Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Jay Cocks & Martin Scorsese(screenplay), Shûsaku Endô(novel)
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson
Genre: Drama, Period History

Based on the novel by Japanese author, Shûsaku Endô. Famed director Martin Scorsese directed and co wrote this tale of two Portuguese Jesuit priests who in the 17th century travel to far away Japan. Their mission is to find and determine if their mentor and fellow Jesuit priest has renounced his faith 'apostatized' thus turning his back on the Catholic church.

I love movies that are historical period pieces, as they transport us back to another day and allow us to see the past in a way no history book can. Silence, not a telling of actual events but based on the Catholic churches attempt and ultimate failure to spread Christianity to the people of Japan.

Silence, looks amazing, it's filmed almost entirely in Taipei, Taiwan. Scorsese takes his time, telling his story and sets the mood with subdued lighting and rain. The filming in the jungles of Taiwan, really make this film look special.

Unfortunately special looking only goes so far in film making. Silences, is slow, painstakingly slow. With almost 3 hours you would expect an epic, you would expect deep character analyzes, you would expect more than scene after scene of the priest stuck in a small hut, stuck in a prison cell, and torture scenes. The torture scenes went on so much that they lost all effectiveness and I found myself rooting for the Japanese!

Boring is a good word to describe this film. There's scarcely 90 minutes with of story stretched out to almost 3 hours. I love a movie that takes it's time to tell it's story, but this is ridiculous. I hated the way the Japanese villagers would made to look like idiotic heathens. Japan had a culture that was richly developed at the time.

Liam Neeson, has about 10 minutes of screen time and when he's own screen he looks bored. Never does he give us any emotional insight into why he does what he does. And that is the whole point of the movie.

Andrew Garfield, is good in this. I wouldn't call it Oscar worthy but he does a good a job at it, but he can't save a movie that has almost nothing to say.

A Scorsese film I have no interest in, quite a rarity.

Yeah me too, Only I had to watch it to find out.

I was really excited about this from the trailer, but the trailer made it look much more interesting than it was. Paint drying, I tell ya.

Director: Bruce Robinson
Writer: Bruce Robinson
Cast: Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths
Genre: Comedy, Drama

About: Two deadbeat actors with no money and no self respect who live in utter squalor in a filthy apartment in London, 1969. Withnail and his friend Marwood are tired of their dirty apartment and crazy go-nowhere lives. So they take a holiday in the countryside, staying at Withnail's rich Uncle Monty's cottage. When they arrive, the madness continues and the rain pours and the two deadbeats spend the weekend drunk and fighting with the locals. Meanwhile amorous Uncle Monty arrives at the cottage with designs on Marwood, who's not interested.

Review: Withnail & I...is a British dark comedy. This was not to my liking and it took all of my effort just to get through it. I found the movie tedious, full of inane dialogue but with no emotion. There's no development, no story, no theme and personally I didn't find it funny either.

I didn't care about the characters, I didn't care about their story, I found the talky-long scenes draining. The tall guy, Withnail was annoying and so over the top that I cringed when he talked, his friend was just plain boring.

There was a few scenes I liked, the best was the tea and cake shop when they were drunk and told to leave...but said they were millionaires who would buy the shop just to fire the proprietor. OK that was funny.

In a nutshell, I disdained the nutty characters and their nutty situation, this is not my cup of nuts.

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Director: Alain Resnais
Writer: Marguerite Duras
Cast: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas
Genre: Drama, Romance, History

About: A French actress who's in Hiroshima to make an anti-war film. There she has an affair with a married Japanese man and they talk about their own experiences during WWII.

Review: The first 15 minutes were powerful with the archival film footage of Hiroshima's aftermath from the atomic bomb that was dropped on it during WWII. I mean how could it not be powerful? The director shows you a kid with his lips burnt off and a close up of a woman with her eye melted away! That was gross. I found the scenes of the destroyed city interesting, in a somber way.

But what followed in the next hour, I found to be ineffective. Any feelings about the war and the atomic bomb that I had, were washed away by watching the inane French actress do nothing but bemoan her wartime experience in the French town of, Nevers.

It's hard to believe that a movie about Hiroshima that was actually filmed there could have next to zero impact on me. I've been much more moved by History Channel documentaries about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I get what the director is trying to do...much of what the French woman and the Japanese man are saying is metaphorical, and her insanity is the insanity of war...and his relative calm is society forgetting about the horrors of war. Metaphors work in small doses...and I guess in arthouse films. But I could've cared less about the plight of the French actress, so I ended up not caring about the film either.

This movie did nothing for me, sorry not my cup of Sake.

I've always been interested in seeing Hiroshima Mon Amour . Thanks for the warning.
Mmmmm... Sake.

Pretty much agreed on Silence, think i liked it a little more than you but not much. Gorgeous film and there was some good stuff here and there but i found it mostly dull too.

Don't take my word for it. I mean that, I didn't like it at all...but a lot of the members of the 12th Hof thought it was great. It's certainly a noble effort, very different, not movie like.

Oh and Sake's gross I had a friend in high school who's mom was from Japan and we would sneak some Sake on occasion....yuk! That a warm beer is what I remember from high school!

Cut off the last 40 minutes and I might have liked it much more. It's too bad I was really looking forward to that one.

I haven't had Sake in years, but I remember having it at a sushi restaurant and it was lovely. Almost like a potent hot tea, but served in those little white shot glasses. And it gave me a warm buzz that seemed quite different from other alcohol (which I've become so accustomed to that I no longer care for it all that much).

Not sure, but like other wines, Sake's quality may depend on the brand, price, age, etc.

P.S. Isn't there a movie with William Holden about Hiroshima also?

I'm not big on wine either, so maybe that's why I didn't like it. But then again I was in school, so maybe my adult taste buds weren't fully developed William Holden was in a lot of WWII films, but off the top of my head I can't think of one about Hiroshima.

I think I got mixed up - with Love Is A Many Splendored Thing (1955) - because it's set in Hong Kong. William Holden plays a married-but-separated American reporter who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor (played by Jennifer Jones) during China's Civil War in the late 1940's. Apparently the film deals with some interracial / international issues. (I've never seen it, only commercials for it, so I thought it was set in Hiroshima for some reason.)

I watched Love Is A Many Splendored Thing for the 50's Countdown and really didn't like it. Couldn't tell you why tho, barely remember it.

Good to know. I've never really liked William Holden - I don't know why. I'm supposedly distantly related to him somehow, I think on my father's side. The weird thing is, even though I don't care for him, he's in some of my favorite war films (Bridge on the River Kwai, Stalag 17).

Always remember a line from Seinfeld (can't remember if it was George or Jerry who said it), but something about walking around in a bathrobe and having martinis in the afternoon... "Who am I, William Holden?"

Sorry - the line from Seinfeld was:

"Oh my god. An affair. It's so adult. It's like with stockings and martinis and William Holden. On the other hand, it probably wouldn't cost me any money."

- George, in "The Good Samaritan"

haha. I was about to say the first line you said sounds like a Jerry one but yeah that's definitely George.

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writer: Chris Weitz (screenplay)
Cast: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden
Genre: Drama, Family, Fantasy

A retelling of the ages old folk story made popular by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century. Though the actual story predates even the Grimm's. The story was first brought to film during the silent era. Modern audiences are most likely familiar with the classic animated Disney film Cinderella (1950). MGM got into the act with a comic live action version The Glass Slipper (1955). Even CBS TV followed suit with a live tele cast of Cinderella (1957) featuring a young Julie Andrews. More movie versions of Cinderella followed.


This 2015 Disney version of Cinderella is directed by Kenneth Branagh and gives more back story to Ella (later known in the movie as Cinder-Ella). Let me just say I liked it, it's a nice film...but this might not be the best version for smaller kids as we see Ella's mom die first, leaving her alone with her dad. Then we learn dad has died which crushes Ella and forces her to live with her evil step mom, Cate Blanchett.

If all of this loss wasn't enough we also see that the handsome Prince's father, the King, is dying. I'm not sure if small kids would appreciate the mental anguish of all this parental loss but it does give grist to the fable.

I really like the way Cinder-Ella was portrayed as a kind, gentle soul who could talk to animals and tried to see the good in everyone, despite the fact that life had handed her nothing but hardship. So hurray for Lily James, who made a fine Cinderella. I liked both the way the character was written and the way the actress portrayed her.


As you would expect there's lots of comic tones, but luckily not slap stick comedy. The comic tones are lighter moments that can make one smile. And of course this is a CG heavy movie, but here the CG is welcomed.

It's a good film adaptation of the classic. If you like the story of Cinderella it is worth watching.

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Rules, have you ever seen Cinderfella (1960)?

Nope I haven't seen it. I'm not the biggest fan of Jerry Lewis. He's tolerable when paired with Dean Martin, probably because Deano is so darn cool. But mostly I avoid his films. But who knows I might end up watching it some day, have you seen it? Any good?

I am going to have to tell somebody you said this to hear that person't reaction - which I anticipate it to be something good. I will have to tell you it later.

Also, how many of them are there in the film? You have to know what I mean! And how realistic do they look? I know they looked pretty disgusting in the commercials. Those creatures are the main reason that this will probably be the ONLY Kenneth Branagh film that I will never watch.

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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

Ya, piqued my curiosity there

Hmm, this is kind of cryptic But...I think I know what you mean...How many animals are transformed into humans? Two lizards and a goose. I though it was cute (and I don't normally use that word!) It was kind of magical and the trasmorphed animals look human (mostly) but not creepy.

The coach man does eat a fly with his lizard tongue! I thought that was more fun than disgusting, but I could see someone not liking that...So I can say there was only that one time it was shown and like a 2 second shot and that's it.