Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Brad Pitt rocked his role. He was serious, he was understated, but intense when the scene called for it. He kept the movie grounded and kept it from becoming just another action flick.


Marion Cotillard, was equally impressive in this and has a pivotal role in the movie. In fact so has a lot of screen time as her charter is very important to the story. I liked her.

I can't and I won't spoil the ending, but I will say it took me by surprise.
Robert Zemeckis, best known for his Back to The Future movies, really proves that sometimes a more experienced and less trendy director can make a very solid movie.

I hadn't heard of Allied, but it sounds interesting. I added it to my watchlist.

Wasn't Brad Pitt in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, another movie about married spies?

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I'm pretty sure he was in Mr and Mrs Smith, but I never seen that one.

I haven't seen Mr and Mrs Smith yet either, but the DVD's been sitting on my shelf for years. I'll get to it eventually.

Robert Zemeckis and Brad Pitt? Will be adding this to my watchlist.

Yes, Brad was in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) with Angelina Jolie...technically they played paid assassins, not spies. They had been married for five (or 6) years before finally figuring out they did the same thing for a living (yeah, right?). I said 5 or 6 because Mr. Smith believes they've been married 5 years but Mrs. Smith insists that it's been 6.

Thanks Gideon, I vaguely remember when that film comes out. I'm pretty sure it's not my type of movie, so I doubt I'll ever watch it.

I would go out on a limb and agree with you Citizen, it is not your type of movie.

For some reason I thought this post was much more recent. Anyway, I viewed Sully last night and couldn't agree more with this review.

In a way it reminded me of The 33 - which took an unbelievably miraculous real-life adventure and translated it into (not a terrible, but) a somewhat forgettable movie.

The weird thing is this didn't even feel like a movie. I'm not sure why, but it had more the feeling of one of those made-for-TV docu-dramas. I will say that Aaron Eckhart looked a lot like the real life co-pilot! (Nice mustache!)

I would've liked more story about the passengers and the rescue - in one documentary I saw about it, there was a lot of drama and trauma surrounding the rescue.

And that reminds me of my United 93 experience - I won't fault the movie, it was pretty good as far as real life tragedies go. But before seeing the movie, I caught one of the made-for-TV docu-dramas about it. I ended up feeling that the docu-drama was more informative and more gripping than the movie. Same with the Maersk Alabama hi-jacking - after seeing a TV documentary I was excited to see the movie, but it was another lackluster experience in yet another Tom Hanks vehicle: Captain Phillips.

Also, I recall there was one flight attendant involved in the "miracle on the hudson" who was not at all enthused with the media frenzy surrounding the event and did not view it as a "miracle" at all. I believe she suffered a concussion and some permanent injuries - I remember she was very bitter and refused to do the talk show circuit with the other crewmembers because she was traumatized & injured (and didn't seem to view Sully as having done something spectacular). I don't know if she was just seeking restitution, but she apparently wasn't mentioned in the film (or, if she was depicted, her attitude afterward wasn't revealed) - but showing someone involved having a different view after the vindication of the hearing could have added some interest or depth.

No worries, I'm just glad somebody read my review and commented on it. i'm always happy to talk about any of the movies I reviewed, even the really old reviews.

It did feel like a docu-drams, that seems to be a current trend in movies. Sometimes that works for me, but not with Sully.
Me too, they glossed over that and geez...it is a movie about a plane crash so us viewers want to see what that experience was like. I didn't mind how the film explored Sully's self doubt and the hearings, but the actual crash part was really played down.

I haven't seen those other films you mentioned but I did see Captain Phillips, I really liked that one as it was litterally blow by blow, the actions that were taken by Captain Phillips during the hijacking.

Interesting, I didn't know that. I would have like to learn more about her.

I'm sure Allied is well put together, but I think I'd be bored out of my mind based on the trailer.

Really why? Without spoiling the movie, I will say the ending is a powerful one and I think at least the ending would have an impact on you.

I don't know how to explain it, but kind of schmaltzy with a lack of excitement. It's not really my kind of movie either.

I think I know what you mean, it's more entertainment, than serious film making. And yeah that's true.

See I think it looks like good quality but not entertaining.

Ah, I misunderstood you. I still can't totally guess what a person would like or dislike in movies, and we've been in a few Hofs too

Director: Theodore Melfi
Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance, Biography

About: A team of Black American women mathematicians, working at NASA in the early 1960s as 'computers'. Their job is to do complex mathematical calculations so that America can put the first man into space, John Glenn. The film focuses on three gifted women who despite their skills face segregation and unfair treatment.

Review: Director Theodore Melfi serves up a potpourri of drama, romance, light comedy, social commentary, history and biography all tastefully rolled up in one palatable movie called Hidden Figures.

Who knew that NASA employed woman in 1960 as human computers...and segregated them to a small part of the NASA complex? You can learn a lot from this film...and have fun while doing it. While the topic of segregation and civil rights is important and the movie's main focus is to pay homage to these black women pioneers who helped to break the color barrier...the film also doesn't forget to entertain along the way.


Octavia Spencer (The Help, 2011), has a strong willed character that audiences will be rooting for. Janelle Monáe, is the other part of this trio, she has less screen time and there forth less character development. She's known as a model and singer, but did appear in (Moonlight, 2016).

It was good to see Kevin Costner as the driven but fair minded head of NASA's Friendship space launch program. And for an antagonist we get the capable Kirsten Dunst.

Hidden Figures is not ground breaking or hard hitting, but it delivers where needed. Oh BTW history shows John Glenn was a cool guy! as he insisted on having the flight trajectory math checked by the real Katherine Johnson played by Taraji P. Henson, thus giving her the credit she was due!

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Is Jim Parsons (Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory") in Hidden Figures? I thought I read somewhere that he was in it, but I don't see him in the cast photo that you posted, (unless that's the back of his head at the bottom of the picture).

Yep.

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Thanks. I haven't seen Jim Parsons in much outside of TBBT, so I'm curious to see him in other roles.