Whose Line is it Anyway

                Whose Line is it Anyway is an American show that was originally hosted by Drew Carey but is now hosted by Aisha Tyler. The show ran from 1998 to 2007 and then got revived in 2013 with the change in hosts. This show is a spin-off of the British show which is also called Whose Line is it Anyway. The show features Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady as regular performers.  All three of these guys were also on the British version. These three are joined by a fourth guest panelist.

                This show is a show of comedy improv sketches which are made up on the fly by the four performers. The host of the show, Aisha Tyler, gives out points to people she thought did a good job on the sketches. However these points don’t really mean anything and are just given out as a joke. They also often bring out celebrities and have them help out with some of the sketches.

                Overall this show is a very funny show. The four performers are very good comedians and never fail to make people laugh. However one thing I don’t really like is when the bring guests out. If the guest is an actor then it isn’t bad however if it is anyone else it can feel really awkward if they don’t know what they’re doing. One of my favorite parts of this show is when Wayne Brady and another performer sings. For being a comedian he is actually a really good singer and is really good at making up songs on the fly.

(Word Count: 267)

Noah

                Earlier this year, the movie Noah came out. This movie was released in March and was distributed by Paramount Pictures. This movie grossed over $362 million worldwide. It was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky and starred Russell Crowe as Noah.

                Noah is an epic that is based off the biblical story of Noah’s Ark. In this movie, as well as in the biblical story, Noah receives a message from God. This message says that God plans to destroy the Earth with a flood to get rid of all the bad people who broke away from God. The message also says that Noah must build an ark that will hold two of every animal on Earth. God wants to save the animals because they are innocent and haven’t done anything wrong.

                Noah and his family start to build an ark with the help of the Watchers who are fallen angels that are trapped in stone. When they are getting close to being done with it, animals come in giant groups to board the ark. When they get on the ark they are put to sleep. When all the animals get on board, the rain starts to fall. When this happens a gigantic army of people who are supposed to die in the flood, come and try to forcible get on the ark. The Watchers manage to hold off the army until they are swept away by the water. Noah’s daughter-in-law gets pregnant on the ark. However since Noah believes that God wants all humans to die, including them, he says that he will kill the child if it’s a girl.

                This movie was interesting because it is based off a story that almost everyone knows. However seeing the story made into an epic that has action and drama makes you look at the story in a different light. The creators of this movie did a really good job of sticking to the story of Noah’s ark. They had all the facts right including small things such as the names of Noah’s kids. Even though they stuck to the story they were still able to throw some Hollywood flair on it. They were able to make the viewers be engaged throughout the entire movie. They did a really good job of making their movie not be just a boring bible story.

                There were some weird and kind of awkward editing decisions in this movie. Especially in the beginning, it felt to me like there were a lot of cuts to a black screen. A cut to a black screen can be very effective in adding to the tension of the movie and creating more suspense. However if it is used too often it seems repetitive and pointless. In the beginning part of Noah, it felt like the screen cut to black every 30 seconds. To me it felt really dumb and took me out of the immersive experience that movies are supposed to be. However this only really happened at the beginning of the movie and the rest of the movie’s editing was good. 

(Word Count: 515)

MockingJay Part 1

It’s been a while since the debut of The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Pt. 1, but I decided I would blog about it now. It seemed to be really popular and get a lot of attention in my area and there was even a midnight and special 8pm the night before the world premiere release at my local theatre and it’s still currently showing even though it’s been almost a month since its original debut. For many people who didn’t read the books, it definitely had some parts that would take people by surprise and I could even hear some audible gasps from the audience which were indicative of who had read the books and who hadn’t. I am a fan of the actors Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. They both played their parts really well even though some parts of the movie felt kind of cheesy to me. But to be fair it is kind of hard to make such an over the top movie like this without it coming off as cheesy.

Something that might make some people upset, as it certainly made me was the fact that it is indeed split up into two movies. Even if it made sense for literary purposes to split the movie into two, it is annoying to be left on a cliff hanger especially if you’re someone who hasn’t read the books and don’t know what’s going to happen next. (Some spoilers here) To me this movie doesn’t really have a clear ending that really wrapped up the movie. The ending scene of the movie is a large group of people deciding that they are going to go do something. They are all cheering and it definitely makes you excited to see what they do. However then the movie just ends. It leaves you thinking, “Wait, why would they end the movie right there? I want to see what happens next.” The second movie also had this problem as that ended with them saving Katniss but then taking her to district 13 and leaving many of the plot points still open and many questions still unanswered. To me making this movie into two parts is just another way for the companies to make more profit on ticket sales, merchandise, and even tempting people who haven’t read the books to buy a copy and find out what happens next.

Forgetting about how the movie was split into two, I really liked the movie. All of the hunger games movies have been really good. This one was kind of different from the other movies as there was no actual hunger games in this one. This movie just focuses around Katniss leading the revolution and getting people to fight with them. It was really cool to see the way the different districts rebelled and how they grouped together. The promotional videos in the film felt very real. They were very emotional and felt like they were actually trying to get people to join a revolution.

(Word Count: 503)