Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

[Chypmunk]

Love Amélie, such a delightful couple of hours imo.

[Citizen Rules]

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Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)


Head Over Heels (original title)
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Writers: Ann Beattie (novel), Joan Micklin Silver (screenplay)
Cast: John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, Gloria Grahame, Kenneth McMillan
Genre: Drama Comedy

A no frills tale of obsessive love by one lonely guy for a married woman. CR

1979's Chilly Scenes of Winter is one of the movies that seemed to have slipped between the cracks of time and been forgotten by audiences who are looking for bigger thrills...And that's a pity because this fine little movie delivers something very unique, a down to earth look at a one sided love affair.

Based on the novel by Ann Beattie of the same name, the film unabashedly examines the life of a nice-guy civil servant played brilliantly by John Heard. We see him fall in love with the perfect woman, Mary Beth Hurt. She seems to be his perfect match too and they have brilliant chemistry together. There's this instant rapport and both are drawn together like moths to a flame.

I found the situations and the dialogue to be refreshingly honest and realistic, and void of the usual Hollywood cliche trappings. That's thanks to the source material and thanks to the director/writer who's a woman and can surprisingly tell the story of this love struck man with utter honest.

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Yes this is a drama comedy but the comedy is a darker more subtle type and therefore makes one think about relationships and when too much attraction is a bad thing. One example: Charles (John Heard) constantly drives up to the house of his girlfriend and parks his car and watches her, he's part love struck and part stalker! He even goes as far as meeting her husband.

Backing up the two leads, is Gloria Grahame who plays Charles' mom. She's a woman who routinely threatens suicide and spends her days drunk in the bath tub. His stepfather is not liked by Charles even though the step farther (Kenneth Milligan) is a friendly sort of person.

I like the way this ended too, realistically and without going over the top.

rating_3_5++

[Citizen Rules]

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Macao (1952)

Directors: Josef von Sternberg, Nicholas Ray (uncredited)
Writers: Bernard C. Schoenfeld & Stanley Rubin (screenplay)
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix, Gloria Grahame, Philip Ann
Genre: Crime Adventure Drama

Three mysterious people arrive on board a ship at the port of Macao in the China Sea. Each has a different reason to be in this exotic port where smuggling and gambling is king. Macau's underworld crime boss who runs a night club as cover gets a tip that an undercover cop from America is on the ship and believes it must be one of the new arrivals. CR


A troubled production helmed by an abusive director and unhappy actors makes for an interesting, though uneven film production for 1952's Macau.

Director Josef von Sternberg was assigned to make the film by billionaire Howard Hughes who owned RKO studios at the time. It was part of a two picture deal along with 1957's Jet Pilot. Von Sternberg was known for his striking compositions, utilizing Chiaroscuro...high-low lighting to create shadowing that imparted a 3 dimensional look to his sets. Along with densely packed set decor and fluid camera movement, von Sternberg created a look that exceeded the otherwise simpler aims of the film. His weakness was a personality disorder, he was out right abusive to the actors and considered them mere objects that sometimes got in his way of his ascetics goals. Josef von Sternberg was fired by Howard Hughes about a third of the way into film production. He was replaced with director Nicolas Ray.

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Nicholas Ray was an accomplished director but his visual style couldn't match von Sternberg's. Ray is best known as a director who could tell an emotionally impactful story. The problem with Macao was there wasn't much of a script to work with in the first place. Robert Mitchum even wrote a couple scenes to help make more sense of the film's narrative. The overall idea of an exotic location with shady characters would seem to work well, but we get next to nothing of the character's story. It's a film with most of the connecting dialogue and subtle moments missing, leaving us with a visually exciting, but austere film.

Robert Mitchum besides being targeted by the bad guys gets to do little more than flee for his life. However those on-the-run scenes are some of the best chase scenes I've seen. When he escapes the clutches of the crime boss and hit's the crowded Macao streets, he really looks like a man fleeing for his life. And the chase on the docks through a jungle of fishing nets, damn impressive! And that's all von Sternberg's work.


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Jane Russell is serviceable in her role as the shady American woman who blows into town. She's hired to sing in the nightclub casino so the crime boss can keep an eye on her and her friend (Robert Mitchum). She plays a chip-on-the-sholder type spitting out sarcastic quips along the way. She's not as good as Lauren Bacall at delivering those flippant one liners, but she's not bad. She sings pretty good too. Miss Russell sings two songs, the well known "One for My Baby" and the aptly named "You Kill Me".

Gloria Grahame has a smaller role and according to her own words she hated making this film. She had asked to be loaned out to do A Place in the Sun (1951), but producer Howard Hughes refused. According to Miss Grahame she deliberately over acted out of a hatred for Hughes. I have to say her 'over acting' was the best part of the film! It imparted a feeling of reckless devil-may-care attitude to her role as a crime moll. Actually I never noticed her overacting at all, in fact she was the best actor in the film.
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Macao is an uneven film, visually striking at times and with the use of authentic looking sets, it does wisp one away to that exotic port.

rating_3+

[Citizen Rules]

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Man on a Tightrope (Elia Kazan, 1953)


Writers: Neil Paterson, Robert E. Sherwood
Cast: Fredric March, Terry Moore, Gloria Grahame
Genre: Drama Thriller

A circus owner (Fredrick March) plans to escape communist Czechoslovakia along with his wife (Gloria Grahame) and his entire circus troupe. But before he can make his daring escape the state police begin investigating him. CR

Between making two of the greatest films: A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, director Elia Kazan made two lesser known films: Viva Zapata and this film Man On a Tightrope. Based on a 1952 novel by Neil Paterson. The movie tells the true story of Circus Brumbach who's members escaped from communist held East Germany in 1950. Some of the actually escapees appear in the movie.

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Filmed on location in Bavaria Germany, the film both looks and feels real! Making films that were hard hitting personal stories was the tenant of the Oscar winning director, Kazan. The film starts out by setting up the characters in the circus. We see the circus people but not much air time is spent on actual circus performances. We do get to know what kind of people they are and how life is for these people under the oppressive thumb of communism.

Fredrick March is both the owner of the circus and a performing clown. He's grown weary of the communist run state telling him how to run the circus. According to communism, the circus belongs to the people and not to Fredrick March's character. Trouble also awaits March in the from of a blonde spitfire, Gloria Grahame. She can't understand why her husband runs things the way that he does. She knows nothing of his escape plans and spends her time ogling the muscular lion tamer.

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Things kick into high gear when the state police start questioning March. Veteran actor Adolphe Menjou is effective as one of the state police who makes a blunder that is in March's favor.

Watch this one for it's amazingly true story and for it's on location shooting.

rating_3_5+

[Citizen Rules]

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Director: Robert Wise
Writers: Harold Livingston
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Genre: Sci-Fi


"When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it."


Excuse me, wasn't that the story plot of the original Star Trek episode The Changeling?...I remember being so excited that ST had 'come back' and was on the big screen. Back in 1979 I seen STTMP at my local drive-in. I can't quite remember what I thought of it back then. But I image as a ST fan I approved of the movie, and yet I seem to recall thinking that it wasn't anything at all like the TV show.

There's good reason STTMP doesn't resemble the familiar television series that ran from 1966 to 1969, then went on to live long and prosper in syndication. I must have watched the original ST series more times than there were Tribbles on space station K7.

From what I read, producer Gene Roddenberry was hell bent to make the movie much, much, more serious than the often campy TV series that millions loved. I bet good ole' Gene was tired of hearing that his Star Trek TV was made for kids and that 2001 A Space Odyssey was real sci-fi. That might explain why Roddenberry ignored the pleas of the original cast members to have more characterization in the script.

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From what I read all the cast members were unhappy with the focus of the film on special effects and quasi cerebral ideas. I say quasi cerebral as STTMP falls far short in it's attempt to doing something grand like 2001 or Solaris did. Let's face it, the original series wasn't always the deepest stories, and had plot holes big enough to drive a Constellation class starship through...BUT what made the show legendary was the personalities and interactions of of the Enterprise crew. Sadly that personal touch is missing in the 1st Star Trek movie.

I can't deny the special effects look great, especially by 1979 standards. But how long do I need to stare at the Enterprise in space dock? And how long do I need to see the insides of Vyager, with its endless imagery that puts new meaning into the phrase: 'enough already'.

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There's scant few goose bump moments where the film makes me really care about what's going on. I just kind of watch scene by scene roll by...By far the most interesting ST character to me was Dr McCoy. Why did he leave Star Fleet, and what's up with that beard? A little of his (and the other's) backstory would have been nice, but we get little to none of that. The scenes of Spock on Vulcan would seem to be the most interesting and yet to me they were visually and emotional weak compared to the episode Amok Time.

I'll give the movie high marks to STTMP for saving the Star Trek franchise. Though I wish they would have stopped before those J.J. Abrams abominations disrupted the time line.

rating_3_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Writers: Harve Bennett
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Genre: Action Sci-Fi

A top notch script and a new director brought the Star Trek franchise back from the brink of oblivion, with the 2nd Star Trek movie helmed by Nicholas Meyer. CR


Probably the biggest change for ST Wrath of Khan was that Gene Rodenberry who had been deeply involved in ST The Motion Picture, took a back set this time and let others do the flying. This time around, Star Trek recaptured that old flamboyant and adventurous spirit that had made the TV series so popular.


The script is full of wit, excitement and with the good old crew characterization that made the show a pop classic. Everyone looked like they were having a great time and that counts for a lot. If the first ST movie was cerebral and slow paced, Wrath of Khan was exciting with great lines and memorable scenes.

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Of course what Star Trek fans didn't love the original Space Seed episode with our genetically engineered bad boy, Khan Noonien Singh, played to eugenic perfection by Ricardo Montalban. There's no doubt when Montalban is on screen that he owns the show! And yes those are his real pecs! He looks the part, he owns the part!...Though I can't understand why his surviving followers are all so much younger than him?

Shout out to a young Kirstie Alley as Saavik a cadet half Romulan half Vulcan. I thought she was great in this and a great new character too. It's too bad Kirstie didn't come back for ST III, instead her role was played by another actress.

I loved the music score it really propelled the emotional impact and excitement of the scenes. My favorite scenes was the opening shocker with Saavik in command of the 'Enterprise' and the chase battle scenes in the the Mutara Nebula between Khan in the Reliant and Kirk on board his old ship. Those were so really done!

rating_4_5

[Captain Steel]

Maybe I don't know the back story of Space Seed well enough - but I remember that Khan was supposed to be a Sikh (of Asian Indian origin) and was the result of some sort of Eugenics program to create superior humans.

Since the program was a Eugenics one, I'd assume most of Kahn's comrades & followers would also have been Asian (and Kahn is even reported to have ruled on the Asian continent from India to the Middle East at one point in his history)... yet, not only do all his comrades in the movie seem at least a generation younger, but for some reason they all appear to be blond-haired, blue-eyed, Aryan types. (The few we saw on the TV series didn't even all look like that.)

I've never quite understood this aspect (a casting aspect perhaps) of the movie.

[Citizen Rules]

Maybe I don't know the back story of Space Seed well enough - but I remember that Khan was supposed to be a Sikh (of Asian Indian origin) and was the result of some sort of Eugenics program to create superior humans.

Since the program was a Eugenics one, I'd assume most of Kahn's comrades & followers would also have been Asian (and Kahn is even reported to have ruled on the Asian continent from India to the Middle East at one point in his history)... yet, not only do all his comrades in the movie seem at least a generation younger, but for some reason they all appear to be blond-haired, blue-eyed, Aryan types. (The few we saw on the TV series didn't even all look like that.)

I've never quite understood this aspect (a casting aspect perhaps) of the movie. You're right in Space Seed they said Khan was a Sikh and a product of 20th century eugenics breeding program. On the show his followers weren't Asian but mostly white. This is a screen shot of the other genetically engineered people that the Enterprise crew thawed out from cryogenic deep freeze.

https://i2.wp.com/www.tor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/star-trek-tos-space-seed-khan-crew.jpg?type=vertical


So one would expect his fellow superman and superwoman to have aged like he did. But nope they didn't.

[gbgoodies]

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Excuse me, wasn't that the story plot of the original Star Trek episode The Changeling?...I remember being so excited that ST had 'come back' and was on the big screen. Back in 1979 I seen STTMP at my local drive-in. I can't quite remember what I thought of it back then. But I image as a ST fan I approved of the movie, and yet I seem to recall thinking that it wasn't anything at all like the TV show.

I'll give the movie high marks to STTMP for saving the Star Trek franchise. Though I wish they would have stopped before those J.J. Abrams abominations disrupted the time line.

rating_3_5


When I first saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture, I wasn't a Star Trek fan yet. My mother wanted to see it, and she asked me to go with her, so I did. I thought it was a terrible movie, and I couldn't understand why she liked Star Trek. But then she told me that this movie was nothing like the show that she remembered.

It wasn't until I saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that I became a Star Trek fan.

Also, the success of Star Wars is credited with bringing back Star Trek. Someone at Paramount saw how popular it was, and said "Don't we have one of those?"


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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Writers: Harve Bennett
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Genre: Action Sci-Fi

A top notch script and a new director brought the Star Trek franchise back from the brink of oblivion, with the 2nd Star Trek movie helmed by Nicholas Meyer. CR


Probably the biggest change for ST Wrath of Khan was that Gene Rodenberry who had been deeply involved in ST The Motion Picture, took a back set this time and let others do the flying. This time around, Star Trek recaptured that old flamboyant and adventurous spirit that had made the TV series so popular.


The script is full of wit, excitement and with the good old crew characterization that made the show a pop classic. Everyone looked like they were having a great time and that counts for a lot. If the first ST movie was cerebral and slow paced, Wrath of Khan was exciting with great lines and memorable scenes.


Of course what Star Trek fans didn't love the original Space Seed episode with our genetically engineered bad boy, Khan Noonien Singh, played to eugenic perfection by Ricardo Montalban. There's no doubt when Montalban is on screen that he owns the show! And yes those are his real pecs! He looks the part, he owns the part!...Though I can't understand why his surviving followers are all so much younger than him?

rating_4_5


There's a funny story about Ricardo Montalban during the filming of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. When Khan drags himself over to push the button to start the Genesis device, they did several takes where the countdown didn't start. They filmed it over and over again, with him dragging himself over to the button every time, and the countdown not starting every time. Ricardo Montalban was in a lot of pain while filming this scene, and after several failed attempts, the normally overly-polite Ricardo Montalban stood up, and shocked everyone when he yelled out "Can somebody get this f-ing thing to work!" :lol:


Maybe I don't know the back story of Space Seed well enough - but I remember that Khan was supposed to be a Sikh (of Asian Indian origin) and was the result of some sort of Eugenics program to create superior humans.

Since the program was a Eugenics one, I'd assume most of Kahn's comrades & followers would also have been Asian (and Kahn is even reported to have ruled on the Asian continent from India to the Middle East at one point in his history)... yet, not only do all his comrades in the movie seem at least a generation younger, but for some reason they all appear to be blond-haired, blue-eyed, Aryan types. (The few we saw on the TV series didn't even all look like that.)

I've never quite understood this aspect (a casting aspect perhaps) of the movie.

I always just assumed the casting on the show was because it was just easier to cast mostly white people back then. I think the only explanation they gave was when Khan called himself "a product of late 20th century genetic engineering".


You're right in Space Seed they said Khan was a Sikh and a product of 20th century eugenics breeding program. On the show his followers weren't Asian but mostly white. This is a screen shot of the other genetically engineered people that the Enterprise crew thawed out from cryogenic deep freeze.

https://i2.wp.com/www.tor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/star-trek-tos-space-seed-khan-crew.jpg?type=vertical


So one would expect his fellow superman and superwoman to have aged like he did. But nope they didn't.

There's a theory that Judson's Scott's character was supposed to be Khan's son, but the timeline doesn't really fit that theory if you think about it. Maybe the writers didn't think about it, and the rest of his crew are supposed to be offspring of his original crew?

[Citizen Rules]

... I think the only explanation they gave was when Khan called himself "a product of late 20th century genetic engineering".

There's a theory that Judson's Scott's character was supposed to be Khan's son, but the timeline doesn't really fit that theory if you think about it. Maybe the writers didn't think about it, and the rest of his crew are supposed to be offspring of his original crew? I think the real reason Khan's crew are all young adults is for: demographics I.E. ticket sales. I bet studio heads thought if Khan and his followers were all old & gray haired, then there wouldn't be any young people in Wrath of Khan...and that would hurt tickets sales. AND if the movie had said his followers were all the offspring of the original crew of the Botany Bay then they all would have been 15 year olds or younger (except Khan) and who wants to see a ship of kids get killed? I'd say that probably explains why it was done that way.

[Citizen Rules]

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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Director: Leonard Nimoy
Writers: Harve Bennett
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley,James Doohan, Walter Koenig George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Robin Curtis
Genre: Sci Fi

"Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body."

Much better than most people think! I use to say this was the worst of the original ST movies, but after a rewatch I have to say I liked it! It's the most Star Trek of the Star Trek movies.

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At it's heart is the continuation of the story that was started in Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. At the end of the second ST movie Spock dies...that was because Leonard Nimoy had said he was done making Star Trek movies. That's also why a Spock replacement was introduced with Kirstie Alley as Saavik. For Search of Spock Saavik is played by Robin Curtis who makes a good Vulcan female and plays the character purely as a Vulcan. And in one of the more interesting scenes she has Pon Far sexual relations with the young Spock, thus getting pregnant (all done off screen). The discussion of her pregnancy was cut from the final edit leaving us to wonder what Kirk meant when he ask Saavik "If she has told Spock yet?"

I found Search for Spock to be the ST movie most like an original ST episode. The original TV series had some pretty outlandish ideas but they most often always worked because of the comradery between the crew. The cast had great chemistry and that's what made some of the original story ideas, no matter how outlandish, work so well. During the movie I thought of the episode Spock's Brain.

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Christopher Lloyd better known as Jim on Taxi or Doc in The Back to the Future movies made a really good Klingon! This is the first time that Klingons and Klingon culture was brought to the forefront...and they got it right and for that reason alone ST III deserves respect.

rating_3_5

[Captain Steel]

The Search for Spock really is an excellent entry to the ST original crew movie series.

All the movies after Khan are direct sequels, but this one is really the completion of the story that began in ST II, making the two the most directly sequential - this movie is literally part II of Wrath of Khan.

But due to this fact, it's not really a stand alone movie like most of the rest - you really need to know some ST history and need to have seen Wrath of Khan for this movie to make sense as most of the major plot details are continued from the previous film.

It had a few drawbacks: the special effects were just slightly a notch down from its predecessor (IMO). Not terribly different, but noticeable: Things like the Genesis planet (some of it reminded me of sets on the TV show, better than those, sure, but not by a whole lot) - it all looked like a sound stage, i.e. it didn't look real, but then maybe we could write that off to the fact that Genesis was an artificially produced planet! Little things like the "worms" on the planet, the Klingons' pet dog - some of these just looked silly. The outer space scenes & model work were good, yet still didn't seem up to par with those of the two previous movies. (For a major downgrade in the special effects department see ST-V The Final Frontier) ;)

Saavik played by a different actress. All I can say is it was a noticeable gap in continuity especially considering how closely these two films followed each other (as previously mentioned). It was quite obvious that this was not Kirstie Alley. I don't know which Saavik I liked more - I thought Robin Curtiss was a much prettier Saavick, but Kirstie Alley was probably the better actress. (A bit of trivia - the Vulcan female in ST VI played by Kim Cattrall was originally written to be Saavik, who ultimately betrays Star Fleet with added drama due to her and Spock's intimate past, but the character was later changed for some reason and named Valeris.)

David being killed - I don't know if this was a drawback or a saving grace. Hard call. It was sad considering he and Kirk only met one movie earlier, but it did make for one of the best dramatic moments when Kirk learns that David was murdered - rumor has it that Shatner missing his Captain's chair as he stumbled back upon hearing the news, ending up with him falling onto the floor of the bridge in front of the chair, was not planned, but made the scene all the more powerful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3s3qvQNuSk

Initially some had a hard time taking Christopher Lloyd seriously as a Klingon, yet I think it's unanimously held that he pulled it off and he's become one of the most memorable Klingon's in ST history.

Just some thoughts.

(About 2 years ago I did a back to back rewatch of all the movies in the series followed by most of the Next Generation movies.)

[Citizen Rules]

The Search for Spock...

It had a few drawbacks:... Little things like the "worms" on the planet, the Klingons' pet dog - some of these just looked silly

Saavik played by a different actress. All I can say is it was a noticeable gap in continuity especially considering how closely these two films followed each other (as previously mentioned). It was quite obvious that this was not Kirstie Alley.

Initially some had a hard time taking Christopher Lloyd seriously as a Klingon, yet I think it's unanimously held that he pulled it off and he's become one of the most memorable Klingon's in ST history.

I thought all those aspects that you just mentioned where weak points back when I first seen it at the theater...and also in subsequent viewings. That's why I use to consider Search for Spock the worst of the 6 ST Original series films. But on the last watch I had a complete turn around, which surprised me! I thought the worm scene with Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) worked well as it showed how ferocious the Klingons were. The worm nearly gets the best of him, but when he manages to kill it he tells his ship, 'nothing is going on here'...Ha, how very Klingon!'

Saavik being played by different actress bugged me before but this time around it was like my brain said they where two different characters. I'm not sure which is prettier, I'm voting both:p

I remember thinking Christopher Lloyd's Klingon was Jim from Taxi in disguise. I mean he has a very distinctive voice. But this time around it's been ages since I seen Taxi or Back to the Future so my brain registered, bad ass Klingon!

David being killed - I don't know if this was a drawback or a saving grace. Hard call. It was sad considering he and Kirk only met one movie earlier, but it did make for one of the best dramatic moments when Kirk learns that David was murdered - rumor has it that Shatner missing his Captain's chair as he stumbled back upon hearing the news, ending up with him falling onto the floor of the bridge in front of the chair, was not planned, but made the scene all the more powerful.
Yeah that was one helluva a powerful scene...I've never seen Captain Kirk look so demoralized.


(About 2 years ago I did a back to back rewatch of all the movies in the series followed by most of the Next Generation movies.)That's what I'm doing. I just finished rewatching the Original Series and I'm almost done with the OS films, then I'll start on Next Generation.

[Captain Steel]

One thing I have to ask, Rules, in all seriousness - when you say you used to think III-Search for Spock was the worst of the 6, did you really think it was worse than V-The Final Frontier?

Oh, I can't wait till you review that one! ;)

[Citizen Rules]

One thing I have to ask, Rules, in all seriousness - when you say you used to think III-Search for Spock was the worst of the 6, did you really think it was worse than V-The Final Frontier?

Oh, I can't wait till you review that one! ;) Yes! It's true, I use to like The Final Frontier pretty well.....I just seen it the other night for the first time in a decade, so you'll have to wait until I can write my review up to find out what I thought:p

[gbgoodies]

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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Director: Leonard Nimoy
Writers: Harve Bennett
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley,James Doohan, Walter Koenig George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Robin Curtis
Genre: Sci Fi

"Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body."

Much better than most people think! I use to say this was the worst of the original ST movies, but after a rewatch I have to say I liked it! It's the most Star Trek of the Star Trek movies.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50348&stc=1&d=1545101018


At it's heart is the continuation of the story that was started in Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. At the end of the second ST movie Spock dies...that was because Leonard Nimoy had said he was done making Star Trek movies. That's also why a Spock replacement was introduced with Kirstie Alley as Saavik. For Search of Spock Saavik is played by Robin Curtis who makes a good Vulcan female and plays the character purely as a Vulcan. And in one of the more interesting scenes she has Pon Far sexual relations with the young Spock, thus getting pregnant (all done off screen). The discussion of her pregnancy was cut from the final edit leaving us to wonder what Kirk meant when he ask Saavik "If she has told Spock yet?"

I found Search for Spock to be the ST movie most like an original ST episode. The original TV series had some pretty outlandish ideas but they most often always worked because of the comradery between the crew. The cast had great chemistry and that's what made some of the original story ideas, no matter how outlandish, work so well. During the movie I thought of the episode Spock's Brain.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50349&stc=1&d=1545101023


Christopher Lloyd better known as Jim on Taxi or Doc in The Back to the Future movies made a really good Klingon! This is the first time that Klingons and Klingon culture was brought to the forefront...and they got it right and for that reason alone ST III deserves respect.

rating_3_5






I never understood why so many people dislike Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. I think it's a great movie, with some of the best lines in the ST II - IV trilogy.

Robin Curtis was definitely a big step down from Kirstie Alley, but she wasn't bad. I loved seeing Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon, but there were a few times that I could see the Reverend Jim character in him. I also liked John Larroquette as a Klingon, but I wish he had more screen time.

I loved some of the other Starship captains we met in this movie, specifically James B. Sikking as Captain Styles ("How can you have a yellow alert in space dock?"), and Phillip Richard Allen as Captain Esteban ("This landing is Captain's discretion and I'm the one who's out on a limb.").

The hardest scene to watch was when the Klingons beamed aboard the Enterprise. It was heartbreaking, even though we won that battle.

I'm glad they cut the storyline about Saavik's pregnancy. I don't think they needed it, and it would have just distracted from the main storyline.

And just for the record, this movie is far superior to the episode "Spock's Brain".

[gbgoodies]

One thing I have to ask, Rules, in all seriousness - when you say you used to think III-Search for Spock was the worst of the 6, did you really think it was worse than V-The Final Frontier?

Oh, I can't wait till you review that one! ;)

Yes! It's true, I use to like The Final Frontier pretty well.....I just seen it the other night for the first time in a decade, so you'll have to wait until I can write my review up to find out what I thought:p


Rules, now that you like Star Trek III, which movie do you think is worse, Star Trek: The Motion Picture or Star Trek V?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqQmfCOGmFU

[Captain Steel]

Man, Sheldon is so wrong! ;)

How can he say TMP failed on music? The theme was so great that it was adopted by the entire run of The Next Generation. And the Klingon theme? Ilia's theme? (I actually owned the soundtrack album at one time!)

[gbgoodies]

Man, Sheldon is so wrong! ;)

How can he say TMP failed on music? The theme was so great that it was adopted by the entire run of The Next Generation. And the Klingon theme? Ilia's theme? (I actually owned the soundtrack album at one time!)


I agree with you that Sheldon is wrong about the music, but he's right that Star Trek: TMP failed in so many other ways that it's worse than Star Trek V.

[Ms. M]

I agree with you that Sheldon is wrong about the music, but he's right that Star Trek: TMP failed in so many other ways that it's worse than Star Trek V.


Discussion about which Star Trek movie is worst - sounds like my type of debate:D

[Captain Steel]

I agree with you that Sheldon is wrong about the music, but he's right that Star Trek: TMP failed in so many other ways that it's worse than Star Trek V.

I've expressed many times my personal reasons for liking it - but I have a new one - the fact that every decade it seems to become increasingly unpopular and panned! Liking it appeals to my sense of non-conformity! ;)

[gbgoodies]

Discussion about which Star Trek movie is worst - sounds like my type of debate:D


So Ms. M, which Star Trek movie do you think is the worst?

[Ms. M]

So @Ms. M (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=96627), which Star Trek movie do you think is the worst?
Let's just say I didn't finish Star Trek made in 2009. It was awful.
I watched the oldest ones movies as a child or teenager, so I treat them with a little nostalgia (but not too big;)).

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50460&stc=1&d=1545531538
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)


Director: Leonard Nimoy
Writers: Leonard Nimoy (story)
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Catherine Hicks
Genre: Sci Fi

"To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral James T. Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to San Francisco in 1986 to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it: humpback whales."

Leonard Nimoy turns up the heat in his second outing as director on the Star Trek movie franchise and scores a hit with 1986's Star Trek The Voyage Home...The fourth film in the Star Trek movie series.

What colored me impressed is the levity and chemistry between the cast members. That chemistry was paramount to making the original TV series a cultural phenomenon and at times was lacking in the other Star Trek movies. Is The Voyage Home silly at times? You bet it is! And thank goodness it's whimsical at times as that 'fun factor' allows the film to have a high rewatchability. At the same time it scores high on the goose bump rating, especially the scenes about the whales and how they were being hunted to extinction. Those sentimental moments brought a near tear to this reviewer's eye. I read that this movie was responsible for bringing a new awareness into the plight of these intelligent beings that we call whales. And for that the movie gets my highest praise, and that message made this one of the best of the ST films.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50464&stc=1&d=1545531567


Another thing that I loved was for once the other ST crew members got some real air time. Especially Walter Koenig as Chekov. Chekov gets his own story arc and we get to see him do some real acting, as opposed to just delivering static exposition about navigation or shields. In the DVD extras Koenig was interviewed and he was quite happy that he had a chance to shine for a change. I liked that there were multiple story arcs based on the exploits of the ST crew as they went about trying to bring a pair of humpback whales into the 23rd century. So often the ST films only revolve around Kirk and Spock. So it was nice to see the 'little people' get their 15 minutes of fame for once!

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50463&stc=1&d=1545531559


I really like the setting of the film on contemporary Earth, that's 1986 and the past to us but present time when the film came out. That setting allowed for the film to contrast how things were, compared to how we hope they well be in the 23rd century and allowed for some humor too. I liked the casting of Catherine Hicks as the biologist and love interest of Captain Kirk. She was our proxy into the film and so was easy to relate too.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50462&stc=1&d=1545531552

Sure it's another one of those pesky alien probes (shades of ST The Motion Picture) that threaten to destroy Earth unless Captain Kirk and his crew can find a way to communicate with it. But this time the probe is mostly the catalyst for the events of the movie and not the main feature.


rating_4_5

[gbgoodies]

Let's just say I didn't finish Star Trek made in 2009. It was awful.
I watched the oldest ones movies as a child or teenager, so I treat them with a little nostalgia (but not too big;)).


I didn't think the 2009 Star Trek was that bad, but it certainly wasn't as good as most of the original cast movies. I just try to separate it in my mind from the original Star Trek series/movies, and I watch it as a stand-alone sci-fi movie. It has some problems, but it's a pretty good movie.

[gbgoodies]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50460&stc=1&d=1545531538
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)


Director: Leonard Nimoy
Writers: Leonard Nimoy (story)
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Catherine Hicks
Genre: Sci Fi

"To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral James T. Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to San Francisco in 1986 to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it: humpback whales."

Leonard Nimoy turns up the heat in his second outing as director on the Star Trek movie franchise and scores a hit with 1986's Star Trek The Voyage Home...The fourth film in the Star Trek movie series.

What colored me impressed is the levity and chemistry between the cast members. That chemistry was paramount to making the original TV series a cultural phenomenon and at times was lacking in the other Star Trek movies. Is The Voyage Home silly at times? You bet it is! And thank goodness it's whimsical at times as that 'fun factor' allows the film to have a high rewatchability. At the same time it scores high on the goose bump rating, especially the scenes about the whales and how they were being hunted to extinction. Those sentimental moments brought a near tear to this reviewer's eye. I read that this movie was responsible for bringing a new awareness into the plight of these intelligent beings that we call whales. And for that the movie gets my highest praise, and that message made this one of the best of the ST films.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50464&stc=1&d=1545531567


Another thing that I loved was for once the other ST crew members got some real air time. Especially Walter Koenig as Chekov. Chekov gets his own story arc and we get to see him do some real acting, as opposed to just delivering static exposition about navigation or shields. In the DVD extras Koenig was interviewed and he was quite happy that he had a chance to shine for a change. I liked that there were multiple story arcs based on the exploits of the ST crew as they went about trying to bring a pair of humpback whales into the 23rd century. So often the ST films only revolve around Kirk and Spock. So it was nice to see the 'little people' get their 15 minutes of fame for once!

Walter Koenig also got some "real air time" as Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, even though he wasn't in the original episode "Space Seed". Koenig said that he knew he wasn't in that episode when he got the script for ST2, but he didn't tell anyone because he didn't want to lose that juicy role. Even thought he wasn't in the original episode, he explained how Khan recognized him by explaining that Chekov wasn't a member of the bridge crew yet. He was just a lowly crew member who happened to be in the bathroom when Khan really really had to go very badly. When Chekov finally came out of the bathroom, Khan looked at him and said, "I will remember your face." :lol:


https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50463&stc=1&d=1545531559


I really like the setting of the film on contemporary Earth, that's 1986 and the past to us but present time when the film came out. That setting allowed for the film to contrast how things were, compared to how we hope they well be in the 23rd century and allowed for some humor too. I liked the casting of Catherine Hicks as the biologist and love interest of Captain Kirk. She was our proxy into the film and so was easy to relate too.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50462&stc=1&d=1545531552

Sure it's another one of those pesky alien probes (shades of ST The Motion Picture) that threaten to destroy Earth unless Captain Kirk and his crew can find a way to communicate with it. But this time the probe is mostly the catalyst for the events of the movie and not the main feature.


rating_4_5






Here's a little known piece of trivia for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Did you know that there's an error on the crew jackets for that movie?


https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50465&stc=1&d=1545549502

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50466&stc=1&d=1545549531

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50474&stc=1&d=1545666663

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Director: William Shatner
Writers: William Shatner
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, David Warner, Laurence Luckinbill
Genre: Sci Fi

Had it not been for bad luck ST V: The Final Frontier might have been the best of the original cast Star Trek movies. First time feature film director William Shatner had grand visions for his movie but a 'starship load' of misfortune followed him.

For starters there was a writer's strike that curtailed the planned big ending for the film, and the special effects budget was reduced so that the entire big finale was cut down to a mere whisper of it's planned opulence. If that was enough to thwart Shatner's grand film ideas the studio demanded his film be edited down by some 20 minutes from the original 2 hour movie he had shot. Despite the fact Shatner insisted all the material was necessary to the movie, the film was heavily edited. And that's why the 5th film in the original ST franchise is considered the weakest of the bunch.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50475&stc=1&d=1545666679


The story premise is a good one: Spock's long estranged half brother Sybok reappears as a renegade Vulcan who's embraced emotions as a way of discovering a profound metaphysical truth. The most interesting aspect is the way Sybok delves into people's minds revealing their inner fears, so that they can conquer and be free of their inner pain, thus achieving a higher state of inner peace. Now that's a cool concept! Laurence Luckinbill as the messianic Sybok is both engaging and likable...that's important because he's a big part of the film and for the audience to accept him, as does most of the Enterprise crew, he has to seem both amicable and wise.

I wonder just how more fleshed out the film would have been with the missing 20 minutes restored to it. As it is some of the scenes seem abbreviated and don't fully achieve the emotional resonance that leaves the viewer in awe. There were several key scenes where I had an innate sense that an extra line was needed to bring the scene to it's emotional peak.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50477&stc=1&d=1545666698


I hated this Star Wars bar room scene rip off. Actually I thought the same scene in Star Wars was kitschy stupid too, so no reason to copy it. It felt like it didn't belong and they had already done a similar scene in ST III The Search for Spock.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50476&stc=1&d=1545666687


I liked David Warner's character as a Federation envoy. But whoever decided to make this human smoke cigarettes in the 23rd century doesn't understand Star Trek canon. Gene Rodenberry had resisted all attempts by commercial interest to have cast members smoke on the original TV series, as he felt no one in the 23rd century would be smoking. Not a deal breaker but disappointing for a ST fan. The actress who played the Romulan woman in the above photo, is pretty alright but made one of the worst Romulans I've seen.

Had the film's budget not been drastically cut, had there been no writer's strike, had the studio allowed Shatner's full 2 hour version of the movie...then The Final Frontier with it's unique themes might have gone down in ST history as one of the great films...but as it is I rate it a respectable:

rating_3_5

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50695&stc=1&d=1546565787
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)


Director: Nicholas Meyer
Writers: Leonard Nimoy (story)
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doonan, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Mark Lenard, Kim Cattrall, Michael Dorn, Christopher Plummer, David Warner, Iman
Genre: Sci-Fi

What I liked about this is: the relationship between Lt. Valeris (Kim Cattrall) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy)...and how that figured into the overall story arch. Sorry, I can't say more about what happens, but for me those were the most rewarding scenes. I thought Kim Cattrall made an interesting Vulcan and her character, when on screen, was also a treat to watch.

I also was impressed with the scenes between Spock's father Sarek (Mark Lenard) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner). Especially when Sarek acknowledged the huge personal lost Kirk suffered at the hands of the Klingon's in his effort to bring Spock back to Vulcan. Nicely done! Mark Lenard is so good at playing Sarek...and those human moments (and Vulcan moments!) is what impressed me the most with the film. As far as the action stuff went it was the par usual.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50694&stc=1&d=1546565782


What didn't impress me was the Klingon's in the 5th ST movie. Sure Christopher Plummer & David Warner are constant professionals and have amassed a wealth of impressive acting work between them. David Warner has even appeared in other ST movies. But their proper 'British gentlemen' manners and speech patterns, ruined it for me. This had to be the worst casts Klingon's of all time!...With one exception Michael Dorn as the Klingon defense attorney. Dorn played his own grandfather. As he did on ST The Next Generation, he nailed what a Klingon should sound and act like. I can't stress enough how unimpressed I was with the other Klingons.


https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50693&stc=1&d=1546565775
The trail scene on the Klingon home world was a sight to behold! Very well done set design with solid use of three dimensional height.


https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50697&stc=1&d=1546566596

The escape from the ice prison planet wasn't anything to amazing. I guess I was expecting more from that portion of the film....Iman, was by far the most interesting aspect of that segment of the movie. Loved those colored contact lenses. She looks mysterious!

Star Trek The Undiscovered Country, uneven but worth it for the things it does get right.
rating_3_5

[Captain Steel]

I've got much to say on the last few entries, but one very minor and somewhat silly observation of ST VI: the Klingon blood being the color of bubble gum.

I can understand their blood is a different color, but for some reason the playful color didn't seem to have the same impact on screen. Guess I'm just human-centric. Some could say our red blood is a playful color as well. But the murder scene in the movie just didn't seem to have the same seriousness or impact with the blood looking like pink Good-&-Plenty's (an old candy) than if, say, the blood had been black. I guess I'm saying that the blood didn't come off as blood, but as Hollywood goop with some lavender food coloring. It was distracting, and since it was such a serious and important scene, it shouldn't have had such distractions.

I always remember reading how comic artists would say how they'd draw (or color) blood black because bright red blood ends up looking silly on the page while black blood looks more realistic. ;)

[Arigatō-san]

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is an excellent, excellent film.


I also enjoyed Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Didn't like any of the others, though.

[Citizen Rules]

I've got much to say on the last few entries, but one very minor and somewhat silly observation of ST VI: the Klingon blood being the color of bubble gum.

I can understand their blood is a different color, but for some reason the playful color didn't seem to have the same impact on screen. Guess I'm just human-centric. Some could say our red blood is a playful color as well. But the murder scene in the movie just didn't seem to have the same seriousness or impact with the blood looking like pink Good-&-Plenty's (an old candy) than if, say, the blood had been black. I guess I'm saying that the blood didn't come off as blood, but as Hollywood goop with some lavender food coloring. It was distracting, and since it was such a serious and important scene, it shouldn't have had such distractions.

I always remember reading how comic artists would say how they'd draw (or color) blood black because bright red blood ends up looking silly on the page while black blood looks more realistic. ;)Totally agree! When I watched the movie I thought the Pepto Bismo blood looked cartoonish and liked you said it ruined the scene.

[Citizen Rules]

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is an excellent, excellent film.


I also enjoyed Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Didn't like any of the others, though. Those 2 were my favorite of the first 5 ST films. I've been watching the original Star Trek TV series on DVD and just finished watching it. Now I'm starting to watch ST The Next Generation.

[Captain Steel]

I have some unpopular issues with IV - I don't hate it or anything and the biggest problem is I've seen it too many times. Every time non-Trekkies wanted to watch a Trek movie it was this one!

One problem is the Enterprise is absent (except for a last minute cameo) - the Enterprise is literally a character of the original crew (to me anyway). Along with the Enterprise being absent there are many other typical Trek trappings that aren't there to much extent such as: outer space scenes, outer space battles, Kirk outsmarting an enemy, aliens, etc. The story didn't lend itself to a lot of typical sci-fi special effects (but of the effects there were, most were decent.)

Another problem is I don't really like time travel stories within a series (don't mind them if they're stand alone, but within a series they have the potential to effect continuity).

This isn't a terrible thing, but the movie came off as Nimoy's personal Save The Whales crusade (which indeed it was) - not a bad message, but it's quite obviously the message in the film (be a great theme for maybe a single TV episode, but to have a whole ST movie revolve around it? I have mixed feelings). The plot with the whale probe very much resembled the whole V-Ger fiasco from the much-panned ST-TMP, but re-used here as a way to fit an alien element around the Save The Whales story.

The aftermath of the Search for Spock seemed virtually abandoned - yes, it was touched upon at points, but the fact that Spock was now living in a new (cloned?) body, he had been killed, experienced death, he'd shared McCoy's body and mind, aged to adulthood in a matter of hours, had sexual relations in a teen form with an adult crew member, had a soul transplant, had suffered amnesia and was now starting all his relationships anew almost as a newborn - it all seemed a rather traumatic set of circumstances for a major character (something an entire movie could have spent delving into), yet it all seems to be treated as happenstance with a "well that was interesting, let's move on and make lots of jokes about time travel" attitude. ;)

The good: the film resembled a longer type of TV episode (but refer back to my last point). I enjoyed the humor and the time travel did set up a lot of humorous situations. As Rules pointed out, I liked how various crew members had a chance to shine, each with their own subplot missions to help solve their problem. I liked the ending - that Kirk's punishment for all the stuff he pulled in ST-III was a demotion that would bump him back to rank of Captain and he'd have to command a newly built Enterprise.

[Captain Steel]

Walter Koenig also got some "real air time" as Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, even though he wasn't in the original episode "Space Seed". Koenig said that he knew he wasn't in that episode when he got the script for ST2, but he didn't tell anyone because he didn't want to lose that juicy role. Even thought he wasn't in the original episode, he explained how Khan recognized him by explaining that Chekov wasn't a member of the bridge crew yet. He was just a lowly crew member who happened to be in the bathroom when Khan really really had to go very badly. When Chekov finally came out of the bathroom, Khan looked at him and said, "I will remember your face." :lol:





Here's a little known piece of trivia for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Did you know that there's an error on the crew jackets for that movie?


https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50465&stc=1&d=1545549502

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50466&stc=1&d=1545549531

What's the error?
Is it the Enterprise over the Golden Gate bridge (since the ship didn't appear in the film until a little cameo at the end)?

[gbgoodies]

What's the error?
Is it the Enterprise over the Golden Gate bridge (since the ship didn't appear in the film until a little cameo at the end)?


Yes, that's the error. The Enterprise wasn't the ship that flew near the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the Klingon Bird of Prey.

[Captain Steel]

Yes, that's the error. The Enterprise wasn't the ship that flew near the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the Klingon Bird of Prey.

Thanks!
I also noticed there's a whale in the jacket photo but not appearing in close up photo! (Like one of those "what's the difference" cartoons!) ;)

[gbgoodies]

Thanks!
I also noticed there's a whale in the jacket photo but not appearing in close up photo! (Like one of those "what's the difference" cartoons!) ;)


I pulled those pictures off the internet because my jacket is safely packed away in storage, but I'll have to check and see if the actual jacket has the whale. (I don't remember a whale on my jacket, but I'll check when I get a chance.)

[gbgoodies]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50474&stc=1&d=1545666663

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Director: William Shatner
Writers: William Shatner
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, David Warner, Laurence Luckinbill
Genre: Sci Fi

Had it not been for bad luck ST V: The Final Frontier might have been the best of the original cast Star Trek movies. First time feature film director William Shatner had grand visions for his movie but a 'starship load' of misfortune followed him.

For starters there was a writer's strike that curtailed the planned big ending for the film, and the special effects budget was reduced so that the entire big finale was cut down to a mere whisper of it's planned opulence. If that was enough to thwart Shatner's grand film ideas the studio demanded his film be edited down by some 20 minutes from the original 2 hour movie he had shot. Despite the fact Shatner insisted all the material was necessary to the movie, the film was heavily edited. And that's why the 5th film in the original ST franchise is considered the weakest of the bunch.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50475&stc=1&d=1545666679


The story premise is a good one: Spock's long estranged half brother Sybok reappears as a renegade Vulcan who's embraced emotions as a way of discovering a profound metaphysical truth. The most interesting aspect is the way Sybok delves into people's minds revealing their inner fears, so that they can conquer and be free of their inner pain, thus achieving a higher state of inner peace. Now that's a cool concept! Laurence Luckinbill as the messianic Sybok is both engaging and likable...that's important because he's a big part of the film and for the audience to accept him, as does most of the Enterprise crew, he has to seem both amicable and wise.

I wonder just how more fleshed out the film would have been with the missing 20 minutes restored to it. As it is some of the scenes seem abbreviated and don't fully achieve the emotional resonance that leaves the viewer in awe. There were several key scenes where I had an innate sense that an extra line was needed to bring the scene to it's emotional peak.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50477&stc=1&d=1545666698


I hated this Star Wars bar room scene rip off. Actually I thought the same scene in Star Wars was kitschy stupid too, so no reason to copy it. It felt like it didn't belong and they had already done a similar scene in ST III The Search for Spock.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=50476&stc=1&d=1545666687


I liked David Warner's character as a Federation envoy. But whoever decided to make this human smoke cigarettes in the 23rd century doesn't understand Star Trek canon. Gene Rodenberry had resisted all attempts by commercial interest to have cast members smoke on the original TV series, as he felt no one in the 23rd century would be smoking. Not a deal breaker but disappointing for a ST fan. The actress who played the Romulan woman in the above photo, is pretty alright but made one of the worst Romulans I've seen.

Had the film's budget not been drastically cut, had there been no writer's strike, had the studio allowed Shatner's full 2 hour version of the movie...then The Final Frontier with it's unique themes might have gone down in ST history as one of the great films...but as it is I rate it a respectable:

rating_3_5






I haven't seen it in a long time, but I thought Star Trek V was one of the worst Star Trek movies. The only good scenes were the "Row, row, row your boat" scenes, there was little of the fun character interactions that we've come to love, and there were very few memorable lines.

One of the reasons the movie was cut so badly was because the actress in the scenes with David Warner was so bad that most of her scenes were left on the cutting room floor. That's also the reason that David Warner was brought back for Star Trek VI.

[Arigatō-san]

That Romulan actress really retained her looks though. She's 55 now and pictures just a few years ago are still very attractive, especially for her age.

[Citizen Rules]

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KLhal7bSHJ4/TyWr92pJzeI/AAAAAAAAAFE/M1MLV3dLxdQ/s1600/lanocheamericana2.jpg


Day for Night (1973)
La nuit américaine (original title)
Director: François Truffaut
Writers: François Truffaut (screenplay), Jean-Louis Richard (screenplay)
Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud, François Truffaut
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Language: French

"A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew."


I enjoyed it! It's not often that I watch a film and get so into the story that I don't check how much time is left on the film. I was very intrigued for the entire 2 hours and loved the subject matter! It was great seeing a movie about a movie being made and what I liked was that it focused on the actual behind scenes business of getting a film made. I liked the entire cast.

François Truffaut was very likable on screen and I felt like I already knew him as I've seen him talk in detail in the documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748512/). He seemed like a real cool guy and just seeing him work was a real treat.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=49191&stc=1&d=1540306576


Valentina Cortese the Italian actress was really great in this, she was full of exuberantated energy and reminded me of a cross between Greta Garbo and Gloria Swanson.

Jacqueline Bisset was OK in this, she didn't really do much. I remember when I was a kid she was the 'babe' that all the adults thought was hot, well at least the guys;) I actually liked Nathalie Baye as the script girl Joelle better.

I was pleasantly surprised by Day for Night! BTW in America that filming technique is called 'Hollywood Night'.

rating_4_5

[Citizen Rules]

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The Aviator (2004)


Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: John Logan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale
Genre: Biography, Drama, History


"A biopic depicting the early years of legendary Director and aviator Howard Hughes' career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s."



DAMN IT! I just about bought a new TV set after watching the DVD of the The Aviator and thinking the color in my 10 year old plasma TV had went out making this gawd awful looking ugly cyan color. It really stressed me out and ruined the movie watching experience, as for the whole 3 hours of the movie I kept thinking, 'Damn! now I have to go buy a new TV set!'.... And I spent half the night messing around with the color settings on the TV, ugh!

Then...the next morning I pop The Aviator DVD into my computer and was very relieved to see the same yucky cyan color. So I knew, my TV was OK and it was just a cheap bootleg DVD that my library had, and I was going to tell them to throw it away!

...Then I read some other reviews of the movie and seen others had the same reaction to the strange color...OMG, so this was Scorsese's attempt at art, ugh! I'm NOT impressed. Scorsese was attempting to shoot the film in early 1930s Two Strip Technicolor. I loved the movie, but the look of it is yuck! and to me the visual appeal of a movie needs to match the quality of the story telling. And the story telling, the acting was all top notch but that cyan color was so distracting that it ruined the joy of watching the movie.

BTW I just watched a Two Strip Technicolor film Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024368/)and the colors were much more pastel and pinkish, so I think Scorsese's addition of funky cyan color was not only distracting but inaccurate.

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Leonardo DiCaprio nails the role of the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Well I don't know for sure what the real Howard Hughes was like in person, as he was pretty reclusive, so what matters is that DiCaprio creates a well defined and sympathetic character that had me believing what I was watching was the real thing. Leo is excellent in this movie and so was all of the supporting cast, and it's a big cast that represents some of the most famous names in Hollywood during it's early days.

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The Aviator creates the world of Hollywood during it's golden age (1930s-1950s), to near perfection.

rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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Ghostwatch (1992)

Director: Lesley Manning
Writer: Stephen Volk
Cast: Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith
Genre: Horror, Mystery

A realistic spoof of a TV based news investigation by a BBC film crew of the most haunted house in Britain. CR


What an idea for a movie! Orson Welles would be proud...and it was originally shown on Halloween evening too, how cool is that! I would have loved to watch this on that night, I bet it would've been a very memorable viewing experience!

Ghostwatch originally aired on BBC in 1992 October 31st as a Halloween treat...or maybe as a Halloween prank on the viewers. It was a mockumentary presented as a live TV broadcast, where a team of investigate reporters spend the evening investigating paranormal activities at a reportedly haunted house.

I loved the way this was done, with the woman from Ghostwatch spending the night in the house along with a camera crew who are armed with spectral imaging equipment and the two little girls who had been terrorized by the poltergeist ghost nicknamed 'Pipes' are there. They're all stuck in that house, live on TV, as we watch mysterious noises and worse, happening right in front of our eyes.

Add to that the two anchor people back in the Ghostwatch studio, one a woman who's a true believer who too easily find reasons to believe the ghost is real. Then the older man who's the lead anchor of the show, he's more skeptical which throws the audience off balance and adds credibility that what we're watching is real. And then there's a reporter on the streets who's more of a light heartened comedian, which further clouds the real aim of the show...It's intentional misdirection, all well done.

I enjoyed it, just the spectacle of it and the way they pitted the shows team against each other so as to manipulate the feelings of the audience...I tell ya, this is just like Orson Welles' famous 1938 Halloween radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. Of course the great Orson did it first, but Ghostwatch did a helluva job with it.


BTW, Did you guys spot Pipes in the movie? The producer confirmed that there are 13 times that Pipes shows up...In that photo I used, I hid Pipes, can you see him?

rating_3_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Incendies (2010)


Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writers: Denis Villeneuve (scenario), Wajdi Mouawad (play)
Cast: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette
Genre: Drama, Mystery, War
Language: Arabic, French

"Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history and fulfill their mother's last wishes."


I had not heard of this before. I kinda knew it was about something in the middle east, but that's all I knew. I haven't read any of the reviews so don't know what you guys thought of it. I image most will like it, as it's a well made film.

Wow! the opening sequence with the boys getting their heads shaved, that was powerfully artistic. Especially that intense stare into the camera by the boy...Damn that was impressive film making.

When we get to the next scene, the reading of the will, I kinda thought the film might be boring. But then we get into the story of the daughter and her search for her missing brother in the middle east and I was hooked! I was even more hooked when the film flashes back to the early 1970s and we see the mother, who's now a young pregnant woman caught in the middle of the Lebanese civil war. Her story was very engaging and I was riveted to the screen. Both actresses were fascinating to watch and really conveyed their emotions so well, I wish the entire film had been about them.

I'd rate the first hour of the film a solid 5/5 and at this point I thought Incendies might very well be a favorite of mine.

But then the second half started and I lost some interest. I didn't like the actor who played the son and thought his story wasn't all that interesting. Neither was the older man from Montreal that went along with him to Lebanon. This last hour took the film down a notch and I did feel like I was watching a movie as opposed to the first hour where I felt like I was watching real people in a real place.

I'm not fond of the ending. Just now, I did a little reading and seen this was based on a play that was based on real events. But I don't know how much of this really happened ?

Not sure how the ending makes me feel about the movie? If it's based on true events, then it belongs in the movie. However, if the ending was embellished, it's then way too much and takes away from the more heartfelt personal journey that we see in the first hour.

rating_3_5

[Gideon58]

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The Aviator (2004)




Glad you enjoyed The Aviator...I loved it too.

[Gideon58]

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Day for Night (1973)
La nuit américaine (original title)
Director: François Truffaut
Writers: François Truffaut (screenplay), Jean-Louis Richard (screenplay)
Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud, François Truffaut
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Language: French
rating_4_5

You mentioned how much you enjoyed Valentine Cortese...I don't know if you know, but Cortese was nominated for an Oscar for this film.

[GulfportDoc]

The Aviator creates the world of Hollywood during it's golden age (1930s-1950s), to near perfection.

rating_4




I too enjoyed the movie. Cate Blanchett delivered a very memorable and accurate impersonation of Katharine Hepburn.

The saga of Howard Hughes is my favorite fascinating story of the 20th Century. ~Doc

[Ms. M]

Speaking of The Aviator, I watched it in the cinema and I don't remeber something with colour bothered me, but your story with new TV set was (forgive me) pretty funny:)
The movie was very popular that time, but I barely remeber it. I recall great cast and that it was quite long.

[Citizen Rules]

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Pixote (1981)
Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (original title)

Director: Hector Babenco
Writers: Hector Babenco & Jorge Durán (story)
Cast: Fernando Ramos da Silva, Jorge Julião, Gilberto Moura
Genre: Crime, Drama
Language: Portuguese

A brutal story of the hard life of a street orphan in the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The boy becomes involved with crimes, prostitution and drugs.


I should've been grossed out by that scene in the photo, but for some reason nothing in the film disturbed me. In fact I think it was a well made film and I did like aspects of it. I won't say I loved it, as it's not the kind of film one loves. But it was unique.

I liked the direct-documentary style with little music score and no fancy cinematography. The film is effective as it literally puts us in the shoes of these forlorn Brazilian street kids who end up in a state run orphanage. The orphanage is just another kind of hell for them. I've heard that in places like Rio or Mexico City that they have so much crime from the street kids that they have death squads that go around and shoot the kids down in cold blood on the streets. It's really a sad thing and it happens for real, so I believe what I seen was a true depiction.

I wasn't too involved in the movie for the first hour but once the group of boys left the orphanage the film got interesting for me. I liked how the four kids interacted and both supported each other and fought too. The scenes with the prostitute was my favorite.

There's a scene where the boy Pixote suckles at the breast of the prostitute. I actually found that scene to be the most emotional of the movie, as it wasn't sexual, but it was a pathetic bittersweet moment between two deeply wounded people. It was touching.

I kind of hate that the movie didn't end on that scene, because when the prostitute then freaks out and tells Pixote to stop and get the hell away from her...it broke the emotion of the previous scene.

rating_3+

[Citizen Rules]

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Director: Andrew Haigh
Writers: Andrew Haigh, Willy Vlautin (novel)
Cast: Charlie Plummer, Amy Seimetz, Travis Fimmel
Genre: Adventure, Drama

"A teenager gets a summer job working for a horse trainer and befriends the fading racehorse, Lean on Pete."


I liked it, but didn't love it. I could have liked it a whole lot more with a few needed and simple tweaks. This felt like a Hallmark movie, and that's not a criticism. This felt like a Hallmark movie in that it was a very personal story of one determined teen boy Charley and his love for the race horse Pete. His journey to save Pete from the slaughter house and his quest to find his own place in the world as he traveled to find a long lost aunt, seemed like a subject matter of a PG rated Hallmark channel movie. I like those, when they're done well.

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It could have had 20 minutes cut out as it felt too long for what was happening on the screen. By eliminating the scene of the two war veterans living in the middle of the desert the movie would've had better pacing. That scene added little to the overall movie, other than to hear the blonde girl get verbally hurt by her grandfather (what a jerk he was!). I guess the point was to say her only place to live wasn't all that great. Too much film footage for a 10 second pay off when she confides in Charley. It didn't need to be an R rating, as nothing R rated really ever happens that feels dishonest to me as it's a PG13 movie with a few swear words.

In short, I liked the movie's theme and the actors, and the settings were nice too.

rating_3

[Citizen Rules]

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RUSH (2013)


Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Peter Morgan
Cast: Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde
Genre: Action, Biography, Drama

"The merciless 1970s rivalry between Formula One rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda."


Even though I never watch auto racing on TV, I do like movies about racing. I've seen a number of them too. But as much as I liked the subject matter and the personal stories of the two very different Formula 1 drivers, I didn't like what Ron Howard did to the movie. it felt like a 2 hour long movie trailer.

I'm sure some people like movies that seem like a trailer and by that I mean the scenes felt abbreviated, we seen many snippets of different events, but never does the film really delve deeply into it's subject matter. Everything seems to be glossed over and done on surface level. Maybe it gets more involved towards the end of the movie and that's when I liked it better...But mostly it felt like a quick edit, movie trailer that shows us sneak previews of the high-lights.

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I especially disliked the scenes with rock/pop music playing over them, that gives a feeling of watching a TV commercial (or trailer) and made me feel like I wasn't in the actual moment. I'm sure that style of film making was what Ron Howard was trying for...A lot of entertainment movies are made like this.

I think that poster image says it all...you can often judge a film's demeanor by it's poster.

2.5

[Citizen Rules]

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The Libertine (2004)

Director: Laurence Dunmore
Writers: Stephen Jeffreys (screenplay), Stephen Jeffreys (play)
Cast: Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich
Genre: Biography, Drama, History

"The story of John Wilmot, a.k.a. the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet who famously drank and debauched his way to an early grave, only to earn posthumous critical acclaim for his life's work."




I'm middle of the road on this. I didn't hate it, but I had little emotional reaction to the film. I think the best part was the opening monologue where Depp speaks directly to the viewer. That worked and had depth of power. It set up in my mind that I'd be seeing him as this brutal-self indulgent, who's also an intellectual genius and artist. I've seen other movies based on 17th & 18th century poets & writers who did live large, drank, whored and behaved all together badly, whilst writing some of histories greatest literature and poetry. But that's not who the Earl of Rochester (Johnny Depp) was...I think I understand the message of the film? Which I believe was:

That he wasted his life, deluding himself that he was 'living life to the fullest' with his decadence, when in fact he was hiding from living...and when given the chance to do something great by writing a play worthy of his intellect, he chose instead to write a play that was bawdy lampooning. In the end he pays for his ways by catching syphilis and becoming a near invalid. Thus showing how hiding from life behind a mask brings nothing but an empty chalice. Though he does realize this at the end, when he rises to the occasion and saves the King's position in Parliament.

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I wasn't a fan of the director's choice of look for the film. The graininess and the greenish cast with low color saturation made it look like a BBC TV broadcast from an old Masterpiece Theater. It would have been nice to have more period piece sets, and less close-ups. But the lack of sets and choice of close ups is probably a budget thing, so not a deal breaker.

My favorite scenes were with Samantha Morton. It was interesting how he coached her to find her inner truth and thus transformed her into London's greatest actress.

rating_2_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Let the Right One In (2008)
Låt den rätte komma in (original title)
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Writers: John Ajvide Lindqvist (screenplay), John Ajvide Lindqvist (novel)
Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
Genre: Horror
Language: Swedish

"Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl."


I didn't care for this, basically a kid's romance story with some B movie vampire attack scenes. I don't like horror films, especially when they don't develop the characters or reveal something that engages me. I didn't hate this movie, but it was like eating a frozen TV dinner, nothing that I looked forward to and I was glad when it was over.

The only scene that interested me was the older lady who survives an attack and becomes a vampire. I liked the way she was confused by what was happening to her and how she didn't want to live like that. That scene especially in the hospital evoked some emotion from me...The CG cat attack and bursting into flames were the two best visuals in the movie.

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The blonde boy was boring, another actor might have gave the movie some more depth. The girl was good, but I was disappointment that the film didn't explore her life more. I mean it's hinted at that she's very different, she even says twice she's not a girl...and also says she's been 12 for a long time, but we never really get much more than surface material and I wanted to know more about her.

I was sure the film in the later half would give us more backstory on her while building sympathy for her, instead we just get a silly blood licking off the floor scene, and the body parts floating in the swimming pool were kind of funny... but was it suppose to be funny?

I was also hoping the boy might learn how to stand up for himself from the vampire girl (he does once on the lake) and I thought by the end his character would be self aware and self reliant. Then at the end the girl would confide in him the misery of her own life and ask him to be strong enough to end it for her. That would've been memorable. As it was, nothing in this film will stay with me.

rating_2_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)


Director: Guy Ritchie
Writer: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran
Genre: Comedy, Crime

"A botched card game in London triggers four friends, thugs, weed-growers, hard gangsters, loan sharks and debt collectors to collide with each other in a series of unexpected events, all for the sake of weed, cash and two antique shotguns."


Director Guy Ritchie delivers up one of the more stylish and unique films that I've seen...and yet I hated it!

Don't get me wrong, I think Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels brilliantly succeeds as a louder, faster, badder-ass version of Ocean's 11 (1960) type crime caper film. So I don't have any criticisms of the film maker's intentions. The healthy doses of Tarantino style humor, mixed with less than serious violence is actually a plus for me.

But...I found the film too confusing to follow. Which is not surprising as I suck at figuring out detailed plot lines and often finish a movie without knowing one damn name of any of the characters. And as it was a fast paced film with British accents, I often was lost as to who was who. Not the films fault. I found myself thinking I was watching a scene with one group of characters only to realize it was a different group that was in the current scene. Once I lost my place in the film I lost interest out of utter confusion.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrelswas way too hyper for me, with all the kinetic energy and the LOUD rock music track and yelling all the time. I'm not a big action fan and I do need to feel a connection or emotion to some of the characters or story line, and I didn't. After the movie was over I felt the need to mediate.

rating_2_5

[Citizen Rules]

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The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966)
Uccellacci e uccellini (original title)
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Writers: Pier Paolo Pasolini (story), Pier Paolo Pasolini (screenplay)
Cast: Totò, Ninetto Davoli, Femi Benussi
Genre: Satirical Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Language: Italian

Innocenti Totò and his son Innocenti Ninetto are drifting on a road in Italy, when they meet a Marxist speaking crow. The trio travels together in a long journey as their hunger increases.
Luna (Femi Benussi) is by far the best part of the film! I tried to like this film, I really, really did...

I did like the first 15 minutes or so. I thought the old guy was comical, with one helluva unusual face. He was good at comic expressions and reminded me of Buster Keaton. The young actor who played his son was good too. He had a likeable on-screen personality and I could see he could be good in another movie.

But when the crow appeared, the film lost me. It lost me because I have a hard time with overlapping dialogue in foreign films. To make things worse the shots became wide angle and I couldn't tell who was actually talking. Right then I was lost and didn't know what was going on.

So I shut it off and watched 30 minutes at a time over the course of a few days. I thought that might help me get a grasp on the film. I mean I know it was a ballsy film in it's day as the Catholic church had a huge amount of power in Italy at the time. I read that to get a divorce in Italy one had to do it through the church. And it wasn't until a hotly contested referendum was passed that legal divorce was even allowed in a civil court.

I can't image living under that type of control and that's why this was such an important film as it totally points out the utter self serving and over bearing ways of the Catholic church in Italy at that time. So my anarchist hat is off to the film makers. Maybe if I spoke Italian I could have followed this more closely. As it was, I liked the prostitute best, ha.

2

[Joel]

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Brazil (1985)

Director: Terry Gilliam
Writers: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard
Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro
Genre: Sci Fi
Length: 132-142 minutes


rating_3_5




I saw this again the other night and was really into it for some reason. Decades trying to choke it down and finally I was surrendered to it. It's a damn good movie. I guess it's something (for me, anyway) that needed to be experienced when the circumstances were proper.

[Citizen Rules]

I saw this again the other night and was really into it for some reason. Decades trying to choke it down and finally I was surrendered to it. It's a damn good movie. I guess it's something (for me, anyway) that needed to be experienced when the circumstances were proper. I can understand your reaction and the impact this film could have on someone...with the story of one simple man flexing his will, up against a societal machine of red tape. A conformity cruising society that steam rolls those who dare to think outside the box. Dare to be different!

Have you seen the movie 1984 (1984)? Brazil reminds me of that story.

[Captain Steel]

I saw this again the other night and was really into it for some reason. Decades trying to choke it down and finally I was surrendered to it. It's a damn good movie. I guess it's something (for me, anyway) that needed to be experienced when the circumstances were proper.

Brazil had me the first time around - I knew I was watching something very sophisticated and very unique.
It's not just the story and the message and the metaphors, but the whole Gilliamesque world that is created (Monty Python absurdity meets Steam Punk meets a Rube-Goldberg-machine style bureaucracy meets dystopian Blade Runner future) is also what makes the movie so memorable.

[re93animator]

Have you seen the movie 1984 (1984)? Brazil reminds me of that story.

I think the original title was 1984 and a Half :), but potential legal troubles obviously nixed that.


I felt like I never was introduced to the lead character, sure I knew he was a clerk stuck in a dead end job who dreamed...a lot! But I have no idea who or what he was about. There was a romance with a hard boiled woman who seemed an odd match for this simple clerk. Perhaps there is deeper meaning here. People claim there's hidden meaning in Gilliam's films, so you might need to watch this one more than once.


To me, it's about someone who uses his own mind as an escape from the corrupted views and standards of the society he lives in. He lets his imagination fill his life with a childlike enthusiasm, not letting the adverse culture around him taint his passions (like almost everyone else around him) or quell his determination. It seems unashamedly naive, and I honestly find that refreshing, beautiful, and relatable.:)

It's been a while since I've watched the making of doc, but I think Gilliam said the idea came to him as an image of a lonely man sitting on a beach surrounded by trash and industry while obliviously listening to music and getting swept away in his own world.

I saw this again the other night and was really into it for some reason. Decades trying to choke it down and finally I was surrendered to it. It's a damn good movie. I guess it's something (for me, anyway) that needed to be experienced when the circumstances were proper.

The first time I watched it I didn't care for the first half, then started warming up to it, and by the end didn't want it to finish. Now every time I watch it I seem to love it more. It's usually what I tell people is my favorite movie, because it's fun with an open mind, and comes close to matching the more rambunctious side of my taste and imagination.

[Citizen Rules]

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Jack Frost (1997)


Director: Michael Cooney
Writers: Jeremy Paige & Michael Cooney (story)
Cast: Scott MacDonald, Christopher Allport, Stephen Mendel
Genre: Horror Comedy

'After an accident that left murderer Jack Frost dead in genetic material the vengeful killer returns as a murderous snowman to exact his revenge on the man who sent him to be executed'


1997's direct to video Jack Frost attempts to blend humor with horror. The horror and humor comes from a psycho killer snowman. Of course this takes place at Christmas time, I mean who ever heard of a summer time snow man.

At first the comic bits from the town's people were funny and I laughed at the jokes. There's something inherently funny about small rural towns, well at least in comedy movies there is. In the first part of the film there was some clever stuff: Like when the Sheriff gets to work and throws that oatmeal crap that his son had made into the trash...and then, we hear his son's voice in his head "you said you would eat that later"...so dad picks up the gooey crap and puts it into his pocket...funny stuff. And when they find the first victim in the rocking chair and the chair is rocking back and forth, back and forth...then at the end of the scene the Sheriff tells his deputy "you can take your foot off the rocking chair now." Ha, that was clever.

But when Jack Frost comes back as the snowman and starts killing, the film got boring for me. I don't care about body counts and grisly ways to kill people...and that's what the second half of the film was about. Even worse was the inane one liners spit out by the snowman...ugh now that was the real horror. I didn't find any of his jokes funny but they did grate on my nerves.

rating_2

[Citizen Rules]

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Crossroads (1986)

Director: Walter Hill
Writer: John Fusco
Cast: Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca, Jami Gertz
Genre: Drama, Music

'Ralph Macchio is Lightning Boy. A kid who can make a slide guitar sing. Blind Dog is an old pro who knows it. Together, they're headed to a place where deals are made. And legends are born.'

I really liked Crossroads, it's a very different type of film and it surprised me, and that's a good thing.

I figure if the movie holds my interest and I'm into the story, I don't check the clock too much and I do think about the movie the next day...Then that's a good movie in my book. And Crossroads did all that for me.

It's a very different mix of styles. At first I thought it would be like Karate Kid with Ralph Macchio reprising his role. But then the movie turns more serious and we see his character Lighting Boy getting involved in crime and even packing a gun. I was really surprised the film had the girl Frances, played by Jami Gertz getting involved in prostitution.

Then just when I thought I had a handle on the film, it shifts gears and we get this twist style ending with the devil and a play off for ownership of the soul. The movie reminded me of the country western song The Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels band in 1979.

Oh, also it was very cool to see Tim Russ (Tuvok from Star Trek Voyager) in the beginning of the film as the young Blind Dog.

I dug the entire blues scene and the music and really enjoyed the on-location shooting in Mississippi. Very impressive film. rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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Three O'Clock High (1987)


Director: Phil Joanou
Writers: Richard Christian Matheson, Tom Szollosi
Cast: Casey Siemaszko, Annie Ryan, Richard Tyson
Genre: Drama Comedy

'A student gets himself in hot water with the new bully, a quiet bad boy who challenges him to fight on the grounds of their high school after the day's end.'


Three O'Clock High is not your typical 1980s teen movie. It's surprisingly different and I liked it!...It's story premise is based on the classic Gary Cooper film High Noon.

When the movie first started, I thought of the lead actor, what the hell it's a Ferris Bueller clone. Nope it's not! It's very different, which is a big plus. The movie surprised me at the turns it took. The entire story takes place in one school day...with a whole lot of crap happening to our protagonist. Who btw, really looked like a young Kevin Spacey.

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I kept thinking the movie was set in the 90s as the kids all looked like they belonged on the set of the Cosby TV show, with their short hair and sweater vest. That was called the preppie look. I never went for it, I had the rocker look with long hair, but I remember seeing kids with the preppie look and I thought it was lame, ha:p

Back to the movie, these actors were all unknown but they sure pulled it off and I have to say the fight scene at the end was riveting! I was screaming knock the *&%$# head off !...OK I wasn't actually screaming at the TV screen, but I was kind of thinking it.

rating_4



.

[Citizen Rules]

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Can't Buy Me Love (1987)

Director: Steve Rash
Writer: Michael Swerdlick
Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Amanda Peterson, Courtney Gains

'A nerdy outcast secretly pays the most popular girl in school one thousand dollars to be his girlfriend.'

Can't Buy Me Love...what I liked is it never went overboard with the jokes. And it did evoke some strong emotions from me as it covers some pretty heavy stuff in the movie. There are two ultimate truths in this movie. I don't know if others will agree, but I sure seen them.

I liked Patrick Dempsey's character in the movie. I'm impressed and can't think of another actor who could have pulled off the unpopular geeky kid who then buys his way into the 'cool clique' of kids. He handled all of that really well.

Amanda Peterson who played the head cheerleader and most popular girl in school, was also impressive in this. She wasn't just a stereo type but we learn that she has her own price to pay for being popular...and we see that for her being popular isn't always a positive thing. I was really sad to read about Amanda Peterson on Wiki:( She was only 15 when she made the movie and reading about her life made me feel even more melancholy about the movie. And that's the main emotion I felt during the movie, a sense of melancholy and loss...and I like movies like that.

I think the build up to the end was pretty great with Patrick Dempsey's character being exposed as a fraud and how the entire school ostracized him.
rating_4




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[Gideon58]

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Three O'Clock High (1987)




[/COLOR]

LOVED Three O Clock High...glad you enjoyed it.

[Gideon58]

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Crossroads (1986)

Director: Walter Hill
Writer: John Fusco
Cast: Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca, Jami Gertz
Genre: Drama, Music
[CENTER][SIZE=2]


Never had any desire to see this, but your review is making me re-think my decision.

[Citizen Rules]

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Lucas (1986)

Director: David Seltzer
Writer: David Seltzer
Cast: Corey Haim, Kerri Green, Charlie Sheen
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

'A socially inept fourteen year old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends -- Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love -- fall for each other.'


I didn't care for this movie at all. I found the character Lucas to be an annoying little sh**. I didn't view him as the endearing underdog that we usually cheer for in these kinds of movies. He was more creepy and bizarre than anything else. I kept thinking he would be the type of passive-aggressive misfit who would show up at school with a gun. That's the kind of weird vibe I got from him. And that kept me from liking the film. He was rather stupid too for such a smart kid, I mean when I was 14 I had enough sense not to bring tadpoles to school and try to give them to a 16 year old girl. Lucas is clueless, hell he actually had a chance with Winona Ryder's character but he didn't even care.

As much as I didn't like Lucas...I did like both Charlie Sheen and Kerri Green. Both of them had good screen presences and I instantly connected to their characters. I wish the film had left Lucas out and been about them instead.

The other thing I didn't like was the script/writing. Sure the premise sounds good, but the pacing of the film and the way scenes progressed seemed pretty amateurish. It's like the director, who also wrote the movie, didn't know how to connect the scenes together, which is odd as David Seltzer had a brilliant career as a screen writer. But the film just kind of meanders and is lackluster. It reminded me of an old after school TV movie special.

rating_2_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Once Bitten (1985)

Director: Howard Storm
Writers: Dimitri Villard (story), David Hines
Cast: Lauren Hutton, Jim Carrey, Karen Kopins
Genre: Comedy Horror

'A vampire Countess needs to drink the blood of a virgin in order to keep her eternal beauty. It seems that all is hopeless, until she bumps into Mark Kendall.'

I watched this on Halloween instead of Trick 'r Treating:p It was fun seeing Jim Carey so young and he was pretty good in this too. The dance scene in the gym was my favorite part of the movie. Boy, that girl could dance! She must have been a professional dancer as she was really good. Even Jim Carey busted a few moves!

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The funniest scene was in the high school locker room showers when his two friends were trying to check his inner thigh for a vampire bite, ha!

I might have seen bits of this on TV way back in the day, but I didn't remember it, so maybe not. Oh, the movie score was great in this as well. Both the score and the actual songs that were used. I never heard any of those songs before and didn't recognize the names of the bands, but I did enjoy them...The score was much better than generic electronic synth muzak.

rating_3



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[Citizen Rules]

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Better Off Dead (1985)


Director: Savage Steve Holland
Writer: Savage Steve Holland
Cast: John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby
Genre: Comedy, Romance


'A teenager has to deal with his girlfriend dumping him among family crises, homicidal paper boys, and a rival skier.'

Better Off Dead was a fun distraction for a Saturday night evening...it went well with the pizza that I made. The pizza didn't turn out great and was only OK but it was filling and that's how I found the movie.
Better Off Dead is well made with a personable cast, My favorite was the French exchange student, she paired well with a crusty and sometimes saucy John Cusack.

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The film's broad style of comedy is what is refereed to as sight gags, It's jokes reminded me of the beloved comedy, Airplane. The problem is I'm one of the few people on the planet who hated Airplane...I just don't like broad comedy sight gags. I prefer my comedy to come from the situation or the character's personality. So Better Off Dead didn't really work for me, even though I can see it would be to many people's liking. I did laugh a few times and all the characters were interesting and I have no real complaints. I dug the snow and skiing scenes which were actually shot on a mountain and so that was great to see.

rating_3


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[Citizen Rules]

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Say Anything (1989)

Director: Cameron Crowe
Writer: Cameron Crowe
Cast: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance


'A noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college.'


A lot of truth in this movie, at least for me there was. It was spooky how so much of what happened with John Cusack's character in one way or another happened to me too way back in the day. Not all of it of course, and not all at the same time or even with the same girlfriend, but enough similar stuff, that this movie was like a trip down memory lane for me and that what makes for a 'special movie'...whenever the viewer can relate to the character's plight it evokes a personal connection, and for me a movie that I personal connect to is the best.

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Then we get to that screen shot above and I was floored! I drove past that coffee pot building just two days ago! I've seen that building a lot during my life. So was I surprised when John Cusack drives his car past Bob's Java Jive. But weirdly I've never been inside of it. Maybe next time I will, it still looks the same btw and they still have espresso.


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The scenes with John's sister Joan Cusack were a nicely realistic touch. I like how he was staying at her little apartment and was in his own way doing good for his nephew but at the same time his older more conservative sister felt her younger brother was too unconventional and that created tension in the living situation. I really appreciated the realness and honesty of the entire film. It felt much more personal than most other teen movies of the era did and it felt almost like a documentary. But a fun documentary!

rating_4

[Gideon58]

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Say Anything (1989)

Director: Cameron Crowe
Writer: Cameron Crowe
Cast: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
[CENTER]



I absolutely LOVE this movie...John Cusack's best performance...glad you liked it too. Loving this 80's teen flick binge you're on.

[Citizen Rules]

I absolutely LOVE this movie...John Cusack's best performance...glad you liked it too. Loving this 80's teen flick binge you're on. I have more 80s teen movie reviews to post when I get the time.

[Citizen Rules]

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Weird Science (1985)


'Funny at times, but one of John Hughes' most inept films.' CR


John Hughes was on a roll in the 1980s writing and directing such critically acclaimed hits as: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck and Plains Trains & Automobiles. All those films have one thing in common...they accurately delve into the psyche of outsider teens. Those films excel at creating character depth which then drives the story forward, thus making those films great.

But John Hughes wrote Weird Science in a mere two days and it shows. Instead of insightful teen angst, that comes from real world type situations, we get fart, boob, crap and bra jokes, in lieu of anything more introspective. The first 20 minutes is pure spectacle as the boys hack into a Pentagon super computer and thereby create the woman of their dreams. I have to say the first 20 minutes was pretty dull, but once Kelly Le Brock shows up things do improve. Oh sure Miss Le Brock was hired for her pouty lips and hot bod, but she's also real good in her role as Lisa, the dream woman with spirit!

Anthony Michael Hall fresh off The Breakfast Club shows he still had the chops to delivery fast dialogue imbibed with his style of jittery quick speech. And he's good too, especially in the blues bar scene when he's drunk and trying to be oh so hip.

On the other hand, his side kick Wyatt played by Ilan Mitchell-Smith, is just plain lack luster with a whiny voice that makes you want to see him get his ass kicked by the mutant bikers that show up at their party.

And speaking of mutant bikers, it was cool to see Australian actor Vernon Wells recreate his role from The Road Warrior (1981) as a mutant biker dude. They even get the mohawk and leather studded costume down pat. I've got to give a shout out to the great Bill Paxton. He was one helluva a colorful bad guy here and a really talented actor too.

Despite a few good actors and a few good laughs, Weird Science main claim to fame for me is the title song by Oingo Boingo.


rating_2_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Grease 2 (1982)


'If I could only watch one movie, Grease 2 might just be it!' CR


I love this movie! It's fun and energetic! It's light & bouncy and full of energy like an 80s music video. It's got great song numbers, that are more 80s pop rock than they typical movie musical songs. The cast is awesome and everybody looks like they're having a blast going back to school at good ol' Rydell!

I love that much of the filming was done on location and not in a studio. I love that Michelle Pfeiffer did her own singing and her own stunt riding on the motorcycle too. The motorcycle ride scene has got to be the craziest stunt put onto film. She was nuts for doing that

She's amazing in this and makes the movie, so did the leader of the T-Birds Johnny (Adrian Zmed) who's a blast riot...All of the T-Birds were pretty darn colorful. So were the Pink Ladies, what a fun cast! Many people consider Michael (Maxwell Caulfield) the lead because he gets top billing and yes he's not that exciting, but he's not suppose to be, as he's a square and the male equivalent of Sandy from Grease. His onscreen time is actually limited with Johnny the leader of the T-Birds getting most of the good lines, and that's why the movie works.

I loved the songs: Back to School that one had nice choreography. Michelle Pfeiffer's song Cool Rider and damn she can actual dance too! Loved the part on top of the high ladder, she's fearless. Reproduction is a hilariously naughty & sexual charged song. The bowling alley number is great visually too.

rating_4

[MovieGal]

Are we revisiting the 80s?

Perhaps in the future another HOF ??

[Citizen Rules]

Are we revisiting the 80s?

Perhaps in the future another HOF ?? I'd love to do another 80s Hof, there's a ton of neat 80s teen films I've never seen or haven't seen in a long time.



Oh these last two reviews, they are from the 80s Teen Hof. I was just bored and had a few minutes and thought I'd add them to my review thread.

[MovieMeditation]

Damn. Grease 2? Really? :eek:

I know I’ve seen some of it but can’t recall if I ever seen all of it.

[Gideon58]

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Grease 2 (1982)




OMG, really Citizen? This movie bites.

[Gideon58]

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Weird Science (1985)


'Funny at times, but one of John Hughes' most inept films.' CR




Bill Paxton was the best thing about this movie

[Citizen Rules]

OMG, really Citizen? This movie bites. I love it, much more than the original Grease movie.

[Citizen Rules]

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My Bodyguard (1980)

Director: Tony Bill
Writer: Alan Ormsby
Cast: Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin, Matt Dillon
Genre: Comedy Drama

"When a boy comes to a new school and gets harassed by a bully, he acquires the services of the school's most feared kid as a bodyguard."


I enjoyed this. I had seen it too but only once and that was decades ago, so I hardly remembered anything other than the motorcycle project scene.

It's weird in that it feels like two different films...That photo I used is of Martin Mull the hotel manager, who trys to keep the hotel running smoothly while keeping his free spirited mom, Ruth Gordon out of trouble...that part felt like another movie. I actually liked the hotel scenes and the going-ons of the hotel more than the high school bully story. But I did like the high school stuff too.

Matt Dillon was a stand out, he's so good at being so crummy! Him and Ruth Gordon were the best. I especially appreciated the actual on location street scenes, that was very nice to see as it was like being there. I wish there had been more interaction and story line between the bodyguard Adam Baldwin (not a Baldwin brother) and the boy (not Wesley Crusher):p...I wish there had been another scene after the fight in the park, where the character's story arches are all wrapped. I wanted to see what happened with Martin Mull and Ruth Gordon, but we never got back to them.

3.5

[Citizen Rules]

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Stand by Me (1986)

Director: Rob Reiner
Writers: Stephen King (novel), Raynold Gideon (screenplay)
Cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland
Genre: Adventure Drama

"After the death of one of his friends, a writer recounts a boyhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy."


I've seen Stand By Me before and always have liked it. The last time I seen it I was on a ship at sea in a heavy storm, the sea was pitching and so was the ship...and so was I! Still in between puking I have to say I liked the movie! This last time was a much more pleasant watch and I enjoyed this nostalgic look at the past.

First thing I noticed was just how nicely shot Stand By Me was, and that really added to the film's appeal. I enjoyed seeing the country side and the small town. I've been to one of the areas where they filmed, Cottage Grove Oregon...and having a connection to a locale in the film always helps me feel more connected to it.

All the kid actors were excellent in this. Really they did an amazing job at acting. I wish there had been more character arcs for the four leads and less time spent with the bigger teen bullies (Kieffer Sutherland and his gang). The teen bullies added nothing to the film IMO and took away from the more important coming of age story of the younger kids. The film was already short at 90 minutes so I don't think the teen bullies were needed subplot was needed at all. When the older bullies were in the film it felt more like a Hollywood entertainment film and I thought they were silly too.

But I did like the story of the boys going on a distant journey through the deep woods and finally traveling down the railroad tracks, that was symbolic for them growing up. Good movie.

3.5+

[Citizen Rules]

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After Hours (1985)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Joseph Minion
Cast: Griffin Dunne, Terri Garr, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom
Genre: Comedy Drama


I though After Hours was clever and well made, the movie hooked me quickly and kept me interested throughout the entire film. That alone is a big plus!

Griffin Dunne was perfectly cast. He was both likable and interesting. I could relate to his character as the everyday guy just trying to make it through the night. He sure fit well into the quirky world of New York City after hours when a whole lot of crazy stuff befalls this poor guy! The only other movie I recall seeing him in is An American Werewolf in London and he was likable in that too. I'm not sure why he didn't have a bigger career.

All of the supporting cast was great, and this might be my favorite Rosanne Arquette movie. Can't say I've seen her in much though, Pulp Fiction mainly. I wish we could've seen more of her but then again there's a lot of other people in the film too.

My favorite was Terri Garr. It was so funny when they first showed her, because instantly I noticed the 60s fashion style. I remember watching Terri on Late Night with David Letterman, Letterman had a crush on her and she was a regular on his show. A good guest too and always fun to watch her. I remember she often would talk about being a young adult in the 1960s. Also she'd talk about being in the 1968 movie Head which starred The Monkeys. So I got her character! as soon as I seen her in that beehive hair do with that dress and go go boots. I mean damn she really looked like she belonged back in the 60s! Even funnier when back at her apartment she does her little dance and ask him if he likes The Monkeys? It just seemed like something Terri Garr would do.

rating_3_5

[Gideon58]

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After Hours (1985)
Director: Martin Scorsese
[LEFT]Writer: Joseph Minion
Cast: Griffin Dunne, Terri Garr, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom
Genre: Comedy Drama




It's been at least a couple of decades since I watched this and wasn't really impressed...I may have to give it a e-watch since you like it Citizen. Not to mention that it seems to be a very popular film on this site, there's a lot of love out there for this movie and I plan to figure out why at some point.

[Gideon58]

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My Bodyguard (1980)

Director: Tony Bill
Writer: Alan Ormsby
Cast: Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin, Matt Dillon
Genre: Comedy Drama



OMG, I almost watched this a few days ago and was interrupted. I'll definitely have to try it again.

[Citizen Rules]

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Farewell My Concubine
(1993)
Director: Kaige Chen
Writers: Pik Wah Lee (novel) & (screenplay)
Cast: Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Li Gong
Language: Mandarin


I really liked the premise of the film: the telling of the lives of two Peking opera stars set against the dramatic changes that took place in China during the mid 20th century.

I liked how the film showed the two men much later in life and foreshadowed the idea that there was much friction between them...Then flashes back to the beginning, to tell their intertwined stories starting at early childhood in the opera training school. I liked the actors/characters too, and I liked the historical aspect...I even liked the soap opera style drama...

...but I found the film lacking in it's scene construction and pacing. Even though I was interested in the story of the two men and the women in their lives, I struggled as it's a very slow paced movie. The scenes felt overly long without ever coming to much fruition. The individual scenes had this odd pacing that made me feel like I didn't get the emotional story that I should of. They didn't flow in the way they fit into the overall story, but felt like they were pieced together in a patchwork.

I got a feeling this was an ambitious film made by a director who hadn't quite perfected his craft. Or maybe the weird scene pacing could have been fixed in the editing room. Orson Welles once said movies weren't made on the set, they were made great in the editing room. I do like slow cinema but it took me two nights to get through the 3 hour movie which felt very long to me.

I can't say I enjoyed the opera scenes, just not my thing. Though this was made for a Chinese audience and not me, so I can't really complain about that. The opening 40 minutes was mostly in the orphanage where despite the amount of film time spent on it, all I really got was the head master liked to beat small children. Couldn't that message been done in 10 minutes? The film really felt like it needed to be re-edited.

I wasn't a fan of the score either, I don't mean the opera scenes, I mean the background instrument they used which sounded like a wind chime and was reused with the same note over and over.

The costumes and sets were colorful but yet I didn't get a sweeping epic sense from the cinematography. However I am glad I watched it.

rating_3

[Citizen Rules]

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Memento (2000)


Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Christopher Nolan (screenplay), Jonathan Nolan (short story)
Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
Genre: Mystery Thriller

"A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer."


I guessed the outcome of the movie at the 4 minute:56 second mark, I did! I actually checked the time and the film had just started. I didn't know the particulars of the ending of course, but I did get the who-done-it part right. That's unusual for me as I never usually can guess who the killer is in these murder mystery movies.

I really don't know how to review this as I don't like bloody thriller crime movies, maybe it was well done but it's sure not for me.

Guy Pearce looked more like a leading man from a soap opera, than the part he was playing. I'd cast someone like Paul Dano, or Ryan Gosling instead. Both of them have this odd out of touch feeling about them.

After an hour I got real tired of the 'I won't remember you bit', it just seemed like the director was milking it instead of exploring it. And the whole mind trip thing that Nolan is known for, I could care less about that. I thought the reasoning at the end of the film for what happened with Guy Pearce felt somewhat inorganic to the rest of the story.

I'm not a big fan of Nolan anyway, but this is one film I just didn't care for.

rating_2

[Citizen Rules]

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Ed Wood (1994)

Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Rudolph Grey (book), Scott Alexander
Cast: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama

Ed Wood...the movie, is great fun and that's enough for me! Johnny Depp who I always liked as an actor is in great form here as Ed Wood Jr. I just love the light hearted and enthusiastic way Ed Wood goes about life, that's my life philosophy too...only without the angora:p And of course Ed Wood admires Orson Welles and so that's another connection too.

You know Ed Wood Jr reminds me of Orson Welles in that both went for their dreams and did it their own way! Ed Wood might have been voted worst director but the guy had a lot of unique film ideas that were way ahead of there time.

Back when I first seen Ed Wood (1994), I then watched the DVD box set of Wood's movies, The Ed Wood Collection - A Salute to Incompetence, I hate that title but it was a great set with Ed's most inspired films. The DVD box set hasa total of 6 movies and a really cool documentary: The Ed Wood Story...Anyway this movie originally got me interested in Ed Wood's movies so that's another reason I love it.

Back to the film...Tim Burton does a wonderful job and I read this was the first time he didn't use Danny Elfman for the music score. Elfman is of course well respected but I loved the music score choice for Ed Wood and the use of the theremin to create some really cool sounds! And I loved that Tim Burton believed in his vision so much that he refused to shoot this in color, but instead switched studios so that he could do it his way. In watching the documentary about Ed Wood Jr, I learned that all of these people depicted in the film, were real. So the film is pretty close to the actual events of Ed's life.

I did feel like Bill Murray was showing off a bit and playing it like he was doing a comedy skit on Saturday Night Live. Criswell the psychic (Jeffery Jones) was one of my favorite secondary roles. He has one of the best lines in the movie when he lets Ed in on the secret of ballyhoo. Sarah Jessica Parker as the 'horse faced actress' Dolores Fuller was real good. God! they actually said that about the real actress. Martin Landau as the aged Bela Lugosi won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and it's easy to see why. Martin Landau's Lugosi really helps make Ed Wood special. And of course my favorite scene is in the bar when Ed meets Orson.

5

[Gideon58]

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Ed Wood (1994)

Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Rudolph Grey (book), Scott Alexander
Cast: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama
[I]


So pleased to see your review of this film...I agree with everything you've said, I think it's Tim Burton's masterpiece.

[KeyserCorleone]

Yeah, Memento's not a movie for you. I love movies that put together murder mysteries and psychological thrillers, especially unique ones. And being a Pulp Fiction fan as I love the structure, so I have to disagree with the whole review.

[Gideon58]

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Memento (2000)


[FONT=Arial Narrow]Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Christopher Nolan (screenplay), Jonathan Nolan (short story)
Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
Genre: Mystery Thriller



I'm surprised you watched this Citizen, doesn't strike me as your kind of movie.

[Citizen Rules]

I'm surprised you watched this Citizen, doesn't strike me as your kind of movie. It was an HoF movie so that's why I watched it. Buy yeah, not my kind of movie and I don't usually like Nolan films.

[GulfportDoc]

I agree with you about Ed Wood. It was one of Johnny Depp's best performances-- before he got hugely famous and lazy..:) The story itself was fascinating, and could only have occurred at that particular point in Hollywood history. Wood was a goofball, but determined-- a real entrepreneur.

But it was Martin Landau's portrayal of Bela Lugosi that really anchored the film. Ironically Landau was as important to Burton's film in the same way that Lugosi was to Wood's films. Who could possibly have done Lugosi better than Landau?

Few realize that Lugosi had been a very successful dramatic actor in his native Hungary, then Germany, then in New York. Due to his drug addiction and his early typecasting from the play Dracula, he eventually slid down the slope, taking lesser roles to support his lifestyle.

~Doc

[Citizen Rules]

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Johnny Guitar (1954)
Director: Nicholas Ray
Writers: Philip Yordan (screenplay), Roy Chanslor (novel)
Cast: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge
Genre: Western


Johnny Guitar is currently rated at 7.7 on IMDB, a very high rating indeed. Usually only the best made films reach such dizzying heights and yet somehow Nicolas Ray's oddball film has done just that. But why?

When Joan Crawford is in the right role, she slays it. She's effective in the movie as a polished but tough as nails, savvy business woman who may or may not have slept her way to valuable insider information that enabled her to buy up worthless land in the middle of nowhere. She knows that the railroad is coming through the area, making her land very valuable. 'Vienna' (Joan Crawford) finds herself being singled out by a rival woman who hates her guts and rallies the marshal and town's folk to harass her and her friends. Accusing them of all sorts of wrong doings.

The entire film is based on ambiguity and an unusual juxtaposition of characters with 'tough guy' women slinging guns and 'pretty boy' men who dance and play the guitar as the women battle for supremacy. All this is done in a western version of a morality-concept play with enough flair to lift the pulp material to an artistic level that I'm sure no other director would have conceived of. It might be hard for the typical pop corn eating movie fan to get this experimental type of western, but the French New Wave directors like Truffaut got it...and I suspect it was their admiration of the film that has lifted Johnny Guitar from it's initial box office failure to the darling of hard core movie buffs.

Reportedly Johnny Guitar's script is an analogy of the black listing that was going on in Hollywood in the 1950s. We see the town's folks led by a virulent rancher named 'Emma Small', played to perfect by Mercedes McCambridge. She heads up lesser willed town folks into a posse of followers, who go along with her just because she's an outright loudmouth and bully with clout. The towns folks attempt to drive the 'outsider' Vienna and her 'outsider' friends out of town, and do even worse to them. All of this of course was what was actually happening with McCarthyism and black listing in Hollywood.

Johnny Guitar is like a western opera with lines that are spoken not so much for the movie's sake, but more as a message to the audiences of the time.

rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

Director: Yimou Zhang
Writers: Su Tong (novel "Wives and Concubines"), Ni Zhen (scriptwriter)
Cast: Li Gong, Jingwu Ma, Saifei He
Genre: Drama History
Language: Mandarin

'A young woman becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy lord, and must learn to live with the strict rules and tensions within the household.'


I loved Raise The Red Lantern. First off, the film has a confined world, set in the manor house of a rich nobleman and all we see is life from this one narrow and focused angle...and that appeals greatly to me. I like to step into the world of the film and spend time there with the characters, so to speak.

And of course I love period piece & historical films...and for some reason I like Chinese cinema too. I loved the way the film's cinematography felt confined and that's fitting as the young woman in the film is basically sequestered in her room in this manor estate. I liked the way the film felt controlled and claustrophobic, both the story and the camera work were synced to deliver that very effect, which then puts us into the mindset of the young woman who's lost her freedom when she marries and lives as a concubine.

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The other thing I loved about this was that it was kind of like a Chinese soap opera with all the backstabbing and scheming of the four wives, I like that kind of human drama, cause it rings true. In a way soap opera type movies deliver on the human experience, which I also like.

Oh, one more thing about this movie, I like stories about women. I don't mean that in a woo-hoo type of way. Stories that focus on a female character often have more depth of humanity to them then a movie about some guy in a thriller. I'm not big into action guy flicks.

The one thing I didn't care for in this film was the ending. I usually don't like it when a film has to end on a big note, so as to make some noise. The very ending felt tacked on and Hollywood-ish.

Still I really loved this movie and it held me spell bound, which I can't say many films do.

rating_4_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Pierrot Le Fou (1965)


Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Writer: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani
Genre: French New Wave Comedy
Language: French

Visually I loved it, there were so many shooting scenes in the film that it must have cost a fortune to make. I mean the couple go everywhere in France, and seeing all these different parts of France from the viewpoint of a crime ridden road trip was visually amazing...

BUT, I was utterly confused as to what was going on in the film, or more precisely how the director intended it to be interrupted. I must have stopped the film a half dozen times to ask my wife what she thought this was all about? I couldn't tell if the film was a: surrealistic interpretation of an inner conflict that Pierrot was having in his mind? Or was it all a dream sequence and he would wake up at the end of the film still taking a bath and smoking? Geez this guy smoked a lot!

Later in the film I seen some quick edit inter-cuts of words being written on a page, so I decided I was watching a visualization of the novel his wife had asked him about in the beginning of the film. You know like we were seeing his thoughts as a movie. But no, I don't think that was it either....SO I had an utter disconnect from the story narrative and all I did was stare at the background scenery and Anna Karina! I liked her.

Finally in the end when he wraps the silly looking dynamite around his head, I decide this was Godard's French version of the old Jerry Lewis movies. It's hard to rate this one....

rating_3_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Le Trou (1960)

Director: Jacques Becker
Writers: José Giovanni (novel), Jacques Becker (adaptation)
Cast: André Bervil, Jean Keraudy, Michel Constantin
Genre: Drama Prison
Language: French
'In prison four long-sentence inmates planning an elaborate escape cautiously induct a new inmate to join in their scheme which leads to distrust and uncertainty.'


Here we have utter cinematic realism with Le Trou, a fine example of French Realism.

If there's one thing that I've learned from my time here at MoFo it's that many movie watchers value realism and gauge a film's ability to be realistic as a yard stick. How many times have we heard people saying, 'Oh, that wasn't very realistic'. Of course realism isn't the only flavor of movie making, but it's a style that rings true to most people. So yeah this seemed really real and I dug it.

At 2 hours 11 minutes, the time flew by! I was hooked from the get go and fascinated to see the inventions that these men came up with to escape their prison cell. I loved the 'broken mirror' periscope for looking out their peep hole for approaching guards. And the half-hour glass that was made out of two bottles and a handful of pinched sand was pretty cool too.

I was surprised the film didn't venture into high drama and conflict between the five cooped up men. Even though I usually like lots of personal drama in a film, this time around I was glad that the film was purely focused on the details of escaping. Le Trou puts the viewer into a tiny prison cell (where everyone is so polite!) and lets us participate in the audacious escape.

I enjoyed this one!

rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)

This was my second time watching Anatomy of a Murder. I'd originally seen it in the 8th HoF, here's a link to my old review (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1547348#post1547348)

I watched Anatomy of a Murder again and was so impressed I thought that I'd write a fresh review! I loved the way Otto Preminger handled the film. I know a lot of people love or hate a movie solely based on it's story content. Story matters to me too, but there's other elements that equally impress me.

What impressed me with Anatomy of a Murder was the relaxed pacing of the film, with scenes that took the time to include many little extras. Those extra little gestures and moments made me feel like I was there watching the events as they happened. Right at the start when James Stewart arrives home, the film takes it's time setting up the kind of man that Stewart's lawyer is. It does this by following him around his house as he completes simple little task like cleaning the fish he caught and putting them away in his fridge. The fridge is stacked full of fish! That take your time approach to film making is something I love and tells us important but small details. And this attention to detail continues all the way through the trial, which then made the trial seem very real too. Anatomy of a Murder is one of the few courtroom movies that I think is superb.

I loved the title credits by the graphic design artist Saul Bass. It's easy to recognize his work in 50s-60s films. They have this certain style that captures the era. Loved the jazz score too by the great Duke Ellington. And what's cooler than casting the Duke as 'Pie Eyed' and giving him a scene with Jimmy Stewart! The frosting on the cake is that Stewart's country loving lawyer also loves jazz. Now that's cool.

James Stewart is the man! One of my all time favorite actors and he's excellent here. Walter O'Connell the older booze hound lawyer was good too. Along with Eve Arden they both help to lighten the mood so that the film doesn't get to heavy and down trodden. That's important so that when we get to the lengthy trial our pallets aren't already over taxed. Sort of like having a cracker in between wine sampling.

This time around I did like Lee Remick, she's an enigma. Is she a trashy woman who falsely accused a man of rape to keep from being beat to a pulp by her brooding husband? Or is she just an innocent flirt who's wanting to have some harmless fun? You decide...And that's what I love about this film, it never force feeds an answer to you like many films would. Anatomy of a Murder can be interpreted different ways, and that's the difference between art and a commercial.

I still didn't like the Judge in the first couple minutes, he just seemed a bit flat in his acting, but then something clicked and I got it! The judge like Eva Arden (the secretary) is meant to lighten the mood so that the battling lawyers look all the more fervently bombastic. The judge is the calm between the two storms....I loved the way the lawyers did their jobs in this movie, with their fast talking, jury tainting methods, with oodles of showmanship...and armed with reference materials from past trial precedents so as to kick the oppositions ass, ha!

James Stewart was so smooth in this, he's perfectly cast...and so was George C. Scott who was very intimidating. Loved the scenes where he's grilling Lee Remick and is smack dab in her face...Very intense and effective cinematography.

Loved the way the movie wrapped things up in the last scene...And that's exactly how the real murder case, that this movie was based on ended too.

rating_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Road to Perdition (2002)

Director: Sam Mendes
Writer: David Self
Cast: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, Liam Aiken
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

'A mob enforcer's son witnesses a murder, forcing him and his father to take to the road, and his father down a path of redemption and revenge.'


I seen Road to Perdition some 15 years ago and I always remembered it and that I liked it...and that's saying a lot as I must have watched many 1000s of movies since then. I didn't remember the story line on my second time watching, but I did remember the 'feel' of the film. To me a film's ambiance is as important as the story. I just love the slower, more relaxed style of film making which permeates the film. That style might seem like an odd choice for a gangster film, but that introspective view is what makes Road to Perdition something special. I actually prefer this to The Godfather.

Anytime Tom Hanks is in a movie I usually like it. The guy knows how to pick good film projects! I've not seen all of his films but I've seen enough of them to know it's close to a sure thing that if Hanks is in a film, I'm going to like it.

Jude Law made a good-bad guy and he's style of acting fit the tone of the movie as did Paul Newman. Both actors played it lower keyed and that then worked well for the style of the film.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=55548
The cinematography and the darker lighting of the film made for one of the most stylish gangster stories put onto film.


There might be a story element in the film that I could say I would have done differently and that would be the final ending, but I'm starting to learn that no film is perfect and it's what a person makes of the experience that matters.

rating_4_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
Director: Don Coscarelli
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Bob Ivy
Writers:Joe R. Lansdale (short story), Don Coscarelli (screenplay)
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

I liked the movie! Anytime Elvis is on the screen I usually like the movie. Why? I'm not into his music, but Elvis is such an iconic character that he has his own sort of movie afterlife, and makes for an instantly recognizable & likeable movie character.

Bubba Ho-Tep reminded me of a cross between Elvis & Nixon (2016) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2093991/) & Barton Fink (1991) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101410/) both films I really liked. I dug the way Elvis was played and I liked his side kick President Kennedy too. Both actors fit their movie roles nicely and never took it too over the top, which I liked. Oh and the Lone Ranger guy, Kemosabe! I especially got a kick out of him blazing his pistols away at the evil soul sucker, and of course his guns are just toy guns, ha!

If this had been way more gory I would have hated it, but as it was, most of the emphasize was on Elvis and how he felt about his life wasting away in a nursing home. I liked Elvis' backstory and the way he related to the people in the home. The darkly lit corridors of the nursing home and the absences of other stuff going on, made the story of Elvis all the more interesting as the film was primarily focused on him.

I liked the mystery of the soul sucker and how they went about figuring it all out. I'm actually glad that the amount of time the soul sucker was onscreen was limited because I didn't really care about that part of the story as much as the other stuff. The director could even have went with it all being in the heads of Kennedy and Elvis and that would have been just fine with me. I'm sure most horror fans wanted the horror kicked up a couple of notches but not me, and that's another reason I liked this movie.

3.5++

[Citizen Rules]

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The Little Stranger (2018)


Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Writers: Lucinda Coxon (screenplay), Sarah Waters (novel)
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Ruth Wilson
Genre: Drama Horror Mystery

The Little Stranger plays like Pride and Prejudice (2005) meets Winchester (2018)...only it's head and shoulders above Winchester. While Winchester was hyperbolic with demonic ghost and silly fright scenes...The Little Stranger is done up in proper British style which keeps everything reined in which then adds to the tension that grows under the seemingly benign surface.

Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) was a bit of a creepy ass...but that casting choice worked perfect for the movie as he created a brooding tension. Ruth Wilson who played Caroline Ayres is also odd and once again that helps the narrative as we're never sure what's going on in that creepy old mansion...and in that way the film reminded me of The Innocents.

I for one loved the drama that occurred as the good doctor courts the reclusive heiress...and the resulting human drama is where the themes of class elitism our examined. It's interesting that the Ayres family, who are heavily in debt and live in what once was a stately manor, now decaying old house, still act as blue nosed as ever, and no matter how educated and well mannered Dr Faraday is he can never make the grade, so will never truly belong at Hundreds Hall.

And that's where the story lies and not in the horror. I suspect those who like gore horror were disappointed that there weren't heads rolling and ice picks in the eyes...and so gave it a low IMDB rating. Which goes to show that the only real judge of a film's merit is one's self. I for one liked the more subtle approach that The Little Stranger offers.

rating_3_5+

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=51461

The Florida Project (2017)

Director: Sean Baker


Cast: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe
Writers: Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch
Genre: Drama


'Set over one summer, the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Walt Disney World.'


I tried watching The Florida Project after it first came to DVD, but I shut if off after 15 minutes. In those first few minutes I found the kids and their mom annoying as they hammed it up for the camera.

So, I finally watched the entire movie and found out the first 15 minutes was just like the rest of the movie...The Florida Project plays like a 2 hour long selfie, or some home made video where little kids act way more silly than usual.

You know that photo to me defines the movie: overdone & hammy without any real substances. It's like the director wanted to make a cross between Boyhood (2014) and a reality TV show where people act anything but real. One would have to really like watching shrill small children acting 'cute' to enjoy this movie.

I've seen films centered on small kids that do work, such as the ground breaking Boyhood. But The Florida Project felt fake...not only the kids but the mother too. She so over exaggerated all her actions that she seemed like an actress trying way too hard. She never seemed to be the person she was playing. Even when she was smoking she so over done the smoking movements as if she was trying way to hard to draw attention to herself.

All of that hamming it up took me right out of the story and made me accurately aware that this was a movie. One positive is that The Florida Project is different than your average movie.

I hated the last few minutes of the ending at DisneyWorld. Just when the film was getting interesting with the child protection services, we get the scene of the two girls at DisneyWorld.

rating_3

[Citizen Rules]

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)


Directors: William Cottrell, David Hand
Cast: Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell, Lucille La Verne
Genre: Animated Fantasy

'Exiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household.'


One of the great classic Disney animations...and I had never ever seen it before, until now. I see that the movie is on Roger Ebert's Great Movies list and AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies list. So I know a lot of people appreciate the film.

I too appreciated the beauty and artistry of the hand drawn animation. It's so lovely to look at, so richly detailed that the scenes come to life right before our eyes. The camera work too is surprisingly fluid and cinematic.

I loved the way the film opens with a 'dolly in' shot as the camera moves closer to the evil queen's castle, then it dissolves to the next shot - a close up of the castle...and then we move closer, focusing on a window in the castle's turret - then another dissolve to the third shot and we're on the back of the queen looking into the talking magic mirror. I thought that was all pretty damn impressive, and there's many sequences in the film like that. It's truly made to a high artistic degree.

I love old movies because they're like a time machine back to the past. The past is never really gone, it's just a place that doesn't exist in our current time continuum...and movies are the one way people from that distant past can speak to us. So the odd thing for me was that I knew I was watching a film from 1938 and yet because it was animated it didn't at first seem like a portal to the past. But then I listened to the way Snow White sang along with the Prince and they reminded me of Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy who were the most popular singing/acting duel in the movies at the time. Snow White seemed patterned after Jeanette MacDonald and I swear Dopey was based on Harpo.

rating_3

[MovieGal]

55460
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)




Yay or Nah for me?

[Citizen Rules]

Yay or Nah for me?I say yah. I think you might dig it.

[MovieGal]

I say yah. I think you might dig it.

I enjoy Asian cinema and books of a historical nature.

Have you seen "Snow Flower & The Secret Fan"? The book was better than the movie but it talks about Chinese culture of laotong, footbinding and marriage.

[Citizen Rules]

I enjoy Asian cinema and books of a historical nature.

Have you seen "Snow Flower & The Secret Fan"? The book was better than the movie but it talks about Chinese culture of laotong, footbinding and marriage. I haven't seen it, but I read about it and it sounds good, so I added it to my watch list. I like Chinese cinema set in the past during their Imperial period.

[MovieGal]

I haven't seen it, but I read about it and it sounds good, so I added it to my watch list. I like Chinese cinema set in the past during their Imperial period.

Well I hope you have seen Red Cliff?!? Its amazing!! So Beautiful!!! but very long :D

[Citizen Rules]

Well I hope you have seen Red Cliff?!? Its amazing!! So Beautiful!!! but very long :D No I haven't seen that one.

[MovieGal]

No I haven't seen that one.

I think you would enjoy "Jadesoturi" as well.

[Citizen Rules]

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)


Director: Stephen Daldry
Writers: Eric Roth(screenplay), Jonathan Safran Foer (novel)
Cast: Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn
Genre: Drama

'A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.'


OK movie, crummy title. I would've called it something like 'Falling Down Boy'...or "Key Lucent Dreams'. I think I like 'Falling Down Boy' the best, it has a nice ring to it.

I'm not surprised Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was nominated for Best Picture Oscar in 2012. It would've seemed to be Oscar bound or is that Oscar bait, with it's peripheral tale of the 9/11 events as told through the eyes of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome...along with a side tale of the mysterious man who can't speak...add to that the various people the boy meets as he searches for the lock that fits a key that his father left behind.

With all that going for the film and some choice cityscape cinematography, the film would've seemed like a shoe in for the Oscar. And while I appreciate the layered story effect and unique perspective on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I surprisingly felt no emotion at what I image is suppose to be a heart wrenching film. If anything I was annoyed at the kid who acted more like an ass than an empathetic character. And without me caring about the boy our his mission, the film left me out in the cold.

I wish the director had filmed the movie more from the boys perspective especially when he goes to meet the people named Black. Instead those scenes of interaction which should have been the most rewarding and dynamic, were mere snippets. Even the scene with Viola Davis (the best actor in the film and best scene too) starts in the middle of the boy meeting her. I would've liked to seen their encounter from the very moment the boy rang her door bell. As it was that scene lost any emotional power it had for the sake of brevity.

Where brevity was needed was after the resolution of the mysterious key. Having Sandra Bullock then recount her own story about how she followed the boy around, was unneeded and over padded. I'm guessing that was done so Ms Bullock could have more air time.

It might sound like I'm hard on the movie but it's just when I like a movie I can't help but go into director mode and think of how I would've done things differently.

rating_3-

[Gideon58]

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The Florida Project (2017)

Director: Sean Baker


[LEFT]Cast: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe
Writers: Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Genre: Drama



Sorry you didn't like this movie, Citizen, I did, it has its problems, but I thought it was pretty realistic.

[Citizen Rules]

Sorry you didn't like this movie, Citizen, I really did.At least it was something different. Mostly I hated the last shot of the film.

[lenslady]

This weekend I went with some friends to a see a showing of a classic movie - Roman Holiday. I was wondering if you ever saw it Citizen Rules, and posted a review? ( We had some pretty animated discussion of the movie at dinner later, but I am interested in the 'Mofo ' perspective)

[Citizen Rules]

This weekend I went with some friends to a see a showing of a classic movie - Roman Holiday. I was wondering if you ever saw it @Citizen Rules (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=84637), and posted a review? ( We had some pretty animated discussion of the movie at dinner later, but I am interested in the 'Mofo ' perspective) Oh how cool, I'd love to see Roman Holiday on the big screen, did you enjoy it? Yes, I've seen it, but only once and like 15 years ago and so haven't ever reviewed it. I can only remember that I really liked it, and that Audrey Hepburn was adorable.

I'm interested in hearing what your animated discussion was all about?

[GulfportDoc]

This weekend I went with some friends to a see a showing of a classic movie - Roman Holiday. I was wondering if you ever saw it @Citizen Rules (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=84637), and posted a review? ( We had some pretty animated discussion of the movie at dinner later, but I am interested in the 'Mofo ' perspective)
LL, SURELY the consensus was that Princess Ann and Joe Bradley should have somehow gotten together permanently..:) Lovely film.

Any male in the 1950s --certainly younger males-- who didn't fall in love with Miss Hepburn in Roman Holiday, and some how was not cupid struck in Sabrina, certainly must have been felled by Hepburn's Natasha Rostova in 1956's War and Peace! I know I was. I left the theater on top a cloud crush that lasted for weeks...:love:

~Doc

[lenslady]

A warning before I post my answers to Citizen Rules and
GulfportDoc

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS....so if you don't want to know the end - read no further!!!!!


Yes we all did enjoy it, and it's a pleasure to see an old movie as it was originally meant to be seen- on a large screen with an audience. There's sort of a group rapture in the crowd when watching a good movie, and I think everyone else there enjoyed it as well.

Ok- some comments and observations. One of the gals was saying at the end, she was fully expecting Audrey (Princess) to come running back to Gregory (Joe) after that final press conference when she left the room. And if you think that Audrey was a man magnet GulfportDoc -well that hasn't changed - but you shoulda heard us gals gushing about the young Gregory Peck. Every five minutes one of us would pipe up saying how handsome he was lmao.Also the epitome of what we women thought a man should be-worldly yet a gentleman. I really knew Gregory best from Mockingbird, where he was distinguished looking - but here he was really sexy.
Btw one lady felt that no woman could ever safely fall asleep at night in Rome and that was unrealistic to show- to which I kept replying 'It's a movie' lol.

Well everyone thought it was charming, and romantic and a pleasure to see, and that it was a great travelogue as well. Funny too. I also thought how the movie showed the ethics of an era that seems (sadly ) bygone. Can you imagine a princess sacrificing her love life for duty to some stodgy old Royals now? Or a newspaper man giving up the story of a century - and the purse- to honor the reputation of a lady? The movie was a fairy tale, but there was something so earnest in their growing passion and love, that it seemed real. And we all were a bit teary eyed at the end.

Btw Someone thought at the beginning that the princess was a spoiled brat, but changed their mind as the movie went on.( I didn't think that, I thought she just was a young lady who needed a big breath of fresh air. ) And they couldn't even believe it was Audrey - she looked so young. This was her first major movie role I believe.

One thing I mentioned was that after her escapade, she 'grew up' - she handled her
staff ( who really were smothering her at the beginning of the movie) with confidence and authority.

And I was the only one btw who didn't expect the couple to get together. Not that I didn't wish for that happy ending, but I think the lump in your throat ending of them going back to their own lives was fitting to the ethics and standards of that time.


Oh and Doc I think it's kinda adorable that you had such a crush on Audrey. She truly was a classy and lovable lady.

All in all a nice experience.

[Citizen Rules]

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS....so if you don't want to know the end - read no further!!!!!

One of the gals was saying at the end, she was fully expecting Audrey (Princess) to come running back to Gregory (Joe) after that final press conference when she left the room...I was the only one btw who didn't expect the couple to get together. Not that I didn't wish for that happy ending, but I think the lump in your throat ending of them going back to their own lives was fitting to the ethics and standards of that time...
Lenslady it sounds like you and your friends had a blast, a blast from the past, you might say:p Now I really want to see Roman Holiday again. When I got into films, many years ago, Roman Holiday was one of the first I watched and I promptly caught the Audrey 'bug' and so started watching all the films of hers I could find. But of course I couldn't find them all, so I still have some to see. Well one of these days I'll watch her entire filmography. I recently did that with another actress I like, Gloria Grahame...I haven't decided who'll be next though.

Regarding the ending, I'm with you. All the best love stories in movies usually end in unfilled love. That then makes us think about what might have been if the couple could have found a way to be together. I think if they had gotten together and lived happily ever after in the suburbs somewhere, it just wouldn't have been as memorable of film.

[Citizen Rules]

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Green Book (2018)

Director: Peter Farrelly
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini
Writers: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie & Peter Farrelly
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama


'A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.'

I kind of enjoyed it while I watched it as it had some funny moments. But after the film was over and I started thinking about it, I kind of hated the stereo type caricatures the film presented. It's pathetic that in 2018 Green Book is doing dumb/poor/criminal Italian American stereo types.

I thought this film was about racial positivity, but they presented the Italian's in the film using the old & tired ethnic cliche caricatures. Then there's the whole way over the top characters of Tony the driver who eats like a pig and is stupid as a door knob and of Dr Shirley who's as cold and condescending as they come. I had to scratch my head that they did the old fried chicken bit in this movie:rolleyes: That's something right out of an 1980s movie...And the end scene where Dr Shirley lets his hair down and jams out in the black bar has been done too many times before, it didn't fit his character's personality that he had established in the rest of the film. Green Book felt like a film that might have been made in the 80s or 90s. It had some good moments and a cool car and even tried to deliver a positive message that it takes resolve and guts to stand up for yourself against a bunch of haters...But still, it's hard to believe this won best picture.

rating_3-

[Citizen Rules]

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The Square (2017)

Director: Ruben Östlund
Writer: Ruben Östlund
Cast: Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West
Genre: Drama Comedy
Language: Swedish

'A prestigious Stockholm museum's chief art curator finds himself in times of both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit.'


The Square presents the viewer with a seemingly random set of circumstances that Christian (Claes Bang) the curator of a contemporary Swedish art museum faces. We see Christian, an atypical Swede (according to this film) to be a man of high morals...He drives an electric car and stands for openness and civility. He's seemingly a model citizen. However the way he handles himself after his phone & wallet are stolen, shows he's not quite versed at practicing what he purports.

At each encounter with an 'outsider' he reacts with mistrust. His incongruity grows as he overreacts to each situation. In one rather humorous example, Christian has a one night stand with an 'outsider' (an American woman) he mistrusts her so much that he refuses to let her have the used condom, out of fear that she will use the contents to impregnate herself.

There's many vignettes within the film's structure that goes to show how a high minded man like Christian, isn't always so broad thinking when faced with real world situations. That narrow, world view happens in reverse too....When Christian as head curator of the museum quickly agrees to use the promotional video idea of two fellow Swedes for the new exhibit. He trust them, even though their idea for a YouTube video on the museums behalf is beyond wild and ends up causing an outrage. His trust is based on his familiarity with people who look like him, thus he gives the two young Swedes free rein. That trust in this case is misplaced.

I especially liked the museum's exhibit where visitors have to choose between two paths to enter...they can choose, 'I Trust People' or 'I Don't Trust People'. Above each entrance is a count of how many have entered each path. Most chose, 'I Trust People'. Only to find they're required to prove that trust in strangers by leaving their phone and wallet unattended in a square.

The Square is an interesting film that creates real worldliness through low key filming & editing techniques...It's kind of like watching someone else's life on a videocam feed. But you know if you spend 2.5 hours watching someone else's life it does tend to get a bit monotonous at times.

rating_3_5+

[Citizen Rules]

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Split (1989)

Director: Chris Shaw
Writer: Chris Shaw
Cast: Timothy Dwight, Joan Bechtel, John J. Flynn
Genre: Experimental Sci Fi Indie

'Sci-fi story about a man (Timothy Dwight) on the run from a Big Brother-like security force.'


That's a screen shot from the video I watched. The image quality wasn't good and I bet that will effect people's enjoyment of the film. I try not to let poor IQ effect how I feel about a movie, but I sure wish I could've seen a better quality version of this.

I do think this film has merit. I bet most won't see that quality, but what I perceived was an experimental indie film that really tried to break new grounds in camera work and special effects...and all done on what must have been a shoe string budget. Some of the scene dissolves and the transitions from first focal point to second focal point to a third focal point were very effective. I do think if Orson Welles was alive he would've been impressed with the film's auteurs improvisation on film technique.

I wasn't much into the actual story though, but this is an out there art film more so than a standard flick, so the narrative isn't as important as the look of the film. That's why I say if I had seen a clean print on DVD I might have been even more impressed.

rating_2_5+

[Citizen Rules]

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Perfect Blue (1997)


Pâfekuto burû (original title)
Director: Satoshi Kon
Genre: Animation
Language: Japanese

'A retired pop singer turned actress' sense of reality is shaken when she is stalked by an obsessed fan and seemingly a ghost of her past.'


I was enjoying the first half of the movie with it's introspective look at the life of a young second-level pop star, turned aspiring actress. Her initial identity crisis as she shed her old persona of the girly pop star for her new grown up one, was something I hadn't seen represented in a movie before. That first part was well done and interesting and that's what the film should have went with.

The mystery of someone stalking her, worked OK too, though I didn't really need that in the story as Mima's soul searching journey was more than enough for me. But when the second half started going into her unwinding psyche, the film starting loosing some of my interest, but I was still onboard at that point.

But damn I got so annoyed at the overuse of that silly scene of her apparently loosing her mind...being presented like it was really happening...only to find out seconds later that was her on the set of the movie she was making, OK once was a clever trick, maybe even twice that scene worked, but when they went to that trick-well 4 or 5 times it really started pissing me off. I hate it when films through in mind f*** stuff trying to look deep, Annihilation did that too, and to me that means the film makers didn't have anything deeper to say.

A lot of what I seen in the last 30 minutes was so convoluted and nonsensical that I got bored and must have checked the remaining time a dozen times. I'm still not sure how her female manager could be appearing as Mima the pop idol to her, unless the actress was nuts too. Oh well at least I liked the Neon Tetras.

2

[Citizen Rules]

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Brimstone (2016)


Director: Martin Koolhoven
Cast: Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Emilia Jones
Writer: Martin Koolhoven
Genre: Western Thriller-Horror

I remember watching an old vampire movie. As the vampire draws near, the inept vampire hunter pulls out his wooden cross to fend off the blood sucker. The vampire heartily laughs and says, 'you have to believe in that to make it work'...

Brimstone is like that...it's touted as dark and disturbing but to the savvy movie watcher it's so cliche ridden with one dimensional characters that only exist to wield knives and kill, that nothing in the movie seems real. Hence it's utterly ineffective as the vampire hunter's wooden cross was.

Brimstone is like a $35 gourmet hamburger served with a sprig of parsley in a fancy restaurant. Sure it looks fancy with it's on location shooting and impressive cinematography, but it's still just a hamburger...it's a fast food thrill flick to be gulped down.

Brimstone is a con, a sham that pretends to be something more than it is. Strip away the cinematography and sets and it's just a well dressed up horror film with a stone faced antagonist that's even more unbelievable than Jason from Friday the 13th. The plot is juvenile, pretending to deal with deep themes, when all it actually delivers is thrill kill scenes fit only for mass consumption. What Brimstone needed to be believable, was some good old fashion character development and drama.

If you want to see a top notch thriller about an evil preacher chasing down children, watch Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter (1955) now that's a movie!

rating_1

[John-Connor]

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Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)

This was my second time watching Anatomy of a Murder. I'd originally seen it in the 8th HoF, here's a link to my old review (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1547348#post1547348)

I watched Anatomy of a Murder again and was so impressed I thought that I'd write a fresh review! I loved the way Otto Preminger handled the film. I know a lot of people love or hate a movie solely based on it's story content. Story matters to me too, but there's other elements that equally impress me.

What impressed me with Anatomy of a Murder was the relaxed pacing of the film, with scenes that took the time to include many little extras. Those extra little gestures and moments made me feel like I was there watching the events as they happened. Right at the start when James Stewart arrives home, the film takes it's time setting up the kind of man that Stewart's lawyer is. It does this by following him around his house as he completes simple little task like cleaning the fish he caught and putting them away in his fridge. The fridge is stacked full of fish! That take your time approach to film making is something I love and tells us important but small details. And this attention to detail continues all the way through the trial, which then made the trial seem very real too. Anatomy of a Murder is one of the few courtroom movies that I think is superb.

I loved the title credits by the graphic design artist Saul Bass. It's easy to recognize his work in 50s-60s films. They have this certain style that captures the era. Loved the jazz score too by the great Duke Ellington. And what's cooler than casting the Duke as 'Pie Eyed' and giving him a scene with Jimmy Stewart! The frosting on the cake is that Stewart's country loving lawyer also loves jazz. Now that's cool.

James Stewart is the man! One of my all time favorite actors and he's excellent here. Walter O'Connell the older booze hound lawyer was good too. Along with Eve Arden they both help to lighten the mood so that the film doesn't get to heavy and down trodden. That's important so that when we get to the lengthy trial our pallets aren't already over taxed. Sort of like having a cracker in between wine sampling.

This time around I did like Lee Remick, she's an enigma. Is she a trashy woman who falsely accused a man of rape to keep from being beat to a pulp by her brooding husband? Or is she just an innocent flirt who's wanting to have some harmless fun? You decide...And that's what I love about this film, it never force feeds an answer to you like many films would. Anatomy of a Murder can be interpreted different ways, and that's the difference between art and a commercial.

I still didn't like the Judge in the first couple minutes, he just seemed a bit flat in his acting, but then something clicked and I got it! The judge like Eva Arden (the secretary) is meant to lighten the mood so that the battling lawyers look all the more fervently bombastic. The judge is the calm between the two storms....I loved the way the lawyers did their jobs in this movie, with their fast talking, jury tainting methods, with oodles of showmanship...and armed with reference materials from past trial precedents so as to kick the oppositions ass, ha!

James Stewart was so smooth in this, he's perfectly cast...and so was George C. Scott who was very intimidating. Loved the scenes where he's grilling Lee Remick and is smack dab in her face...Very intense and effective cinematography.

Loved the way the movie wrapped things up in the last scene...And that's exactly how the real murder case, that this movie was based on ended too.

rating_5




Good review, the fish detail is great he actually uses bait in his court strategy, he lures George C Scott into doing what he wants twice, and one time literally with the judge the lure in the law book. It's still a very smart film, loved the Jazz too, made the movie extra smooth, cool and classic!

[Gideon58]

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Green Book (2018)

Director: Peter Farrelly
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini
Writers: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie & Peter Farrelly
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama




You're certainly entitled to your opinion, Citizen, but we're worlds apart on this one.

[Citizen Rules]

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, Citizen, but we're worlds apart on this one. I will say I loved the fact that the black musician and the white driver became friends and learned from each other. That was the best part of the film.

[Citizen Rules]

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True Confession (1937)
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Writer: Claude Binyon
Cast: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, John Barrymore
Genre: Screwball Comedy


'A lawyer defends his wife, a pathological liar, in a murder trial.'

True Confession is a great example of the 1930s screwball comedy. After watching a screwball comedy, if you find yourself saying, 'this didn't seem real, people, wouldn't act that way in real life'....Well, that's what makes it a screwball comedy!...True Confession is farcical with nutty unhinged characters driving the story forward with their zany behavior.

There weren't many screwball comedies made, having only been mainly popular during the 1930s. Situational comedies took over in the 1940s and are more familiar to people today. So unless one is use to watching these 30s screwball comedies (and not all comedies in the 30s are screwball), they can be hard for people to relate to. But if you still have a hard time believing the antics of Carole Lombard, just ask yourself what would Lucy or Bart Simpson do? People readily accept that Bart Simpson has been in the 4th grade for 29 years and that Homer readily attempts to strangle his own son every other week. Screwball comedies are no different, they are screwy! Realism isn't what they aim for.

True Confession has an dynamic energy to it, that moves the story along at a quick pace. That's established right at the get-go in the opening scene with Carole rushing home and racing up a flight of stairs in a tither. She frantically takes off her gloves and hat (because women always wore hats and gloves back then!) and hurriedly grabs the phone so that she can excitedly tell her lawyer husband about her hair-brained scheme to help him get a client and make some money. Their broke you see and it is the depression. Only her husband is the quintessential straight-man and is so strict about being honest (an honest lawyer is as funny now, as it was in the 30s, ha!) So of course he won't have any part of defending a guilty man in court. That opening scene then sets the pace and the story tone for the rest of the movie.

Geez I've already wrote more than I had planned...So I'll wrap this up by saying Carole Lombard is precious in this role. There's very few actresses that could pull off such a scattered brain, lying-cutie role as Carole did. Katharine Hepburn did it in Bringing Up Baby and Ginger Rogers and Lucille Ball could do it too. Carole is the movie. Her side kick Una Merkel is a long time fav of mine, and she added a lot too. As did the great John Barrymore. At first I wondered what was up with Barrymore's character, of course the clue is it's a screwball comedy...and he's plenty screwy...and oh so good at delivery those thespian styled lines too.

I thought Fred MacMurray was the perfect 'foil' for his ditzy wife's lying shenanigans. I loved the scene at the end when he's leaving her and she tells him that she will name their child after him, ha! That made me laugh out loud. And I laughed a lot at True Confession, but more importantly it brought me joy...and that's always a good thing😊

5

[Citizen Rules]

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Nothing Sacred (1937)


Director: William Wellman
Writer: Ben Hecht
Cast: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger
Genre: Comedy Romance

'An eccentric woman learns she is not dying of radium poisoning as earlier assumed, but when she meets a reporter looking for a story, she feigns sickness again for her own profit.'



I love Carole Lombard in this, she was one of the biggest stars in the 1930s and a skilled comedian too.

What really impressed me about Nothing Sacred is the film's historical importance. It's a very early 3 Strip Technicolor film from 1937. That's two years earlier than the celebrated The Wizard of Oz. To me an old film is like a time machine back to the past, and with Nothing Sacred we get to see the streets of New York City and also see it from the air, and it's all in color! Think about that for a moment, the director William Wellman (Wings 1927) actually used full color aerial footage. I'm sure that was the first time for a feature length film.

This is the first and only time Miss Lombard was filmed in color. They dyed her hair red from her normal light blonde trusses. I thought she looked great, especially in the blue evening gown at the restaurant/club scene. Ahh, those were the days when women road horses onto the stage and people were decked to the nines as they dined and danced in a posh New York City club. Which is much more colorful than my last meal at Denny's:p

That's the thing about 1930s comedies: America was under the grips of the great depression and audiences went regularly to the movies as a form of escape...And what they escaped into was often the glitzy world of the rich and well-to-do. For a hour or two the poor could image what it would be like not to have to save every crumb of food just to keep from starving.

At the heart of Nothing Sacred is a story of a simple woman from a small rural town who uses her supposed radium poisoning condition to get to live the 'good life' for a short time in NYC. And it's a story about skepticism and mistrust in the newspapers, which is another common theme for 1930s films. But what I really thought was a sophisticated story element was the condemnation of the hoopla that resulted from the media coverage in NYC. We see the people poured their hearts out for the poor dying girl, putting on one helluva show, when really what they wanted was just to feel good about themselves.

Like a lot of screwball comedies of the 30s, Nothing Sacred has a much deeper meaning than the surface shenanigans.

4

[Citizen Rules]

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Harvey (1950)
Director: Henry Koster


Writers: Mary Chase (play & screenplay), Oscar Brodney (screenplay)
Cast: James Stewart, Wallace Ford, William H. Lynn, Victoria Horne
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy


A 6' 8" invisible rabbit...who knew such a film could be so rewarding! I loved this! I'd seen it only once before many years ago, so it was a real treat to watch again. Gosh, there's so many good things happening in the film that I don't know where to start. Actors: of course, what a cast! could Elwood P. Dowd be played by anyone else than James Stewart? Stewart's wonderful in this and in the DVD extras there was an interview from 1990 with Stewart and he sighted Harvey as one of his own favorite movies. Stewart had been in the stage play of Harvey, and when director Henry Koster made the film he decided to use some of the stage performers which was unusual for the time. Also unusual was the director's choice to literately shoot the film in long master-takes without breaking for close up shots. That way the film had a continuity and energy like the award winning play had.

And what energy the screenplay has! It takes off from the opening when Dowd leaves that neat looking old Victorian home with the heavy pillars and sun room with curved glass...and the film never lulls as it's packed with people and nuances that makes the film a joy to watch. You know what was cool was the interior of the house...no way did I expect to see that curved sun room window from the inside, but surprise, they created it from the interior for a shot during the tea party scene.

Oh, the older eccentric sister Veta Loiuse was played to utter perfection by stage actress Josephine Hull, who had played Veta in the stage play. She was good! So was her desperate to be wed daughter, Myrtle May and the Maytag Repairman Jesse White aka the nut-catcher. What a hoot he was! And I'd be amidst if I didn't give a shout out to one of my fav character actors Cecil Kellaway.

But you know what shines greater than any of the actors or sets or even direction? "The play is the thing." Hitchcock said that once, and it's so true. The play's script was written by Mary Chase who won a Pulitzer Prize and it's her story that makes these people so three dimensional. Even the doctor and nurse have their own subplot of a near-miss romance, which not only adds depth but makes these smaller roles seem so important to the story. And that's what Harvey and Harvey do, they make lemonade out of proverbial lemons.

4.5

[Citizen Rules]

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Top Hat (1935)


Director: Mark Sandrich
Writers: Dwight Taylor, Allan Scott
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance

'An American dancer comes to Britain and falls for a model whom he initially annoyed, but she mistakes him for his goofy producer.'


...If you learn one thing about my movie taste it's that I love old musicals. I'm talking really old like 1930-1959, other years are good too, of course. But I love the really old musicals as they have a certain charm that went out of style after the 1950s.

There's nobody smoother on the dance floor than Fred Astaire. Astaire is the man! He's easy to relate to as he's not the tall, handsome leading man type. Let's face it he's a bit different looking. I mean Fred Astaire is no ladies man and yet he's perfect as he's likeable and we can relate to him, as he has to work at winning the girl.


And what a girl he wins! Ginger Rogers...goes with Fred Astaire like ice goes with cream. Sure Fred had different female dance partners over the years and some were better dancers than Ginger, but none of them had the down to earth charm that Ginger has. And yes she can dance up a storm too. Ginger and Fred are legendary.

I'd seen Top Hat before, but it had been over a decade...My favorite number was the second dance number No Strings (I'm Fancy Free) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Strings_(I%27m_Fancy_Free)) with Fred Astaire doing a noisy tap dance in the hotel room above a slumbering Ginger. Loved the choreography which was lose and light and so full of optimistic exuberance. The second part of that with the sand dance was clever too, loved the soft shoe, and the art deco hotel room set was a great place to dance in!

The next music number with Fred and Ginger taking cover from the rain in a band stand gazebo in Isn't This a Lovely Day (to be Caught in the Rain) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isn%27t_This_a_Lovely_Day%3F) was my other favorite. Lots of charm and innovation in this number. Actually all the music/dance numbers are beautifully staged and quite unique. A big shout out to the great Irving Berlin who wrote the music numbers (melody and lyrics).


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Did I mention that Venice set, wow! I read that it was 300 feet long and took up two entire sound stages. Nowadays with CG everywhere, it might be hard for those use to modern movies to be impressed by a set like that, and that's a shame as the craftsmanship and artistry that was put into movies like Top Hat was half of their charm. The rest of the charm came from the beauty and glamour of it all.

rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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Monkey Business (1931)

Director: Norman McLeod
Writers: S.J. Perelman & Will B. Johnstone
Cast: The Marx Brothers: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Thelma Todd
Genre: Comedy

'On a transatlantic crossing, The Marx Brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship.'


What's funner than a barrel full of herring, err I mean monkeys...the Marx Brothers! and on a sea going passenger ship to boot:p I love movies set on ships, it's like a whole world apart from the real one, and that works wonders for comedies such as Monkey Business. I know the ship was only a set, but they sure had great looking sets in this movie. I mean just look at the photo above and it's easy to image they're on the promenade deck on some big ship sailing the North Atlantic.

What can I say about the four Marx Brothers that hasn't already been said? Groucho is the leader and usually has the funniest and naughtiness lines. And for the early 1930s Groucho could be naughty with his double meaning, innuendos. Chico gets his laughs too and Harpo gets them by playing the silent type! Then there's the straight man who doesn't do comedy but is the leading man type, that's Zeppo. Zeppo isn't as well known and didn't have as long as a career as the other three Marx Brothers.

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Thelma Todd was a peach, and I really liked her in this. It was a treat seeing her as I haven't seen her in much at all. I know she was popular in the precode era, but I wondered why she didn't have more of a movie career...After reading IMDB's trivia I now know why:( What a bummer...Sometimes I regret reading about stars, they shine so brightly that one would think they would be immortal.

Sorry to end on such a dower note.

rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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Modern Times (1936)
Director: Charles Chaplin
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman
Genre: Comedy, Drama


I liked Paulette Goddard so much in Modern Times that I decided to use her as my lead photo😊 And why not? She's exhilarating, she's dynamic and she brightens up every scene she's in. As much as I liked her in Chaplin's The Great Dictator, I liked her even more here as a poor street waif. The film refers to her as a 'gamine' which is French for mischievous imp...and that perfectly describes her role in the classic film. I loved the banana scene where she's stealing bananas from a boat and throwing them with an enthusiastic glee to the hungry kids on the dock. What amazes me most about Paulette is that she looks so contemporary and so real, that I wouldn't be surprised to see her in the produce section at the grocery store pondering whether bananas should be free or not:p

Chaplin is great, of course. I've enjoyed every single film of his I've seen. And I want to see more. So I was glad that this classic got nominated. Chaplin is so innovative as a director that all of the stunts 'the little tramp' does looks so effortless. Loved the entire scene in the factory with the big machinery which I swear was real! Of course after the film I read that those huge clogs and gears were made of rubber and wood...but damn what a great set piece! And just thinking of the automated feeding machine that poor Chaplin encountered, makes me laugh!
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Modern Times marks an end of an era. It was the last of Chaplin's silent films. Yes he does sing and we do hear voices, but those come from mechanical contraptions. Which I thought was quite clever and of course it is clever it's a Chaplin film: Written by, directed by, produced by, music by and starring the one and only Charlie Chaplin.


rating_4

[ahwell]

Interesting to see your added ratings now, as in the HoFs you didn't have them.

[Citizen Rules]

Interesting to see your added ratings now, as in the HoFs you didn't have them. Yeah, I don't rate the noms in an HoF. In an HoF when I compose my voting list it's based mainly on what I liked or not liked, my gut reaction so to speak. But when I review a movie in my thread, I rate it on how much I liked it of course, but also on it's historical, technical or artistic merits. So sometimes I might vote a movie low but still give it a decent rating. Hopefully that makes sense.:p

[ahwell]

Interesting to see your added ratings now, as in the HoFs you didn't have them. Yeah, I don't rate the noms in an HoF. In an HoF when I compose my voting list it's based mainly on what I liked or not liked, my gut reaction so to speak. But when I review a movie in my thread, I rate it on how much I liked it of course, but also on it's historical, technical or artistic merits. So sometimes I might vote a movie low but still give it a decent rating. Hopefully that makes sense.:p

Yeah, I get it. What’s interesting is you did give Brimstone a Rating for both... did you just dislike that much? I wasn’t a huge fan either.

[Citizen Rules]

Yeah, I get it. What’s interesting is you did give Brimstone a Rating for both... did you just dislike that much? I wasn’t a huge fan either.
I just flat out hated Brimstone, so I guess my 1 rating reflects me having to suffer through it's long run time:p

[Citizen Rules]

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It's a Gift (1934


Director: Norman McLeod
Writer: Jack Cunningham
Cast: W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol
Genre: Comedy

"A henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife."


Not a well known film...today W.C. Fields is like Rodney Dangerfield in that he...'gets no respect.' ...I've only seen one other Fields' movie and that's the riotously funny My Little Chickadee (1940) with Mae West. I like W.C. Fields but he wasn't at his best here. The first part of the film dragged and it seemed stilted and staged and I didn't find anything funny about it. Some of the actors most notably his daughter couldn't act and were flat in the delivery of their lines. Though she was pretty enough, so I forgave her:p The wife was good!

I have to say the blind man gag was cringe worthy. Even back in 1934 that must have felt like an old, stale vaudevillian gag, not funny.....BUT the film did get funny and I did laugh once they headed out west to the orange orchard. The picnic scene on a rich man's estate was hilarious. I loved how they made a HUGE mess with their garbage. And the crackers falling on the little boys head was hilarious, even more so when they fell into his mouth. OK that was inspired comedy, but too bad most of the film felt like a cake walk.

rating_3

[Citizen Rules]

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Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Director: Robert Hamer
Writers: Robert Hamer, John Dighton
Cast: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson
Genre: Comedy crime-caper

"A distant poor relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession."


I love British films about nobility set in the 19th century. Pride and Prejudice & Jane Eyre are two that come to mind. And Kind Hearts and Coronets reminded me of those British melodramas that deliver human interest stories set inside the world of upper crust 1800s England. Some might call them soap opera style, like it was a bad thing, which it's not when done well, and Kind Hearts and Coronets was done very well...With it's personal story of one poor man's rise into the world of rich nobility, as told by his first person narrative...in that way it reminded me of another great film Barry Lyndon.

I thought the main lead Louis (Dennis Price) was well suited for his role, and his love interest Sibella (Joan Greenwood) was interesting. She had this way of talking than made her sound a bit sinister without even trying. She was real good too. And yes Alec Guinness played a bunch of different roles and did a good job of it. So the movie totally worked as a drama for me, but I would never have guessed this was a comedy. I'm not sure what the comedy was suppose to be? Perhaps Alec Guinness in all those disguises? Maybe it was the language barrier that stopped me from laughing as there were times I couldn't understand what some of the secondary characters were saying and no subs on the DVD either.

But I think the reason the humor elements didn't work for me was that the style was British dry humor and some of the references I just didn't get. Not the films fault of course, I'm sure in Britain in 1949 the audiences totally got it. I appreciated the film sets, which were richly detailed with many different shooting locations. And the drama and story was to my liking. But I'm not sure how to judge this as a comedy as I seen it first and foremost as a drama.

3

[Citizen Rules]

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Duck Soup (1933)


Director: Leo McCarey
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx
Genre: Comedy

"Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale."


You know I always thought that Groucho really had big thick black eyebrows and a huge mustache to match. I thought that when I use to watch the Marx Bros as a kid. When I was adult I remember seeing a much older Groucho Marx on TV and I wondered where in the hell his eyebrows had went to! So it came as a big shock to me when I finally realized that Groucho was adored in black grease paint after all! Of course with the internet all one has to do is to look at the photo up there and see the grease paint!

I like Groucho! He's funny with his smart ass remarks and I guess that grease paint helps too. The Marx bros did all of their famous antics in Duck Soup: Harpo with his scissors and his leg in the arm trick, good stuff! I think my favorite bit was Chico and Harpo dressed up like Groucho and the resulting mirror scene, a classic for sure. I wasn't big on the story, for me the draw are the four Marx brothers. OK only three of them are actually funny. Poor Zeppo might not get any gags but he's a good sport.

Not my favorite Marx Brothers movie, but hey it's not bad.

3

[Citizen Rules]

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Metropolis (1927)


Director: Fritz Lang
Writer: Thea von Harbou (screenplay and novel)
Cast: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich
Genre: Sci-Fi
Silent Film

"In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences."


Metropolis starts off deep and heady. Right off the bat we're introduced to all sorts of interesting futuristic things and in a very short time. We never find out what the Eternal Gardens are all about but we can use our imaginations.

Unlike some silent films, Metropolis hooked me from the start. Right away we see the big city and those gardens with girls on parade, and we see the city designer's son who's beset to choose one of the lovely garden decorations! Then he spots a poor girl surrounded by starving children and is smitten. I don't know why, she wasn't that hot looking, but I guess he's a man of deep character and he's had enough of the weekly trollops. So he follows the girl to the bowls of the city and discovers there a hellish world of people slaving away to machines. Now that's a hook!

And for the next hour I was memorized by the technical cinema achievements that Fritz Lang was able to reproduce on screen. Audiences back in 1927 must have set with their jaws dropped at the sights of Metropolis...I noticed great detail in the interior shots of bedrooms and offices too. The furniture, the art design all looked futuristic to me. And all those extra actors! OMG this is a huge, huge epic film. It's literally a monument to Fritz Lang.

Metropolis isn't just long, I mean it felt long. At 2 hours and 33 minutes the last 90 minutes dragged and that's because for all the grandiose sets and cinematic achievements, there's not a great story to be had. The last part of the film meanders and hits upon religious and political themes without really every exploring them. And the end scene that resolved the big worker's riot with a mere handshake is very unsatisfying.

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However I still hold the film in great regard for it's amazing scope and artistic design. I love the look of the robot before it's transformed into Maria. And I loved the transformation scene itself. OMG! for it's time that was beyond amazing. And I loved the German expressionistic approach to film making. Those scenes of the workers marching to work as the sway back and forth with heads held down like mere clogs in the machine...that was amazing.

rating_4_5

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=55320 Lucky Star (1929)


Director: Frank Borzage
Cast: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Guinn Williams
Genre: Drama, Romance
Silent Film

Such a wonderful film with such an odd title, I mean what was a lucky star anyway? Well never mind I'm not really looking for an answer, just saying it was an odd title. Anyway let's cut to the chase...

...Director Frank Borzage knew how to world build! I swear I wasn't watching a movie, I was in the movie, somewhere deep in the Ozarks or some other backwoods place where poor people eke out a living by any means they could, even if that means hiding nickels in the dirt!

I'm amazed that during the silent era that this film could make such three dimensional scenes...with country roads that seem to go on forever. Even in today's CG crap-world they can't do what was done here, build atmosphere out of dirt and wood.

I was impressed by the way the film was lite with it's subdued lighting and what looked like fog or mist in the quiet country side, which really added depth and ambiance. Even more impressive is the way the director worked in all three dimensions with roads that twisted and went uphill right out of the screen...and Mary's house that was down low in a gully, beneath the dirt road like it was sunken from all hope. Gosh this film is stunning in it's look, but did I like the story?

...Yes I did! I'm a sucker for a love story and that's what this is, both Janet Gaynor (wow was she tiny or what!) and the two male leads were both good. I swear the one guy Wren, looked like George W. Bush on steroids. The ending was the only disappointment for me as it was a prime example of a deus ex machina...but that's OK because visually the movie rocked!

4

[Citizen Rules]

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The Kid (1921)

Director: Charles Chaplin
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Jackie Coogan
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Silent Film

"The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy."


This might be my favorite Chaplin film so far. Two aspects of Chaplin the director & writer stands out:

1) He takes a bold social stand by clearly stating the unwed mother's only sin is that of motherhood. We then see her leaving the building where she had the baby and two rather stern people are shaking there heads in disapproval. For 1921 that was bold of Chaplin to champion the unwed mother in his film.

2) Chaplin allows the child actor to shine in the film, giving the kid many a close up. Another actor/director might have been unwilling to let the kid have any of the limelight. But Chaplin seems to not have an ego about his own stardom and so we get equal time with little Jackie Coogan.

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The more I know of Charlie Chaplin, the more I think he was a pretty cool dude and way ahead of his time. I think this as most of his films that I've seen Chaplin tries to impart as sense of social responsibility to his films.

The movie itself moves at a good pace, there's always something going on and as soon as one problem is resolved the next happens. Through out it all, Chaplin plies our emotions and makes us call about the plight of the Tramp and the Kid.

rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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Pandora's Box (1929)


Die Büchse der Pandora (original title)
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Writer: Frank Windekind (play)
Cast: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer
Genre: Drama
Silent Film

"The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her."


I love that scene where Lulu playfully climbs onto the lap of a man who she thinks is only out for a good time. She has so much youthful joy in her pretty little face, that it makes what happens next, so very memorable.

56474


I really liked Pandora's Box, I don't have a complaint, not one. Louise Brooks was so perfect for this role and I read that the role almost went to Marlene Dietrich. Marlene is great, but I don't see her as Lulu. There's only one Lulu and that's Louise Brooks. She imbibes Lulu with unbridled energy and a real feeling of innocents. Which is odd as she's grown up in dance halls and so has seen and apparently done it all, and yet she's not jaded, nor does she willingly use her feminine charms to get what she wants. To me she's pure of soul as her intentions are altruistic.....Wow! I'm really thinking of Lulu like a real person, see that's how powerful of presences she had.

4

[Citizen Rules]

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The Unknown (1927)

Director: Tod Browning
Writer: Tod Browning
Cast: Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford
Genre: Drama, Horror, Romance
Silent Film

"An 'armless' criminal on the run hides in a circus and seeks to possess the beautiful daughter of the ringmaster at any cost."



Before Tod Browning made the infamous Freaks (1932) and the classic horror film Dracula (1931) he was a hard working silent film director with over 50 silent films to his credit. One of the better known of his silent films is the 1927 Lon Chaney vehicle, The Unknown.

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The Unknown is short at 1 hour 3 minutes and packs a lot of emotions into this lurid story of a jealous circus performer with no arms. Played to perfection by the man of a 1000 faces, Lon Chaney. The Unknown caught my interest from the very start and then held my attention throughout the film. Unlike a lot of silent era dramas, it was easy to follow, thanks to the focused story and the limited number of characters...By my count there were only four characters and that helped the story to come across with gusto.

I loved the story line of an 'armless' carnival performer in love with a woman who detested men's hands. Wow, what a story idea! It was proper Tod Browning bizarre and that made the film pretty darn cool. Lon Chaney commanded the screen whenever he was in the camera's eye. I can't believe that was Joan Crawford! I couldn't see any resemblance to her in her later films. I read that 14 minutes are missing of this film, that's too bad as I would have loved to seen those lost scenes. The Unknown, is a silent that should be known.

rating_4

[ahwell]

You ever going to do the Pixar reviews? Just curious to see your final ratings.

[TheUsualSuspect]

Catching up on a lot of reviews. Even with being a prolific reviewer here, you give good insight into your thoughts during the movies and pick excellent films. I just wanted to say that while I might not post in this thread (I really should) I appreciate all the time and effort you put into your reviews.

[Citizen Rules]

You ever going to do the Pixar reviews? Just curious to see your final ratings. Yup, I'll be doing those soon.

Catching up on a lot of reviews. Even with being a prolific reviewer here, you give good insight into your thoughts during the movies and pick excellent films. I just wanted to say that while I might not post in this thread (I really should) I appreciate all the time and effort you put into your reviews. Thanks Suspect, you know I use to review a movie every day, now I hardly have the time, even though I still watch 1 movie per day. Most of those last movies were actually chosen by other people in HoFs:p

[Citizen Rules]

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The Man Who Laughs (1928)

Director: Paul Leni
Writer: Victor Hugo (novel), J. Grubb Alexander (adaptation)
Cast: Mary Philbin, Conrad Veidt, Julius Molnar
Genre: Drama,Mystery

"When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured."


I swear that's Madonna circa 1990 in that screen shot. And yeah I've said that before about Freaks. That's Olga Baclanova in both films btw. I think it's a fine film that's based on the French author Victor Hugo's work, Hugo also wrote Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. And in the last chase scene when Gwynplaine is trapped in a castle looking tower, the crane shot of him looking down at the pursuing crowd below from atop of the buildings pinnacle, reminded me of the same scene with Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

56525


To me The Man Who Laughs isn't so much about the story or the world building or even the look of the film. To me it's about one thing...the sustained look of nervous fear on the face of the great Conrad Veidt. Matching that frozen look of a nightmarish grin carved in his face, is the beautifully serene gaze of the elfin like Mary Philbin as Dea. Those expressions spoke volumes and conveyed inner being that no narrative could.

3.5

[Citizen Rules]

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Marianne (1929)


Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Marion Davies, George Baxter, Lawrence Gray
Genre: Comedy Musical Romance

'During World War I, a young French woman struggles to choose between two suitors: a blind soldier to whom she is engaged and an American serviceman.'


To be honest I didn't really enjoy it all that much from a pure entertainment stand point. But what I really liked was Marion Davies. I can see why she was such a big star in the silent film days, and I can see why William Randolph Hurst took such a fancy to her....She was a doll! And so animated and lively that she carried the film effortlessly. I'm kinda embarrassed to say that this is only the second film I've seen of hers. I need to work on that!

Even though Marianne doesn't compare to the heavy hitter films in this HoF, I'm still glad I seen it as it's an important part of film history and sets on the cusp of both silent and talkie movies.

56555

Originally this was shot as a silent film and as a drama and was 30 minutes shorter. What's interesting from a film buff's point of view is that this movie was made in that one year when sound films made a huge impact, and some silent films that were in production went back into production and added in sound. At no other time in movie history has such and abrupt change took place in films.

I haven't seen the silent version of this, but I think I can tell that the added in dialogue scenes were done to take advantage of the new trend in sound. I swear this film has more dialogue in it than films being made today, and it has a bunch of music to boot, which must have been amazing for audiences in 1929 to see AND hear.

rating_2_5

[Citizen Rules]

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Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)


Director: Stuart Baird
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Tom Hardy, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner
Writers: John Logan, Rick Berman, Brent Spiner
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

In a nut shell what I didn't like about Nemesis is this: there was little focus on the Star Trek world and the established characters, with almost no world building or character exploration. Instead there was a lot of focus on block buster Hollywood style action. And there was too much focus on the bad guy played by Tom Hardy, which left little time for the Star Trek crew to have any meaningful lines.

The director, Stuart Baird has only three films to his directorial credit and is mostly known as an action film editor. And that's what he did to Nemesis turned it into a Hollywood action flick. You could take the Star Trek crew out of the picture and it wouldn't even matter to the film. Besides the short wedding scene, there's nothing really Star Trek about the film. The ST crew needs to be endemic to any ST movie.

Even some of the cast members have had harsh criticism for the director. Marina Sirtis called him an 'idiot' and a 'son of a bitch'. On the movie's DVD extras she said the director didn't know a thing about the Star Trek universe and didn't even know that Geordi La Forge was a human, he thought he was an alien because of the artificial eyes.

To me the film seems to disrespect what the ST crew was all about. Which is not surprising because reportedly the director was said to have hated the Star Trek franchise and refused to watch any of the TV episodes. It feels like he thumbed his nose at the ST universe and made Nemesis into another no-brainier action flick.

But worse the film has the stupidest plot line of any ST film, that includes the often maligned Star Trek V. There;s Remus the lesser twin world of Romulus where the Reman's are slave labor and a human clone of Picard is sent to that slave world as a child. So the Picard clone rises up in a slave revolt and somehow manages to get the baddest ass war ship ever constructed (how?) and a huge army all from a bunch of slaves? Then instead of using his death ray to exact revenge on his Romulan slave masters as one would expect, he decides to destroy Earth instead. That's all bush league writing.

Though the most inane thing in the movie is that stupid off road car chase with Picard driving on the desert planet...Especially stupid is it's death defying jump off a cliff and into the back of a waiting shuttle:rolleyes: People watch the Star Wars franchise for silliness, err I mean fun...Star Trek was always a thinking person's franchise...that is until Nemesis and later JJ Abrams got a hold of it.

rating_2_5-

[gbgoodies]

I don't think I've watched Star Trek: Nemesis since it was in the theater, but as I recall, I didn't like it either. I'm not really a fan of any of the ST:TNG movies. I liked Generations, but even that movie was only okay.

With the exceptions of ST:TMP and ST:V, the ST:TOS movies are much better.

[Citizen Rules]

I don't think I've watched Star Trek: Nemesis since it was in the theater, but as I recall, I didn't like it either. I'm not really a fan of any of the ST:TNG movies. I liked Generations, but even that movie was only okay.

With the exceptions of ST:TMP and ST:V, the ST:TOS movies are much better.
I liked First Contact and Insurrection the best, I like Generations too. I watched one of the JJ Abrams ST movies and that's all I'll ever watch. So for me Nemesis was the last one.

[gbgoodies]

I liked First Contact and Insurrection the best, I like Generations too. I watched one of the JJ Abrams ST movies and that's all I'll ever watch. So for me Nemesis was the last one.


I have to rewatch the TNG movies. It's been a long time since I watched them because I didn't really like them the first time I saw them.

I didn't hate the JJ Abrams movies, but there were definitely problems with them. I find that they're enjoyable movies if I just don't think of them as Star Trek movies, and I just watch them as normal action/adventure movies.

[Captain Steel]

I liked First Contact and Insurrection the best, I like Generations too. I watched one of the JJ Abrams ST movies and that's all I'll ever watch. So for me Nemesis was the last one.

You liked Insurrection, Rules?
Huh? I figured if you didn't like Nemesis you wouldn't like Insurrection either.

Granted, there's probably more Trek character development in Insurrection than in Nemisis (if I remember correctly), but overall it felt so much like a less-memorable TV episode (stretched out to 2 hours). Especially the fact that there was nothing really spectacular about it, visually or otherwise... (a somewhat familiar feeling sci-fi plot that I think most of the ST series have done variations of).

The special effects and outer space scenes were at a minimum (I believe most of the movie takes place planet-side in an idyllic, yet somewhat boring setting) - another thing that made it feel like a TV episode (keeping it under budget) rather than a major motion picture.

[Citizen Rules]

You liked Insurrection, Rules?
Huh? I figured if you didn't like Nemesis you wouldn't like Insurrection either.One would think so:p

Granted, there's probably more Trek character development in Insurrection than in Nemisis (if I remember correctly), but overall it felt so much like a less-memorable TV episode (stretched out to 2 hours). Especially the fact that there was nothing really spectacular about it, visually or otherwise... (a somewhat familiar feeling sci-fi plot that I think most of the ST series have done variations of).

The special effects and outer space scenes were at a minimum (I believe most of the movie takes place planet-side in an idyllic, yet somewhat boring setting) - another thing that made it feel like a TV episode (keeping it under budget) rather than a major motion picture.I agree with everything you said about Insurrection, which I bolded. For me all those things you mentioned is what I wanted from the movie. Watching it felt like a warm fuzzy blanket ride back to the Next Gen TV show. And I liked that feeling, it was comforting.

But...the weird thing is when I last watched the ST Next Gen movies it was like 10 years ago and at that time I liked Nemisis but didn't care for Insurrection. Now it's flipped around. Though First Contact is probably still my favorite Next Gen movie.

[Citizen Rules]

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ᖇᗩ丅ᗩ丅ᗝᑌᎥᒪᒪᗴ (2007)
Ratatouille

Directors: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava (co-director)
Writer: Brad Bird (screenplay)
Cast: Brad Garrett, Lou Romano, Patton Oswalt
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy

"A rat who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous restaurant."


What a weird and cool movie Ratatouille is! I'm glad that someone decided to break all the movie making molds by giving us a film where a tiny rat loves to cook...and talks to a disembodied deceased chef for confidence...And sets the story in the heart of Paris, in the high cuisine world of fine dining.

I love movies about chefs and restaurants, maybe because I do all the cooking in the house. I don't know, but there's something magical about chefs creating culinary works of art and Ratatouille has lots of magic...and a blue rat that love's to cook too!

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World Building: Fully deserves a: 5/5 for deliciously scrumptious world building.

Animation: Another easy rating: 5/5 I loved the way Paris looked and the look of the restaurant's kitchen. Even the Parisian sewers were cool!

Story Premise: Damn! it doesn't get more creative than this: 5/5

Other Thoughts: Chef Boyardee joke, Ha! I got it! Lots of lovely moments of wit in this gem.

Favorite Moments: The restaurant's pantry stocked full of wonderful things!

rating_4_5

[Captain Steel]

56776
ᖇᗩ丅ᗩ丅ᗝᑌᎥᒪᒪᗴ (2007)



This brings back memories - I moved into my little shoe box rental house in the spring of 2008 and this was one of the first movies I watched there after I got my cable hooked up!
Man I miss that house!

[Citizen Rules]

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Toy Story (1995)
Director: John Lasseter
Voice Actors: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar



"I dug it! and I'll watch it again" Citizen Rules


I admit it, I use to torture my toys:eek: I had this old Superman action figure and tied him to a brick with a long chain around it and threw him into this rather nasty looking drainage stream. I'm pretty sure it had sewage run-off in it, gross! I tied one end of the chain to a wooden plank that spanned the ditch. So a few months later I came back and pulled up the chain.... and Superman was gone! It was kind of amazing...maybe he escaped like in Toy Story or maybe the chain slipped off the brick and he's still down there at the bottom of the stream?

World Building: 5/5 I was totally into the personalities and lives of the toys, who knew toys were so ingenious?

Animation: 4/5 No problems here.

Character Development: 4/5So far this has been my favorite character driven Pixar. Both Woody and Buzz are powered by not only batteries but by two great voice actors: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. They made Woody and Buzz come to life. Come to think of it, all of the voice actors were great in this. Don Rickles as Mr Potatoes head and R. Lee Emery as a solider, go figure! And the dinosaur was voiced by one of my favorite Star Trek Deep Space Nine characters, The Grand Nagus, aka Wallace Shawn.

Story Premise: 5/5 Love it, I remember Disney did an old cartoon short about toys coming to life. It must have been from the 30s, maybe 40s, I always enjoyed it and that's partially why I enjoyed Toy Story so much...it's like a hidden world onto itself.

Originality: 5/5 Like all the Pixars there's oodles of fun little references that if you blink you'll miss them, and that's what makes these movies fun

Other Thoughts: This is where I've been putting the negative thoughts at, but..I don't have any for Toy Story!

Favorite Moments: The beginning scene in Andy's room with the toys having a meeting about the Birthday party. Also the scene in the next door neighbor's room with all the misfit toys. Oh, and the Pizza Planet, yeah! I have to go there...and Disney is opening up a Pizza Planet...cool chilis:p

rating_4_5

[TheUsualSuspect]

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Toy Story (1995)
Director: John Lasseter
Voice Actors: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar



"I dug it! and I'll watch it again" Citizen Rules


I admit it, I use to torture my toys:eek: I had this old Superman action figure and tied him to a brick with a long chain around it and threw him into this rather nasty looking drainage stream. I'm pretty sure it had sewage run-off in it, gross! I tied one end of the chain to a wooden plank that spanned the ditch. So a few months later I came back and pulled up the chain.... and Superman was gone! It was kind of amazing...maybe he escaped like in Toy Story or maybe the chain slipped off the brick and he's still down there at the bottom of the stream?

World Building: 5/5 I was totally into the personalities and lives of the toys, who knew toys were so ingenious?

Animation: 4/5 No problems here.

Character Development: 4/5So far this has been my favorite character driven Pixar. Both Woody and Buzz are powered by not only batteries but by two great voice actors: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. They made Woody and Buzz come to life. Come to think of it, all of the voice actors were great in this. Don Rickles as Mr Potatoes head and R. Lee Emery as a solider, go figure! And the dinosaur was voiced by one of my favorite Star Trek Deep Space Nine characters, The Grand Nagus, aka Wallace Berry.

Story Premise: 5/5 Love it, I remember Disney did an old cartoon short about toys coming to life. It must have been from the 30s, maybe 40s, I always enjoyed it and that's partially why I enjoyed Toy Story so much...it's like a hidden world onto itself.

Originality: 5/5 Like all the Pixars there's oodles of fun little references that if you blink you'll miss them, and that's what makes these movies fun

Other Thoughts: This is where I've been putting the negative thoughts at, but..I don't have any for Toy Story!

Favorite Moments: The beginning scene in Andy's room with the toys having a meeting about the Birthday party. Also the scene in the next door neighbor's room with all the misfit toys. Oh, and the Pizza Planet, yeah! I have to go there...and Disney is opening up a Pizza Planet...cool chilis:p

rating_4_5


I have a hard time putting anything above the original Toy Story in terms of Pixar efforts. There is something about the lightning in a bottle moment here that will never be duplicated.

[Citizen Rules]

I have a hard time putting anything above the original Toy Story in terms of Pixar efforts. There is something about the lightning in a bottle moment here that will never be duplicated. I can understand that, though for myself I realized when I joined the Pixar HoF that Pixar keeps reinventing itself and in that way stays fresh.

[Citizen Rules]

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Finding Nemo (2003)


Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich (co-director)
Voice Actors: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar

'After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home.'


Ellen DeGeneres' Dory....her character a Blue Tang with short term memory lost made the film fun for me. I loved the underwater setting too, it reminded me of fun times snorkeling and free diving in the tropics. I can't say that I've seen a clown fish in the wild before but I've seen a sea turtle up-close and seen an Eagle Ray about 10 meters below me at Molokini Crater, Hawaii. So, I really dug all the fish and the underwater world they lived in.

World Building: 5/5 We see it all from the shallow coral reef, to sunken ships and sharks and open water and to the deep abyss ( I seen one of those sheer drop offs once while free diving, damn! it's wild looking let me tell ya!)

Animation: 5/5I could say that the animation wasn't as detailed as Coco but that's unfair as Finding Nemo is a 16 year old film so should only be compared to the state of animation at the time, and I though it looked great.

Character Development: 3/5 Nothing outstanding in the richness of the characters, but for the scope of the intended target audience it worked just fine.

Story Premise: 5/5It worked as we got to see different parts of an ocean and even the inside of a fish tank at a dentist office

Other Thoughts: The only thing I didn't like was the surfer dude turtles. I didn't like them 15 years ago and I still didn't, just too silly for me. I would have liked a different type of 'suffer dude' other than a Jeff Spicoli imitation from Fast Times at Ridgemount High. On the other hand had Sean Penn did the voice for the turtle that would have been totally tubular! ha.

Favorite Moments: The entire fish tank scene. I have an aquarium and yes fish do plan escapes...which often doesn't end well:eek:

rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕀𝕟𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕓𝕝𝕖𝕤 (2004)


The Incredibles
Director: Brad Bird
Voice Actors: Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter
Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
Studio: Pixar

'A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world.'


Mid Century Modern...I love it! But if you don't know what that is then you missed one of the prime aspects of The Incredibles. I swear everything was done up in Mid Century Modern, with so many details in the background animation that I could've just paused the film and watched it frame by frame...I even spotted a sun burst clock, I have one of those too. Yahoo!

Now if that wasn't enough as soon as I seen the lady costume designer, with the bob hair and round thick framed glasses named E...I knew who that was suppose to be! I love that they included a character that would be unknown to 99% of those watching this. That's the great thing about Pixar films, they load up their films with clever insight and references that are pretty far out there.

I thought The Incredible was the most fun that I had watching a Pixar film. I actually laughed at some of the stuff and I warmed right up to the super hero family that was living incognito. Holly Hunter's voice acting really added to the fun family feeling, I liked all the characters in the film.

World Building: 5/5 For the uniqueness of the world of has-been supers. Very cool idea for a film.

Animation: 5/5+ For all the Mid Century Modern.

Character Development: 3.5/5 Not much character development, but the script wasn't about that so I'm good with it.

Originality: 5/5

Other Thoughts: I really don't have anything negative to say about it.

Favorite Moments: The set designs, loved those.

Movie Review Rating rating_4

[lenslady]

This sounds fun - Like the details like a sunburst clock.

ah but pardon me if I' m missing something
here Citizen Rules, but what's the title of the movie?

PS - I remember really enjoying Finding Nemo when I saw it - probably time for a rewatch - my favorite character was Dory.
I did like the turtles, But then, I generally like all turtles.

[Citizen Rules]

This sounds fun - Like the details like a sunburst clock.

ah but pardon me if I' m missing something
here @Citizen Rules (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=84637), but what's the title of the movie?

PS - I remember really enjoying Finding Nemo when I saw it - probably time for a rewatch - my favorite character was Dory.
I did like the turtles, But then, I generally like all turtles.Howdy Lenslady, the last movie I reviewed was The Incredibles and the title is right under the screenshot from the movie. I used a special font and lime green color, maybe your phone or device can't see it (render it properly)? Take a look again and see if it's there and let me know, it looks like this: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕀𝕟𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕓𝕝𝕖𝕤 (2004)

[lenslady]

Thanks Citizen Rules - that's what I thought it was - but I still don't see the title . I do see the green 2004 - but not the title. Maybe my device.

At any rate, glad you 've been reviewing these not just for kids classics.

[Citizen Rules]

Thanks @Citizen Rules (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=84637) - that's what I thought it was - but I still don't see the title . I do see the green 2004 - but not the title. Maybe my device.

At an rate, glad you 've been reviewing these not just for kids classics. At least we know it's not your eyesight:p It must because the font is a created font so I'm guessing it can't be seen on phones. Do you use a phone btw or a PC or Mac?

I wonder how many other people can't see the title? Anyone else.

[Captain Steel]

Another aspect of The Incredibles that supports the setting is the soundtrack... (I liked it so much I bought the CD).

So reminiscent of the James Bond movies of the 60's! It seemed a strange choice at first as it's a slightly different genre, yet referencing a slightly similar era (as Rules noted with the backgrounds). In the end, the music works perfectly giving the movie a unique feel, different from other Pixar animations and other superhero movies.

I was one of those who did not know that "E" was based on Edith Head. I'd only heard her name and knew nothing about her upon my first viewing of The Incredibles. I knew her name from a They Might Be Giants song, and learned she was the preeminent costume designer of the mid 20th century, but still knew nothing about her personality until learning that "E" was based on her, which prompted me to look her up.

[Citizen Rules]

Edith Head...
56943

and Edith BobbleHead!
56945

56944

[Captain Steel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag_wH8J6bKE

[SpelingError]

Pixar is always fun. Even with their occasional recent missteps this decade, I still look forward to watching their films. Admittedly, I kind of prefer their work to Disney's recent animated films.

[Citizen Rules]

Pixar is always fun. Even with their occasional recent missteps this decade, I still look forward to watching their films. Admittedly, I kind of prefer their work to Disney's recent animated films. I don't really watch much animation. The reason I watched a bunch of Pixars was that I joined a Pixar Hall of Fame here at MoFo, which was tons of fun. I have to say I appreciated all of the Pixars that were chooses for the Hall of Fame (HoF). Here's a link if you're interested in seeing the Pixar HoF thread link (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=58876)

The final voting results are towards the end of the thread and start on page 11.

[SpelingError]

I don't really watch much animation. The reason I watched a bunch of Pixars was that I joined a Pixar Hall of Fame here at MoFo, which was tons of fun. I have to say I appreciated all of the Pixars that were chooses for the Hall of Fame (HoF). Here's a link if you're interested in seeing the Pixar HoF thread link (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=58876)

The final voting results are towards the end of the thread and start on page 11.

I don't watch too much animation as well, but Pixar is one of my go-to picks. Also, thanks for linking the HoF thread. It was quite informative to read it.

[John-Connor]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=48184&stc=1&d=1537480998
The Hired Hand (1971)

Director: Peter Fonda
Writer: Alan Sharp
Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond
Editing & Montage: Frank Mazzola
Production Design: Lawrence G. Paul
Musical Score: Bruce Langhorne

Cast: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Verna Bloom



On rare occasions we cinema lovers will stumble upon an obscure filmrating_5
Hiding some gems in here are we :cool: Watchlisted!

Wen't treasure hunting/ diggin' in the crates here, my loot for today;
The Boston Strangler, The Railway Man, The Hired Hand
I'll be bach:cool:

[Citizen Rules]

I don't watch too much animation as well, but Pixar is one of my go-to picks. Also, thanks for linking the HoF thread. It was quite informative to read it.There's always future HoFs starting up. The next one will be hosting by yours truly:p and will be the big main HoF...Hall of Fame 20...You're welcomed to join when it starts (in a few weeks I'm guessing).

[Citizen Rules]

Hiding some gems in here are we :cool: Watchlisted!

Wen't treasure hunting/ diggin' in the crates here, my loot for today;
The Boston Strangler, The Railway Man, The Hired Hand
I'll be bach:cool: Cool, I'm glad to hear someone will be watching The Hired Hand:up: And if MoFo's next big countdown is Westerns, then it would be a timely watch:p

[John-Connor]

Cool, I'm glad to hear someone will be watching The Hired Hand:up: And if MoFo's next big countdown is Westerns, then it would be a timely watch:pWill the Westerns countdown take place after the big main hof?

[Citizen Rules]

Will the Westerns countdown take place after the big main hof?I have no idea actually, that will be up to the MoFos and of course to whoever will host it. But last time around when we talked about what the next countdown should be, Westerns was a very popular idea.

Here's a link to that thread link (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=59373)

[SpelingError]

There's always future HoFs starting up. The next one will be hosting by yours truly:p and will be the big main HoF...Hall of Fame 20...You're welcomed to join when it starts (in a few weeks I'm guessing).

Since I'm still relatively new here, how exactly do the HoF's work?

[Citizen Rules]

Since I'm still relatively new here, how exactly do the HoF's work? This is a link to the last one, the 19th Hof. Just read the opening post for the rules and also click on the box that says SHOW for more rules.

[SpelingError]

This is a link to the last one, the 19th Hof. Just read the opening post for the rules and also click on the box that says SHOW for more rules.

Ah, I get what it is. It looks fun, but with college starting back up in a few days, I don't know if I'll have enough time to commit myself to it. I'm sorry. If one happens at the start of next summer though, I could probably participate in it.

[Citizen Rules]

Ah, I get what it is. It looks fun, but with college starting back up in a few days, I don't know if I'll have enough time to commit myself to it. I'm sorry. If one happens at the start of next summer though, I could probably participate in it. That's cool, I was just mentioning it. They do take a lot of time to do, that's for sure.

[Citizen Rules]

https://asthebunnyhops.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Hector.gif
Coco (2017)


Coco (2017)
Directors: Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina (co-director)
Voice Actors: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family
Studio: Pixar

'Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family's ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.'


Coco does world building par excellence! I've never seen another movie that was packed with so much rich detail in the background scenes that it felt like you were right there.

I've been to different parts of Mexico and a lot of what I seen in the film looked very familiar and that is one huge plus for Coco. I loved the whole look at the traditional Mexican families way of life. I was amazed not only with the detail that went into the animation but also with the details of the story. Loved the way the trucks parked halfway on the sidewalks, yup they do that alright!

I loved the fore mentioned street scenes, but even more I loved the village of the dead, that was world building done up right! Coco has such a richly developed story and superb animation that I think this will finish right towards the top of my list.

57004


World Building: 5/5

Animation: 5/5

Character Development: 3/5 Nothing outstanding in the richness of the characters, but fore the scope of the intended target audience they work fine.

Story Premise: 5/5 Had this just been about a boy who dreamed of being a musician in a family that hated music, then the story would have been OK average. But the whole world of the dead with the reverences for past family members who needed to be remembered to exist in the nether world was genius.

Believability: 5/5 I believed it.

Originality: 5/5 Yes I know Coco seems a lot like Spirited Away (another film I loved) but that's OK as no idea in art is completely original. All unique ideas are built on the back of other ideas.

Other Thoughts: I disliked the way the dog was animated. With it's eyes bulging out and it's tongue flying around like a flag in the wind...it looked grotesque. It reminded me of Ren and Stimpy (which I did love for it's grotesqueness) but here I'd have liked the dog to be more enduring. Better yet the sidekick dog idea is overused, so I'd preferred it dog free.

Favorite Moments: Frieda! OMG that scene was so bizarrely surrealistic. I loved the art work so created, damn that was crazy stuff! I could've watched an entire film about Freida in skeltonville and been pleased as punch!

Rating rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/a9be564dbd255af18431d5e3e918a4b4/tumblr_mvr5bnzkac1qb6mj0o2_500.gif

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=53247


Monsters University (2013)
Director: Dan Scanlon
Voice Actors: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar

'A look at the relationship between Mike and Sulley during their days at Monsters University -- when they weren't necessarily the best of friends.'


I've not seen the first Monsters, so I've nothing to compare this prequel to, but I liked it! It didn't have great animation as compared to some of the other Pixar's and it didn't have in depth world building like some of the other Pixar's that I loved, and it didn't have the clever references in it either......but...it had lots of heart! And of all the Pixar's I've seen Monster University kept me the most interest thanks to it's story. I was really engrossed into the two main characters and cared about them. This did feel more like a kid's movie than some of the other Pixars, but that's OK as obviously these films are intended for general audiences.


World Building: 3/5 Builds from the world created in Monsters, this is a prequel. As a prequel it seemed unique in it's own identity.

Animation: 4/5 Like most all Pixars no complaints about the animation.

Character Development: 4/5 Decent, as expected.

Story Premise: 3/5 Interesting plot for a Pixar film.

Believability: 3/5 Pretty far fetched, but then again that's not a problem.

Originality: Prequel so not too original.

Other Thoughts: There was nothing I didn't like in the film, no complaints about annoying characters or anything like that.

Favorite Moments: Lots of good moments, loved the whole college campus life and the competition for top scare team.

Rating rating_3_5

[Citizen Rules]

https://cdn.trollkhmer.net/production/temp/d4c71800-dc99-11e7-b6c1-238585f3fc3e.jpg

UP (2009)


Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (co-director)
Voice Actors: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar

"By tying thousands of balloons to his house, Carl sets out to fulfill his dream to see the wilds of South America"



I love the rain forest...in real life they're dark, really dark and really wet...ha go figure! Well it did rain in the movie so that was fitting. I liked how the house kept them dry as it floated overhead. Though my favorite part was the first 30 minutes as we're getting to know Carl and Ellie. Wow that was really touching film making and such good use of montages to compress the couple's story into about 20 minutes. That first act reminded of the silent film Sunrise.

I'd say the film achieved everything it set out to do, and yet there were parts that didn't really speak to me.

World Building: 5/5 I loved the old house and how it was decorated, and especially loved the interior of the giant air ship, very cool looking.

Animation: 5/5 Excellent

Character Development: 3/5Nothing outstanding in the richness of the characters (except the first act). But the characters do work well for the intended audience.

Story Premise: 5/5 The first 30 minutes were powerful after that I wasn't that connect to it, though visually it looked good.

Originality: 5/5 Pretty darn original I must say. Especially the dog culture parts that was so original! I loved the planes that had chew bones as flight control, ha!

Other Thoughts: I must say I didn't like Ed Asner as the old man Carl, he didn't seem to have much personality to me. I'd like to have seen Jack Black do the voice of Carl. I just about hated the little kid, he was made way too stupid for me to like. While I liked Dory in Finding Nemo, I never warmed up to the kid. I kept wishing he would just go away and stop ruining the movie for me.

Favorite Moments: The dog. This time the friendly dog was the biggest charmer in the movie. He added a lot of warmth and fun.

Rating rating_3_5

[John-Connor]

I have no idea actually, that will be up to the MoFos and of course to whoever will host it. But last time around when we talked about what the next countdown should be, Westerns was a very popular idea.

Here's a link to that thread link (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=59373)
Visited the thread, think it's going to be a long while before the Westerns countdown kicks off.
https://i.imgur.com/cOm1xLn.jpg

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=52724
Ⓐ Ⓑⓤⓖ'ⓢ Ⓛⓘⓕⓔ
A Bug's Life (1998)
Directors: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton (co-director)
Voice Actors: Kevin Spacey, Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar

'A misfit ant, looking for "warriors" to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe.'




I like bugs! I do:) Well, most of them anyway. They're so interesting and come in so many different shapes and colors and do all sorts of fascinating things that it's like they have their own little universe all to themselves. And that's what the movie meant to me...a chance to see these bugs doing their own thing. I loved the bug city and the bug circus show was cool, but mostly I liked the bug bar in the photo above. I got a kick out of how the bugs reacted to each other as it was based on their actual behaviors.


World Building: 4/5 As mentioned I enjoyed the bug city, circus and bar...I wish we would have seen more of the inside going-ons of the ant nest.

Animation: 3/5 I kind of wanted the ants to have six appendages, but oh well.

Character Development: 3/5 Not much in the character development part.

Story Premise:4/5 Decent but nothing amazing in the plot.

Originality: 3.5/5 I don't know if this or Antz came out first, but I'd still say this was original enough for me.

Other Thoughts: I didn't care much for the baby princess ant, but oh well I'm sure that was done with kids in mind so I can't complain all that much.

Favorite Moments: The voice actors! Totally cool that they used Phyllis Diller and Johnathan Harris it was a joy to hear them! That was my favorite part.

Rating 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=54503
Aliens (1986)

Director: James Cameron
Writer: James Cameron
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

'Ellen Ripley is rescued by a deep salvage team after being in hypersleep for 57 years. The moon that the Nostromo visited has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, colonial marines have impressive firepower, but will that be enough?'


Aliens, a satisfying watch with a little something for everyone. I'd only seen this once many years ago. I mostly didn't remember it, mostly.

I was engaged from the get-go and entertained by the antics of the overly confident space marines. Bill Paxton was the best! He really had a lot of good lines and made the film memorable. Especially after the alien guts hit the fan and he literally soiled himself with reconstituted marine food rations.

I liked Paul Reiser's weaselly 'yes man' from the evil space corporation. He was good at being only a touch weaselly and yet oh so convincing with his fake sincerity. He added a lot to the film. So did Carrie Henn who played the little girl 'Newt'.

Director James Cameron uses Newt and Ripley to give the story some touching moments. This is the same type of sentimentality coupled with a horrifying situation that Cameron used in Titanic, so as to give the audience an insight into the human cost of such a large tragedy...or in Aliens case a window into the human cost to the horror of the planet.

What I mostly liked about Aliens was that the film never was too graphic or overly torturous of it's characters. For a sci fi horror film it almost had a light touch especially with the humorous marines and that made for a fun time watching Xenophobe aliens doing some naughty things!

4.5+

[Captain Steel]

a satisfying watch with a little something for everyone. I'd only seen this once many years ago. I mostly didn't remember it, mostly.



LOL! :D

Aliens is one of my all time favorite action movies - one of my favorite sci-fi's, and one of my favorite sequels - different enough from the first in tone to make it it's own film yet still a great continuation and expansion on the first!

[Citizen Rules]

LOL! :D

Aliens is one of my all time favorite action movies - one of my favorite sci-fi's, and one of my favorite sequels - different enough from the first in tone to make it it's own film yet still a great continuation and expansion on the first!
Glad someone got my reference:p I agree with you on Aliens it is all those things you mentioned. It's so weird that was my only second time watching it, and it had been so long that it was like watching a new movie. I have seen Aliens 3 (don't remember what the exact title is) but it was like 20 years ago. I really need to watch that one sometime.

[SpelingError]

Aliens is really good. I feel like Cameron did a fine job with this one as, instead of trying to repeat what Scott did with his film, he changed the tone enough without losing the charm which the original had, kind of making the concept his own (more action-y than horror), not a variation of Scott's (mainly horror). It was also a more than fine example of one as well with its far share of standout scares, sequences, and set pieces. I still prefer Scott's film by a pretty wide margin, but this one also stands among the best horror and sci-fi films of all time.

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=54795
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)


Director: Byron Haskin
Writers: Ib Melchior, John Higgins (screenplay)
Cast: Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, Adam West
Director: Adventure, Sci-Fi

'Stranded on Mars with only a monkey as a companion, an astronaut must figure out how to find oxygen, water, and food on the lifeless planet.'


I'll be the first to admit that Robinson Crusoe on Mars does get slow at times, and yes, those pesky animated alien ships from War of the Worlds keep doing the same scene over and over and over...But I still really like this film for the human element of it.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=57059


I'll tell you specifically why this film speaks to me, it's because of the gentle & caring relationship that Kit (Paul Mantee) has with Mona the woolly monkey. At a time when animals were often thought of as disposable and treated in inhumane ways, this movie has the Commander, sharing his rapidly dwindling oxygen and food with Mona.
Mona counts as a living breathing being in this movie and that's what I remembered most about this movie from my childhood. And of course, as this is inspired by Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe we see one man risk his life to help a free slave. Maybe that's sentimental, but I'll take altruistic movies any day over CG drenched, 'rock em sock em robots'.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=57060

Yes the film does get many things wrong about Mars. But guess what? This was made in 1963 right after America launched the first manned space orbit, Mercury...and 1 year before the Mariner 4 Mars probe sent back the first video images of the planet, dashing long held beliefs that Mars might be habitable. At the time the film was made all that was really known of Mars was it's relative size and mass, it's orbit and rotation, it's distance from the sun...and through telescopes they appeared to be red areas that some thought were volcanic in nature and white areas at the poles that suggested ice caps. So at the time this movie was made it was trying to be fairly scientific based on the limited information that was available, while still telling a speculative fictional story of course.

I know it's hard for people to judge films by the past but that's just how this film should be judged. In the 1950s and early 60s most sci fi was aimed at kids or drive-in theater goers, with atomic mutated monsters eating people etc. The big exception was Forbidden Planet. Now I don't put Robinson Crusoe on Mars on the same level as Forbidden Planet. But I think it was a unique sci fi for it's day, that tried to show science being used in the near future and got a lot right.

rating_4


.

[gbgoodies]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=52965
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕀𝕟𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕓𝕝𝕖𝕤 (2004)


The Incredibles
Director: Brad Bird
Voice Actors: Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter
Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
Studio: Pixar

'A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world.'


Movie Review Rating rating_4




When I first saw The Incredibles, I thought it was a fun movie, but I also thought that it was just an animated copy of The Fantastic Four. But it seems to get better each time I watch it. My favorite character is definitely Edna "No capes!" Mode. She's adorable, and so much fun.

[gbgoodies]

At least we know it's not your eyesight:p It must because the font is a created font so I'm guessing it can't be seen on phones. Do you use a phone btw or a PC or Mac?

I wonder how many other people can't see the title? Anyone else.


I use a computer, not a phone, and I can see the title.

[gbgoodies]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/a9be564dbd255af18431d5e3e918a4b4/tumblr_mvr5bnzkac1qb6mj0o2_500.gif

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=53247


[LEFT]Monsters University (2013)
Director: Dan Scanlon
Voice Actors: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar

'A look at the relationship between Mike and Sulley during their days at Monsters University -- when they weren't necessarily the best of friends.'


I've not seen the first Monsters, so I've nothing to compare this prequel to, but I liked it!


Rating rating_3_5



Monsters University is a fun movie, but it's not nearly as good as Monsters Inc.. I highly recommend that you watch the first movie.

While I enjoyed Monsters University, I think the biggest problem with this movie is the message that it sends to kids. It shows them that they can cheat, and still get what they want. Mike and Sully don't really suffer the consequences of their actions when they find another way in to the Scare Team.

[gbgoodies]

https://cdn.trollkhmer.net/production/temp/d4c71800-dc99-11e7-b6c1-238585f3fc3e.jpg

UP (2009)


Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (co-director)
Voice Actors: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar

"By tying thousands of balloons to his house, Carl sets out to fulfill his dream to see the wilds of South America"



Rating 3.5


Up is one of those movies that seems to grow on me more and more each time I watch it. I love the beginning of the movie, but like you, I lose interest around the time the house lands and we meet the talking dogs.

However unlike you, I liked the kid, Russell. I thought he was a little annoying at times, but overall he was kind of fun. And I liked the dog, Dug , but I didn't really care for the rest of the dogs or the bad guy who was voiced by Christopher Plummer.

[gbgoodies]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=54795
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)


Director: Byron Haskin
Writers: Ib Melchior, John Higgins (screenplay)
Cast: Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, Adam West
Director: Adventure, Sci-Fi

'Stranded on Mars with only a monkey as a companion, an astronaut must figure out how to find oxygen, water, and food on the lifeless planet.'


I'll be the first to admit that Robinson Crusoe on Mars does get slow at times, and yes, those pesky animated alien ships from War of the Worlds keep doing the same scene over and over and over...But I still really like this film for the human element of it.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=57059


I'll tell you specifically why this film speaks to me, it's because of the gentle & caring relationship that Kit (Paul Mantee) has with Mona the woolly monkey. At a time when animals were often thought of as disposable and treated in inhumane ways, this movie has the Commander, sharing his rapidly dwindling oxygen and food with Mona.
Mona counts as a living breathing being in this movie and that's what I remembered most about this movie from my childhood. And of course, as this is inspired by Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe we see one man risk his life to help a free slave. Maybe that's sentimental, but I'll take altruistic movies any day over CG drenched, 'rock em sock em robots'.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=57060

Yes the film does get many things wrong about Mars. But guess what? This was made in 1963 right after America launched the first manned space orbit, Mercury...and 1 year before the Mariner 4 Mars probe sent back the first video images of the planet, dashing long held beliefs that Mars might be habitable. At the time the film was made all that was really known of Mars was it's relative size and mass, it's orbit and rotation, it's distance from the sun...and through telescopes they appeared to be red areas that some thought were volcanic in nature and white areas at the poles that suggested ice caps. So at the time this movie was made it was trying to be fairly scientific based on the limited information that was available, while still telling a speculative fictional story of course.

I know it's hard for people to judge films by the past but that's just how this film should be judged. In the 1950s and early 60s most sci fi was aimed at kids or drive-in theater goers, with atomic mutated monsters eating people etc. The big exception was Forbidden Planet. Now I don't put Robinson Crusoe on Mars on the same level as Forbidden Planet. But I think it was a unique sci fi for it's day, that tried to show science being used in the near future and got a lot right.

rating_4


.


I thought Robinson Crusoe on Mars had a pretty good story, but I found the main character to be so dislikable that I didn't really care if he survived. I think it would have been better if they had cast Adam West in the main role, instead of the minor role that he had. I also thought the monkey was one of the most annoying animals in any movie I've seen.

[Citizen Rules]

Up...I liked the kid, Russell.

...Robinson Crusoe on Mars... I also thought the monkey was one of the most annoying animals in any movie I've seen.:shrug:

[Citizen Rules]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/01f6037684f40b77a13c1fe880f8ada4/tumblr_nup0ygJ7q31qhy21zo7_500.gif
Turbo Kid (2015)


Directors: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Writers: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Cast: Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside
Genre: Comedy Sci fi Spoof


'In a post-apocalyptic wasteland in 1997, a comic book fan adopts the persona of his favorite hero to save his enthusiastic friend and fight a tyrannical overlord.'


Turbo Kid what a totally fun movie! I thought I might like it, but I was surprised that I had such a blast watching it! I loved the clever ode to the 80s B sci fi movies. It's not just the 80s style that is explored here...the film is done as one of the low budget 80s sci fis that they use to make. Turbo Kid reminded me of one of my fav sci fi B movies, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086346/) It has the same basic story and even has the same Michael Ironside.

57152


Laurence Leboeuf (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0495799/?ref_=tt_cl_t2) rocked her role as Apple. She made the movie fun. I loved her wacky way of seeing the world...and all while being so sweet...she just wanted a friend, ahh. I know a lot of people will focus on the fight scenes and yeah those were fun too. But it was the bonding between Apple and Turbo Kid that made the film memorable to me. This is going to be one of my favorite noms. Sure there are bigger and better sci fis, but I love this as a nom as it was an unexpected joy. I could watch this again.

57151
The legendary Michael Ironside who played many a bad guy in 80s-90s sci fi B films, is back and badder than ever! He's a post apocalyptic wasteland overlord. With his gang of colorful psycho killer marauders he controls the dwindling water supply. If all of this sounds like something right out of an 80s B sci fi flick, you're right! and that is exactly where the films charms lay.

3.5+

[Citizen Rules]

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Minority Report (2002)


Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Scott Frank & Jon Cohen (screenplay)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
Genre: Action, Sci Fi

'In a future where a special police unit is able to arrest murderers before they commit their crimes, an officer from that unit is himself accused of a future murder.'


High marks to the unique story concept of Minority Report, and that's thanks to the sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick who also penned the novel Blade Runner.

Minority Report did indeed feel a lot like Blade Runner. There was the same roguish law enforcement individual, who finds himself violating society's future laws and goes on the run. Then there's the humans who aren't quite the same as everyone else. They have unique abilities and those abilities cause them to be treated like objects, all for the benefit of society. Then there's the same invasive technology that has been usurped by commercialism and used to sell goods via personalized ads that follow you around like a bad rash where ever you go, sort of like what is happening today.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=57153

I found the concept of the movie to be deep...but damn if good ole Steven Spielberg didn't come along and muck up a great sci fi with his bloated chase scenes and product placement that must have brought in millions of bucks for him.

Image for a moment if Spielberg had directed Blade Runner and instead of the deep existential story about what it means to be human, we'd get Harrison Ford driving cars down the sides of buildings and flying through air as he leaps for his life like some reject from an amusement park ride. And image if Spielberg had taken the visual beauty from Blade Runner and replaced it with yet another assembly line looking Dream Works movie...

Luckily Spielberg didn't get his hands on Blade Runner but he sure did a number on Minority Report. This could have been great, an equal to Blade Runner...But instead this unique vision by Philip K. Dicks was demoted to 'Hollywood movie making magic'.

rating_3-

[John-Connor]

Robinson Crusoe on Mars
rating_4

Turbo Kid
3.5+


Minority Report
rating_3-
https://media2.giphy.com/media/BIZkwFtu2xDlS/giphy.gif

[Citizen Rules]

https://media2.giphy.com/media/BIZkwFtu2xDlS/giphy.gifHa:p I know! Turbo Kid should have been higher;)

[Citizen Rules]

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Deja Vu (2006)

Director: Tony Scott
Writers: Bill Marsilii & Terry Rossio
Cast: Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Jim Caviezel
Genre: Action, Crime, Sci-Fi

'After a ferry is bombed in New Orleans, an A.T.F. agent joins a unique investigation using experimental surveillance technology to find the bomber, but soon finds himself becoming obsessed with one of the victims.'




Denzel Washington...a good actor that has the misfortune of ending up in mediocre action movies. Deja Vu is one of those ah-it's-ok flicks that are easy to watch and...easy to forget.

I really liked the first 30 minutes when the film was a straight, crime scene investigation drama. Denzel was real good in those first 30 minutes. But once we get to the sci-fi time-spy-cam, the film takes a step backwards and even Denzel goes from interesting to luke warm.

I had to laugh at his tizzy fit when in a frustrated rage he throws a chair into the FBI's ultra expensive time machine monitor. Silly, but not his fault, it's the directors mistake.

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The sci fi elements didn't work and the idea of the Minority Report style high tech crime surveillance monitors just wasn't interesting to me and either were the actors who played the 'time geeks'. I can't watch Adam Goldberg without thinking of him as Chandler's crazy roommate from Friends, sorry but that boy is time-cast...err I mean type-cast.

Shanti (does she have a last name?) was the only believable scientist crime fighter in the time geek squad. But poor Val Kilmer didn't get to do anything interesting. Though I will say that Jim Caviezel gets some really good scenes as he plays an oddly inspired, home grown terrorist. The producers apparently wanted a sequel, as his character hints that he's on some sort of mission, which I took to be that he was a future time traveler sent to change the past, so he's available for part 2!

The film was kind of exciting during the chase scene in the Hummer, though chases aren't really my thing. But then they break that tension by going back to the girl's apartment and hang out for awhile...What? I thought the clock was ticking with only minutes left before the bomb explodes...They sure took their sweet time, but then with a time machine you can do that;)

rating_3-

[Captain Steel]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=54457
Minority Report (2002)


Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Scott Frank & Jon Cohen (screenplay)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
Genre: Action, Sci Fi

'In a future where a special police unit is able to arrest murderers before they commit their crimes, an officer from that unit is himself accused of a future murder.'


High marks to the story concept of Minority Report, and that's thanks to the sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick who also penned the novel Blade Runner.

Minority Report did indeed feel a lot like Blade Runner. There was the same roguish law enforcement individual, who finds himself violating society's future laws and goes on the run. Then there's the humans who aren't quite the same as everyone else. They have unique abilities and those abilities cause them to be treated like objects, all for the benefit of society. Then there's the same invasive technology that has been usurped by commercialism and used to sell goods via personalized ads that follow you around like a bad rash where ever you go, sort of like what is happening today.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=57153

I found the concept of the movie to be deep...but damn if good ole Steven Spielberg didn't come along and muck up a great sci fi with his bloated chase scenes and product placement that must have brought in millions of bucks for him.

Image for a moment if Spielberg had directed Blade Runner and instead of the deep existential story about what it means to be human, we'd get Harrison Ford driving cars down the sides of buildings and flying through air as he leaps for his life like some reject from an amusement park ride. And image if Spielberg had taken the visual beauty from Blade Runner and replaced it with yet another assembly line looking Dream Works movie...

Luckily Spielberg didn't get his hands on Blade Runner but he sure did a number on Minority Report. This could have been great, an equal to Blade Runner...But instead this unique vision by Philip K. Dicks was aborted and demoted to 'Hollywood movie making magic'.

rating_3-

I'm glad you wrote this - I thought I was supposed to like Minority Report a lot more than I did. Like you, I appreciated the concepts, but now I can hardly remember most of the movie (which means it didn't make a huge impact).

[MoreOrLess]

I'm glad you wrote this - I thought I was supposed to like Minority Report a lot more than I did. Like you, I appreciated the concepts, but now I can hardly remember most of the movie (which means it didn't make a huge impact).


I remember it having a little in the way of Jeunet style sci fi/fantasy mix that was somewhat interesting but didn't really go anywhere with the film mostly ending up as a pretty standard sci fi action thriller.

[Citizen Rules]

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Tombstone (1993)


Directors: George P. Cosmatos
Writer: Kevin Jarre
Cast: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Dana Delany
Genre: Western

I've been meaning to re-watch Tombstone ever since I got on an O.K. Corral movie kick. I've watched a number of films about the gunfight at O.K. Corral. Some you might know of like John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946). Others you should've heard of like John Sturges' pair of fine films: Gunfight at OK Corral (1957) & Hour of the Gun (1967)...And others like the Marie Osmond's TV vehicle, I Married Wyatt Earp (1983) is best unheard of, yikes.

As I worked my way through all these films and documentaries too, I started getting an appreciation for the life of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and the infamous fight in Tombstone at the O.K. Corral. Well actually the gun fight only lasted seconds and took place in a vacant lot next to the O.K. Corral, but like they say, 'don't get your history from movies.'

I probably could write a mini novella about the real Wyatt Earp and still get it all wrong because the only true facts are: that no one left alive knows the real story and it has been spun so many different ways that Wyatt and Doc have entered that magical realm of mytho-heros.

Tombstone doesn't try to be factual, thank goodness as how could it be when the real facts are unknown...Instead it takes the myth and delivers it up in a potent, folklore way. The characters are larger than life with memorable lines and unforgettable scenes that one can recall long after the movie is over.

The last Wyatt Earp film I watched was Kevin Costner in Wyatt Earp (1994). I can't say I remember a thing about that movie, not one line, not one scene... Dennis Quad was a great Doc in Wyatt Earp, but for my money I'm going with Val Kilmer as the best Doc Holiday around. Val's Doc has heart and damn if he doesn't get all the best scenes to boot, even the scene without his boots! I loved the scene where he first meets Johnny Ringo who pulls out his gun and spins it around all fancy like...then, Doc answers him by taking a tiny tin cup and spinning it around his finger like it was a fancy six shooter. Did Val Kilmer win best supporting actor? If not he was robbed!

4.5

[Citizen Rules]

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Open Range (2003)


Director: Kevin Costner
Writers: Lauran Paine (novel), Craig Storper (screenplay)
Cast: Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Diego Luna
Genre: western

I liked Open Range, with some reservations. I have reservations about most movies I watch. By that I mean: smaller things that I didn't care for or would have done differently if I was in the director's seat. If I'm really into a movie then those reservations are forgotten. But with Open Range I'm on the fence, a barbed wire fence, ha, I did enjoy the film, but like a lot of Kevin Costner's films it felt long to me. The only movie of his that didn't feel long was Dances With Wolves, which was fairly long, go figure.

The opening scene out on the range, could have been trimmed by 10 minutes as it took 24 minutes before the crisis began and I was losing interest during that first establishing scene. But once the big guy goes missing and the boys go looking for him, the film caught my attention.

I'm sure some will say Open Range is sentimentalism. Well I like sentimentalism myself, though a couple of times director Costner dipped into that well too deeply, especially the scenes with the dog which had me in the mindset of Hallmark. But mostly it had a nice touch to it.

Each film takes it's own tone and Open Range takes it's tone from Kevin Costner and despite his character's shady past we see he's a decent guy who's thoughtful and considerate...kind of like me!:p

Well Costner's character did remind me of myself, except for the gun slinging stuff of course, but rest assured if I got mud all over a pretty woman's floor I'd be picking the mud clods up too! Loved that scene BTW. Also the scene in the general store where he's looking at a mail order catalog to replace a china set, just in case he doesn't survive the gunfight...that was a nice touch to the movie. And that's what works for me in this film is Kevin Costner, he's easy to relate to.

rating_4

[Citizen Rules]

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The Virgin Spring (1960)

Jungfrukällan (original title)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Writer: Ulla Isaksson
Cast: Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom
Genre: Historical Drama
Language: Swedish

'An innocent yet pampered young virgin and her family's pregnant and jealous servant set out to deliver candles to church, but only one returns from events that transpire in the woods along the way.'


This is the third or fourth Bergman film I've seen and the first one that held my attention. Of course it was beautifully filmed with compositions that could be printed, framed and then hung in an art museum. I was intrigued at first by the jealousy the dark haired-servant girl showed towards the blonde spoiled daughter. But I was disappointed that instead of an exploration of that jealousy, the film simply shows a brutal rape and murder scene of the poor frightened girl. Then comes a long slow march until we finally get the prerequisite revenge scene.

I don't see what the appeal of this film is? I mean what do people get from it? Besides the aforementioned cinematography, what does the film have to offer? I know that this was based on a 12th century folk ballad so when the film was made I can understand that the movie might resonate with the Swedish audience of that time. But despite the master craftsmanship by Bergman, the story itself offered little to me.

I'm not saying it's flawed, just saying it didn't do anything for me. Perhaps if I knew more of the ancient religious beliefs of 12th century Sweden, then I might have gotten much more out of it as I believe there was a juxtaposition of the ancient beliefs vs the modern Christian beliefs, and the film demonstrates through different events that regardless of one's beliefs, the need for understanding and revenge and forgiveness is universal. At least I think that's what it was about.

rating_3-

[Citizen Rules]

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Return to Paradise (1998)


Director: Joseph Ruben
Writers: Pierre Jolivet, Olivier Schatzky
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Joaquin Phoenix
Genre: Drama

'Two friends must choose whether to help a third friend who was arrested in Malaysia for drug possession.'


Loved the premise and the moral exploration of the theme of responsibility...that's my kind of movie.

But I hated how the actors, especially Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche acted so light heartened in so many of the scenes, which then diluted any power the movie's moral dilemma had. A scene would start out strong only to have Vince end it by grinning at Anne Heche...I've never seen more smirks and smiles than in this movie. For the subject matter, the tone of the film was too light, except for Joaquin Phoenix who added needed believably to the otherwise mess of a movie.

The characters almost never delivered their lines like a person's life actually depended on them. I didn't believe them for one second, as they didn't act like they believed the situation themselves.

What derailed the film was the romance thing between Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, it added way too much lightness to what needed to be a hard hitting film. I actually laughed a couple time at the daft way the characters handled themselves...At the beginning of the film Anne Heche confronts Vince Vaughn on the street and tells him his friend will be executed in 8 days if he doesn't return to Malaysia to serve jail time (Heche was OK there but then) she goes from serious to happy chirpy when she says 'how about dinner?' 'how about drinks'...The film lost me right there. Then again the script doesn't offer the actors much to work with but ad-hoc gimmicks. But it's the director who I blame most as the entire movie felt too light weight for the seriousness of the subject matter.

2

[Citizen Rules]

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Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (original title)
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Writers: Giuseppe Tornatore (story), Giuseppe Tornatore (screenplay)
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili
Genre: Comedy Drama
Language: Italian


'A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.'

When Cinema Paradiso was over and the credits rolled...I was sure I hated it, due to the over abundance of quirky cuteness and oodles of nostalgia...But then a funny thing happened, I put those images of the grinning boy and quaint Italian village aside and I started to think about the underlying theme of the movie. Some might describe this as uplifting and get misty eyed from the warm tale of a boy who loves the magic of movies and grows up to be a successful director and that is what the film shows you...but it's not what it's truly about. Those happy coming of age aspects hide the devastating truth from plain sight, and in that truth lays the films greatness.



'when dreams become more important than reality'


The film projectionist warns the boy that the life of film is no life at all, and that he will become isolated from the world as he watches movies 100s of times over. But the boy falls under the spell of film and escapes into a world of movie fantasies and that's what we see...the older director looking back at his boyhood and seeing the town and it's people as if they were characters in a film.

The boy loses himself into a world of movies and by that ruins his own life. Cinema Paradiso warns us not to live inside a dream, and that, the illusion of cinema is so strong that one can live a lie, instead of living a life.

3.5+

[MovieGal]

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UP (2009)


Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (co-director)
Voice Actors: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Pixar

"By tying thousands of balloons to his house, Carl sets out to fulfill his dream to see the wilds of South America"



I love the rain forest...in real life they're really dark and really wet...ha go figure! Well it did rain in the movie so that was fitting. I liked how the house kept them dry as it floated overhead. Though my favorite part was the first 30 minutes as we're getting to know Carl and Ellie. Wow that was really touching film making and such good use of montages to compress the couple's story into about 20 minutes. That first act reminded of the silent film Sunrise.

I'd say the film achieved everything it set out to do, and yet there were parts that didn't really speak to me.

World Building: 5/5 I loved the old house and how it was decorated, and especially loved the interior of the giant air ship, very cool looking.

Animation: 5/5 Excellent

Character Development: 3/5Nothing outstanding in the richness of the characters (except the first act). But like the other noms the characters work well for the intended audience.

Story Premise: 5/5 The first 30 minutes were powerful after that I wasn't that connect to it, though visually it looked good.

Originality: 5/5 Pretty darn original I must say. Especially the dog culture parts that was so original! I loved the planes that had chew bones as flight control, ha!

Other Thoughts: I must say I didn't like Ed Asner as the old man Carl, he didn't seem to have much personality to me. I'd like to have seen Jack Black do the voice of Carl. I just about hated the little kid, he was made way too stupid for me to like. While I liked Dory in Finding Nemo, I never warmed up to the kid. I kept wishing he would just go away and stop ruining the movie for me.

Favorite Moments: The dog. This time the friendly dog was the biggest charmer in the movie. He added a lot of warmth and fun.

Rating 3.5

I'm not big on Pixar films. I do like a few - Monsters, Inc being my favorite. When it came to Up, my favorite character is ... Kevin...

http://i.imgur.com/AMwbkpR.gif

[gbgoodies]

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Return to Paradise (1998)


Director: Joseph Ruben
Writers: Pierre Jolivet, Olivier Schatzky
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Joaquin Phoenix
Genre: Drama

'Two friends must choose whether to help a third friend who was arrested in Malaysia for drug possession.'


Loved the premise and the moral exploration of the theme of responsibility...that's my kind of movie.

But I hated how the actors, especially Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche acted so light heartened in so many of the scenes, which then diluted any power the movie's moral dilemma had. A scene would start out strong only to have Vince end it by grinning at Anne Heche...I've never seen more smirks and smiles than in this movie. For the subject matter, the tone of the film was too light, except for Joaquin Phoenix who added needed believably to the otherwise mess of a movie.

The characters almost never delivered their lines like a person's life actually depended on them. I didn't believe them for one second, as they didn't act like they believed the situation themselves.

What derailed the film was the romance thing between Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, it added way too much lightness to what needed to be a hard hitting film. I actually laughed a couple time at the daft way the characters handled themselves...At the beginning of the film Anne Heche confronts Vince Vaughn on the street and tells him his friend will be executed in 8 days if he doesn't return to Malaysia to serve jail time (Heche was OK there but then) she goes from serious to happy chirpy when she says 'how about dinner?' 'how about drinks'...The film lost me right there. Then again the script doesn't offer the actors much to work with but ad-hoc gimmicks. But it's the director who I blame most as the entire movie felt too light weight for the seriousness of the subject matter.

2


I liked Return to Paradise, but I agree that the romance part didn't work in the movie. It might have worked if it turned out that Heche was just playing Vaughn just to try to get him to save Phoenix, but it wasn't a real romance. But it just didn't work as a real romance.

[Citizen Rules]

I'm not big on Pixar films. I do like a few - Monsters, Inc being my favorite. When it came to Up, my favorite character is ... Kevin...

http://i.imgur.com/AMwbkpR.gif
I'm not big on animation, but I've liked the Pixar films. Funny thing is I just watched Monsters, Inc. last night. It was nicely done, but I think my favorite Pixar is Wall-E.

[Citizen Rules]

I liked Return to Paradise, but I agree that the romance part didn't work in the movie. It might have worked if it turned out that Heche was just playing Vaughn just to try to get him to save Phoenix, but it wasn't a real romance. But it just didn't work as a real romance.To me, Return to Paradise is a movie with a great story, but it's components (acting, script) were crummy. I do like your idea of having Heche just playing Vaughn to help save Phoenix. That's much better than the romance subplot and would have been fitting of a sneaky lawyer:p

[ahwell]

I'm not big on animation, but I've liked the Pixar films. Funny thing is I just watched Monsters, Inc. last night. It was nicely done, but I think my favorite Pixar is Wall-E.

Has Wall-E grown on you recently? I noticed you gave it a 3.5 when you reviewed it, which is lower than some of your other Pixar reviews.

[Citizen Rules]

Has Wall-E grown on you recently? I noticed you gave it a rating_3_5 when you reviewed it, which is lower than some of your other Pixar reviews.It's funny you asked because just a few minutes ago I was thinking about the nature of reviewing films and pondered if my ratings should be based solely on personal experience, or based on if the film succeeded in doing what it set out to do.

With Wall-E there's a lot that I love, but unfortunately there was stuff I hated. I've only seen it once so maybe a rewatch would change my mind. I watched your nom last night and I guess that's what made me think about just what my rating should be based on?

[ahwell]

It's funny you asked because just a few minutes ago I was thinking about the nature of reviewing films and pondered if my ratings should be based solely on personal experience, or based on if the film succeeded in doing what it set out to do.

With Wall-E there's a lot that I love, but unfortunately there was stuff I hated. I've only seen it once so maybe a rewatch would change my mind. I watched your nom last night and I guess that's what made me think about just what my rating should be based on?

Yeah, it's tough... I found it especially harder with the Pre-30s films. They're not technically as accessible and enjoyable as some of the films I don't really like much today. But many of them are masterpieces for what they're trying to do... very tough to rate.

[Citizen Rules]

Yeah, it's tough... I found it especially harder with the Pre-30s films. They're not technically as accessible and enjoyable as some of the films I don't really like much today. But many of them are masterpieces for what they're trying to do... very tough to rate.I'll post my review/write-up of your nom in the 20th tonight...my reviews focus will be in how one critiques a movie on a personal level vs a more utilitarian approach.

[ahwell]

I'll post my review/write-up of your nom in the 20th tonight...my reviews focus will be in how one critiques a movie on a personal level vs a more utilitarian approach.

Looking forward to it:)

[Captain Steel]

I'll post my review/write-up of your nom in the 20th tonight...my reviews focus will be in how one critiques a movie on a personal level vs a more utilitarian approach.

Please include how reviews do not require a story summary: people who've seen the movie don't look at a review to be told what they just watched, they just want to read other opinions about it.

While people who've never seen the movie don't want to plot ruined for them - they're only reading a review to find out if the movie is worth investing time in or not. Either way, people don't want a book report telling them what happens in the movie (I wish reviewers on IMDB would realize this!) ;)

[ahwell]

I'll post my review/write-up of your nom in the 20th tonight...my reviews focus will be in how one critiques a movie on a personal level vs a more utilitarian approach.

Please include how reviews do not require a story summary: people who've seen the movie don't look at a review to be told what they just watched, they just want to read other opinions about it.

While people who've never seen the movie don't want to plot ruined for them - they're only reading a review to find out if the movie is worth investing time in or not. Either way, people don't want a book report telling them what happens in the movie (I wish reviewers on IMDB would realize this!) ;)

Pet peeve of mine. I always skip over plot summaries in reviews.

[Citizen Rules]

Please include how reviews do not require a story summary: people who've seen the movie don't look at a review to be told what they just watched, they just want to read other opinions about it.

While people who've never seen the movie don't want to plot ruined for them - they're only reading a review to find out if the movie is worth investing time in or not. Either way, people don't want a book report telling them what happens in the movie (I wish reviewers on IMDB would realize this!) ;) Agreed

Pet peeve of mine. I always skip over plot summaries in reviews.and agreed. I always skip over long summaries.

[Joel]

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Aliens (1986)

Director: James Cameron
Writer: James Cameron
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

'Ellen Ripley is rescued by a deep salvage team after being in hypersleep for 57 years. The moon that the Nostromo visited has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, colonial marines have impressive firepower, but will that be enough?'


Aliens, a satisfying watch with a little something for everyone. I'd only seen this once many years ago. I mostly didn't remember it, mostly.


4.5+


LOL!

[Citizen Rules]

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Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)

I was not offended by anything in the movie. I repeat, I was not offended...And no I don't think this movie is being racist. In fact it's poking fun at the uptight white people who freaked out when a black sheriff came to town, and that was a funny premise for a movie.

So why didn't I like it? I find one liners and sight gags to be a bore. I found nothing funny about Mel Brooks' character, the governor. Though I did find plenty stupid about his on screen time. Sorry, but crossing your eyes for a joke, last worked on me in grade school. Same with the GOV on the back of his coat, if that was suppose to be funny I didn't laugh, not at all. And there was a lot I didn't laugh at in this comedy, I mean 5 minutes of fart jokes isn't funny to me.

I did like Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder's scenes together. Those scenes, especially the first one in the jail were funny because both men have natural comic talent and didn't rely on cheap gags to get a laugh.

Blazing Saddles reminds me of one of the most beloved comedies of the 1980s...Airplane!. BTW, I hated Airplane!, same style of broad comedy that just doesn't work for me. If you like broad vauldeville style comedy than this movie might be right for you, it wasn't for me.

2

[Captain Steel]

I mostly watch Mel Brooks movies at night... mostly.

[Citizen Rules]

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Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)


Director/Producer Stanley Donen...now that's a name cinema fans should know. Before he became a director, Donen was an accomplished choreographer working on top level musicals for over 10 years. That impeccable sense of rhythm and timing is a trait of great choreographers, and it translates into one very skilled director.

Stanley Donen's Charade is near perfection. The film flows from act to act and scene to scene. Part of the perfection is the brilliant casting, topped off by one of the most charming actresses to grace the silver screen, Audrey Hepburn. One never gets a sense that she's acting as she's so natural and down to earth, that she seems like someone we might know in real life. There's an old saying about actors that's still true today, 'dying is easy, comedy is hard!' It takes a special talent to make comedy and romance come through the screen in a believable way. Audrey does that with so much ease that one forgets they're watching a movie.

Cary Grant had that easiness about him too. He's funny because he doesn't even try. It's his straight face delivery of funny lines that makes this and many of his other films classics. The few times he strays from that, tried and true straight comedy delivery, it doesn't work. The shower scene where he decides to take a shower in his suit, as he hams it up...is the only scene that didn't work for me.

For the rest of the cast, all I can say is what a good bunch of baddies! Is there anybody more brutish than George Kennedy or James Coburn, and along with the little guy in the glasses they make for a good counter balance to the effervescence of Audrey.

Charade came out of a unique time period at the height of the cold war and the Cuban Missile Crisis was in full swing during production. This cold war tension then launched a spree of spy thriller movies. Charade is one of the best of the bunch for it's effortless balancing of thriller-romance-drama-comedy elements all with wit and charm.

3.5+

[Citizen Rules]

I mostly watch Mel Brooks movies at night... mostly. Ha, thanks that made me chuckle:p

[Citizen Rules]

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Divorce American Style (Bud Yorkin, 1967)


For starters I didn't find anything even remotely funny. The first 20 minutes of screaming between Dick Van Dyke and his neurotic flake of a wife Debbie Reynolds, was grating on my nerves! And remarkably all that screaming didn't tell me a damn thing about the problems in their marriage. Nor did it give me any insight into the then current trend of divorce. That's poor writing, as all we get is filler dialogue and all of it shouted too. I guess the surly house keeper with the cig butt hanging out of her mouth was suppose to be comic effect. Well how about making her an integral part of the household where she's the only one who can see the truth. Or even just do something interesting with her.

After the screaming of the first act, did the film finally find it's footing? Nope, it continues on with scenes that take forever to get to the punchline. Prime example is the tedious kids-in-the-park scene with Tom Bosley. Within in the first 15 seconds I got the joke...the kids all belong to different past marriages and everyone is divorced or remarried again and again and again! The scene must have went on for 5 minutes until we get the one forgotten kid left standing alone in the park. Oh boy, that was a long ways for a little joke.

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And what the heck was the tacked on hypnosis lounge act scene about? And could that scene be milked any more or be any more inane? Talk about lazy writing. You know a movie is bad when Lee Grant is the best thing in it:p

rating_2

[Citizen Rules]

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Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)


Such a prestigious film deserves a huge photo!..I love that war room set! And Kubrick shot it from so many different angles that it was hard deciding which photo I wanted to use. I almost just went with a photo of Tracy Reed, I mean who doesn't love a photo of a pretty girl in a bikini;) Though it's funny that she's in General 'Bucks' (George C. Scott) bedroom at 3am and is laying in bed wearing high heels and a bikini. I guess General Buck likes em that way:p But what exactly was he doing in the bathroom when Brig.General Ripper calls? I guess we'll never know and that's what makes the movie so cleverly funny, it's all of these hidden comic situations that are so subtle that you have to think about them to get them. Like the scene where Keenan Wynn finds General Ripper shot dead in the bathroom...while shaving. While shaving? Ha, Did that have something to do with conserving precious bodily fluids?

Kubrick is undeniably one of the great directors. Most all of his movies show spectacular-ism, coupled with restraint...which then results in a beautiful crafted film that never force feeds emotions onto us. I could go on and on about the sets and filming techniques that Kubrick employs, the word 'superb' is hardly adequate for the level that Kubrick takes his films to.

Kudos to the army base battle scene. I'm talking about the choice of a hand held (16mm?) camera that's used at near ground level to simulate actual war footage. The results is a noticeably grainy stock that looks like early Vietnam war documentary film. For Kubrick to do that back in 1964 was pure genius.

And kudos to the interior of the B-52 bombers. Hot damn, those cockpits and bomb controls looked real to me. Of course most of us have never seen the inside of a B-52 but I can image they'd look a lot like what we seen on the screen. The entire film is amazing in the visuals.

And a huge shout out to some very fine performances. Everyone seems to single out Sterling Harden as the war and fluid obsessed Brig Gen Ripper...and he owned that role too! But my favorite was Peter Sellers as the President and as Capt. Mandrake.

The other stand out for me (and every actor was good in this) is George C. Scott. Loved how the film started off with this crusty General who's more interested in his secretary than an important call from a superior officer, ha!

Oh, damn forgot to say how much I loved the opening title sequences with the B-52 refueling in air and that font, how cool was that!

And the end sequence with all the atomic blast, while that haunting song played, gosh that was so melancholy and such a good choice for the end of the world.



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I could write a few thousand words on this movie:p But I'll wrap it up, I promise!.....Freakin amazing film This was my second watch. The first time was many years ago and I liked it then. This time around my opinion has climbed even higher. Who knows how high it could go with a third watch.
rating_4+


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[Citizen Rules]

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Hobson's Choice (David Lean, 1954)


I've always enjoyed British films with Charles Laughton zestfully playing colorful characters, set in the 19th century, England. I loved the way Hobson's Choice created this unique microcosm world and made it so believable. We don't see much of the countryside around Salford Lancashire. But what we do see gives the movie a feeling of wet cobblestone and dimly let shops, where people work long and hard for a living. Around the bend, so to speak, is the industrial center of the city boarded by the river Irwell.

Damn...that's a real river too and it's so heavily polluted that in the background you can see foam spray rising from the currents, like a dirty bubble bath. Behind the river are smoke stacks and heavy industry that pour their pollutants into the dead river. Wow, what a place for a pair of lovers to stroll too. Yes, the dirty river isn't what the film is about but the choice of shooting scenes through the entire movie set the emotions and feel of the film.

Laughton once again is literally larger than life and the film is made more special because of his presences. Only Laughton could be so overbearing in a film and yet still invoke the needed sympathy.

The drunken moon chaser scene is a gem. Probably that credit should go mostly to David Lean, though it's Laughton stomping in the puddles in the most humorous way imaginable.

My favorite though was Brenda de Banzie as Maggie the oldest daughter. She's a spinster at 30, according to the times. Her father doesn't want her to marry, so he can keep her as a built in shop keep, maid and cook. At first Maggie seems just stern. Then we see she's driven. Then we discover her cleverness as she marries the shop's boot maker played wonderful by John Mills. It's this marriage that allows the actress to show another unexpected emotion, pride and love for her new husband. It's that support and belief that rises the boot maker from a babbling nobody to a self made man with respect for himself.

John Mills, Brenda de Banzie and Charles Laughton make the story special. David Lean too. Wonderful movie.

3.5+

[Citizen Rules]

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Murder by Death (Robert Moore, 1976)


With a star studded cast, a script by Neil Simon and a creepy old mansion filled with spoofs of literary's greatest detectives, 1976's Murder by Death should have scored a knock out comic punch.

Instead the jokes are as stiff as a dead butler, the premise as thin as the hair on James Coco's head, and the sets are spartan. But what really killed the film for me were the low hanging fruit jokes. Those broad comedy, one liners, were delivered by actors who seemed to be sleep walking their lines. As a result, comic timing and delivery nuance, which is everything, was missing. Very few of the jokes were funny to me and some of the ethnic slander jokes were hard for me to watch.

The plot is paper thin, the detectives arrive at the mansion and are seated at the dining room table...then one of them will leave the room and later return to find that it's mysteriously empty. Then in the next scene all guest are back in the dining room. And that's, the big mystery of the movie.

We later learn that the house has a 'sliding dining room' that can be electronically moved around the house. In other words there wasn't enough money to build additional rooms for extra scenes. The simple plot reminded me of Scooby Doo. I half expected Truman Capote to say at the end, "I would've gotten away with my plan too if it hadn't been for you meddling kids, err...I mean detectives."

Yes, it was nice to see so many stars, though most were mediocre in their roles which surprised me. Elsa Lanchester is usually the highlight of any movie, but here she was wasted. David Niven and Maggie Smith's characters were the only ones I really liked. Peter Falk's take on Sam Spade was downright creepy.

I'm really surprised to learn that this wasn't a made for TV movie. One good thing about watching this, I now have a desire to rewatch William Castle's House on Haunted Hill.

2

[Citizen Rules]

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Pillow Talk (Michael Gordon, 1959)


Loved the opening title credits with the two people in bed throwing pillows at each other, across a third panel. So clever and fun! The whole movie was very innovative with it's use of split screen and tri panel screens, which shows us the action that's going on in different apartments. The funnest split screen panel is the naughty (for the 1950s) bathtub scene, where Doris and Rock each take a bath while playing footsies with each other, ha! Of course the script itself is laced with sexual innuendos that to a 1950s audience must have seemed quite daring.

Perhaps what stands out the most in Pillow Talk is that it marks Doris Day's transition from a young virginal 'goody-two-shoes' to a more mature sexual woman, who's willing to spend the weekend alone in a secluded house with a man she's just met. For 1950s that was bold. Of course today we get movies like Silver Linings Playbook where a woman just says to the guy of her fancy, 'you want to go inside and f***?' I say give me Doris Day any day...the lady had class!

Rock Hudson is good here too, this is one of his better roles. Rock made a number of movies with Doris and they both seem to get along quite well and that chemistry shows on screen. His character is well defined and the entire romance story is elevated over the usual silly rom-coms, to a sophisticated adult romance drama with just the right touch of comedy to bring a smile now and then.

From the opening song Pillow Talk, zestfully sung by Doris Day....to the last scene of a confused doctor that believes it's possible for Rock Hudson to have a baby...we get one fun, colorful and refreshingly adult story.

rating_3_5+

[Citizen Rules]

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A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 1964)



"I love this Comedy HoF! There's so many fun films to watch that each movie night I actually look forward to seeing the next nomination." CR

Another fun flick with laughs a plenty, a tally of talent and a bodacious babe...what more could you asked for? Well, maybe just a bit more of Miss Sommer's, say like in the nudist scene:p

Inspector Cousteau is dumb as door knob and I thought I might not like the movie. But what works for me is that Peter Seller's plays it like he's the world's greatest detective! He's self assured and even a bit cocky. When he falls into the water or pokes his hand through the door glass, he doesn't act like a dummy, he plays it cool, way cool.

I loved the scene where he walks into the wall and tells George Sanders it's the architectures fault for placing the door in the wrong place, ha! That confidence, despite his ineptness, makes him funny. I'm so glad he didn't play Inspector Cousteau like Jerry Lewis would of😲 I can't stand watching those old Jerry Lewis movies.

So to sum up: fun movie, I did laugh...Elke's pretty and Peter Sellers is a huge talent.

3.5

[Citizen Rules]

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Singing in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952)


The ambitious and beautifully staged Broadway Melody, a conceptual dream-fantasy dance number, makes Singin' in the Rain so indeed very special.


For anyone who hasn't seen Singin' in the Rain, this 3 minute YouTube clip Link (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BcYyxk_CAVs) shows you just what you're missing! That video is from the ballet inspired, dream sequence dance that's shown above.

While all of the Broadway Melody number is jaw dropping awesome, I especially loved the set design and color pallet used in the gif. But that gif hardly does the dance segment justice. The woman is wearing a veil that's incredible long, 50 feet! A wind machine is used to blow the veil sky high! It's really a thing of beauty and accentuates the already intrinsic feeling of the set design.

The other segment of Broadway Melody that awed me was the jazz speak easy club number with that same woman decked out in a Louise Brooks style flapper outfit. Her emerald green dress really pops against the deep red background of the set. YouTube Link (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dviw6PcuEeA)

Cyd Charisse is that woman. IMO she was the best female dancer to ever glide over the silver screen.

My other favorite number was the duel dance with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor at that start of the film. It's a good dance number and it's fun to compare their styles. And I'm convinced Donald O'Connor was a better dancer than Gene Kelly. Kelly is visible stiff in his upper body, especially in his head, neck and shoulders. Where as O'Connor is fluid from his feet to the top of his head.

I have to say Jean Hagen was great in this! I loved her ditzy, screeching silent film movie star. I'm not surprised she earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. Her and Donald O'Connor were my favorite characters.

Gene Kelly does a good job of being a somewhat narcissistic movie star who's still likeable deep down. That's a role he often played in his films and that character type is probably close to his own personality.

A 19 year old Debbie Reynolds did a good job of it too, but was an odd choice as she was mostly an unknown and not a dancer. I'm not sure why Gene Kelly who was the film's co-producer would choose her? She's not a stand out and the romance part of the film didn't really work for me, but that doesn't matter as the dance numbers are phenomenal.

rating_3_5+

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=58081 Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)


Marilyn Monroe is smokin' hot in this...Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon are riotously funny...the supporting cast is a hoot, and the shooting location exotic, but the real star of 1959's Some Like it Hot is Billy Wilder himself.

These days movie fans give a huge amount of credit to the director, but a movie is only as good as its script and if one thing is true of a Billy Wilder film, they have great scripts! Wilder's scripts often pushed the boundaries on social conventions, that's what makes his films so memorable.

Some Like it Hot took 1950's audiences on an adult themed comic ride, while exploring male/female gender roles. It does this exploration coupled with a well though out story of 1929's Probation gangsters who rub out the competition in the infamous St Valentine's Day massacre. By combing different genres, Wilder is able to give a believably real motivation to our two cross dressing stars. His film goes much deeper than just a Milton Berle style shtick of a man in a dress...Wilder comes up with a real motivation for our two fellows to have to really live as women, so they can save their own lives! That makes a huge difference to the scope of how they act and interact, as women in the movie.

What struck me as very interesting was that Lemmon and Curtis don't hold back as female impersonators. One would expect a 1950's film to have them doing cheap gags, but the two for most of the film behave as if they were women, especially Lemmon. One of the film's funniest parts was towards the end when Lemmon has convinced himself that he's a girl (by repeating over and over) then has a hot date with veteran comic actor Joe E. Brown. The next day he/she is all giddy over the diamond bracelet and announces he/she will marry the millionaire. That prompts the line from Tony Curtis:
"You're a guy! And why would a guy want to marry a guy?"
Just the idea that Jack Lemmon living as a girl would marry Joe E. Brown must have ruffled more than a few feathers....Billy Wilder is really pushing the envelope by exploring different aspects of genderism here.

The film is fun without being overly silly, it flows without ever going astray. I loved the idea of using older actors from the 1930s to play the gangsters in this period piece film. We not only get George Raft but Joe E Brown, Pat O'Brien to name a few old timers...And then there's Marilyn in that Orry-Kelly gown, damn I though she was topless for a second! What a provocative dress! Even the back side stuns with a deep plunge right down to her assets.

4.5

[Citizen Rules]

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Teacher's Pet (George Seaton, 1958)


I liked it! I'd seen it before like 12 years ago and I liked it then too. Funny thing is I didn't remember a thing about the movie, so it was almost like watching it for the very first time. And I found Teacher's Pet very watchable. I never got bored and found the story and the sets interesting.

I don't know what it is about old b&w movies set in a newspaper's main room with all the hubbub and clanking typewriters, but it makes for a visually exciting set. Speaking of visually exciting, Mamie Van Doren added some zest with her on-stage performance of The Girl Who Invented Rock and Roll, which sounded a bit like Elvis' Heartbreak Hotel. Oh, that was Mamie actually singing in the movie too.

I think the highlight for me was seeing a very young Marion Ross (Happy Days TV show). I got a kick out of thinking I was seeing her back in the actually 1950s. She was great on Happy Days and she added alot to Teacher's Pet too.

Of course the stars of the movie are Doris Day and Clark Gable. I thought Gable did quite well here and made for a good, hard boiled newspaper editor. Of course any movie with Doris Day is going to win points with me. I got a kick out of her hairdo which was a feminine form of the DA hair cut, also known as the 'duck ass' that cool guys wore in the late 1950s. You can mainly see her unique hair in the school office scene when she turns and walks away from the camera. I swear the back of her head looked just like Fonzie's. No wonder they got Mrs C. (Marion Ross) to be in the movie:p

The big standout to me, and this was a surprise, as I didn't know he could do comedy so well was....Gig Young. I'm not real familiar with his body of work, but I kinda thought he was a matinee idol hired for his looks, but nope, he can do comedy too! BTW he had an Academy nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role.

So yeah, I liked the movie a lot as a drama with some light comedy. I'm not surprised to read that the original script was a straight drama, then when it didn't sell some comic touches were added. So while I didn't find it all that funny, I sure did like it.

3.5

[Citizen Rules]

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The Odd Couple (Gene Saks, 1968)


This is twice now that I've seen Neil Simon's 1968 comedy hit, The Odd Couple...and both times I didn't find it funny. I mean there's nothing much funny about suicide, which was a big part of the film's first act. And suicide jokes are an integral part of the entire movie...and the driving force behind Felix Unger's neurotic suicidal character. I found Jack Lemmon's Felix, annoying. He was much more grating than funny. Oscar's bullying of Felix just turned the negative energy way up. I mean Walter Matthau brings an aggressive ugliness to the character of Oscar Madison, that makes him unpalatable. Did I mention how gross that poker table was? With the pile of smoldering garbage, Ugh!

I want to feel happy when I'm watching a comedy and the only time I did was when the kooky Pigeon sisters came for a dinner date. That's when the movie got better for me and that's because Felix stopped being so annoying and Oscar stopped being such a brute. But why in the hell would Felix cook lowly meatloaf for a dinner date? And as persnickety as Felix is, why didn't he know to turn off the stove so the meatloaf wouldn't burn to a crisp? And while he was cleaning everything in sight, he forgot to clean those filthy apartment walls!

I did however like the way the movie wrapped things up as it ended on a positive note for Felix. I mean he gets to stay with the Pigeon sisters, hopefully he doesn't drive them to suicide;)...and Oscar realized Felix was his best friend after all.

2.5

[ahwell]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=58081 Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)

.

4/5

Wow you really hated Some Like it Hot :lol:

[Citizen Rules]

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Stuart Paton, 1916)


I think I've seen that rubber octopus before hanging out with Ed Wood Jr.;) Probably not the same eight legged prop as used in Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster (1955) or later reused in Ed Wood (1994).

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was the most interesting silent films I've seen and the most disjointed. It was interesting because we see a 103 year old film that for the very first time showed movie goers what the bottom of the ocean really looked like. That alone must have made movie goers imaginations soar with images of exotic corals and sponges....and sharks, big sharks!

But it's George and Ernest Williamson who are the real stars of the film. These brothers invented a means to film underwater by using long watertight tubes fitted with mirrors that allowed them to film the ocean below. It's fitting then that the film starts off by introducing them to the audience. They look like nice, friendly chaps too!

The other interest is, the filming on a real tropical island. I assume it was in the Bahamas as that's where the underwater filming was done. The combination of real swaying palms on idyllic beaches coupled with men actually walking on the sea floor must have thrilled early 20th century audiences.

Like a modern, eye-candy CG film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is all about the spectacle. The story itself was wildly disjointed with elements of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island being incorporated into the story line and sub plots that made little sense at all. Most abruptly the film changes gears at the end and attempts to tell a concocted back story of Captain Nemo. What results is a movie that is amateurishly directed and acted but delivers maximum visual thrills for audiences of a century ago.

2.5

[Citizen Rules]

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3 Bad Men (John Ford, 1926)


Before he was making talkies with John Wayne, director John Ford was cutting his film teeth making grand epic silent films. I'd call his silent film, 3 Bad Men a masterpiece of story telling and a cinematographic tour de force. I mean, wholly oxen, there were sure a lot of horses in the race for gold country scene! Talk about staging and use of extras, I mean those wide angle shots are something special to behold.

And there were even some big strong oxen with equally big heavy yokes pulling those wagons. Which is historical correct...I believe that the pioneers favored oxen over horses to pull those prairie schooners across the plains, as horses tired to easy.

As much as I was impressed with the on location shots and the massive staging of men and beast, the story itself lost me at times. Oh, it's a richly detailed story with many a character. But for me in the 21st century I find silent films hard enough to follow but when they have complex stories I get a tad bit distracted...not the movies fault though. Though it's a film that requires full attention.

I guess I didn't really ever care much or feel I knew the characters. The 3 bad men seemed to be the most fleshed out, with the most personalities. I can't say the dark haired girl or her boyfriend had much character development, and I'm still confused about the bad guy sheriff. I mean I know he was a baddie, buy why was he so bad? And why was he and like a 100 men trying to stop or kill the lead wagon? Was it just to get first choice in the land grab?

3.5

[Captain Steel]

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Murder by Death (Robert Moore, 1976)


With a star studded cast, a script by Neil Simon and a creepy old mansion filled with spoofs of literary's greatest detectives, 1976's Murder by Death should have scored a knock out comic punch.

Instead the jokes are as stiff as a dead butler, the premise as thin as the hair on James Coco's head, and the sets are spartan. But what really killed the film for me were the low hanging fruit jokes. Those broad comedy, one liners, were delivered by actors who seemed to be sleep walking their lines. As a result, comic timing and delivery nuance, which is everything, was missing. Very few of the jokes were funny to me and some of the ethnic slander jokes were hard for me to watch.

The plot is paper thin, the detectives arrive at the mansion and are seated at the dining room table...then one of them will leave the room and later return to find that it's mysteriously empty. Then in the next scene all guest are back in the dining room. And that's, the big mystery of the movie.

We later learn that the house has a 'sliding dining room' that can be electronically moved around the house. In other words there wasn't enough money to build additional rooms for extra scenes. The simple plot reminded me of Scooby Doo. I half expected Truman Capote to say at the end, "I would've gotten away with my plan too if it hadn't been for you meddling kids, err...I mean detectives."

Yes, it was nice to see so many stars, though most were mediocre in their roles which surprised me. Elsa Lanchester is usually the highlight of any movie, but here she was wasted. David Niven and Maggie Smith's characters were the only ones I really liked. Peter Falk's take on Sam Spade was downright creepy.

I'm really surprised to learn that this wasn't a made for TV movie. One good thing about watching this, I now have a desire to rewatch William Castle's House on Haunted Hill.

2

I'm a little surprised at this rating. I might have agreed with it when I first saw the film as my parents took me to see it and I had little understanding who the characters were supposed to be - all I realized was that Peter Falk seemed to be imitating Humphrey Bogart for some reason.

Your criticisms are valid, but the movie is a comedy spoof not just of famous detectives but of books & movies that came before (people invited to a house who begin to disappear one by one).

This is a movie that's gotten better for me over time, probably because as I got older I became more aware of the characters being spoofed. (I only saw my first Nick & Nora "Thin Man" movie a few years ago.)

I kind of liked the humor for the type of satirical film this is (the jokes aren't all home runs, but consistently silly enough for chuckles.) Most of all I liked the concept of bringing unrelated characters who never could meet due to copy-right laws together in one place (thus my thread about crossover films).

I used to dislike the non-ending ending (as it intentionally makes no sense), yet I've even grown to appreciate that as Simon's mockery of poorly ended (cop out) detective fiction... (nothing more frustrating than a detective novel that makes little sense at the end, or has the culprit be someone barely mentioned in the plot or some other lame contrivance where the author couldn't bring all the loose ends together.)

[Citizen Rules]

I'm a little surprised at this rating...It reminded me of Airplane!

[Captain Steel]

It reminded me of Airplane!

I was waiting for that! ;)

Fun trivia: William Powell originated the screen persona of Nick Charles in the first set of Thin Man movies. David Niven played the spoofed version (Dick Charleston) in Murder by Death. William Powell originated the screen persona of Godfrey in My Man Godfrey in 1936. David Niven reprised the role in a remake in 1957. (Was this an impetus to cast him in the role satirizing Powell's Nick Charles?)

Personal trivia: Due to Murder by Death, I spent decades thinking the characters of Nick & Nora Charles were a couple of married British slueths (due to their spoofed portrayal by David Niven & Maggie Smith), but later learned they were always 100% American in both book & movie form as played by William Powell and Myrna Loy!

[Citizen Rules]

I've only seen one Thin Man movie, the first with Powell and Loy. I liked it, but not all that much. So I don't really have a connection to those characters.

[Captain Steel]

I've only seen one Thin Man movie, the first with Powell and Loy. I liked it, but not all that much. So I don't really have a connection to those characters.

Me neither, but it was only on a re-watch of Murder by Death that I became re-aware of them, so when I saw The Thin Man (most likely on TCM) not long after that I thought I'd check it out (expecting something British!)
I was surprised to learn the characters weren't British!

P.S. I also used to get the The Thin Man and The Third Man mixed up by their titles - that is until I watched them! For a long time I thought "The Thin Man" was kind of a joke about Orson Welles, or an irony that he starred in it, then got quite fat later in life... when actually I just had the titles mixed up! ;)

[Citizen Rules]

and don't forget about The Fat Man (1951) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043523/), also not a sequel to The Thin Man:p

(https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043523/)

[Captain Steel]

and don't forget about The Fat Man (1951) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043523/), also not a sequel to The Thin Man:p

(https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043523/)

LOL! I've never seen that one!

[Captain Steel]

More trivia: Peter Falk and Eileen Brennen kind of reprised their roles from Murder by Death (1976) in The Cheap Detective (1978).

Yet, this was not a sequel or a prequel, nor were they playing the same characters (although I hear Falk essentially did the same shtick: imitating his "Sam Diamond" imitating Bogey's "Sam Spade").

I've never actually seen it, but hear the leads were mostly the same characters... mostly.

MBD alumni James Coco was in it also.

[Citizen Rules]

The Cheap Detective (1978) might be more to my liking. Interesting, I've never heard of that one. I'm not a fan of Peter Falk, but I should give that one a try.

[KeyserCorleone]

Singin' in the Rain is my favorite musical, being one of the first non-Disney ones I saw as a kid. There were Singin' in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, and a couple of Rodgers and Hammerstein movies, but this was a standout for the way it handled the early cinema culture.

[gbgoodies]

More trivia: Peter Falk and Eileen Brennen kind of reprised their roles from Murder by Death (1976) in The Cheap Detective (1978).

Yet, this was not a sequel or a prequel, nor were they playing the same characters (although I hear Falk essentially did the same shtick: imitating his "Sam Diamond" imitating Bogey's "Sam Spade").

I've never actually seen it, but hear the leads were mostly the same characters... mostly.

MBD alumni James Coco was in it also.

The Cheap Detective (1978) might be more to my liking. Interesting, I've never heard of that one. I'm not a fan of Peter Falk, but I should give that one a try.


It's been a while since I saw it, but if I remember correctly, The Cheap Detective was less goofy than Murder by Death, and it had more of a straight-forward plot than Murder by Death. It was more of a Bogart spoof than a bunch of old detectives.

The Cheap Detective was not as good as Murder by Death, but since you didn't like Murder by Death, maybe you'll like The Cheap Detective.

[Citizen Rules]

It's been a while since I saw it, but if I remember correctly, The Cheap Detective was less goofy than Murder by Death, and it had more of a straight-forward plot than Murder by Death. It was more of a Bogart spoof than a bunch of old detectives.

The Cheap Detective was not as good as Murder by Death, but since you didn't like Murder by Death, maybe you'll like The Cheap Detective. I was thinking of looking for it, that is if I can find it.

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=56659
7th Heaven (Frank Borzage, 1927)


"For those who will climb it, there is a ladder leading from the depths to the heights - from the sewer to the stars - the ladder of courage."


Emotionally a very powerful film and that's thanks to the two wonderful leads, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Both seemed very human, and that's something that isn't always the case with silent films. In 7th Heaven the couple really shines and drew me into their world, where desperation is swept aside by a strong belief in one's self. That's a great conceptual theme for a movie. That idea is shown at the start of the film as Diane (Janet Gaynor) lacks belief in her own future and literally lays down in the street to die. That's after having been beat by her wickedly cruel, absinthe guzzling sister. It's Chico (Charles Farrell) who's a unique fellow (kinda of like me:p) who believes hard enough and positive enough that he makes his own heaven on Earth. I loved that line they had, Chico - Diane - Heaven!...That says more than many sound films ever do. It's a great tribute to the power of love, I bet Huey Lewis would agree:p

Janet Gaynor was so good at evoking empathy that one just wants to hold her little head up and say, 'Believe! Diane, like Chico believes and you won't be afraid anymore.'

I like the way the director uses the climbing of the stair case to the attic apartment to represent and ascent to heaven. I also liked how he used the dangerous looking catwalk to represent mind over matter, with fear being defeated by hope and love.

I kind of wish the ending had been more bittersweet with Chico not returning from the war. In that way Diane who naturally would be devastated by his death, has to then ultimately carry on the lesson Chico taught her and continue to believe that heaven is where you make it.

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