Are you ALIVE?

As a sophomore in high school, I read the book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors. It was a good read, a true story, and included cannibalism. When I found out that there was a movie, I didn't put the effort into finding it. Last week when I was wandering my college's library, I saw it, sitting there, the Alive DVD. (The movie was released in 1993.) I was curious as to how they would compress the decently large book into a movie, so I decided to watch.

The story is about a Uruguayan rugby team (and family/friends) who's plane crashed in the Andes Mountains. Most of them die in the end, either because of the plane crash, the cold, or starvation.  Some do survive and venture to Chilean civilization and bring help so the rest could be rescued.

Honestly, the filmmakers did a mediocre job at adapting the story. The movie was okay, but it didn't hold a flame to the book. The acting was decent, but not outstanding. The movie flew by really fast, the only means of gauging the time in the movie were the on-screen subtitles (ex. "DAY 60"). Nothing about this movie makes me want to watch it again. It is not flashy, the special effects were done just well enough to be believable in 1993. This movie is definitely one that you wouldn't want to spend any money on. Don't buy, don't even rent. Get it from the library, but only if you are interested.

This movie is runs 127 minutes and is rate R. This is the tamest "R"-rated movie I've ever seen. It probably would be PG-13 with today's standards.

I give it an average 5 ramheads out of 10:

The Movie That Brings in the Teenage Girls Like Cattle...

That's right, I just saw Twilight. Yes, I am a guy. No, I wasn't with my girlfriend. I'm man enough to say I saw Twilight.

Guess what?

IT WASN'T THAT BAD!! In fact, it wasn't bad at all. Actually, I was very entertained.

Twilight is a Romeo & Juliet type movie, but not quite. The main characters don't commit suicide, they actually don't die at all (one of them is, in fact, undead). I have not read any of the books by Stephenie Meyer, but I heard a lot about it going in. If you don't know anything about it, you haven't read the paper, been on the internet, or had human contact for the past week. It is a movie where a human girl falls in love with a vampire in her high school class. He loves her but has to fight the urge to kill her (vampires drink people's blood as their main source of food). It makes for entertaining irony.

The acting was good, the casting was good. I'm pretty sure the music was good--it added to the movie without attracting its own attention. The movie features some awkward funny moments, but I couldn't really tell if all of them are supposed to be funny. There was a good mix of dramatic moments, funny moments, and action. My only slight on this film is the special effects (which most teenage girls don't care about coincidentally). They were actually quite lame. For example, there is a scene in which a vampire runs really fast up a mountain, the way it is portrayed on the film is really poorly done and unrealistic. It sorta looks like he's flying/gliding...

There is a fight scene at the end of the film and some of the violence is rather sudden and unexpected. The scene was actually very short and could have been a little longer. Nonetheless it achieved its purpose for the movie.

Several times in the movie foreshadowing for a sequel occurs involving wolves or werewolves. Like I said, I haven't read the books, but I'm just using the movie's clues.

Twilight is rated PG-13 for violence and some sensuality. I would worry most about the violence when taking children. Most kids have seen worse, but there is a broken leg and a bloody shard of glass in the other leg. I wouldn't have a problem taking my 12 year old brother, but not my 9 year old sister. Twilight runs 120 minutes and is an intriguing and entertaining film.

I give it 8 ramheads out of 10