Movie Reviews

Review of Forrest Gump

By: Sami Friedman-Wellisch

Forrest Gump is a movie about a boy with a crooked spine and an IQ of 75, who grows up to live an extraordinary life and change the lives of everyone he meets. When Forrest is old enough to go to school, his mother is told to put him in a special school because he is below average and students need an IQ of 80 to go to public school. However, Ms. Gump is determined to educate her son, and eventually he is allowed to go to school. While there, he meets a girl named Jenny, and the two become inseparable. Their relationship only gets stronger as she helps him through life and he helps her escape her problems. Jenny teaches Forrest to always run away from his problems, and he learns that he is an incredibly fast runner. As he gets older, Forrest learns to run when he is told, and when he needs to clear his mind. He eventually gets a full scholarship to the University of Alabama as a football player recruited for his speed. Forrest later goes into the army to fight in Vietnam, until his platoon is bombed and he ends up in the medical tent. As he starts recovering, other soldiers teach him to play ping pong and he spends the following years playing all over the world. Forrest tells his heartfelt story with emotion while waiting on a bench for a bus, many different people come and listen to what he has to say. Throughout the movie, he makes many friends and memories, which form his life into a comedy filled with passionate connections with the people around him.

The movie is great for families because it is funny and perfect for teenagers, while also appropriate for them to watch with adults. This is because it is easy to understand and includes comedy that is appropriate for all ages. It is a great movie to introduce teenagers to adult movies because there are aspects of the plot that are not appropriate for young kids. I especially recommend Forrest Gump to people who enjoy watching comedy, with a little romance mixed in. Although it is a comedy, Forrest experiences loss and tragedy along his journey, as well as confusion. It is not recommended for children under the age of 13 because it shows scenes that include drinking, drugs, and other inappropriate content. I would rate it 5 out of 5 stars because it had the perfect combination of comedy and tragedy that made it seem real and relatable. It addressed real world conflicts in which the characters struggled to find who they were. Each character faces an individual conflict, which all piece together to form a spectacular movie.

Review Of Wolfgang Petersen’s Outbreak

By: Elliot Olynciw-Olkuski

I recently watched the movie Outbreak starring Dustin Hoffman, Reno Russo, Morgan Freeman, and a young Patrick Dempsey because of the COVID-19 lockdown. I thought it would be interesting to watch, and it was. The plot of Outbreak (unsurprisingly) is centered around a disease outbreak. The outbreak begins in Africa and spreads to America through a monkey. A small town in California is caught up in the spread of the virus as a small team of doctors desperately scrambles for a cure. I really enjoyed the movie as it mainly focused on the military and doctor side, unlike most apocalypse movies which focus on the White House trying to solve the apocalypse and civilians living through the disaster, such as Contagion, Carriers, or Viral. Even though things do not start to get crazy until the midpoint of the movie, I really enjoyed the beginning. Typically with apocalypse and disaster movies, beginnings can feel like a slog as it is crushed under the weight of its own explanation causing the beginning to feel slow and boring. This movie had an introduction that explained the characters and the virus without giving too much away, and still kept the plot interesting. I also think that the actors did a great job for the most part, although the acting feels a bit stale during some of the more dramatic scenes. The characters feel like any generic action hero in those action-packed scenes, but the movie has better writing when it is not trying to be an action film. When the story brings the characters back to a psychological thriller, the characters begin to feel like genuine people. I think the best part for me is how crazy the movie gets towards the end. You get a lot of twists and turns, and I like how these twists show the complexity of humans in times of crisis. When lives are on the line, good and bad begin to blur, and not everything is black and white anymore. Overall, I think Outbreak is a great movie. I enjoyed the movie a lot. If you like any other virus movie or just apocalypse movies, I encourage you to watch this one. I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

The Best Trashy Movies on Netflix

By: Ella Coffey

Since we’ve been stuck inside in quarantine for a while now, and will be for even longer, now is your chance to take advantage of all the extra time that’s suddenly on your hands. Have you been waiting for that perfect time to take a long relaxing bath and settle down with a movie that’ll make you laugh, cry, and wonder why you haven’t found love yet? Well, wait no further, because I have the perfect list of movies that will do just that, for free (assuming you’re paying the $8.99 for a Netflix subscription like everyone else)!

All of these movies will be rated on the “Trashy Movie Scale,” which basically judges how good a movie is after you accept all of its sappiness. Every truly trashy movie has to have at least one of the following: devastating heartbreak, heartfelt reunions, sudden realizations about love, embraces in the rain, a declaration of love (usually with someone crying), and of course, rushing on a spontaneous and completely irresponsible trip to the airport to tell the person you love to get off the plane.

1. Valentine’s Day

This classic from 2010, directed by Garry Marshall, has that ideal rom-com vibe to it. It follows many different couples as they navigate their way through the supposedly “most romantic day of the year.” It deals with love, heartache, new beginnings, and how even if you’ve always hated Valentine’s Day, it’s not too late to have a happy ending. This movie also stars so many big names, including Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts, Queen Latifah, and Taylor Swift, to name a few. On the Trashy Movie Scale, I would give it a good 4 stars out of 5. It hits so many highlights of the rom-com genre’s expectations, but the only thing it’s missing is a good crying scene. Still, I would whole-heartedly recommend it!

2. He’s Just Not That Into You

This movie follows a young woman as she tries to decipher casual dating and rejections from men. It also focuses on the viewpoint of four other couples and how they handle love in this modern dating world. It was released in 2009, directed by Ken Kwapis, and stars Jennifer Anniston, Ben Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin, and many more well-known actors. This movie made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me realize that it’s just another rom-com that sets unrealistic expectations for love, while also trying to simultaneously relate to the viewers. On the Trashy Movie Scale, I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars because it was good, but not the best. However, I would recommend it, especially if you feel like you can relate to the main character Gigi, who can’t get a guy to call her back.

3. Life As We Know It

This movie is unlike the other two in the sense that it is actually an original idea for a movie. While Valentine’s Day and He’s Just Not That Into You are mainly focused around sappy love stories, the viewer doesn’t think they’ll get one in this movie, and neither do the main characters. It’s about how these two grown-adults who hate each other come into custody of a child and have to deal with their new life together and their new kid, overnight. The whole movie is full of ups and downs and twists and turns, but after all is said and done, you get your cliché happy ending. Starring Josh Duhamel and Katherine Heigl with the director’s work of Greg Berlanti, this 2010 comedy will have you laughing and crying. On the Trashy Movie Scale, I would say it gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

4. Love, Rosie

This movie shouldn’t even be scored on the Trashy Movie Scale at all, it’s that good! This romance flick dives deep down into the friendship of these two forever-friends, and follows them all the way until they’re middle-aged adults with children. It’s heartbreaking, and will have you feeling the utmost sympathy for the two main characters. If there’s anything to learn from this movie it’s that the one person who will be there for you your whole life is the person who’s been there since day-one. With Lily Collins and Sam Claflin as the two main characters and directed by Christian Ditter, this movie makes it to 5 stars out of 5 on the Trashy Movie Scale. I would definitely recommend it!

Review of Jojo Rabbit

By: Sami Friedman-Wellisch

Jojo Rabbit is about a 10 year old boy named Jojo who lives in Germany during World War II. He joins the Hitler Youth and is excited to fight for Germany. However, when the leaders ask him if he has the guts to kill a rabbit, he chickens out and runs off. He eventually gets injured and can no longer participate in the Hitler Youth. At home, Jojo finds a Jewish teenager, Elsa, whom his mother is hiding in their house. He learns that both of his parents are fighting in the resistance and have kept it secret from him because of his Nazi views and the risk to them if he shares that information. The movie is about Jojo’s relationship with Elsa and how his view on the war evolves throughout the movie.

The movie also shows a story within a story. The more broad story is a satirical portrayal of the Hitler Youth movement in Germany during World War Two. It shows how terrible the war was and exaggerates the touture experienced by kids in the Hitler Youth. The more specific story shown in the movie is that of Jojo, a ten year old boy, who is young, kind and innocent. At the beginning of the movie, Jojo identifies as a Nazi. However, as the movie continues, he is tortured by the Nazis in Hitler Youth and finds comfort from Elsa, who is kind, calm, and loving. His perspective changes throughout the movie because, even though he is too young to understand everything that is going on, he longs for love and comfort. These things are impossible to find among the Hitler Youth, whereas Elsa is there for him throughout the majority of the movie. As the movie goes on, Jojo experiences nothing but torture from the Nazi Party, as they harass him in the Hitler Youth and then hang his mother. His perspective changes when he finds comfort that comes from people outside the Nazi Party.

In the trailer, the movie is portrayed as a comedy about Jojo and his imaginary friend, who is a version of Adolf Hitler. Although some parts of it were funny, I felt that it was not appropriate to make a comedy based on a worldwide tragedy. It made me uncomfortable to laugh at some of the jokes that the movie created. Next, I felt that the movie was not a comedy, rather a historical fiction movie about World War Two that incorporated some satire to ease the blow that comes with watching such a harsh story. Jojo Rabbit portrayed the difficult history of World War Two reliably, while adding a fictional story that incorporated many different stories from the war.

The movie used many different characters to portray different people and their opinions during the war. For example, Jojo’s best friend, Yorki, was part of the Hitler Youth and ended up fighting on the front lines. At the end of the movie, when the war was over, he said that he wanted to go home and see his mother because he needed a cuddle. This showed how much the war impacted young kids and took away their innocence. While talking about this line later with my family, I realized that Yorki most likely wanted a place to escape all the horror he had experienced, even though a cuddle would not be able to restore his innocence. However, I also realized that Yorki’s mother would most likely be dead at that point, which symbolized the fact that there was nothing that could just erase the terrible memories from the war.

Another part of the movie that stood out to me was when Jojo’s mother was hung. Throughout the movie, Jojo slowly figured out that his mother was fighting in the resistance. Although he initially did not agree with her, she was still his mother and that came before everything. I felt that her being hung was a turning point in the movie because it showed that everyone was affected by the war. When Jojo saw she had been hung, his mourning turned immediately into anger. This was evident because when he arrived home, he tried to stab Elsa. It was then that he realized that no matter what, everyone would be affected negatively by the war. A little later, he realized that the only person remotely close to family he had left was Elsa. This changed the way Jojo viewed the war because he loved Elsa as family, even though she was Jewish. He realized that fighting to murder all Jews was not ethical. Although this movie was not what I expected it to be, I am glad I watched it because it showed a view of the war that is different from what I have seen before. It was also interesting to see what was happening in Germany for German citizens while the war evolved, and how the war hurt the country as a whole. The movie portrayed a negative message about World War Two, showing how everyone was impacted and everyone lost something.

Another thing that was interesting about Jojo Rabbit was that it showed World War Two through the eyes of a 10 year old boy, who was different from most of his friends and had trouble finding his place in society. Jojo did not like violence and was unable to kill, even when pressured by everyone around him. In a way, Jojo was a coward. He needed an imaginary friend to encourage him and help him make decisions. In this sense, he was unable to fit in with most boys his age. Jojo was also separated from his mother because she fought in the resistance. She kept her life a secret because she did not want to disappoint him nor did she want him to divulge her involvement. When Jojo realized this, he had trouble figuring out whether to honor his parents or the fuhrer. Jojo Rabbit portrayed a new perspective on World War Two that I had not learned about before.

Review of American Gigolo

By: Oliver Leek

American Gigolo is a very underrated movie. It is a movie about a male prostitute named Julian Kay, played by Richard Gere. He is making loads of money and living the high life. He’s gotten into some trouble with the law. He’s having sex with a senator’s wife, and he doesn’t trust his new pimp. He also is fully exposed in this movie. It was pretty rare to see a fully naked man in a movie in the 1980s. Overall, I would give the film a solid 4 out of 5 stars. Rotten Tomatoes gave this movie a 68%. I don’t agree with that rating, the review said that, “despite Richard Gere’s talent and charm there was no making up for a terrible script.” I thought he said some funny things. I wasn’t particularly put off by the writing, but then again, I was not coming at it from a critic standpoint. I wanted to enjoy watching it. I think Gere performed very well in this movie, especially if it was written as badly as the critics claim. You should watch the trailer and see if it seems good to you.

Review of Dead Ringers

By: Oliver Leek

Dead Ringers was a little bit funny, but definitely more sad than funny. In the movie, Jeremy Irons plays a pair of identical twins, one is very confident and masculine, and the other is very shy and much less masculine. They’re both gynecologists. Ever since they were little kids, they had shared everything, the shy one, Beverly, doing all of the work, while Elliot takes all of the credit. The shy one falls in love, the other twin is jealous, it becomes quite a mess. This movie was kind of terrifying. This seems like the kind of role that an actor would think of as a kind of dream role, playing some kind of a tortured soul. Despite that, I really liked Jeremy Irons’s performance. He did a good job of portraying such different characters in every scene. I think that this is a kind of horror movie that will scare people in different ways than a lot of people in my generation are used to being scared. The Fly is a more traditional horror film (barely horror though, more like a thriller). I think that Dead Ringers is definitely worth a watch, 4.5/5 stars from me.

Review of The Fly

By: Oliver Leek

The Fly is a very funny movie. It is a movie about a charming scientist named Seth Brundle (played by Jeff Goldblum), who invents a teleportation machine. It works by taking whatever is in the first pod, disconfiguring it, and reconfiguring it in the second pod. When Brundle tries teleporting himself for the first time, a fly sneaks into the pod with him. The machine doesn’t know what to do if there are two living things in the pod, so it fuses Brundle and the fly. When he gets out, he isn’t immediately aware of what happened. His condition becomes more and more obvious as the movie goes on. Over the course of the movie, despite being turned into a fly, Brundle makes very entertaining one liners that fit into Jeff Goldblum’s personality. He remains quite charming even without fingernails. I might be a little bit biased because I absolutely love watching Jeff Goldblum act; he is funny, charming, and can play a sort of tortured soul if he needs to. The way that they used makeup and effects to make him look like a monster were disgusting looking, watching his skin fall off was gut wrenching, but it was also I don’t think that there were many levels to this movie, it is essentially just body horror with Jeff Goldblum starring, but it was very fun to watch. I think this movie appeals to people who like random absurd gore and people who love Jeff Goldblum. I give it 3.5/5 stars.

Review of Saving Private Ryan

By: Luc Marinovich

A movie I saw over this break is Saving Private Ryan. It’s very gory but manageable and needed for effect, it’s extremely well made and fun to watch. It does have a couple unrealistic and slightly cheesy parts, but overall it was one of the best movies I have seen. It is able to make three hours feel like one and definitely will give you a run for your money. Although I highly recommend this movie, I will say that you should not watch it if you have a light stomach or are easily affected by seeing dead and mutilated people. However, if you can get past the opening scene, you should be able to easily watch the rest of the movie. The opening scene is of D-Day and let me tell you that it‘s gory and brutal, but amazingly epic in the sense that it brings you along in the emotional ride of this trauma. It really puts into perspective just how amazing it was that anyone survived this event. After that scene and many others in this movie, I found myself over-stimulated by violence and emotion to the point that I found the following displays to be underwhelming or even boring. Overall, this is a great movie and I would recommend it to most people, it’s gory, thrilling, adrenaline stimulating, and quite importantly, a great way to pass time.