MYST

Last week I watched The Breakfast Club, a film by John Hughes. I’ve seen this film a few times and always enjoy it. I would give this film a four out of five stars. It has great filming and dialogue. This movie is about a group of students who have a Saturday detention and in the 8 hours they share together, they find out a lot about themselves and their peers. You can tell this movie is a good one because it is packed with dialogue.  Since the characters are sitting in a library for the majority of the movie, not much action occurs. The audience gets entertainment from the dialogue. It takes a lot of skill to write a script that keeps the audience’s attention the whole time. The writers did a very good job coming up with funny lines that all ages find humorous. This movie is interesting and different because the entire thing takes place in a school. The characters stay there the whole time.

This film displays John Hughes classic style. He uses all-American, ordinary kids in all of his movies including this one. In doing this he is a genius because it attracts many different people who can relate easily to these characters. This movie will especially attract a variety of different viewers because every character in it has different personal interests. Although these characters seem like stereotypical high school students, including a jock, a queen bee, a Goth, a rebel, and a nerd, there is so much more to each person. As the film goes on, each character opens up more and more, and it is soon revealed that these kids have a lot more in common than they thought. Many timeless lessons can be taken away from this film. It shows that there is more to people than what meets the eye and that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. The filming angles are very interesting in this movie. There are many long shots and close ups, showing just one character at a time. This shows that each character is equally as important. This movie has similar humor to other John Hughes but it is a lot more dramatic than most. 

In the hallway scene, many interesting cinematic features are used. The scene starts out just showing the kids feet. You can hear them discussion which will be the safest way to not get them caught. They take a few steps forward and look down one of the hallways. A long shot shows the principle, who is watching them for the day, walking down the opposite hallway. The figure is perfectly centered and he is the only one is the frame. This shows his significance to the scene. Just as the kids see him, an upbeat song plays and they begin to run away from him. Everything is very quiet and slow until this moment. The use of this song changes the mood instantly. As all the kids run away, the Goth girl stands against the locker and watches. This shows her disinterest in what is going on. The kids continue to run down different hallways trying to avoid the principle. Every time they see him, everyone slides to turn around and runs the other way. This happens a few times and emphasizes the chaos occurring in this scene. The juxtaposition between the principle who is roaming the hallways casually and the students who are running around chaotically to avoid him emphasizes the differences between adults and children which is one of the main themes is this movie.

REVIEW OF THE REVIEWS

1. 
Cath Clarke from TimeOut gave a review on Rotten Tomatoes about the conjuring. She gave it a 4 out of 5. the review is four paragraphs long. she starts out with a good hook, "Getting a blood transfusion of molten steel is possibly the only way you’ll stay in your seat all the way through this haunted house movie." and describes how scared she was throughout the film. She then goes into detail and points out specific elements of the film that made it scary and made the movie a success. She gives the perfect amount of detail and information about the film to persuade people to view it without giving away too much. she gives a plot overview, and talks about the set, actors, and specific scenes. The review itself gives off a creepy vibe, just as the movie does. It is a good persuader to those who love horror films. The critic uses words like mounting dread, unsettling, spooked, and skeletal. while she focuses mainly on the overview the plot, she adds in detail like the directors style, the farmhouse set, and the reason for its R rating. She references the directors other work like Saw, and Insidious. Also she mentions the directors use of predictable movie cliches which are still spooky. She jokes about Justin Beiber being dangles in front of the child actress head in order to achieves the perfect look of pure terror. 

Graham young from the Birmingham mail writes a review on rotten tomatoes. He starts off questioning the truth in the film that is based on a true story and points out the fact that the film had little competition. The review references many other older films that the conjuring is echoing. most of the review is talking about how unoriginal and cliche the film is. The tone is very questioning of all the directors choices. He uses words like yawn, over hyped, mind-numbing, and dead ends to show how uninterested he was in the film. His main focus is pointing out other films that the conjuring has copied like Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, The Orphanage. He talked about how this film is just like any other ghost movie and gave it a 2 out of 5 

2.
Cath Clarke says, "Wan is going great guns right up until he unveils the source of the evil, and with it unleashes prosthetics and predictable horror movie cliches (he did the same in ‘Insidious’). But by this time you’ll have had the sweet bejesus spooked out of you and may not care." I agree with this quote because I don't believe that cliche is always a bad thing. If horror film lover have once loves specific elements in their favorite horror films then they will probably love when they are repeated. Although this film is like many other ghost movies it is still very creepy and entertaining. 

Graham Young says, "The action begins in 1968-71, so why the crisp, digital format instead of grainier celluloid?" I agree with this because when I viewed the movie it did not seem like it was from the 70's. The filming was way too good for it to be from the 70's and I feel like it would have been more authentic if the picture looked like that of a 1970's movie. 

3.
I think the review by Cath Clarke would have been more persuading because she sounds more passionate about her review then Graham young. Graham Young only really talks about the unoriginality of the film while Clarke brings up many different good elements of the movie that make it desirable to see. 

4. If I were to write my own film review I would talk about the scary suspenseful moments and how real it feels to the viewer. I would point out the fact that there are cliche aspects for any of those who get sick of old ideas. But I would say that although it has some unoriginality it is still really scary and entertaining. I would not talk about the lack of authenticity in the set because I don't feel that it had a major impact on the film. The set was fine but it was nothing to be discussed.