Trailer Park Boys Critique

Ben Straits

Period 2

Ms. Lyons

Trailer Park Boys Film Essay

Many people haven’t heard of the movie Trailer Park Boys, but I believe it’s one of the best comedies around. It hasn’t been found all that popular yet because it’s a Canadian film through and through. I chose to write my paper on this movie only because it’s one of my favorites and I believe it’ll be a challenging feat to write an essay that incorporates three elements of movie making. This movie is not for everyone… With crude humor, references to drugs, sex, and alcohol, strong language, this movie is clearly not for young audiences. I love this movie, and so does a majority of people, because this movie was based off of a seven season long television program, which then went on to have a second movie made on it. I think this movie is a movie that everyone should see just for the shear stupidity of it. Trailer Park Boys is a mockumentary that follows three best friends Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles around their trailer park always trying to scheme there next big money making opportunity which usually leaves them in jail for a few months. As the boys try to make money, usually not legally, their drunken ex-cop trailer park supervisor tries to foil their plans in efforts to better the trailer park. Every time the boys come up with a “flawless” plan… and every time someone, usually Ricky or their friends, messes up putting them in sticky situations, in which their low education can’t get them out of. This movie is purely for comedic relief, but still uses elements of film same as a blockbuster hit.

Though sound is not a huge part of this film due to it being a mockumentary, there are still elements of sound that are portrayed in this movie. The biggest element that they use is the use of diegetic sound, the sound in which the characters and the audience can hear. The most apparent example of this is the sirens of the cop cars that are always threatening the boys because of their illegal shenanigans. Some of the police sirens are not always on screen; many of them actually come from off screen scaring off the boys.

Many of the time this movie uses many edited clips to suggest certain things in the movie. The editors of this film tend to use the action of jump cutting. This is often used to change to story or memories of another character. The biggest example of this is when the drunken trailer park supervisor has a different memory or story than the boys have. The Trailer Park Boys movie tends to use re-establishing shots a lot in the movie because even though half the movie is shot in the trailer park itself, there are many different scenes in different areas of the park. They use the re-establishing shots to show you what park of the trailer park of to show you that the characters have gone back to the park.

Movement is a big part of this movie, because they want the audience to feel like they are there with the characters performing their stupid acts. So the most common shot used in this movie is the hand-held shot. The hand-held shot is when the cameraman is holding the camera, many times running or movie with the characters. It really makes it feel as though you are with Julian, Ricky and Bubbles. The second most apparent shot is the crane shot. They use this in this film to help show the dirty, cheap trailer park in which they live. It helps to show the characters and the places they live, just to give you a glimpse into their life.

Trailer Park Boys is one of my favorite films, almost for the sheer stupidity. This movie makes you laugh and laugh throughout the entire movie. You can tell that this show/movie is a low budget film, but yet you don’t care, because if they had more than one camera guy, and one microphone guy, it wouldn’t be as enjoyable. It only adds to the low cost of their pathetic lives. I don’t believe that this film can be compared to anything else, it is like nothing I’ve seen, the best way to compare it is just too any other low budget stupid movie. My favorite part to the film is the characters, without them the movie wouldn’t be as funny as it is. Every time Ricky speaks, you can rely on it being one of the stupidest things you’ve ever heard, and for Bubbles you feel bad for because you know he just wants to be with his friends. Overall this film is one of my favorites, if you don’t enjoy stupid comedies… you’ve been warned, this movie may not be for you, actually I just don’t suggest watching it because that’s what it is, stupid, but none the less awesome. I would give this five stars, I only wish there were more movies that were like this, because I haven’t found any…

Ben Straits

Period 2

Ms. Lyons

Hero Movement Film Critique

Hero is one of the best movies to study for the element of movement. The outstanding use of lyrical movement is abundant in this movie. Hero, directed by Yimou Zhang, is one of those movies that specialize in movement of the characters. Though during times the movements seem cheesy, or fake, it seems to work perfectly for this movie. During the intense sword fighting scenes, the actors would twist and turn about the screen, representing the effortless fighting styles of pre-modern battle. This movie is definitely for a more mature audience, merely for the violence. I believe this movie lives up to what it meant to do, a dramatic Asian inspired warrior fighting that uses lyrical movement to show the style of the fighters. Overall this movie wasn’t exactly for me, nevertheless this movie came out with what it meant too, and I would watch it strictly for that.

In Hero, the main actor is a pre-modern warfare Chinese warrior, who shows through flashbacks how he fought through three assassins who sought to defeat the most powerful war-lord in pre-unified China. Through his stories it shows how he fought the assassins, which uses the element of lyrical movement to show simplicity. One of the most apparent moving shots that I noticed throughout the film was the Dolly shot (The use of camera moving on a track). During almost all the fighting scenes, especially the one versus Sky, the use of a dolly was very noticeable. The dolly shot helped the scene move flawlessly to add extra finesse to the warriors fight.

Another shot used in this film to help show the outstanding surroundings that help the movie seem even more graceful, was the crane shot. This shot is used by suspending a camera from a height to show the actor/actors as well as a lot of the surrounding area. One scene that reminded me of a crane shot was when they were fighting in the water. Almost ever clip in that scene was from a high height, either in the open or through the trees, to help show the fighters and where exactly they are fighting.

One of the movement elements used in this film is the Hand-held shot. This shot is used whenever the photographer isn’t using a device to steady the camera. The one scene that I thought of was the scene when Snow was chasing Broken Sword through the home. The camera man was holding the camera as he followed Snow, and when she eventually stabbed him in the back through the door out of jealousy. This shot helps the viewer feel as though they are in the movie and are right there with the actors.

This movie is for sure a great film to view in order to study the habits of lyrical effortless movement. I personally am not a fan of the movie. I don’t enjoy the fake fighting and use of “flying”. To say I don’t like a film for this reason is unfair but I don’t think I would rate it that highly. It reminds me of every other Asian mythical fighting schemed movies, intense sword fights with very strong fighters, and the use of magical abilities, especially in this movie being the power to float around will fighting. I did enjoy the fighting scenes for what they were. Putting my dislikes aside, it was fun to watch the intense fighting scenes. It is hard for me to critique the dialogue only because it was all in subtitles and sometimes I was captivated by the fighting and battles. Overall I would say that this movie gets about a three out of five stars on my scale, only because I would say it really isn’t my type of film. If you enjoy this movie I would suggest many of the other mystical Chinese fighting styled movies.