Movie Review Project - Creative Writing



Movie Review Project

Movie reviews are a wonderful way of evaluating movies.  Regardless of the type of movie or the age of the movie, movie reviews allow people to determine whether or not they think they might like a movie before ever seeing it.

 

Your assignment is to write a review of a movie that you have critically viewed.  You may like the movie or hate the movie. Remember:  Don't be afraid to have strong opinions about a movie - just be sure you can support your views with clear reasons why the film is terrible or terrific.

 

Criteria:  The following outline offers the basic elements that should be in your review.   

  

 When writing a movie review, be sure to not give the ending away!

 

(Your movie review should look very much like the example movie review in formatting. See teacher for further instructions.)

 

Paragraph 1:  Overall Impression

Describe your initial impression of the film.

Is the film believable or realistic?

What genre?

 

Paragraph 2:  Plot

Briefly describe the plot of the movie.

Choose the three most important scenes to describe in a little more detail.

What is the conflict?  Internal or external?

How is the conflict resolved?  (Try to be a little vague.  You don’t want to give away the whole movie.)

Is the resolution satisfactory?

 

Paragraph 3:  Acting

Describe the primary characters in the film.

Are these characters realistic?

Are the characters well developed?

Are the actors believable?  How was their acting?

 

Paragraph 5:  Final Comments

Should the reader watch this film or not?  Support your opinion.

Is there a particular audience which would prefer the film?

What are the film’s strengths and weaknesses?

What final assessment can you make about the film?

EXAMPLE OF MOVIE REVIEW ON PAGE TWO

REMEMBER TO SINGLE SPACE THIS ASSIGNMENT

 

Example of Movie Review

Return of the Rotund Guy (No, Not Santa) (NAME OF MOVIE)

By MANOHLA DARGIS (YOUR NAME)

[pic]

Published: December 24, 2004 (TODAY’S DATE)

One of the truisms of contemporary pop culture is that just when you think it couldn't get any worse, its purveyors any more shameless, you are proved decisively wrong. Based on Bill Cosby's corpulent charmer and his band of brothers, the "Fat Albert" movie opens in theaters just days after the release of the DVD compilations of the original show. DVD's for the program are featured so prominently in the movie - characters repeatedly deliver their lines in front of promotional posters for such discs - and the movie feels so much like an extended-play sitcom, I half expected Mr. Cosby to pop up on-screen to sell me the discs along with a Coke.

 

From 1972 through 1984, the animated television series "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" enjoyed enormous success, spawning a comic book and various holiday specials, and going through a name change along the way. Based on Mr. Cosby's standup routines about his childhood and set in his original hometown of Philadelphia, the show featured vivid characters like Mushmouth and Dumb Donald, who absorbed all manner of life lessons while tooling around a junkyard playground. The cartoon was austere but eminently watchable and featured one of those sitcom tunes that etch a permanent groove in your head. Just as memorable was Mr. Cosby's basso-profundo delivery of Fat Albert's trademark "hey, hey, hey," a comforting mantra that signaled that no matter what happened, all would be right in the end.

 

In "Fat Albert," that trademark is resurrected to depressingly diminished ends. The feature, however, ineptly directed by Joel Zwick (a television veteran best known for the big-screen effort "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"), does open with a glint of promise. One afternoon, after returning from school in a squall of tears, a mopey teenager named Doris (Kyla Pratt) sheds a tear on her television remote. The tear opens a portal through which the cartoon Fat Albert and his buddies pass into the live-action world, or at least its sitcom simulacrum. As they cross this space-time continuum, squeezing through Doris's television set like newborns, the junkyard gang assumes human shape. Dressed in their Crayola-colored clothes, they look ready to get down and boogie.

 

From there, the movie, alas, just lies down and dies, despite the capable efforts of the young cast. Kenan Thompson, who plays Fat Albert in a bright red sweater and generously proportioned fat suit, has an agreeable affect and a face to match. Along with the rest of the cast, he smiles a great deal as he tries to inject bounce into the saggy proceedings. It's wasted energy. While the actors tramp up and down the same few blocks on the studio back lot, the screenplay by Mr. Cosby and Charles Kipps, which is so threadbare as to be nearly transparent, lazes from cliché to cliché. In time, Doris learns the singularly American lesson that being a loser is for losers and Fat Albert learns to rap into a microphone while holding a red can of cola.

Hey, hey, hey, folks, it's fat money.

 

"Fat Albert" is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). The language is the least trashy part of the movie.

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