Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review
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I don't feel like Ex Machina is that rewatchable because I have seen it three times and it's slowly starting to dwindle in my mind. Domnhall Gleeson is terrible in it also and he is pretty much always bad 
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It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
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GBG have you seen the Disney film Miracle 2004
I think I watched it a while back, (because Hubby wanted to see it), but I don't remember much about it.
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Did Hubby like it? I just watched it last night and I'm working on my review right now.
I just asked him, and he said that he thinks he liked it, but he doesn't remember much about it either. He's not really a sports fan, so he didn't watch it for the story. He usually likes Kurt Russell movies, so he wanted to see Miracle.
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Loved Ex Machina. Interesting that you called it a "guys movie", i read this a few days ago the first commenter puts forward a very good case that it is a strong feminist movie particularly the ending, well it is actually more than a case since the director said it is too . I'm going to spoiler tag the link because the ending is spoiled in the title.
. I'm going to spoiler tag the link because the ending is spoiled in the title.
WARNING: "spoiler" spoilers below
https://www.quora.com/Ex-Machina-2015-movie/At-the-end-of-the-movie-why-does-Ava-ask-Caleb-to-stay-in-the-room
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Miracle (2004)
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Writer: Eric Guggenheim
Cast: Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkson, Nathan West
Genre: Sports Biography, Drama
Length: 2hours 15minute
Miracle is a dramatized biographical movie that tells the story of a real life coach, Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell). Coach Brooks fought tooth and nail to turn the U.S. Olympic hockey team into a cohesive squad of players who would stand a chance of defeating the world reining champs, the Soviet team, at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games.
I like this and I'm not a sports fan, and I'm not usually a fan of sports movies, so that's high praise for Miracle. I'm going to call the movie a down to earth telling of one of the most dramatic events in U.S. and Olympic sports history. This movie could have easily went cliche and created a villainous character and emotionally charged scenes that tugged at our hear strings, but luckily it didn't do that. Yes this is a Disney film but don't be fooled by that, any sports fan should find at least something here to like.
Kurt Russell, I usually like him but at first I thought he was a bit stoic, then I realized the coach that he played was well known as an 'ice man' and Russell nailed that performance. Also kudos to Kurt for attempting to do a Midwestern accent, many actors won't even try to alter their vocal inflictions. Kurt did and did it well. His accent was subtle but effective.
Miracle isn't the greatest film I've seen, but it was enjoyable.
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 02-08-16 at 09:53 PM.
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Airport 1975 (1974)
Director: Jack Smight
Cast: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Susan Clark, Helen Reddy, Linda Blair, Dana Andrews, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, Erik Estrada, Nancy Olson, Gloria Swanson
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Length: 1h 47min
Woo Hoo! what a fun and zany ride Airport 1975 is! We get an all star cast in this second of four Airport movies. That includes some golden oldie actors like Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy and even Gloria Swanson. This was Gloria's first film appearance in 22 years (last one was Sunset Blvd) and this is her last film appearance too.
This movie hits the ground running and never stops. I found myself quiet engrossed in this tragedy in the sky. As a jumbo jet 747 is smashed by a small single plane, which leaves a gaping hole in the front of the 747, incapacitating the flight crew and leaving Karen Black, head stewardess to fly the plane. Only one problem, she doesn't know how to fly the plane.
One thing that makes this movie rock is the very professional stunts and spectacular special effects. The producers rented a real 747 to film flying. I swear during the movie the scenes of the 747, 100 feet over the mount tops look real, as does the scene of the plane's wing smashing a building. I have no idea how they did this....And the scenes of the in-air plane to plane transfer has got to be seen to be believed. Damn impressive for 1975 and in the 2015 you would never see such real stunts being attempted.
With all this impressive cast and stunts, we also get some odd things happening that makes one wonder if the producer wasn't having fun at the audiences expense. There's to many unintentional funny things that happen in this movie to name them all, a few are:
The color purple, it's everywhere! the coach section seats are an eye popping purple and so is the stewardess uniforms...and back in the control tower they have purple everywhere. Then there's Karen Black's tongue trick, not to be outdone by her hand trick. All the male flight crew refer to the stewardess as 'honey' or 'babe'
"Fly Baby, Fly"
Helen Reddy sings to kidney transplant recipient Linda Blair.
Perhaps the oddest thing in the movie is that Gloria Swanson who wrote all of her own dialogue mentions by name, Carole Lombard and Grace Moore, both who were killed in a plane crash.
Fun Rating
The color purple, it's everywhere! the coach section seats are an eye popping purple and so is the stewardess uniforms...and back in the control tower they have purple everywhere. Then there's Karen Black's tongue trick, not to be outdone by her hand trick. All the male flight crew refer to the stewardess as 'honey' or 'babe'
"Fly Baby, Fly"
Helen Reddy sings to kidney transplant recipient Linda Blair.
Perhaps the oddest thing in the movie is that Gloria Swanson who wrote all of her own dialogue mentions by name, Carole Lombard and Grace Moore, both who were killed in a plane crash.
Fun Rating
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 02-09-16 at 02:34 AM.
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The Martian (2015)
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Drew Goddard(screenplay), Andy Weir(book)
Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels
Genre: Adventure Sci Fi
Length: 2h 24min
Synopsis: During a manned mission to Mars, an intense wind storm comes out of nowhere and threatens to destroy the landing craft. As the crew on the ground rushes towards the ship for an emergency lift off, one of the astronauts (Matt Damon) is struck by flying debris and left for dead. Only he's still alive and stuck on Mars with no hope of rescue, for a couple of years. But his water and food supplies will not last that long, forcing a struggle for survival.
Review: An entertaining film from Ridley Scott, just don't expect a masterpiece like Blade Runner...The Martian is not that kind of movie. So what is it?...It's a fun popcorn movie with lots of great special effects and action/suspense. Mars never looked cooler and that's the best part. There's lots of obstacles for Matt Damon to overcome and that adds to the excitement. Ridley Scott is known for 'universe building' in his movies and in that regard he does show us a good deal of what a Mars space program would be like.
It might have been a better film had Ridley not injected so much 'humor' into it. The jokes at first seem OK, but then you realize that's about all Matt Damon gets to do, well that and survive challenge after challenge after challenge. We get little introspective into the solitude of being alone.
There's very little existentialism to the film and it needed more. We need to feel his humanity and emotions. Matt's character never connects to us, probably because he's too busy making jokes. And the folks at NASA and JLP look like boobs. It's not Matt Damon's fault, he's very good in this. But if you want a deeper Mars film, try Robinson Crusoe on Mars.
I found The Martian pretty interesting for the first 90 minutes, then it got repetitive. At almost 2 and half hours The Martian runs out of steam long before the credits role.
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 03-03-17 at 01:34 PM.
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I liked The Martian a lot more than you did, but my expectations going into it were very low. I didn't read much about it before watching it, but I couldn't figure out how a movie about one guy stuck on Mars by himself would hold my interest. (It reminded me of Silent Running a little bit.)
But this movie held my interest from start to finish. It's my favorite of the Best Picture nominees that I've seen so far.
But this movie held my interest from start to finish. It's my favorite of the Best Picture nominees that I've seen so far.
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To Rules & GBG... so, I take it The Martian is good, but it's no Airport '75!
IMO, The Martian is much better than any of the Airport movies.
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I loved The Martian. I see many people saying they wanted a deeper story and characters and some say they also wanted more about families on earth etc.
But all that would only turn this film into exactly what other movies of its kind have done. I was glad this did something different and the humor was great and was like some kind of symbolism for optimism and hope and I love how all the insane challenges he met became more and more insane and I was honestly caried away by it all and was very entertained. Such a fun and exiting film, which of course is expertly crafted.
But glad to see you watching it, CR.
But all that would only turn this film into exactly what other movies of its kind have done. I was glad this did something different and the humor was great and was like some kind of symbolism for optimism and hope and I love how all the insane challenges he met became more and more insane and I was honestly caried away by it all and was very entertained. Such a fun and exiting film, which of course is expertly crafted.
But glad to see you watching it, CR.
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I just thought the film was rather lifeless cinematically. There wasn't much interesting in the way of craft and technique on Scott's part, and add to that nothing being at stake... just felt a bit dull. I kept wanting it to be over.
It didn't "need" existentialism. That's not the kind of movie it is. Not every movie has to be deep and dark and cynical. I found it fun and enjoyable, and it's understandable if you didn't find it enjoyable, but this was never going to be an existential film, and that was an unfair expectation to put on it, especially because the book is even more focused on jokes. I thought that having Damon spend so much time joking around made it more powerful when he did feel emotions,
, because you knew that when something got to this guy, it was a serious problem.
WARNING: spoilers below
like when his potato dome collapses, or when he's blasting off near the end
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I just thought the film was rather lifeless cinematically. There wasn't much interesting in the way of craft and technique on Scott's part, and add to that nothing being at stake... just felt a bit dull. I kept wanting it to be over.
I can't even imagine how you found The Martian to be dull. I thought it was fascinating watching this guy who's all alone on Mars figure out how to survive until he can be rescued. He managed to keep his spirits up, and that kept me entertained from beginning to end.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty sure that if I was ever in that type of situation, I probably would have given up hope within a couple of days. Remember, he wasn't stranded in some desolate place where they could easily get to him once they located him. He was stranded on Mars.
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Yeah that's the thing, the movie shouldn't be a bore at all, it had so much potential but just fell flat for me.
I gave the film a positive rating after seeing it in the cinema, but now some time has passed I'll remember it as decent/average and not much more, so I pretty much agree with what you say CR.
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