Spikeopath 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

beauzee 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!

AaronCapenBanner Mathew Broderick plays Clark Kellogg, a first-year film college student in New York who has his luggage stolen by a small-time crook. This leads him to importer/exporter Carmine Sabatini(Marlon Brando) who looks uncannily like a certain Godfather Don from a 1972 film... Carmine uses this to enlist Clark into his employment, involving transporting some slippery Komodo Dragons(!) and then helping out in a fancy restaurant, where an elaborate plan to fool Carmine's enemies is to be played out.Clever comedy has an appealing cast and a very knowing sense of humor regarding Marlon Brando(playing Sabatini) being recognized as resembling that "actor" who starred in that famous mafia movie, and using it to his advantage. Otherwise this film is rather slight, but still quite funny.

david-sarkies 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.