Best movie ever!

A Brilliant Conflict

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The Freshman is a sort of comedy drama sprinkled with self aware barbs at film analysis. It's a great opportunity to see Marlon Brando relaxed and fully playing up the self-parody angle. Plot finds Matthew Broderick as Clark Kellog, a film student arriving in New York who through unfortunate circumstances ends up working for a man who is not too dissimilar from Don Corleone!Writer and director Andrew Bergman spoofs the Mafia via screwball scenarios and satirical scripting, though the latter is done to death and grows tiresome at the mid-point. Penelope Anne Miller and B.D. Wong get choice support roles and deliver the goods, in fact the casting across the board is spot on, and the tech credits are firmly in the plus column. It's all pleasantly executed and moves along at a brisk pace, but a little less satire and more straight laced character comedy wouldn't have gone amiss. 6/10

Matthew Broderick's best performance and Marlon Brando's best comedy performance. It works as a story and works as a good natured satire of THE GODFATHER.Great screenplay and tight Direction do not reveal the "truth" behind the "real Godfather" and his new friend (a very reluctant goodfella?), until we are thoroughly absorbed in the unusual proceedings.We also find a benign lampoon of the enviro-heads who must preserve deadly species at all costs. But watch the movie for the very unexpected finale.Buy this, now!

A young boy (Matthew Broderick) travels from his home in Vermont to attend a film school in New York. When he arrives, he is cautious, especially when he is approached by a man offering him a ride, but he ends up being convinced by him, and is duly ripped off. As such he is stuck in New York with no clothes and no money to buy his required texts, and no way of getting any more as his step father is not really all that concerned about him.Then he sees the guy who ripped him off walking down and road, and he chases him and catches up with him. The guy offers him a job with his uncle who turns out to be a godfather figure (Marlon Brando). Brando immediately take Broderick on board as his own son, but Broderick becomes more suspicious and cautious when he learns that he has helped Brando import an endangered Komodo Dragon into New York. This concern escalates when he is confronted by two FBI agents who want Brando for running meals in which endangered animals are served as the main course.There are a lot of twists in this movie though, and there is an elaborate plan running throughout. At times it seems as if this is unrealistic, but the movie did manage to suspend my disbelief, and brought me into the interactions between Brando and Broderick, which is the keystone of this film. It is not a crime thriller or an action movie, but rather a movie that explores the nature of fatherhood, and I think this does it well.Broderick's stepfather does not treat him as a son, and thus Broderick has no respect for him. After Broderick gets out of the situation, his stepfather offers him a hand of friendship to which Broderick refuses. Instead he takes Brando's hand for Brando is his true father figure and Broderick looked up to him as such. This created the main conflict in the movie: it was not between Broderick and the FBI or against Brando, but rather within himself. Broderick is torn between honouring his new found father, or betraying him and turning him into the FBI.The Freshman is a very well made movie. It has some good themes, ones that arise form within the movie rather than the movie being tied around them. It acknowledges one of the desires in our hearts to find a true father, a father that will not turn our back on us, and will be willing to provide everything, including a wife.To me I have found that father, and that father is God, for God is our Father in heaven. He is a father that will never betray us of hit us, and is willing to discipline us when we do wrong. He loves us so much that he is willing to sacrifice himself to forgive us for turning away from us. God is not an earthly father, he is a heavenly and is perfect in everyway, and he promises that he will always provide for us and will always be there for us. He understands everything we go through and more, and to see this we need to look at the life of Jesus, for Jesus is God.

The skill of this movie is how well conceived each character is. If you know the movie well, you can rapidly list in your head at least ten characters because each are so memorable; and considering that all these characters shared only 100 minutes of film - that's something. This is a combination of having well written characters suited to their actors - even the shipping stevedore Leo, aka Big Leo (they are synonymous) ranks as a strongly established character. Add to the mix a quick-paced story with a charming ending and what you have here is a comedy that ranks with "The Awful Truth" or "A Night at the Opera", and of course Rodolfo Lassparri would agree with the latter comparison. Back to character development: think of the bit roles and what the actors did with their few moments on film: the Aunt, the Professor, Bert Parks singing "Maggie's Farm" wearing a Tux and a Sombrero? Warped. Brilliant. The Bert Parks element of this movie may go unnoticed by generations to come, but for mine and for me I think it's great that he may be best remembered singing "There he is, your Komodo Dragon...", because, truly, will footage of the Miss America Pageants from the 70's hold water like this film should? I gave this film a 10 because it is a 10, and the rank of 6.4 (currently) is misapprehension.