The Nutty Professor

• Title: The Nutty Professor
• Year of Release: 1996
• Director:  Tom Shadyac
• Produced by:Brian Grazer & Russell Simmons
• Major Actors/Actresses:       Eddie Murphy as Professor Sherman Klump/ Buddy Love

Murphy also plays Papa Cletus Klump (Sherman’s father), Mama Anna Klump (Sherman’s mother), Granny Klump (Sherman’s Grandma), Ernie Klump, Sr. (Sherman’s brother) and Lance Perkins, a parody of Richard Simmons

Jada Pinkett as Carla Purty, James Coburn as Harlan Hartley, Larry Miller as Dean Richmond, Dave Chapelle as Reggie Warrington, John Ales as Jason, Jamal Mixon as Ernie Klump Jr, Montell Jordan as himself

Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor would be an interpreter actor as he is able to “take material and put his own stamp on it” as he did playing Professor Klump in this film as a completely different person, personality and physique. In the Table scene of this movie Murphy is playing all characters except the son which is amazing and shows how controversial he is.  He would also be a character actor as well because he is “able to fit invisibly into a wide variety of disparate characters, adapting to the needs of each script and director they work with”. (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014) In the scene where he apologizes to Pinkett as Buddy, he plays a more genuine role and himself as a man in love. However, Eddie Murphy can play lots of characters as he also has played a cop in Beverly Hills Cop and a prince in Coming to America so you never know what kind of character he will be playing.

 

Jada Pinkett Smith also plays a major role in this movie as a personality actor because she is able to play pretty much any part thrown her way however, she plays more sentimental roles. In the clip below from the movie she plays a pretty girl whom Murphy is fantasizing about. Pinkett has also played hard core in “Set It Off” as a bank robber and comedy in “Low Down Dirty Shame” so I would say she is also a character as well.

Now Dave Chappell is an impersonator all the way. He started off being a comedian and continued with impersonating people all over the world including in this film with his standup comedy scene. He too has played in a variety of comedies like Half Baked which he was also a little softer in as he was in love in this movie and Block Party.

Each of these actors play a major role in film and are stars to me however Eddie Murphy will forever be a comedian, interpreter and character actor because majority of his films are created around him either switching to a new character or being a voice to a character like Donkey in Shrek.

References:

Dave Chappelle In The Nutty Professor. YouTube. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ8K0UpHEec

Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2011).  Film: From Watching to Seeing.  San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Half Baked (6/10) Movie CLIP – A Cheap Date With Mary Jane (1998) HD. YouTube. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHPnUPFcxdE

Set it Off- Sad scene- tee tee gets murdered. YouTube. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsJi0NnncHs

Shrek – That’s what friends are for. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzLEjzvygYE

The Nutty Professor – Eddie Murphy Table Scene OFFICIAL HD VIDEO. You Tube. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F01j4WWOLnA

The Nutty Professor (5/12) Movie CLIP – Heavy Kissing (1996) HD. YouTube: Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxqfCmo2drM

 

LIAR LIAR

Title: Liar Liar

Writer: Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur

Director: Tom Shadyac

Year: 1997

Actors: Jim Carrey as Fletcher Reede, Maura Tierney as Audrey Reede, Justin Cooper as Max Reede

Story: Liar Liar is a hilarious comedy about an attorney and a father who is struggling to be a great father to his child from a divorce due to being a workaholic. Part of his job is to win cases by telling one or two lies here and there and part of his character is to never tell people the truth when asked of him.

 

Plot: The movie starts out with Fletcher (Carey) winning another case and rushing to get to his son on time because he is either always late or doesn’t show at all. His son Max (Cooper) loves his dad and just wants to spend time with him and or him to stop telling lies. Carey’s fiancé has moved on with her life and met someone’s who adores her son in which Carey doesn’t really like. The fiancé is caring and really loves his new family that Carey left behind due to work.

 

When Carey lands a new case he is eager to win so that he can become partner but he has to lie in order to win. He impresses his bosses by even being able to get the client to choose their firm and their plan worked in which they didn’t expect he was as god of attorney as others thought. Right before it’s time for Carey to go to trial he missing his son’s birthday party due to sexual intercourse with one of the partners and Max (Cooper) makes a wish that his father doesn’t tell a lie for an entire day.

 

At this time Carey is telling everyone the truth in which comes off very mean and hurting everyone’s feelings. He also had to meet with the head attorney for the firm to impress him to become partner but because he can’t lie he goes off to talk about everyone in the meeting. His truthfulness was well liked by everyone and he was in the running to becoming partner. During this time his fiancé has been asked to get married and move out of state, Carey promises that he would not miss another day with his son. While in court he assumed he would win the case and it would be over in time to meet his son. However, he could not lie to the case was postponed only for him to think of a true fact and law that supports his client and he wins the case. It is now too late and his son and ex-wife are already on a plane.

 

In conclusion Carey went to stop his family from leaving and he realizes that telling lies doesn’t get him anywhere and he really loves his son and his family. They all get back together and are happy with telling the truth.

 

The impact of the sound of this film is what makes this movie because throughout majority of the movie Carey was struggling with whether or not to tell the truth. The sounds that he replaces his words with makes this film hilarious. The music scoring “what plays in the background of a scene while action takes place” is also great in this film. Every time Carey is late and forced to meet his son on time the music made it more interesting and hilarious because it was fast indicating he was in a hurry and anxious.

 

The sound in this film definitely places this film in the comedy genre because Carey makes sounds and faces with everything he says in this movie. In the scene where he realizes his client was under age he has sound and funny gestures that made this one of the funniest scenes in this movie to me. Carey was able to get action and sound from the entire court room because he always told a joke unintentionally the entire time while confusing everyone because they had no clue why he wasn’t playing the good attorney that he was known for.

 

The clip when they first got to court was a funny scene as well. Not having any dialogue come out while Carey was trying to tell the truth which also played a huge part in this film. Throughout the movie Carey has scenes where he struggled with lying and made all kinds of funny and weird noises that threw the other actors off. In turn making them have the funniest looks on their faces giving the audiences a sense of exactly what they are thinking without saying it. In the end this film probably would have been more in the romantic comedy genre or the drama genre with all the extra sound effects Carey displayed through the film as well as him not making any sound at all. This aspect of this film is what made the film and without I don’t think I would have watched it. This film is a great use of dialogue, sound and music scoring and I loved it and couldn’t stop laughing.

 

Resources:

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.

Jim Carrey: Ace Attorney. YouTube. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDnqr_WZWF4

 

Liar (3/9) Movie CLIP – I Can’t Lie! (1997) HD. YouTube. Retrieved from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geiS49_p84Q

The Lion King

The lion King is an animated film about family and love and betrayal. This is one of my favorite movie and I the lighting in this movie is outstanding in so many ways.

I am going to discuss the clip ‘Morning Lesson with Mufasa’.

The type of lighting used here is high key lighting where the “design has very bright light overeverything, with few shadows and relativelylow contrast between the lightest anddarkest parts of the scene”. (Goodykoontz & Jacobs) This scene shows the sun and the overall lighting of the land that appears to expand and makes it look like they are on top of the world. In this clip the lighting was very significant because it made you focus in on the lesson that Mufasa was telling his son. The lighting made the scene warm and loving in which I believe was the intent because there was a lesson about family and life in this clip. Ha this clip been in a low key lighting style it would have appeared to be sad and non-emotional. I also see that there is lots of natural light in this clip of course because they are outside but they could have chosen a different location for this discussion and it would not have come off to be as sentimental.

I also chose the scene where Mufasa and Scar were fighting and he pretty much left him for dead. This particular scene had lots of low lighting and a little natural light coming in and out as Scar was holding Mufasa over the clip. If the lighting would have been in high key then this scene would not have been as dramatic as it was. Because of the low key lighting choice, this scene made viewer relate to Mufasa and feel for him as if they were a part of the movie. I was angry and cried at the same time so the lighting choices were great.

Majority of this movie had high key and natural lighting which went very well with the animation aspect of this film. It also had lots of special effects, mainly rear projection “in which scenes playbehind actors to create the illusion of movement or to make it appear as if actorson a studio soundstage were in different settings, would further enhance effects”. (Goodykoontz & Jacobs) These things together made the lighting go very well with the musical genre this film is included in because when the land was good and happy we knew it and when it was sad and in distress we knew as well all.

This technique contributed to this film because if we didn’t has lighting and special effect for this musical we would not have been able to place ourselves in the animal characters. The lighting made the forest and the animals very pretty and magical and made you want to go to their land. It also had its scary moments where you thought what happened but that was the transition we needed on the movie to tell the story of how love, happiness and family can conquer all with patience.

References

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Mecchi, & Roberts (1994). The Lion King 3D – ‘Morning Lesson With Mufasa’- Official Disney Movie Clip. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7PlTaawfQ

Hello world!

Title: The Breakfast Club

Writer: John Hughes

Director: John Hughes

Year: 1985

Actors: Judd Nelson, John Bender, the criminal, Molly Ringwald, Claire Standish, the princess, Emilio Estevez, Andrew “Andy” Clark, the athlete, Anthony Michael Hall, Brian Ralph Johnson, the brain, Ally Sheed, Allison Reynolds, the basket case, Paul Gleason, Richard “Dick” Vernon, the school assistant principal, John Kapelos, Carl Reed, the school janitor

Story: The Breakfast Club is an 80’s movie about five very different teenagers who end up in Saturday detention together after never talking to each other in school. They are being monitored by the principle who isn’t giving any slack and asks them to write an essay about who they think they are. While in detention they get to know each other and find love, friendship and a new perspective on life.

Plot: This movie starts out with five teenagers who landed Saturday detention that knew nothing about each other. They all wore different clothes, had different lunches, parents, and attitudes all together. They had never spoken to each other in school because of the crowds that they were linked up with. You had Claire who was the princess type girl that was popular and had money. Then you had John who came from a poorer environment and parents always fought and even sometime fought him. Allison was the one everybody thought was crazy, however, she was very smart and hid behind baggy clothes. Andy was the school jock and popular as well but he had problems at home well with his parents and their expectations. Then there Brian who was the nerd and had very low self-esteem. The kids are being monitored this day by Principal Dick and he really doesn’t care for the students nor his job so he gives them an essay assignment to occupy their time while their there. He also has a control issue and lets them know not to mess with him.

As the movies goes along these kids do everything they can to put each other down and try and understand each other at the same time. The start to have conversations and realize that they are no different from the other. They had these personal conversation with each other while under the influence and realize that they all are forced to play the everyday role that they play in school.

They learned that John played the tough guy and really was very soft and sensitive. Because he had to fight so many battles at home and was being bullied at home he had to play tough at school. Claire was very pretty and had whatever she wanted but her parents never paid her any attention and she didn’t think for herself just to be cool. Ally just allowed herself to be the crazy girl because she was simply shy. Brian wanted to kill himself because of all the pressure of getting good grades and not having a popular life. Then Andy was just fulfilling his father’s dreams.

While breaking the ice they all decide to break out of the library because they were bored and falling asleep. The sneaked around the entire school trying to get back to the library before the principle catches them all while getting help from the janitor who totally understood the kids. The principle was just there to do a job and cared nothing about the kids except that they listen to him. John got caught to save everyone else and at that moment is when they all bounded again. John was removed from the rest of the students and snuck back into the library. The girls got closer and Claire did a makeover on Ally and made her look beautiful. John and Claire hooked up as well as Ally and Andy.

Brian was in charge of writing an essay for all of them together instead of each one of the separately. He explained how people are different and without communication you can and will never know what people are going through. They promised each other that they would be friends and talk to each other when they got to school on Monday and everyone was happy in the end.

Non-linearly: This movie was in non-linearly order. Throughout the movie we got bits and pieces of the student’s backgrounds and how they became the people we saw on screen. The stories and the way they had to talk about their past made them gradually open up and trust each other.

If this movie would have showed scene from each of the students homes and their situations up front it would have been so much more predictable and maybe even boring. The students being forced to get to know each other in a short time was a life lesson to them all. They would have never been friends if they would have spoken in the school hallway. We would have already known why they acted the way they did and them they story would have been over very soon.

Resources:

Hughes, J., Friesen, G., Meyer, A., Tanen, N., Estevez, E., Gleason, P., Hall, A. M., … Universal Studios Home Entertainment (Firm),. (2008). The breakfast club.

The Breakfast Club Trailer (1985, September 13) Retrieved From: https://youtu.be/ZXzlCpHK3-I