The Next Three Days and The Shankshaw Redemption

                The Next Three Days, directed by Paul Haggis, and The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont, were two movies that showed the imprisonment of innocent people and the drive to escape their forced destiny. The Next Three Days is about a woman name Lara who is charged for the murder of her boss. John is convinced that she is innocent but all evidence point to Lara being guilty. John becomes desperate to release his innocent wife from jail but he couldn’t appeal her case. So he finds and plans an escape for his wife from jail. In The Shawshank Redemption, is very similar to The Next Three Days, because it also deals with an innocent man named Andy Dufresne who has been found guilty of murdering his cheating ex-wife.  Andy becomes good friends with an inmate named Red, who helps Andy get through the hardships of prison life. Although Andy is innocent and can prove it, he still kept in the prison to be a personal assistant to the warden of the prison. What nobody knew was that Andy had been planning an escape for 20 years.  

                Both movies have mistrials given to each person who is innocent but who have great evidence against them. Another similarity I found was that they both dealt with the escape of both, although the motives were different. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy drives himself to the point of insane desperateness of escaping the prison and is given through the point of view through Red his good friend. In The Next Three Days it is not Lara who plans her escape but rather her husband. Another difference I saw was the incentives for breaking out of jail. John and Lara had the need to be with each other and to form the family again. As for Andy, it was a sense of escaping his life altogether and finding a new peaceful life, one he didn’t have even before he went to jail. 

Due Date and Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Due Date directed by Todd Phillips and Planes, Trains and Automobiles directed by John Hughes are both movies that deal with very uncomfortable situations. In Due Date, Peter Highman played by Robert Downy Jr. is a serious business man whose luck turns to bad when he runs into Ethan Tremblay played by Zach Galifianakis. Peter is in desperate need to go to Los Angeles but after being kicked off the airplane by Ethan. As if things couldn’t get worse, Peter find out that he doesn’t have his wallet in order to rent a car but notices that his nuisance Ethan has a rental car. Getting a ride with Ethan was his last resort to get to his pregnant wife. Not only does he tolerate a complete idiot for a long period of time but he also needs to race time to get there before his child is born. Planes, Trains and Automobiles is almost the same plot and concept as due date. Neal Page played by Steve Martin is also a serious business man who gets stuck with an annoying man named Del Griffith played by John Candy because of a snow storm that blocks all air plane traffic. Like Due Date the similar chain of events happen to Neal and Del. Even Del is very similar to Ethan because both are over exaggerated over weight men, who both seem to want to find company after experiencing a drought of loneliness; both had a death of someone close to them. In both films you can see Peter and Neal start off very unsympathetic but after tribulations with the nuisances, they realize that they had been taking their family time for granted. 

Megamind and Young Frankenstein

    Megamind, directed by Tom McGrath, and Young Frankenstein, directed by Mel Brooks, are two films that deal with humor and creations gone wrong. Megamind is about a villain who tries to create a new superhero since he had killed Metro Man, the original superhero of Metro City. He takes the D.N.A of Metro Man but inserts it into the wrong person, who becomes a villain instead of the expected hero. The new villain named Titan starts causing disasters to Metro City . Only Megamind, the creator, can defeat him. In Young Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein tries to revive a dead person with a new brain. He creates The Monster, who goes to a  rampage into the town  to feel accepted and understood. Dr. Frankenstein tries to play the family song to retrieve and sooth his creation before he hurts anyone.
    Both films deal with the issues of being creators and creating something dangerous that only the creator must correct. Another similarity that I found was that both  creations were emotional and just wanted to be loved and understood. In Megamind, Titan wanted to be loved by the girl he was in love with but after being turned down by her he became angry and destructive. As for  The Monster, he just wanted to be loved and accepted by society and by his own creator, Dr. Frankenstein.

Catfish and Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can and Catfish have a lot more in common then just both their titles start with a “C”.  Catch Me If You Can directed by Steven Spielberg, is another captivating movie about the chase between cat and mouse.  Frank Abagnale Jr., played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is a young 17 year old teenager looking for a sense of belonging after everything he knew and loved was taken away but the IRS, due to some unsettled issues with Frank’s father Frank Abagnale, played by Christopher Walken. As he tries to find a sense of home in a crazy world, he becomes deceptive to gain money and respect by posing as a pilot, doctor and a legal prosecutor. Although he ran away from the government, it was his only constant in a crazy world. The government was the only thing that gave him attention; what was all he wanted but could never find.

            Catfish and Catch Me If You Can both deal with deception and the unraveling of these lies. Both have certain characters (person) that are seeking con artist. The films focus that you can’t always believe in what you see. They concentrate on different medians. Catfish focus on the dishonesty of the Internet Era yet in Catch Me If You Can shows the effect of dishonesty in face-to-face when Internet was non-existent. Another difference that is obvious is the methods of they were filmed. Catch me was more clean yet every shot and scene had a purpose. Catfish on the other hand, felt like there was many scenes and shots that they could have done with out. In the end for both, the cat catches the mouse.

The Town and The Public Enemy

Mobsters rule in both movies The Town and The Public Enemy. The similarities are evident in the plot of both movies. Both movies include two best friends that went from trouble makers as kids to mobsters in their towns. Both main character gain revenge for their best friend and target the main mobsters. Also they both get into big schemes to gain power and money. They both also have love interest. Even Dougy from The Town had two love interest as did Tom Powers from the Public Town.
Although they both had love interest, Dougy’s situation showed that he was interested and changed his life for love. Yet Tom Powers didn’t want to settle down and didn’t even his love get in his way. Another difference I saw was the motives of each character. Dougy stayed in his gang because of the threats from the senior mobsters killing his girlfriend. Tom stayed because of the money and power he was gaining. Also the way the action was seen. In the Public Enemy did not show much violence, only after they were done shooting. The Town in the other hand showed every bullet hit each person. Also another character difference is that Tom’s parents weren’t involved in with the mobsters, yet with Dougy his father had the same problems with the senior mobsters. This proves that not all mobster movies are the same

The Social Network and Citizen Kane

 Citizen Kane and The Social Network are very different movies, made in different eras.  The story plots of the two movies are different. Citizen Kane is about the life of Kane, a well respected and rich man. Kane received his wealth  as a child and forced to leave his parents. Unlike Kane, Zuckerberg, gained his wealth  during college and is trying to protect himself from his enemies. Another obvious difference between the movies is time periods. In Citizen Kane, what was considered scandalous was that Kane had been with another woman. Yet in The Social Network, we see drugs, alcohol and sex as the scandalous.

Although the time and plot of the two stories are different, there are still a lot of the similarities between the two. First, I saw similarities in their characters. Both characters that don’t strive for money but that they both want to be loved and glorified by people. Kane and Zuckerberg find themselves as entrepreneurs in the media of their eras. In the end both characters create enemies and  become alone. Not only is there many similarities in their characters but in also the style of which they both were filmed. Citizen Kane and The Social Network were filmed going from present to past, creating a “flash back” effect.