Back in Time With Film: Classic Movie Reviews

By Crystal Best

I decided to go back in time for a bit and watch what people (or the internet) calls a classic movie. Though I am a movie fanatic and have been in screenwriting classes, I realized that there are only a handful of classics that I have actually watched.

I judged them all by the criteria of realism, how realistic it is to what is explaining or the real world. A consideration I will be making is what the genre is versus what it actually portrayed itself in the movie. I will also look at character likability, based on how much I cheered for them, enjoyed them, or just loved them in general. Finally I will focus on the storyline of the movie and last but not least my overall rating of the movie in general. All of the ratings will be out of ten.

Movie Poster of Stand By Me. (Picture taken from Rotten Tomatoes.com)

Stand By Me:

“I never had friends like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”

Quick Summary: Four twelve year olds decide to go looking for a body after they found out he was killed near their rural homes. They travel to look for them, learning more about each other and themselves.

Genre vs. What it’s Like: Coming of age drama story vs. It actually did match the genre that it says it was, weirdly so.

Realism: 4

Now, this is subjective, but to me and my friend when we initially watched this and saw how these supposed twelve year olds were smoking in a treehouse, we couldn’t help but burst out laughing. They tried to be so tough that it seemed forced and I understand that has happened in the fifties but still. Then, there's a part of where the time it takes them to go find where the body was, which they were weirdly looking for, took two days and then it only took them a day to get back to town. Also what normal twelve year old decides I really want to go see a body and they’re friends say yep let’s go without even trying to stop that said friend.

Character Likability: 8 (Generous)

Honestly, I can say I didn’t mind cheering for some of the main characters. They all had their quirks and uniqueness that just made them likable. My favorite character of the movie was Chris Chambers, I completely adored him. The way he acts like he is dumb but is truly smart and how sweet he is to Gordie (Who is my second favorite), I just couldn’t stop liking him.

Storyline/Plot: 5.5

The storyline overall was really strange and doesn't really make sense. There were just random stories also entangled that it didn’t seem like it flowed well, like with the random story of the Fat kid throwing up on the crowd (Don’t even ask, it was weird as is) or the “rough” teenagers just chilling at the house talking about random stuff that had nothing to do with the plot. Also there were way too many break points. Between them being on a so-called watch or just walking, instead of giving insight to the characters' backgrounds like Teddy or Vern, they just stayed quiet or would cut to the other boys that are also doing nothing. Scenes like that were simply doing nothing to progress the plot or even give more interest to the characters. I do like the plant they did in the beginning of the movie which then started the whole movie, though the payoff hurt my soul. A plant is basically where something is hinted to at the beginning and then is payoffed near the end. Like if someone really likes basketball, so they have a basketball in the background then the payoff is them wanting to go to a basketball game.

Overall Rating: 7.5 (Generous)

I gave this movie a generous score of 7.5, only because of Chris Chambers and Gordie’s friendship during the movie other than that it would be around a 6. The other two were main characters but felt more like a side character. I feel it could have been way more interesting and picked up faster. Overall the movie was decent, it wouldn’t be my go to, but if it popped up on the TV I wouldn’t immediately want to turn it off.

Movie poster of Top Gun. (Picture taken from sportskeeda.com)

Top Gun:

“Talk to me, Goose.”

Quick Summary: When a hotshot outgoing fighter pilot gets sent to an elite fly school, his reckless attitude and cocky demeanor goes against the other pilots while he also competes for attention from his beautiful girl instructor.

Genre vs. What it’s Like: Action drama vs. It was very much an action packed drama filled movie. It matched its genre perfectly.

Realism: 9

From the little I do know about flying and airplanes, which is mostly built off of movies, I think it does an accurate portrayal. Also, it felt very normal and like a true day to day thing that would've happened during that time. It looked and felt very realistic.

Character Likability: 9

All the characters were very likable in the movie. Even when I couldn’t stand Iceman talking all high and mighty, I couldn’t help but still like him. Even side-side characters I didn’t mind intruding here and there, because they were just light and usually stayed in the background. My favorite character was Goose with Maverick as a close second. You literally can’t have without the other, and everyone loves great balls of fire. Other than that the character development through the movie and their personalities are to die for.

Storyline/Plot: 7

The storyline of the movie was very solid and interesting. Some side stories were a little confusing like Maverick’s relationship and the fact that they never truly delve into his past on why he was the way he was when flying, but other than that it was a very interesting and solid plot line.

Overall Rating: 9

Overall, I rated the movie pretty high because it was really good and kept my attention the minute it started all the way to the end. I enjoyed every second of it, except one part (If you know, you know). This deserves all the recognition it gets and there's a reason why they hesitated before giving it a second movie and made sure that the second did this one justice. I would highly recommend this to someone to watch and if they never watched wouldn’t hesitate to put it on for them. This could be a go to movie if I wanted to watch a classic action movie.

Movie poster of Gladiator. (Picture taken from Wikipediacom)

Gladiator:

“Are you not entertained!”

Quick Summary: A once powerful general is forced to become a common gladiator when the Emperor's son is enraged with him for his father’s attention.

Genre vs. What it’s Like: Historical drama vs. I guess you could say it was a historical drama, just because it was set in the past but if it’s over historical accuracy then no it’s barely historical. It does have drama, but I still think it’s more action then say drama.

Realism: 5

The realism on this is low, not even because it’s in the past, but because the fighting details in this were terrible. Usually details don’t bother me, but if this is supposed to be a Gladiator fighting and the blood looks so bright that it looks like food dye, it gets there. In terms of historical appearance, it does look like how it should during that time period.

Character Likability: 8

The characters were decently likable though there were a few that I felt deserved what they got. Also there was one character that I truly felt was wrongly done and convicted in the movie, then again they were such a side character they popped on the screen like three times but I think he deserved justice. My favorite character was Juba, won’t lie I had to literally look up his name because they never said his name, but he was my favorite character. He barely spoke, but when he did it was nice and helped out the main character, Maximus kept going.

Storyline/Plot: 8

Storyline wise the movie did really well. The story idea that they were doing was great and honestly different from the usual idea about Rome. Everything about the storyline was really good, and even the small few extra side stories they had was nice to the plot.

Overall Rating: 8

Overall, the movie was solid. It wasn’t terrible, though it was so slow in the beginning that I actually fell asleep. I thought about quitting it but since when I woke up it was actually interesting I decided to go back and see how we got there, I’m very pleased to say that was a good decision. Despite the slow start, it ended up being a good movie and eventually captured my attention to watch it through to the end. The ending caught me by surprise, but was honestly good. I do have to say that the antagonist, or villain, in this movie made me hate them so much. He’s easily in my top ten of most hated villains in movies and that is saying something considering Thanos is up there. Like the way he is, just forces me to root against him and I try to see where he is coming from and still can’t stand him because he has no reason to be evil. Still, I would recommend this movie to someone, it’s not going to be my go to when I watch something but I wouldn’t mind if it was on.

Movie poster of Scream. (Picture taken from IDMB.com)

Scream:

“What’s your favorite scary movie?”

Quick Summary: As a masked killer starts to go after high school students, there is one girl in particular they are after. She tries to stay alive while also still reeling from her mother’s death a year before.

Genre vs. What it’s Like: Horror slasher vs. It was definitely a slasher film and for it’s time maybe it was scary and a horror movie

Realism: 6

The realism is low because though this is possible in real life, some of the deaths were confusing. Also how some of them died or what happened to them was so unbelievable that you could never believe that actually happened. I will give credit they’re plan was brilliant but the follow through was weak and needed some realism instead of them breaking the fourth wall every time.

Character Likability: 6 (Generous)

I rated this low because I never found myself rooting for any characters. I was just watching them, just because I can. There was no character I was like “Please don’t die,” to some of them I was the exact opposite and saying “Oh, would you just die already.” I cheered for a character once during the whole hour forty minute movie and then they didn’t even do a good job. I still would pick a favorite character which is Dewey, only because he did get me to laugh and he was light and fun compared to his dire situation. Like Dewey was still trying to get with Gale, the news reporter, even after he almost died. That’s commitment.

Storyline/Plot: 7

The idea and base of the movie was good, but the follow through fell flat. The background the ghostface person has was good though very strange and why it the way it did was the most interesting part. The plot of the movie was almost non-existent though. There was no real exposition, and, yes, the opening scene captures your attention doesn't justify why they did it in the long run. There are just a lot of plot holes that I find that makes me give it the score it got.

Overall Rating: 5

Overall, this movie was pretty bad. I think that people don’t hype this movie up anymore because of how good it is, but because of how bad. It has nothing to do with the actors, they had plenty of those and some were famous stars. It was just the characters that they were playing were just terrible. Some had a good background, like Sydney, and why she acted like that, but other characters, it was like that’s just how they were born or raised. There is no way some of them were born or raised like that, if they were then they have terrible parents. The fact that this movie has six movies in the franchise is insane, it’s almost like how Fast and Furious movies should have stopped at eight (though ten did revive it back to what it was). This movie should have stopped at one, I truly don’t know how this has a second movie or any others. If you watched the movie and saw how it ended you would agree with me, the math isn’t mathing. But for someone like me who completely despises horror movies for the jumpscares, this movie wasn’t scary at all. I barely flinched when they popped up. I would recommend this movie to someone if you want to have fun with friends and or are looking for a movie just to laugh at.

Though some (meaning one) movies were bad, overall, they were good decent movies and I had fun watching them all for the first time. Some, I have seen clips of like Top Gun or Scream and others, I have never even heard of them like Stand By Me. I think this experience has broadened my perspective on certain old movies and made me have new obsessions on some.

There was always a first. The first airplane that took off, the first automobile, or the first silent picture movie. There's the firsts and then there’s the favorites. The ones everyone talks about till this day no matter how old it gets. We call them classics, while others call them history.