Movie Review Blog

A majority of the arguments from the Jesse James movie review actually come from the reviewers rather than the New York Times. For example, when I read the first movie reviewer’s comment, he said that the movie was not good at all because there was too much dialogue and not enough action. To put it in short, he meant to say that this movie was not really a western because western movies are suppose to be about all action, but unfortunately the movie did not live up to that. However, other reviewers disagree with that statement. The third reviewer goes against that statement when he says, “In its main design, screenplay, and execution, and the movie is far above a formulaic western”. What I think the point the reviewer was trying to make was that many people expected the movie to be just a regular run and gun shoot out western, but instead they moved the story into a different direction to give the audience a better insight on what was really going on with the characters. Also, there was one argument that I did find in the New York Times review and that was towards the end when they said that Jesse James was actually a psychotic racist according to historical record, but in the movie they did not portray him as that at all. When it comes down in the end, I think the people who gave the negative reviews would try to make us think that the movie is a unrealistic portrayal and should not have been made, however, the people with the positive reviews would probably try to sway us to think that the movie is just much more than a simple shoot up western, but rather a story full of violence, drama, and pain that tries push the word western to an entirely different level. After reading the two reviews done by Anthony Lane, I think that he linked those two movies together because he said that they both give off a sort of unrealistic touch. For example, in his review of the movie The Kingdom, he tells of how Jennifer Garner was sent over to Saudi Arabia as a forensic scientist and was analyzing dead Muslim bodies. However, Lane considered that as unrealistic because women are not allowed to touch the bodies of male Muslims in Saudi Arabia. The last thing that he goes into saying about The Kingdom was that the military acting was really not up to par except for one person and that the movie had a lot of senseless violence. As for his review for the Jesse James story, he explains how they gave a dumb down version of Jesse James and a time consuming amount of dialogue. After reading the three reviews, I would have to say that a review on one movie is better because there are minimal arguments to try and recognize rather than trying to read two reviews and comparing the movies to see which is better. I would say that utilizing two movies for a single review would add to an author’s argument because the two movies would obviously have a common argument that the author could find to compare the two.