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#Post#: 90--------------------------------------------------
Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: MrLyon
Date: December 4, 2012, 8:54 am
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For this week's outside reading assignment, go to the website
rottentomatoes.com and search for any movie of your choice.
Click on a "full review" for the film from any "top critic" (the
top critics are labeled with a star) and read the review
carefully. In this forum, provide a 500-word response to the
film review, evaluating the reviewer's use of rhetorical and
literary techniques. Use the "Magnificent Seven" rubric as your
guide in judging the quality of the author's writing. What ideas
are brought forth? How are they presented? How are the ideas
organized? What word choices, sentence structure techniques, and
literary devices (repetition, allusions, alliteration, etc.) are
used to make the author's ideas stand out? Type your response as
a reply to this post.
DUE DATE: Friday, December 7
#Post#: 91--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: cblock13
Date: December 5, 2012, 4:11 pm
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In the review, Wreck-it Ralph, by Stephen Whitty, the fact that
he mentions video gamers is a persuasive way to getting them to
go sees this movie. Even though the author really enjoyed the
movie, he felt like the image of the characters weren’t as great
as they could have been. He states, “It's fun, although the
movie doesn't have as much fun as it could. The characters
mostly look like CG cartoons instead of video-game denizens. And
Ralph comes from an older, first-gen world; it would have been
terrific if his animation were more crudely retro, too.” He
claims that is the creators of the movie made it more realistic
than animated; the audience would be have a stronger connection
with it. The best thing that this author does with this film
review is that he explains why frequent video game users would
enjoy this movie; “And if you're a gamer ... well then, another
level of humor opens up, as a variety of characters make
surprise appearances throughout the film. (Not Mario and Luigi,
alas, who wanted too much money. But hey, you try getting a
plumber on short notice.)” By adding the emotion that the
audience might have about this movie, it creates a welcoming and
warming tone to the review. The attitude of this author is
extremely kid friendly. Not only does Whitty give a plot summary
of the movie, he does it in a way where he didn’t give too much
information out to spoil it. Whitty also gives a brief
description of the people who play the characters and his
reaction towards their roles; “But the terrific John C. Reilly
does a fine job with this lovable lug's voice, and Jack McBrayer
is perfect as the gee-golly-whiz Felix. And while Sarah
Silverman is only chirpily annoying as Ralph's little-girl
sidekick, Alan Tudyk gives the eccentric king the gulping
giddiness of Ed Wynn. Best of all is Jane Lynch, who plays the
soldier in charge of the cy-bug exterminating force -- a
tough-as-Kevlar warrior whose drill sergeant obscenities always
remain safely and amusingly euphemized into PG-friendly
nonsense.” He was very impressed with the way the creator used a
female as the dominant stern one in the movie. Whitty states
that he wasn’t so fond of the script, but he loved the images of
the candy land themed game. He says it is almost as if he were
there in the game. Clearly by this top-critic film review, it
can definitely persuade many to see the fun, heart-warming
movie, Wreck-it Ralph.
HTML http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/11/wreck-it_ralph_pushes_the_righ.html
#Post#: 92--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: cblock04
Date: December 5, 2012, 7:32 pm
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Batman Begins Review
Personally, I am not a fan of this review. I think the author
is too informal at times with the sentence structure. First
off, his ideas are that “Batman Begins,” is a very well made
movie, but it is not a normal summer block-buster, but he never
explains what he means by this. The author also seems to tell a
lot of the plot rather than add insight to why he finds this to
be a good movie. The review is organized properly, with
separate ideas in separate paragraphs, but the paragraphs are
not indented. The author’s voice is kind of annoying because of
the run-on sentences and the way he uses references that require
the reader to know a lot about pop culture to understand them.
This can be seen in this quote “And it's almost entirely free of
the kind of camp that vamped up the post-Tim Burton "Batman"
films.” After reading this sentence I had to stop and reread to
make sure I understood what the author wrote. A well written
review would not make me do so. I was both a fan and a critic
of the word choice that the author used. A good example why I
feel this way is this quote, “which pays obvious respect to the
original characters created by Bob Kane, is darkly entrancing,
rather than, you know, Stand Back for the Shock and Awe.” I
love the imagery that is created by the phrase “darkly
entrancing,” that the author uses to describe this movie; it is
both descriptive and sophisticated. On the other hand, I do not
like the word choice for the rest of that quote, “rather than,
you know, Stand Back for the Shock and Awe.” I think saying
“you know” is way too informal and “Stand Back for the Shock and
Awe,” is not a good way to describe how the movie could have
been. I also did not like how the author incorporated this
quote in his review, “Holmes is a pretty lass who's riding a
massive crest of publicity, thanks to her part in the ongoing
E!ffair she's having with Tom Cruise, who seems to have leapt
into her soul with the speed and efficiency of Lestat, his
character from ‘Interview With the Vampire.’" I think it is
very unnecessary and it seems like the author is taking a jab at
Katie Holms and Tom Cruise. Other than the run-on sentences,
the sentences seem to flow together well. As for the
conventions, I found a couple spots were comas are needed, like
in this quote, before the parenthesis, “Bale is not only
physically toned (a very important part of an actor's
preparation these days) but delivers an intense, affecting
performance.” I am also not a fan of the presentation. The
constant bombardment of advertisements, and links to other
articles, pollutes the reader’s vision, making it hard to focus
on actually reading the review. Over all I think this is not a
good review, due to the informality of the writing, the
retelling of the plot, and the grammatical mistakes.
HTML http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/16/AR2005061600732.html
#Post#: 93--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: cblock11
Date: December 5, 2012, 7:35 pm
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I read a movie review by Stephen Holden, who reviewed, House At
the End of the Street. While reviewing the movie within the
fifth paragraph he starts using derogatory language such as
“blatant” and “incompetent”. In this sentence Stephen Holden is
talking about the how the character makes a sudden jerk with his
car, this action transitions it into a “blatant” and
“incompetent rip- off of Psycho”. The reviewer uses these strong
words to show that the movie is an obvious rip- off of Psycho
that doesn’t even pull it off well and doesn’t have the ability
to be a good film. Later in that same paragraph Holden goes on
to comment about the film’s director Mark Tonderai, the
screenwriter David Loucka, and the story from Jonathan Mostow
lack of skill. The reviewer states, “concocted an unwieldy
hybrid of that Hitchcock classic and standard teenage films,” he
means that the movie is a horrible and awkward product of the
classic movie, Psycho, and teenage films in modern times. This
movie is seen by Stephen Holden, as an obvious incompetent,
poorly made movie. In the same fifth paragraph Stephen Holden
uses the words “this would-be shocker”. Stephen Holden uses the
words “would-be shocker” to show how predictable the action in
that particular moment was in the movie. This shows that the
movie didn’t fill up suspense or anything, and that anyone who
is just watching it can guess what was about to happen. In the
movie there are two characters named Elissa and Ryan who have a
“tentative” romance. Their entire town is against Ryan and keep
Elissa away from him, or at least try. Later in the movie Ryan
and Elissa begin a “tentative” relationship meaning that they
aren’t in a relationship but in a way make an effort to be in a
relationship with each other. Stephen Holden uses the word
“tentative” to show how that it wouldn't actually happen between
them and how it was never really a relationship but a trial. In
the very last paragraph Stephen Holden goes on to say, “choppily
edited, poorly timed mess with continuity, overloaded with aural
shocks in a desperate attempt to compensate with for its minimal
suspense.” Stephen uses the words “choppily” and “poorly” and
“aural”. Of all the words to describe the editing Holden uses
the word “choppily” to describe how poorly the editing was and
how it jumped back and forth maybe even making it confusing.
Next, Stephen uses the word “poorly” to show how badly the
actions and plot were timed. Lastly, he uses the word “aural” to
describe the sounds and sights that are appealing to the senses
during the moments where suspense probably should’ve been but
were never put in the movie. The tone of this entire review of
the movie is criticizing and uses a lot of derogatory words to
show how poor this movie was and to show how poorly it was put
together, how it was written, and how poorly the finished
product was.
#Post#: 94--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: Cblock08
Date: December 6, 2012, 3:27 pm
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HTML http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-critic-reviews/skyfall/
In the review of Skyfall, Glenn Kenny of MSN movies uses first
and second person pronouns to try and make a connection towards
the reader. He begins to tell us about his personal thoughts
before and after he saw the movie. The main message that Kenny
is trying to express is that Skyfall is worth the trip to the
movies and that also is the “...best-acted Bond film ever.” In
the last paragraph of the review Glenn Kenny sums the whole
movie up in two sentences. “Bond is back for real, and worth the
four-year wait. Hope it’s not as long until the next one.”
Besides here, Kenny also mentions throughout the review of the
excellent acting and directing that happened. Glenn Kenny
organizes his review by discussing the actors, previous Bond
movies and the action that happened in Skyfall. This
organizational technique worked well because as I was reading
this, I was able to decide if I should see the movie or wait
until its on t.v. In a few years. The details and discussion of
the actors made this decision clear for me. The voice that Kenny
uses is friendly yet strong. He writes about the movie as if he
was there as they acted out each part but also helps me
understand the previous history in Bond movies and the history
of other action movies. His word choice allows the readers to
understand what he is talking about through context clues but is
sophisticated enough to show that he is a professional in this
field. As I read through this review the sentence fluency that
he created allowed me to just go on by and swiftly understand
without going back over and reading it again. The presentation
of the review is fine except for the fact that he has a small
video clip. Some readers may watch the video clip but I just
wanted to read what he had to say personally. As I read through
the review of Skyfall by Glenn Kenny, I was able to decide that
I should see this movie because of the excellent review he gave.
This movie seems to be the best of the Bond films in acting and
action and once I am done watching this film, I should be
counting off the days till the next film comes out.
#Post#: 95--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film R eview
DIR By: cblock07
Date: December 6, 2012, 4:54 pm
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In the review of ELF, Mick LaSalle, chronicle Movie critic tells
what kind of movie this is. He tells how the movie is made for
kids and adults. He also says how it compares to real life as we
are living to a different world that is in Christmas movies.
Mick then also says hot this movie stays perfectly balance, and
a pleasure throughout. One great thing is that he talks about
the back ground of the movie. Which is great becuause it gives
people a feeling of what the movie is about. He also mentions a
good point "a human being who, through a mishap, was brought up
as an elf at Santa's North Pole toy factory. He mentions lots of
ideas about his review on this movie. Many of them deal with how
the movie started. This review says who would enjoy it best. The
author also talks about which actor plays each character. That
is great so viewers know who is who and how funny it really is.
They are presented by using transition words. Using those words
helps the review more interesting and makes viewers want to see
the movie. This review is very organized in many ways. One
great way is that every paragraph talks about just one topic. It
doesn't include extra information. It focuses about that
example. Reading this review made it so easy to follow what the
movie is about. Reading the review painted a picture in my head
what the movie was about. He also gave his opinons about what he
thought about the movie. He said after he saw it he couldn't
stop talking about it. He also talks about other movies the main
character has stared in. That shows how different this movie
compares to others he has been in. I have seen this movie so
many times and the way this reviewer was talking about it,
everything was acurate. The way he talked made the reader feel
like they were right with the person talking about this movie.
Read more:
HTML http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Ferrell-magical-in-sardonic-sweet-Elf-2512946.php#ixzz2EJVletpW
#Post#: 96--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: cblock12
Date: December 6, 2012, 5:09 pm
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The movie review I read was written on "Mean Girls," which was a
movie made in 2004, featuring Lindsay Lohan has the main role.
Many people are familiar with this movie because of it is a
popular movie even now. The writer of this article did a great
job introducing the film with sharing that Tina Fay appears as
the math teacher and target of the mean girls. The author
highlights the main points perfectly, explaining the plot and
giving a summary of the movie as a whole without giving away the
ending. Although, I was personally surprised at how the author
toned more into Tina Fay and mentioning how she stars in the
movie, when Lindsay is the main character. One of the things I
did not agree with about how this was written was how it never
states whether the movie was good or bad, but more explains the
whole plot of the story instead. In general, I would have
probably written this article in a different way. I would have
made more of a point to highlight on my opinion of the movie and
explain how it was either good or bad. The author does however
make good points of the movie and what happens even though I
would never write it similar. This author highlights on Cady’s
(Lindsay Lohan) “fitting in,” and how although she makes friends
with the “Mean Girls” or “Plastics” right away, she doesn’t
realize how manipulating and back-stabbing they can be. Before
Cady is accepted by the Plastics, two characters named Damion
and Janice take her in, and help her fit in, until Cady ditches
them for the Plastics, non intentionally. Cady finds herself
with no friends left in the middle-end of the book, and then
ends up making peace with everyone. I think it is kind of
strange however that the author never once mentions how Cady was
first accepted by Damion and Janice, which is one of the most
important parts of the book, because it shows how Cady started
up in her new town. The review points out a lot of things that
aren’t necessarily important to the movie as a whole, and kind
of miss the point. I would not have picked some of the words
that they use as well. If you want to catch the reader’s
attention, strong vocabulary should be incorporated. In my
opinion, I think for a movie this good and strong, the review
could probably have been written better. I agree with some of
the things that the author pointed out, but most of the
nonessential points should not have been part of it, and it also
should have had some type of a strong opinion, which it didn’t
have. Reading this article made me realize how I should write my
review, and how not to write it.
HTML http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mean_girls/
#Post#: 97--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: cblock09
Date: December 6, 2012, 5:10 pm
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The movie I am reviewing is The Breakfast Club. The review was
written by James Berardinelli. The overall meaning of the movie
is that many people are different but really the same. He states
that "The breakfast club was arguably the most insightful and
emotionally-true." This review is well organized. It starts with
the type of movie it is. Leads into the average age group to
start seeing the Movie which is "14-18 year olds." Then starts a
plotline. And finishes with his ideas on the film itself. Anyone
who reads this review can tell the author is passionate about
the breakfast club. He considers the movie "passionate" "a great
film" "emotionally-true." The author gets surprised as well. He
states "Hughes has created a surprisingly enduring motion
picture that is still effective 13 years after its theatrical
debut." The author uses decent word choices. All the words he
chooses mainly express emotion. "passionate" "emotionally true"
"basic tolerance and stupidity of adults" and the movie conveys
"typical steryotypes." The review flowed smoothly as I read it.
One paragraph led to another. The sentences diddnt transition
very well to what was gonna be written next but when reading
everyone knew that was when the paragraph was ending. The review
had no spelling errors, grammar errors, or puncuation issues.
The author makes this movie sound better by explaining the
meaning. All the students do something different to get in
trouble but all behave the same way even though they act
differently or hang out in a different crowd.
HTML http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=1194
#Post#: 98--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: cblock03
Date: December 6, 2012, 6:29 pm
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I read a movie review on the movie “The Invisible.” The review
was written by Roger Moore. He starts off his review by giving a
quick summary about what the movie is about. “It's about a kid,
a wealthy, smart, literary "golden boy" at a Seattle high school
who is beaten to death by a girl thug and her gang of loan
sharks just days before graduation.” He is very detailed in his
writing about the movie. He creates these vivid images about
what is going on in the movie and makes the connection between
the characters Nick and Annie. But, not only does he make the
connection between the characters, he also brings that
connection to teenagers. He mentions that the movie has “too
many traits of the better teen dramas.” These traits being
emotion, a strong sense of impulsiveness for the age, and a few
believable relationships. Also, the way that characters are so
accurately described makes the review look good; it shows the
reader that the reviewer paid attention to the movie. Describing
Nick as a “golden boy” gets the image of this perfect kid living
the perfect life in your head. Roger Moore also keeps the review
very well organized, sticking to the chronological order of
things happening in the movie. Even at the end, he’s able to
keep the reader liking the review by saying, “The Invisible is
one they shouldn't have tried to make disappear.” To me, having
small lines like that are good because it keeps that sense of
humor around. Since I was a fan of this movie, I think that this
was a very good review on it with the way he organized
everything and got the details.
HTML http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/movies/orl-db-moviereviews-searchresults,0,3279701,results.formprofile?turbine_cdb_lib__cdb_01_txt=The%20Invisible&Find+it%21=Submit+Query
#Post#: 99--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #7 - Film Review
DIR By: cblock05
Date: December 6, 2012, 8:28 pm
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I read a movie review that positively reviewed the movie "The
Other Guys" posted by A.O. Scott of the New York Times. The
comedy which stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg is a movie
that is discretely funny. The articles first page mainly gives a
plot summary. It talks about the start of the movie all the way
to the end and describes each role of the actor which a small
background. The author gives a very detailed explanation about
the start of the movie, for example in the second paragraph he
said "Bold, brightly colored charts and graphs fill the screen
with enraging data about bloated chief-executive bonuses,
billion-dollar bank bailouts, Ponzi schemes and other entries in
the encyclopedia of modern financial infamy". The authors word
choice was very elaborate which gave the article more
credibility. If he were to use more dull and boring words the
article wouldn't of been as good or legit.
HTML http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/movies/06other.html?partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes&ei=5083&_r=0&pagewanted=2
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