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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Blog #13: Action! Cut!

When categorizing movies, I'm sure there are billions of ways one could go about this. My take is simple, but the sub-categories are more in depth. First, I would organize by a simple genre outline: Romance, Horror, Comedy and Action. Sure, there are many more genre categories, but these seem to be the most generic and common of genres.

The Romance Category.
Ah, the infamous "chick flicks." These are the movies that can make you laugh, cry, and want to squeal with happiness, or make your chest explode from the frustration of the outcome. Usually the romance movies follow the same simple formula: there are two main characters (boy and girl), these characters meet (sometimes in a very unusual way), fun and quirky dates happen in between, the two fall in love, something happens where the girl gets upset at the boy and the boy has to do something to show his undying love for her, thus in turn re-wooing the girl and they live happily ever after, or so we assume because the movie ends here.
The formula can stray some, but by following these simple steps: Voila! You have romance!

The Horror Category.
I am not much of a horror/scary movie fan. After months of nightmares from watching one scary movie as a child, it can really traumatize you! However, the horror category gives a lot of leeway for what really constitutes it as, well--a horror movie. Sometimes there is lots of blood and gore. This is the slasher film. There is usually a psychopath wielding a household appliance or tool of some sort, such as a chainsaw or a meat cleaver. In this, one can usually pin-point who will survive as normally only one or two people do, these being the main characters. There are also the ghost scary movies. There is an angry spector who wants their revenge, yada yada, kills all who inhabit its former home or takes revenge on those who had some sort of connection with the ghost. Again, usually one or two people survive in these movies. There are many other types of horror films, but just remember, if you jump from being scared, can't sleep at night from the thought of a masked man taking his revenge on those who teased him, cringed at the sight of the blood gushing out of the poor victim's arteries, then you have just seen a horror film. :)

The Comedy.
The comedy category is extremely simple: if you find yourself laughing at least every five minutes, it's a comedy. If your abs hurt because you were cracking up so hard, it's a comedy. If the idea is just so stupid or absurd that you couldn't help but giggle, it's a comedy. Comedies can also cross over into being romantic-comedies, or even can become dark as a horror-comedy (however, these are hard to execute brilliantly: see Zombieland--great film!)

The Action.
Action movies have the same formula as well. And with this, you know the good guys always win. It doesn't matter, even if you think the bad guy has taken the cake and the movie has only 15 minutes left, the hero will swoop in and win. First, there is the main character and he (or they) have to defeat an evil villain or a regular man with a dark past and a bone to pick with the hero. Sometimes the main characters will be ostracized or put in a bad light, only to come back to clear their name and take down their nemesis. Action films usually consist of at least one good fight scene, mostly executed with hand-to-hand combat. There are usually explosions of some sort, guns, and a creepy bad guy who you just want to punch in the face yourself!

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