Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Great review Citizen...have always wanted to see this because I love the 78 film so much...I don't know if you're aware but Joe Pendleton is a pro football player in the remake and the way he dies is different too, but the rest of the story is very loyal to the original.

Definitely adding Rumble Fish to my watchlist, primarily because it was written by the same woman who wrote The Outsiders, a book and movie I adore. One of the rare instances where the film version of a book was just as good as the book.

Same director too, Francis Ford Coppola. He shot both at around the same time, in 1983. Some of the same cast are in both movies. But that's where the similarities end. The Outsiders is done as a conventional story telling movie, while Rumble Fish is more of an experimental art film. It's well worth watching as much of the emotion of the film is delivered not in story but in the unique percussion score by Stewart Copland and the equally unique cinematography. Look for smoke being used in just about every scene.

Director: Robert Redford
Writers: Judith Guest (novel), Alvin Sargent (screenplay)
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton
Genre: Drama

In the aftermath of a families double tragedy: the accidental death of the oldest son, and a suicide attempt by the other son, the Jarrett family becomes strained to the breaking point.

1980's Ordinary People, marks the directorial debut of Robert Redford, and launched the acting careers of newcomers Timothy Hutton and Elizabeth McGovern.

Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Judith Guest. A book so frank about the subject of dysfunctionalism, sex, suicide and depression that it was the most banned book by schools in the 1990's.


Director Robert Redford removes the more seedy aspects of the novel, giving us a pure study of an 'ordinary' family that is dealing with an extraordinary crisis. This crisis has taken the already difficulties present in the families relationships and brought them to a head. And this is what makes Ordinary People such a powerful story, it's told in a realistic and brutally simple style of story telling.

Of all the movies I've watched this is one of the very few that makes me feel like I'm not watching a movie but am actually there witnessing the lives of this people. People who are real, and a family not unlike countless other families.


Ordinary People earned Robert Redford an Academy Award for Best Picture and for Best Director. And the film won an Oscar for Best Writing, Alvin Sargent.

Newcomer, Timothy Hutton picked up an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. And both Mary Tyler Moore and Judd Hirsch were nominated for an Academy Awards.


I really must say Mary Tyler Moore gave an outstanding performance, playing against type as the bitter mother who bottles her emotions up, and keeps her youngest son at arms distances.

Mary deserved the Oscar! Sissy Spacek won for Coal Miner's Daughter a good performance too, but Mary Tyler Moore's portrayal was nothing short of sublime.

Timothy Hutton who's the surviving youngest son, guilt ridden and suicidal, nails his performance by keeping himself grounded. None of the actors go 'big', they all stay within the boundaries of Redford's vision of a simple telling of very ordinary people...and that's the films power.

One way Redford achieves 'less is more' is by utilizing the actors body language. How they stand and hold their bodies in relation to each other, speaks volumes.

Judd Hirsch plays a psychologist and his therapy sessions with the troubled suicidal son (Timothy Hutton), not only gives us insight into the guilt complex of Hutton's character but also sheds light on the problems with his mother and father and their relationship. All three family members are fractured in their own way.

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Passengers (2016)
Director: Morten Tyldum
Writer: Jon Spaihts
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen
Genre: Sci Fi, Adventure, Drama, Romance

A huge automated spacecraft carrying 5000 colonist to a distant planet has a malfunction and as a result one of those 5000 colonist in hibernation is awakened prematurely.

The man (Chris Pratt) finds he's completely alone on the ship with everyone else still in hibernation. Even worse the ship won't reach it's destination for 90 years...and there's no way for him to go back into hibernation.

I really, liked this! I expected the worse, I thought this would be some silly non-stop action movie like the current crop of Star Trek films. Instead I found a more introspective film that explores what it would mean to be alone for one's entire lifetime on a ship with 5000 people all in hibernation.

More so, it explores what would someone do when they fall in love with a complete stranger (Jennifer Lawrence) and become fixated on her after reading her journals. Bringing the lonely man to a decision, does he awaken the woman so that he wouldn't be alone anymore? But In doing so he's condemning her to spend her days on a empty space craft, alone with him.


I must say both Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence were very good here. Yeah I know, JL has done a bunch of those teen movies, but she's a good actress given a good script to work with and Passengers gives her a very intelligent, thought provoking script.

Passengers is not a techno-babble sci fi, in fact it's hardly sci fi in the classic sense. It focuses on the human longing for connection and explores what some might call 'stalking' when a man goes to the extreme to meet a woman he believes he loves, but has never meet.

In some ways this reminds of a cross between Castaway and Titanic in it's exploration of the human soul. Though the film is different enough to stand on it's own feet.


One intelligent twist is, there's someone for the man to talk to, an android bartender played by Michael Sheen. This plot device allows the man to talk about how it feels to be so alone and to want something so bad, (the woman in hibernation) that he considers doing what he knows is wrong. We can see his frustration and obsession growing as he interacts with the amicable, but mostly unaware android bartender. We feel he's wrong, but we can understand it too.

The ship looks cool both the exterior and more importantly the interior. It's vast, and impressive, the CG looked good as the ship looked real and not all CG. I don't want to give away the plot but I will say this is one of the best sci fis I've seen in years, and that includes Interstellar.

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Whoa! High score. This seems like one of those flicks that despite being panned critically, seems to have quite a few fans. I know several people in real life and virtually who liked it a lot. I may have to see it.

Hey Swan, I am not a fan of JL, but despite that I liked the movie and her. So maybe I am a JL fan

I Ordinary People

I thought Passengers was to predictable

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I knew we were kindred spirits Citizen...finally someone who agrees with me about Mary Tyler Moore...Spacek was terrific, but Mary was just amazing in this movie.

Director: Maggie Greenwald
Writers: Maggie Greenwald (screenplay), Augusta Trobaugh (novel)
Cast: Julianne Nicholson, Takashi Yamaguchi, Margo Martindale
Genre: Drama

Sophie and the Rising Sun is a very small indie film, that's not well known, but it should be. Director & Writer Maggie Greenwald takes us on a journey back to 1941 to a sleepy little fishing village called Salty Creek, located along the waterways of South Carolina. Into this quiet town where gossip is the only exciting thing going on, comes a bus, that bus deposits a stranger to the back waters town. The man is badly beaten and unconscious, he looks different than the white and black folk of the town, he's Asian. The town folk people aren't sure what to make of him and decide he's Chinese.


As we hear the stirrings of World War II and here of the attack on Pearl Harbor, an elderly lady who is caring for the man learns his true identity....he's Japanese.

What follows is tension as the town people turn hostile towards the man who's now recovered and working as a gardener. But one woman Sophie is not afraid.


I really enjoyed this movie, it's shot so beautiful that it looks like a painting, it flows very smoothly and yet the subject matter of racism against a Japanese American is powerful. And yet the film never gets 'loud'. It's a real masterpiece of film making and of story telling. I think this is very special and I plan on watching more of the directors movies.

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Director: Joe Alves
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Simon MacCorkindale, Louis Gossett Jr, Leia Thompson
Genre: Adventure, Horror, Thriller

Mike Brody (Dennis Quaid) now grown, runs into shark problems at Florida's Sea World theme park. Along with his girlfriend...marine biologist (Bess Armstrong) they must stop a 35-foot Great White shark that has become trapped in the park's artificial lagoon.

Not as bad as you might think...This third installment in the Jaws franchise is often panned as being really, really bad...but guess what? I liked it. The key is knowing that the 3D effects on a 2D TV are going to look silly! But back in the day this was cutting edge for 3D and when properly viewed in the theater the 3D effects were pretty cool.


Jaws 3D is a fun film, that in some ways isn't as tense as the first two. What it does right is give us some believable characters filmed on location in Florida at Sea Word.

I really liked Dennis Quaid paired with Bess Armstrong, they made a good team and along with other 80's greats Lou Gossett Jr and Leia Thompson, we have an interesting cast, that truth be told is more interesting than the shark itself.


Jaws 3D feels like one of those fun 1950s monster movies, more than a thriller-horror. Adding to the feel is that only the bad guys & jerks get eaten by the shark. Which is very different than the first movie and made this more of a popcorn flick where I'm rooting for the shark!

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LMAO!!!

And whatever happened to Simon MacCorkindale?

I know I haven't seen him in anything, come to think of it I didn't even know who he was until I seen Jaws 3D. I just checked IMDB and he hasn't worked for 7 years. Maybe he retired? Before that it looks like he has been in television.

He was a fixture on TV and in the movies during the 70's and 80's and dropped off the edge of the planet...didn't even notice until you mentioned him in your review and realized I hadn't seen him in anything in years.

He starred in a terrible TV show called "Manimal". It was so bad that it probably killed his career.

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Frankly, I have never understood this movie, but if you liked it Citizen, I am willing to give it anothere chance.

If you try watching the theatrical cut, if you can find it.

OK

Director: John Ford
Writers: Erskine Caldwell(novel), Jack Kirkland(stage play), Nunnally Johnson (screen play)
Cast: Charley Grapewin, Gene Tierney, Marjorie Rambeau, Dana Andrews
Genre: Comedy, Drama

The greatest story ever ruined by a director. John Ford laid an egg. A great big ostrich sized egg...with his inane, madcap comedy, Tobacco Road... 'tat aint funny' and 'aint much bout nuthin'

Based on the novel and the wildly successful stage play that ran for 10 years. The original play of Tobacco Road was filled with dismal, despicable people who lived in squalor and behaved atrociously, it was cutting edge and shocked a lot of people with it's depiction of depravity.

Brooks Atkinson wrote: From the original biting social commentary play, Ford then made a madcap comedy where the characters act more like figures from a Looney Tunes cartoon. Especial maddening is the character Dude the 16 year old son who screams and hollers like he's going into convulsions. Dude makes Jerry Lewis look downright sedate. Dude's ridiculous caterwauling ruins what otherwise might have been a watchable movie.


The movie is set in Depression era 1930s Georgia and centers around the Lester family. Pa Jeeter is a lazy lout who hasn't worked in years, and who spends his days idyll setting on the front porch with the rest of his starving, dirt poor family. His family includes his wife Ada, the fore mentioned son Dude, and the old maid daughter who no one wants, Ellie May (played by beauty Gene Tierney). When the bank comes to foreclose the property Jeeter must scheme to get $100 or lose the farm.


Gene Tierney has top billing along with Dana Andrews, and both only had a few minutes on screen and just a couple of lines.

Tobacco Road is still worth watching, if for no other reason than to spark one's imagination at just how impressive the original stage play must have been. Or you could just read the book.

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