Movies This Semester

9.5/10 Blancanieves - I was very surprised with this movie, and liked it much more than I originally thought I would. I didn't think a movie could be so well constructed and portray so much emotion without any spoken dialogue.

9/10 Seconds - I really like this movie. I thought it's content was original, and for the 60s, its camera work was really extraordinary. I would love to see a remake of this movie today and see how it is redone. I loved the story, and the production qualities of it.

8.5/10 Devil's Backbone - Even though I am not usually a fan of horror or scary movies, once I moved past the initial scare, I thought the story was very interesting, and even sort of liked it. I liked the approach it took on the "monster" and made it almost someone not to be afraid of. It was not what I would consider a traditional horror movie, and I liked that aspect of Devil's Backbone.

8/10 Zero Dark Thirty - Overall, I actually did not enjoy watching Zero Dark Thirty purely for the subject matter in the movie. By no means am I a patriot, and I was uncomfortable with whole situation from the start. BUT, I do think this movie was well written, well produced, and well shot and this is the reason why I am giving it an 8/10 whether or not I agree with the subject matter.

7.8/10 M - For a movie made in the 1930s, I thought M was actually pretty interesting, and the performance in the end by Peter Lorre was outstanding. I think that sort of performance would win him an Oscar in these days.

7.5/10 Double Indemnity - Overall, I found this movie pretty mediocre. Nothing to great, but nothing to bad about it. I enjoyed it, but really wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again.

7/10 Sherlock Jr. - I think the main reason why this movie is lower on my list is mainly because of the fact that it's old. I don't dislike it. Not at all. I think it was ingenious for it's time and it was a cute story. But not really anything I would go out of my way to watch just because of how dated it is.

6/10 The Piano - The music in Piano was it's redeeming quality. I loved the piano music and the particular piece that is well known from the movie. Otherwise, I hated the story, and I don't like the way any sort of conflict was resolved in the movie at all.

5/10 El Topo - El Topo is probably the weirdest movie I have ever seen. It's redeeming quality is how weird it is, and for this reason I would want to show it to my friends. Even so, it was painful to watch, and had a very rough painful plot line to watch through.

4.5/10 Do the Right Thing - This movie should be called Don't Do the Right Thing. I understand it is trying to be controversial, but all it seems to me is to be encouraging racism, which I am an avid advocate against. I don't understand it, and did not like any part of it.

2/10 Hitch Hiker - This movie was easily my least favorite movie this semester. I would not wish anyone to sit through and watch this movie. Not only was the story line boring and predictable, the camera work was unoriginal, cookie cutter, and just bland. Nothing about this movie made it stand out, and never do I want to watch it ever again.