Wes Anderson: A hit or miss director

Wes Anderson's films are either really good; or really bad. "Life Aquatic" was a definite miss. A review by David Edelstein agrees with this (Insert link here). Edelstein made a good point that even people who adore Wes Anderson who not like this movie. I have like every film by Anderson until this film. One thing I really like about Anderson is his story like movies.
All of his movies have a story like quality. A common way that Anderson does this is by showing the script of the next scene. This is not lost in "Life Aquatic". Anderson does do this life aquatic, but I think it took away from Wes Anderson's goal of this movie.
I believe his goal was to show the story more through the eyes of the protagonist, then before. This is mentioned in the review. He does this by having a lot of shots through the eyes of the characters, and by showing how his character spun out. You only see things that he would see.
Another common tactic used by Anderson, is the introduction to all of his film. In most of his movies, "Life Aquatic" included, introduces the movie, by introducing the characters through a montage of short movies.
These common aspects of Wes Anderson are interesting, and not seen very often, but they grow old. Also, you can't depend on these to make a film good. "Life Aquatic" proves this. In my opinion Wes Anderson needs a person to screen the stories. Ever since he went solo, his movies have gone downhill.

Coen Brothers: The Badass brothers from Minnesota

This is what i'm talking about. These brothers deserved to get the best director of the year award. They had it coming. They have a great style that draws the audience into the movie. In NCFOM, it was us wanting to see Sugar die; in Fargo it was the desire the husband get what he deserves; and in RA, it was us wanting to know how they are going to finally deal with the dream character.
One of the reasons that i like the coen brothers is they always seem to have at least one badass character in the movie, that just screws everything up. This makes the action side of me get drawn into the story. Seeing the gentler side of sugar at the end was a little refreshing though.
The Coen brothers use music very efficiently in order to add to the scene. The best example would be when H.I. was running from the cops. The music there really added to the feeling of how out there this scene was.
Overall I believe that the Coen brothers are one of the best directors out there currently, and will continue in producing great films in the future.

Kurosawa

This has to be the best director ever. This director leaves Hitchcock in the dust. There are a couple reasons that I'm biased though. 1, I have always been an action junky. Kurosawa's movie's don't really have "action", but they're better than horror. 2, I have always loved Japanese movies.
Kurosawa was really unique. Instead of focusing most of his efforts on angle, he would focus on sound, and weather. Kurosawa loved to use wind. The biggest example that I can think of is in 2nd Kurosawa movie that we watched. He used wind to add tension, and to add more suspense. He used leaves blowing in the wind, ex. Because he has alot of his heroes be classic heroes, i can relate more to his stories/movies. When he has the main character is the opposite of a normal hero, you can further relate. Who else who think of having a person play with two gangs just so they kill each other.
On a side note, im sry i can't make this very long. I have to pack to leave Friday directly after school.

Spirited Away

Before I do this post I have to say two things. 1 Japanese directors seem to be a million times better than American directors. Miyazaki and Kirosawa, i think, are better than all American directors combined. 2, This is one of the few anime movies that was transfered to the US CORRECTLY. Not some two bit dubbing that gives me a headache.
The story of Spirited Away is a lot like that of Wizard of Oz. The main character gets transported to some weird place, and only wants to get home. The main character of this story is, yet again. a little 13-14 year old girl (I am going to talk about that later in this blog).
I believe this is another of the all time best anime movies out there. The story is fa nominal, and the story telling is even better. I know i am repeating Danny when I say that he Miyazaki is a great story teller. He can take some weird ass stories, and pull it off really well. Who thought up a river spirit that's a dragon, that turns into a boy., or talking bouncing heads. This movie was great in many ways
The use of color helped contrast the characters, and helped you tell if they were good or bad. Miyazaki used shading to do this also. I am going to admit; when i first saw this movie, i didn't like it. I thought it was long boring and hard to follow. Thats kind of ironic because it was set to my age group. O well. Now seeing it again, I get drawn away knowing it's meant for little children, but i still greatly enjoyed this film.
Now that I'm done with my main part. I am going into a slight rant. I find it really weird that Miyazaki has so many of his characters, be girls all of the same age group. In ALL of the movies that I've seen of his so far, he has atleast one main character that is a girl child. Does he have a disgusting fetish for girls, or does he have a daughter he is trying to impress? I don't know. O, and another connection of the girls. They all are head strong, and only want things to be done their way. The biggest example is Princess Mono's suicidal attack on the castle. They say that the movies reflect the director; I really hope not, because I am really like his films, and i don't want to have the image of him and a little girl going through my head whenever i see one of his movies. (i'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks that that is really disgusting).
This is a note to my group members. I am finishing up my post, and it is past midnight, and the only person in our group that has there post up so far is Danny. Way to wait until the very last minute you guys!!!

Hitchcock

Some people say that Hitchcock is the lord of suspense, but i really don't think he is. The only time that i thought he was actually suspenseful, was when the main character's girlfriend is going into the bad guy's apartment in Rear Window. The fact that the main lady is always a blond, is kind of scary. Even if I had a fetish towards blonds, I wouldn't have a blond in every single movie that I make.
Hitchcock movies have a lot of shots similar in every movie. I think that the way he uses montages makes the movie lag on and on and makes you drift away from the characters. The thing that makes the character go on even though it had nothing to do with the story, doesn't seem to be that important. Some of them were really hard to catch. They added nothing to the film, and thus is pointless in my opinion
Even though I openly don't like Hitchcock, I have to say that Hitchcock has done some pretty cool things. The 1st that i want to mention is in Rope. He tried to make most of the movie look like it was done in one shot. Thats really cool. 2nd, the very 1st movie that he ever made in the United States won best picture. Not many people can say that about themselves. It's too bad that he never won another grammy in that category again. And lastly, how badass is it. to be able to say that you were in every one of your films in some way or another?
Overall, I would not choose Hitchcock over Kirosawa or Chan. One of the main reasons that i don't like him is probably because i'm an action junky, and birds flying at a window doesn't really read, ACTION HERE NOW.

Princess Mononoke

This movie is suppose to be Hayao Miyazaki's best film for good reason, This movie is alot better than "My Neighbor Totoro" I could actually could follow the story to this film. The characters of this movie I could actually relate to. Unlike a certain movie, I am not going to talk about, the ending to this movie was not predictable. During the entire time i was watching this movie, i was actually wanting to know what was going to happen.
I have always been an action junky. I just have to say how bad ass it would be to have an arm that would make every arrow you shoot, chop off the head of the target, to ride around on an elk, or to be able to take out entire boar on your own. Sorry, random rant over.
They used the animals very well. The made the deer be the honorable Forest spirit. The boar was angry and quick tempered to fight. The wolves were hot blooded. It surprised though that they made the wolves be the smart ones in the animal world. They actually thought before they did something,
I have seen the subbed and dubbed versions of this movie and to say that the voice over wasn't actually that good. Some of the voices were similar, but it took away from the film. Because I was so used to the the origional voices, i couldn't really pay attention to the movie. It shouldn't really matter, but it was a distraction. By dubbing the voices, you take away from the movie.
This is to the rest of the members in my group. I am finishing up this post, and not one person has had their up yet

My Neighbor Totoro

This is movie was not as good as his other movies. The plot to this movie was really predictable, and the only humor came from the daughter and that boy. As far as I could tell, there is no symbolism in the movie. The movie just seemed to just go on. They had a little plot attention getter in the beginning, but it quickly resolves and the there are no more for for the rest of the movie.
On a side note, there are some flaws to anime movies. It's a little harder to connect to the characters, and background. I'm only used to reading subtitles for 20 minutes at a time, not an entire movie. It's a little hard to keep concentrating especially when the story is about 2 little girls moving into a new land. It might just be because I'm not a white boy as Tien says, but meh.