Comm Media

Film Reviews

1) Select two recent big budget films (one a success, the other a failure) and two recent small independent films (one a success, the other a failure).
Enchanted - big budget success
Hitman - big budget failure
I for India- low budget success
Slipstream- low budget failure


2) Isolate the major elements of each of the four filmes: Genre? Attractions (big name actors, directors, special effects, familiar story?) How marketed? Critical acclaim? Analyze information, and compare elements to find patterns in success and failure.

Enchanted:
Genre: fantasy, family, comedy, musical, romance
Attractions: original, disney
It was the first movie of its kind. It was a disney movie that brought the fantasy, cartoon world into the real world. It was also a movie for people of all ages, with instances in the movie that anyone could enjoy. There were fight scenes, love scenes, and comedic scenes. Not to mention, the movie had commercials play on a variety of channels, as well as special, longer commercials on the disney channel. Simply because the movie is a disney movie in theatres, its automaticlaly appealing to families with children. The movie was ahead of the game from the beginning.


Hitman:
Genre:action, crime, thriller
Attractions: based off of a video game
The plot was hard to follow, compared to the original story it lacked everything, and there are no surprises. According to critics, it was just a bunch of senseless violence, and not even the entertaining kind. It was already expected to be horrible before the critics even saw it. It was violent for no reason, and was "100 minutes of soul-crushing nothingness".


I for India:
Genre: documentary
I for India was a very good movie according to critics.
Almost every critic loved this movie. It was heartwarming and had good insight on the migration of a totally different culture into America. One of the main characters of the movie is a little Indian girl. She is still growing up, but started to grow up with a strong Indian culture. Therefore, her change when coming to America, and seeing all of the new, different things was quite an experiance. The audiance is able to relate to her and her emotions. Critics called the movie "perseptive and powerful", "intriguing, moving and relevant", and a "rewarding documentary".

Slipstream:
Genre: drama
Attractions: Anthony Hopkins
People thought that this was going to be a good movie because Anthony Hopkins has a good rep in the fiml industry. He not only directed the movie but he acted in it as well. However, the plot was too much. It was impossible to follow which took away from it all.Critics called it "miserable", "annoying", and "an extremely limited appeal". However, Roger Ebert said that it was the "year's most experimental film". It wasn't like any movie of its kind, but the overall consensious was that it was not good. Though some critics enjoyed it, the majority had a problem with its complexity and oddness.

3) Based on your findings, is box office success a reliable indicator of how good a movie really is?
Box offices are not a reliable indicator of how good a movie is. The Box office simply states which movies did the best in sales for the week. However, most movie-goers are consumer watchers. This means that most of the people that pay to go to watch movies in theaters watch the movie because it looks good, their favorite actor is in it, or it is simply enjoyable to their taste in movies. Most people do not watch movies for the great editing and the superb choice in props. Most simply watch movies for entertainment purposes. Even if the movie stinks, if the movie had a really good commercial or a really famous actor, people will see it the first week, causing it to look good in the box office.

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posted by maggie @ 8:09 AM