World War Z, which is set to be released on June 21, has a new Super Bowl spot. The movie is about a U.N. employee who is racing against time and fate, as he travels the world trying to stop the outbreak of a deadly zombie pandemic. The movie stars Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos and David Morse and is directed by Marc Foster. And since this is InSession, the movie is scored by Marco Beltrami, who is known for Live Free or Die Hard and Hurt Locker.
What do you think?
Greetings sports’ fans? No. Wait. Wrong demographic. I mean, what’s the haps cinephiles? Much better.
I’m Matthew Mason. I have an unique predilection for stories caught on film. I can tell you most anything about any film from 1900 to 2012. My repository of film knowledge is approximately as deep as Mariania Trench, and that may be an underestimate.Suffice to say, I am passionate about film.
Film is fullest of arts. Movies allow an audience to wholly experience what their creators dreamed up. The sights, the sounds, the effects that defy reality, the emotions that feel so intimate and legitimate; these are the marks of truly great film. I love movies that revel in these traits and take my imagination to even greater heights. Here just of few of my favorites:
Favorite Films:
Action: Die Hard, Inglorious Basterds, The Rock
Animated: Spiritied Away, WALL-E, How to Train Your Dragon
Comedies: Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, Knocked Up, The Royal Tenenbaums
Comic Book Films: The Dark Knight triliogy, Sin City, American Splendor
Documentary: Exit Through the Gift Shop, Captalism: A Love Story, Super Size Me
Drama: Cinema Paradiso, Drive, Into the Wild
Horror: Psycho (1960), The Mist, The Thing (1982)
Musical: Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, Singin’ in the Rain
Sci-Fi: Star Wars saga (Of course!), 2001: A Space Odyssey, RoboCop
Western: Once Upon a Time in the West, The Cowboys, True Grit (1969 & 2010)
Favorite Directors: Wes Anderson, Luis Bunuel, Mel Brooks, Christopher Nolan, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock
Favorite Film Composers: Clint Mansell, Ennio Morricone, Hans Zimmer
Favorite Actors: Michael Fassbinder, Grace Kelly, Clint Eastwood, Jessica Chastain
Follow me on Twitter here.
Happy watching folks!
Hey there, movie peeps!
My name is Nate Parsons and I’d like to welcome you to our new blog where we will be discussing anything and everything movie related. I have always enjoyed watching movies but I didn’t really start to appreciate movies and understand what really makes a good movie until I was about 18. That’s when I started to expand to different genres and not just watch the most popular movies that came out. And that’s when I started to realize that emotional moments throughout a movie are what drive a good movie.
Whether it’s because a particular set of moments is intense, sad, happy, funny or a combination all of those, when a movie makes you feel something (gives you “goosebumps”), that’s when you know what you’re watching is good. And when you feel those same emotions on not just the first go-round but on also the second, third and fourth times through, that’s when you know you’re watching something special.
So some of my all-time favorites that give me “goosebumps” on every viewing include: The Shawshank Redemption, Braveheart, Schindler’s List, A Beautiful Mind, One Hour Photo, Saving Private Ryan and Warrior.
Some of my other all-time favorites include: Star Wars (excited about J.J. Abrams taking over!), The Lord of the Rings, The Green Mile, The Matrix, Tommy Boy, Casablanca, The Godfather and The Thing (the John Carpenter one, the good one!).
Follow me on Twitter here.
Hello movie fans!
I want to welcome you to our new site where we will be discussing all the ins and outs of movies. My name is JD Duran and I’ve been a huge movie fan all my life. From action, to sci-fi, and even romantic comedies, I love all kinds of movies. One unique fact about me is that my favorite part of the movies is actually the score. I’m a big fan of music and the score of the movie sometimes will make it or break it for me. A good example is Tron: Legacy. The movie itself isn’t a great masterpiece by any means, but the score by Daft Punk is incredible and fits the movie perfectly. The sounds and beats implemented into the world of a digital frontier made the move fun for me to watch. My favorite movies of all-time are the Transformers series. Now before you tune me out, I’ll admit that these aren’t Oscar worthy either, but Transformers was my favorite cartoon as a kid and I really enjoyed them a lot. Giant robots running around and fighting each other is all I ask for. And yes, the score by Steve Jablonsky made these movies for me as well. He was terrific and the score has become iconic for superhero movies and it’s a ton of fun to listen to. Well that’s a little about me. I hope you enjoy our blog and website and we look forward to getting to know you as well. Feel free to contact us anytime!
Follow me on Twitter.
Class is InSession!
Welcome to the newest movie blog that will bring you everything you’d want to know or read about when it comes to movies and film! Rather it’s action, comedies, romantic films, and everything in between, we have it covered! Get to know our top lists and reviews to help you take a new look at film. We’ll school you in the ways movies should be talked about. So get your notes ready, buckle up and let’s do this thing!
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writers: Mark Boal
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton
Synopsis: A chronicle of the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden.
[/info]
DIRECTION
Starting with horrific sounds of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks played over a black screen and ending with the raid of bin Laden’s place of hiding, Kathryn Bigelow’s direction is top notch. Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker, crafts a tight, visceral and sometimes pulse-pounding movie. She puts the viewer right into the events taking place, whether it’s the disturbing torture scenes (which forced one of my friends to leave the theater) at the beginning, the myriad of gripping dialogue exchanges in the middle or the riveting finale. With Zero Dark Thirty, she clearly proves she is one of the best directors working today.
Grade: A+
[divider]
SCRIPT
Mark Boal, the Oscar-winning screenwriter for The Hurt Locker, expertly pieces together a decades worth of information into a telling, almost documentary-style narrative. While the movie is nearly three hours long (with very little action and an ending that is already known), Boal still manages to keep the viewer engrossed and anticipating what will happen next.
Grade: A+
[divider]
PERFORMANCES
While the performances are great all around, this movie belongs to Jessica Chastain. She is a one-woman show as we see all the events take place through her eyes as the straight, fierce and determined CIA agent Maya. She deserves all the recognition she has been garnering and will likely win the Oscar in a couple of weeks. Jason Clarke also does solid work as Dan, a ruthless CIA agent who introduces Maya to the brutal workings of a US military black site in the opening moments. He does a good job of transitioning from brutish to likeable, sometimes even in the same scene.
Grade: A+
[divider]
SCORE
The score by Alexandre Desplat isn’t very memorable, but it was effective. That’s all you can really ask for with this kind of movie.
Grade: C
[divider]
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Writers: Will Beall, Paul Lieberman (book)
Stars: Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin
Synopsis: Los Angeles, 1949: A secret crew of police officers led by two determined sergeants work together in an effort to take down the ruthless mob king Mickey Cohen who runs the city.
[/info]
DIRECTION
The movie starts out with some pretty graphic scenes which makes you think that the movie is going to be in the direction of a typical violent mafia movie. However the movie really gets a lot cleaner as it moves on adding lot’s of action and dialogue to create a 1940’s Los Angeles atmosphere. The movie starts to pick up when Chief Parker, played by Nick Nolte, picks Sgt. John O’Mara to make war against Mickey Cohen, played by Sean Penn. The action becomes a little predictable and at times cheesy, but it still keeps an entertaining value and is fun to watch. After not believing in the group at first, Sgt. Jerry Wooters, Ryan Gosling, teams up with the Cop outlaws as they start to reek havoc on Cohen’s schemes. The direction is pretty straight forward here and while some of the shots are great, most of the movie was disappointing.
Grade: B-
[divider]
SCRIPT
While I like the action, one major flaw is the character of Grace Faraday, play by Emma Stone. While her performance is okay, the character itself is pointless and adds no value to the movie. She starts a fling with Sgt. Wooters, which becomes a central story arch of the movie, but really adds nothing to the plot. In essence, they bring in Emma Stone to bring a little bit of star value while her character is flawed from the core. The dialogue is unique in that it’s the 1940’s but it’s also modern at the same time. I think overall the script is predictable and page and could have been spiced up a little bit.
Grade: B
[divider]
PERFORMANCES
The performances by Gosling, Stone and Brolin were actually very good given the script and direction. I think Brolin brought a strong, cop presence to the screen. Gosling was also good and had a convincing 1940’s tone that I really liked a lot. Sean Penn was a great Mickey Cohen. I thought he nailed the performance wonderfully and brought Cohen to life. It’s just sad that a bad script and a poor direction couldn’t have made these performances more memorable.
Grade: A-
[divider]
SCORE
The best part of the movie, easily, is the score by Steve Jablonsky. Jablonsky keeps the dramatized rhythms you’d expect from a movie like this while adding some heightened elements in movie’s biggest climatic scenes. It’s a score that I’d listen to again outside of the movie. The movie also adds some great 1940’s songs and sounds to the soundtrack which makes the music very likable and make the movie way more likable than it would be otherwise.
Grade: A-
[divider]
