in his quest to get home. Neal got his first taste of  bad luck when his taxi to the airport was taken by a mysterious man. Later at the airport, Neal met the mystery man again who incessantly apologized and introduced himself as Del Griffith played by John Candy, a happy-go-lucky shower rings salesman. Initially, Neal was put off by Del's loquaciousness and obnoxious behavior. Much to Neal's dismay,  he had to endure the long flight with Del, which was diverted to Wichita as a result of a blizzard in Chicago. 

With no contacts or direction, Neal had no choice but to rent a car with Del and stay with him  in a run-down motel. Tensions came to a head in the motel with Neal exploding on Del for his continued annoying behavior, with Del firing back. In an emotional moment, Del proclaimed that he liked himself for who he was, and that Neal couldn't change him with his words or cynicism. As the movie progressed, bad luck continued to crush Del and Neal's plans, forcing them to rely on each other and build a strong bond, despite their frustration. I noticed that by spending time with Del,  his character began to transform. Neal became less uptight and more care-free, learning how to effectively cope with  setbacks. A scene that stuck out to me was when Neal got on the train in Wichita and made brief small-talk with the girl sitting next to him. Although subtle, this scene showed change in Neal's character because at the beginning of the movie he was thoroughly annoyed by Del's chatter on the airplane. In this scene, he was behaving just like Del. 

The ending of  "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" was extremely powerful to me because both Del and Neal realized how much they had grown to care for each other. While Neal was on the train home, a montage was used to highlight Del and Neal's journey, and how much they had been through together.When Neal found Del at the train station all alone, I was shocked to find out that Del was homeless and his wife had been dead for eight years. I was very moved when Neal invited Del to share Thanksgiving dinner with his family. 

I really love this movie because it embodies the true essence of Thanksgiving and emphasizes showing love, compassion, and empathy to others. Although everything wasn't roses between Del and and Neal, the struggles that they shared together brought them closer and formed an unbreakable bond. Del came out with a true friend. Neal came out not only with a good friend, but a softer heart. We can all learn from this film. Every person that we cross paths with, good or bad, implants something in our hearts that we take with us throughout our lives. 

The Birds: A Mystery Ending

After finishing director Alfred Hitchcock's follow up to  Psycho, The Birds, I felt a little disappointed. I spent the whole film questioning why this was happening and what was causing the birds to attack. The film was pretty good. Unfortunately, I missed some of it, but I was able to view some clips on YouTube. The parts where people were getting attacked were pretty interesting to watch. The more I watched, the more I desperately wanted to know what was going on with the birds. It was an extreme let down when I found out that they never revealed the reason why.

I did some research on this movie about the ending and found a few theories on what might have happened to cause the birds to attack. One theory was that the birds had lost their way when trying to migrate and it caused them to become confused, panic and attack people. I don't really agree with this one. Another theory was that they were being fed bad chicken feed. This could be possible, however, I don't believe that was the reason. One theory that does make some sense to me is that they are attracted to the light (they had said this in the film), however, there were no early problems with the birds in the film related to being attracted to light. Personally, my own theory would be that Melanie was the one causing the birds to attack. Wherever she went, the birds seemed to attack next. Her character seemed really suspicious to me throughout the film. I felt like she acted strange in most of the scenes. However, this theory can also be contradicted because on the radio they had talked about different places that were being attacked and there was also the attack on that chicken farmer.  

Even though I was a little disappointed with the ending, The Birds, was still an okay film. The scenes where the birds were attacking people were pretty entertaining. The ending leaves the audience thinking of an answer to the question everyone is wondering. Why are the birds really attacking? We may never know the real reason.

Touch of Evil: What Not To Do When Interracial Dating!

       "What does it mean to truly touch evil? pick up a copy of this movie and you will know"

In this crime mystery movie the wife of a well known Spanish detective is kidnapped and held as a result of the racial tension around during the time period. To be honest this movie didn't really resonate with me and as a result my review and opinions of this movie may be EXTREMELY biased and negative. However, I do know some people who actually did enjoy the movie during the viewing and were able to gain some type of meaning from this movie. Also in most movies I can understand how the director chose to do something daring in how he/she envisioned the scenes but in Touch of Evil all of the frames seem basically regular to me and have nothing that stands out to the point in where it drastically affects the movie.

I honestly believe that Touch of evil has a simple plot. Honestly compared to other works of Wells such as Citizen's Kane & The Third Man, Touch of Evil in my opinion is extremely pale.

Between the stale dialogue and the oblique camera angles this movie fails to stir up any feeling of depth within the audience or at least for me it didn't. While it is true that for some aspects of the movie Touch of Evil is a groundbreaking success, the majority of the movie discloses itself to me as a movie picture not worth revisiting or remembering ever again.

Psycho: OverProtective Mom X1000

             "I mean I like birds as much as the next guy, but this guy may just be a psycho"


Imagine you are on the verge of reuniting with your forbidden lovewith a car full of stolen $40000. Now imagine that your master mindplan is brought to an abrupt halt after a psychotic mother stabs youto death in the shower. Now all you have to do is throw in thebrilliant directing of Alfred Hitchcock. These are the key ingredientsto creating the immensely mind boggling thriller/horror classicPsycho.


The many elements that Hitchcock utilizes to create a symphony ofconfusion is pure genius and in my opinion deserves the highestapplause. From the beginning of the movie we are given a falseprotagonist played by the lustrous Janet Leigh. As she is given theopportunity to steal a large amount of money, she takes it and fleesthe city. Not only is she pursued by a cop but her suspicious natureraises alarm back at home where the crime is being realized. She seeksrest at the bates motel right off the road. It is here where she meetsa brutal death and her body is thrown into a tar pit.


As our true protagonist Norman bates is revealed, Alfred takes the artof confusion past the threshold by introducing Norman's mother as acharacter without ever showing the viewer her face but simplysupplying us with what we assume is her voice. The rest of the movieprogresses as people looking for our false protagonist arrive at thebates motel to simply meet the same fate. Eventually however, Normanbates is caught and it is revealed that he has internally split hispersonality between himself and his mother who he murdered viciouslyin a jealous rage.

Alien: A Guy Gets Pregnant In This Movie!

       "Never has a movie given me more of a reason to cheer for the protagonists than this one."

Let's face it, the whole aliens attacking earth bid has been done time and time again. As a result, the entire genre is not only boring but painfully predictable. Thus, upon my first viewing of Alien I went in with somewhat of a negative preconception. Gladly, this movie takes the genre of alien movies and injects some fresh vitality directly into its veins. Aliens is the result of when a fresh new idea is done right and the films accolades allows the film to speak for itself.

The movie Alien takes place in the year 2122 where a group of space cadets are sent to explore and retrieve any extra-terrestrial life forms on another planet. Upon arriving onto the planet in question the group of cadets stumble upon a nest of alien babies. One of the cadets is then infected with the baby alien and allowed on board by an android scientist. Even though Ripley, played by the awesome Sigourney Weaver, protests this breach of safety she allows the cadet to come aboard. The movie finally picks up the pace when the baby alien spurts out of the cadets stomach and uses the ventilation system to hide and hunt its prey. 

After eliminating most of the crew, Ripley escapes in a pod and self destructs the ship. However, in an unforeseen twist the alien actually sneaks its way into the pod before the ship exploded. Realizing this, Ripley uses the garbage disposal feature to create a vacuum effect and send the alien drifting into the big unknown. Throughout the movie there are countless examples of how alien sets itself apart from its genre brethren. This is the movie that started the series that set an abnormally high bar for both production value, story telling, and special effects.
   

 

MID MOVIE POST BY DEANA TAVARES

I am actually truly getting into this movie which is really weird and shocking to me. Like I said in my first post I do NOT like sci-fi films >.< ! But I am starting to like this one. Being that the movie was made in the 70s or 80s, they did a great job creating alien characters and had pretty awesome effects. They weren't where they are today when it comes to technology but I thought it would still be more like the movie pyscho and it wasn't. I still don't like the woman character. And I really think that only a few people are going to die on the ship and the rest will get away. Now that the alien is inside the ship and they can't find him, they're being stupid enough to go in the tight, hot vents and try to kill it off in there. They have no clue what kind of power it has and how much more advanced it is than humans, I mean hellooooo it's an ALIEN.

FIRST POST ON ALIEN BY DEANA TAVARES

I really don't feel like I'm going to like this movie. I'm giving it a chance but ever since I was little  I never liked anything that was sic-fi related. The only thing that interests me about aliens is the documentaries they do on the history channel. So far I'm not interested but I promise I'm trying my best to stay focused. I already don't like the woman character that kind of holds the main character position. (I'm really not good with names sorry :/) I find her very arrogant as if she knows everything and that she would be the type to throw her important job in peoples face because she has that superior power on the ship. Altogether I'm not very into this movie hopefully my mind is changed next viewing session in class.