In every crime film we expect to see a cop that is at the top of his game or a villain who is feared and incharge of anything illegal. The main character is generally one of the two but this isnt always the case however as sometimes the film's protagonist in neither of them like in 'Lucky number slevin' where the main character is a victim who is trying to get his own back on the crime bosses that killed his family. It is always the case that there is cops in crime films, but they are not always good, pure cops but corrupt cops and there is generally two types of corrupt cop,the first type who are only out to benefit themselves e.g. blackmailing the villains or giving them info for money, adn the second type which are working for the villains and have become a mole in the police force, like in 'The departed'. Whenever a crime film is about the villains there is rivalry gangs, it can be relatively small gangs battling over a bit of turf or their neighbourhood like in 'get rich or die tryin' or two opposing mafia families fighting for control of the whole city like in 'The godfather'. When it is a case of rival gangs we can expect to see alot of violence and some interrogation, although it is not only the bad guys that interrogate people as we saw in the departed when leonardo di'caprio is trying to get a job, it wasnt a gory violent interrogation but it was loud and aggressive, with the cop smashing his hands on the table and insults di'caprio's family.. Scenes like this are very powerful as it makes us question our views on policeman and that view is also questioned throughout the departed and other crime films when the cops are insulting eachother and using bad language. The cops portrayed in these films are totally different to the way we think our local 'bobby' would act, Using scenes like this is also effective at making the bad guys look somewhat good, which is advantageous if the main character is a villain we are supposed to like. The key element to the downfall of the villains in a lot of crime films is the rat, the rat can be the boss sometimes but it is most common for the rat to be a physically infearior weasel of a bloke compared to his peers and is generally hated by the gang and maybe bullied in a sense by the 'tough guys' or the muscle of the gang.
A common theme in comedy films is slapstick comedy, we see examples of this early on in dodgeball with the picture of goodman "6 years and 600 pounds" before when he is sitting there diggging into a whole tub of ice cream. Although we dont see anything quite like that in stepbrothers, from the start we do see the very slobbish main characters, preparing food very messilly and lounging around all day doing nothing. Watching a fat person eat loads of ice cream is simply funny, and seeing a 30 year old man making loads of food to sit by the telly with and another play guitar hero all day is funny because the adults are acting more like children than the audience of the film would. but this oddly makes us love the characters even more as everyone would love it if they never had to work and could just chill all day. Another example of the physical comedy is the old man trying to act like a an athletic teen talking about all the sports that he reads about in an 'obscure sports' magazine and talks about 'the chicks'. Dodgeballs main idiot is called Peter and although he goes to work and has his own house, it is a dirty house and he is still a loser.Peter is an underdog, and people always support the underdog so this makes us dislike the people that dislike him. Although peter is the main character we dont see dodgeball's main idiot until after we see goodman the guy we all love to hate, he is the stertypical gym nut who is in your face, arrogant, loves to boast and is quite stupid, it is a very effective method of using someone like that as we want to see him get hurt and humiliated so any joke towards him is automatically twice as funny. The first time we hear of the person we love to hate in stepbrothers is when he blows off his own mothers wedding for a fishing trip.
Whether it is to save a gym form being taken over, or to get jobs and move out of your parents house, there is alwasy a journey in comedy films. The journey is very important as it adds meaning to some of the jokes, makes certain things funny when they wouldn't be otherwise and adds a stroyline to the film e.g. If they were just playing dodgeball in 'dodgeball' and not trying to save their gym the film would not be as entertaining or watchable. Sterotyopes are used alot in comedy films and they are often racial or sexuality based, Goodman is a good example of stereotypes used, he is your stereotypical gym boss or personal trainer but is also the basis of alot of stertype jokes. When peter walks in on Goodman doing the gym workout Goodman and the other trainer are slapping eachtoher on the bum high fiiving eachother and abelly bashing, to make things more 'gay' Goodman is wearing a skintight leotard, This makes Goodman look like a fool and makes Peters joke all the more funny. Romantic subplot are key in most comedy films, all the most succesful comedy films have them, even The inbetweeners movie has one. In stepbrothers the romantic subplot is for the parents to be able to live happily married, but in dodgeball it is about the main character finding love in his lawyer.
Research and Planning 9/20: Soem good ideas Sid - but from your comments in groups and in class I know you are capable of a greater deal of analysis and this is not enough work to show for a half term. You need to analyse several film openings and other genres, including mindmaps and uploads. There is no reason why you shouldn't be breaking into band four.
Action films have more cliches than any other films, we expect from most action films a real hard man who is impossible to kill to be the protagonist, and as action films are aimed at men, they are portrayed in an almost flattering light, by this i mean they are always good at pulling and are always good at fighting and killing and are very cool, they are pretty much the definition of maculine.With every hero comes a villain and more often than not the villlain is a effeminate german mastermind or a russian brute that has fought in more wars than the the tank has. Die hard fits the action stereotype and has these cliches in it, John McClane is a macho cop who is witty, has the girl and is extremely hard, hard enough to perform self surgery on himself, this is another cliche of action films, most poeple would struggle to deal with a ripped off finger naill but action heroes deal with all sorts, form pulling glass out of their foot to sterilising a wound with gunpowder action heroes really are a in a different league to normal men. The super villain in Die hard is Hans Gruber a very effeminate and camp chacter who is calm most of the time but is by no means a nice guy, he is the brains behind the whole operation and has no regard for human life. Although the villain is a genius they can never deal with the hero. McClane's hardness is reinforced by all the punch ups he has and whether they are bigger than him or not he will win. With alot of action films the aim is to save the girl, in Die hard this is his wife who is being held hostage with the rest of the civillians in the building, and once Gruber finds out she is Mrs McClane she is put in much more danger and the heroes only weakness is reveled. The sidekick in Die hard is a sterotypical cop called Al Powell, a chubby man who loves eating doghnuts but is a very likeable character.Although it doesnt go into it in much detail Powell is very weary of using his gun anymore as he shot a kid some years back, this is overcome at the end of the film when Powell shoots Gruber when hes is trying to escape. This makes it a double happy ending as not only are the people saved but the likeable sidekick is cured of his fear and we get hints that he has found closure. This show that the Sidekick plays a role in saving the day, although he hasnt done as much as the main hero he has taken down the one person McClane seemingly couldn't.
In every crime film we expect to see a cop that is at the top of his game or a villain who is feared and incharge of anything illegal. The main character is generally one of the two but this isnt always the case however as sometimes the film's protagonist in neither of them like in 'Lucky number slevin' where the main character is a victim who is trying to get his own back on the crime bosses that killed his family. It is always the case that there is cops in crime films, but they are not always good, pure cops but corrupt cops and there is generally two types of corrupt cop,the first type who are only out to benefit themselves e.g. blackmailing the villains or giving them info for money, adn the second type which are working for the villains and have become a mole in the police force, like in 'The departed'. Whenever a crime film is about the villains there is rivalry gangs, it can be relatively small gangs battling over a bit of turf or their neighbourhood like in 'get rich or die tryin' or two opposing mafia families fighting for control of the whole city like in 'The godfather'. When it is a case of rival gangs we can expect to see alot of violence and some interrogation, although it is not only the bad guys that interrogate people as we saw in the departed when leonardo di'caprio is trying to get a job, it wasnt a gory violent interrogation but it was loud and aggressive, with the cop smashing his hands on the table and insults di'caprio's family.. Scenes like this are very powerful as it makes us question our views on policeman and that view is also questioned throughout the departed and other crime films when the cops are insulting eachother and using bad language. The cops portrayed in these films are totally different to the way we think our local 'bobby' would act, Using scenes like this is also effective at making the bad guys look somewhat good, which is advantageous if the main character is a villain we are supposed to like. The key element to the downfall of the villains in a lot of crime films is the rat, the rat can be the boss sometimes but it is most common for the rat to be a physically infearior weasel of a bloke compared to his peers and is generally hated by the gang and maybe bullied in a sense by the 'tough guys' or the muscle of the gang.
