Hayden McKee

One of the stories that I’ve seen several different versions of is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This is a character that I became interested in ever since I was a kid, since I had grown up on the original Universal monster movies. The reason I feel like talking about this story is because I recently rewatched Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola, which is a very faithful adaptation of the book with so many striking visuals and amazing effects. Gary Oldman is at probably his best as Dracula when he has to play several different versions of the character, which shows off how much range he has. It also has Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing, who great in this too and the rest of the younger cast is fine enough.

The Universal one from 1933 is a classic, but it’s also one of the first sound movies, so there’s several scenes that don’t have music and a lot of the actors are still coming off of the silent era. Bela Lugosi is the perfect version of Dracula, he just has too much of an iconic look. There even is a Spanish version of this movie made at the same time that uses the same sets and scripts, but has different actors playing the roles. It’s interesting to check out, especially after watching the Bela Lugosi one.

Christopher Lee was pretty terrifying as Dracula in the Hammer films and the most recent Dracula Untold was a strange way to try to start a cinematic universe, which went nowhere. There’s several other versions of Dracula that I have yet to see, proving that it is a great classic story with each movie having their own merits.

Even though I was a huge fan of both Spider-Man and Venom as a kid, I could not stand the standalone Venom movie from a few years back. Taking away Spider-Man’s role from the story takes away all of both Eddie and Venom’s motivation to do what they do and these movies do kind of prove that his character is much weaker and less interesting without the complete symbiote story. Not to mention how the movie felt like it was confused on whether it wanted to be a serious film or comedy, and not like how the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies were able to juggle both of these genres perfectly, more like they wanted to do a serious film, but half way through production, they changed their minds. Mix all this with some choppy effects, bad dialogue, and a really bland villain. It has a cult following, but it was a huge letdown for me.

With this new movie, it felt more realized what they wanted to do with it. It just goes for a straight up comedy/action film that doesn’t over stay its welcome with just an hour and a half runtime. There are plenty of scenes where Eddie and Venom play off of each other pretty well, especially in a scene where they get fed up with each other and start fighting. Woody Harrelson as Carnage is a much more memorable villain than the last one with Woody just hamming it up in many of the scenes along with Carnage causing a lot of destruction and mayhem. There are still plenty of problems with it when it comes to dialogue, effects, and some missed opportunities, but this is one that I actually had fun watching.

After James Wan had directed a handful of horror movies about ghosts and possession, he comes to the genre for something completely different. Without giving away anything about the twist, it is definitely something that has so many people split. The movie actually takes a lot of inspiration from older Italian horror films, or “giallo”, where the use several tropes from those movies, like the use of neon lights, a mysterious black-glove killer, and over the top violence.

This also seems like a movie that’s self aware and doesn’t take itself too seriously. This does make the movie more fun than scary, which can lose a lot of people who were expecting a movie similar to James Wan’s other movies like the Conjuring or Insidious. It can also be blamed on a lot of the advertisement where they tried to make it look more like those movies. It’s overall a really entertaining movie that I can see becoming a cult classic in the future. I just find it surprising that a big budget studio like Warner Bros would allow to make a movie this strange and unconventional. Maybe because James Wan already made them a billion dollars with his Aquaman movie that they just allowed him to do whatever he wants and I’m glad he got to make it.

I have been a fan of Clint Eastwood’s films for awhile, especially the ones that he directs himself. I think that Unforgiven, High Plains Drifter, and the Outlaw Josey Wales are some of the best westerns out there for how much they show how bleak the wild west was. Clint Eastwood’s character is never really show to be the perfect hero, his character can even be such a huge scumbag, but that’s part of what makes his characters interesting.

With Cry Macho and the Mule, Clint Eastwood comes back to both starring and directing in now “neo-westerns”, which is basically movies that act as westerns in the modern day. It is impressive that he is still able to do all this in his 90s and the films are always still well made and look nice. I give all these props to his new movie, but at the same time, there are still some things that make this not hold up to his earlier movies. Unforgiven was a great example of Clint showing how much he has aged through out the years with him still pulling through and also having an all star cast with people like Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. But now, he still uses that theme of being out of his prime 30 years after Unforgiven, which now is also just not as effective. The cast in this movie also isn’t that great. Besides Clint, the rest of the cast seems to be not that experienced, so their dramatic performance can come off as awkward. Surprisingly, the rooster “Macho” has the most impressive performance out of everyone. That is definitely a really well trained rooster.

Cry Macho is overall a really well made movie with some things holding it down from being great. I probably wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, as I can see a lot of people being bored of it, but if you’re into Clint Eastwood’s other work, this is still a pretty good one.

When comparing both criticism and cynicism together, I feel that people can often get the two confused as one. The idea of cynicism is a bleaker example of how people approach someone or a craft of media, having their attitude be more from a selfish and close-minded approach. Criticism, on the other hand, is actually a great way for people to share their thoughts on something in order for improvement for the person the criticism is directed to. When it comes to creating art or doing work, there is always room for improvement, and when people are willing to give you constructive criticism, they want to see you improve as well.  

When we start out in doing what we like and creating stuff, we go through plenty of trial and error till we figure out what finally works. There are times where we are not able to recognize when we are lacking in a certain area and there is plenty of people out there who care enough about your work and are able to point out those flaws. This doesn’t mean that they are coming from a cynical approach and I don’t think that’s the first thing we should think when receiving criticism from anyone.  

The one question that sparks my interest in media is “Why waste your time with it?” There are several activities we do for entertainment purposes or just to burn time, but what is it when it comes to movies, shows and games that make us want to invest so much time into them? There are already so many mediums to cover such as news and social media that we use in our daily lives, but I want to cover the ones that focus on storytelling. People come to either movies or TV shows, because they want to get lost in an interesting story and use it as a form of escapism. People enjoy being shown these worlds through media for several reasons, including having some relatability to certain characters that helps give them a connection, and also getting involved in drama and situations that we cannot experience in the real world. 

It is not just about the story itself though, people are able to get a lot of enjoyment and appreciation through the visuals and deeper meaning of a film, which helps these mediums become an artform with several layers to it. This is also part of want inspires younger people to want to be able to tell their own stories and be able to express themselves, and over the years, it seems that more and more people are getting involved with these medium, whether it be by watching them or being part of the production.  

My name is Hayden McKee and I am a student of Creative Media Productions. I’m mostly into movies, I love watching them, either new or old, and always love discussing them. I enjoy creating shorts on YouTube and I hope to be able to work in the industry in the future.