MOVIE: Alice in Wonderland (1951)

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Alice in WonderlandYear: 1951Rating: GLength: 75 minutes / 1.25 hours Of all the early Disney movies based on literature, Alice in Wonderland (1951) always felt like the odd one out. It wasn’t based on any fairy tales, and the source material it was adapting wasn’t necessarily something that had a narrative plot that connected everything together (other than the main character’s misadventures). Still, its psychedelic aura lends itself well to the animation format and leaves the viewer with at least a few short bits of memorable content. Having never really sat down and watched the whole movie straight through, there’s a reason the handful of more memorable scenes have stood in place for the whole. If anything, the characters in Wonderland make it memorable. The Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, and Queen of Hearts all have strong showings in this movie, even if their individual contributions don’t make up the whole film. Their representations here in the Disney animation style are iconic and...
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MOVIE: Strangers on a Train (1951)

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Strangers on a TrainYear: 1951Rating: PGLength: 101 minutes / 1.68 hours It’s a wonder after all these years that a Hitchcock film like Strangers on a Train (1951) escaped me until now. Sure, Hitchcock used trains in many of his films, but the premise here is so diabolically intriguing that it demands a viewing. After all, there’s an amount of logic involved with two strangers swapping the murders that they would like to happen to those tormenting them. And yet, Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) is so unsettling in his ability to follow through that the suspense of the rest of the movie practically films itself. Several camera tricks that Hitchcock uses adds his signature flair to this movie. From a punch to the face to a tension-filled series of shots at the bottom of a storm drain, the cinematography in Strangers on a Train is yet another reason why people need to watch this film. This being said, the ending (despite being...
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BOOK: Foundation (1951)

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Foundation Year: 1951 Author: Isaac Asimov Length: 518 minutes / 8.63 hours For years, people have asked whether or not I have read the penultimate science fiction series that is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. Up until now, I could not say that I had. While I knew the series by its name, I hadn’t ever heard any comparisons or even knew what these books were about. This probably should have been my first indication of what to expect. I wasn’t expecting anything other than its notable status as a pillar of classic sci-fi. If anything, the fact each “section” of Foundation is its own short story says volumes about the origin of the genre. Set within the same universe, Foundation follows five different groups across the timespan of a couple hundred years. Asimov explored a few different concepts and spent most of this book in world-building mode. I’ll applaud his ability to remain fairly consistent across these different stories, but the fact that there isn’t much...
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