The pile of cow feces known as "Twilight"

Since I can remember, vampires have always been my favorite type of demon/monster (vs Frankenstein or zombies, etc), mainly due to the fact that they could kick some serious ass, be as big of douche bags as they wanted, kill all sorts of people, and still come out getting the girl and being bamf's. If you need to see an example of this, I welcome you to watch any of the Blade Trilogy or 30 Days of Night.


Then a bunch of teenage girls got their hands on the awesomely badass garlic-and-sunlight loathing legends and turned them into complete pussies. They called this piece of crap Twilight.

Just to give you a taste of the things wrong with this movie, I will list some of its worst offenses:
1. the vampires SPARKLE in the sun. need i say more?
2. the plot revolves around a high school love story. If there was anything about vampires that's true, its that they wouldn't waste their immortality going to freaking high school. Lets be honest, if we were eternally in the prime of our youth, I think we would be doing more than sitting through the same boring ass high school classes and all of its bullshit.
3. any words spoken are corny as hell. no smart ass remarks, no jokes, nothing. for god's sake, at least there could've been a little swearing or something.
I could go on but I want to get some other work done. And there's a Wild game on right now. Ill just leave you with what paint and about 3 min of work can do.

The Drama of the Action Movie

Something that I was talking about recently with some friends is how much better some movies are when you fast forward through the actual acting (all of the dramatic stuff) and skip right to good stuff-sex, blood, and violence. This applies to both movies that are world renowned for their superb acting and directing (Gladiator-2000, Directed by Ridley Scott) for example, and some less than stellar films (Troy-2004, Directed by Wolfgang Petersen). If you don't believe me, try it sometime, you will find yourself highly entertained and with up to an hour of unused time.
Maybe this is why some directors have opted to pretty much forgo any Academy Awards for acting and just head straight for the ass kicking. 300 (2006, Directed by Zack Snyder) is a perfect example of this. For any of you who have not seen the film, it is basically a bunch of extremely muscular guys go around impaling Persians on the end of their spears. Pretty kick ass. If you want any more examples, watch any Schwarzenegger movie from his prime (Terminator, Predator, Commando, and Terminator 2 for example)
Really what I'm getting at here is that Hollywood needs to learn when drama needs to take the back seat. Sometimes too much plot will destroy what could have been an awesome movie.

The WESTERN

Arguably the single most badass genre ever, the Western has captured the hearts and imaginations of audiences both in the US and abroad. This depiction of what is really a rather minor part in American history has influenced audiences to such an extent that the protagonist cowboys of the Western have come to somewhat represent the American image: strong willed, moral, independent, and fast with a word and a gun.
As with all major character types, the cowboy has been depicted by countless actors throughout time, and among the many, a few have become icons for all that is man: Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. While I am personally a bigger fan of Eastwood (both his classic Spaghetti Westerns and his revisionist Westerns such as Unforgiven kick all sorts of ass), Wayne is clearly the original bamf cowboy, so I have to give him some credit too.
What is truely amazing about the genre of the Western is that it seems to be truely timeless. It is rare that films form the 50's and 60's are just as entertaining as modern origionals and remakes, and the Western is one of the few to really be able to pull that off.

Required Post #1

So in class we have just finished watching 'the greatest movie ever' "Citizen Kane", and I have to say I am more than a little disappointed.

The way I see it, there are two possible reasons for this:

1. the massive hype over the film that had me expecting way too much out of it
2. the fact that I was neither "captured" by the performance of any of the cast, nor was I really all that impressed with the clever lighting and scene work that Welles put into the film as a whole.

Or, it could be the fact that I have never been a fan of movies that do nothing but pan public figures of the time.

While I watched as Welles criticized the lifestyle of William Randolph Hearst, I could not help but to be reminded of the collections of horse shit Michael Moore appears to be on a never ending quest to keep making. Even though Welles does a rather tasteful mockery of Hearst, I believe that during his time, Welles' film was the equivalent of Moore's contemporary embarrassments to the world of film.

That aside, just as a movie, "Citizen Kane" held very little appeal. Throughout the whole movie, nothing surprising ever really happened, and, while it was filled to the brim with excellent theatrical and cinematographic(?) work, there really was not anything that captured me as a viewer.

I'm not too sure why, but if I ever come across a movie with no action what-so-ever, I usually dislike it. Call me pig-headed, but that's just the way it is for me.

Introduction

I haven't been onto blogspot for a year or two, but I had some good experiences and am looking forward to using it again. As for film, I would have to say my favorite genre is the Western. To me, this area is unique to America in the sense that both its stories and setting are found nowhere esle in the world. My love for this genre started when I was first introduced to the "Speghetti Westerns" that starred Clint Eastwood (who is, besides Anthony Hopkins, my favorite actor of all time). Since then, I have found few things more enjoyable than sitting down and becoming entranced by the stories and characters that have come to embody the genre.