Tag Archives: Biography

Selena

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a film about a singer that I was not particularly familiar with. That said, those are the kinds of films where you can learn the most. After all, if you watch a film based on someone that you are already very familiar with, then naturally you aren’t going to learn a whole lot. So that makes a lot of sense. It’s a reasonable film but the pacing can really slow down to a glacial pace at times and the movie didn’t do a very good job of getting you to support the main romance when that seemed to be the goal.

The film starts off with Abraham trying to get some good gigs for his band but it doesn’t work out and eventually they have to disband. He tried to get over music for a long while but it’s one of those things that you just can’t get away from. He realizes that his daughter Selena has talent and wants to make her into a star. To this end he begins to contact all of his old friends to try and get some opportunities lined up but it won’t be easy. The family will have to fight hard to keep everyone together here.

It’s definitely a rocky start for Selena as her first few venues don’t have many people showing up but that makes sense. It takes a lot to break out in this industry and while her father sees her talent, to the outside world it’ll seem like he’s probably just bias towards his family. That would be completely understandable after all. Still, she eventually begins to prove herself and naturally that also means she starts to get a whole lot of popularity. That comes with a lot of positives and negatives.

Midway through the film a guy shows up and a romance starts immediately. It was easy to see why Abraham was real skeptical though. This guy is a bit shady right out of the gate and at the first opportunity he does get in with the wrong crowd and causes a ton of trouble. Yes, he says that he loves Selena but as Abraham points out, she is super rich and popular. There would be a lot of incentives for the guy to say that. Selena believes it’s true love but does come across as naive with how quickly she thinks this.

She had already given him a lot to worry about with how she had started to dress up in more risqué fashion so he was just trying to make sure that things didn’t get too crazy. Perhaps at times Abraham would overstep but I’d say on the whole he did a good job as a parent. His biggest mistake was probably opening up the restaurant that ended up failing. Taking risks is fine but not when you’re playing with the family money. That really put everyone in a tough spot.

As for the music itself, it seemed decent. None of the tracks were super memorable but I suppose the style of music can sometimes blend together a bit. The songs also rarely got to play all the way through so maybe that could have helped to tip the scales a bit. I was still glad to have some songs involved to shake things up though. Music is something that can always enhance a movie. The songs themselves don’t even have to be amazing or anything like that, it just helps the tempo and pacing.

In a way since this is more of a slice of life film, there isn’t a whole lot more to get into. Between songs and events we see that the family stayed really close and were still together even once she had gone professional. That was nice to see since it can be rare for the group to stick together like that. She seemed to have a good support network and if she had been able to go on for longer then I’m sure her popularity would have only continued to grow.

It was a nice change of pace to have a film like this that didn’t have a ton of tragedy throughout. Aside from the ending, it’s really an upbeat film all the way through. Yeah there are some issues that they all had to face here and there but nothing super dramatic. Often times when you see a film based on true events, you’re expecting a lot of death and controversy. Instead we mainly just got to see a glimpse into what it can be like to go from a normal life to being mega rich/popular. Music stories tend to be inspiring because they can happen to anyone. You have to have the drive and conviction to make it happen as there will always be many opportunities to give up midway.

Overall, Selena is a film that should teach you a good amount about the person behind the songs. If you’re more interested in her actually singing then this might not be the perfect film for you. They definitely chose to focus on her life story more than her musical career. You still do get to hear the main songs though so ultimately there is still a balance. How much you enjoy the film will ultimately depend on how engaging you find her story to be. This isn’t really my kind of film but it seemed like they did a good job of going through the big events.

Birdman of Alcatraz

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to look at a film from quite a long while ago. This one’s based on a true story about someone who managed to become quite the expert from prison. It’s pretty interesting thinking about how that would be possible while in prison. I’m inclined to think there must have been some things that the film didn’t show to help him with that since it would just be so difficult otherwise. Of course, the fact that it is difficult is why it was so impressive so when you put it into that perspective then it makes sense that they would make a movie out of this.

The basic plot is that Robert was taken to prison after murdering someone. He’s definitely not happy to be here and shows it as he is quite antagonistic to everyone he meets without any remorse. The only person he is nice to happens to be his mother who visits him once a month. One day he grabs a guard for no good reason which means he will have to miss the visit. He ends up murdering this guard too and is scheduled to be hanged. His mother pleads his case and gets them to reduce the charges to just a life sentence at prison. At least he’ll be alive now but he’s awfully bored. He takes the time to look after a bird. One thing leads to another and soon he is looking after a whole flock of them and becomes an expert in bird biology and things of that nature. Unfortunately no matter how much he learns the guy just can’t seem to get out of prison.

While at times the jail may look a little too cold with how they never let Robert out, it makes sense if you remember the context. I fully expect they would have eventually let him go after the original murder. The issue was that he murdered a second person, an officer at that. You can’t just murder someone a second time and expect to be let go. No matter how much he changed after that I think the fact that it was 2 in a row is what ultimately set him off on the road to ruin. Still, at least he was productive in his spare time. The cures he thought of were quite impressive and I’m always up for making advances in medicine that will help the little feathered friends. Those guys can definitely have it rough out there in the wild. The jail was also quite tolerant to allow him to have this many bird.

Robert’s not portrayed as a nice guy for the majority of the film. After being called out by his guard Robert eventually does start to turn over a new leaf. It may have taken a little while for that to happen but better late than never right? The best character in the film was probably the guard. He had to look after Robert for around 10 years and was very polite to him the whole time even when Robert was being a jerk the whole time. The guard always took the high road and that was good. By the end of the film they even ended up being friends. Then you have Robert’s rival Harvey. That guy absolutely did not get along with Robert and that makes sense since they are polar opposites. Robert likes to cause a fuss and for nobody to order him around. Harvey’s the guy who does the ordering and likes to steer everything by the books. If something’s against the rules then you can be sure that he is not going to like it one bit. The banter between these characters is definitely the highlight of the movie.

How much you enjoy the film will probably be based upon how interesting you find the birds. Also you do have to go in prepared for the fact that not all of the birds are going to make it. It’s not like this is a super happy film or anything like that. This one’s here to partially show how he became a bird expert and success never happens immediately. You don’t see the dead birds for very long but it’s still not the most pleasant thing to watch. A lot of insects also get smashed which may get gross for some as well. I would have been cool with seeing more of the adventures in Alcatraz as well. I feel like that would have been a very interesting backdrop but maybe in real life he never got to do much there either so it would have been a pretty dull part of the experience.

Overall, Birdman of Alcatraz is a pretty interesting story. I wasn’t really aware of it myself before checking out the film so it made for an interesting story. The movie is a bit on the long side though. It’s over 2.5 hours and this is one of those films where you can feel the length. It allows the movie to really go in depth here so to an extent that’s good but at the same time some things could have been trimmed a little. Ultimately the length would probably work better if the main character had been portrayed as a little more sympathetic rather than always being so mean to everyone. I feel like that just doesn’t work nearly as well when you don’t have a character to really root for. Robert seems to be conditionally nice as opposed to just being a nice guy. The ending’s not exactly the happiest though so the film was never going for a Cloud 9 kind of feel.

The Perfect Storm

Posted on by
Reply

MV5BNzIwMTc0NTI0Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTk4Mzc3Mw@@._V1_SX640_SY720_
The Perfect Storm is based on a real life event where two storms of immense proportions clashed and a boat was destroyed along with its crew. I don’t remember hearing about this event before so I suppose that it was before my time. (After all, I hear about all the big news….sorta) There are a few big sideplots to try and pad out the time, but I’m afraid that they certainly don’t contribute anything to the narrative.

One of the subplots is about a little boat that also got caught in the storm. The Captain reminded his passengers that he’s never needed a map before and he doesn’t need one now. As a result, they’re tossed around in the waves for a while. I like the Captain’s gusto, although he is endangering everyone else just to prove his gusto. That’s certainly not the wisest course of action and he’s pretty much just there for comedy. He was a well done character though so I’ll give him some props there. Another subplot is that the Captain of the main ship is warned by the Captain of another one that he is in a dangerous zone. He barely listens to her though and while she almost saves him in time by calling in a chopper, it was too late.

Naturally, the main plot is where the meat of the story is, but unfortunately the characters do drag it down. The beginning is pretty sad and reminded me of Cloverfield to an extent. Especially considering that these guys are based on real individuals, you’d think that they would try to make the characters look better. One guy’s a flirt who only really cares about one night stands and never develops into a likable person. Another one doesn’t listen to his wife’s warnings about going to see and decides that the adventure is worth the money. The Captain yells at his crew quite a bit to remind them who’s in charge and to stop any betrayals before they can occur.

Without any likable characters, any film would have an issue being good. The characters constantly getting into fights with each other just makes you wait for the inevitable storm so that something can advance the plot. I also think that the film put too much emphasis on random fish scenes to pad out the time. We saw so many fish get chopped up that I was starting to feel in the mood for a good Salmon. We don’t need excessive animal violence in any film. The excuse of fishing being a sport just won’t cut it here. We don’t need that to be featured in the movie.

I’d also argue that the situation made the characters look a little bad, but naturally there may have been different circumstances in the real life event. The characters have to choose between their fish going bad and heading into the super storm that’s directly in front of them. Their boat’s good, but it’s not exactly military grade so the mission is effectively suicide as soon as it is mentioned. If you ask me, they should just let the fish spoil. A really inconvenient moment was definitely the fact that the characters ran out of ice, which meant that they couldn’t get any more fish. Returning home empty handed would have been humiliating and some of them would have probably been fired, but at least they’d be alive. It’s a tough personal choice to make, but when you have friends and family back home waiting for you, it’s time to make the tough calls.

If anything, it’s very impressive to see the military get involved and ride into the storm. I’m sure that it was the last thing any of them wanted to do since it was a dangerous situation. They’re probably wondering why everyone was out in the middle of the storm when it had been predicted for a while, but that’s how it goes. I feel like they could have been able to refuel in the film. They kept missing the shot, but why not try and try again until you literally can’t? I didn’t agree with the decision to just give up.

Overall, The Perfect Storm could have been a much better adaption. Based on the Wikipedia section of possible errors, it could have been more accurate as well. Although I’m sure that people would have been tackling them with denials and such no matter what so I can’t really comment on the accuracy. A lot of the padding could have been removed and the characters should have looked a lot better. Just as it’s said “Don’t speak ill of the dead” they should be portrayed as fairly good characters. They don’t have to be perfect, but I doubt the families would be thrilled about how some of these guys looked. Well, getting caught in a double storm would certainly be dicey so I advise you to stay ashore and if you have to choose between fish and your life…I trust that you’ll really think about the options before making a move. I don’t believe in going outside to find adventure or anything like that so when the next storm hits, I’ll be in bed with a chocolate chip cookie playing a nice round of Super Smash Bros.