Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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I've had Come and See on my watchlist for a while. I think that's the first time I've seen a negative opinion on it.

I'm wondering if Bridge on the River Kwai can crack the 50's top 10. I hope so.



Come and See was in the WWII Hof, Guap hated it too and for the same reasons. But don't take my word for it, you should watch it.

I'm wondering if Bridge on the River Kwai can crack the 50's top 10. I hope so.
I hope so too, but war,westerns,sci-fi,musicals,comedies will be under represented.




Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Agatha Christie, Billy Wilder(screen play)
Cast: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery


A aging British lawyer must come out of revetment to defend a client accused of murder. The case, has twist, after twist, after twist.

I love that photo...Charles Laughton is one of the most charismatic actors ever to grace the silver screen. If he wasn't cast in this movie, it wouldn't have worked so well....and Marlene Dietrich is spot on as a stony, cold woman. I always enjoy her performances, she's unique and adds a lot to the movie.



IMO this movie is about two things, riveting and rich performances and brilliant writing by Billy Wilder. I love how Billy Wider lightens an otherwise heavy story with some comic elements. The over zealous nurse, (played by Laughtons' real life wife, Elsa Lanchester...and the cigar bit, all add interesting dimensions to the story.



I know a lot of people don't care about film history, I do. This was Tyrone Power's last film, he died of a heart attack less than a year latter during a dueling scene for his next movie. Tyrone was not usually taken seriously by critics as they felt he was nothing more than a handsome, leading man. But this movie proves Tyrone was indeed an excellent actor. Tyrone said of all the pictures he made he was only proud of three of them, Witness for the Prosecution was the film that he was most proud of. It's rather sad to think how in only a very short time after this film he would be gone.

+




Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014)

Director:
Chuck Workman
Featured Cast: Orson Welles, Simon Callow, Christopher Welles
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Length: 1h 31min


A documentary, brief retrospective montage look at the life and work of the great theater, radio and film artist...Orson Welles
With an avatar like mine, you would guess that I loved this, you guessed wrong! The 91 minutes felt like 91 hours! This documentary tries to cover way too much in that hour and half. There's no way you can squeeze the life of the greatest genius the theater and film have ever known into only 91 minutes. Mere mortals life stories can be decomplied to 91 minutes, so how can an iconic legend have his story told in that brief span? It ain't possible.

So what we get in this documentary (and I use that work generously)...is short little snipets, that show some old photos of Orson and his pals, but without any explanation of what we're looking at.

An example, there's a quick series of photos of women shown in little heart shaped picture frames with no explanation as who they are? I guess they were all of Orson's girlfriends, the film never said, and it would have been to know their names.

This film has the MTV video feel to it, fast edits and fleeting scenes with little narrative and no soul! If you want to watch an excellent, award winning documentary on Orson Welles check out:
The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996). This one isn't worth the time to watch.








The Good Lie (2014)
Director: Philippe Falardeau
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal
Genre: Drama, Comedy


A group of young Sudanese refugees are given the chance to resettle in America and start a new life. There they encounter cultural shock but thanks to a government agency counselor (Reese Witherspoon) their lives change for the better.

I loved the first part of the film that told the true story of the 'The Lost Boys of Sudan'. The film starts with Sudanese children who have become orphaned after their village is massacred in a Sudanese Civil War. They're alone and make a long, hard and dangerous journey through the sub-Saharan Africa plains, walking as far as a thousand miles. Along the way they encounter danger from lions to guerrilla soldiers. When they reach a refugee camp in Ethiopia, they still have to travel to a camp in Kenya. Camp life if crowded with little chance of better their lives. This part of the story was emotional and exceptional well done. It was something I've never seen on film before. I'd give this part a 5/5

Then four of the Sudanese teens are finally selected to emigrate to America. This is where we get Reese Witherspoon as a social worker and the movie turns into a predictable comedy drama as the Sudanese have difficulty fitting in and understanding American cultural. My rating for this part is a 3/5

Overall this is still worth watching.

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Spartacus
(1960)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers: Dalton Trumbo(screenplay), Howard Fast(novel)
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Length: 3h 17min


A rebellious slave Spartacus is trained to be a gladiator. During a fight to the death match with his best friend he escapes and leads a slave army against the Roman Empire.

Standard Sword & Sandal movie with Kirk Douglas as Spartacus and Jean Simmons as the slave girl he loves. Directed by one of the greats: Stanley Kubrick you would expect this movie to be head and soldiers over the other big budget Sword & Sandal movies....but it fails miserably. Even Kubrick disowned the film, mainly because unlike his other movies he did not maintain complete filming control. Despite that it still won four Academy Awards.

The problems stem from too many chiefs for the soup. The film was produced by Kirk Douglas production company giving him and not Kubrick control. The writer, Dalton Trumbo who had been previously black listed wanted to make the film an allegory for the cold war. However Kirk Douglas wanted the film to parallel the plight of the Jewish people. Douglas had the first director fired but couldn't stand working with Kubrick either. At one point he got so mad he threw a chair at Kubrick. The cinematographer quit because he was use to call his own shots and Kubrick would have none of that.

The beginning of the film is exciting. However after that it becomes repetitive as we see an hour of marching and little us. The scenery is awesome and a humongus number of extras were used over 10,000! So the film looks great but the character of Spartacus is one dimensional.
"Kubrick complained that the character of Spartacus had no faults or quirks, and he later distanced himself from the film."

Peter Ustinov and Charles Laughton are colorful characters and worth their weight in gold whenever they're on the screen. And Sir Laurence Olivier gives the film an air of quality. But this isn't enough to save it.

-




Who's Harry Crumb? (1989)
Director: Paul Flaherty
Writers: Robert Conte, Peter Wortmann (as Peter Martin Wortmann)
Stars: John Candy, Jeffrey Jones, Annie Potts
Genre: Comedy Mystery


Harry Crumb (John Candy) is the last in the long line of famous Crumb family detectives. All were super sleuths, except Harry who's a bumbling idiot. He is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young rich woman who's being held for 10 million dollars ransom. Everyone is a suspect and it's up to Harry to find the girl and save the day.

Who's Harry Crumb
is part of my John Candy watch-a-thon. I'm working on watching all of his movies. I had never seen this one before...and sad to say, I wasn't missing much. John Candy is the star in this one. He's even the Executive Producer. So I'm not sure why he went with a script that had him doing inane, cliche humor gags. The gags just don't work and we never get the John Candy we love.

What makes Candy so special is his humanity always shines through. Sure he often plays the stumbling fool, but he always has a heart of gold. Here he's too much of a cartoon like character.

What is good about this movie is Annie Potts. She's the hot tart, who's married an older widowed rich man for his money. She jumps from bed to bed and uses men to get what she wants. She's funny every time she's on the screen.

Still a fun movie to watch.

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Good review, Rules. I didn't want to influence you before you watched it, but yeah... I agree. Of all JC's work, this one was something of a disappointment. I remember going to see this is the theater with co-workers. It was supposed to be JC's big, break out solo hit (basically his answer to Chey Chase's Fletch (1985)). You are so right in your assessment that John shined when he put a bit of himself into his roles, but here he was going for too much slap stick and not enough heart.



Hey Captain! Have you seen it lately? If not it might be worth a look for Annie Potts, she's pretty hot in this one, funny too. See the third pic on the right, top row, on my review? I knew that girl looked familiar when I watched the movie. I looked her up and that's Shawnee Smith and the reason she seemed familiar was she was in Stephen King's The Stand (the TV mini series).



I haven't seen it since 89! (Which means the last time I watched Harry Crumb was before many MoFo's were born!)
I don't remember much except that he wore disguises and that my co-workers were all cringing at the movie since we went in with high expectations. No one had anything good to say about it when we left.



So you're saying you're due for a rewatch...OK maybe not!

I'm watching Volunteers (1985) with Tom Hanks and John Candy, tonight. It's not highly rated and truth be told, I've never heard of it, but who knows?

Have you seen it?

P.S. if I disappear it's because my pizza is done! and it only has a few minutes left.



So you're saying you're do for a rewatch...OK maybe not!

I'm watching Volunteers (1985) with Tom Hanks and John Candy, tonight. It's not highly rated and truth be told, I've never heard of it, but who knows?

Have you seen it?

P.S. if I disappear it's because my pizza is done! and it only has a few minutes left.
I don't think I've seen it... although some of those mid-80s comedies with Hanks or Candy start to run together in my memory. But if I did see it , I don't remember it (and I did spot it recently in one of the On-Demand lists I have access to!)

P.S. If you're having pizza tonight, then what's on the menu for tomorrow night?

P.P.S. Speaking of Candy, did you happen to see his last film Wagons East? And if we've discussed it already, please forgive.



I don't think I've seen it... although some of those mid-80s comedies with Hanks or Candy start to run together in my memory. But if I did see it , I don't remember it (and I did spot it recently in one of the On-Demand lists I have access to!)

P.S. If you're having pizza tonight, then what's on the menu for tomorrow night?

P.P.S. Speaking of Candy, did you happen to see his last film Wagons East? And if we've discussed it already, please forgive.
Whoops! The DVD of Volunteers was cracked, so you guessed it, I didn't watch it. I put on an old Douglas Sirk film instead.

What's on the menu for tomorrow night (which is today) left over pizza and perhaps the movie Skelton Twins. I'm not sure about that one?




Written on the Wind
(1956)

Director: Douglas Sirk
Writers: George Zuckerman(screenplay), Robert Wilder(based on the novel)
Cast: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorthy Malone
Genre: Melodrama
Length: 1h 39min


Synopsis:
An ultra rich playboy (Robert Stack) who's heir to the families oil business, spends his days drinking and womanizing...and...living in envy of his best friend (Rock Hudson). His best friend secretly loves the woman the playboy wants to marry (Lauren Bacall). Meanwhile the playboy's sister (Dorthy Malone) is a wild nymphomaniac who has eyes for the hard working and sincere best friend (Rock Hudson).


Rock Hudson looks concerned when his best friend, Robert Stack purposes marriage
to the woman he secretly loves, Lauren Bacall.


Review: The 1950s were full of these melodramatic films and director Douglas Sirk was at the forefront of the genre. Sirk gave us such films as: Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Imitation of Life (1959). Written on the Wind features a love quadrangle between Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone. It seems everybody loves somebody in this film but the love is one way. Originally the director had wanted Robert Stack's character to be secretly gay with a crush on Rock Hudson (who plays a straight male in the movie.) All of this might sound soap opera-ish but it's done in sensible way.


Dorothy Malone is the rich spoiled girl who can never get enough.

Like most of Douglas Sirk's films, this looks beautiful. It's richly appointed with decadent 50s modern styles. From the sheik cars to the sheik woman, this film is eye candy.

Douglas Sirk is an under seen director, that made unique films.