Movies – Sean Shadmand

Some more good documentries

Art & Copy

The moment I saw the previews for this movie I wanted to see it. In your face PR and Marketing that stands up in the face of have-to’s and mediocrity. You will not watch this movie an feel uninspired, especially if you have an idea or two bouncing around in your head.

Crips and Bloods

An etymological look at the notorious gangs formed in LA known as the Bloods and Crips. It was interesting to see the movie’s point of view on how slavery, civil rights and unrest and racism slowly and with little stabs at this south LA community created resentment and hate the bubbled up into an uncontrollable burst of violence. It was also interesting to see the physiological introspection and consciousness that the gangsters in this movie possessed. They are able to self reflect even with a low education, low income and low social awareness communities which makes for an interesting view. Honestly they made some pretty good points about the one-sided nature of history related to south LA and gangs. Another interesting moment is how 3 boys described how they wanted to be in the Boy Scouts of America and were not allowed because they were black and how it turned out to be the 3 creators of what ended up being the seed to what grew into the Bloods and Crips and LA gangs as we know it in its stead. Yes, this movie is pretty one-sided from the view point of the gangster as a victim but walking through the history I would be pretty pissed too.

Afghan Star

Pretty maddening Movie. This movie tracks the stars of the new show Afghan Star (An Afghan rip-off of American idol) after Afghanistan had recently softened its stance on singing, TV and entertainment being banned from the country. The maddening part is watching people praise their new found freedom and love for the ability to finally express themselves as being “an empty house finally filled in their soul” and then having to watch those same people shake their head in disgust when a woman on the show decides to dance on TV to express her joy and passion for music. Watch this movie and step back and think how often are we so short-sided with freedom, vs real freedom. (Bloods and Crips also has a — when is freedom freedom aspect to it as well in a very different way).

Helvetica

Okay, when I saw this movie I was really intrigued so I was looking forward to watching it. For one, how much can a movie dive into one font? Secondly, these people are passionate about design. In all honesty it was kind of long and it got old halfway through but the first half was full of info and good tidbits on design, business and how a font can be so influential and have such history. To be honest I never finished it.

Gehry Up

Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005)

Just saw a pretty cool documentry called Sketches of Frank Gehry. Frank gehry is and artist/ architect that is probably most known for his Disney concert hall or the the Guggenheim in Spain. The docuemntry exposes a man who cares nothing fro conformity and captures the essance of entrepenuership. He quits his job as an architect as as he puts it “he has nnever been hapier”

Check out a trailer here or more on imdb here

Go Up and Transform your Hangover

UP

Fantastic movie. It reminded me of one of my first novels I read as a child, James and the Giant Peach. I am very fond of movies that take a side story, or a backdrop to the story and make those peripherals rife in fantasy. The rest of the aspects of the movie are very true to life, in this case a fatherless boy and a scard old man. This movie was funny but didn’t create a comic relief character that pulled the audience to far from the story for a cheap laugh. It was full of great life messages, a few tear-jerkers, and a glimmer of insipration here and there. The movie did an awesome job with “shorts”, where a life time of information was passed on to the viewer gracefully and memorably in very little time. I saw the 3D version and I think it gave a new dimension to movie (no pun intended). It’s not a game changer but it is much like not seeing 20/20 and then getting a pair of glasses. I may be crazy but I could have sworn something wasn’t quite right as a certain select few scenes made my eyes cross for a second.

The Hangover

Yes this movie is funny, that’s its goal, no doubt about it. Unfortunately, I think I was a victim of over hype by my friends. In my opinion it’s your responsibility as a friend to decrease expectation and allow the person you are describing the movie to be pleasantly suprsed not unfortunatly disapointed. One of my firends described it well, ‘its almost like the whole movie was built up for the credits at the end’ – you’ll see what he means. So, my advice, see it for a good luagh but dont go in there expecting to much if you want to get the most out of it. — Or just watch it drunk.

Transformers II Rise of the Fallen

I had a bad feeling going into this movie that I was not going to like it. Being that I loved transformers as a kid I had to give it a shot in a theater with all the bells and whists since its a CGI, and action pact film. As I stated above I’m happy I went in withte attitude so I wasnt upset walking out but much of the story was forced, and fairly cheesy. It was 2 1/2 hours so it was fairly long, it didnt have to be as there was allot of superflous scenes inthe move that didnt give the viewer any benifit at seeing. It is a kids movie even though it isnt rated as such and I dont know if I’m just getting or bt the vulgarity in it was few and far between but intense and unessecary when it would peek its head. There was conserviatism undertones and I feel like Michael Bay must be a stonch republican they way somethings were laid out. BUT the action was cool and the fighting scenes got me at the edge of my seat. I hate to nit-pick but I found myself lost form time to time when the robots would battle one another. It was confising to see who was hitting who at times as the robots facad weresn’t clearly distinct from one another; a little more color would have helped.