Well, I don't walk into a movie theater or throw in a DVD thinking, "Ok, I'm looking for this, this and this." If you go into anything like that, 99% of the time, you're going to be disappointed. If I were to watch 'The Usual Suspects' and say, "Ok, I'm looking for a steady plot in which the bad guy meets his deserved destiny." Not only am I going to be wrong, I'm going to have my mind blown! But, the reoccuring good aspects I find in good/great movies are what I aptly call 'The Usual's'. The Usual's are: Good dialogue, good angles (camera and writing angles), and good endings. I know 'good endings' is kind of vague. But, I have a movie in my collection that I keep merely on the fact that it is a GREAT example of how a bad ending can ruin the whole, once enjoyable, movie. "Mr.Brooks". (I won't give away the ending in case someone wants to see the movie, but you can ask me in class if you like) I've always said a phrase that I will never take back because it's a thousand percent true, a thousand percent of the time...
"Five words that will ruin a great script, '...And then he woke up'. "
The dream sequence has had its place in sitcoms & movies in the past. It's time to kill it, nail the coffin shut, throw it in the grave plot and cover it in cement so it never comes back.
Moving on, sometimes a movie with no resolution can be amazing. Which ones? Off the top of my head: Happiness, What Just Happened?, Doubt, W, ...My roommate liked The Knowing... That's all I can think of but they are great movies!
Great camera angles make me all warm and fuzzy inside. (Take that however you want...)
I've seen great camera angles in such shows as House & Dexter. When I say camera angles, I don't mean just where the camera is pointing. I mean when you see one scene and you know exactly what they are trying to emphasize and what message they're trying to send without a word of dialogue being said.
Good dialogue; Everyone has a favorite line from movies they like. Take for instance the movie that god Martin Scorsese his Oscar (finally...) "The Departed". I love Jack Nicholson's monologue in the beginning of the movie. My favorite line of his is: "You could become cops or criminals. What I'm sayin to ya is this: When you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?" That line tells you almost everything you need to know about that character. Law, restrictions, life & death situations, pressure, none of it phases him. I could go through the whole script and find a quote that I love on each page. Not to mention the beautiful direction. (Thank you Mr.Scorsese!)
All I'm saying is, I've named my qualifications of what makes a good movie, but everyone's motives are different. It's hard to put definite qualifications on something that is based on indiviual opinion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment