Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I remember seeing Bruce Davison in a multi-episode arc of the TV show "The Practice". (I think it was around the time of the first X-Men movie.)

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I liked The Big Bus, but it's kind of goofy. IMO, it's not as funny as Airplane!, but if you keep your expectations low, you might like it even though you didn't like Airplane!. It has a much better cast.

Yeah, I've met a lot of celebrities at conventions over the years, and they always love it when you talk about anything that they don't hear over and over again. Stuff like their lesser known movies, or even their outside interests will make their eyes light up when they talk.

When I met Johnny Whitaker and Jack Wild at a convention after-party, we had a blast talking about computers. And when Richard Dreyfuss was at a convention, he would talk about baseball and politics to anyone would would listen.

I used to collect autographs when I was younger, but I stopped collecting them many years ago. Now I prefer talking to celebrities when I meet them. You find out some interesting stuff about people when you don't talk about what they're best known for, and just ask them some simple questions.

For example, I found out that Malcolm McDowell hates New York, (or at least he did when he was here). And Stan Lee doesn't collect anything, not even stuff about him. And BarBara Luna (from the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror") likes little gadgets. Oh, and Tom Wopat, (from "The Dukes of Hazzard"), gets a little bit jealous, (and gives you dirty looks), when you talk to John Schneider about his singing career.


I met Jonathan Harris briefly at a convention, and he was super nice. I don't know if it was just an act for his fans, but he seemed sincere.


While watching movies for the 1950's countdown, Richard Anderson was in a lot of the movies that I saw. I had no idea that he was in that many movies.

To this day I still want to kick myself for not going up to Richard Anderson and talking to him (what with him looking so lonely, and after my experience talking to Richard Hatch.)

Too bad it was before the days of IMDB and I couldn't look to see that Anderson was in both Paths of Glory AND Forbidden Planet (two of my favs)! If I knew that at the time I would've definitely had something to talk to him about.

But geez, I could've approached him and just said something like, "How's the ice cream here?"

Then sometimes I'd think, "why should I feel bad for that guy? He's probably got millions from hit TV shows and movies that I'll never have?"
But feeling compassion for someone looking down is just part of my nature, I guess, no matter who they are.

I went over and spoke to David Naughton, (from An American Werewolf in London and the old "I'm a Pepper" Dr. Pepper TV commercials), when he was sitting at his table looking bored, and he signed my can of Dr. Pepper.

Yes, that's what Bob May said about him too. That he was the warmest person in real life, was super considerate, caring, hard working, playful, fun to be around... everything Dr. Smith wasn't! On the show Smith consistently ruined everything, but on the set Jonathan Harris was the person who made everyone else look forward to coming to work.

That sounds about right.

Davison also played a rather unlikable character in Robert Altman's classic Short Cuts, he played this cocky news anchor married to Andie McDowell, whose son gets hit by a car driven by Lily Tomlin. Jack Lemmon played his father. It was one of his best performances, one of the few unsympathetic characters I have ever seen him play.

Totally agree...I love Citizen's passion for older movies...a rare thing around here.

I've always felt obligated to watch Vertigo because it is regarded as a classic and it IS Hitchcock, but I'm not a big Jimmy Stewart film (love Anatomy of a Murder) and I HATE Kim Novak...my recent watch of Pal Joey confirmed that, but I am going to watch it someday, out of respect for Hitch.

Director: David Attwood
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jared Harris, Jamie Sives
Genre: Drama Adventure Mini Series
Length: 4 hours 27minutes

About: In the year 1812 a young, but naive British aristocrat is sent by his wealthy uncle to the new Australian colony, where he is to take a post (job) with the governor. The ship he sails on is far from sea worthy and he finds that the passengers and crew are as much of a threat as the open sea.

Review: To The Ends of the Earth is a BBC TV mini series shown in three parts and based on the successful trilogy novels by William Golding. Golding also wrote Lord of the Flies. Like his more famous novel, this deals with human behavior when exposed to extreme conditions. But it's not Lord of the Flies, think of it as as coming of age film.

I watched this after watching another fine British nautical movie, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). I found To The Ends of the Earth to be more introspective and slower in it's story telling, which I liked. It was nice that each scene was allowed to develop fully before the next scene took place. Taking place almost exclusively on the sailing ship gave the film a microcosm feel and insight into what it must have been like to sail half way around the world in a small cramped ship.


I thought the actors were very believable, as were the sets...the inside of the ship looked authentic to me. At four and half hours long, the character story arch and growth is allowed to grow organically. Nothing felt rushed here.

It was almost like traveling back in time.

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Director: James Frawley
Cast: Joseph Bologna, Stockard Channing, John Beck, Sally Kellerman, Lynn Redgrave, Richard Mulligan
Genre: Comedy Action Spoof

About: A bicentennial movie spoof of disaster films of the early 1970s. A mammoth sized bus named Cyclops, is built and powered by a nuclear power plant. It runs non stop from New York to Denver. On it's maiden voyage, it runs into all sorts of trouble.

Review: Yahoo! I like this movie! IMO this is like a million times better than that other well known movie spoof, Airplane (1980). Sorry folks if that ruffles feathers! but it's true, this undiscovered gem is full of funny lines and people. And the comedy comes from wit, not from sight gags like Airplane relied on. The differences in style are like this: Airplane is like Mad magazine, while The Big Bus is like a Saturday Night Live comedy skit.

What I liked about this movie is it built an entire world around this monster bus. They actually included little details about how the bus works and that made this a neat movie. I loved the automatic tire changing scene and the automatic bus wash scene, ha! Somebody actually put thought into making this idea of a nuclear powered monster bus, seem plausible...they even have radiation suits that drop down from the ceiling in case of emergency.

But the coolest thing about this is the bus itself. It was real! They really built it and filmed it driving on the hiway. There's a first class and couch sections. There's a swimming pool, a one lane bowling alley and yes even a piano bar. This bus is loaded! And so are the passengers.

The brassy old lady, Ruth Gordon who sets next to the agnostic priest, Rene Auberjonois gave up some of the best lines in the movie. Equally good was Sally Kellerman and Richard Muligan as a quarreling couple who get hot and heavy every time they argue!...And Lynn Redgrave as a blue blooded snob, who's looking for love action with anybody that's available, hilarious! The entire star filled cast read like a who's who of 1970s actors.

The only drawback, the movie was too short and ended abruptly. Almost like they ran out of money to shoot a proper ending. Oh well, I laughed anyway. And the drunken bus driver bar scene? A freakin hilarious take on West Side Story!

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I haven't seen The Big Bus in years. I used to love it and would always watch it on TV.

I'd never heard of it until Captain Steel told me about. But first they made me watch Airplane! which I despised. I though the Big Bus was cool and one day I'll watch it again. Pity I couldn't find a hotter pic of Sally Kellerman, she had on this slinky red dress that had side cleavage. Pretty impressive.

Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Writers: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich
Genre: Comedy-Drama

About: In the 1950s, Eddie Mannix is a Hollywood 'fixer' for a fictional movie company called Capital Pictures. His job is to keep the movie production running smoothly, which includes watching over wayward stars and dealing with nasty gossip columnist.

Review: I liked this movie pretty well for the most part. In fact I liked everything about it, except it doesn't delve into the characters lives as much as I would have wanted. Like many of the Coen Brothers movies, Hail! Caesar is filled with colorful characters and even colorfuler situations... now if the Coen's could just spend some time writing a script that brings these people vividly to life, we'd have something truly great. But they don't do it.

The premise of the movie is a grand idea and the characters they create and the actors who play them are all really top notch. But it leaves a person feeling left out and wanting more. It was like I was watching events through a window, I could see what was going on but never could connect to it emotionally.

The Coen's give us a colorful look inside a 1950s Hollywood movie studio, as we see how the stars behavior has to be managed by a fixer, Eddie Mannix. There are four different stories going on and none of them are really flushed out and examined to deeply.

I loved the swimming extravaganza scene with Scarlet Johanson playing a Esther Williams type character. I loved how they filmed the scene, visually the Coen's are A+... real genius here at work! But I wanted to know more about this character's story arch and I didn't get it.


I liked this character too, the man on the left was a singing cowboy who gets accidentally put into a serious drama by the Studio head. It was funny and well done. I loved the interaction with the director.

Latter the cowboy actor has a studio arranged date with an actresses cast ala Carmen Miranda. Their date scene was interesting and I wanted to see what would happen to them....but sadly their characters just disappear from the movie, never to be seen again.

The dancing sailors scene pays homage to 1940's Hollywood musicals, brilliantly staged and filmed too. Gene Kelly would have approved.

I would give this move high marks if it could have had a bit more depth to the characters stories. Still, I did enjoy it. A fun watch.

I kind of had a feeling you might feel this way about The Big Bus, Rules. But I didn't want to predict (or possibly influence you by making predictions) beforehand.

What's funny is; when I was little I had similar feelings about the bus as you expressed in your review. I knew the movie was a comedy spoof, but when I was 11, I thought the Cyclops was damn cool! One thing that separates the Big Bus from Airplane! is the former has an element of sci-fi in it which is the technology of the bus itself. Cyclops is a larger-than-life character in the movie (whereas the plane in Airplane! could be any plane from any Airport movie). In addition to spoofing films, this element gives the movie it's own unique originality.

As gbg pointed out a while back, the cast is another element that adds to the appreciation of the Big Bus. (Trivia: Sally Kellerman and Rene Auberjonois were both MASH (1970) alumni - she played Hot Lips and he played father Mulcahy.)

And the bus driver bar scene is still a favorite. As said before, even people who don't like the movie like and remember that scene (and hey, it had Vic Tayback in it!)

I agree with your assessment that "Hail, Ceasar!" lacked depth and left the viewer disconnected. As it stands, the strongest thing about it was George Clooney and everything surrounding him. So it could have concentrated on his character more or otherwise other character should have been more engaging. I also agree that it had good premise, but story wise execution was not optimal.

Ahh...as soon as I seen Vic Tayback I had to smile! He's a great character in any movie that he's in. I want to see Alice the tv series now.

I really liked The Big Bus thank you for recommending it to me. You're doing pretty good with your recommendations too. So keep them coming You guys said it was kind of like Airplane, but to me the style of the humor was completely different. The Big Bus was more like Young Frankenstein at least IMO.Yeah, I knew Sally Kellerman was in MASH the movie, but I had forgotten that Rene Auberjonois was in it. I live MASH the tv series in fact I'm currently watching that. But I never cared for MASH the movie, then again I don't care for Robert Altman movies. When I seen Rene Auberjonois as a priest, I was like, it's Odo! from Deep Space Nine.

Tugg, have you seen many Coen Brothers movies? I've only seen a few and I think the Coen's have potential but they seem not to be able to write characters three dimensional.