Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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I just went back a little on this thread and saw that Rules & GBG hadn't seen Awakenings.
It sounds like you both saw it now (yes?)
Anyway, WONDERFUL film! Yes, it's sad and it's a tear jerker, but such wonderful performances by all.
Robin is surely missed.



I'd give her a HA! and a HI-YA! Then I'd kick her.
I just went back a little on this thread and saw that Rules & GBG hadn't seen Awakenings.
It sounds like you both saw it now (yes?)
Anyway, WONDERFUL film! Yes, it's sad and it's a tear jerker, but such wonderful performances by all.
Robin is surely missed.

Yes, I saw Awakenings after it was recommended by a few people here, and I rated it in my Logbook thread:

http://www.movieforums.com/community...39#post1368939

It's hard to believe that Robin Williams has been gone for more than a year now.



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Hey MG, I watched The Physician last night. I just got home, so you will have to wait a day or two to find out if it was a: Smash or Trash ? ? ?



Hey MG, I watched The Physician last night. I just got home, so you will have to wait a day or two to find out if it was a: Smash or Trash ? ? ?
lol I dont think it was trash!



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My next review is another film that MovieGal recommend to me.

A BIG thanks! to her for taking the time to learn what kind of films I like, then trying to find films to recommend that I would enjoy. So far MovieGal is 3 for 3....But how did she do this time???



My next review is another film that MovieGal recommend to me.

A BIG thanks! to her for taking the time to learn what kind of films I like, then trying to find films to recommend that I would enjoy. So far MovieGal is 3 for 3....But how did she do this time???
Lol take time to learn what you like? Let's see you, me and HK like historical/period piece films. It's not hard to recommend one from that genre. HK has recommended some to me that I enjoyed.



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The Physician (2013)
Director: Philipp Stölzl
Writers: Jan Berger (screenplay), Noah Gordon (novel)
Cast: Tom Payne, Stellan Skarsgård, Olivier Martinez, Ben Kingsley, Emma Rigby
Genre: Historical Drama Adventure


Synopsis (spoiler free): In the slums of medieval 11th century London, a poor boy is orphaned when his mother dies of the mysterious 'side sickness'. The boy is left to fend for himself best he can. When a traveling 'barber surgeon' comes to town the barber begrudgingly takes the boy as an apprentice. As Rob Cole the boy, becomes a man he encounters a group of learned Jews who tell him of an advanced medical school in far away Persia. He takes on the arduous journey to Persia and disguises himself as a Jew, as Christians are killed on sight. There he hopes to learn the secrets of the medical school.

Ibn Sina (Ben Kingsley) the master of the medical school and his student Rob Cole (Tom Payne).

Rob Cole (Tom Payne) and Rebecca (Emma Rigby) share a fleeting
moment of peace amongst the threats of religious zealots and the plague.


This is one of the best films I've seen this year. The Physician is a German cinema film, shot in English language and based on the successful novel by Noah Gordon. Exterior shots were filmed in Morocco and to this 21st century person looks like ancient Persia.

History told through the human experience... and that's what I appreciated most in this film, it's a very believable look at ancient history. It's a unique telling of how the middle east kept alive the medical and scientific knowledge that the ancient Greeks had amassed. This knowledge was erased from Europe by the Catholic Churches' desire to keep the masses in the dark...hence the term Dark Ages.

The Physician is a tale of one brave soul with a quest for knowledge and the desire to help the sick. He risk his life learning modern science in the time when his own countrymen would have called him a demon for studying the medical arts. Rob Cole is fictional but Ibn Sina and his learned school in Persia is factual.

Ibn Sina the Persian is regarded as the most significant thinker and writer of the Islamic Golden Age. He systematically studied the ancient teachings of Greece, Rome and India. His writings: The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine became a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650.


Ben Kingsley was excellent as Ibn Sina, he's a fine actor and well suited to this role. Tom Payne who I hadn't seen much of, is amazing in this. He plays his part with a somber, reflective look...the look of a man who sees the pain around him and wishes to help. Emma Rigby is a Jewish girl sent off on an arranged marriage to an older man she doesn't love. She encounters Rob as they travel across the desert in a caravan. Her plight is like many women of the time, she's viewed as a commodity.


Looks stunning while not going over the top.
A film like this one could have easily went over the top with Hollywood block buster CG effects and grandiose edge of your seat scenes...This is not that type of movie! Being made by German cinema it's sensible! Balanced and beautiful to look at it. It has just enough excitement to keep the story going but never loses sight that it's telling an important story of what was lost during the Dark Ages.



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are you up for another recommendation? if you have to much on your plate, let me know, I will hold this one for later. I think you might enjoy it, I surely did! It was in my top 10 for a long time for foreign language.

And thank you for what you said about The Physician, it really was a highly enjoyable film!



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And you thought I was going to hate it I bet

Another recommendation is good but English language please. I've already watched a bunch of foreign language comedy films recently.



oh this was a foreign language film but I thought you might be interested in it... I will hold off until you are done with the comedy hof and give you a month or two without foreign before I throw this one at you. It is actually a film in two foreign languages.



CR and MG as a movie match made in heaven?

I really did not expect that, but awesome to see you enjoy her recommendations, Citizen!

I haven't forgot that you recommended me a bunch of stuff way back MG, I will have to get around one of them very soon, maybe you'll be the future movie guru for me too!

Oh, and by the way, a good review Citizen!



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Thanks MM, I swear I spent more time creating that reviewing, than the movie was long. I thought about making it 5,000 words too, well maybe next time

So far MovieGal has given me some great recommendations. I had never heard of The Physician so most likely would never had seen it otherwise.

I'm willing to try anybodies recommendations...as long as they try to suggest something I might like. I don't do off the cuff recommendations. HoneyKid has given me a few good ones as has Sean and Mark and a few others too.

SO if anybody want to thumb through my reviews (you don't have to read them) just look at what I watched and if I liked it or not...then take your best shot, if I watch it I'll review it



CR and MG as a movie match made in heaven?

I really did not expect that, but awesome to see you enjoy her recommendations, Citizen!

I haven't forgot that you recommended me a bunch of stuff way back MG, I will have to get around one of them very soon, maybe you'll be the future movie guru for me too!

Oh, and by the way, a good review Citizen!
a future guru? really, as much as I like watching all types of films but American Comedies.. I think I have seen far many films.. probably more than you MM since I am a lot of older and have been watching them all my life!



So far the only one who takes my recommendations to heart is CR and Cricket.. and I know what to suggest to each of them. Neiba has watched a few too but not like Crick or CR.

I think some people around here dont even try to talk to me about films and for me to recommend them.. but believe me.. I can find an unknown film for any genre if someone asks.. probably even American Comedies... (they may be older).



Not that you would be a future guru, but my future guru, as in maybe sometime in the future you will recommend me movies on a weekly basis because of the movie guru you are and always have been!

I don't doubt you have watched more movies than me, you've had more than double the time to do so!



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Thanks! to Cricket for recommending this next film to me. I intended to only write a mini review in my Latitudes thread but as I started typing, I just couldn't stop...so now it's a full review....coming up shortly.



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Jersey Boys (2014)

Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: John Lloyd Young, Vincent Piazza, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music


During the 1950's four troubled youth form a musical group and attempt to escape their crime ridden New Jersey neighborhood. They will become the 60s pop band the Four Seasons.

Believe it or not, when I started watching this I had no idea that it was a biography-drama about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I thought I was watching a fictional film about a 1950s rock band. I had never heard of the Broadway musical Jersey Boys either which this film is based on.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, so I expected big things from this film. I didn't get them. I never felt like I got to know who Frankie was or what made him special. It's an Eastwood movie and it does look great, nice subdued lighting and longer scene lengths and all that...but the story fell flat. That's despite the fact that the antagonist story line is pumped up so that we get a nearly psycho character in Tommy (Vincent Piazza). Vincent Piazza is the best thing in the film. He dominates the scenes he's in, leaving poor Frankie (John Lloyd Young) in the dust.


I'm not a fan of John Lyold Young nasally singing which grated on my nerves. The real Frankie Valli could sing this way and get away with it, in the film it just didn't work for me.

Eastwood choose to have the actors directly speak to the audience at times. A choice that I found broke the illusion of the storytelling, taking me right out of the story.

For a biography of what should have been one helluva story about a poor kid escaping the gangster life style to became a national renown singer...the film was surprisingly dull.

It's not a bad movie, but not up to Eastwood's standards.

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