The Muniz Movie Reviews

by Mitchell Muniz

Note: These reviews are strictly my opinion; my goal is to give you some insight on recent movies.

On DVD (horror)

“Drag me to Hell”

This movie is directed by Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, and The Evil Dead Trilogy), and it stars Alison Lohman and Justin Long. This low-grade and highly entertaining horror film was a hit not only at the box office, but also with critics and regular moviegoers alike. Christine Brown seems to have it all. She’s a hard working loan officer on her way to a promotion with a loving boyfriend. That is, until Christine denies an elderly woman another extension on her home loan. Now she is cursed with three days to live before the Lamia demon comes to claim her soul to burn in hell for an eternity of unthinkable torment. This is guaranteed to get a few jumps, and laughs out of you before the movie ends, and now it comes in an unrated version packed with more blood and carnage! Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly raves “the most crazy, fun and terrifying horror movie in years!”

5 out of 5 stars

“Trick ‘r Treat”

Written and directed by Michael Dougherty (Writer of “X Men 2”, and “Superman Returns”) in his first major directorial debut, and starring Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, and Anna Paquin, we explore the mysterious night of Halloween. A creepy and, at times, humorous, tale of the scariest night of the year, we experience four interwoven stories of terror: a high school principal (Dylan Baker) who moonlights as a serial killer; the quest of a virgin searching for that special someone takes a gruesome, and unexpected turn; A group of teens pull out a prank with disastrous consequences; a cranky old man is sought out by a trick-or-treating demon. The winner of the Audience Choice Award Screamfest, all about respecting the customs of Halloween, critics rave is “the best Halloween film of the last 30 years” -wizarduniverse.com.

5 out of 5 stars

Not sure about these? Check out the trailers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggDNhd5FC2U -“Trick ‘r Treat”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUZTybLlWKI - “Drag me to Hell”

Twilight Bites
By Savannah Henderson


I think one of the things that frustrates me most about Twilight is Edward's seemingly absolute and inexplicable perfection. Yes, I know, he's a vampire, and as such, is supposed to be the epitome of excellence and exquisiteness. This is not an excuse. In my opinion, Edward, being a main character in a book series, is obligated to have at least one major character flaw, and no, vampirism does not count. Not only are his incorruptible selflessness, kindness, and intelligence frustrating and grossly unrealistic, they are also some of the many traits that make him such a dull character. Another reason I dislike Twilight is the character Bella Swan.

Isabella Swan represents everything I hate in this world. Not really. But she is annoying.

Consciously or subconsciously, when Stephenie Meyer created the character Bella, she also created a blatant attack on both feminism and female independence. For example, when Bella was accepted to Dartmouth, one of the best colleges in the country, she stoutly refused , in favor of turning into a vampire. Her excuse? She was afraid of aging, and looking older than her 17-year-old boyfriend. Another example of Bella's complete codependence and spinelessness? She allowed her boyfriend to pressure her into marriage, despite the fact that she did not want to marry him, and that she knew her parents wouldn't approve. So instead of standing up for herself, she conceded, and married her boyfriend at the ripe old age of eighteen. Her mother and father were both inexplicably supportive of this decision, although they had spent the first eighteen years of her life discouraging her from doing exactly that. Unfortunately, everything seemed to work out perfectly.

Then, although they knew that Edward could crush her to death as easily as I could tear a tissue in half, and that every one of his bodily excretions, from his tears to his saliva (which really makes me question the wisdom of their copious frenching throughout the series) Bella and Edward decided it would be a good idea to practice unsafe sex.

And of course, Bella Swan ends up pregnant. At eighteen. With a baby that will probably kill her. And she's happy about it. Way to go, Stephenie Meyer, you've got feminism spewing out of your ears.

Of course, we all remember what Happened in New Moon. When, after Edward left Bella, she almost literally fell apart. She did not try to pull herself together. She did not try to move on. She did not try to acquire any semblance of independence or self-confidence. Instead she sat there wallowing in her own self-pity and ignoring the advances of Jacob Black, the only decent character that Stephenie Meyer managed to create.

Instead, she decided to partake in dangerous, irresponsible, and quasi-suicidal behavior, just so she could hallucinate hearing Edward's voice.

Afterward, when Edward reentered the picture, she literally leapt into his arms. Never mind the fact that he left her, and refused to contact her for a year. He was instantaneously and absolutely forgiven. The fact that he ruined her life for nearly a year? Never again mentioned by Bella for the entire series.

I don't like Twilight because it not only allows, but takes delight in Bella's weakness, how pathetic she is, and how spineless. Edward is an uninteresting and two-dimensional character, the writing is over-embellished and mediocre, and the plot is all but non-existent.

I don't like Twilight because it's misogynistic.

I don't like Twilight because it's overrated.

I don't like Twilight because it's a waste of paper, and I don't like Twilight because I think it's lame. I don't care when people say that they like, or even love Twilight, but I can't stand it when they say it's good. This book is second rate at best, sexist, and says all the wrong things about a women's role in a relationship, and presents it in the lamest way imaginable.

And for these reasons, I can say with complete and utter confidence, that Twilight bites.

The Muniz Movie Reviews

The Muniz Movie Reviews
by Mitchell Muniz

Note: These reviews are solely my opinion. I am in no way trying to persuade you into seeing or not seeing these movies. My goal is to just give you some quick insight on what to expect.

Jennifer's Body
This new dark comedy from the writer of Juno, Diablo Cody, is a lot of fun, and seemed to pull through. It is jam-packed with witty humor, clever thrills, and, of course, blood and guts!

Megan Fox plays a high school student who gets possessed by a flesh-eating demon, whose hunger just so happens to be satisfied by, quite literally, devouring boys.

I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed every second of this movie, but it is definitely not for everyone. The humor is more on the offensive side, and, of course, if you get dizzy around the sight of blood, I suggest you stay away. I walked into the theater expecting a corny, fun movie, and that is exactly what I got out of this. This is not a straight out horror movie, and, while it will make you jump, I can almost guarantee that there will be more chuckles of laughter than jumping out of your seat. So, if you are looking for a movie that is fun and different, I suggest you give this a shot! I mean, come on, its Megan Fox eating boys, what’s cooler than that?


Inglorious Basterds
The new comedy/drama from Quentin Tarantino, one of Hollywood’s most creative writers and directors, is by far one of his best films! Filled with suspense, great humor, creative dialogue, and lots of Nazi killing, it’s all you’d expect from the warped brain of Tarantino.

In Nazi-filled France, a group of Jewish soldiers is put together by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt), to bring down the reign of the Nazi army.

As a fan of Tarantino’s previous work, such as Kill Bill, and Death Proof, I was expecting something creative and out of the ordinary. If this movie sparks your interest, don’t think it is just a movie about killing Nazis, because there is much more at work here. The movie revolves around the lives of numerous characters, which adds loads of depth to the story. As in all Tarantino movies, there is a lot of dialogue in this movie, but not boring dialogue, we’re talking brain-pumping dialogue. This movie, to me sits up there with the great ones like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Highly recommended!

The State of the School: A letter from our president

The State of the School: A letter from our president
By David Sanchez, student body president


Over the summer break, the student government officers tried to invent ways to make Prairie a better place to attend school and make this school year more enjoyable. We acted on two thoughts – the first was finding a compromise on the many rules that had been enacted over the past couple of years, and the second focused on organizing a long list of social events throughout the year.

We met with Mr. McKinney early in the summer to find out why exactly these rules had been made – athletic shorts are unprofessional; pizza is bad for your health; and grinding is…well, we still don't really understand their argument for that. Anyway, we did our research, conducted surveys, and cross referenced other local school policies, and gave a presentation to the Academic Council at the beginning of the year. From all that work, we were able to get back a full spirit week and get rid of lunchroom dismissal. Whoopee! We realized that the 100% of seniors, 90% of juniors, and 92% of sophomores were right – Student Government has little/no say in how Prairie is run anymore. So we decided to turn our focus to other areas.

We’ve met a couple of time with Mr. Murphy and several parents to plan some fun activities. Money is always the issue when it comes to social events, so we decided to enter an online video contest hosted by eCompliments.com. We strategically entered with two weeks left so we could sneak up and reach 1st place right as the competition ended. We did! We took first place with 48 hours left. Unfortunately, life isn’t always fair and doesn't always go according to plan. Phil Defranco, a professional YouTuber with over 500,000 followers entered the competition on the last day and got enough votes to surpass us within a few hours. You win some, you lose some, and as Rocky says, “It’s not how hard you can hit, it’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” We’re going to do everything we can to make this school year a blast.

Is Simplicity Better than Over the Top?

Is Simplicity Better than Over the Top?
By Rhiannon Miller


What makes a great movie? Is it the graphics? The actors? The plot? The location? I like to believe everyone has their own idea. In other words, to each his own. However, is there a perfect formula to making a movie that everyone loves? For instance, is there such a movie that possess wonderful eye pleasing visuals, top-notch actors, and a story line so great it evokes every known type of feeling within its viewer? Is this possible? Perhaps it doesn’t take much to make an amazing movie. Maybe simplicity is key. Making a great movie could be as easy as walking into a middle school classroom and letting the camera roll. Laurent Cantet based the film Entre Les Mur’s (the classroom), which took the Palme d’Or (the most supreme award) at the annual Festival de Cannes in 2008, on this idea.

Who would have thought that watching a classroom of kids could be so interesting?! Honestly, it wasn’t. If you’re a kid who has attended one of Racine’s public middle schools, chances are you have experienced much of what the movie shows: rowdy kids, poor administration, and a poor learning environment. For those of you who have not , a.k.a. “Prairie Lifers”, this movie may interest you if only for the sake of seeing the experience in middle schools maintaining low incomes. However, there is more to the movie than just what the title suggests. It takes you into the life of its each characters and gets to the bottom of their actions. If that’s not enough for you, at least watch it for its amazing documentary style filming. What I found especially intriguing was the script--the fact that there isn’t one! All the students’ lines are spontaneous. The way it works is rather ingenious. The school is in fact an average school and the students are actual students. The director would speak to the students, explain the scenario, offered words and suggestions and boom! It was filmed. The one exception was the teacher, who was an actor and had more input from the director of what to say. If you want to know more, the DVD includes a “behind the scenes” section where you can learn all about the process for filming. Although the movie is French, it has subtitles and is available at your local Blockbuster. I encourage you to see for yourself what it takes to make a great, award- winning movie. You may be surprised.

More information at Rotten Tomatoes