Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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Careful with Steve Prefontaine - related stuff. People get weirdly attached to the guy and his story. You'll start referencing him constantly and talking about "who has the most guts". You might even start running. Guys who talk about "Pre" are like the Rush fans of the running culture.



Careful with Steve Prefontaine - related stuff. People get weirdly attached to the guy and his story. You'll start referencing him constantly and talking about "who has the most guts". You might even start running. Guys who talk about "Pre" are like the Rush fans of the running culture.
Interesting, I didn't know people still remembered him. I have to admit I had no idea who he was when I watched the movie. I only picked the movie up because it had R. Lee Emery in it.




Elvis & Nixon (2016)
Director: Liza Johnson
Cast: Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey, Alex Pettyfer
Genre: Comedy History Drama

Oh man, Citizen, where do you find this stuff? You know I love stuff like this..definitely adding this to my watchlist.



Elvis & Nixon...Oh man, Citizen, where do you find this stuff? You know I love stuff like this..definitely adding this to my watchlist.
I thought about you when I watched that movie, it seemed like something that you would like. I was going to mention it to you, but I'm glad you seen my review.

In a way it's like the movie Grace of Monaco, in that it says flat out at the beginning: it's fictionalized and not a bio pic. So the movie has fun with what little historical info we have about Elvis meeting Nikon, and then dramatizes it and fills in the blanks, for a cool movie.





Bus Stop
(1956)
Director: Joshua Logan
Writers: George Axelrod(screenplay), William Inge(stageplay)
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance


About
: A young cowboy (Don Murray) who has never left the Montana ranch, heads to the big city of Phoenix, Arizona to participate in a rodeo competition. During the long bus ride his older friend, (Arthur O'Connell) tells him he needs to find a girl. Only one problem he knows nothing about girls and thinks they can be roped and handled like cattle. He thinks that, until he meets a dance hall singer (Marilyn Monroe).



Review: The main draw here is Marilyn Monroe.The movie has a decent story and funny moments...and is certainly a worthy movie to watch. But if it wasn't for Marilyn this would be a forgotten film. Miss Monroe had found fame some 6 years earlier in a small, but juicy role in The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Latter that year she earned critical acclaim in All About Eve (1950)...But after receiving some harsh reviews, Marilyn started to pay more attention to the method style of acting. In Bus Stop she pours her heart out, painfully so. At times it's almost heartbreaking to watch the fragile Marilyn on screen. It's her finest moment in dramatic acting, but off screen she payed an emotionally price for tapping into such deep recesses of her mind to drudge out the emotions needed.

Bus Stop, is celluioud proof that Marilyn Monroe was much more than just a pretty face.

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Bus Stop just aired on TCM a day or two ago, and I DVRed it, so hopefully I'll find time to watch it in the next few days.
__________________
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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.



Bus Stop just aired on TCM a day or two ago, and I DVRed it, so hopefully I'll find time to watch it in the next few days.
Oh cool, have you seen it before? I hadn't and so that was fun for me to watch for the first time. It was Don Murray's and a young Hope Lange's first movie appearance. I think you'd like it. Have you seen many of Marilyn's movies?



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Oh cool, have you seen it before? I hadn't and so that was fun for me to watch for the first time. It was Don Murray's and a young Hope Lange's first movie appearance. I think you'd like it. Have you seen many of Marilyn's movies?

No, I haven't seen it yet. I've only seen a couple of Marilyn's movies, so I'm catching up on them for the decade countdowns.



Really, you've only seen a couple of her movies? That's surprising, as she did mainly rom coms and musicals. Which one's did you see? You must have seen the one with Cary Grant Monkey Business.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Really, you've only seen a couple of her movies? That's surprising, as she did mainly rom coms and musicals. Which one's did you see? You must have seen the one with Cary Grant Monkey Business.
Yes, of course I've seen Monkey Business. It stars Cary Grant.

Actually, looking at her IMDB page, I've seen more of her movies than I realized. I guess I just don't think of them as "Marilyn Monroe movies".

These are the rest of her movies that I've seen:
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)
Some Like It Hot (1959)

And the unfinished version of Something's Got to Give (1962).



That's a good amount of her films that you've seen. I've seen all those, but only small clips of her unfinished movie, Something's Got to Give. Where did you see that one at? Dinner time, catch ya latter!



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
That's a good amount of her films that you've seen. I've seen all those, but only small clips of her unfinished movie, Something's Got to Give. Where did you see that one at? Dinner time, catch ya latter!

It was on YouTube a while back. (It might still be there if you search for it.)




Bus Stop
(1956)
Director: Joshua Logan
Writers: George Axelrod(screenplay), William Inge(stageplay)
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
So thrilled to see your review of Bus Stop...I totally agree with you, Marilyn owns this movie and as I've often stated, I think she deserved an Oscar nomination for it, but most importantly, like you said, it proved that Marilyn could act.



Bus Stop just aired on TCM a day or two ago, and I DVRed it, so hopefully I'll find time to watch it in the next few days.
I'm pretty sure you're going to love Bus Stop, GBG.



No, I haven't seen it yet. I've only seen a couple of Marilyn's movies, so I'm catching up on them for the decade countdowns.

You mentioned Don Murray and Hope Lange, I don't know if you're aware of this, but they fell in love during the filming of Bus Stop and later married.



You mentioned Don Murray and Hope Lange, I don't know if you're aware of this, but they fell in love during the filming of Bus Stop and later married.
Interesting but no I didn't know that. Speaking of Bus Stop, did you see how they did Marilyn's face and body make up? They made her very, very pale. She was almost ghostly looking.





Jericho (2000)
Director: Merlin Miller
Cast: Mark Valley, Leon Coffee, R. Lee Ermey
Genre: Indie, Western

On the eve that a high dollar bank payroll is coming into town a mysterious sheriff (Mark Valley) arrives to take charge of the payroll...Three strangers also arrive with robbery on their mind. When the robbery happens one man is killed and the other three escape on the train, only one of the three is presumed dead and is dumped from the moving train. When a ex slave turned preacher (Leon Coffee) finds the man, he nurses him back to health and takes him under his wing. Slowly facts arise that lead to the mysterious man being a gun slinger and outlaw.

Jericho, was made on a small budget but don't let that fool you into thinking the film isn't worth the time to watch. It is. Filmed on location in
Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, the film looks good. The old west looks old and the towns look like old western towns. The two leads who are virtually unknown both turn in a good performance. I especially like the simply, let twisting story that hearkens back to westerns made in the 1940s. And I liked Leon Coffee who was very personable and natural on screen. Jericho is his only second acting credit, he was working as a professional rodeo clown, but I thought he made the film very likeable.

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Sunrise (F.W. Murnau 1927)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (original title)
Director: F.W. Murnau
Cast: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston
Genre: Drama Romance
Silent Film


There's a lot to love and admire in Sunrise, and one thing that I couldn't get passed. I was totally impressed with the visual look of the film....Could this be the first arthouse film? Certainly parts of the film are telling the story with creative visuals that seemed way ahead of their time. The multi layering of scenes with multi film exposure and rear projection, gives this movie a richness and dream like look that matches the fable style story telling, to a tee. It really is art as film. And I love that.

One of the most beautiful techniques in the film is a flowing scene transition, where the man and woman are walking away from us and the background morphs into a different set. Those transition scenes felt magically. I really enjoyed the middle of the film where they go to the big city. The dancing scene was great and the little side touch about the woman who's dress straps keep falling down was clever.

The end scene was heart wrenching and those large waves when the man and woman were in the little boat were very dramatic! The opening scene which plays out like a dark German expressionistic film was tense and powerful! I bet Hitchcock loved this film.

But I can't get passed the fact that the man had planned out a murder of his wife and just about killed her on the boat...then awhile latter they're happy as clams. The emotional impact of what the man was, and what he wanted to do to his wife, made his character evil in my eyes, so that I couldn't fall in love, as the couple fell in love. Visually the film is magic, but in my eyes the man could not be redeemed so that I couldn't buy into anything else that happened.



I very impressed with how they aligned this double exposure and the scene went on for awhile and was very effective.




I just loved shots like this which are rear projection with rear shot being a composite.

I would give this a solid 5/5 for cinematography. Indeed this won the Academy Award for Best Picture in the category of Artistic Quality of Production.







Serena (2014)
Director: Susanne Bier
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Sean Harris
Genre: Drama, Romantic, Action, Period Piece

About: In the early 1930's during the Great Depression, a North Carolina lumberman ,George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper) has a booming business thanks to his ambitions as a lumber baron. His luck changes when he meets and marries a strong willed, beauty Serena Shaw (Jennifer Lawrenece), who brings to the marriage a troubled past. Soon Serena comes to the timber land and begins dominating everyone one around her, from the employees to George himself. When Serena suffers a miscarriage and then learns that George has an intelligent son with a poor woman...Serena becomes unhinged.


Wow, this movie blew! If your a fanboy of Jennifer Lawrence you might like it as she's in most every scene and all dolled up with a streak of nasty too. She's not bad in the role either it's just that the story is lame. No wonder this has a low IMDB rating of 5.4. If you don't have a Jennifer Lawrence crush don't bother with it. The only good thing I can say about is it's only 109 minutes long, but those 109 minutes crawl.

My rating