Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

The Man from Earth (2007)

Director: Richard Schenkman
Writer: Jerome Bixby
Executive Producer: Emerson Bixby
Cast: David Lee Smith, Tony Todd, John Billingsley, Ellen Crawford, Annika Peterson, William Katt

A college professor feels it's time for him to leave his job and his life behind. He quits his position at the college and prepares to move away. His friends get together at a remote mountain cabin for a surprise goodbye party. As the evening progresses his friends begin to notice odd little things about him and question just why is it that he's leaving? Through out the evening he decides to tell an amazing story....he's actual a 14,000 year old man born during the Paleolithic stone age who doesn't age. He explains he has lived many lives and known many renowned people through out history and perhaps has shaped mankind's culture...or is he just spinning a tall tale?

The Man From Earth was written by the famous sci fi & Star Trek screen writer, Jerome Bixby. This is his last work. The film was made after his passing by his son Emerson Bixby who promised his father to be true to the story. Jerome Bixby also wrote the original Star Trek episode: Requiem for Methuselah, which has similarities to this film.

The Man From Earth is a small budget, Indie film. Shot on only one location, a remote cabin in the mountains. This is a dialogue rich, existential film about how people would treat a friend who they have learned is an immortal. A thought provoking study of human strengths and fears.

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I watched The Man from Earth a while back when it was recommended to me, (probably by you), and I thought it was a great movie. It's one of those movies that you keep thinking about long after the movie is over.

BTW, "Requiem for Methuselah" is one of my favorite "Star Trek" episodes.

It was me

I think about that movie too. So simply done with a limited budget and yet powerful.

I had never heard of The Man From Earth until recently when Neiba included it on his favorites list. It sounds like a very interesting movie. It's definitely on my watch list now.

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Captain if you watch it, I will look for your post on it. There was a couple of plot developments that I didn't like, but overall it was memorable. Different that's for sure.

Director: Steve De Jarnatt
Cast: David Andrews, Pamela Gidley, Melanie Griffith

A cult classic sci fi film made in 1985 but not shown in USA until 1988. Reportedly the film was held for release to cash in on Melanie Griffith's rising fame.

It's the year 2017, the distant future...(OK it seemed distant when this was made back in 1985). Cherry 2000 was an android pleasure model, nicknamed Cherry. Cherry (Pamela Gidley) is literally one of a kind having been made before the post apocalyptic war when manufacturing standards were high.


This guy Sam (David Andrews), a rich but lonely guy, had bought her and she was quite an expensive purchase too. I guess you could say he loved her. She loved him too, in an android type way. She tugs on his ear lobe and says in a sweet voice, 'I love you'. One day while getting busy on the kitchen floor she gets wet and blows out an android part (no kidding)... Sam forgot to keep her away from water and now she's broken.


Sam takes Cherry to the repair shop but is told because she's such a rare model, he'll have to buy a new android instead. Sam doesn't want a new model, he wants Cherry. The problem is a replacement Cherry 2000 can only be found in a lawless waste land, called Zone 7. So off Sam goes into the post apocalyptic sunset to get a replacement. Along the way he hires a rough and tumble tracker to help him, played by Melanie Griffith.... The girl tracker has the hots for Sam but he doesn't notice her. Later after riding around in her cool Mustang and rumbling with the local warlord...Sam has to decide between getting the part to fix Cherry or choosing Melanie Griffith. Hmmm tough choice...

Cherry 2000 is a fun, cult classic film. It might sound silly but it has lots of underpinnings of an economically depressed & fragmented society and explores the difficulties of male female relationships. The mid 1980s were a great time for Hollywood post apocalyptic movies. One thing is for sure you'll never look at Pepsi the same way.

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I saw Cherry 2000 back in the late 80's, but I don't remember it too well.

I don't remember it either. Just a feeling of disappointment.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

It's a fun, modest movie - one of my s.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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Never heard of Cherry 2000, but it looks entertaining.

Captain, Cherry 2000 sort of has the same vibe as Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983).

I wonder if the Tracker character played by a red haired Melanie Griffith was stylized after a version of Molly Ringwald's character Nikki in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone?

I grew up on 1980s sci fi, so it has a place in my heart even if it's not always perfect.

Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963)

Director: David Swift
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Carol Lynley, Dean Jones, Edie Adams
Writer: Lawrence Roman, (stage play & screenplay)


Jack Lemmon is Hogan a swinging bachelor and rich landlord of a swanking apartment complex. His tenants are all beautiful young women. Hogan is quite successful at romancing the ladies too...with one exception, the new tenant Robin (Carol Lynely). Robin has rented an apartment with her fiancee Dave (Dean Jones). Her plan is for them to live together without sex, to see if they are compatible. Her fiancee is not to happy about this arrangement. Hogan is infatuated with young Robin and tries to trick her into a dalliance with him. Comedy ensues.

Under the Yum Yum Tree is a hilarious comedy indicative of it's time. Women recently had started taking the birth control pill, ushering in the second sexual revolution. And Hugh Hefner had glorified the swinging bachelor lifestyle. Films like this one were ground breaking in dealing with sex outside of marriage. Jack Lemmon has his own swinging bachelor pad too that must be seen to believed...it's decked out with remote control candles and stereo violins.

Lemmon is in top form in this movie, as is Disney movie veteran Dean Jones. Carol Lynely shines as the young idealistic woman. Edie Adams is just marvelous in this, so is Paul Lynde and Imogene Coca.

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Under the Yum Yum Tree is on my watchlist for the 1963 movies, and it sounds like my kind of movie. I'm a fan of both Jack Lemmon and Dean Jones, so I'm really looking forward to this movie.

Hey GBG, thanks for telling me about this movie! If it wasn't for this site and your suggestion I might never have seen it. It's pretty darn funny too. I hadn't seen much of Dean Jones but he's really good at comedy. I had just seen Edie Adams in the Cinderella 1957. She's just way funny in this. I have to see more of Edie's work. I just found out she had a TV series.

This is from IMDB trivia:

"In order to help his friend Edie Adams out financially, after the sudden death of her husband ('Ernie Kovacs') left her debt-ridden, star/co-producer Jack Lemmon not only insisted upon hiring her for this film, but further insisted that her part be expanded considerably from the original stage play to give her more work."

I haven't seen that, sounds really interesting. Jerome Bixby wrote my most favourite SF short story - It's a Good Life.

Christine, I had to look up It's a Good Life...but now I remember it...


That was the most down right terrifying episode of the original Twilight Zone series. No wonder they redid that story in The Twilight Zone movie.

If you watch The Man From Earth, please post your thoughts on my thread. Even if you hate it, that's OK, I just really want to know what other people's impression is of the movie.

I watched Under the Yum Yum Tree a couple of days ago, but I haven't had time to post about it yet.

It was a cute movie, but not as good as I had hoped. It's certainly not the best for either Jack Lemmon or Dean Jones. The acting was great, but there were some big name stars who seemed to be wasted in the movie, like Paul Lynde, Imogene Coca, Robert Lansing, and there was even a small cameo by Bill Bixby.

It had some laughs, but no real big ROTFLMBO laughs. It's worth watching, but it's not likely to make my top ten list for 1963, (however, Jack Lemmon's Irma la Douce has a good chance).



Maybe it just paled in comparison to the other movie that I watched that night, The Thrill of It All starring James Garner and Doris Day, which had me ROTFLMBO.

Solaris (1972)

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Writers: Stanislaw Lem...novel. Fridrikh Gorenshteyn...screenplay.
Cast: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet
Length: 2 hours 46 minutes
Language: Russian, English sub titles.

A Russian psychologist is reluctantly sent to a USSR space station that orbits a planet of a distant star. His mission is to find out what caused the former crew of the space station to go insane. On the space station he encounters elements from his own past that might be connected to an alien intelligence...Citizen Rules

Solaris is an intriguing, psychological sci fi drama. It's worth watching...but be forewarned it's long with slow paced scenes. The slow pacing is intentional, it sets a reflective, pensive mood that starts with the opening shots and stays through to the end. Don't expect sci-fi gadgetry or action, Solaris is not that kind of film.

The film starts off with a beautifully filmed sequence in the Russian country side, the cinematography is breathtaking. The actor who played Berton the pilot was skilled at conveying a sense of uneasiness over what he had witnessed years ago in the Solaris ocean. This part riveted me.

Then there's a long car ride scene down a freeway into the city. The director was given permission to leave the Soviet Union to film at the Worlds Fair in Japan but missed the fair by days. Most likely the freeway scene is in the film to justify the expense of his trip to the Soviet film board.


The actor who played Kris Kelvin was stoic, as were most of the male actors in the film. However that might accurately reflect Soviet society in the early 1970s. I liked the actress who played Hari. Her character's vulnerability and neediness as a 'created copy' of a woman who had committed suicide 10 years earlier was the best part of the film. She brought dimension into her character.

Hari is fragile, even pitiful...she's utterly dependent on Kris. She doesn't own herself or her emotions. At first her existences is defined by a childlike dependence on Kris.


The scene on the station where Kris leaves Hari in the room by herself and she panics at the separation, forcing herself through an aluminum door, horribly gashing her arms, was one of the films most powerful moments.

I won't reveal the ending, I will say it's done in a poetic, metaphysical style.

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I haven't seen the 1972 version of Solaris, but I love the remake with George Clooney. I've tried to watch the 1972 version a few times, but I haven't been able to sit through the whole movie for some reason.

I've heard a lot of great reviews of the 1972 version, so I'll have to keep trying. I think it will be worth it.

GBG, You'll probably remember that I seen the George Clooney version first and I really like it too. Except for the ending which we talked about before.

The 1972 version REALLY requires the viewer's full attention. To get the most out of the film one needs to watch it twice. I've only seen it once. I need to rewatch it.