Thursday, October 10, 2013

Blog Post #3

1. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-bling-ring-2013

2. I chose this review on The Bling Ring because the intro sucked me in. I haven't seen the movie, but I feel that I got an understanding of exactly what the movie is about, just from the intro. The author of the review, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, starts describing the opening scene of the movie, he starts with "Shadowy figures circle a glass-walled house. They find an unlocked door and enter; once inside, they head straight for the bedroom." Which, in my mind, automatically turns on a switch in my brain wanting to know more. Who are these shadowy figures and what do they want?

3. It's spring break. There are girls in bikinis with beer bongs and solo cups, shirtless dudes, sex, drugs and alcohol. One bad move could cost you your vacation and land you in jail. Which is exactly what happens Brit, Candy, Cotty and Faith in Spring Breakers. Not because they robbed a diner back home just to get to Florida for spring break, but because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or depending on who is looking at it, the right place at the right time.

4 comments:

uri robinson said...

You review was short and sweet, but you gave enough detail to give a pretty good idea as to what the movie would entail.

Shannon Kristine said...

Your paragraph about Spring Breakers made me interested in seeing the movie!

Unknown said...

I really enjoyed your intro. You picked great parts of the movie to introduce in this paragraph that would catch the readers attention. I also liked the ending sentence because it makes the reader want to read the rest of your review to determine whether they were in the wrong place or the right place.

Amy Bolaski said...


Hi Kailyn,

First, let me say that I appreciate all your comments on other blogs. Nice work.

Heard a lot about this film . . . can't figure out whether I really want to see it or not.

You write, "I chose this review on The Bling Ring because the intro sucked me in. I haven't seen the movie, but I feel that I got an understanding of exactly what the movie is about, just from the intro." From this I assume you prefer a more traditional plotting of the review (summary/exposition first, then analysis). This is fine, but can be boring. Yours isn't, though, as you situate your readers in the middle of the action WHILE summarizing. Well done.

Small change: "Girls in bikinis, beer bongs and solo cups, shirtless dudes, sex, drugs and alcohol." Try this is as a list without the passive verb construction "there are." Avoid the passive where you can. And non-traditional sentences like this one are perfectly acceptable in this genre.

These two DO need to be combined, though; the fragment doesn't really work here: "One bad move could cost you your vacation and land you in jail. Which is exactly what happens Brit, Candy, Cotty and Faith in Spring Breakers."

Typically, you want to avoid cliches like this one: "but because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time." However, you develop this in a clever way, so it works.

Strange group of names, eh? Interested in the development of this.

A