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ARCHTECHFL
-nicknamed "The Virginian"
-California is just a stop on the road of life for me. As soon as I can, I'm outta here!
-hope to be an architect
-forget short stories for English-I'm sticking with novels
Everything having to do with IMDB and movies:
-taken film, so I'm a real critic
-taken theater, so I'm a critic of actors and directors
-the best actor has someone to act off of
-I'd prefer to be anything except an actor
Reviews
You Wish! (2003)
Better than the rest
I've noticed something about movies that Alan Sacks does for Disney Channel, like "The Color of Freedom", "Pixel Perfect", and this one: his movies seem to have real morals and are not thrillers for pre-teens like Poof Point or Phantom of the Megaplex. While the "what if" premise has been scripted to death, "You Wish!" was a nice distraction.
The lead, A.J. Trauth, was believable as a teen who is stuck between loving his brother and protecting his territory. Lalaine was okay as his best friend, but she had far too little screen time. The real surprise was to see Breslin, who I thought was okay in "The Kid", in this movie. Overall, I couldn't help feeling rushed by the plot. The touching moments of dialogue between Lalaine and AJ just seemed too few in number.
Overall, "You Wish!" is a TV movie, but a better TV movie than a lot of the fluff that Disney Channel puts out on the air waves. This one had a real moral that a lot of people forget about, so getting it into the kids' minds ASAP was okay with me.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Epic movie-making
"The Day After Tomorrow" had an implausible plot, flimsy dialogue, and TV-movie acting, but it was the best cinematic experience I've had since "Apollo 13". Roland Emmerich is good at making movies on an epic scale, and here he pulls off his best ever. This is a good disaster movie, with an important message. Forget that the events happen faster than naturally possible: the point is that they can happen. The walls of water and tornadoes sure are burned into my memory.
I was surprised to see that Emmy Rossum was in this movie, since I've never heard of her. Even though her romance with Sam was cheesy, it was sweet. A nice distraction for those with fragile hearts pounding as a result of tsunamis and frozen bodies.
Pixel Perfect (2004)
One of the best Disney movies
After all the droll of the Mowry movies on Disney Channel, Pixel Perfect turned out to be a breath of fresh air. I'm pleased to say that the only times I fast forward on the tape are to skip the commercials.
The main characters were all well-defined. Rachel and Cindy seemed in the movie for relief and to chip in the occassional comment; Roscoe's dad had a little more character to him. Loretta's struggle to obtain some sort of humanity was somewhat old since I'd seen this concept on "ST: Voyager" with the EMH, but with Sam, Roscoe's best friend turned girlfriend, thrown in, the combination was not that bad.
The music in the movie struck me as hokey sometimes. I could tell that in some sequences, it seemed that the vocals were just coming out of the air instead of Loretta's mouth. One of the best songs was "Get Real" with its jazzy, high-tech melodies. What really surprised me was the score by Philip Marshall, which reached its high point in the end with a nice flute undertone; it made the end of the movie very poignant.
The exploration of human relationships was well-done for a Disney movie. Here, Sam and Roscoe were dealing with real issues, Roscoe with having trouble seeing the benefits of reality in Sam while distracted with Loretta, and Sam dealing with her jealously with Loretta and trying to > convince Roscoe "I'm real." Life may not be fun, but when someone real like Sam comes along, live