Reasonable Doubt Spoiler Review

An investigative news reporter looking for a story that will take his career to the next level suspects that the District Attorney, who is hotly tipped to be the next State Governor, has been deliberately planting evidence to secure convictions in high profile murder cases. To prove his suspicions, he deliberately fabricates circumstantial evidence against himself in an unsolved murder, but his plan goes horribly wrong. Reasonable Doubt (also known as The Good Samaritan) is a 2014 Canadian crime thriller film directed by Peter Howitt and written by Peter A. Dowling. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Dominic Cooper, Erin Karpluk, Gloria Reuben and Ryan Robbins. ‘Beyond a Reasonable Doubt’ has a zero rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 22 reviews. I have no doubt it is not the only film to ever receive a zero rating, but it is the first one that I have come across. Writer and director Peter Hyams has had a long career, which has produced a mixed bag of results, from interesting earlier outings like ‘Capricorn One’ and ‘Outland’ to the slightly more recent horror films ‘Relic’ and ‘End of Days’, with a couple of Jean-Claude Van Damme films in between. His past record suggests that he is a better director than this lame and hackneyed debacle would indicate.

Out of the Furnace Spoiler Review

The story of Out of The Furnace focuses on the steel mill town raised Baze brothers Russell (played by Christian Bale) and Rodney (played by Casey Affleck). Russell is a man who does as his family has done for generation, work at the steel mill then go to your loved one, of which for Russell is Lena (played by Zoe Saldana). Rodney, on the other hand, works for the military seemingly to escape the family pattern of working in the mill, but ends up only trading boredom and stability for the gruesomeness of fighting in the Iraq war. These two lead us on a journey in which we watch them both fall, and while Russell is given the chance to stand back up after a drinking and driving conviction which puts him away, and causes him to lose Lena to local officer Wesley (played by Forest Whitaker), Rodney finds himself relying on assistance to stand on his own. You see, while Russell was away, Rodney had to deal with their dad dying as well as mounting debt which seemingly the military wasn’t helping much with. So this leads to him turning to local shark John Petty (played by Willem Dafoe) who he throws fights for. However, once Russell is out, and back at the mill, Rodney eventually figures that he minas well give into fate, but not before one fight to wipe his debt. Enter Harlan DeGroat (played by Woody Harrelson) a Jersey drug dealer, with a penchant for violence. He changes everything for the story by taking out a few characters and getting on Russell’s bad side, and despite Wesley saying he got things handled, Russell decides to play vigilante leading him to face off with Harlan.

Dallas Buyers Club Spoiler Review

Dallas Buyers Club is based on the true story of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), a Texas man who, in 1985, found out he was infected with HIV. Through Ron, we experience the frustrating and nearly absurd battle fought by millions of people who were struggling just to stay alive. Ron is a proud heterosexual living in Texas, so the fact that he has contracted what was being called “the gay cancer” ostracizes him from his community of rodeo enthusiasts and good ‘ol boys. The only glimmer of hope at that time was the drug AZT whose short-term effects were mildly encouraging and long-term effects were unknown. When Ron is denied entry into an AZT trial, he begins searching for other treatments, a journey which leads him to an exiled former U.S. doctor named Vass (Griffin Dunne). In his desperate fight to stay alive, Ron meets Rayon (Jared Leto), a transsexual who is also infected. Ron and Rayon develop a partnership to sell the alternative treatments Ron has brought back from Mexico. They begin the Dallas Buyers Club, a membership-only organization that provides AIDS-stricken people with the medicine the FDA and doctors won’t let them have. With the help of a rogue doctor, Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner), Ron and Rayon are able to bring a small sense of optimism to the hundreds of infected people living in their community. Ron Woodroof’s story is heartbreaking and infuriating, made more so by McConaughey’s outstanding performance. The last few years have seen McConaughey re-invent himself as an actor, taking roles which challenge him on a physical and emotional level. McConaughey’s dramatic weight loss for the role – and it is staggering – is not the most impressive aspect of his performance. His complete lack of vanity and commitment to the role is akin to the work Christian Bale does time and time again. Ron’s desperation is communicated through the sheer panic in his eyes and steadily more broken posture as he is repeatedly beaten down by the federal government. If not his most impressive work to date, this is certainly McConaughey’s most authentic. Ron’s story wouldn’t be complete without his partner in “crime,” Rayon, played by Jared Leto in a performance that is beautifully deep. Rayon is not a caricature of the transgender community. Leto makes Rayon a real person whose physical appearance betrays his inner self. Leto also transformed himself physically, being almost unrecognizable for most of the film. His voice, though, may be the most surprising change, however. Rayon’s manner of speech, cadence and tone is so completely different from Leto’s true voice it is uncanny. Both McConaughey and Leto deserve serious recognition when the awards season launches next month. 

Despite the two powerhouse performances by McConaughey and Leto, Dallas Buyers Club suffers severely from the lack of directorial control by Jean-Marc Vallee and a maddeningly uneven script from Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack. The film doesn’t progress so much as keep happening. The script signals it will move in one direction and then goes off the rails as a more interesting storyline catches its interest. What begins as a one-man odyssey for justice morphs into what could be a terrific examination of a non-sexual relationship between two men brought together through the most unthinkable of circumstances. This is then eschewed for an overt condemnation of the big pharmaceutical companies and government bureaucracy. Borten and Wallack regurgitate every type of “message film” trope they can conceive of while their script’s tone lacks any type of focus. Vallee, for his part, allows all of this to happen and gets in on the action, blending so many directorial styles it becomes dizzying. The film opens as a tender, indie-spirited drama but becomes a bad Danny Boyle rip off as Ron begins travelling the world, complete with frenetic camera work and excessive music cues. The film, which should be engaging from beginning to end, becomes boring by the end due to Vallee’s pathetic work as director. There is no impact or punch because Vallee lets every story and every character just fizzle out of existence, a sad end to what should have been a magnificent tribute to those whose lives needlessly ended. 

Escape Plan Spoiler Review

Ray Breslin, played by Sylvester Stallone, is a former prosecutor who co-owns Breslin-Clark, a Los Angeles–based security firm specializing in testing the reliability of maximum security prisons. He spends his life getting into prisons to study their designs and the guards' habits to find and exploit their weaknesses, thus enabling him to escape without a hitch. He claims his goal is to ensure that criminals sent to prison stay there. One day, he and his business partner Lester Clark are offered a multimillion dollar deal by CIA agent Jessica Miller to test a top-secret prison and see if it is escape-proof. Breslin goes against all his own rules and chooses the money. He agrees to the deal and gets himself captured in New Orleans, Louisiana, under the guise of a Spanish terrorist named "Anthony Portos", but the plan goes awry when his captors remove the tracking microchip from his arm and drug him on the way to the prison.

Breslin wakes up in a complex of glass cells with no outside windows to indicate the prison's location. He meets fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and they both stage a fight for Breslin to study the solitary confinement cell, which uses high-powered halogen lights to disorient and dehydrate prisoners. Seeing that the cell floors are made of aluminum, but the rivets are steel, Breslin has Rottmayer procure a metal plate from Warden Willard Hobbes's office floor before the both of them and Muslim inmate Javed are once again thrown into solitary. Using the metal plate, Breslin focuses the reflection from the lights to heat the rivets and pop open the floor panel to reveal a passageway below. He goes through the passageway and discovers that the prison is inside a cargo ship in the middle of the ocean, making a simple escape impossible. Breslin and Rottmayer continue to study the complex by learning the guards' daily routines, and Breslin gives Hobbes false information about Rottmayer's boss, Victor Mannheim. Meanwhile, Breslin's colleagues Abigail Ross and Hush grow suspicious of Clark when Breslin's paycheck for the job is frozen. They discover from hacked documents that the prison, codenamed "The Tomb", is owned by a for-profit organization linked to Blackwater, and Clark was offered a US$5 million annual salary from them in exchange for keeping Breslin behind bars.

Back in the prison, Hobbes reveals to Breslin that he is aware of his identity, and with chief security officer Drake watching him, he wants to ensure that Breslin stays for the rest of his life. Rottmayer has Javed convince Hobbes to bring him on deck to do his nightly prayer when he actually uses a makeshift sextant to get the ship's latitude. Using the latitude and observations of the weather, Breslin and Rottmayer deduce that they are in the Atlantic Ocean near Morocco. Breslin visits the infirmary of Dr. Kyrie and convinces him to help him and Rottmayer escape by sending an email to Mannheim. Breslin then transmits a false tap code message from his cell, giving Hobbes the impression that a riot will occur in cell block C. With majority of the security stationed at cell block C, Javed instigates a riot at cell block A, giving him, Breslin, and Rottmayer time to run toward the deck while a lockdown is initiated. Breslin kills Drake, but Javed is shot dead by Hobbes and his men during their escape. Breslin goes to the engine room to reboot the electrical systems, giving Rottmayer time to open the deck hatch while a helicopter sent by Mannheim engages in a gunfight with the ship's crew. Rottmayer boards the helicopter while Breslin is flushed to the bottom of the ship by the automated water system. The helicopter picks up Breslin, but when Hobbes starts shooting at them, Breslin kills the warden by shooting a group of oil barrels in front of him. They land on a beach in Morocco, where Rottmayer reveals that he is actually Mannheim, Miller is his daughter, "Portos" was a codeword used to alert Mannheim that Breslin was an ally, and Hobbes was originally unaware that Breslin's cover story was fake. Later, at a Moroccan airfield, Ross informs Breslin that Clark had fled, but Hush tracked him in Miami, Florida, and locked him in a container aboard a cargo ship while the existence of "The Tomb" is made public before it is shut down.

Escape Plan Spoiler Review

Ray Breslin, played by Sylvester Stallone, is a former prosecutor who co-owns Breslin-Clark, a Los Angeles–based security firm specializing in testing the reliability of maximum security prisons. He spends his life getting into prisons to study their designs and the guards' habits to find and exploit their weaknesses, thus enabling him to escape without a hitch. He claims his goal is to ensure that criminals sent to prison stay there. One day, he and his business partner Lester Clark are offered a multimillion dollar deal by CIA agent Jessica Miller to test a top-secret prison and see if it is escape-proof. Breslin goes against all his own rules and chooses the money. He agrees to the deal and gets himself captured in New Orleans, Louisiana, under the guise of a Spanish terrorist named "Anthony Portos", but the plan goes awry when his captors remove the tracking microchip from his arm and drug him on the way to the prison.

Breslin wakes up in a complex of glass cells with no outside windows to indicate the prison's location. He meets fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and they both stage a fight for Breslin to study the solitary confinement cell, which uses high-powered halogen lights to disorient and dehydrate prisoners. Seeing that the cell floors are made of aluminum, but the rivets are steel, Breslin has Rottmayer procure a metal plate from Warden Willard Hobbes's office floor before the both of them and Muslim inmate Javed are once again thrown into solitary. Using the metal plate, Breslin focuses the reflection from the lights to heat the rivets and pop open the floor panel to reveal a passageway below. He goes through the passageway and discovers that the prison is inside a cargo ship in the middle of the ocean, making a simple escape impossible. Breslin and Rottmayer continue to study the complex by learning the guards' daily routines, and Breslin gives Hobbes false information about Rottmayer's boss, Victor Mannheim. Meanwhile, Breslin's colleagues Abigail Ross and Hush grow suspicious of Clark when Breslin's paycheck for the job is frozen. They discover from hacked documents that the prison, codenamed "The Tomb", is owned by a for-profit organization linked to Blackwater, and Clark was offered a US$5 million annual salary from them in exchange for keeping Breslin behind bars.

Back in the prison, Hobbes reveals to Breslin that he is aware of his identity, and with chief security officer Drake watching him, he wants to ensure that Breslin stays for the rest of his life. Rottmayer has Javed convince Hobbes to bring him on deck to do his nightly prayer when he actually uses a makeshift sextant to get the ship's latitude. Using the latitude and observations of the weather, Breslin and Rottmayer deduce that they are in the Atlantic Ocean near Morocco. Breslin visits the infirmary of Dr. Kyrie and convinces him to help him and Rottmayer escape by sending an email to Mannheim. Breslin then transmits a false tap code message from his cell, giving Hobbes the impression that a riot will occur in cell block C. With majority of the security stationed at cell block C, Javed instigates a riot at cell block A, giving him, Breslin, and Rottmayer time to run toward the deck while a lockdown is initiated. Breslin kills Drake, but Javed is shot dead by Hobbes and his men during their escape. Breslin goes to the engine room to reboot the electrical systems, giving Rottmayer time to open the deck hatch while a helicopter sent by Mannheim engages in a gunfight with the ship's crew. Rottmayer boards the helicopter while Breslin is flushed to the bottom of the ship by the automated water system. The helicopter picks up Breslin, but when Hobbes starts shooting at them, Breslin kills the warden by shooting a group of oil barrels in front of him. They land on a beach in Morocco, where Rottmayer reveals that he is actually Mannheim, Miller is his daughter, "Portos" was a codeword used to alert Mannheim that Breslin was an ally, and Hobbes was originally unaware that Breslin's cover story was fake. Later, at a Moroccan airfield, Ross informs Breslin that Clark had fled, but Hush tracked him in Miami, Florida, and locked him in a container aboard a cargo ship while the existence of "The Tomb" is made public before it is shut down.

The Wolf of Wall Street Spoiler Review

In The Wolf of Wall Street, DiCaprio plays Belfort, a Long Island penny stockbroker who served 36 months in prison for defrauding investors in a massive 1990s securities scam that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world, including shoe designer Steve Madden. In the early 1990s, Jordan Belfort teamed with his partner Donny Azoff and started brokerage firm Stratford-Oakmont. Their company quickly grows from a staff of 20 to a staff of more than 250 and their status in the trading community and Wall Street grows exponentially. So much that companies file their initial public offerings through them. As their status grows, so do the amount of substances they abuse, and so do their lies. They draw attention like no other, throwing lavish parties for their staff when they hit the jackpot on high trades. That ultimately leads to Belfort featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine, being called "The Wolf Of Wall St.". With the FBI onto Belfort's trading schemes, he devises new ways to cover his tracks and watch his fortune grow. Belfort ultimately comes up with a scheme to stash their cash in a European bank. But with the FBI watching him like a hawk, they aren't able to maintain their elaborate wealth and luxurious lifestyles.

Individual Edit

The two videos above shown the edits that I have done of the footage we shot. Once includes a filter on the video and one does not.

Filming for our Thriller

For our thriller title sequence, we have filmed the first stage of filming at my house and we will do the other stage of filming at school. We casted Liam to play the killer in which he played this part very well, plus he helped with the shooting as we were missing a person. Stephen played the computer hacker and filmed as well.

Role in Production

1. Camera Operator (or this can be shared by showing on your blog which shots you filmed) NATASHA + STEPHEN
2. Editor - builds the film, adds Titles  NATASHA
3. Sound - foley, mix down, over dubs STEPHEN
4. Visual Effects - Motion Tracking, After Effects, Colourisation NATASHA

Post Mock Analysis of The Hustle OCR Clip

This clip was taken from the BBC show ‘The Hustle’. It shows the group pulling of a con against a greedy store owner by using stereotypical gender roles to fool him. The female con-artist wears a blonde-wig, a tight-fitting business suit as a costume and later wears a revealing low backed dress. She is using her femininity and ‘vulnerable’ status to attract him to be protective of her and he is interested in helping her due to his greed because he sees her wearing an expensive ring. As she leaves to go to her hair appointment she displays how she is using the act of gender to swindle him, letting the audience know that this is a facade. There is a close-up on the key prop - the ring - as this is a point of view shot and it’s the first thing he notices before he looks across to her face. The ring represents ownership as it shows that she is ‘owned’ by her husband, when in reality she is in control of the situation. This reinforces the fact that the gender roles are reversed. 

She is introduced as the sex object because her costume changes to a low backed cocktail dress which exposes her legs and back. The camera uses a tilt shot to gradually reveal her body as if looking her up and down. This can be perceived as the Male Gaze, representing femininity as something to be looked at. This is turned on its head as the female character is really a con-women and masculinity is in her crimes. Plus, she has control the whole time by playing with the act of gender which is the driving force of the narrative. Dialogue reveals that she is concerned about her male partner/ husband reaction when she looses the ring and high angle shots are used when she is on her knees to make her seem more vulnerable. And as she panics the edits are faster and the camera is more erratic to reinforce her emotional instability which is perceived to be a typical female trait. The sound is a non-diegetic soundtrack of a farcical performance from the store owner, who is rather lighthearted and camp which is immediately stopped with a recording of a more masculine reaction to the women’s emotional outburst. 

The composition and angles in the sequence reveal a more equal relationship between the two characters and that he has more respect for her due to her wealth when compared to the height difference and the angles of the first female character in the scene who has everyday casual clothes, unkempt hair, and is less feminine and less focused on her appearance. Juxtaposed with the feminized environment of the Boutique is the Gentlemen club which again has a wipe edit pushing out the previous scene reinforcing the dominance of the masculine location. This is contrasted by the sound and behavior of the two now drunk men blowing raspberries and giggling. Reducing their masculinity to that of two small boys. The camera uses a wide shot to compare their silly boyish behavior to that of the serious masculine set where other actors in suits read serious newspapers. In this homosocial environment femininity is expected to be absent and masculinity is constructed through dialogue as they discuss criminal activity and props as they smoke, drink whiskey and demonstrate traditional male behavior. As the edit is a violent and dominant intrusion between scenes it shows male like behavior again and demonstrates the power to place us in scenes in a dynamic, definite and male way. 

In similar contrast in masculinity the scene with the young, confident, empowered and cool working class man stands his ground and the store owner demonstrates the competition between the two. The young working class man puts on an act of gender to be competitive with the store owner and is aware that he is able to manipulate him by walking away by controlling the salesman. This relationship is reinforced through camera angles. The store owner who is a metrosexual and a rather feminised male is subordinate to women as his job role doesn’t demonstrate heterosexual masculinity and they use a high angle of the store owner looking up and down on his knees to show that the young worker has a higher amount of male dominance so it shows that the young worker is more powerful and masculine. The change of scenes moves from the male character with the alarm to the store owner trying to find the ring. this shows how it jumps from one failed attempt that a man has made to another. This also reinforces how the masculine traits are failing in this clip because the male characters are not capable of living up to stereotypical masculine traits. However, I think that with the male character and the alarm, this is made to look humorous because before he set of the alarm he acted in control to the recipient but didn’t have the ability to carry out his task.