The Nostalgia Critic

As sort of an aside to the biweekly reviews, I like to interject every once in a while and share something about myself or my personal tastes (as if you don't get that enough in the reviews, but never mind that). Today, I'd like to share with you a website I frequent: That Guy With the Glasses.

This website is a pretty diverse one, ranging from movie reviews, to video game reviews, to comic book reviews, to website reviews, etcetera, etcetera. I typically visit it for the movie reviews by the Nostalgia Critic that are posted approximately once per week. The Nostalgia Critic typically reviews movies from our generation's childhood--the things we grew up with that we never saw the flaw in. The Nostalgia Critic takes a look at these kids' movies from adult eyes and just tears them apart...most of the time for good reason, too. Pagemaster was the first movie I ever saw in theaters, and I remember being spellbound watching it as a kid. We bought it right when it came out on VHS and I watched it religiously. Upon watching the Nostalgia Critic's review of Pagemaster, I see now what crap my parents had to sit through.

All-in-all, I think this is a website worth checking out. Sometimes he can be a little vulgar and even immature, but I think just looking back at these movies from a different viewpoint is fun in and of itself.

Movie Review - Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Pan's Labyrinth

It was late 2006 when I first saw the trailer for Pan's Labyrinth. I was attending my first showing of Casino Royale (which rocks, by the way) and this is the only preview I explicitly remember seeing before Casino Royale. If you knew just how anxious I was to see that movie, it would be pretty impressive that I would remember this preview in the midst of all that anticipation. Upon viewing this movie recently, I see why exactly that is.

Pan's Labyrinth is classified on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) as belonging to five different genres, with the top two being Drama and Fantasy. For this review, I'm going to briefly inspect the effectiveness of the working-together of both components of this movie.

Drama

The story of Pan's Labyrinth is certainly a dark and grim one. A young girl named Ofelia moves to the countryside with her expecting mother to live at a small military outpost led by the vile Spanish Army Captain Vidal. It doesn't take but five minutes of looking at this guy to get that, so I don't consider that to be too much of a spoiler. I can't recall a single funny moment, although there may have been a few relatively lighthearted ones, and most of the scenes seem to be cast in a shadow, both figuratively and literally. There's even an element of romance for those interested. This is most certainly not a feel-good movie, but that doesn't mean it isn't effective, because, oh boy, it is.

Fantasy

If I had to mention in passing what this movie was to someone, I would most likely call it an "adult fairy tale," as it has been called by many others before. This movie may be rated R and have plenty of adult themes you would expect to see in such a movie, but it is a very intriguing blend of several different fairy tales, with Alice In Wonderland coming to mind first. The movie just looks absolutely fantastic--Guillermo del Toro does an amazing job of blending the real-world Spanish countryside with the fairy-tale world that Ofelia discovers.

It is the integration of these two elements that makes the movie so immensely watchable. While the wonderful fantastical bits are often interrupted by the main storyline that brings us back down to earth, these often-depressing dramatic bits are interrupted by Ofelia's quest in Pan's Labyrinth. While this is definitely NOT a film for people who don't like to read subtitles (yes, it's foreign), hate dark movies, or don't care for violence too much, it most certainly is a must-see for everyone else. Once you get past the adult nature of the movie, what you have left is a moral that even a child could embrace, and an ending that leaves you feeling several different things at once.

Comments? Questions? Please feel free to ask!

Next review: Life Is Beautiful (1997)

Yes, it's another foreign one.

Movie Review - Crash (2004)

Crash

Just this past Sunday afternoon, I arrived back to my dorm to find this long-awaited Netflix envelope in my mailbox. Crash had arrived not but two days after I had left to go home for the break. And all during that break, I had anticipated going back to College Station and finally sitting down with Crash, considering it won an Oscar for Best Picture in 2006 (took them long enough!) and was rather critically acclaimed. So, late Sunday night, I sat down and finally put this in my PS3.

Before I really review this, I think it's important for you to know that Crash is meant to be somewhat of a cathartic and preachy movie. More specifically, it has to do with the "journeys of self-discovery and the discovery of others" (whatever that's supposed to mean) in regards to racism. The film is set in L.A., which is a good choice considering the melting-pot of cultures the city is.

Anyway, throughout the film, we witness the personal "journeys" of various couples/families/friends of various races, and while Brendan Fraser's character seems pretty normal, you would think that white people are the enemy in this movie. Seriously. Because even if some of the other characters do some vile things (and they most certainly do), it's pretty much just the white people who hold their grudges against people of other races. Whether it be the well-to-do wife played by Sandra Bullock with her Mexican maid and the Mexican man who changes the locks on her and her husband's house after a couple of black guys carjack them one night, or the policeman played by Matt Dillon with a black couple that he pulls over and a black insurance worker, it seems as if the Caucasians are the cause of most of this hostility. Don't get me wrong--there's a pretty bloodthirsty Turkish man, and the two black friends certainly need to get their moral compass fixed, but it seems as though most of the more overt racism takes part because of the white people.

That aside, this is certainly a powerful movie that really portrays America well and perpetuates the blah, blah, blah...All-in-all, this is worth watching if you have about two hours to spare and want to be humbled. Whether you're red, yellow, black, or white, this movie will be precious in your sight. Haha.

Any comments would certainly be appreciated!

Next review: Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

What Am I Doing? (And More Questions I Ask Myself Quite Often)

Welcome, visitor, to my humble blog! Whoever or whatever has caused you to stumble across this masterpiece in the making deserves some serious credit, because in this blog, I hope to save you committed readers hours of time. How? By sifting through the crap so you don't have to watch it yourself.

Because, you see, there are a ridiculous amount of movies out there. Just now, in a quick Google search, I found out that there are apparently 2,085,556,628 that have ever been made--EVER. Whether or not that's a complete lie doesn't diminish the point that probably 90-99% of the movies out there are ones you've never heard of, let alone seen. So why am I doing this again?

I am doing this for your benefit. I'm going to typically watch the movies that are critically acclaimed, and let you know how I see them--as a college student, no less. And yeah, I'm not a professional critic, and no, I haven't taken a single film class, nor do I plan to. But either way, I always think it's good to have a second opinion. From someone without any credibility. So, I ask you to work with me here--let me know what you think of my reviews. Because I'm not doing this only for you guys. Nice of you to assume so much of me, though. And so, I give you now my first announcement:

FIRST REVIEW: Crash (2004)

Hopefully this review will be up by Thursday. This is Aaron, signing out.