Tribal Police's topics - tribe.net

All righty then....

Michael — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:23:58 GMT

Well, this is my first post, and I'm guessing that it's supposed to be an introduction type thing. I'm pretty sure I am not alone in being apathetic about this whole project, and I fear for the people who would really take this very seriously for any other reason then getting a decent grade in EMF 129, on the other hand it is not like I have any moral authority to judge (but I do it anyway).

I'll mostly be going over creative writing in this blog, and some of the semantics of it and sources of inspiration. There, for all three people who might actually read this post (excluding Jon Torn) I have given you something somewhat serious to mask my ultimate sense of nihilism about this whole project.

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Consumer product review

Michael — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:18:38 GMT

Michael Mitchell-Halter

Reviews on the best-selling feature length motion picture DVDs

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd/ref=sv_d_3/104-0232707-0045509

Juno: 3.5/10

I know I am going to get lambasted for this one. I did not find the movie funny, and I found the ethos of the whole movie so lacking, and so farfetched from reality it made it impossible for me to have any real enjoyment from watching this movie.

Overlooking the various other things that annoyed me to no end, such as the one-liner factory known as Juno, as if that is supposed to be clever dialogue, the whole movie lacked any real significant conflict until it reaches the ¾ point. I was actually starting to enjoy the movie when it looked there would be, finally, a scrap of conflict for the main character when the adoptive father of Juno’s unborn baby starts to consider leaving his wife and falls in love with Juno. Before that, the greatest amount of conflict in Juno’s life is ‘hmm… to abort or not to abort.’ Her parents don’t even seem to care about the fact that she’s pregnant, at most they seem to say ‘just don’t do it again.’, but it allows for Ellen Paige to shoot off all of the one-liners she wants without the audience being concerned about the fact that she’s pregnant and no one is trying to prevent her from ruining her life.

After that gets sorted out, ok great, the baby’s born, Ellen Paige’s character falls in love with Michael Cera’s character, kumbya, cue mediocre acoustic guitar playing. This movie was such an unrealistic portrayal of teen pregnancy, and pandered so much to the pretentious bullshit you see in mainstream culture that I couldn’t help but be extremely disappointed by this flick.

Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: 9.5/10

To be fair, I may be biased since I rate this flick as the best one I have ever seen, but the directing of Tim Burton, the originality of the original theater piece, and the cast, especially the work of Johnny Deep make this a memorable work. Aside from the fact that there haven’t been many musicals released to theaters in recent years, which may have added to its charm, the directing styles of Tim Burton serve the film superbly to show the dark story of Sweeny Todd (Formerly known as Benjamin Barker in the movie) and his bloody quest for revenge.

I am Legend: 6.5/10

The idea of a disease being unleashed upon mankind turning them into zombies, or some other horrible bloodthirsty creatures in the mishaps of trying to cure a horrible disease, or for the sake of creating the perfect bio-weapon is nothing new and has been used in countless movies, and other media pre-dating I am Legend (see: Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, or Resident Evil).

Despite the lack of originality the film definitely had great moments that made me on edge, and even gave me a rush of intensity. There are some great emotional connectors with Will Smith’s character and how horrible circumstances lead him on his quest to try and save the world from this disease. The movie completely looses me on its rush for closure, and need to try and include some sort of a plot device for fate intertwined with hope that I just couldn’t take the flick seriously any longer.

As soon as Will Smith’s character meets up with an El Salvadorian woman and her son, and she reveals, get this, that not only does she know about a refugee camp in Vermont, but that God himself gave her the exact location. I don’t care if you believe in God or not, that has to be one of, if not, the sloppiest ways to get closure for a movie I have ever seen. No real use of metaphor, just flat up God told me so, and of course you have to have the cliché jaded Atheist diatribe about how there is no God for letting all of these terrible things happen. This flick had potential, the action scenes, and the amount of depth given to Will Smith’s character is really well done, but I have trouble forgiving the writer for such a half-assed ending.

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The Golden Girls...

Michael — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:03:02 GMT

From what I have gathered about the show from imdb.com it is exceptionally popular, and has actually won two Emmys for writing: one in 1986, and another in 1987.
The fundamental thing to remember when writing comedy is that it is harmless tragedy. Many would call this show was the first real “Sex and the City”, but in all fairness I am going off of nothing other then what other imdb.com users are posting. I have never really seen an episode of “Golden Girls”, nor do I plan to, but from looking at what episodes are about it is possible to isolate the elements that made the writing funny. I’m not saying this is going to be the most impressive analytical piece I have ever done, especially considering I have never seen the show.
One summary that caught my eye was for episode three of season one:

28 September 1985
Rose is afraid of sexual intimacy with her boyfriend, Arnie, because she feels she would be cheating on her late husband, Charlie.

Source: imdb.com

The elements that are important to note is the subject of sex and the social awkwardness that is frequently attributed to it. Since we all ready have the meat of the issue, we can add a little seasoning to it by adding the absurdity of Rose worrying about cheating on her dead husband.
This is a very rudimentary analysis of the literary analysis of the script, and definitely not my best, but it is the best I can do with my current resources, and only 250 words to write it in.

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Reply to the replyers

Michael — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:23:38 GMT

I think I pretty much wrapped up this assignment a couple days ago when I replied to my own thread, but since I am not sure if I did, I decided it would be best to start up a new thread just in case.

Well, I’m glad a lot of you enjoyed my first post, and I am also glad that some of you got tequila as well. As a lot of you noted creative writing is a huge cornerstone of the film industry since non-fiction tends to get at least a little boring for most people after a while.

Writing is a form of self-expression in one way or another. In essence, it is communicating your experiences and thoughts to show a truth through your piece. Baring this in mind, it is always important that you never hide true thoughts or feelings, unless you intentionally mask them to try and make a bigger point later.

I’m glad a bunch of you guys are enjoying your blog, and if nothing else I hope at the least I can help you guys with what I have to say.

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