Casablanca movie review

Casablanca Movie Review
by Kiara Walker







Casablanca is a great romance, a stirring wartime adventure, a suspenseful action movie, and in the end, a terrific buddy movie. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine ,Humphrey Bogart, a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of WWII. Despite pressure from the local authorities, notably the crafty Capt. Renault ,Claude Rains, Rick's cafà has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit which will allow them to escape to America. One day, to Rick's great surprise, he is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo ,Paul Henreid, and his wife, Ilsa ,Ingrid Bergman, Rick's true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She still wants Victor to escape to America, but now that she's renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca. But the plan unfolds, he got her and her husband a plane to leave and he stayed behind.

 After Renault and Victor leave momentarily, the camera tracks in dramatically for a MCU of Rick and Ilsa, and note the camera is from the side—neither person’s point of view.  Rick begins to lay the groundwork for his plan to send Ilsa off with Victor.  “You’re getting on that plane.”   The same camera set-up is reestablished after a cut-away to Renault—again to emphasize the dramatic conversation as the camera tracks back in from LS to MCU of the two, again from the side—but at the last minute shifts to Rick’s point of view.  Then the point of view shifts through a series of reverse angle shots—from Rick to Ilsa, then Rick, then Ilsa, then Rick, then Ilsa.  Each time point of view shifts notice that either the speaker’s face is featured (to emphasize dialogue, as in Rick’s case) or the reactor’s face is featured (to emphasize understanding, as in Ilsa’s case).    Finally the point of view shot that had shown both characters in the frame changes to an interpretive point of view shot of Ilsa, in CU, the aura of light softening her face and the tears growing in her eyes.  We hear the voice-over of Rick’s continuing dialogue, almost as if she is hearing this in her dreams--“I’m not good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”  In this same close-up, Ilsa drops her chin, as if feeling defeated by fate—and this staging position is altered when we see Rick’s fingers lift her chin.  “Now, now.” 

 

I would rate this move an, A. It was very exciting. It got my attention all through out the movie. And it had a nice plot and the characters played their roles very well.

Touch of Evil Movie Review

Touch of Evil Movie Review
By: Kiara Walker







On honeymoon with his new bride, Susan ,Janet Leigh, Mexican-born policeman Mike Vargas ,Charlton Heston, agrees to investigate a bomb explosion. In so doing, he incurs the wrath of local police chief Hank Quinlan ,Welles, a corrupt, bullying behemoth with a perfect arrest record. Vargas suspects that Quinlan has planted evidence to win his past convictions, and he isn't about to let the suspect in the current case be railroaded. Quinlan, whose obsession with his own brand of justice is motivated by the long-ago murder of his wife, is equally determined to get Vargas out of his hair, and he makes a deal with local crime boss Uncle Joe Grandi ,Akim Tamiroff, to frame Susan on a drug rap, leading to one of the movie's many truly harrowing sequences. Touch of Evil dissects the nature of good and evil in a hallucinatory, nightmarish ambience, helped by the shadow-laden cinematography of Russell Metty and by the cast, which, along with Tamiroff and Welles includes Charlton Heston as a Mexican; Marlene Dietrich, in a brunette wig, as a brittle madam who delivers the movie's unforgettable closing words; Mercedes McCambridge as a junkie; and Dennis Weaver as a tremulous motel clerk.








In Touch of Evil, the play of shot and countershot, of dialogue and ambient sound, seem glutted by some strange weariness, the film’s motives and events and meanings clouded by ambiguity. The movie contains a single-take tracking shot of such elegance and skill. In the scene where they were in the apartment of young Manolo Sanchez, the chief suspect in the bombing of an American diplomat in a Mexican border town. It features, inter alia, Sanchez himself ,Victor Millan, local police chief Hank Quinlan ,Welles, and Mexican narcotics officer Miguel “Mike” Vargas ,Charlton Heston. The camera, pinned in short focus, drifts slowly from the front room to the bathroom and back again twice, making sure to verify that there is no-one else in the apartment and no way in or out save for the front door—how it lingers on the empty shoebox Vargas replaces on the shelf, a shoebox which will later be found to contain two sticks of dynamite.
 Quinlan then plant the evidence to frame Sanchez. This can occur, and simultaneously exposing a tense, bilingual interrogation sequence as Vargas tries vainly to mitigate Quinlan’s aggression towards the boy. It has the intellectual power and emotional intensity that only writing and camerawork of such subtlety can provide and in its single take, the restitution of the entirety of the action within its own space and time.

Overall , I would rate this move an A. It had a great motive to it  and kept the viewers entertain.

Run Lola Run Movie Review

Run Lola Run Movie Review
By: Kiara Walker







Run Lola Run is a 1999 ,Tom Tykwer Movie based in Germany ; This German Thriller is about a women name Lola trying to come up with 100,00 marks to save her boyfriend Manni. Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a guy that he is working for. Lola has 20 min to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Lola predicts that three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along her run. The two alternatives that happens ended up with a fatal end , so she tries to play her cards write the first time. It was a success , she got the money and nobody was hurt.

Some cinematic techniques in the movie include whip pans, jump cuts, slow and fast motion, split-screen, intercut color and black and white, segment titles, and animation.

This movie overall was very good. It had a meaningful story line and it provided action , love and romance , which all movie viewers would want to see. Also all through the movie was filled with excitement , It was boring at all because it makes the viewer want to see more and think about what's going to happen next. I would probably rate this movie an A-.

Duel Movie Review

Duel Movie Review
By: Kiara Walker

Duel is a 1972 Thriller  movie directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Richard Matheson.  This movie is about a man driving down a deserted Southern California highway at a safe and sane 55 miles per hour, The man , David Mann,  steps on the pedal to pass a large gas trailer truck because the truck is going slower than the speed limit.  Moments later, the truck is back, dangerously tailgating Mann before abruptly cutting him off.  Mann tries several times to get away from the truck but somehow he cant, the truck driver is always manages to find him.  For the next 90 minutes, Mann and the never-seen truck driver are pitted against one another in a motorized duel to the death. 

 

 At the end of the movie, David Mann , comes up with plan to trick the driver into falling off a cliff, the plan works but it is unclear if the truck driver died or not because it does not show. David is relieved that everything is over and he sits down by the cliff gazing into the sunset.

The script is adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, originally published in Playboy magazine. It was inspired by a real-life experience in which Matheson was tailgated by a trucker while on his way home from a golfing match with friend Jerry Sohl on November 22, 1963, the same day as the John F. Kennedy assassination.  The short story was given to Spielberg by his secretary, who reportedly read the magazine for the stories. 

I would rate this movie a B , It wasn't all that bad. It had some interesting scenes and pretty exciting to watch. 

39 Steps Movie Review

39 Steps Movie Review 

By: Kiara Walker









39 Steps is an early Hitchcock suspense film made in Britain, 1935. The film is shown in black and white and it is 86 minutes long. It is about a man in London that tries to help a counterespionage agent. When the agent is killed, he stands accused and therefore , must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring trying to steal top secret information from getting out of the country. The 39 Steps is a fast-paced, darkly comic and fun little movie that is very good on its own, and foreshadows the truly great Hitchcock movies to come. The movie is very complex, it has a tight plot, comic scenes and a clever dialog to keep the audience guessing until the end, with plenty of suspense and a light, sweet love story. 

The detailed work of the lighting and camerawork was very good considering that it was a black and white film. Trying to get the lighting right for black and white films are not necessarily easy. They had to use contrasting to darken or lighten a particular scene. 

For the overall film , I would rate this a 96%. It is a very good movie and it keeps the viewers anxious to know whats going to happen next. It's exciting and full of action with a little romance. 

Sherlock Jr. by Buster Keaton (1924) Movie Review
by Kiara Walker



 



Sherlock Jr. is a film from the 1920s. It is an American silent comedy film that stars Buster Keaton and written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell. It also features Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, and Ward Crane.  

It is about a projectionist that want to be a detective. He is in love with a girl and tries to win her heart over. He has a rival that tries to win her over also. Neither of them have much money to buy her anything so the projectionists buys her a dollar box of chocolates while the rival steals her father's watch and sells it to get money. The rival frames him by putting the pawn ticket of the watch in his pocket. The projectionist, who is studying to be a detective, offers to solve the crime, but when the pawn ticket is found, is banished from the girl's home because they thought he stole by it being in his pocket.
While showing a film about the theft of a pearl necklace, he falls asleep and dreams that he enters the movie as a detective. The other actors are replaced by the projectionist's "real" acquaintances. When he awakens, the girl shows up to tell him that she learned the identity of the real thief. As a reconciliation is playing on the screen, he mimics the actor's behavior.