James Hall

Casablanca is cinematic perfection in every way conceivable. The dialogue, the plot, the acting, and the music are just a few reasons why Casablanca is a masterpiece. Humphrey Bogart plays Rick Blaine, a cynical bar owner who is in love with a beautiful woman named Ilsa, played by Ingrid Bergman, but the relationship is put in a difficult position when a love triangle forms. Rick separates himself from Ilsa, being reminded of the song Ilsa loved: "As Time goes by". I don't know even where to start! This movie has everthing! It has action, comedy, romance, war, and drama, all packed finely into one masterpiece that will not be forgotten! The script is fantastic as one can see because of the innumerable quotable lines in the film. The acting is superb as one can tell through the numerous stars in it, for example Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. With a cast like that, it is almost certain that there will be fine acting. The music, particularly 'As Time Goes By' is phenomenal. The movie of course has received critical acclaim. The movie has a 99% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating, and 100% Metascore, all of which I believe are suitable ratings for it. Despite some negativity in the reviews here at IMDb, this is a movie that must be watched at least once in your life. Any film buff, if it has not been seen, must see it. I am one myself, and I thus decided to watch it. It has been one of my favorites ever since. God bless all who read this and bye!

Alice in Wonderland (2010) is an engaging and visually stunning adaptation of the 1865 Lewis Carrol novel. While it definitely is ambitious, and succeeds in entertaining, this adaptation is extremely unfaithful to the novel. The novel has a truly deep meaning behind it which makes it a masterpiece in literature, which this movie does not have, or at least barely has. Unlike the extraordinary novel, this movie lacks charm, and does not complement the book in any way. The script is acceptable, but it is witless, has too many clichés, and trite sayings in it and therefore lacks substance. Acting from Johnny Depp and others was quite good, but there are several factors that make this movie below great. It is, however, hard to criticize the fantastic cinematography and visual effects such as the clever use of green screen and phenomenal computer generated imagery. My rating: 4 out of 10 stars. God bless all who read this, and bye!

"Immortal Beloved" has a fair share of beautiful scenery and lavish costumes of the early 19th century. Though this is a nice feature about the movie, it falls into many flaws that make this movie very syrupy and rather overblown. Gary Oldman makes a very convincing and passionate (but not overdone) performance of the great Ludwig van Beethoven. While it is listed under the genre biography, it seems very far from that. The story of Beethoven is fictionalized to fault, which proves that this is by no means a reliable source of information about Beethoven (which it clearly is not supposed to be). There also seems to be a strange combination of sugary romance mixed in rather poorly with the dead seriousness of Beethoven. Another potential fault is that there seems to be a much greater focus on who the "Immortal Beloved" was and his romantic experiences, rather than the important moments of his life which one would think would be the main type of content in this. I understand that the title is "Immortal Beloved" and that that is a very important part of it, but focusing on the sad and furious life of Beethoven poorly matches up with the overly thick and shmaltzy sentimentality when it comes to the romantic side of Beethoven. The movie would have been greatly improved if it were not for the sugary romance. While I am not a big fan of this movie, I do have to say that it has plenty of beautiful scenery, good acting, and wonderful music from Beethoven. I don't hate this movie, in fact, it is rather fun to watch, but when it boils down to it, it isn't much more than a sappy melodrama. God bless all whoever read this and bye!

Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane is considered, according to the American Film Institution, the greatest movie ever made, and for very good reason. This movie is about the life of Charles Foster Kane, and the meaning of his last words: "Rosebud". Citizen Kane is so important because of the technical accomplishments made which were incredibly revolutionary and ahead of their time. The use of lighting is incredible, using dark and heavy shadows during sadder moments, and the opposite for more jovial moments. The use of lighting is extremely effective in the opening scene, using dark shadows covering the bodies to create a mysterious silhouette, with a perfect amount of light around them to make them visible. What struck me as the greatest technical achievement was the cinematography. Like the German film 'M', which was made ten years earlier, it has certain uses of the camera which where almost never seen before. If one analyzes the cinematography in the opening scene, you will realize that this camerawork was not common for the time, but it is so inventive and original that it is undeniable that it is ingenious, for example, the use of deep focus and, in the beginning, a fish-eye view though broken glass. Orson Welles plays Charles Foster Kane in an amazing way. In general, all the performances given are great, because of other talented actors such as Joseph Cotten, who was to later play in other movies like 'Shadow of a Doubt', 'The Third Man', which also has Orson Welles in it, and 'Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte'. Even though Joseph Cotten is excellent in this, Orson Welles truly was at his best, even though he was only 25 when he made this film! If you are a film buff, than you must see this, because of its technical accomplishments. For an 80 year-old film, it has not aged a day. Why is this movie an essential in film school? A few reasons are its lighting, cinematography, and character development. This is a must-see for any fan of drama and mystery movies, for any film buff, and any fan of movies. God bless all who read this and bye!