More Week 1 and 2 Comments

Muhammad Rashid

David Weiss

Sarah Kollender

Week 2

Hi, readers!

Nowadays, it seems that becoming a movie critic takes no skill. People think that all you need is something to watch movie with and a blog but people constantly forget a key ingredient to a quality review: a brain. [Yes, you read that correctly.] There used to be an artform to movie-critiquing and it is losing a battle to technology. Now, I want to bring back these old methods and mix them in with new methods of movie critiquing.

Siskel and Ebert (and Their Show)

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were two of the greatest movie critics in history. This duo hosted a TV program, called Siskel & Ebert. What I like about they way they review movies is sometimes, they have opposite opinions and they debate topics like, did the actor/actress place his/her role correctly. Here are Siskel and Ebert critiquing Mrs. Doubtfire:

Here are some ways of reviewing that are a trademark to Siskel and Ebert:

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Ebert (left) and Siskel (right) with their
thumbs up, thumbs down method. 

This system was a signature of Siskel & Ebert, created in 1981. It was Siskel and Ebert’s way of rating new movies. They would either give a thumbs up recommendation or a thumbs down. This became huge in the movie critic industry because instead of just giving a yes/no recommendation like any other movie critic, they did something unique. Plus, would you rather have to analyze a whole movie review to see if you want to watch it or would you rather just look for if the critic recommends it or not? Don’t get me wrong, an analysis is important, but there are just some situations where one cannot read through the whole analysis. Movie producers who received a thumbs up from both Siskel and Ebert for one of their movies would boast that they got “Two thumbs up.” This method is so simple, yet creative in the movie business. Why settle with a yes or no when you could settle with a thumbs up or thumbs down?

See It, Skip It, Rent It

In 2008, this method of reviewing movies came about. By 2008, both Ebert and Siskel were not on the show anymore because Siskel died of brain cancer and Ebert was unable to speak due to a cancer that was removed in the jaw area [the TV series was changed to At the Movies].  This scoring system was like the thumbs up, thumbs down method but with a medium between. “See it” means, yes, watch it. “Rent it” means that the movie was okay, but not unbearable. Finally, “skip it,”as the name suggests, if it was on a list of movies that you might watch, skip it, abandon it, and move on to a new movie.

Critics Roundup

Critics roundup was a method that also appeared on At the Movies in 2008. During this event, At the Movies would have a few guest critics. They would pick a few movies to talk about; use the see it, skip it, rent it method; and then go on from there with discussions. Basically, it was just the same show with more people. What was good about this was that there were more than two voices debating on how good a movie was. 

Legacy

Siskel and Ebert will go down in history as the best of the best for movie criticism. They were not only movie critics, but inventors of new styles, like the thumbs up, thumbs down rating method.

Siskel (left) and Ebert (right) watching a movie together

Comments

Harry Chernak

Jacob Cohen

Alex Tappen

Week 1

Hi, readers!

I am excited– no, that’s not the right word to describe what I’m feeling right now. I am thrilled– no, still not quite the right word. Oh, yes, I have the perfect word...exhilarated. I am exhilarated to do the genius project this marking period. [Wow, “exhilarated” rolls off the tongue perfectly]. At first, when I heard we can learn to do anything we wanted to do, I was confident that I wanted to do something soccer related, but I could not put my finger on what I could do with soccer. I was stumped, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So then, I decided to brainstorm for ten minutes. I wrote everything that came into my head [when I say everything, I mean everything no matter how crazy the idea was]. At the tick of the 8th minute of brainstorming, I was enlightened. I wasn’t stuck between a rock and a hard place because the rock was actually paper mache [excuse my 🌽 corny🌽 jokes].  What was this great idea? It was to start a revolution against Judy Clark to give more snow days!...just kidding. I realized my passion for watching comedy movies and I decided to learn how to be a comedy movie critic for the next month. I watch comedy movies almost every weekend with my friends and family. Sadly, people say that my taste for comedic movies is terrible. I was even shunned by my own family because apparently, thinking that The Interview is a great movie is a sin. Who doesn't love Seth Rogen and James Franco? I have a whole list: my uncle, my dad, my friends’ parents, and apparently, all adults [who seem to have no sense of humor these days]. 

This dispute made me wonder why my opinions of movies seemed “wrong” in people’s eyes. Being able to see through the eyes of comedy critics will let me have a new understanding of what makes a comedy movie a box office hit or a flop.

Types of Comedy

  Comedy is not just one genre. It has different sub-genres that appeal to different audiences. Here are the three sub-genres that I want to delve into over the next month:

• Character Comedy
• Slapstick Comedy
• Parody Comedy

Character Comedy

Character comedy is where many actors and actresses become popular. This type of comedy is when the plot revolves around a character whose personality is funny and is based on stereotypes. These characters act out of the norm of society in a silly way. What makes these movies humorous are the things that the characters do and say, and how they interact with people in the movie.

I feel that when the actors and actresses play these parts, they get so into it that the character becomes them. One of the best actors that does character comedy is Jim Carrey. He plays many roles of characters that are hilarious, and a bit nutty. What makes him so great are his facial expressions and just the overall aura that he radiates. Some examples of Jim Carrey's acting are above.

Slapstick Comedy

This is a scene from a The Three Stooges episode. As you can see,
Curly punches the guy and the guy goes flying. These over-the-top
effects make it slapstick. (These GIFs work best in Chrome)

Have you ever watched a comedy with overly exaggerated physical activity? The movies where the violence is just ridiculous? The movies where you cringe and say, “That must’ve hurt,” when someone gets thrown out of a window or kicked in the face? This is known as slapstick comedy. It originated in the 1500s when mimes would get smacked by a harmless wooden paddle that would make a loud, slapping sound on contact. The audience loved this over-the-top violence in the past and they still love it today. I mean, in all seriousness, who doesn’t like to see a guy getting kick between the legs in a movie? As I like to say, “Their pain is our gain.” Since these types of movies do have stunts like the ones listed above, stunt doubles tend to be used for many scenes.  

Charlie Chaplin is one of the fathers of modern-day slapstick. He wrote, directed, and starred in his comedy films, which must have been a handful to do all three. Even though these were silent films, the music and the foolish things that took place brought his movies to life. The Three Stooges was a series of short films that tended to exaggerate violence to the extreme. The three characters, Curly, Larry, and Moe, probably had IQs of below zero and would not be far off from getting a zero on the SAT.

In a real situation, no one would spin around the branch like
that. Also, that fall would hurt...a lot. These exaggerated
actions add to the slapstick comedy of The Three Stooges.

Parody

The final sub-genre of comedy that I will touch on will be parody. What makes parodies comedic are that they mock of these other movies by imitating specific scenes of a movie or just making a spoof of the whole movie. Many don’t like this genre because most parodies produced are too silly for people's likings. Out of the pool of many parodies, few become classics and even go on to have sequels. Two of the greatest parodies are a Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Airplane!.

My Goal

  Over the next three weeks, I want to watch movies in each of these three sub-genres of comedy and I want to write reviews of each of them.

For character comedy, I will watch:

• Mr. Bean’s Holiday
• Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

For slapstick comedy, I will watch:

• Home Alone
• City Lights
• Dumb and Dumber
• The Mask

For parody, I will watch:

• Scary Movie 3
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• Spaceballs
• Airplane!

  Throughout these next three weeks, I will be measuring my progress by being able to write a thorough review with all of the key points that a critic would touch base with. After I finish reviewing all of these movies, I plan to make a website during week six that has all of my reviews posted on it. This will be the “Rotten Tomatoes” of the movies that I watched.

Game Plan

Week 3: Character Comedy				N/A
Week 4: Slapstick Comedy
Week 5: Parody