Music of the Movies part one
John Williams - Soundtrack to the movies.
So no great movie is complete without a soundtrack to accompany it. Some music accompaniments become so well known that you only have to hear a few bars of the score to know which movie it's from. John William's has written some of the finest and well known scores for movies spanning several decades and the movies themselves have stood the test of time in terms of classics and epics. Spielberg knew he was onto a good thing because JW scores feature in many of his movies - from the classic yet simple two beats of Jaws, to the adventurous Indiana Jones and the magical flight of E.T. .
You must be living under a rock if you've not heard a John William's peice. His music has become as famous as the movies themselves that it's impossible to have missed his work, even if you don't realise what you are hearing, or humming along too, is him.
Some of my favourite scores are:
Schindlers List Theme
Jurassic Park Suite
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Jaws
But perhaps my favourite, because he was my first true love and you simply need to say the name to know the music -
Superman
I highly reccommend the John Williams Soundtracks of the movies album, scores performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. If you enjoy your movie soundtracks as much as movies themselves, then you won't be dissapointed.
Monday, 28 January 2013
Friday, 25 January 2013
Movie Quotes - Les Miserables
I was in two minds after I watched Les Miserables about whether I just really really liked it or completely loved it. This line, of course quoted from one of the many many songs that tell the story of Jean Valjean and the lives of the less fortunate of France really stuck with me.
Safe to say that this movie really stuck in my head days after seeing it and the songs hauntingly didn't leave my brain. The more I think about it even now a few weeks since viewing it, I've come to realise Les Miserables is one of those epic encounters that does live up to it's reputation. It isn't for everyone I know that - musicals don't tend to be and this is fairly long and not exactly the happiest of storylines. I'm a huge fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Phantom tends to be the token much loved musical of his for me, but I think there's a possibility that if I ever get to see Les Mis performed in its live, on stage state, that Phantom of the Opera will be swept aside as sort of the kid sibling in the shadow of a brighter, much more dramatic tale of angst, drama and tradgedy.
Dangerous Minds
Classics don't have to relegated to anything pre 1980. Some of my favourite 'classics' are from the 90's, which for me was a decade of gems mixed with huge doozies. Like everything in the 1990's, it was a decade split between holding onto the 80's cliches and trying to find it's own uniqueness at the same time.
So the most recent 90's classic I watched is 'Dangerous Minds'. If you enjoy movies where a bunch of wayward high school students are inspired by a teacher then this is a good one to start with. It's cliche, features a strong cast with Michelle Pffeifer as the teacher thrown to the lions/students to teach, inspire and drag through another year of school. It also features another 90's classic - 'Gangstas Paradise' by Coolio and if you've near heard it, then you must have been living in a rock during the early 90's when rap and hip hop were really beginning to make an impact in the mainstream charts.
There's isn't anything hugely special about this movie, but it just works in way some similiar of it's kind don't. Everyone likes an inspiring story and this cleverly uses the lessons of music and poetry to tell us the stories of the lives the kids in this particular classroom live every day. It doesn't get heavily into gang warfare or racism and prejudice, but the evidence of them is there all the same, albeit with a somewhat sugar coated touch.
Other movies of this nature to look out for are :
Music of the Heart, Take the Lead & The Freedom Writers (all of these are based on true stories of teachers inspiring in the classroom).
So the most recent 90's classic I watched is 'Dangerous Minds'. If you enjoy movies where a bunch of wayward high school students are inspired by a teacher then this is a good one to start with. It's cliche, features a strong cast with Michelle Pffeifer as the teacher thrown to the lions/students to teach, inspire and drag through another year of school. It also features another 90's classic - 'Gangstas Paradise' by Coolio and if you've near heard it, then you must have been living in a rock during the early 90's when rap and hip hop were really beginning to make an impact in the mainstream charts.
There's isn't anything hugely special about this movie, but it just works in way some similiar of it's kind don't. Everyone likes an inspiring story and this cleverly uses the lessons of music and poetry to tell us the stories of the lives the kids in this particular classroom live every day. It doesn't get heavily into gang warfare or racism and prejudice, but the evidence of them is there all the same, albeit with a somewhat sugar coated touch.
Other movies of this nature to look out for are :
Music of the Heart, Take the Lead & The Freedom Writers (all of these are based on true stories of teachers inspiring in the classroom).
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Movie Quotes - A League of their Own
One of my favourite roles played by Tom Hanks - Jimmy Doogan, the rather disgusting and pitiful drunken ex baseball player given a second chance by managing the Rockford Peaches. An all female baseball league team. Hanks doesn't actually star that much in this movie but his role is memorable and as Jimmy comes full circle, drawn out from his alcoholic existence for the love of the game again, he speaks a few truths of his own to one of the best players he has with the above quote.
Monday, 21 January 2013
Movie Quotes - Ghostbusters 2
There's only one reason I love this quote - it's because Bill Murray delivers it, in his usual, Bill Murray way. And if you don't know who Bill Murray is, shame on you.
The Impossible
The Impossible.
Based on the 2004 Tsunami, this is a movie surrounding the true story of one families survival of one of the worst natural disasters in the worlds history. I'd been looking forward to seeing this since the trailers began surfacing and it wasn't a dissapointment. I'd heard from people that it wasn't all that good but one thing I've always stood by when it comes to movies is ignore everything you hear and go make your own judgement. I was blown away with this movie.
It begins on Christmas Eve as the family fly in to Thailand to spend the holidays. What I first noticed and what became somewhat of a theme was the way water and the ocean was incorporated into the telling of the story - from the sounds of the waves, to the long shots of the ocean, the calmness as families played on the beach. It reminded me of the way Ron Howard used fire to tell the story in 'Backdraft' - using the imagery of water in a sense as a character to drive the story.
Going in you know what the movie is about, so there's a constant sense of foreboding as you wait for the Tsunami to hit. The action scenes of the waves and the flooding aren't actually that long compared to the length of the movie, yet their impact leaves you agape. The way it was filmed was spectacular, better than any disaster movie I've seen, it's real, almost too real and when you remind yourself this really happened, you feel at a loss as to how people coped even being in that situation never mind watching a cinematic renactment of events.
The debris, the flood scenes, it simply brims with everything, the underwater shots, the sounds, the acting - it all culminates into some spectacular fifteen minutes of film. These days, it's not hard to spot the CGI, even if FX are getting more sophisticated, sometimes it's just too evident that it's fake. But everything here blended so well that you felt as if the scenes were taken right from the actual event.
What follows is a truly phenomenal tale of human spirit and faith in fate. A family torn apart by this natural diaster, (the mother, Maria and oldest boy Lucas are together and seperated from the father Henry and two youngest boys Thomas and Simon) that through a series of events find each other once more.
If people didn't like this movie I can only imagine it's because the main action is kept to those opening scenes where the Tsunami hits. This is not a disaster movie - the filmmakers did not set out to make that kind of story. This is a look into a peice of history along with the telling of an extraoridinary story.
The acting is very good - Naomi Watts in the flood scene is especially good but the actor who stole the whole story for me was Tom Holland who played the oldest son Lucas. He's defintely an actor to watch for in the future - he threw himself into the role and portrayed a truly wonderful individual, funny, serious, naieve, brave, scared. He reminded me to look at and in some ways to watch as a young Jamie Bell. There was something fresh and alive about his acting ability and he really stuck his teeth into what was expected of him.
If, like me, you get emotional at the tiniest hint of angst and drama then take tissues. I was overwhelmed and felt a lump growing simply from the waves crashing through the buildings. Of course every highly emotionally charged movie comes with equally emotionally engaging soundtrack and this film packed a punch. It was clever, using the sounds of the water and waves to tell the action scenes but charging the dramatic, emotional moments with orchestral accompaniments that you knew by the end would have you reaching for the hankies. There came a moment where you were getting bombarded with emotional moments, bang, bang, bag and I thought to myself 'I don't think I can take any more'.
You should see this movie if you like the telling of a true story, if you like drama, action and emotionally charged plot. You should see this movie simply to remind yourself how lucky you are not to have lived through such a terrible and devastating event. Don't go to see this move thinking it's the latest epic action packed disaster movie. This is far from that genre.
It's brutal in it's emo punches and there are some very realistic injuries that have you squirming and leave you squeamish. But it also leaves you with the satisfaction of knowing even in the worst circumstances, the most terrifying and horriffic events caused by nature, that the human spirit and fate also have a part to play in these lives we live on this Earth. Whether you believe in fate or miracles or merely good luck , sometimes the impossible occurs.
Based on the 2004 Tsunami, this is a movie surrounding the true story of one families survival of one of the worst natural disasters in the worlds history. I'd been looking forward to seeing this since the trailers began surfacing and it wasn't a dissapointment. I'd heard from people that it wasn't all that good but one thing I've always stood by when it comes to movies is ignore everything you hear and go make your own judgement. I was blown away with this movie.
It begins on Christmas Eve as the family fly in to Thailand to spend the holidays. What I first noticed and what became somewhat of a theme was the way water and the ocean was incorporated into the telling of the story - from the sounds of the waves, to the long shots of the ocean, the calmness as families played on the beach. It reminded me of the way Ron Howard used fire to tell the story in 'Backdraft' - using the imagery of water in a sense as a character to drive the story.
Going in you know what the movie is about, so there's a constant sense of foreboding as you wait for the Tsunami to hit. The action scenes of the waves and the flooding aren't actually that long compared to the length of the movie, yet their impact leaves you agape. The way it was filmed was spectacular, better than any disaster movie I've seen, it's real, almost too real and when you remind yourself this really happened, you feel at a loss as to how people coped even being in that situation never mind watching a cinematic renactment of events.
The debris, the flood scenes, it simply brims with everything, the underwater shots, the sounds, the acting - it all culminates into some spectacular fifteen minutes of film. These days, it's not hard to spot the CGI, even if FX are getting more sophisticated, sometimes it's just too evident that it's fake. But everything here blended so well that you felt as if the scenes were taken right from the actual event.
What follows is a truly phenomenal tale of human spirit and faith in fate. A family torn apart by this natural diaster, (the mother, Maria and oldest boy Lucas are together and seperated from the father Henry and two youngest boys Thomas and Simon) that through a series of events find each other once more.
If people didn't like this movie I can only imagine it's because the main action is kept to those opening scenes where the Tsunami hits. This is not a disaster movie - the filmmakers did not set out to make that kind of story. This is a look into a peice of history along with the telling of an extraoridinary story.
The acting is very good - Naomi Watts in the flood scene is especially good but the actor who stole the whole story for me was Tom Holland who played the oldest son Lucas. He's defintely an actor to watch for in the future - he threw himself into the role and portrayed a truly wonderful individual, funny, serious, naieve, brave, scared. He reminded me to look at and in some ways to watch as a young Jamie Bell. There was something fresh and alive about his acting ability and he really stuck his teeth into what was expected of him.
If, like me, you get emotional at the tiniest hint of angst and drama then take tissues. I was overwhelmed and felt a lump growing simply from the waves crashing through the buildings. Of course every highly emotionally charged movie comes with equally emotionally engaging soundtrack and this film packed a punch. It was clever, using the sounds of the water and waves to tell the action scenes but charging the dramatic, emotional moments with orchestral accompaniments that you knew by the end would have you reaching for the hankies. There came a moment where you were getting bombarded with emotional moments, bang, bang, bag and I thought to myself 'I don't think I can take any more'.
You should see this movie if you like the telling of a true story, if you like drama, action and emotionally charged plot. You should see this movie simply to remind yourself how lucky you are not to have lived through such a terrible and devastating event. Don't go to see this move thinking it's the latest epic action packed disaster movie. This is far from that genre.
It's brutal in it's emo punches and there are some very realistic injuries that have you squirming and leave you squeamish. But it also leaves you with the satisfaction of knowing even in the worst circumstances, the most terrifying and horriffic events caused by nature, that the human spirit and fate also have a part to play in these lives we live on this Earth. Whether you believe in fate or miracles or merely good luck , sometimes the impossible occurs.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Movie Quotes - A Few Good Men
Anybody who has an inkling of this movie is generally well aware the most famous lines occur in the heated courtroom battle between Danny Kaffee and Colonel Jessup - 'You can't handle the truth'.
But I like this little gem also, a summation of Danny's journey as a lawyer and officer as well as his earning and showing respect for one of the men he is called on to defend.
To be fair the entire courtroom battle of wits between Kaffee and Jessop should be quoted to death - Jessop may be a hard SOB but he speaks some truth about the things we expect from the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our country (wherever you live in the world). And this is a screenpaly written by Aaron Sorkin, so you kind of know he's going to blow you away with an intense battle of words. You can't imagine anybody doing a better job of delivering Jessop's lines than Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise, just starting to really make an impact in his movies (this was the early 90's afterall) really makes a statement as he pours all his energy into his defence lawyer attitude. But that's a lot of lines to 'instaquote' and like I said, 'Can't Handle' is the cliche line of the movie. I suggest, if you haven't seen it or if it's been a while, you track down 'A Few Good Men' (personally I think everybody should have it in their movie collection) and watch it in it's entirety before watching and rewatching these final scenes (yeah, I rewind and rewind again just to see these two man battling it out with words alone) because it's just that good. And look out for the above quote, because it's a sweet, pivitol moment after such a heated, temper driven face off.
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