Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Coraline Movie Review

When you first hear of the new animated film “Coraline” you would think of it being a nice children’s movie right? Wrong! The writer and director Henry Selick made the movie to seem like an innocent movie that kids would enjoy, but in reality it is an animated horror film. The main character, Coraline, is voiced over by Dakota Fanning. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327597/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

            Coraline is an only child and her relationship with her parents is very distant and they don’t interact much. She actually wishes that they would give her more attention and love her more, but they are just too busy with their lives. One day Coraline’s friends Wibey gives her a doll that he said he “found”, but really it was his Grandmothers and opened the passage way into the Other World. After discovering the door to the Other World she decided to hop over and see what it was all about. Coraline was amazed at how much she loved the Other World over her world. She had found parents that loved and adored her; everything was better in the Other World, the food, people, clothes, EVERYTHING! At one part of the movie Coraline’s Other Mother and Father almost convince Coraline into staying with them forever, but there was one condition, she must sew buttons on as eyes just like them. CRAZY! Soon after she denied their offer to stay with them the tables turned and the Other Mother went ballistic. She made it impossible for her to escape from the Other World. Would Coraline get back to her normal life? Or would she stay there forever? Watch and find out!http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/coraline/

            Many people wonder what goes into making an animated film, believe me after seeing behind the scene footage of the entire process you would be surprised of the lengths these people go in order to make a movie. For example, for animated movies you either create the pictures by pure technology or by stop motion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qPL-cypf_o&list=PL9A525542BF27CC88&index=1 Many times it takes 3 weeks in order to capture 24 seconds of a film. For stop motion you have a series of frames with each one being slightly different than the next, and when you display them at a steady rate of speed, the human eye perceives this as being a fluid motion. The amount of time and effort that it takes to put an animated movie together is insane! If it takes 3 weeks just to capture a small portion of the movie, how long will it take in order to capture an hour and a half long movie?! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion


            All in all I thought that the movie was interesting. Even though at some parts of the movie I didn’t really understand the meaning or purpose of those specific parts. I would not recommend this movie to anyone who has a young child around because I showed this movie to my nieces and they were afraid to walk in the dark to go to their room! So just be aware of the content that the movie holds and make the call!http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/coraline 

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Law and Order: SVU Season 15 Premier

Sophia Diego
Period 3
Law and Order: SVU “Surrender Benson” Premiere
In previous seasons Detective Benson would often volunteer to put her life on the line in order to get her perp, but it just so happens that the one time she is caught off guard in her own home she has no way to call for back up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Benson Olivia Benson was known as the Special Victims Unit’s “wildcard”, you gave her a case and she would go any measure in order to solve it and bring that suspect to justice.
In the 15th season premiere of Law and Order: SVU, it picks up right where it left off last season when Detective Benson comes home being held at gunpoint by Billy, a dangerous serial killer that she was actually in the process of putting behind bars herself.
This particular suspect was far more dangerous than the others that Benson had dealt with in the past. He knew of loopholes to get out of anything and everything, he also had the best attorney out there. Let’s back up to last season for just a moment to mention that Detective Benson was put on leave from her job because she was too distracted from her case that she was currently working on. http://www.usanetwork.com/svu After 3 days of not hearing anything from Benson, Captain Cragen becomes suspicious and has his team go to check out her house to see if she’s alright. When the Special Victims Unit arrives at Benson’s home, they had just missed Billy and Detective Benson. The apartment was destroyed with evidence that she had been tortured for several days. http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/09/law-order-svu-season-15-premiere-surrender-benson---will-she.html The SVU team then began a manhunt that takes them from Benson’s home to Billy’s halfway house to his lawyer’s parents house, where they find his lawyers father killed and her mother raped and hung in the closet, but still alive and able to tell them what happened. While they continue on with the manhunt for Benson, Billy continues torturing her and cuffs her to a steel framed bed.He informs her that she should not plan on surviving her ordeal. All of a sudden there is a knock on the door, it is the cleaning lady and her daughter. Knowing that Billy is trying to figure out his next move, Benson is able to distract him and breaks out of the handcuffs he cuffed her to the bed in. She then hits Billy multiple times with a steel bar from the bed frame and knocks him unconscious and then lets the cleaning lady and her daughter out from being trapped by Billy. Shortly after the police, along with her SVU team come to take Billy into custody, no questions asked.
Captain Cragen then extends Detective Benson’s leave in order for her to heal not only physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. It then goes into a completely different second episode including watching Benson recover and then going back into work. It becomes very hard for Detective Benson to really concentrate on her work because she cannot forget the things she had just been through.


All in all, the 15th season premier was one of the best that I have seen myself and part of that may be because we see one of the main characters lives at risk and it tugs at our hearts because she is so well known and the show would not be the same without her. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/svu-returns-madman-brutalizing-benson-article-1.1466137 The director, Philip Huffman, does a fantastic job with portraying the pain and emotions that are flowing throughout the entire episode.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/mariska-hargitay-law-order-svu-season-15-premiere_n_3923269.html