Best Picture

1. Inception- This is one of my favorite movies by far for many reasons.  I love how in the beginning of the movie they show you the ending of the movie.  The first time I saw Inception it really got me thinking and I know it did the same for others.  I had to watch it again for me to really understand everything that was going on the movie. There are so many dreams within dreams you tend to get confused on what dream your actually in. I believe the director had that in mind and handled it very well.  On the other hand the cinematography was outstanding in this movie. Some of the best movie shots I have ever seen had to come out of this movie.  One of my favorite parts in the movie is when Leonardo Dicaprio is trying to calm down Cillian Murphy or Robert Fischer.  They are in a dream while sitting in a van getting chased by bad guys.  Meanwhile the bar they are dreaming in is shifting based on the poor driving the van is doing.  The first time I saw this I was amazed on how much thinking that actually had to have going into that shot. Overall to me this movie was the best picture because no other movie had the intelligent plot and great cinematography.
2. True Grit - It was my first time seeing this movie in class and from the start to finish I was glued to the screen. Now this movie was totally different than Inception but I think that it could steal best picture away from Inception.  There is something about Westerns that can really catch your eye.  In a way the picture tells more of the story than the picture in Inception does.  Wide long shots of the open desert can't really be captured in words.  I had a problem of the main character being a women but once the movie gets going you can see that it actually fits in with the movie.  The Marshal in this movie did a great job playing his role. An old rusty dusty drunk who sits around and rambles on about nonsense.  The Marshal and her don't get along to well at the beginning of the movie but towards the end of the movie you can really see their relationship grow and the Marshal actually caring for her. I also think Matt Damon did a pretty good job acting out the Texas Ranger role. Once again at the beginning of the movie I didn't really know if he could pull that off but he ended up doing a great job.  This movie took me by surprise with all the silence then very violent action.  The Coen brothers really know how to shoot a movie and I believe this will win best picture but I still like Inception more.
3.Social Network - Again I had not seen this movie before watching it in class.  I heard a lot about it and was expecting good things.  The first thing i remember in the movie was how it starts out, with Zuckerberg talking at 100 mph and you having no clue to whats going on.  I really like how they do this, showing us that these people are ridiculously smart.  Another thing I liked was they really brought Harvard to life. Now i know thats no exactly how Harvard is but they needed to do that to keep your attention. Then the conflict comes in with Zuckerberg and the Twins.  This is when the movie starts to speed up but cutting shots going between actually creating Facebook and them in a conference room with the lawyers getting sued for millions of dollars.  The director did a good job balancing that aspect in the movie.  I put this movie under True Grit and Inception just because I am a big fan of action movies and i feel at some parts in this movie i was a little bored. Still a great movie thats why i put in number 3.
4.The King's Speech-  I thought this was a very interesting concept for a movie.  In a way I thought it put the King on blast a little bit.  Showing his speech impediment for the first time was one of the best shots in the movie.  He's walking up to this lonely microphone and as hes walking up the stairs to the top you all of a sudden see a swarm of thousands of people.  Now for me I would defiantly be nervous but if you put yourself in the Kings shoes I would of probably peed my pants or something along those lines.  The movie really shows another side to it when you get out of the monarchy and he starts to spend time with Equerry, which is the person Queen Elizabeth picked for the King to help him get over his speech impediment.  Equerry required that they go on a first name basis and be friends. This was a big deal because your suppose to show the King the most respect possible and Equerry wanted to just be equals.  I think that idea captures their relationship and how they preserve through certain obstacles.  The reason I didn't give this movie a higher ranking is because I am not a big fan of classical movies like this.  I could see if you were older and liked classical movies how you could really love this movie.  To me it seems like they drag on a little to much.  Over all I thought it had great cinematography but the plot was a little sketchy.
5. Toy Story 3- I saw this movie a while ago in theaters but i remember it pretty well. This is a big deal when your a little kid to go see a new Toy Story movie, but for me it was just another cartoon movie.  This movie surprised me by how funny it actually was. Another thing I like about Toy Story is how the characters never change. Like Woody, hes always trying to do the right thing for the other Toys and save anyone who is in danger.  Now Buzz is a little different, he will try to save anyone also but will do it in more of a cocky way.  This story really took a turn when the toys find out that they will be shipped away to a Kindergarten school or something like that.  They toys get tossed around and beat up and they liked it more at Andy's house.  I thought this Toy Story did a good job at not being one of those third movies that just sucks.  It kept the Toy Story tradition alive.
6.Winter's Bone-  I thought this movie was very hard to watch because its really not what you want to see.  Its hard watching a teenager take care of her family while trying to go find her dead father to keep her house from selling.  The reason I put this movie on the bottom of my list was because i am not into dark depressing movies like this.  Its hard for me to get into them and to watch them.  On the other hand i thought they did a good job shooting this movie. Like at the beginning of the movie when they are introducing the family by showing the little kids running around playing with old rusty toys while Ree is doing the laundry or chopping wood.  This movie puts a perspective on how much life can be hard and to show us that we are pretty lucky for where we are.

My First Movie Review

Miracle on Ice
Brainstorming- 
1Exciting movie
2.Captures the truth of a real sports team
3.Actors were actually hockey players
4.Epic of all Hockey
5.Olympics
6.Herb Brooks
7.Mark Johnson
8.Shows family life of hockey players
9. Fast Pace
10.Good action
11.Movie flow was good
12. Serious
13. good recreation of the games
14.In honor of Herb brooks
15. Fantastic Ending

REVIEW OF MIRACLE ON ICE

I remember when I first saw Miracle on ice.  I was in my second year of squirt hockey and our team had just won a championship game.  We all agreed to go to the movie with our coaches too.  It was pretty cool being there with your hockey team while watching one of the greatest USA hockey teams play.  The movie starts off with Herb Brooks coaching the Minnesota Gophers while showing off his great coaching abillities.  This really sets the movie off well because Herb Brooks is the one who carries the team to where they will have to get.  Herb is in his house during christmas time when he gets a call on his phone telling him that he will be the new USA Olympic coach.  Now before this Olympic it had always been professional hockey players that got to tryout for the USA team.  But Herb presented a great idea to the board by not using professional hockey players but college boys.  The board didn't respond well to this but eventually desided to stick with Herb's dessision.  I thought this was one of the best parts because they started trusting these 25 year old kids to win them a gold medal.  They brought in kids from minnesota and boston which is a little tricky considering they played against each other for the NCAA championship.  At first the team bashed heads and didn't get along, but over time these boys became a family and needed each other.  After the team played some crappy Sweeden team and tied Herb wasnt too happy.  After the game he skated the boys intell they couldnt skate anymore.  This sent a message to the boys that they couldnt just come out and play how they wanted to play but to come out on that ice and represent USA. As Herb said "The name of the front is a hell of a lot more important then the one on the back."  That line showed me that hockey wasn't all about you as a person but the team your playing on.  At the end of the movie they beat the Russians who had won it almost everytime before and then went and beat the Netherlands from behind.  This movie still remainds to be my favorite sports movie not just because it is my favorite sport but because it captures what sports actually means.