Movie Review #3 Ponyo

     I just saw Ponyo tonight and loved it. I saw it with a few of my friends, and we were talking, but I still loved the beautiful animation of Miyazaki! That's the great thing about his films, you don't really even need a story to make it a good movie, the animation is nearly enough, although a story is what makes his movies EVEN better! The story of Ponyo is more childish than that of Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle, but nonetheless, well written and thought out.
    Ponyo is a small goldfish living in the sea, and who makes it to shore where a boy, Sasuke, finds her. She is later returned to the sea later that day, but now she wants to be a human. So she becomes a human, and goes to live with Sasuke and his mother in their cliffside home, but Ponyo is attached to the sea in such a way that when she left the sea it created an imbalance and the moon started coming closer and closer to earth, making the water level rise A LOT.
    The only problems I had with the movie were that 1.) it was much more childish, I loved Spirited Away because of some of the more grown up themes in the magical world Miyazaki had created. and 2.) The story is lacking a litttttle bit. It's based on Hans Cristian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, but Miyazaki spruced it up, which was good, but not VERY good.
    Don't think that you shouldn't go see this movie though, the story is still pretty good, and the animation and the world Miyazaki created are both beautiful. This is one of Miyazaki's better movies, but  certainly not the best. I'm still sticking with Spirited Away as the best :).

Rating: 9/10 [Very Good (But you still HAVE to see it!)]

Movie Review #2 Orphan

    Now when I went to see Orphan I was with a friend and we had both already seen it, but the first time I saw it, I had fallen asleep, so it was great to see it again. I had heard Orphan was deeply disturbing, but for me I could SEE how people could interpret that, but I thought it was just a great movie! It was a little disturbing, but not VERY. And there were even parts that were really funny, and I don't mean when the nun gets hit in the face with a hammer. There were parts of the movie I missed the first time I saw it, and the first time I watched Orphan I would have given it a 6/10, but the more recent time I saw it, I'd give it much better than that.
    Orphan is actually very long for a horror movie with almost 2 hours, but you'll love every bit of it. Every moment is satisfying, and the scares all come simply from camera angle, or "jump" moments, the movie itself isn't "scary". Ok so anyways, the plot is basically this: A couple have two kids, and try for a third, who is stillborn. So they go to an orphanage to get a third child. They find a young girl named Ester, about the age of 9 or 10. She can sing and paint beautifully, and this really interests the couple, so they pick her. Ester is clearly from Russia, because of her heavy accent, so she dresses differently from American kids. The kids in her new school make fun of her, and one of them ends up having an unfortunate "accident". Basically bad things starts happening. The moment that gave me goosebumps was much later in the movie when the father makes a startling discovery in Ester's room, but you'll have to go see the movie for that.
     The acting was surprisingly good for a horror movie, much of it was believable, especially what happens in the movie is actually somewhat based on true events. This came out very recently, I think on June 24, so it may be in theater's some places still, so go and see it!!! One suggestion though, it's definitely rated R for a reason, but I'm not 17 and I was fine. BUT, DO NOT TAKE YOUNG CHILDREN. There ARE some disturbing bits in the movie, but they are needed to flesh out the story.

Rating: 10/10 [Must See (If you're into horror)]

This is definitely my favorite movie of this year, and probably my favorite horror movie of all time.

And don't worry, I'll get to the crappy movies in due time ;)

Movie Review #1 Spirited Away

     Let me start off by saying that Spirited Away really blew me away. I had heard many good things about it, but never expected it to be what it turned out to be: a masterpiece. I have probably watched it 4 times now, once by myself, once with a friend, once with my family, and then once again with a few friends. I have yet to find someone who didn't enjoy it.

     I had never heard of Miyazaki until I watched this movie, but I am very glad I did, because he is an artistic genius. I have seen several of his films, and they never cease to amaze me. But anyway back to Spirited Away. The movie follows a young girl, Chihiro as she is moving to new place with her parents. They take a wrong turn, and Chihiro and her parents wonder into a beautiful place (which turns out to be the spirit world). Her parents are turned to pigs, and Chihiro barely escapes certain doom by the help of Haku, a young boy living in the spirit world. Throughout the movie Chihiro becomes a different person, stronger, braver, and all around better. The plot seems weird reading it, and even hearing it, but it turns out to work perfectly. The movie is animated beautifully, it's really hard to look away from the screen. The movie isn't very suspenseful, but you won't want to stop watching it and you'll be glued to your seat.
     Spirited Away was originally in Japanese, but I'm pretty sure was just dubbed for English, so all the animations pretty much stayed the same, just like it should. Disney did a great job with this, and I was actually surprised to find out that Disney left it the way it was, other than voice acting, but they did.
     So basically, if you want a nice, comforting movie, go see this if you haven't already. It was released in 2000 or 2001, but I hadn't seen it until earlier this year. It's never too late to see a good movie, and I hope you'll go and rent this!

Rating: 10/10 (Must See)

And also, if I didn't say this before: This is my favorite movie of all time, and that's really saying something cause I mostly like horror, and this certainly isn't horror.

Introduction

   I've never done this before, but I know what movies I like and which ones I don't, so I'm going to try and help you out by telling you what I think about movies, both old and new. Hopefully if you're on the fence with a new movie, I can persuade you to go see it if it's completely worth it, or vice-versa. I'm not quite sure what criteria I'll be reviewing by, but I'll definitely say what's on my mind about the movie at hand. So without further ado, I'll get started with some of my personal favorite movies, and some movies that I just recently saw.

Oh and by the way, I like mostly horror, action, adventure, and Miyazaki, but that definitely doesn't mean I don't enjoy other movies if they're GOOD. Oh and I'll try not to be biased at all.