Matthew Nichenko

Fun With Dick and Jane Blog

Before watching Fun With Dick and Jane, I was told it was just another Jim Carey film. And why that’s not entirely a bad thing, but once you’ve seen one Jim Carey comedy, you’ve seen nearly all of them. Please understand: The Mask, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Liar Liar are three of my all time favorite movies. But for some reason, I was not too excited for Fun With Dick and Jane.
Fun With Dick and Jane is a modern comedy about the fall of many major companies, most famously Enron. This movie was written before the recent AIG and GM. The reason, I was prematurely hesitant to watch Fun With Dick and Jane is because with my experience with quick produce Hollywood movies. They tend to never live up to expectations. My most prominent example is the movie World Trade Center, with Nicholas Cage. The movie was rushed to quickly after the 9/11 tragedy so Hollywood could squeeze all the coin they could. I thought the same principles would transfer over to Carey’s Fun With Dick and Jane.
After watching the movie, I do believe that it was rushed a little to quickly. However, I think Jim Carey saved the film. There were several moments in the film I found myself laughing only because of the look on Jim Carey’s face. Jim Carey was absolutely hysterical and really was the only actor in the movie that lived up to his/her potential. Tea Leoni (Jane) did not live up to expectation. It felt like throughout the movie Carey was really the only one with any purpose. The villain in Fun With Dick and Jane is Alec Baldwin. Baldwin is one of my favorite comedic actors currently in the business. And along with Leoni, I feel that Baldwin severely under acted his role. He was portraying the role of a greedy millionaire from Texas. I’m not sure if you realize but Baldwin has the worst Texan accent, I have ever heard. And his lines didn’t help his cause what so ever.

All and all, Fun With Dick and Jane was an entertaining movie. However, It is just that: entertaining. It has a strong moral message about greed, and it also has a couple of great moments. Outside that, there is nothing left in the movie of any substance. Fun With Dick and Jane is a 6/10 at best.

Matthew Nichenko

(500) Days of Summer Film Critique

(500) Days of Summer could easily be classified as the perfect love story. The average person probably goes through five or so serious relationships through their life. And assuming you only get married to one person that means your heart will be broken four times, if you’re lucky.

The tagline for this movie is perfect. “This is not a love story. This is a story about love.” Most relationships never last, that is sad a fact of life we have now learned to live with. This movie has a very realistic look at love. Not one of those Leave It To Beaver fantasy worlds where everyone’s problems tie together in the allotted hour and thirty minute time span. (500) Days of Summer is about a boy who falls in love with a girl, which in the end doesn’t love him back. I don’t want to ruin the end of the story, but I can promise you that by the conclusion of the movie, life doesn’t seem as depressing as the tagline approaches.

This movie relates to me as the story intended to. After recently experiencing many of the boy’s pains; it was a relief to see someone survive a tough breakup and still have a reason to get up in the morning. (500) Days of Summer is a movie I will not soon forget. It is also a movie I would deeply recommend to anyone who has recently been through a rough breakup.

District 9 Film Critique

Matthew Nichenko

District 9 Film Critique

When talking traditional film, the film usually ends with the same perspective as it begins with. Well with District 9, this is not the case. District 9 is unique because the first half of the film is portrayed as a political documentary, while the second half is shown as a summer blockbuster action film. Granted the premise of the documentary is a science fiction look at alien life on Earth, it still holds an extremely accurate depiction as a political documentary as well.

The movie appears to have no protagonist at the start and really does not evolve at all until later; it is just keeps relaying twenty years of background information. However, after passing the half way mark, in District 9, the movie changes perspectives entirely when it leaves it’s documentary feel and becomes much more of a highly produced blockbuster action film. The movie begins to follow main character Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley), and his attempt to become human again, after accidently turning himself into an alien. This use of two extreme director genres’ within the same is highly unusual and some may say sloppy. However, in the case of District 9, director Neill Blomkamp pulls it off perfectly. Looking back, it was exceptionally interesting to see how it evolved full circle.

A Beautiful Mind Film Critique

Matt Nichenko

A Beautiful Mind Film Critique

I remember watching a beautiful mind when I was younger. Back then, all I remember was my dad telling me how amazing it was. Even though now I realized that my father’s taste in movies is nothing to be astonished about. I decided to give the film a second chance.

After going back and rewatching A Beautiful Mind with college aged eyes. I saw things that I obviously missed before. The Ron Howard film’s genre was, how should I say?, unique. The story was not linear compared to most and the plot twists were disguised very well.

The only way to classify this movie is to compare it against others in its genre. And as A Beautiful Mind is obviously a drama; however, I would like to sub-categorize it as a ‘mental illness drama’. And as I realize that the category ‘mental illness drama’ is awkward. I can only seem to find a few films comparable to A Beautiful Mind those films are; Rain Man, and Fight Club.

I’m not saying A Beautiful Mind is better than any of the pre mentioned films, I’m just noting that the movie should be spoken in the same sentence as the rest. It has similar twist plot twists with Fight Club. And it has a confused spoken main character like Rain Man.

This is a clever witted movie shown through all the twisted, strange, and the scary eyes of genius. A Beautiful Mind may not be the best, but it certainly deserves a watch.