Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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Gideon I think you and GBG would both appreciate Eddie the Eagle. I did give it a lower score, but only because I thought the real story of Eddie would have made a better movie. But still a fun watch. I hope you watch it...you too GBG.
What do you mean "the real story of Eddie"?



What do you mean "the real story of Eddie"?
I mean this is no bio-pic, most of the story elements are either left out or fabricated. Still it's a fun movie, but according to Eddie himself only about 5% of the movie is his story.



Her (2013)
Director: Spike Jonze
Writer: Spike Jonze
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson
Genre: Adult Drama, Sci Fi, Romance


About: A lonely man who falls in love with his sentient computer operating system and has a relationship with it.

Review: Interesting movie to say the least. Its strengths are the visuals, both in the color palette used by the art direction and the stunning on-location sets, they filmed at. I especially liked the curved, elevated city walkway, as shown in the photo above.

I thought Joaquin Phoenix did a fantastic job of being an indecisive, emotionally exuberant man who had a hard time commenting to anyone. He was really good and so was Amy Adams, who's my favorite, modern day actress.



However, I didn't like a lot of the directorial decisions that Spike Jonez made. I didn't connect to the story, as the disembodied voice of Samantha (done by Scarlett Johansson) just wasn't believable to me as an artificial intelligence operating system. Part of the reason why is in the sound mixing. Samantha's voice was dubbed post production and is mixed at a different tonal quality than the spoken words of Joaquin. To me it didn't sound like they were in the same room.

I would have liked to hear the computer voice have a slightly mechanical sound to it, like it was coming out of a speaker. I also think Spike should have went with a visual reference for Samantha so that we had something to look at on the mobile screen when she talked.

I also wasn't a fan of the explicit sex scenes and the overused potty mouth, those two directorial decisions took me out of the film's story.

Ultimately I just didn't buy someone falling in love with his computer. And I certainly didn't buy that people in the future thought dating a computer was normal! But I did LMAO at the picnic scene. I don't think Spike intended it to be ironic? But it was.


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Ronin (John Frankenheimer, 1998)

Director
: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime


About
: A ex U.S. CIA agent who's know freelancing to the highest bidder. The highest bidder wants a mysterious package found, and so do equally mysterious Russian and Irish agents.

Review: I enjoyed it for what it was, well done entertainment. I'm not really into crime action films but this one was exceptionally well done. It held my interest and I was into it! I liked the way the film was edited (straight forward without any tricky fancy stuff) that made for good old fashioned story telling. I thought the action sequences were exciting and the first car chase amazing. I'm not really a car chase kind of guy, so the second car chase seemed to me to go on too long, but oh well it was still well done.



Director John Frankenheimer,
is the reason the movie is a cut above your average crime action flick. Frankenheimer made a name for himself directing episodes of the avant garde television anthology drama series, Playhouse 90. Some of the best movies were made for live TV broadcast at this time. Later he went on to a succesful film careare making such movies as The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Gran Prix (1966). Ronin was his last successful film and has good balance between action and narrative and with a mystery too.




Re: Her -

"Ultimately I just didn't buy someone falling in love with his computer. "

There are a lot of people right now who have closer (almost hypnotic, obsessive and all-encompassing) relationships with their smart phones, games and virtual reality devices than they have with any other actual humans.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Yes, very different movies, but they share one similar theme of a man having to start over in some way again.

I have to disagree and say that Henry was indeed brain damaged. I missed the first half the other day, but watched the previews to hear a doctor say something like his heart stopped from the gun shot for a period of time and deprived his brain of oxygen (this destroyed part of his brain that helped control memory). Oxygen deprivation that causes loss of mental functions is definitely a form of brain damage - although I realize the first thing people think of when they hear the term "brain damage" is head wounds, concussions and blunt force trauma.

I probably should have said that he has a different kind of brain damage. The other two people were brain damaged due to medical reasons, and they were intentionally changed to try to make them better. Henry was a normal, intelligent person who was brain damaged by a bullet, and the reason for his change was not intentional. Henry was being "fixed" to bring him back to what he was previously, while the other two were being made better from their original state. (Does that make any sense?)
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I probably should have said that he has a different kind of brain damage. The other two people were brain damaged due to medical reasons, and they were intentionally changed to try to make them better. Henry was a normal, intelligent person who was brain damaged by a bullet, and the reason for his change was not intentional. Henry was being "fixed" to bring him back to what he was previously, while the other two were being made better from their original state. (Does that make any sense?)
Yes. Especially for Charly. If I remember correctly, Charly had never had normal level intelligence until the experiment gave him above average intelligence. But Leonard Lowe was basically brought back to what he was before his illness struck him down (before sadly returning back to a catatonic state).
But yes. I know what you mean.

Charly is basically medical science fiction.
Awakenings was a true story.
and Regarding Henry is a romantic drama.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Charly is basically medical science fiction.

It's kind of funny that you mentioned this about Charly because I've been thinking about my list for the Sci-Fi countdown, and Charly is one of those movies that lists as sci-fi, but it doesn't feel like sci-fi, so I can't decide what to do about those movies for my list. I love the movie, but if it doesn't feel like sci-fi, it seems out of place on a sci-fi list. (I have a handful of similar movies that I can't decide whether or not to include them on my sci-fi list.)



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Her (2013)
Director: Spike Jonze
Writer: Spike Jonze
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson
Genre: Adult Drama, Sci Fi, Romance



However, I didn't like a lot of the directorial decisions that Spike Jonez made. I didn't connect to the story, as the disembodied voice of Samantha (done by Scarlett Johansson) just wasn't believable to me as an artificial intelligence operating system. Part of the reason why is in the sound mixing. Samantha's voice was dubbed post production and is mixed at a different tonal quality than the spoken words of Joaquin. To me it didn't sound like they were in the same space.

I would have liked to hear the computer voice have a slightly mechanical sound to it, like it was coming out of a speaker. I also think Spike should have went with a visual reference for Samantha so that we had something to look at on the mobile screen when she talked.

I thought the point of the voice not having a mechanical sound to it was to make it feel more like it could have been an actual human. It made it easier to believe that she was real, and made the relationship believable.

I liked that we didn't get a picture of her on the screen because that made the relationship more about him and his operating system, rather than thinking that he was in a long distance relationship with a real person.



It's kind of funny that you mentioned this about Charly because I've been thinking about my list for the Sci-Fi countdown, and Charly is one of those movies that lists as sci-fi, but it doesn't feel like sci-fi, so I can't decide what to do about those movies for my list. I love the movie, but if it doesn't feel like sci-fi, it seems out of place on a sci-fi list. (I have a handful of similar movies that I can't decide whether or not to include them on my sci-fi list.)
Yeah, there are a lot of movies like that - especially ones about experimental medicine.
If they are fiction (and since modern medicine is a science) then it is literally "science fiction." But the movies don't have any of the other elements that would put them in that genre.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Yeah, there are a lot of movies like that - especially ones about experimental medicine.
If they are fiction (and since modern medicine is a science) then it is literally "science fiction." But the movies don't have any of the other elements that would put them in that genre.

Some movies just feel more like a drama or a romance than a science fiction movie. Even movies like Her (2013), (the movie Rules reviewed earlier). I know that it's technically a sci-fi movie, but it just doesn't feel like one.

I guess because I grew up with stuff like Star Wars, Star Trek, CE3K, E.T., etc., those are the types of movies that have a sci-fi feel to them. (Movies that focus on space, computers, robots, aliens, etc.) I have to figure out what to do about the rest of the sci-fi movies when I make my list. Some of them really deserve to be on the list, so I don't want to overlook them for the wrong reason.



I thought the point of the voice not having a mechanical sound to it was to make it feel more like it could have been an actual human. It made it easier to believe that she was real, and made the relationship believable.

I liked that we didn't get a picture of her on the screen because that made the relationship more about him and his operating system, rather than thinking that he was in a long distance relationship with a real person.
I just basically didn't like the movie, I didn't like the concept, I didn't like the execution, I didn't like the graphic sex scenes and the multi f bombs and it was slow, I really got bored with it. The director IMO was trying way to hard to be a hipster.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I just basically didn't like the movie, I didn't like the concept, I didn't like the execution, I didn't like the graphic sex scenes and the multi f bombs and it was slow, I really got bored with it. The director IMO was trying way to hard to be a hipster.

I liked the concept, but I agree with you about some of the other points. If you can get past some of the language and the graphic stuff, I think it's a very good movie.



Hey finally I can comment on something
I loved Her, didn't suffer personally from any of the downsides you mention (in fact I thought the o/s voice was spot on). Shame you didn't like it more but none of us will all like the same movies and that's exactly how it should be imo.
I've seen Ronin too but not for an awful long time so can't really comment on that one - have the feeling I enjoyed it but I don't recall a huge amount so doesn't seem like I loved it.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Her but VERY glad you like Ronin. Huge fan of Ronin; a great throwback to the old spy thrillers and Frankenheimer was truly in his element when he made it.


And just saw your review on Family Man. Seen that a few times, quite the wonderful movie with a very beautiful message.
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[center]Her (2013)
[left]Director: Spike Jonze
Writer: Spike Jonze
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson
Genre: Adult Drama, Sci Fi, Romance

I liked this movie a lot more than you did, but I enjoyed your review.



I just couldn't connect to Her in anyway. Not really a fan of Spike Jonze either.

The next movie I will review is maybe the strangest and yet simplest movie I ever seen. I don't know if it's genius or stupid? Maybe you or someone else will watch it.




Old Joy (2006)
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writers: Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
Cast: Daniel London, Will Oldham
Genre: Drama


About: Two friends who get together and head off for a camping trip in Oregon's Cascade Mountains.

Review: Strangely effective. Nothing actual ever happens, yet thanks to brilliant camera framing and long scene takes, the film flows like a cool mountain river. Seriously, all we see is two old friends who meet up and take a long road trip to go camping in the deep woods...that's it.

They don't really say or do anything poignant but thanks to the camera work and editing, the movie still seems to have more interest than a lot of bigger budget films.

Director Kelly Reichardt
is known for her subtle direction in such movies as Meek's Cutoff (2010) and Certain Women (2016). Here in Old Joy she shows us the quiet moments that go to make up one's life.

I found the scenery of the Oregon country side as shot out of a car window, beautiful. I even spotted a place I had been. Then there's the deep woods of the Pacific Northwest which has it's own charm and quiet beauty. You know Quiet Beauty would have been another good title for this film.

While I enjoyed Meek's Cutoff much more, this movie is in the experimental field of film making. I liked it enough to want to see more of the director's films.