Please, whatever you do, do NOT spend your money on "30 Days of Night". Please.

Double Indemnity

I really enjoyed the film. Stanwyck's character was incredibly unfeeling and manipulative the whole time, and I think that, without her, the film would have lost a certain mystery and uncomfortableness that came exclusively out of her eyes. That to me was the most striking part of the entire film, the way that Phyllis looked at the camera and other people, as if she was possessed or something awful. The murder scene and the way PHyllis looks at Neff in the grocery store in her sunglasses were particularly jarring to me.
As a general form of entertainment, i thought the dialogue was a little bit too fast, and that "baby" is far too overused. It probably sounded really really super cool back then, but it kind of dates teh film.
The lighting was also amazing, and it makes me wonder how much time actually was put into making everything so dark. I also wonder about the initial response of the audience when the film screened for the first time, espeically with the whole Hays Code business.....
Aaaaand I think a lot more thought went into old movies than they do today, and it makes me a little sad. It's really hard to compare Double Indemnity to something from today and not feel bad.

Spirited Away

It was just so pretty. I've never really gotten into the Anime genre, nor have I watched a non-Disney animated film before, so it was really a treat to see so much creativity and AMAAAAAZING animation in one film. It wasn't so much the plot that intrigued me, it was much more the visual aspect of the film, and the concept that all of these characters and images and ideas were from Miyazaki. One of the more interesting things about the film was the behind the scenes and the sheer number of drawings made for a movie.
I though tthe most beautiful scene was when Haku was walking Chichiro through the flowers, adn it seemed that the scenery was completely engulfing the audience.

Fight the Power! (And Do The Right Thing)

I thought the film was kind of slow at first, and that characters like Radio Raheem were petty and unneccessary. Little did I know that characters like Raheem would make the film for me and I would love it as much as I did. Lee's awareness of social situations and racism and community enhance the film to make it extraordinary. It was a great compilation of characters that embodied different kinds of people.
My favorite concept of the movie was the prejudices present in the Korean man, the Italian family, and the African-American people. Everyone had their own biases and grudges against the other groups, and I think it was well done in a way that forces every community to look at the way they view others.
The most striking scene is (unsurprisingly?) that of Radio Raheem's brutal murder and the riot that ensues. As Raheem was slowly strangled, the reality of the undertones of racism came at me full swing, and the riot brought the chaos that quickly erupted over the music in Sal's pizzeria. To think that all that Buggin' Out wanted from Sal was a picture of a black person on the wall....and that so much destruction came out of something so seemingly petty. Smiley put a different twist on the whole film for me as well. The whole time, he is trying to get people to buy pictures of MLK and Malcom X, and he is the person who sets the store on fire and puts up the picture of the black men. Does his speech impediment mean anything? I think that Spike Lee put him in the film to show the ideals of the two men , which is echoed int he final words just before the closing credits.

"M"

I really dislike scary movies. Really. Once I heard that "M" was about a serial killer, I was unenthused. When I heard that it was a German film, I was even more negative about it. I thought, if the murderer aspect of the film didn't get to me, the language might. I was pretty surprised, though, because I really enjoyed the film. You know that a film is well done when you can't tell the difference between good and bad, and there is sympathy for a seemingly terrible character. One of the most striking moments of the film is when Peter Lorre's character gives his monologue about his burning need to kill (to stop the voices in his head). Although I knew the significant pain and anguish he caused others, my heart really went out to him. I thought that portraying Lorre's character as a victim made the movie really special. It was creeeeeeeepy, though. Especially the whole Hitler liking Fritz Lang's films and modeling the SS wardrobe after the bad guy. Creeeeeeepy.