Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I seen a documentary some years ago about the real Essix and it was fascinating, much better than this movie. I'm surprised that Ron Howard went to the video game style of movie making

Have you seen Everest 2015? I just watched that and will review it soon as I can.

No, I haven't seen Everest yet. I'm not a big fan of survival stories, but I usually end up seeing them eventually when I hear enough good things about them, and I can catch them on TV. (Or sometimes if I can find the DVD cheap at a garage sale.)

This is why I ask people how these things look at the cinema, because watching them on TV is just too annoying for me.

__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.

Everest (2015)
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Cast: Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Hawkes, Keira Knightley, Emily Watson.
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Length: 2h 1min

What's it about...Based on the true life events that took place on
May 10, 1996 during a summit climb of Mount Everest. As a team of climbers return from the summit, a dangerous storm comes out of nowhere trapping them on the mountain side.

What's good about it...Is the actual on location footage of Nepal and Mt Everest. That alone is worth the watch. Also good, is that the director avoided the overly used shaky cam and ultra quick cuts. The film's editing is a joy to watch.

Some of the scenes were borrowed from the IMAX documentary film Everest (1998), which follows an actual expedition to the top of the mountain. Mt Everest looks awesome! It looks forbidding! There's a couple of shots that show the scale of the mountain as the camera goes from the climbers, up and over the ridge and then we see the climbers as tiny specks on the snow, very humbling.


What's not so good...Jake Gyllenhaal, he's actually a good actor and good in this movie. But he has such a distinctive face that as soon as I seen him I started to thinking of this as a film with actors and not the real thing. That took me out of the film and made my connection to the story weaker. Also there's a lot of characters that are introduced and that takes time away from the actual survival part of the story which I thought could be longer and more detailed.

Do I recommend it....sure if you want to see what it would be like to climb Everest without getting cold! It's not highly artistic, though the cinematographic is beautiful. It is well made.

Attachments

 

I don't have much interest in the movie Everest, but I found this paragraph in your review interesting:


Hubby and I were just talking about the same thing yesterday while watching "The People vs. O.J. Simpson". Every time we see John Travolta, David Schwimmer, Cuba Gooding Jr., or Nathan Lane on screen, we immediately see the actor, not the characters that they play, so we're immediately reminded that we're watching a TV show, and it takes us right out of it.

I wish they would have cast less recognizable people for those roles because the show is good up until one of them comes on screen. (Cuba Gooding Jr. is the worst because he doesn't even look a little bit like O.J. Simpson.)

A question for both of you. Do you not have this problem with being taken out of a film because of a film star in their other films? I very rarely 'stop' seeing the actor/actress so it's not something I have a problem with. Though I do give an actor/actress credit when I don't see them, so maybe I've answered my own question.

I'm really enjoying The People vs. O.J. Simpson and I think the actors/actresses are doing a sterling job. I've even gotten used to Travolta's weird Shapiro look. As for Cuba, I think he looks as much like OJ as any name actor I could think of and, probably, more than most.

I'm rarely 'taken out of a film' when I spot a star. It doesn't matter if they are the star of the film or in a supporting role. I had just seen the IMAX documentary film Everest (1998) a few weeks ago, so I guess I was thinking along the line that this movie would have the same feel. Jake Gyllenhaal's character was a Californian hang loose, laid back type so that made him stand out all the more. But no, normally that doesn't happen. Last time an actor distracted me from a film was Paul Giamatti in Love & Mercy.

California in 1909, a Paiute Indian named Willie Boy (Robert Blake) returns to the reservation to be with the woman he loves, Lola (Katherine Ross) who's also a Paiute. Her father disapproves of Willie Boy as he has a reputation as a rebel and trouble maker. On a late summers night the two lovers are together when her father and a group of men come to kill Willie Boy...in self defense a man is shot and Willie Boy goes on the lamb.

This is really...Robert Blake's movie, he does one helluva job acting here. His character is likable, but not too much and he manages to keep Willie Boy a troubled man. And that lust for trouble is what moves the story along. I totally bought Robert Blake's performance.

Katherine Ross...Some will scoff at Ms Ross playing a native American. It's true they do the Hollywood trick of using dark make up on her. But there were some native American actors in the film and this is 1969 and there wasn't too many 'A list' Indian actors around. Ross does a fine job here.

Attachments

     

No, I can't even remember the last time that an actor has "taken me out of the movie". (Maybe some minor roles, like the guy who played John Wayne in the movie Trumbo, but that was more because he looked nothing like JW, not because I recognized the actor.)

I'm generally very good at suspending disbelief and not letting much bother me about a movie, but the O.J. Simpson show has been a problem for me. I think Travolta is the worst for me in that show. I just can't stop seeing him, and the weird voice and facial movements are horrendous.

Cuba Gooding Jr. is getting a little better as the show goes on, but it's still annoying seeing him as O.J. Simpson. He just doesn't look anything like him, and he's acting like a child at times. I don't remember ever seeing anything with O.J. being such a crybaby like that.

I'm a Redford fan, but this doesn't sound like my type of movie. I'll have to think about this one.

Rules, don't want to change the subject, but your comment about Katherine Ross playing a native American reminded me of another movie - it was The Far Horizons (1955) with Fred MacMurray & Charleton Heston as "Lewis & Clark" and (get this) Donna Reed as Sacajawea. There's probably no one more Caucasian looking than Donna Reed, but they had her slathered with make up trying to make her darker. In addition, it was completely historically inaccurate (with the gall to throw in romance between the men & their Indian guide).
On a trivial note it co-starred William Demarest who would spend much of his later career with Fred MacMurray on the TV series My Three Sons.

That's the point, isn't it? That we never saw 'the real OJ' or, rather, that we only saw the public face he showed to the outside world. That when everything was on his terms he was great, but that when it wasn't he became a self-entitled, whinging child who demanded that he got what he wanted and did whatever he could to make it so. Then it might've been a bit shocking, whereas now it's just how a lot of people are, isn't it? But now I'm just getting into my infantilised populace theory, so I'll stop before I really start... Like the child I am.

Sorry folks about the missing photos on Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (damn gremlins), you should be able to see them now. I don't think it would be your type of film. But it wasn't violent as far as westerns go. The violence was little and more like what you'd get in a 50s film, not like what is shown in a Spaghetti Western. That's probably why the movie isn't popular.

Donna Reed as an American Indian? That's so goofy, I have to see that myself. I never heard of The Far Horizons (1955) thanks for mentioning it. I like Donna Reed, Heston too and you say it has Uncle Charlie?...I have to add that one to my watch list

I couldn't bring myself to watching anything about OJ. I'm still bothered by the outcome of the murder trial.

The biggest problem with The Far Horizons is it's a movie about a historical event, but filled with historical inaccuracy. So if you view it, view it as pure fiction that utilizes the names of real historical figures. (I hate when Hollywood does that - if I watch a historical movie I want to learn something. Something factual, not a bunch of romance rubbish that never happened.) Although I seem to remember Uncle Charlie's performance as the rough & ready, no-nonsense Sgt. Gass was enjoyable.

Here's a photo (note Donna Reed's blue eyes!) ...hysterical.

Ha! That's bad! But I really like Donna Reed So one of these days I'll watch it.

There was a really well done documentary series about the Lewis & Clark expedition.
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997) by Ken Burns. It was originally shown on PBS. Have you seen it?

No, I'll have to look for it. I've enjoyed some of Ken Burns' docu's.
It's funny how the older I get, the more interested in history I become (whereas a couple decades ago I'd cringe at the idea of watching a documentary about Lewis & Clark.)

I don't really know who the "real" O.J. is, but he always seemed angry in the media, not whiny.

I think most of us are still bothered by the outcome of O.J.'s trial, but it's even worse when you realize how much evidence they had against him, and that he still got away with it.

It's the constant battle between law and justice.

The Getaway (1972)
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writers: Walter Hill(screenplay), Jim Thompson(novel)
Cast: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Sally Struthers, Ben Johnson
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Length: 2hours 2minutes

An ex-con who's fresh out of prison, Doc McCoy (Steve McQueen) is 'asked' to pull a bank robbery by a corrupt Sheriff in exchange for paroling Doc from prison. After the heist goes bad the robbers go their separate ways. Doc teams up with his loyal wife (Ali MacGraw), and they go on the lamb from both the law and the corrupt Sheriff and his syndicate friends that planned the robbery.

This is a pretty wild movie for the time! It reminded me of an early version of Pulp Fiction, in that it has a sleazy, yet fun feel to it. Some of the scenes seemed almost like a cheesy, 70s porn movie Though nothing naughty actually happens, but it sure is eluded too. Some of the scenes with Sally Struthers doing things with the barrel of the gun and a spare rib, was pretty darn weird. But this is a PG movie so it's all done suggestively.


The Getaway spawned a number of similar, male-female criminals, on the run type movies: Dirty Mary Crazy Larry(1974), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) to name a few. This was one of the first and certainly stands out by itself as being original.

Steve McQueen was the ultimate bad boy in the late 60s-70s and here he's bad to the bone. This is a quintessential role for Steve and one that he would play over and over again. McQueen has prescience, you know when he's on the screen...Usually he doesn't say much, he doesn't need to. If you've never seen him in action this is a good film to start with.

Ali MacGraw...has got to be the world's worst actress. She blows every time I've seen her and here, in The Getaway, is no exception. She just plain can't act. Strangely enough her flatly delivered lines adds to the oddly camp feeling of the movie.

On the other hand a scantly clad Sally Struthers is like a roman candle, lighting up each scene she's in. She's deliciously colorful as the bored girlfriend of a veterinarian who's been kidnapped by one of the robbers.


The Getaway is a little known gem of pseudo kink and showy violence with an all out anarchistic flair.

Attachments