In Theater Viewing - Suck

After a long day of classes, I took my mountain bike up Geary in SF to the 4 Star Theater to watch a movie I'd only seen a trailer for on Facebook. It was a Vampire movie about a band that didn't play very well until their band started to become Vampires. One by one they turned. It was a funny movie, so there were lots of heckles from the audience. When I had first gotten to the theater it looked like it was going to be an intimate evening with only 6 of us in the auditorium. That's what happens when you get to the theater over an hour early. When it got closer to show time, however, the red tiled ceiling dimmed down to about 30+ vampire fans eager to see how this mix of actors and musicians turned movie "stars" would work. It was a very tame movie with little blood splatter and no skin. For a vampire movie, even a comedy, it was pretty tame. The story was cool, some of the actors has some good one liners, and the stop motion "driving scenes" were pretty cool. Rob Stefaniuk wrote/directed & acted in his film that was released last year.

Extra Credit - Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Hot Tub Time Machine was written by Josh Heald, John Morris, and Sean Sanders and directed by Steve Pink. This story takes three friends back in time to when their lives changed forever. The movie started in the present with the three friends going in very separate directions with their lives. But a sudden change of plans is in order when one friend tries to commit suicide, very unsuccessfully. Since his family doesn’t even like him, his friends are charged by the hospital to take care of him for the next few days. Off these friends go to a cabin in the woods where they used to frequent back when they were young and had their lives completely ahead of themselves.

This simple trip turns out to be just what they all needed. Not only does their trip take them to a place that is familiar to them, but also the time is back 30 years in the 80’s when the three friends lives changed for the worst. John Cusack’s character was brought back to the 80’s to correct mistakes with his girlfriend, (as he does in most of his movies). Craig Robinson was sent back to become the musical legend he wanted to be. As for Rob Courddry’s character, Lou, he was a complete looser ever since the 80’s and his life hadn’t been much to speak of. The whole reason they even went up to the cabin was to keep an eye on him for a suicide watch. Because they all realized what they could do while back in time, the three friends banded together to change their futures to help go down a better path for themselves. There were plenty of references to other movies including The Shining and some of Cusack’s earlier films.

Homework Movie - The Godfather (1972)

One of the most watched gangster movies of all time, The Godfather was first a novel by Mario Puzo who also wrote the screenplay with Francis Ford Coppola in the early 70's. This wasn't the first movie that Al Pachino was in, but it certainly put him on the map as a talented actor. The cinematographer was Gordon Willis, who os know for his work on the Godfather series with Coppola. Willis also worked along side some other great directors including Woody Allen and Alan J. Pakula.

The movie is lit in a warm tone with a lot of the lights being used are from practical lights in the rooms. The characters are generally backlit with the light hitting one side of their faces creating a shadow on the opposite side, especially when they are talking about "family business." The movies brightest moments are the outside scenes between Don Vito Corleone and Michael, played by Marlon Brando and Al Pachino respectively. Once Michael completely takes over the business, the lighting looks more of a cool blue indoors showing a new regime is in place.

Homework Movies - Sophie's Choice

Strange twists of fate bring these three under the same roof in Sophie's Choice. Meryl Streep plays Sophie, a Polish survivor of Nazi Prison Camp . Her youthful, innocent friendship with Stingo, an aspiring writer, played by Peter MacNicol is challenges Kevin Kline's character, Nathan's affection for Sophie. Nathan's overbearing control of Sophie is balanced out by Stingo's openness to listening. With Stingo, Sophie gets the opportunity to bear her sole and story of how she came to America.

Written for the screen and directed by Alan J. Pakula in 1982, this heart-wrenching drama shows how Sophie gets out of one controlling situation to another. Pakula started his career as a producer in the late 50's, branching out to directing in 1969's The Sterile Cuckoo. It wasn't until 1982 that Pakula would work with Nestor Almendros on Sophie's Choice. Nestor has worked with some world class directors including François Truffaut, Robert Benton, and Mike Nichols. In Sophie's Choice, these two artists painted a very colorful pallet when in the present, highlighting the actors with a soft glow, except for Kline's Nathan. At times he would be lit from behind only showing his hair and covering his face in shadows because he was being terrifying towards Sophie. And when Sophie began telling her story, she had a glow around her hair seeming as a halo around her.

Film Review - Repo Men

Repo Men is a stylized futuristic tale of how credit is ruining society. It's gotten so bad in THIS future, that organs are being bought from a corporation that charges up the nose for a heart not even expecting most to be able to pay the monthly planned payments. When the "patient" doesn't, the corporation sends in the Repo Men. Guys that are not doctors that take the company's "products" out of the body with or without consent. The Company's two best Repos are played by Jude Law and Forest Whitaker. The problem arises when Jude's character Remy does a bad job and ends up in the hospital with an implant of his own.

The movie was a darkly lit film mostly because the Repos come in when the "patient" least expects them to. And the majority of the movie is done during the night or in dark places. There is excellent shadow work on both the main characters. There's a change of lighting on Jude once he's outfitted with his piece. This shows that he's had (forgive the pun) a change of heart for the people he's hurt in the past and wants to redeem himself in the future for. Forest's character comes into shadows still throughout the film up to the very end, without giving it away, he's a company man thru and thru.

The movie was directed by a newcomer director, Miguel Sapochnik, having only two other movies made. His director of Photography, Enrique Chediak has been working for fifteen years with a wide range of films to his credit. Most of Chediak's films have dark themes, with only a handful outside this norm.

Homework Movies - Frances (1982)

This willful defiance of power is directed by Graeme Clifford and the director of Photography was László Kovács. Jessica Lange portrays a young woman from the country destined for the big troubles of Hollywood and how quickly her life was turned upside down when she rose to the top only to fall fast.

The lighting set up was really well done. Most of the time, she was on a set where they could use the "stage" lights as practical lighting. One of the night set-ups that I thought was incredible was when she was driving away from a party drunk. The lighting was shadowing her left side in a weird way. There was a line on the side of her face and it stayed there for a while even though she was moving in the car. I also noticed that when her mother was in the scene the light was a yellow tone more so than when it was Frances and her gentleman friend Harry York, played by Sam Shepard.

Homework movies - Cop Out (2010)

Directed and edited by Kevin Smith, Cop Out pays tribute to all things cop movie. Including the gritty look of the film. Cinematography done by long time Smith collaborator, David A. Klein, this looks like it was taken out of the footage from the Lethal Weapon series, or any other buddy cop film in the last three decades. The story was written by Robb & Mark Cullen, who have written mostly for Television's Las Vegas until 2007.

The story puts Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan together as the "Riggs and Murtaugh" with the roles reversed. Willis plays it straight while Morgan gets to be the outlandish character portraying any and every cop cliche out on his witnesses, co-workers, and ultimately the sports obsessed gangster that sends these two on a mission to retrieve a stolen car. It's a very funny movie with plenty of Smith trademarks thrown in. Other notable actors in this cop comedy are Kevin Pollak, Adam Brody, and Sean William Scott playing a parkour moving thief that gets caught up in the mix.