Mr Hollands Opus: The Review

Mr. Holland's Opus [1995]

The Movie Poster

I told myself that I was not going to do a review for this movie, I was trying to get off of doing reviews. I'm not exactly sure why I don't want to do reviews anymore, I actually love talking about the things I see and if I liked them or not. Still, this movie turned out to be hard to not want to make a review for. So I give to you my review of Mr. Holland's Opus.

Synopsis:

The movie starts out with Mr. Holland as a young man. He's got a wife, they're settling down, and he's got this new gig at the band teacher at John F. Kennedy High School. And I use the term gig on purpose, because previously he was in a band. He loved his life in the band and he wishes he could have stayed in it, but when everything happened he needed money and settling more than he needed the band. So he's taking a bit of a different roll on now.

At the beginning of the movie you learn that he hates teaching. Every day he goes to the school and every day he's rushing out. Turns out he's not really into teaching that much, or so he thinks. Well, the principal of the school cracks down on him and tells him he needs to get into gear and start making the students learn and want to use that knowledge. So then he starts helping the students learn on a different level, one they can appreciate and one they can enjoy.

The rest of the movie is watching his life through the generations. Literally it goes from the start of his career to the end of his career and the viewer really gets to see what happens with him and with what he does. By the end of the movie, you'll feel that you really know him.

Verdict: 4.75 / 5 Stars

I love this movie and I don't think there is any better way to start this review. From start to finish you learn to love Mr. Holland and what he does, you like his reactions and you like how he teaches. So from beginning to end of the movie, it was just interesting and fun to watch. And on an emotional level I felt attached to the characters as well. That's something that is rare.

Now, maybe I'm a sucker for movies with teachers who prove to be real teachers, the ones that get the point across and make you love them because they bring you to the next level. That might be because in my own life I've felt this same sort of thing happen, but it is what a good teacher does. So to capture that essence as beautifully as it is done in this movie, with the drama and the back-story that is expected, is what sends it over the top for me.

And I bet now, after raving on how much I've liked it, you are wondering why I gave it less than a perfect score. Well, although I love everything and the emotions are there (which is usually that last missing point in a lot of movies), I felt that some scenes went on a bit too long or were a bit too slow. It's definitely worthy of the score, and most certainly worthy of a watch, but the director should have learned to cut certain things and make it speed through the scenes that were less interesting. And I know it maybe would have taken only ten minutes or so out of the entire almost two and a half hour long movie, but that does make a huge difference when coming to the final vote.

Still, this is an excellent film packed with emotion, drama, timeless values, a look into the past, and a great teacher. If you have not seen then, go get a copy and watch it. It is a great movie. 4.75/5 stars!

The Paranoid and the Save

So I'm sitting here, writing up a report (Gasp, not the story? And during the summer none-the-less?) for my summer class (Oh, there's the sense) when suddenly and violently my copy of Microsoft Word goes dead. I know, right? That's a dream killer.

Except I guess I use Microsoft Word and computers so much that I've just gotten into a habit of saving every time I stop writing. Not that any of that matters (cause I have auto-save set to like 5 minutes... I hate losing work), but the difference was definitely nice this time since the repair build wasn't a good copy but my 2 minute old copy was excellent. So go me, save some time, dance break!

Now back to what we all really care about, my other Word projects. Broken Falls, as my friend probably has been killing me to write more and more of, will be put on hold until after tomorrow. Why? Because I have a test tomorrow and so I don't think time spent writing a novel will be the best way of studying. So until then, bye bye writing and hello random notes!

With that said, Broken Falls has entered the final story stages. As I told my friend last night (and I know she still wants to kill me for this), I'm at the part where I feel there are lots of mysteries but not enough explanations. Its time to start pulling those mysteries together, showing how they are all solved, and giving the readers what they really want, a conclusion. I know, from me that's a freaking insane idea considering the last whole story I finished got me sent to the vice principals office. I'm not sure why, I thought my story was very nicely depressing... so why would they think I'm suicidal all of a sudden? Which reminds me, don't let copies of your suicidal novels fall into the hands of teachers, principals, loved ones, or generally anyone that you know. Seriously, they all take it as if you wrote a diary about it when in truth some stuff had to be made up to make a better story and they don't know the difference between reality and writing.

By the way, while on that subject, the teacher that got the copy and turned me in for it was totally stupid. She failed to realize that all normal high school students are depressed (Where the abnormal ones end up never achieving anything greater in life) and that writing was a way to let out the steam for them. When did she finally come to realizing this? When she taught the creative writing class and on one paper there were 28 sad, good, emotional stories, 1 terribly written and uninteresting happy story, and then my story which fell right into the omg poetically amazing but no one there cares cause it's a bunch of high school bastards. (I wonder if I still have that short story...). At any rate, moral of the story is all high school students are depressed as they should be.

By the way, I just checked all of my secret story hiding locations and I can't find that story. I found the story that got me in trouble but the other one seems to have disappeared. I'll send that story to my friend, she can read it I guess. (And on another 'nother note, I just found a creepy one that had an ending... I'll send that as well). I've been writing since high school, so the possibility that I have short stories completed is there (and a lot of them I remember but not as well as when I wrote them. My style has changed, my pen name is... well I don't have one yet... and its just kind of weird to look back and think I completed something (Even if it was short).

For reference, my longest completed story is 3,821 words and 5 pages long (42 KB of space) and my current story is 101, 110 words (I didn't make that up, its just weird on its own) and 133 pages long (376 KB of space). So a little bit bigger.

Alright, back to my report... then bed... then class... or something...

Words since last post: 599
Total Words: 101,110