An American in Paris

In 1952 An American in Paris won six Academy Awards. Seeing the film in 2011 has allowed me to see what a masterpiece this film really is. Starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in her film debut, the film tells the story of a former G.I. who has settled in Paris to work as a painter. He finds himself in the company of a struggling musician whose friend is a famous singer. The story focuses on Jerry, played by Gene Kelly, who meets a young woman and falls in love. It's a classic story of the Romeo and Juliet variety that focuses on her relationship with another man and Jerry's commitment to a wealthy benfactor.

Watching this film is a wonderful experience. It's got the feel of the great hollywood studio films with the colorful set designs and large-scale musical numbers. The music is no less wonderful than you would expect when you have Gene Kelly working with music written by Ira Gershwin. Gershwin wrote "Our Love is Here to Stay" which is featured in this film as well as countless others over the years. (Watch Forget Paris) The set design is also impressive as the ballet sequences were filmed on sets designed to reflect some of the great painters like Van Gogh.

Without exception the acting of Gene Kelly is a pleasure to watch. In this era of filmmaking stars were expected to sing, dance, and act. Kelly did them all at a high level and this film is no exception. Additionally, Kelly assisted in the direction of the film due to the demands being placed on Vincente Minnelli through his personal life.

If any criticism could be leveled, it might be the lack of dialogue through a 17 minute dance sequence which ends the film. It slows the pace and may not work for people who don't enjoy the art of dance and music.

This is a film that's as enjoyable as Singing in the Rain yet it has it's own unique charm. There is a great repeat value in this film with it's dancing, singing, and charming love story. Like many of my favorite films An American in Paris is a movie that remains relevant more than 60 years from it's release. The dancing, the music, and the story all come together with great success and leave us with an American film masterpiece. I give this a strong 4 out of 5 stars.

Guest Blogger Kevin Abbes - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes had so much going on that it was simply one of the most enjoyable movies in a long time.




This film is similar to the original Planet of the Apes from 1969 but has a little different story line.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) takes place in the San Francisco Bay area in California. Will Rodman (James Franco) is a scientist that works for Gen-Sys, which is a pharmaceutical company, and is trying to find a cure for the deadly disease of Alzheimer. The previous five years Will has been testing a drug on Chimpanzees and it has great promise until the day that it is supposed to be shown to investors and something goes wrong.

Will's father Charles (John Lithgow) has a terminal case of Alzheimer's and Will takes the experimental drug home and gives it to his father after seeing how well it worked with his Chimps. A baby Chimpanzee of one of the tested Chimps, Caesar (Andy Serkis) is born with the drug already in his blood stream and it has an effect that nobody could imagine which makes him smarter than the average Chimpanzee. Caesar evolves throughout the movie and great things happen to him and his fellow primates.

I am not much of a Science Fiction fan but this movie blew me away. The acting, story line and special effects made this one of the better movies of its kind that I have seen in awhile! I would give this movie 8 out of 10 stars. The movie has things that are somewhat hard to believe but then again it is a Science Fiction film.

I hope this substitute review for Jeff's Blog lives up to Jeff's usual Blogs!

Kevin

The special effects are some of the better that I have seen in awhile. The apes look fairly human because they are human faces that are digitally altered into ape faces. In addition the usual Hollywood explosions and movie tricks are thrown into the movie but the ones mentioned previously were the best.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Finding my way to the fourth film was easy since I had enjoyed the last film enough. This time I feel like they really nailed it. This was definitely the darkest of the films so far, filled with far more intrigue and mystery. This film also continued the improvement of the three young actors.

The plot of the film was written well since it didn't have it's center around the main character to start. The championship was a good centerpiece for the action to begin. This allowed the story to develop and bring Harry into the picture. 

I also enjoyed the fact that this film expanded in it's range of villains. It was relatively easy to predict the culprit from the first three films. This one left me a bit more surprised.

Overall, it was another great film to watch. Like most films of this type I wouldn't expect award-winning stuff, just a great family film.

I would give this a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

Cobb - The 1994 film about a baseball legend.

In 1994 Ron Shelton made an attempt to create a film based on Al Stump's book about the late Ty Cobb. This was a daunting task considering the incredible and long life of the subject. Tommy Lee Jones was chosen to play the title character and the film moved forward with a list of lesser known actors.

Sadly, the film chose to look at Cobb's life in small clips over the course of a film that focused on his paranoid last years. I feel like this was a wasted opportunity to capture the life of a man hated for his personality and loved for his skills. In truth, I feel like the film didn't ever take the leap into the past that would've truly fascinated viewers.

In the end they made a film that underperformed and left more questions than answers. I believe this is a failed experiment at making a biographical film without ever showing a man's life.

I give this 2 out of 5 stars.