The Movie Journal

  Awakenings (1990) Awakenings is a heartfelt drama that has incredible, stirring work from both Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. In her previous film Big , director Penny Marshall gave us a human film on what it means to be an adult through the eyes of a child. She returns to deliver another human film but about recovering from a disease people deemed incurable and its aftermath. Her movie is based off Oliver Sack’s book which details miraculous recoveries from late-stage Parkinson’s Disease in 1969. Sack’s book used science and philosophy to ask some challenging questions- questions that Marshall effectively asked here. Not only are there possible issues about these awakenings, but what about the aftermath? If they are comatose for 20, 30 years and now they are back in the functioning world again, how can we give them the necessary help? As seen in the movie, these “awakenings” are not permanent. Is there a moral line that needs to be drawn somewhere? All hard questions that ne...

  Star Trek: Season 1, Episode 12 "Vaulting Ambition" January 21, 2018 Well, this is fun. If you thought the earlier episodes were fast-paced and had lots going for them, you have seen nothing yet. There were some important reveals last episode. Guess what? There are even bigger reveals here. The biggest one…with Captain Lorca…surprised me the most. In hindsight, I shouldn’t be because the reveal that he is from the Mirror Universe explains his behavior very well. Some of the explanation is a bit…icky. Essentially, Lorca loved Burnham and was waiting for her to grow into childhood. While Jason Isaacs and Sonequa Martin-Green bounced off each other very well, there was never any truly romantic tension, which is a reason why their chemistry worked. I am curious to know how everything will play out. Stamets is given lots to do! His storyline doesn’t work as well to the extent of Lorca’s reveal, but it is interesting enough. His consciousness is in the mycelial network where he g...

  Star Trek: Discovery: Season 1, Episode 11 "The Wolf Inside" January 14, 2018 “The Wolf Inside” is a really good episode that is filled with important reveals. Last episode set up the Mirror Universe and I had some doubts how this episode would handle the universe. Unlike earlier iterations of the series, Star Trek: Discovery’s idea of the Mirror Universe is much, much darker. The show handled the reveals very well; mainly that Tyler is actually Voq. Remember him? And that the evil Emperor is none other than Burnham’s former mentor, Georgiou. We all know she perished in the second episode, but it’s nice to have Michelle Yeoh back relishing in playing an antagonist. This episode is like any other episode this series, fast-paced and on the go from the first second. This type of storytelling is not sustainable in the long run, but they are making do this first season by operating at breakneck speed. It was fascinating to learn about the Terran Universe. How they have their we...

  Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead revolutionized the horror genre…for better or worse. You get the cheap, modern horror films that no one likes. But you have the likes of Halloween and Friday the 13 th that owe their debts to this terrifying zombie film. Made in 1968 and under a very miniscule budget, the film holds up well today. I won’t lie when I say some of the zombie scenes actually scared me…and that is coming from someone who has seen countless horror movies. The black-and-white cinematography led to some of these scares and of course led to the frightening overall atmosphere. I can’t imagine how children and adults for that matter reacted to the film upon release. Yeah, you have those 50’s monster films but they do not hold a candle to Romero’s revolutionary flick. How did this young man attending Carnegie University in Pittsburgh change the genre or filmmaking itself as people knew it? Firstly, it is considered to be one of t...

  Edward Scissorhands (1990) Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands is a modern-day fairytale about isolation. It is Burton’s most personal film, even here in 2022. While Burton had a flair for comedy in his earlier films, he takes the Batman route to make a darker, gothic story about a man with scissors for hands. He still uses dark humor, especially with the adult characters, to make the story richer. Whether you get taken in by the story or not, you cannot deny that Burton always had a knack for creating rich visuals that never has been seen before. Here he creates a modern suburbia whose houses lack biting color pastels (done on purpose), but a large, haunting gothic castle overlooks these houses. It is odd, but it works for the story itself. I loved how Burton portrayed the suburbia and its inhabitants. Danny Elfman’s wonderful score may just about be the best score he has ever done. The music is a major factor in the character’s, especially Edward himself, characterization. Trust m...

  Home Alone (1990) Home Alone was always a Christmas stable in my family growing up as a child and will remain so for generations to come. I am hesitant with slapstick-based comedies, but this is how you create a slapstick movie with a meaningful story. Thank you, Chris Columbus and John Hughes for making a movie that became part of a holiday tradition. The story itself has the potential to wear itself out mainly because the idea is simple and paper-thin, but Hughes superb characterization does not allow that to happen. Columbus also added some story elements to provide more emotion. The scenes with Old Man Marley? That was all Columbus…and Marley’s story made for a touching ending. Before we get there, however, it is all about the bungling robbers and an eight-year-old kid outsmarting these bandits. Do you want to see Joe Pesci’s hair on fire? Or Daniel Stern getting a hot iron to the face? Look no further. I promise “you will be thirsty for more.” Pesci and Stern are the number ...

  Dance with Wolves (1990) 1990 was a year that produced many top-tier films. Goodfellas is one of my favorite movies and in any other year, I would have been angry about it not winning the top prize. In 1990, it had to contend with the behemoth known as Dance with Wolves , a film that is also one of my favorite films of all time. Kevin Costner’s epic was released at a time where westerns were presumed dead. Costner had plenty of trouble trying to secure financing for his project. Yet he worked his magic and made a film that is reminiscent of a John Ford western. What really stands out is how respectful Costner is to the Sioux tribe and Native Americans in general. We need to face the facts that Americans has seen the Indians as savages and predators and were not worthy of their lands which is why they kept being pushed west for the plight of the white man. As evidenced from the westerns of the 40’s, racism was always a factor when it came to Native Americans. Costner treated thes...