rlpolo04

Member since 6/23/2007, last signed in awhile ago.

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Personal statement: i love the movies.

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Interested in:Action, Avant-garde / Experimental, Drama, Epic, Fantasy, Historical Film, Language & Literature, Music, Musical, Sports & Recreation, Thriller, War, Western

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Rescue Dawn

Rescue Dawn
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"Rescue Dawn- ***½ Directed by Werner HerzogJuly 28, 2007There is a moment of ease and when all the chaos surrounding the imprisoned German-American Vietnam pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) and fellow prisoner of war Duane (Steve Zahn) has taken a back seat to their simple conversation. Dieter explains to him how he became a pilot and what motivated him (a fighter pilot was attacking his town when he was a little boy and Dieter and the pilot both made eye contact, from here on he knew what he wanted in life). After he tells him the story, the two just stare off into some sort of amazement or they’re both searching for what they once had. This is when Dieter wants that feeling back. He’s now motivated to escape the camp. Based on the true events, we realize Dieter should be recognized for his courageous achievements. Legendary director Werner Herzog does a fantastic job of capturing the feeling of loneliness and hatred. The setting of the film is all natural a ... " [More]

Transformers

Transformers Review
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"Transformers- ***Directed by Michael BayJuly 3, 2007During the middle of the movie, a fat kid with a digital camera comes running out of his house to take pictures of craters that fell from the night sky. He screams “this is 100 percent better than Armageddon!” Director Michael Bay makes it clear to us that he’s having a blast making this movie. The kid wasn’t lying. It is more fun than Bay’s Armageddon, and his Pearl Harbor. He found the right place to work his magic and we don’t feel overwhelmed by the special effects. This movie needs them unlike his previous films did. Having Steven Spielberg as executive producer could have only helped Bay. I was never into the whole Transformers craze that was full throttle through the 80’s and 90’s. Morphing cars, airplanes, anything, it never struck interest in me. Never watching it could be a good thing because I didn’t expect it to be much (unlike TMNT). Watching it could have been a g ... " [More]

Badlands

Badlands
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"Badlands- ***Directed by Terrance Malick May 2, 2007At the end of the film an officer tells Kit (Martin Sheen, never better) “you’re quite an individual” Kit replies “you think they’ll take that into consideration?” This scene really sums up the entire movie because Kit wants to be his own person and wants people to know him. Badlands (1973) is based on the true story of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate (Malick changed the names to Kit and Holly). They went on a shooting spree in the Midwest during the year 1958. Terrance Malick brings this story to life as he writes, produces and directs for the first time at the age of twenty-nine. It happens all too quickly. I really couldn’t figure out why they loved each other so much. That is the only problem I had with this beautifully shot film. Kit, who is twenty-five, just got of work (he’s a garbage man) and lays eyes on a young red headed girl twirling a baton in her front yard. T ... " [More]

Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"Music and Lyrics- ***½Directed by Marc LawrenceMay 9, 2007We all know what happens to former musicians in the entertainment business: very rarely does one stay on top for a very long period of time. there are all kinds of categories you can place groups or people into. The Beatles and Stones never died down or faltered. Then they’re the groups that had a five year or so run and a couple of number one his and never heard from again like Ricky Martin, REO Speedwagon and the Backstreet Boys. Finally there’s the one hit wonder ala Bahhamen, Vanilla Ice, or the group that did the Macarena. You have to be able to put out music, great music, at a reasonable rate and music that transcends time periods. Those are the signs of a great musician. Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) falls into the middle category of performing artists. He is a member of the former 80’s band sensation POP (think Duran Duran). The band broke up after their lead singer went onto a solo career steal ... " [More]

Knocked Up

Knocked Up
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"Knocked Up- **Directed by Judd ApatowJune 2, 2007It’s not that I reject every comedy that comes my way. I embraced Apatow’s 40-year-old Virgin and Wedding Crashers and I even had a soft spot for Benchwarmers. I knew that that this movie wasn’t going to be even close to the Virgin and I was right in my prediction.I don’t want to say that this movie attends to be preachy and tries real hard to get a point across but sadly it does. Not bailing out on your problems and such which is set to a bunch of loser characters that are in this movie. How a not so handsome man can get work it out with a woman out of his league. Also, at the end there is too much drama in the hospital room about the baby coming out.A beautiful girl Allison Scott (Katherine Heigl) is a behind the scenes worker on the E! but then she gets a promotion to be seen on TV as she gets to interview celebrities. She’s so excited that she goes out to a club with her older sister Debbie who is ma ... " [More]

Pride

Pride
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"Pride- ***1/2Directed by Suna Gonera March 23, 2007When a movie is based on a true story, I try to do whatever it is to steer away from it and not learn anything about it. It's best this way and you don't know what you're going to be in store for. Pride is a true story that isn't all about a black swimming team who wants respect from the other white swimming teams but about how something good can effect a whole. It's these little inspirational true stories that we have no clue about until they get put on the silver screen with a great actor and script. It's only when this happens that we get to see such a good story be told to the entire world.A man comes to a run down, dirty, and drug filled community, who at first, has no means of changing that community but when he encounters some young men in search of guidance, he has nothing else to do but change that community for the better. And boy, does he ever. That man is Jim Ellis (a pitch perfect Terrence Howar ... " [More]

12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"12 Angry Men- **** (Classic Movie)Directed by Sidney LumetJune 25, 2007Twelve men walk into a smoldering, small, fan-less room. They are a jury and have to make their decision on whether or not an 18-year-old boy who stabbed his father to death is guilty or not guilty. We only see outside of the small room for 3 minutes (secondhand learning of the case, never any flashbacks) and one of the scenes it shows the judge telling the jury to make their decision in a bored tone voice. He knows that the jury is going to vote “not-guilty” but he’s wrong. Most of them are thinking that this is going to be a half-hour meeting. Some light up their cigarettes, open the windows to get a whiff of fresh air, and sit back ready to make their vote. The foreman of it all then lays the rules that there has to be a unanimous decision and then asks to hear everyone’s verdict. Eleven hands go up for guilty that would lead to the boy getting sentenced to the electric chair and one l ... " [More]

Vertigo

VERTIGO
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"Vertigo- **** (Classic Movie)Directed by Alfred Hitchcock June 28, 2007Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 masterpiece is a movie that you don’t just watch but you have to absorb it. Being this the third time watching it I always seem to find something new. There isn’t a dull moment or an unimportant scene in this film. Everything a movie should be is all packed nicely into this film. Vertigo consists of a troubled love story, a character study, a thriller, a surreal dream, a detective story, and most of all, a movie about obsession. Former San Francisco policeman Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) gets offered a job that he doesn’t want in the first place but eventually accepts it and it turns out to be a job that leads him to an overwhelming state of obsession. An old college friend Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) offers the job to him. He suspects that his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) is possessed by an old spirit named Carlotta. He wants Scottie (he’s been off duty for ... " [More]

The Hoax

The Hoax Review
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"The Hoax- ***1/2Directed by Lasse Hallstrom April 8, 2007Richard Gere tears into the role as Clifford Irving in this surprise movie about trying to get his Howard Hughes autobiography published, while lying to all who enter his world. Gere is back to form here and he looks better and cooler than ever (having a fake nose and his hair died dark black doesn't hurt either). Though this movie is about how Irving lied and conned his way on trying to get his book published but if you would dig deeper you find a more complex and scary plot development and that is how Irving falls under the power of Howard Hughes' spell.This is based on the true story taking place in 1971 about Irving who is a struggling author who recently got his new book turned down by McGraw-Hill. The next day he goes into their office and says he's going to write the book of the century. "That book would sell more copies than the Bible itself", that book is going to be the Autobiography of the eccentric How ... " [More]

300

300 Review
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"300- ***Directed by Zack SnyderMarch 10, 2007If people loved the way Sin City (another Frank Miler comic book) was made with such flavor that it popped off of the screen, I am sure that you will get on your knees and bow for Zack Snyder's new kind of filmmaking movie called 300. It is a bloody, sexual, and extremely violent movie that uses computers unlike any other movie that we've seen in past years. Even though I am kind of biased to computer generated movies (Lord of the Rings) this movie made me sit back and enjoy the visuals of a great PS3 game. I like the natural filmmaking (no blue screen or green screen) not the kind that your next door neighbor can do on his laptop computer. This being something that I've never seen before, I let it work its magic and try not to let that ruin the movie, which it didn't. This movie is about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC which takes place in a narrow path between mountains on the coast of Greece, which translates to "H ... " [More]

A Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart Review
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"A Mighty Heart- **Directed by Michael Winterbottom June 24, 2007You have to have a mighty heart to watch this movie. Yea it’s tough to watch because director Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland) makes this movie boring and really unwatchable within the first half-hour or so. What could have been a movie of great emotional power is instead a chore for us to watch. Having this based on the true story of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl, who got brutally murdered by a group of terrorists, is that we know the outcome before the movie even starts and that only makes the movie worse. “How can you find one man amongst all of these people?” - Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie) That quote expresses Mariane’s frustrations as her husband Daniel Pearl has been kidnapped by a group of terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan. They’re both journalists and after 9/11, in 2002, they traveled to get interviews and stories about a “shoe-bomber.” They’ve been living ... " [More]

Zodiac

Zodiac Review
By rlpolo04 in rlpolo04 Blog
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"Zodiac- ****Directed by David Fincher March 3, 2007The long awaited return of director David Fincher is finally here. Cinephiles everywhere have been waiting impatiently for this film; his last film was Panic Room (2002). He's the mastermind that brought us a clever detective movie Seven and the man who played around with our heads and we loved it in Fight Club. He brings the same, if not better, magic here in Zodiac (unexpected twists and turns) that covers a mysterious murderer spanning from 1969 all the way to 1991. Based on the true events.A psychopath goes on a killing spree in the San Francisco Bay Area taking lives of both men and women. He writes letters to the different newspapers telling them to publish his cryptograms that when decoded tells what he is going to do next and states his name as Zodiac. If the newspapers don't publish them he makes it clear that he will kill more. This cryptogram makes people become obsessed with the Zodiac. The people who are infatu ... " [More]