Tag Archives: Movie

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Moana’ movie review

Leave a comment

By: Seng Yang

The movie ‘Moana’ released in 2016 and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, is an animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is set in the Polynesian islands of the South Pacific. The film tells us about a young girl named Moana who goes on a daring journey to save her island and discover her true destiny as the chosen one. Moana is the spirited daughter of Chief Tui on the island of Motunui. She has always felt a deep connection with the ocean and yearns to explore beyond the reef, despite her father’s wishes for her to become the island’s next leader.

When Moana’s island is threatened by a blight, she sets sail on a quest to find the demigod Maui who stole the heart of Te Fiti, the goddess who creates life. Moana faces challenges, learns about her people’s rich history, seafaring heritage, and discovers her own strengths.

In my opinion, I love the movie ‘Moana”’ as it is one of my all time favorites. I love how it explores the themes of courage, identity, and the importance of following one’s heart and embracing one’s heritage. On her journey to return the heart of Te Fiti, not only did she succeed and save her people and home, but she made connections on the way and she discovered herself and personal growth. She overcame obstacles, learned valuable lessons about leadership, empathy, and the interconnectedness of living things.

Some other things I love about this movie is that the movie is for all ages, not only for children. It includes one’s culture, vibrant characters, and great colors/animation.

I would rate ‘Moana’ a 5/5 because it’s one of those movies where it makes you want to show others that you can do anything and even if you face such challenges you shouldn’t give up.

Overall, I think the movie ‘Moana’ has a beautiful and inspirational message.

You can watch ‘Moana’ on Disney+.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Downtown Owl’ movie review

Leave a comment

By: Sophia Elmstrom & Lily Sheldon

(Warning: Rated R)

As many may know, in April of 2022, the students at Highland would end their school day and see cameras and trailers outside everywhere. Out of all the schools to film a movie, why would they choose ours? Well, that’s because the movie was based out of the 80’s, and our school hasn’t changed much since the 80’s. It was exciting knowing that a film was being created in our town and our school. Getting to see the classrooms we sit in and halls we walk in every day on a big screen was something pretty special. They even used our football field for a lot of scenes. The movie came out, called ‘Downtown Owl’, and we wanted to give our thoughts on it.

First, here is a quick rundown on the movie. ‘Downtown Owl’, it was based on the novel by Chuck Klosterman. It is set in the isolated, fictional town of Owl, North Dakota in the 1980’s and there are 3 main characters that the story follows: Horace, Mitch, and Julia. Horace is an old man who spends most of his days at the local coffee shop in town, Mitch is a depressed high school back up quarterback, and Julia is the new English teacher at Owl High School, who moved to the town for a semester so she could be out of the way while her husband gets his PhD. The story follows their lives in Owl and how they all become connected and a part of each other’s lives. Julia begins to make friendships, and a possible romance, as she tries to escape her home life with her husband by going to the small town. The movie leads up to the massive whiteout blizzard (based on the one in Minnesota) that enters the town towards the end of the movie.

After watching this film, here are our thoughts: The movie had a very small town, nostalgic feel, which made you feel like you really got to know the characters. The trailers to the movie got you very captivated and interested in watching the movie. But honestly, the trailer was better than the film. The plot was very confusing and vague, it quickly became hard to understand what was going on. It seemed like the whole time you were waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did. There were also some points in the movie that felt just a little bit off. For example, there was a teacher student relationship, but it didn’t seem a huge issue to the characters, it also seemed normal or like they weren’t concerned about this at all.

The film also seemed low-budget, as the bell would ring for the students to go to class, you would only ever see 2 or 3 students walking in the halls. There were also a couple scenes with the football team, and they only ever showed around 5-7 players, even when the whole “team” was gathered in the locker room during halftime of a game. It seemed like they should have had a few more extras in the movie to just make it feel like a more realistic high school experience.

Overall, we felt like this movie had a cozy small midwestern town feel to it but it had no clear plot. It felt like the movie was put together quickly with no conflict or resolution of anything. On many other people’s ratings they agree with our take on this movie; many thought there was no clear plot. Many other reviews also said that the trailer looked very captivating but when they finally got to watching the movie they were let down. This movie got a 49% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.9/10 on IMDb. We agree with these ratings and it really shows how much the plot needed to be thickened. We believe that the idea of this movie was a very good idea though.

We rate this movie a 4/10 because of the fact that there is no clear plot.

Movies/TV/Theaters

End of year movie reviews

By Gigi LeFebvre

Reviews of two of the latest big releases, The Fault in our Stars and X-Men: Days of Future Past


The Fault in Our Stars

Whether you follow the hype of young adult novels/series becoming movies, you can’t deny how well they’re doing for the box-office. Movie franchises that started off as book series like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter have been the kind of investments that make money because of its large base, and The Fault in Our Stars is no different.

Hazel Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) has a terminal lung cancer that should’ve killed her years ago but still lives thanks to a lot of medication and an air tank. She meets Gus Waters (Ansel Elgort) after a cancer support group and the two strike up a bond unlike any other romance movie. Based on the best selling novel by John Green, the story is one for the ages, even if it is not a happy one.

A good movie formula is this: Good Writer + Fantastic Cast – Long Running Franchise=Oscar Worthy, this movie has everything it needs and more. Sure, this movie might be taken for granted because of all the young actors and it being based on a young adult novel, but it shouldn’t.

This moving film is filled with life lessons that even the healthiest of people should learn from; life is not a wish granting factory, and making an impact on one person is more important that making an impact on the whole world. Though this movie is hard to get through because of the reality of death and cancer, it is surprisingly heartwarming.

Five Stars and Two Tissue Boxes

You can read about the girl that inspired the book and the organization “This Star Won’t Go Out” here—>http://tswgo.org/our-mission.html

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Marvel Studios is famous for its Summer Blockbusters. This summer, they’re already making millions with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. So it was a bit shocking to find that X-Men: Days of Future Past wasn’t as good as expected.

Set in a apocalyptic future where Mutants are being hunted into extinction by Sentinels, robots created by humans that can detect Mutant DNA even in the most normal looking disguise. The only way to stop them is by going back into the past and stopping Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from causing this dark future. Which sounded like a good idea in the comics when Shadowcat (Ellen Page) goes into the future, but in the movie they had to change a few things in order to work with the story line of the movies. So much to nobody’s surprise, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back.

As a person who loves the X-Men, I had some expectations that this movie would make me forget that The Last Stand ever happened, which it did. However, this movie was very hard to follow. With the conflicting storyline between what happens in the comics and what happened in the movies, there was no way to properly execute what could happen next for the X-Men. Bryan Singer, the director of Days of Future Past, tried to connect what he had done in First Class to the older movies in order to make a brighter future for the franchise, which seems nearly impossible.

Despite all the great actors and great story, this movie was boring and confusing. Not to mention I couldn’t even count how many times Wolverine said, “By the way, I’m for the future”.

Marvel has been beating the dead horse known as the X-Men franchise for too long, making two solo Wolverine movies and First Class. Frankly, if they want to make things right, a reboot with a new cast is what’s going to do it. It’s very hard to fix a vase that’s been thrown out an airplane.

Three Stars because Quicksilver was the only thing I really enjoyed.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Movie review – ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

By Gigi LeFebvre

Whether you’re a fan or not, it’s hard to ignore the hype that’s been radiating from the second movie installment of The Hunger Games franchise: Catching Fire. The trilogy, written by Suzanne Collins, has made itself at home at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list since the first book was published. Now, its movies are setting up shop at the top of the box office. On opening night, the domestic box office totaled approximately $25 million, and the weekend of release brought it up to $136.1 million.

Many people complained and were put off by the first movie: from shaky camera shots to Liam Hemsworth’s brooding looks, or the grisly fact that twenty four kids were forced to fight to the death for entertainment as people watched. However, many may rest assured knowing that with a new director and a bigger budget that Catching Fire is a film you should not miss.

The movie takes place a few months after the events of the first movie. Katniss Everdeen, played by Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, returns home after winning the 74th Hunger Games with her fellow tribute and fake lover Peeta Mallark (Josh Hutcherson). The two of them then have to embark on the Capitol’s victory tour, where they visit all twelve districts. Katniss and Peeta won the games by attempting to eat poisonous berries. Many people in the Capitol saw this as just an act of love, while people in the districts saw the underlining meaning of defiance. This is what ignites the revolts and rebellions within the districts that Katniss visits during the tour. Katniss and Peeta then find themselves being forced to participate in the Quarter Quell, a special Hunger Games that takes place every 25 years. This time they are up against past winners of the Hunger Games from the other districts.

As a fan of the books, I saw The Hunger Games last year at the ungodly hour of 3:15 AM on the day it came out. So naturally, I then saw Catching Fire at 11:30 PM on the night before its release. Nevertheless, I was not disappointed, even though a scene I was anxious to see was cut out. Despite reading these books many times, I still found myself sitting at the edge of my seat thinking, “Run! Run! Run! Run! Run!”. Half of the movie is intense drama that leads up to thrilling action and suspense that doesn’t stop until the credits roll.

Fans of the books will enjoy not only the new actors like Sam Claflin (cast as Finnick Odair of District 4) and Jena Malone (cast as Johanna Mason from District 7), but the use of direct quotes from the books. I found that to be the most exciting thing. Even if you’re not a super involved fan or you haven’t read the books, you can still enjoy the story. The aesthetically pleasing scenery and graphics make this dystopian world all the more believable and real. The performances given by these talented actors and actresses are moving and powerful. Relatively obscure actors and actresses like Clafin will leave lasting impressions. I was exceptionally moved by Jennifer Lawrence’s portrayal of PTSD, which her character developed from being in the last games.

However, this movie is obviously not for everyone. There’s less blood and gore compared to the last movie, but there are scenes with loud explosions and noises that might give you a jolt. Unless you disapprove of violence and death, you shouldn’t have much to worry about with this movie. I recommend that you see it.