THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

The Last Man on Earth is a 1964 science fiction, staring famous horror film actor Vincent Price. This movie is based on the novel, I Am Legend, sound familiar? That is because I Am Legend is one of the remakes of this film. Now in remakes, there are differences from the original: some good, some bad. In both movies, the story is about a man that lives in an isolated environment and is starving for companionship, while trying to survive the dangers of the outside world. In The Last Man on Earth, Vincent Price is defending himself from what used to be humans, but are now, as he describes them, to be killer vampires. In I Am Legend, however, the protagonist is more of the character (Will Smith) fighting off zombies with cancer. In the original, it seems like Vincent Price is more used to how things are and maybe a little more tired and angry at the fact that he’s all alone, in I Am Legend Will Smith is trying to make things normal, he tries to go on with his life knowing he could be the last human out there, but you can see that he’s losing it little by little. I’ll admit the special effects are better in the new version but both story lines are very good. The background stories, the hatred of being alone, and the big question of wondering if everything will ever go back to the way it was before.

SOME LIKE IT HOT

  Some Like it Hot stars the very funny Jack Lemmon, the very famous Marilyn Monroe, and Jamie Lee Curtis’ father Tony Curtis. It was filmed in 1958 and was released in 1959, the movie is about two musicians who are in need of work and accidentally witness a murder. The murder was committed by mob leader Spats Colombo played by George Raft, who notices the two musicians. Terrified, the two decided to flee to Miami with another band, except that band is an all-girl band. Now in this movie the two must disguise themselves as women, but back then everything was very modest and appropriate. When they showed the prescreening for this film a lot of people left the screening; covering their children’s eyes and feeling appalled by what they saw in the film. After that the studio decided to get a whole new group of random people, and once they showed it to this group, they loved it. These days we wouldn’t find it that inappropriate, we would just find it as good clean fun, unlike today's movies with all the vulgar language and unnecessary nudity. So choose your movies, clean, fun or slutty trash, but sometimes it depends on the time.

DR. ZHIVAGO

Recently, I watched a movie called Dr. Zhivago, and as I watched it I noticed some similarities to some same stuff happening in our world today. In the movie, Dr. Zhivago is very creative; he loves to write poetry and he loves watching his window get covered in ice in the winter and watch all the little shapes it would make. He also enjoys seeing spring appear with all the flowers blooming. The government however does not approve.  They do not like how Dr. Zhivago talks about his religion in his poetry, they don’t like what he believes in.  Basically, they do not like how he’s not following in what they believe in. The government controls everything: everyone is equal (rich or poor), and even children are taken from their families at the government’s orders. Can anyone tell me about a government that is similar today?

CLINT EASTWOOD

Clinton Eastwood Jr., a hard core American actor, was born in San Francisco on May 13, 1930. He was noticed by an assistant who was working for Universal Studios and arranged for him to meet Arthur Lubin, director of the series Rawhide. Lubin was impressed with Clint’s appearance and 6-foot-4-inch (1.93m) frame, but Lubin was a bit skeptical about Clint’s acting skills. Clint was a little bit amateur in his audition and had no sense of direction either. But after taking a few acting classes, he signed for a $100 per week contract. Clint did get criticized about his stiff mannerisms, hissing his lines out and of course his now famous squint.

I like him not only as a director but also as a great actor. In all of his movies and along with many other actors, Clint gets different characters, except… it almost looks like he’s not trying to act. His real personality relates to his characters, which makes his acting look a little more real.  He always keeps to himself in his movies and is quiet in the background somewhere.  He never acts like the main character or the hero in his movies, even when he’s directing a movie that stars himself in it, like The Outlaw of Josey Whales.

When Clint Eastwood was born, he was 11lbs, 6oz and (5.2.kg) he was known to be the biggest baby born in his town.  Now, he is known as an actor, director, producer, composer, and politician. Clint will always be known for one of his best characters, “the Man with No Name”, from Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy along with other famous spaghetti westerns like my favorite: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Eastwood has done over 50 films in his career as actor, director, producer, and composer. He acted in several televised series, mostly starring in Rawhide of course. He started his directing career in 1971, and in 1982 he debut as a producer for Firefox. Clint also contributed music to his movies by composing, writing, or even by performing. Eastwood has mainly starred in westerns, action, and dramas. He is a wonderful actor and director and we all cherish his squint!

MGM

Metro-Golden-Mayer is an American media company known for their distribution of movies and their televised programing. MGM was once the biggest and most phenomenal film studio out there. The studio was founded in 1924 by entertainment’s own entrepreneur Marcus Loew, who gained access to Metro Pictures and Goldwyn Pictures Corporation along with Louis B. Mayer pictures. Its headquarters is in Beverly Hills, California.

MGM’s official motto is ”Ars Gratia Artis,” and for those of you who don’t speak Latin, it means “Art for art sake.” This motto was chosen by the studio’s chief publicist Howard Dietz. The logo for MGM is the shot of a lion roaring, surrounded by a ring of film with the studio’s motto inscribed on it. This image was also created by Dietz who made it in 1916 for Goldwyn Pictures, then updated it in 1924 for MGM’s use. Dietz got the idea for the logo from his Alma Mater’s mascot, the Columbia University Lion. Originally the image was silent; the actual roar was added for the first time in August of 1928.

At the end of the silent film era to the late 1950’S, Metro-Golden –Mayer was the big time motion pictures studio in Hollywood. It slowly responded to the legal changes of the 1950’s and 1960’s in the economic and demographic nature of the motion picture industry of those times. Although at times the studio’s films did well at the box office they were still losing money throughout the 1960’s. MGM has worked with legendary icons such as Lucile Ball, Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly.  MGM has done 4,100 memorable films that inspired many new comers to the filming business and have many classics that people will cherish worldwide.

HAROLD LLOYD

Harold Lloyd is a famous American silent movie actor. He was one of the most popular movie actors out there along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. He made almost 200 movies, silent and also some films with audio, which he made later.  He started acting in one-reel films shortly after moving to California. Harold also started working for Thomas Edison’s motion pictures company, and eventually partnered up with fellow struggling actor and director, Hal Roach, who formed his own studio in 1913. The hard-working Lloyd was the most successful out of all of Roach’s comical actors between 1915 and 1919.

In real life, Harold didn’t want anyone to shake his right hand; If he knew you well or liked you he would let you shake his hand. The reason for this was because on his right hand he only had three fingers. In the shooting for one of his silent films, Harold was supposed to light a cigar with a fake bomb, except somehow that fake bomb turned out to be a real bomb! The real bomb exploded shortly after lighting and left Lloyd unconscious and when he finally woke up, he looked down and noticed that his thumb and index finger were blown off. For the rest of his career he had to wear skin-colored gloves and had two fake fingers.

Now, because he was an actor, Harold Lloyd wore lots of makeup. When he was off set he didn’t wear any and looked completely different from his character on the screen. And because of that, he could go to a local park unnoticed and sit at a nearby bench and would wait till someone sat next to him. Once he had company, he would start asking them questions, mostly about himself. He did this because he wanted to know who his fans were, they never figured out it was him and so he always got a kick out of that. In the 1994 comedy, Dumb and Dumber, there are two characters: Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, these Characters were actually named after the great Harold Lloyd. Harold was born on April 20, 1893 and died on March 8, 1971 and we will remember him from his great acting, witty comments, and of course his amazing physical comedy.