JackV's Film Reviews

Registered User

04-20-13

Film to me is a greater art-form. As a music producer and a writer, and used to be drawer - art and creativity has always been something I had a vehement interest in. When I began watching film, which was last year Febuary, I discovered that film is a greater art form because the film makers can express their visions in a way we can leave real life and immerse ourselves in another world, and the directors will then deliver to us whatever they want to show us. Be it a 3rd dimensional message or invite us into a gangster family, or teach us the value of living or the gritty world of the west.

I'm 15 years old now, I started when I was 14 when I wanted to just past time and thought going down IMDB's top films is a good way of doing so, of course eventually the world of film drew me in, beggining with 12 Angry Men. I was reluctant to watch it as I thought the oldie's would be too dated for me, but it turned out to be immensely inspiring and exceeded pretty much most of my favourites at that time. I realised then that I stumbled into a entire world of film to discover.

A review thread is a perfect way for me to excercise my writing, keep track of all the films I've been watching, make me further contemplate on that film and of course to give my verdict on it. I hope people will also come and appreciate my reviews.

Slowly going to be editing this page from now

#
12 Angry Men (8.5/10)
The 400 Blows (7/10)
8 1/2
2001: A Space Oddysey

A
Apocalypse Now
Amelie
American History X

B
Belle De Jour (7/10)
Battleship Potemkin (9/10)
The Bicycle Thief (9/10)
Blow (2008)
Bonnie and Clyde

C
Cape Fear
Casablanca
Chinatown
Come and See
A Clockwork Orange

D
Dog Day Afternoon
Donnie Brasco
Dr. Stranglove
Days of Heaven

E
End of Days
Eyes Wide Shut

F
Falling Down
Fear and Desire
Full Metal Jacket
Fight Club
A Fistful of Dollars

Watch this page

__________________
-J. Hussain

Last edited by jackv; 04-21-13 at 03:10 PM.

jal90

Bach to the future

04-20-13

It is a great idea, jackv. I'll be looking forward to your reviews, I don't know if you have ever reviewed, but as well as a way to improve writing skills, they usually serve as a way to make one's own ideas clear on the stuff, as they are written and start to make sense as a whole.

I was very genuinely surprised at knowing that you are 15. Not just because of the amount of movies you've watched (from your posts on other threads), but because funnily enough I had the exact same revealing experience with 12 angry men... only that in my case it happened just four years ago, when I was 18.

jackv

Registered User

04-21-13

Originally Posted by jal90

Thanks, I'm happy that I grew a fondness for film earlier than usual it serves as a great head-start and hobby in these dull times lol

Thanks

jackv

Registered User

04-21-13

12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men is not just a court room drama, it�s an indictment on societies need to part in the bandwagon and the negligence that derives from it. The film mostly takes place in a court-room, and all we are watching is a heated discussion of a group of jury men deciding on whether a a young Spanish American boy is guilty of killing his father. At first the answer seems clear, and reasonable too, the boy is guilty. All 12 men agree on �guilty� except for one dissenting juror who bases his doubts simply for not being convinced the reasons are sufficient enough condemn a young man to death. As the heated discussion goes on for the rest of the movie, we also immerse ourselves in the room and come to meet each individual juror and their preconceptions and prejudices. The film however focuses on �reasonable doubt� and reveals to us the injustices men could face when �reasonable doubt� is not considered � and in this case death.

Sidney Lumet�s most glaring achievements in this film to me is how he can trap us in this sole room and keep us engaged throughout its entirety of debate. This was my first black and white film which I was therefore reluctant to watch, especially when a film is being taken place in just one room. However as I was taken through the film as the jurors sweat, swear, shout, cry and get angry, I realised the 12 Angry Men stands on top as a pinnacle of an emotionally engaging social indictment.

12 Angry Men is a beautiful composition of dialogue and cinematography which still flares today as one of the bests and most timeless � and also one of the most important.

8.5/10

jackv

Registered User

04-21-13

The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows is a intensely touching film as we watch the troubles of a misunderstood boy. He�s a typical adolescent of Paris, living in a cramped home, distant from his parents, misbehaving in class. He decides to take a day off and hang around where he witnesses his mother with another man. From then on initiates a chain of events for the protagonist - where he is loved, hated, disowned and finally experiences something he always wanted to experience in an beautiful and immensely powerful ending.

The films journeys us not just the troubles of a young boy but the troubles in his mind. He lives in a small home with an almost depraved life-style distant from his parents. The only time we actually see his mother love him is when he witnesses her with another man � revealing to us the selfishness of peoples ways. When he develops a fondness for Balzac it sets his home on fire and gets him suspended from class. He can never be understood as nobody wants to understand him. It�s only when he leaves everything that he comes to face his life dream � seeing the ocean. Francois Traufauts delivers a poignant movie with a timeless style of camera shooting which caught my attention immediately. The film was shot in a way it exceeds todays standards � I�d have assumed at the very least the film was shot in the 70s excluding the cars and all the other obvious indicators.

With all this the film is a masterful composition and the landmark of the French new wave.

7/10

jackv

Registered User

04-21-13

Belle De Jour

Belle De Jour is a French psychosexual film by Luis Buneal. It follows the life of Severine, a young beautiful woman married to a conventionally handsome middle class husband. She is bored of her life and is sexually unsatisfied. She has a masochistic fetish which yearns to be nurtured so she joins a brothel were other house wives prostitute themselves for an extra buck. It wasn�t long till chasing her desires and the reality she really lives in, the two worlds she attempted to control, inexorably came clashing down and her world falls apart.

The film explores the way people are denied to have what they want, in this case Severine wants to have sexual satisfaction, she fantasizes about being assaulted by two cart men and having mud thrown at her in her white clothing. The film is poetically made, it is provocative and mysterious with questions in it that is left unanswered. Though it�s a eroticism film, it never really shows explicit sex. Buneal barely distinguishes the line between fantasy and reality leaving us to piece this weird puzzle. Its 3rd dimensional message can never really be pointed at. This film then is beautifully and artfully pieced together. It can go from strong intimate moments, to stressful ones and to transcending moments such as the ending. When the film ends it hasn�t really left yet. This film accomplishes itself as a first class example of psychological mystery from eroticism.

7/10

jackv

Registered User

04-21-13

Battleship Potemkin

Made in 1925, hailed as a film mandatory for any body into film history, Battleship Potemkin is the first film I�ve watched in the 1920�s and the first silent film. I wasn�t able to imagine how I�d take the concept of a silent film, I thought that in some ways with the acting and the writing it will be in a sense, comical. I was wrong. Battleship Potemkin is as strong a film as one can see. It reveals to me exactly how film is always timeless. Some movies couldn�t quite envision a massacre as powerfully as Eisenstien had done in Battleship Potemkin, with the orchestral music blaring and the words popping out into the screen, I was still drawn into the film more and more � it�s massacre sequence is still more brutal than some of today�s attempts.

Battleship Potemkin is as gripping as they come, based on the rebellion within the Russian naval ship Potemkin in 1905, Eisenstein evokes in us the great power and pride within a rebellion, and the great fall and fear within the massacre. There was no mercy in the massacre sequence, a woman witnessed her son get shot and subsequently trampled on by fleeing civilians, and another woman is shot and abandons her baby in the pram, which uncontrollably rolls down the Odessa steps. Babies die, children die, mothers die � all while the Orchestral crashes on like a poetically angry symphony. Battleship Potemkin is a memorable watch.

9/10

jackv

Registered User

04-21-13

The Bicycle Thieves

The Bicycle Thieves is an intensely poignant film and possibly the king of Italian neo-realism. A man needs a job, gets his bike stolen, and we accompany him whilst he tries to look for his bike. Vittoria de Sica deserves all the praises he received in the way he tells us this story. It is simple yet amongst the most powerful. Where one man�s misfortune turns his life around, the rest of the world has other business to worry about. Here the man�s life is riddled with issues, he wants to be a role model for his son, he needs a job to feed his family, he pawned his expensive material to buy himself a bike in a miraculous opportunity, and his bike gets stolen. The problems can seem mundane to watch, but life shattering to live with � and here Vittoria de Sica addresses this by being able to strongly make us immerse in their melancholic world- we want to help, we want to find the bike, we want to hurt the man who stole the bike (when we meet him in the film which exposes to us the ridiculously normal injustices of society.)

The Bicycle Thieves views the world in its pessimistic, realistic way. It�s thought provoking, intensely melancholic. The cinematography is beautifully composed, the dialogue is grittily poignant. The ending is transcending. In a desperate way out of his sorrowfully claustrophobic entrapment he steals someone elses bike and when he gets caught he tries to flee from a growing crowd. It was no use, he is confronted by an angry crowd but let go when his son intervenes in tears. In a beautifully sad sequence they walk away into the crowd � portraying to us the constant chain of misfortunes and injustices that will carry on forever invoking more. So in the end, he never gets his bike.

9/10

fuze931