Atomic Cafe

One thing I really enjoyed about this movie was the humor. I think it so effctively made fun of the mindsets of the people during this time period. All the preperations they made for an atomic war and especially that whole "Duck and Cover" routine were so hilarious simply because the people of the time took it so seriously while we stand here laughing the the madness of their actions. I also highly doubt that if a nuclear war ever did occur that the casualties would be very great and that we would not simply have "evacuation procedures" and that we would not be able to save our people if an atomic bomb ever landed. This movie also exposes how power hungry the human race is and how crazy we can get in desperate times. We went on a crazy rampage and kept creating atomic bombs to outnumber those of the russians and went as far as to create the hydrogen bomb. There is no purpose for these bombs for everyone is well aware that the usage of these bombs would mean the end of the world. The purpose of them is purely for show and I don't see the purpose in them. Instead of both countries bluffing with using the bombs they should just have come to an aggreement where the decide to cieze the building of the bombs and put it to a standstill.

The Hydrogen Bomb

I have always wondered why America procceded to make the Hydrogen Bomb, but after seeing this documentary I understand that it is a neccesity to consistently keep improving. I have always wondered why creating more atomic bombs than everyone else in the world wouldn't be suffice enough to scare them all off, but I now understand the power and the way a country can rule another due to having a power that they simply do not have a defense for. After watching America stomp all over Japan, I understood how ridiculous it is for other countries to fight powers as strong as atomic and hydrogen bombs if they don't possess any of their own and how truly strong a weapon they can be. I also really like how this documentary portrays war to simply be a game that we all play because in reality thats what it actually is. Two sides fighting and only one can win. This outlook on war may be synnical, but it is very accurate and lets face it, its a much more pleasant way of looking at it than as a full out man slaughter.

Dr.Strangelove

I found it very hard to believe that the movie was originally made to be a serious movie about the Cold War because of the large amount of ridiculous things that go on in it. There are only so many serious scenes throughout the whole movie and even in the serious ones such as the speech the pilot gave to the rest of his crew ( might I mention he was wearing a cowboy hat as well), the speech was a joke and I don't think it was meant to be scene as an actually moving thing. I think that the beggining of the movie was very approriate with the bomb representing a big penis. After all, all the Civil War was was a battle over who will give up first, and the reason each side found it so hard to give up was because of the great amount of pride and "strongso" they were trying to show. This is the problem with most males and I found it very interesting how the director chose to show this in the opening scene. And that wasn't the only time the penis was mentioned. It was also referenced when the pilot fell off along with the atomic bomb. I think this was representative of an erection and once again was meant to ridicule the "masculinity" that America possesed. I didn't really like the character of Dr.Strangelove because I felt like he had 1) very corny jokes, 2) I thought the arm thing was pretty stupid, and 3) I didn't excactly understand the purpose of him in the overall movie. I'm sure he represented some real life guy that was sent over from Germany to help the Americans, but I thought the movie could have easily done without him, and he certaintly shouldn't have been the name of the movie.

A Simple Plan

I wasn't really a big fan of this movie because it was too modern. Most of the movies that we've watched have been classics/or have been made before we were all born and I appreciated that a lot. What I do like about this movie is that it was two everyday people and that this situation could have happened to any of us. I also really enjoyed one of the last scenes when he shoots up the whole place. I thought it was one of the greatest scenes we have ever scene and it also has such realism to it that it almost seems absurd. When I first saw Hank kill Lou's wife I laughed hysterically at how ridiculous the scene was (and lets face it, the actual shot was pretty funny), but I later came to a realization that this would probably be the course of action I would have taken as well. This sense of realism is present all throughout the movie, starting from when Hank's wife is nervous that someone will find out that he has the money and decides to put half of it back, until when Hank's wife tells him to call in sick or tells him to tell the inspectors that he has to watch the baby and Hank realistically says it sounds like a bullshit excuse to get out of going(this may be a weak example). This is the third movie that I have missed the ending for, but luckily the ending is on youtube and i got a chance to watch it and I really enjoyed it, much more than I enjoyed the rest of the film.

Memento

One thing that really confused me was the whole side plot with Sammy Jenkins. I understand that the story that Lenny made up about Sammy is false, but what i don't understand is how he has a memory of him to begin with. Did he just replace himself with Sammy's character? But that would not explain how Sammy's wife came to see him about Sammy's condition. And also, he remembered his wife dying, and yet that was after the accident. He had a flashback of his wife opening his eyes, but how could that be, since that was a memory of after he got hit in the head. I thought there were a bit too many inconsistencies throughout the whole movie even though they were hard to spot, but the movie was overall great. I really enjoyed the originiality of it and how the unique style of the way it was filmed. I think it was perfect for this kind of film because it sort of represented the way Lenny's life worked. Every time his memory reset, he had to start from the beggining and get to where he is now, and that is how the movie was scripted. I also found the way he handled the situation to be very interesting, with how he developed a system in which he would determine what is going on with him when he resets his memory. Another thing i did not understand is how he was aware of his condition, since his memory was reset every time. He technically shouldn't be aware that he lost his memory and he technically shouldn't even remember the system he came up with. Once again, there are many inconsitencies, but if you just ignore these, the movie is a pleasure to watch.

The Dark City

This movie must have been one of my favorite movies of all time. I was truly mindblown when i saw the view of the city from the outside. In the beggining of the movie, I thought that everything going on was ridiculous and even a little humorous. I think this was partially due to my expectation of this movie being like Asphalt Jungle and having a more serious and realistic aspect to it. I did not expect this to be a sort of science fiction because Mr. Bennet mentioned that this was an updated version of the genre of Asphalt Jungle. I am normaly a person that really does not really get blown away and amazed by special effects in a movie because I believe it takes away from the story of the movie, but this movie was truly something. Not only was the story line incredible, but mixed in with that shot of the city added a whole new dimension to the film. I did not really like the last battle scene in the film because it made it just like every other movie with the final battle scene - a great battle takes place and the "good" character wins. I thought that the originality of the film was the greatest thing about it and this scene took away from it in a sense. My favorite line in the movie was when Murdoch said, "You wanted to know what is is about us that makes us human, well your not going to find it in here" and then pointed to his head. It made me feel a whole lot better about myself because it just proves to show that we aren't just a collection of our memories, but our own character is based on what we are in our hearts. 

The Asphalt Jungle

 One thing I really did not enjoy about the ending of the movie is that all the criminals had to die. I understand if characters that don't appeal to the audience such as the doctor have to be killed, but the main character (Cobby) has no reason not to get away with his crime. Although he has done some wrongdoing in his life, we get to know him and he is indeed a good man. He cares for his girlfriend, loves her even though he may not show it, and is a respectable guy. I really liked how the movie went into the details of showing how they actually robbed the place and how everything was well thought out from breaking the walls to get into the bank to getting on the floor and crawling into the cell to avoid getting detected by the scanning lasers. I have expressed a dislike for movies that are black and white in the past, but I thought the lack of color added to the theme of the film as a sort of gangster-old school action movie. One other I like that the director did was give every character a distinct personality. This shows that although they may be criminals, they are still humans with their own character traits, they just have flaws and have made big mistakes. I overall enjoyed the film even though I found it a little difficult to understand at first because it seemed like there were so many subplots and secret plans.