The Godfather Review

"The Godfather" is one of my all time favorite movies. It is one of the best movies ever made in my opinion. It was the first movie to influence me to like Mafia movies, such as "Scarface", "Goodfellas", "The Godfather 2 and 3" also, etc... This movie has a great story line to it that keeps my attention no matter how many times I watch it; except if I'm in Film Study and I just cannot keep my attention to any movie. The story line to this movie starts off with the traditional Italian wedding and the introduction to the Corleone family. In the beginning, the main character named Michael Corleone (played by the amazing Al Pacino), has just gotten back from being a war hero and has returned home to Brooklyn, New York. He is unlike his family and he tells his girlfriend Kay that he does not want to be a part of the family business. Don Vito Corleone even says that he does not want Michael to be involved with what him and his son Sonny do for a living. Throughout the story however, the audience sees a drastic change in Michael's personality as he becomes one of the most powerful mafia figures in New York. There are so many memorable scenes and lines in this movie that I have even quoted before to my friends. "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse", "Fredo, I love you, but don't ever take sides against the family again", "Alright, this one time I'll let you ask me about my business Kay." When the horse's head is cut off and placed in the famous Hollywood guy's bed, the baptism scene (one of the greatest scenes in movie history), and especially the ending scene. When Michael shuts the door on Kay and the scene fades away, it sends chills down my spine when Michael surrounded by the other mafia members and the true power he now holds is revealed to Kay. The last thing I loved about "The Godfather" was the music played throughout the story. The classical waltz and the theme song, there's something about the sound of these two songs that I really like. The Italian sound with the strings and the horns, it dictates the mafia personality extremely well and I really love the sound of it. This movie will always be a classic no matter how many times I watch it and it's one of the greatest movies of all time.

The Departed Review

After watching "The Departed", I was pretty impressed by it. I had no idea that the cast of this movie was so stacked: Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Anthony Anderson, etc... with a cast like this, and a picture directed by Martin Scorsese, this equals instant magic created. As for the storyline in this movie, it was a little confusing to follow at first, between Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio's characters. Also, Jack Nicholson's character is a little hard to follow; being an FBI informant and one of the most powerful mobsters in Boston. But once I figured everything out about the storyline, the movie was pretty good. Mark Wahlberg's character is also the coolest man ever. The way he acts throughout the movie, he is not really a main character but he is involved in the storyline just enough to be remembered. When he came back at the ending and murdered Matt Damon in the very last scene, it was amazing. One thing about this movie that was weird was the ending. The movie ended very abruptly and it seemed like in a second it was over. The story was making complete sense until Leonardo DiCaprio's character is shot when he walks out of the elevator with Matt Damon. Then, in a matter of minutes, everyone starts dying. I was left sitting in class just wanting to know what the heck had just happened. One thing I would really like to know is who was Mark Wahlberg's character? I want to know what happened after he kills Matt Damon also. Overall, compared to other mobster/crime movies, "The Departed" is a great movie. "The Godfather" is better in my eyes, but that's only because that was the first mobster movie I ever saw and I instantly fell in love with it. One thing I really liked about this movie was the setting. Since it was set in Boston, MA., I love the city of Boston and this just made my attention grow towards the movie right as it began. Also, with the addition of purposely getting Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, (Both born in Boston) made for the acting to be natural. The Massachusetts accents, the setting, the Dropkick Murphy's (ROCK), made me like the movie from the beginning.

Cool Hand Luke Review

Cool Hand Luke, directed by Stuart Rosenburg in 1967, was a story about a criminal named Luke Jackson who is a very memorable guy. He gets sent to a prison camp for breaking heads off of parking meters, and that's when the real story begins. There were a couple parts I liked when he was in the prison camp. When he bets that he can eat fifty eggs in one hour...that was a pretty interesting thing to watch. When he gets challenged to a boxing match against Dragline, I found that scene to be very monumental on Luke's behalf. The way Luke keeps taking punch after punch and keeps on getting up after being knocked down, it was like watching something out of a Rocky movie. It was the first glimpse of the respect gained by the inmates to Luke and it began a little friendship between Luke and Dragline. After their fight, Luke was treated as more of an idol, and after the fifty eggs ate after that, he became more of a role model, cool guy to the others. One thing I noticed in the movie was that the prison owner guy had a very funny voice. Who is supposed to take a guy like that seriously with such a high voice. Also, the scene when the inmates are digging up the trench and the very attractive woman walks outside to wash her car. I found that scene to be very sketchy and humorous. The way Dragline acted, like an extremely perverted guy, just made the scene really wierd to watch. But, overall, this movie was okay...not horrible but I would not watch this movie again. Cool Hand Luke was such a cool guy in my eyes. He didn't care about the rules, he was such a rebel. The prison guards kept trying to break him down and Luke would pretend to beg and act nice to them, but when time came for a great escape, Luke was gone. Somehow, he escaped the camp twice, but I don't know how he kept getting caught. This is the only thing I did not understand about the storyline. One part he would be away from the camp, the next part he is being thrown into the inmate room and being threatened at by the guards and such. There was no real explanation on how he kept getting caught. Especially the second time when he plans out how to fool the dogs and not allow them to pick up a scent, how did he manage to be found again? It didn't make any sense to me. One thing I really liked for some reason about the movie (and no it's not the shower scene with all the guys Paul)was the line, "What we have here is a failure to communicate." I quote it all the time now and it annoys people very much. Thank you Cool Hand Luke. I'm going to have to say that my favorite scene of the movie is when Luke plays the banjo after finding out his mother has passed away. It was a very emotional scene and I enjoyed the singing that went along with the song. I also did not expect to see Luke die at the end. It was a very sad moment in my life. But overall, I thought the movie was good.

Psycho Review

This movie, in my opinion, was a hundred times better than Casablanca. I never really lost interest in the storyline and I could easily follow what was going on throughout the entire movie without looking at any summaries or synopses on the Internet. The movie tells the tale of a woman named Marian Crane who works at a bank and selfishly steals forty thousand dollars when given to take care of. On her road trip to meet with her lover, she stops at the Bates Motel one night to escape from the downpouring rain. Norman Bates is the owner of the motel and at first seems like a nice guy. Little do we know, he is a madman and ends up murduring Marian by the end of the movie. Norman has a double sided personality and acts like his deceased mother...who is psycho to say the least. This movie, all time, is one of the most definitive horror movies ever made. Since it was made in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock felt that the movie would have been more appropriate for the audience if it was filmed in black and white. This would make the infamous shower scene less gory and more tolerable for people. However, when looking at the movie now, horror movies have come a LONG way since then. The shower scene (and the movie to be fair) was not really that scary at all. Hitchcock used chocolate syrup instead fake red blood to make it less gory...but the knife never really gets shown penetrating the woman. I'll just say the scene's special effects were not of high quality back then. One thing I really liked about the movie is the complex storyline. The storyline is straight out of a Scooby-Doo show and it keeps you guessing and confused throughout the plot of the film. The thought that Norman kept his mother's corpse and wore a wig to act like his mother and be his mother at times was really sketchy, but it surprised me a lot after seeing him revealed at the end. Another thing I really liked about Psycho was the ending when it showed Norman talking to himself in his empty locked up room. The creepiness and the craziness of Norman is truly shown at this time. The audience can hear mother's voice in Norman's head as she/he tries to form a plan to get free. When mother's skull is super imposed over Norman's face, I found that effect really interesting and it showed the unity of the two personalities becoming one to the audience. The way it was used at the end made it a great ending in my eyes. I also noticed during that end scene how Norman says to himself how he wouldn't even harm a fly. I have heard that line a million times before and I never knew it was used at the end of Psycho. When I heard it during the class, I recognized the line immediately and I just found it interesting that it was in the end of the movie. When we first started watching Psycho, I found it extremely sketchy, but humorous at the same time. The scenes that involved the cop stalking Marian were very funny to watch. Espescially when the music cuts in when Marian starts to drive away from him, it's very amusing to hear. The music is supposed to be suspenseful, but it just doesn't fit that role for me. As for when the murders take place, there is a huge difference if there is sound or no sound involved. You can definately anticipate and sense a more horrific feeling for what is about to happen. Without sound, the movie being scary is a non-factor for the audience. But, all in all, I liked Psycho. It was a very interesting movie to watch, it kept my attention the entire time, and it was way more exciting than Casablanca! Why couldn't we answer questions about this movie instead of Casablanca?? I actually paid attention to this one and enjoyed watching it. The lack of confusion in the storyline made it a lot easier to watch also.