Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I haven't seen (or even heard of) Attack of the Puppet People or 4D Man, but it might be fun to watch some old movies with some Star Trek: TOS actors in them. I might give these movies a try.

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Cheers, added 4D Man to the list to watch sometime .... probably get round to a few more older sci-fi while the 40s list is being revealed.

I think you would like both movies. 4D Man has three actors from ST TOS: Lee Meriwether and Robert Lansing and a third actor who was in your favorite episode of ST TOS. I won't tell you who it is so you can have the fun of spotting him

If you watch it, it would be cool if you post back here and let me know what you think. Same for Chyp or anyone actually. I'm always interested to hear if anyone watches any of these old movies besides me

Arrival (2016)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writers: Eric Heisserer(screenplay), Ted Chiang (story)
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery

About (spoiler free review): Earth is visited by twelve strange alien spacecraft that hover above the ground, on different places on the planet. What do they want? And how to communicate with them?
Enter into the picture, a college linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who's pressed into helping translate the alien's language by a U.S. Colonel (Forest Whitaker). Her task is a daunting one and at stake is escalating chaos and war mongering that erupts among nervous humans.

Review: I love sci fi!...And I bet if I watched Arrival at the theater on the big screen with an impressive sound system, this would have gave me goose bumps, in the way that Gravity (2013), wowed people in the theaters. But I watched this on my relatively small 46" TV screen...I wasn't impressed. It was the same old first contact story with mysterious aliens visiting Earth, and humans getting nervous and then the military acting like dummy, blunder heads. I was hoping for something more intelligent than this from director Denis Villeneuve...

I mean some of the scenes with an ignorant military was so pot boiler cliche that it made me laugh out loud. I don't for a minute believe the U.S. military or any world power is going to look at an advance alien ship that lands on Earth, freak out and decide to attack them. Yeah, I know it adds drama! but it's improvable and been done a zillion times before.

The strong point of the film, and it's a very strong point is: The way the aliens look (their design and movement), the way we see them (the camera angle), the way the scene is set up and most impressively is what we don't see of them. That's important as the mind can generate a much richer image than any CG effect can. The alien encounter scenes are among the best I've ever seen in a sci fi. But that's not enough to make up for a weakly contrived plot.

Amy Adams is good, she's always good. I didn't care for the tacked on back story about her dying daughter, nor did I believe she could interpret the aliens communications. I mean people were baffled for decades by the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and only deciphered them when they found the so called rosetta stone, which had the same message written in three different languages: Egyptian hieroglyphs & Egyptian written, and Greek.

Arrival has been done before on the Outer Limits TV show.

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Couldn't disagree more. "Arrival" is my #2 movie of 2016 so far. Amy Adams could communicate with aliens, because aliens changed the way her mind works.

Tugg what is your #1 movie of 2016?

I know I didn't completely get Arrival, but I think you missed it completely.

No, I didn't miss anything, I just didn't like it. Especially the over used protagonist military ploy. Old hat.

Green Room

I saw Arrival in the theatre, but I actually would've preferred to watch it at home, where the ambient sound was much quieter. I don't think the size of the screen or the quality of the sound system would've changed my opinion of the film itself though.

I enjoyed the cinematography, and the designs of the heptapods were great, but I just didn't love the movie. I liked it, yes, but it didn't blow me away. I did appreciate it, and I definitely want to see more science fiction films like Arrival, but it was just missing something for me (maybe more Jeremy Renner would help? I like him). It may or may not have still earned a spot on my sci-fi list, and its still one of the better films I've seen from 2016, but I think I just wanted more from it.

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Thanks Tugg, I've heard of it, but it's not my type of movie. My favorite 2016 film so far is Indignation

Yup that's how I seen it I did like how the heptapods wrote, that was a cool effect.

You sound like you missed it. The daughter was not a "back story". The reason Amy Adams can interpret the aliens is because they revealed themselves to her. Sorta like how mankind evolves whenever the monolith shows in 2001. By the way, I'm sure Drumpf would want to attack the aliens. Hey, I only give Arrival a 3/5 too, but I give The 4D Man a 1.5+.

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You snuck in as I was typing my long reply to Cricket.

Back from my nap; I knew you couldn't have gotten less of it than I did. I'll guess you were trying to give a spoiler free review?

Yes, absolutely...I was vague on purpose, as the film's best part is in the mystery, actually there's many mini mysteries in it... from what the aliens looked like, to how they are first met, to what happens. I didn't want to spoil any of that, as I myself didn't watch the trailer or read about it, so I had no idea what was going to happen.

Directors: Leo C. Popkin (as Leo Popkin), Russell Rouse
Cast: Gwendolyn Laster, Richard Rober, Maidie Norman
Genre: Drama, Thriller

About: A small racially mixed town erupts into mob hysteria and is nearly destroyed by hatred, after a white man is arrested as a suspect in the kidnapping of a black school girl. The black and white residents then begin to suspect each other and mob violence breaks out. The girl has actually fallen down a well, but each side suspects the other of wrong doing and hysteria fuels their hatred based on fear.


Review: A very important 'message film' from 1951, about the dangers of race hatred and social conformity. The Well is almost unknown today and that's too bad because the film makers were ahead of their time in the depiction of hate mongering, hysterics and racial fears.

I was impressed that this film took on such a tough subject way back in 1951. Some might say that this film is dated and that it delivers its message in a heavy handed way. And it does come on strong, but it's not really fair to judge the film by today's film making standards. For me it's not only a historically important film, it had a powerful story that is sadly still relevant today.

The rescue effort of drilling a counter shaft next to the well where the little girl is trapped, might go on a bit long, but it does seem to get the facts correct on how such a rescue effort would be mounted.


Most of the cast are unknowns and some were non-professional actors with this being their only movie credit. And that works well, as the film avoids being a Hollywood movie and instead seems like a documentary.

Harry Morgan, best known as Col. Potter on M*A*S*H* plays the falsely accused stranger who was last seen buying flowers for the missing girl. He does one helluva fine acting job.

At only 86 minutes this is an easy watch and one movie you won't soon forget.

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Thanks to MarkF for telling me about The Well (1951) If it wasn't for him I would have never seen this very interesting movie.

Director: Nicholas Ray
Cast: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
Genre: Drama

About: A mild mannered school teacher and family man (James Mason) who becomes seriously ill with a life threatening disease. The treatment is high doses of a new miracle drug, steroidal-cortisone. The cost of the cure is an addiction to the new drug, which then causes mental instability and violent delusional behavior.

Review: Director Nicholas Ray was on a roll in the 1950's, with such critically acclaimed movies as: In a Lonely Place (1950), Johnny Guitar (1954), Rebel Without a Cause (1955). In 1956 he teamed up with actor turned producer/writer, James Mason to make a big box office flop, that audiences didn't like...but critics loved...Bigger Than Life.

Shot in deluxe color, wide screen CinemaScope this was a big budget film and one of the first to show the dangers of prescription drug addition and the resulting mental illness that can occur from drug abuse. It's also noteworthy for showing us the family unit, up close and personal in a suburbia home.

Such mundane subjects were not often the subject of a film back then. As a result the movie works like a time machine and gives us a window back on the nuclear family of the 1950's.

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I don't know how accurate a look at the average '50s nuclear family Bigger Than Life really is. It's pretty stylized and has typical classic Hollywood mannered acting. Also James Mason was VERY unconvincing playing a man who has ever held a football before