Film review due Thursday -- student sample

So you've seen how the pros do it with the review of No Country for Old Men, now take a quick look at how your peers do it. Here's a link to a review done last semester. Note how it starts strongly, even though it's nothing fancy:

In the wake of World War II and the fall of Korea and China to the communist empire abroad, the American media became obsessed with the penetration of communists into the United States. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) is an example of this fear felt by many Americans, at the
threat of losing the basic principles on which their country was founded.

The writer sets up the historical context of the film in one sentence, then mentions how the film fits into that context in the next. A few sentences of plot summary follows (note how both the character's and actor's names are used). After that, the writer spends most of his time talking about the thematic content of the film, since that is what most significant, though he also mentions a particular special effect as well. All in all, a very solid review.