Saving Mr. Banks is a drama and comedy that tells the story of how Mary Poppins came to be.  Directed by John Lee Hancock, this 2013 film also depicts the struggles one woman has to go through while dealing with an super icon legend named Walt Disney.  Nominated for multiply oscars, this movie does not disappoint viewers.

The movie starts off kind of slow, showing flashbacks of the main character P. L. Travers played by Emma Thompson. In the present day however, she is a struggling old woman who is losing money.  She reluctantly decides to go to Hollywood to see if she wants to sell her movie to Walt Disney.  Walt is played by oscar-nominated Tom Hanks and I think Hancock did a good job with depicting him.  He is this happy man, but also a man who usually gets what he wants.  This is interesting because Mrs. Travers is not just handing Mary Poppins over to Walt and that frustrates him.  Hancock did a job in showing the struggles that Mrs. Travers and the production crew had to go through in order to make the movie.

Although this movie would seem like in was made for older viewers, this movie is recommended for all disney lovers.  Getting the story behind a classic movie such as Mary Poppins fascinated me.  Hancock also does a good job of throwing the element of comedy in there to keep his viewers entertained.  The way Hancock portrays P. L. Travers is quite funny to.  The way she acts around Walt and the rest of the production crew is comical.  Everyone in the Disney corporation is jolly and happy, while Mrs. Travers brings this negative mood to the story which adds comedy in itself.  I like how she sees Walt as just another man and not this guy who is rich.  I also love how she degrades Walt and he can’t do anything about it because he really wants Mary Poppins to become a his next big movie.  Mrs. Travers may seem like a sassy, arrogant women, but it just adds on to the entertainment value of the movie.

The only dull moments in the movie were probably the flashbacks in the movie.  They were important for telling the background story of the movie, but as an audience member, they were kind of boring.  They were kind of a killjoy because they took us away from the sassy Mrs. Travers arguing with the production crew.  And it pulled us away from the Sherman brothers singing the songs such as “Spoonful of Sugar” and “Lets go Fly a Kite.”  Never-the-less, these flashbacks were just as important to the plot as the present day scenes.

Like his other movie “The Blind Side,” Hancock has once again told a story about struggles in life and how to overcome them. It shows how one woman’s love for her father can ultimately lead to a story about a woman who saves the children’s father from becoming separated from his kids. This movie is a must see for everyone and I highly recommend it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140373/

First off, I want to say that I was not expecting the main character Mark to be this killer who wants to see the reactions of women right before they are about to die.  But Mark throughout the movie starts to be pictured as this creepy and mysterious guy who hides up in his room making film all the time.  But I personally think that deep down inside that he is actually a caring person.

The first thing we can notice about Mark is that he always has his camera with him.  This is significant because he uses the camera whenever there are women around him.  When he was taking pictures of the models in the bedroom, he was very eager to film the red headed women.  The scenes he films can also portray Mark as a mysterious man.  For instance, he films the police investigating the women he has killed.  To me, that seems a little weird to be filming the women he just killed.  Another thing that he does that might seem a little creepy is that he makes his film in this dark and hidden room.  It might be coincidence that this room just so happens to be a dark room, but it adds to the effect that Mark is this unusual man.

The movie does a good job to portray Mark as this creepy man, but I honestly do not see Mark as that man.  As a kid he was traumatized by all the experiments that his dad did on him and I feel sorry that his childhood had to be like that.  But deep down inside, he does show that he cares about other people besides himself.  We first see this in the case where Mark allows Helen to come up to his apartment and give her a gift.  And he even stated that no one else has been in his apartment before so he must have shown some affection towards Helen.  Another instance where he shows that he cares about Helen is when they go on a date and Helen asks Mark to leave his camera behind.  He was reluctant at first, but he finally decided to leave his camera behind.  That was a huge step for Mark because he never goes anywhere without his camera.  But I think that the most significant instance where he shows that he has a heart is when he is about to kill Helen.  Normally he would kill the women he films, but in this case he restrains himself because he shows that he actually cares about Helen.

Mark is a interesting man in this movie because you can look at him in two perspectives.  You can see him as this killer who only wants to get scenes for his movie.  Or you can see him as a caring man who went through rough times and you want to feel sorry for him.  It was sad to seem him die in the movie because I feel as though he could have changed with a little therapy help just like Helen’s mom has suggested.  And on a closing note, I do not know what Helen saw in Mark to begin with.

Singin’ in the Rain has always an enjoyable film to watch ever since I was a little kid.  And after watching this film again, I see a connection with the first High School Musical.  I’m not saying by any means that I like High School Musical, but there are similarities in the movies that can not go unnoticed.  The most obvious connection is that these are both musicals of course.  But another similarity is that Sharpay is like Lina in a sense.  Sharpay is this popular girl who is atop the drama department like how Lina is famous actor at Monumental studios.  And then Sharpay tries to sabotage Gabriella’s chance of being the lead actor in the play by changing the audition time so Gabriella can’t make it.  In Lina’s case, she has Kathy fired and she tries to ruin Kathy’s career by having her lip sing in all of her movies.  But in both situations, Troy and Don both find ways to save their lovers career.

After talking about this in class, I think my opinion has changed on Lina and I actually feel a little bit sorry for her.  A lot of movies and tv shows always have that character who is just stupid but funny at the same time.  For example, in Spongebob, the character would be Patrick Star and in the Hangover, it’s Alan.  It’s just a shame that Lina had to be the antagonist and the stupid character at the same time.  And there are parts of the movies where she appears to be dumb but it really is not her fault for acting like this.  In the scene where the director is trying to place the microphone inside Lina’s shoulder, she moves her head around so the sound fluctuates and sounds awful.  But it really could have been anyone who would had trouble speaking into the microphone because in the movie the date was 1927 and a lot of those people had not used a microphone in their acting careers.

Another thing to feel sorry for about Lina is that she was trying to sabotage Kathy’s career just so she can save her own.  And by doing this, she is seen as the antagonist of the movie.  But I can see why she trying to sabotage Kathy’s career because it probably would  have left her without an acting job.  And I know there are people that are thinking the same thing too because there are people out there who want to keep their jobs and they will do anything even if it means ruining someone else.  By no means do I approve of this, but I’m just saying I can see where Lina was coming from.  And it’s not like Kathy would have been out of a job.  She still was getting paid for talking and singing for Lina.  Sure she would not have the fame, but she probably will still be employed unlike Lina when they found out the truth.

I don’t know if this was planned, but I thought this movie was a great segue because we had just finished talking about soundless movies with orchestras playing live.  And the movie Royal Rascal was an example that was like “Sherlock Jr” and “Man with a Movie Camera.”