Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I have never seen Bambi and have never had any desire to...until reading your review.

It's easy to dismiss this as one of Scorsese's lesser film with the complaint that it's not realistic...At least that's what I though as I watched this. To me it seemed one part The Warriors, one part Tombstone and one part Terry Gilliam...then I realized just what Marty was going for here...and it clicked.

Gangs of New York is not like other Scorsese films. Scorsese took all the history and legends that made up the backstory of New York City and put them into an eye poppin', adventurous tale. A tale that makes the characters larger than life...and a whole lot more fun too. And that's the way legends go, they get bigger, badder and more grandiose with each generation's retelling of the days of ole.

I think that broad based style comes clear in the end credits when we see modern NYC appear in the background and the graves of the men from days of old fade into memory. Even the ending title credits tell the viewer this isn't meant to be a slice of real history, it's mean to entertain and entertained I was.

I would say "can't believe you didn't like Oldboy" but then again I don't remind the movie that much, what did you think of the reveal though? (I think i know what you thought of the villain's motivation already lmao) But what surprised me more is that you didn't like Pulp Fiction

Would you consider watching the netflix series that aired not so long ago if you liked the world building? I haven't watch any movies and only started a few episodes but it's really quite unique imo

Hi Tat! Long time no see. Glad you're back posting at MoFo To be honest I can't remember what the big reveal was in Old Boy.

So true I can't stand Tarantino and his films.

Glad to hear you like Netflix's The Dark Crystal. I don't have Netflix at the moment, who knows maybe some day I'll see it.

A Matter of Life and Death is the type of film that I often seek out to watch. I've seen a number of 'afterlife' fantasy/drama movies where the idea of a person entering the 'afterlife' is explored. This was a popular theme after WWII, most likely because so many people were grieving over the untimely loss of so many friends and loved ones and films like these gave them hope.

Some of my favorites in this sub genre is A Guy Named Joe (1943), Heaven Can Wait (1943) and Between Two Worlds (1944)...So I do like this sub genre.

A Matter of Life...sorry to say it was one of the worst constructed movies I've seen. The title credits followed by a long exposé of the mysteries of the universe, made for a slow and cumbersome start. That type of opening worked for Frank Capra in It's a Wonderful Life, but here it just sucked the energy out of the all important establishing 1st scene.

I did enjoy the next scene where David Niven is about to die as he jumps out of a burning aircraft and without a parachute. His waking up confused on a beach, but somehow miraculously alive from the jump, was done well...But why oh why was a naked boy needed on the beach scene? I'm befuddled by the reasoning for that? We don't see any nudity but it's clear from the side profile that the 10-12 year old boy is setting on the beach naked? Why?

But the first real faux pas was the instant love when the pilot spots the U.S. Army flight control woman he'd talked to as his plane went down (Kim Hunter). I mean he just kisses her after only a few words between them. Sure I know they had this emotional connection as he told her his farewells before dying...But geez, I just didn't buy that instantaneous jumping into each others' arms. That scene needed some room to breath. It should've been expanded as it's ALL important to the theme of the movie. Even another 60 seconds could've made their love seem real.

But my real complaint was the totally daft ending in heaven, with the trial to determine if David Niven gets to remain alive or has to be called to heaven. The trial should've been about the unbridled strength of love and it's power to rise above it all. Instead we get this silly fight between a dead American revolutionary patriot (Raymond Massey) who hates the British. Oddly the jury is made up of dead members of countries once dominated or defeated by Britain. A very heavy handed message. Heaven seems to be very politicized!..and all the soldiers are carrying guns To still a line from my friend & fellow MoFo reviewer Gideon, the movie was a 'hot mess'.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Writers: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
Cast: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck


Good Will Hunting was an OK watch, it made me appreciate Matt Damon a bit more. Previously I'd liked him as an actor but thought he was kinda blasé.

I've said before that I don't care for Robin Williams in movies...though he was a dynamic guest on late night talk shows. As I kinda expected he was able to play a more troubled, straight role with much veracity. Most talented comedians are able to give a damn fine dramatic accounting of themselves when given half a chance to shed the comedy stuff. But when Robin went into his free form improv, his character belief faded momentarily for me. Luckily he didn't do that much and overall he was solid.

I don't like Ben Affleck, I think he's limited in his characterizations...However I did like Casey Affleck here. Casey was by far the finest actor in the film.

I'm impressed that a young Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won a Best Writing Oscar for the script. That's a big feather in their hats. But truth be told it wasn't a well written script as far as I'm concerned. The scenes were packed with too much repetitive dialogue that was suppose to be deep and or clever. This caused the scenes to loose their punch and end up more as a writing exercise than deeply reflective.

What redeemed the movie were the moments when the truth of the subject matter rang out hard with a harsh truth. Especially the scenes were Minnie Driver is being dumped by Will (Matt Damon) who is to afraid to live and to take a risk.

Director: Nicholas Ray
Writers: A.I. Bezzerides & Nicholas Ray (screenplay), Gerald Butler (novel)
Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond


I find myself unsure of how to evaluate On Dangerous Ground? Do I compare it to the other noirs I've seen? I've seen a lot! Or do I compare it to the other Nicholas Ray films I've seen? Some of those are power houses.

So here it goes...I enjoyed this noir, as I enjoy noirs. Ida Lupino is a plus and Robert Ryan is a good noir character type. But I don't feel this is one of Ray's best works and the story intent never really comes into focus. Some of that might be on Ray himself and how he directed this. Some of it might lay on the shoulders of Robert Ryan who's asked to show a tender side that he just wasn't able to show. But mostly I think the blame lays with financier Howard Hughes who owned RKO studio and had a hand in editing the film.

The film has a split personality to it. The first half is a matter-of-fact police procedural, docu-drama. The second part takes an abrupt turn as our police detective (Robert Ryan) leaves the city and heads to upstate New York to solve a local murder. In the country side he encounters a blind woman (Ida Lupino) and falls for her. His encounter with the blind beauty changes his previous brutal bad-cop ways. Abrupt is the key word here as Ryan's character changes gears at a drop of a fedora.

So the dilemma is: I enjoyed this because it is noir and I love noir. But it was IMO flawed in it's narrative construction.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Writer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Brigitte MiraEl Hedi ben SalemBarbara Valentin
Language: German


'Citizen liked this. Citizen impressed with the film'...OK, I know enough of all that Besides if you haven't seen the film you don't know what the hell Citizen is talking about.

Strange title for a very minimalist film (and I mean that in a good way). I heard of this movie plenty in the past, and thought it was some weird sh**. It's not at all weird or sh**

Seriously, I was very impressed with this film and by the style of film making the director took. It felt very up close and personal and in a way it reminded me of Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2008).

At first I cringed at the idea that this film was going to be all preachy, but then it did a 180 and ended up not taking any kind of stance at all. Except I guess that to say, 'find love where you can'.

I loved the filming choices in Munich, and was that corner restaurant where Hitler really use to eat? Strange things that you see in a movie. Fassbinder likes to shoot from afar with a wide angle lens through doors, that adds to the intimacy of the film and I liked that.

+

To me this was a film watching adventure dripping in exotic locales before they became ruined by mega hotels and slums running to the horizon. Gosh I want to visit Brazil but in the year 1959!...and at carnival like shown in this film.

Black Orpheus was a Palme d'Or winner at Cannes and also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. I'm embarrassed to say I was unaware of the film before watching it. I did appreciate the chance to see such a beautifully told and wonderfully filmed re-telling of the ancient Greek mythological love story. The movie works almost like a documentary as it doesn't rely deeply on character building or story telling. Instead it watches the people of the region as they get ready for the much anticipated yearly carnival celebration.


I read that the director ran out of money and literally lived on the beach as he tried to get enough cash to finish the film. And it does seem to be a very personal film, ala indie film. Black Orpheus is like a time capsule to another place, quite magically.

Just in case you didn't know, they say Disney's Tink was based directly on Marilyn Monroe (another hottie at the time the movie was made).

That's probably why Tinker Bell had such a big ass!

IMDB trivia for Some Like it Hot

I may need to add a correction: according to Snopes, Tink being based on Marilyn Monroe is "false" (although I had read it and heard it in several places long before Snopes existed)...

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tinker-bell/

The article contains a few interesting tidbits that you (Rules) touched upon in your review (such as Tink looking at her hips in a mirror).

I submit this correction because...
"I believe in truth, but I'm also a big fan of justice!"

Tinker Bell's jealously of the human girl..and the fixation on how wide her hips were, made Tink very humanistic. That's why I liked her! Though I'm not much into Disney animated films.

Director: John Schlesinger
Screenplay: Waldo Salt James Leo Herlihy (novel)
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight

I like being wrong. I do. It's self renovating to allow one's self the ability to be flexible and to reverse a held belief. And I believed that Midnight Cowboy would be something I'd loathed to watch. That's why I avoided it until now. It was originally rated X.

But as it turns out Midnight Cowboy was tame as an old farm horse. I've seen more provocative stuff in modern R films. And more importantly the film won me over with a heartfelt and original story backed up by two standout actors who bring these colorfully interesting characters to life. So yes, I liked the movie and was impressed by it.

Most people will mention the story, the characters and the actors who played them as being the reason they like the film. And those are good reasons!

But I have two other reasons to admire this film:

• The cityscapes as seen through a time machine back to 1960. I love history, I love time, I think about time, all the time! There's no time machine that will lets us travel back in time, but movies allow us to do just that. I'm not talking about a film that's a period piece, say like Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, that's just a facsimile of what was. With Midnight Cowboy we see actual events, actual people and events as they occurred in time and captured on film. I loved the look at 1969 NYC. My eyes gobbled up the fashions and the store fronts and the way the world looked back then. All that is priceless to me.

• Then there's the cinematic history of Midnight Cowboy. It's not just an Oscar Best Picture winner, it's the one and only X rated film to win an Oscar. It's also the only X rated film to be screened at the White House, and by Richard Nixon no less, wow! It's ground breaking too in it's frank look at New York City's colorful 42nd street circa 1969. Midnight Cowboy is probably the first American mainstream film to show gay people so up close and personal. The film captures a microcosmic on events and historical attitudes of a rapidly changing world.

Midnight Cowboy is one of the best films I saw this year for the first time. Glad you also liked it!

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Glad you liked Midnight Cowboy and it is pretty tame now, but it's still a very good film. You should know that a film rated X in 1969 does not mean the same thing it does now. In 1969, an X rating simply meant that the film was not for children.

Sorry you didn't like Ghost, Citizen...I think Gooldberg's performance is seriously overrated and the only reason she won was to make up for the Oscar she should have won for The Color Purple