The Godfather

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

Probably one of the most recognisable lines in the history of cinema and even if you don't know much about The Godfather films at all, everyone knows what film this is from.

When we were told that we would be watching The Godfather as one of our Friday screenings I was fairly excited about it: I hadn't heard a great deal about the actual storyline of the film but knew it was one of the all-time classics that everyone must see at some point in their lives. And by the end of the three hours I understood why it was such a revered film classic.

Although I think quite a few of the girls in the class enjoyed the film, it could probably be described without being sexist as a "guy film". And although the prospect of killing people for "purely business" purposes is completely alien and sinister to us, there is without a doubt something extremely cool about the Corleone family business.

The story gripped me throughout and there was never really a dull moment as they say. One of the finest scenes in the whole movie for me is the sequence towards the end when Michael Corleone is acting as the godfather for his nephew's baptism. The sequence is split between the scene of Corleone in the church and the separate scenes where Corleone gangsters are assassinating the heads of the other Mafia families across the city. The scenes are skillfully juxtaposed with the audio for the baptism kept throughout with the priest reciting prayers in Latin and the ominous organ music whilst simultaneously we see the Corleone mob men assembling their murder weapons. The priest then turns to Michael in order for him to renew his vows. All the while the camera is going between the church ceremony and the images of the assassins. Then, at what I think is the most powerful moment in the sequence the priest asks Michael "Do you renounce Satan" and the camera then switches to the gangsters opening fire on the rival gang leaders.

There are many more great scenes of skillful filming and classic cinema within the film but since we were asked to keep this blog fairly short I'll save them for another time. In fact, after watching The Godfather: Part 1 that Friday I was forced to go and borrow the trilogy from the library but only had time to watch the Part 2. I've put the boxset on my Santa list, however, so if you're lucky you'll get some more Corleone blogs after Christmas time so... I'll be back...no that's another film altogether.

The Men Who Stare At Goats

After an eventful Monday of screenwriting in the morning and Andy's new cinema class in the afternoon, not to mention being mugged for two bits of Chinese chicken during the lunch break, some people decided to round off the day by going to the cinema. The popular choice was the new feature 2012 that everyone is desperate to see "just for the effects" or "to see what it's all about" or perhaps in case there is some truth in the notion that apocalypse is due in the next three years.

However, having already seen this film the previous day, I along with Samuel Ferguson decided to go and see another movie. We decided that the new Michael Caine film, Harry Brown, would be our preferred choice but when we looked at the film times in the Renfrew Street Cineworld it was not on for a while so, not wishing to be defeated, headed for the other Cineworld in Parkhead. Here, we eventually made the decision to see The Men Who Stare At Goats, a new "comedy" starring Ewan McGregor, George Clooney and Kevin Spacey.

Given the fact that we'd had quite an analytical screenwriting class this very morning it probably helped me to think more critically about this film. Firstly, all films are meant to have a story - obvious, I suppose. Second, all comedy films are supposed to be funny, amusing, laughable etc. So for a movie that exhibits itself as a comedy film I expected it to have both a good story and a lot of funny parts. Sadly, however, I found it didn't really fulfill either of those roles particularly well.

In screenwriting today, we watched a couple of short films and had to then answer a series of questions about the storyline and other things. These included questions about the "inciting incident", the part in the exposition of a film that triggers the audience's interest and acts as a kind of "hook" for them to watch the rest of the film. Other questions included what the main character's goal is in the story, their motives, themes and morals present and general strengths and weaknesses of the films. So throughout The Men Who Stare At Goats I think I was subconsciously trying to answer some of these questions until I got bored of the movie and began to consciously answer them.

So back to the thing about films having a story. It's pretty much a requirement, and it's something the audience definitely want. Did The Men Who Stare At Goats have one? Not that I can think of. The film more or less just went on and on without any particular point or character journey. It wasn't clear at all what the two central characters' goal was or what they were trying to achieve. And on top of all that it just wasn't funny. It's quite painful when watching a film or TV programme where you know what the funny bits are meant to be but when they are executed on screen - even if it is by the likes of George Clooney et al - they are simply not funny. Throughout the entire movie I think I "laughed" about twice - and even then it was only one of those tiny wee laughs where the most noise you make is a short exhale through the nose. Then, at probably about three quarters of the way through, I found myself doing what we discussed today with Andy in class, in fact, I think I could relate to his own way of telling if he was bored with a film: I found myself looking at the fire escape and realised my mind had completely wandered away, I had effectively "dropped out" of the story and stopped believing in it. Once you hit that stage it's almost impossible for the movie makers to get your interest back and that's what happened to me.

Relating back to the questions posed by Richard in screenwriting class, I would say that I found it difficult to see where the inciting incident was. He left his wife, then decided to go to Iraq to prove himself, that's the only part I can really think of. After that it just seemed like a whole array of unconnected ideas with vague comical references in each of these scenes. As for the main character's motives and goals, as I've already said it was pretty unclear to me, throughout, what their overall objective was. And overall strengths and weaknesses well...it didn't have much of a story in my opinion, it wasn't funny and it was supposed to be a comedy. Strengths include the fact that out of the six people who were in the cinema, only one person left before the film had finished.

Zombieland

I never thought I would be blogging about this. In fact, I never thought I would even be going to see it at all at the cinema, however, one day when myself and some others from the course decided to go and watch a movie the only option that appeared most convenient, that we hadn't seen before or didn't think looked rubbish was Zombieland.

The very title reeks to me of a really badly made movie, full of pointless gore, bereft of any real plot and designed largely for 19-year-old weirdos and zombie lovers. However, after watching this movie I was in fact quite surprised by how I felt about it. If I'm being completely honest I actually quite enjoyed it.

At the start, it was very gory and zombie-ish and I found myself thinking "this really isn't my type of film, it's just going to be zombies jumping out and eating people the whole time without any specific point or story." However, after the initial half hour or so, when it was clear that the USA had been taken over by living corpses and the amount of zombies jumping out and eating people was toned down a bit, I found the story to be quite funny and engaging. Films like this are obviously not meant to have a serious nature and aren't designed to be particularly thought provoking but I still found it entertaining.

Although zombies aren't exactly my idea of great entertainment, when they decided to calm down on the blood and gore scenes the story was quite entertaining. There were a lot of funny parts as well and it was quite an enjoyable journey to follow the two very different characters of the protagonist Columbus and crazy cowboy type guy, Tallahassee. The diverse characters and the amusing situations that seem to arise from a zombie apocalypse did make for an enjoyable movie with many funny scenes.

Zombies, lots and lots of guns, the love interest of a geeky guy and a hot girl and plenty of gore: clearly aimed at the specific demographic of predominantly male, American youths but overall, for what it was, I quite enjoyed Zombieland, however much I expected not to like it.