Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Film in My View



          When describing a movie that I personally enjoy, thinking that a movie needs to have elements that would make me say the movie is noteworthy.  In my opinion, a movie has elements that make it exceptional such as a hero that has a full power of control to protect citizens or bring an element of magical powers to heal the world.  I would have to list the following criteria as; comedy, realism, women issues, special effects done well, some turn of events that make me feel what is going happen next, and the ending of a movie that leaves me feeling happy.  

           The movie L.A Confidential has many of the above criteria that I like.  Most notable is the “who done it” concept. The ability to keep making the audience feel like they know who killed the people in the coffee shop and then changing at the last minute is a great aspect of this movie.  Specifically, the surprize happy ending at the end of the movie is what really makes me like and joy this movie.  For instance, two minutes from the end of this movie, I thought the movie was going to have a bad ending when the captain Smith shoots Bud White officer. However, the director changes the outcome by reframing to reveal the Bud White character to have a happy ending by not killing the main character, which is Bud White, and allowing Bud to survive at the end of movie. This is a good feeling that I feel from the movie when I want the character as Bud to survive after the gunshots.  In addition, the day Exley receives a title as the hero and receives a medal because of his bravery, Bracken shows up and tells Exley, “Some men get the world, others get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona.” This is a few words from Bracken to Exley before she and Bud go to Arizona.  I think this shows comedy and a great happy ending for Bracken and Bud. This is why I enjoy the end of this movie.


 Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) in a moment tells Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) 
before she goes Arizona with White in L.A Confidential.


          Recently, I have seen two movies; Hidden Figures and Doctor Strange. These two movies have all the criteria that I call an exceptional movie and a feel good conclusion.  Hidden Figures deals with racism and women’s issues. It has a lot of very funny scenes in the movie that really will make you laugh.  You will truly wonder what will happen next in these movies, as the characters try to overcome the racism in this world, towards their skin color, and being a woman as well is an added bonus of hard times for these three black women protagonists in this movie. The end result is a feel good resolution with the successful mathematical calculations leading to a successful rocketing launching in the 1960’s. The true story is what really makes me feel lucky not to have been born back in the times of tremendous racism. Doctor Strange is the second movie that deals with a lot of special effects and science fiction comedy.  This movie differently is a favorite type of film for me that leaves me with scenes of wonderment and hopeful possibility.  You definitely need to be able to suspend reality in order to like a film like this.  If you can suspend reality for a movie like this, than you can have a wonderful time in this magical world of science fiction comedy.  The ability to make inanimate objects come to life to help the protagonist is crazy fun for me.  




1) Doctor Strange (2016)
2) dir. Scott Derrickson
3) starring Benedict Cumberbatch