https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw_ETnxuBys

The first time I saw Oliver!, I was not too fond of it. I must have been in a foul mood that day or perhaps my younger brain didn’t appreciate the film as I do today. It’s not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a fun, harmless musical that brings the words of Charles Dickens to life-musically speaking of course. Those who are familiar with classic literature will know that this film is based of the classic Dickens novel, Oliver Twist. The novel was previously made in a film adaptation by David Lean (which I have yet to see), and that was more of a straightforward narrative, while this film acts more like a musical.

This film is a musical, and its damn proud to be one. The tone of the film is relatively dark and serious at times especially in the second act, but I was able to detect some lightness in the tone. I attribute that because of the music, which was overseen by John Green who overseen musicals at MGM during the heyday of musicals in the late 1940’s. There are just some songs here that will swell you up with happiness and wonder. Two songs that come to mind is the lovely “Who Will Buy” which is the leadoff song of the second act, and the relatively comical song “Reviewing the Situation.” Out of the other songs, I enjoyed the one called “Food, Glorious Food.” That song sounds like a cheerful song, but it’s not because it’s about the young boy who is yearning for food after suffering from meager rations. I mostly liked the songs on the whole, although sometimes they seemed a little stuffy.

Unlike the novel, the film focuses away from the main character of the story-Oliver, and focuses more on the villains and there are quite a few of them. If you think about it, there’s nothing that interesting about Oliver himself. He’s not a bad kid, but he does not elevate the story. This is where the villains come in. We have Fagin who is an elderly man who runs a group of child pickpockets. There is the malicious Bill Sykes who is a former pupil of Fagin’s and is a very dangerous man. There is the “Artful Dodger” who is a kid who works with Fagin as the number one pickpocket. It’s a very interesting cast of villains and it was a pleasure watching them develop onscreen.

Oliver Twist (Mark Lester) is a poor orphan who is kicked out of the orphanage after asking for more dinner one day. Then he is received by Fagin (Ron Moody) and his merry gang of pickpockets. He is taught the trade by Fagin and the Artful Dodger (Jack Wild). After being accused of a theft, he is taken in by a kinder, richer gentleman who may know something about Oliver’s past. That raises the interest of Bill Sykes (Oliver Reed) and his love Nancy (Shani Wallis). Bill attempts to use Oliver as mean to get rich while Oliver finds an ally in Nancy.

The performances are not bad, but there are nothing truly memorable outside the performances of Ron Moody and Oliver Reed. Moody delivers a dynamite performance as Fagin and he really embodies his character through song. He is one of cinema’s most underrated and memorable villains. Reed also transcends the screen with his memorable performance as the overly violent Sykes. Jack Wild had a decent performance as the Artful Dodger, but I don’t think his character was developed as well. As for Mark Lester, well I believe his performance was bland. Not bad nor good, but just bland. I actually saw in my research that Mark Lester was awful at singing, so his voice had to be dubbed by the director’s daughter. Ouch!

The film looks amazing. The production design gave the film a moody feeling and we see the darkness arise on their makeshift cobbled London streets. The sets are great and they did a good job with the costumes. They did not go overboard with everything. They struck the perfect balance when it came to the looks of the film, so I was pleased about that.

This film was directed by Sir Carol Reed and he delivers a smooth direction, especially when it came to the tone of it. He was able to strike the fine line between the serious and light tones when needed. Despite all of the darkness, this is an excellent family film. I found, on discussion forums, that people enjoyed watching it with their families. When that happens, you know you have a successful movie on your hands. It certainly did well when it came to the awards pundits. It was nominated for eleven Oscars, and won six of them including Best Picture and Best Picture. An interesting fact is that this is the only G-rated film that has ever won Best Picture. I found that piece of trivia mind-blowing.

All-in-all, I found Oliver! to be an entertaining musical, even if it suffers from flaws. The film looks beautiful and it works due to fluid direction, solid performances, and some good music.

My Grade: B+

There are many things in life that are meant for each other. Things such as me and my movies or Albert Einstein and science. In cinematic terms, you can add Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon to the list. In terms of pure comedy, the matchups of Matthau and Lemmon over many decades resulted in great comedy films. They are like very close brothers because they have been in so many films together. One such film is The Odd Couple. The movie is based of the smash Broadway hit which was written by Neil Simon. Simon also wrote the screenplay for the film, which is one of the highlights of the films. As older people may remember, the film share many similarities with the Broadway play. The play was directed by Mike Nichols, and it’s been told the two share a sense of similar direction despite this film being directed by Gene Saks. Walter Matthau acted as the character Oscar in both mediums. I’ve also read they even shared the same sets. So basically, this film is the exact same thing as the Broadway play but now it has accessibility to people over the world because it’s a movie.

This film surpassed my rather high expectations I had for the film. Honestly, I’ve never seen any movies with them in it but I heard they are just incredible comedic talents. There wasn’t a moment that go by I was not entertained or laughing. There are times where it feels like a drawn-out television soap opera, and that got a little grating at times. But that is very low criticism. The charms and comedy of Matthau and Lemmon are just too good to miss.

The Odd Couple is about a man named Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) who is in the state of depression because of his very recent break-up with his life. He was on his way to commit suicide when his best friend Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) intervenes. Oscar offers Felix his home for the temporary being. Felix reluctantly agrees. But the two men are polar opposites when it comes to cleanliness. Oscar lives in a house that a pig would be proud off, while Felix possesses a tidy nature. Those two personalities clash and hijinks ensue between the two friends.

It seems like all I mentioned so far were how good the two leads are. They are great real-life friends, and you can see that by how they work with each other in the movie. They feed off each other very well, and the chemistry alone is worth watching this movie for. Lemmon plays his role as Felix straight, while Matthau’s character is way less serious, as evident of his slobiness. My favorite scene is where Felix decides to clean Oscar’s kitchen much to dis dismay. Felix decides to play the motherly character and cook a hearty meal for Oscar each night instead of his excessive junk-eating he had been doing prior to Felix’s arrival. I also liked the scenes where Oscar decides to take himself and Felix on blind dates with some neighbors. Oscar had some high intentions, but they hilariously backfired on him.

Overall, The Odd Couple is a fine little comedy. It may not be recognized by modern audiences, but it really should be seen. The performances are excellent and Neil Simon’s screenplay is sharp and I love how me makes the contrast between neatness and tidiness a big factor in the relationships of the two men. The film started off pretty serious, but I loved how the tone progressively gotten lighter as the minutes went on. It’s a sharp-written and funny movie, even if there are some mindless soap opera moments.

My Grade: A

When it comes to discussing influential movies of all time, I’d call you crazy if you did not mention 2001: A Space Odyssey. This film influenced science fiction of the future, so without this film there would be no Star Wars. This film influenced the style of future directors like Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott, whom are fantastic filmmakers. Not only is the film influential, it’s also a great movie in general. When it was first released in 1968, it was met with mixed reviews. People saw a vision that has not been seen before, and they had no idea what to think of it. I read reports of walkouts at the premiere that occurred and those who remained complained of boredom. The film is deliberately slow-paced, but my interest was held over the duration of the film. I loved the film very much, but there are so many complicated ideas. Your brain is meant to be put to use because of all these abstract ideas. I’ve seen the film three times already, and I’m still not sure if I fully grasped all the concepts of the film. But the bottom line is 2001 is more concerned about inspiring our awe, not thrills.

One of the big reasons why we are supposed to feel a sense of awe is the music itself. You know, originally the film had an original composition by Alex North. Director Stanley Kubrick had a back up soundtrack he used to help him with the editing process. The problem is (in North’s case) the music just worked too damn well with the film to not use it. He used various classical compositions such as The Blue Danube and Also sprach Zarathustra composed by Richard Strauss. The music played a huge role in the film. I feel as if it was used as the main dialogue. There is some dialogue of course, but the music tells the story and pulls the emotional strings. Kubrick’s film has no dialogue the first and final twenty minutes of the film. It is all music, and the placement is right on the money.

It’s hard to describe what this film is actually about. There is no single plot line. Instead, the film and its themes are about the evolution of mankind. There are four main segments to the film. The first part takes place in prehistoric times. A group of apes discovered this shiny black monolith which of course is made by intelligent beings of some kind. Somehow, the monolith convinced the apes were able to discover that bones could be used as weapons. The next section takes place a few millennia later, and this is where we have the famous docking scene played to the tune of The Blue Danube. We are given a sense of realism of the docking because of the deliberately slow pace. After the docking scene, we discover a second monolith which delivers us to the next segment involving the spaceship Discovery and its intelligent mind, HAL. The ship is on a mission of some kind, although we don’t glimpse many details. The final segment is the famous Stargate sequence featuring astronaut Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) as he travels through some wormhole to some unexplained space.

This is one of those rare films where acting does not matter. There are not many actors present after all. Sure, I guess you could call Dullea’s performance good, but he doesn’t seem to matter in the film. The computer system, HAL probably shows the most emotion of anyone in the film. His voice even sounds panicked when he realizes he is about to be unplugged for good. This is one of the early films to use the theme of man versus machine. HAL believes he has good intentions, but at the sake of the astronaut’s lives. He has been holding back information and later on in the minds of the astronauts, he is believed to be the bad guy.

Ah, now lets talk about the spectacle of the film. The visuals are amazing, even today after all these years. We are now in the digital age, where CGI looks consistently impressive (or in some cases, not at all). But the special effects, designed with the help of Douglas Trumbull, look very convincing because the film gives off an aura of being a documentary, and the effects follows suit. They just look very real for the setting they are in. The spaceship itself looks real and I loved the docking sequence. Towards the end, where we witness the vast amount of colors and the Star Child, I was basked in a glow of delight watching the effects come to life.

What I like about all of Kubricks film is that they ask us deep questions. For example, this film concerns mankind and evolution. The film asks us who we are and what is life about. Kubrick never gave in to tell us what the film is about. He opened the film up for interpretation and every idea is a plausible idea, according to Kubrick. We are just not skin and bones, but we are intelligence. We live not on planet Earth, but amongst the stars. These are just some of the ideas Kubrick was trying to convey. There are many themes to get out of the movie, being such an abstract film.

This is Kubrick’s most ambitious and most likely his greatest film he has ever made. I loved his previous film, Dr. Strangelove but he reaches news heights with this film. This is not a narrative story in the common sense so if you’ve never seen this film, just heed my warning. I love how the movie opens up for debate/interpretation and to this day, people debate about the themes and just how influential the movie is. Featuring amazing visuals and musical cues, 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the greatest, most influential movies of all time.

My Grade: A+