Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Why do we love movies so much? Seems like a simply question, right? But think about it...why do us movie nuts devote so much time to watching, pondering and discussing movies?


I did some soul searching on that question and for me movies are like a time or travel machine. Through movies, one can image another life, getting a glimpse of what might have been if our lives had taken a different path. One can image what it would have been like to live hundreds of years ago or to see the wonders of the past world, or the amazement of future things to come.

For the time I'm watching a movie, my mind is there in the story. I'm experiencing in a small way, an out of body existences.

Does anyone else feel that way?

I love movies because they offer an escape from my boring life. Through movies, I get to experience the lives of others. I get all the love, laughs, heartache, fear, fantasies, and more, while staying safe at home. As you said, while I'm watching a movie, I get to know all the people, and become a part of their lives. If they're happy, then I'm happy. If they're sad, then I'm sad. Whatever happens to them, feels like it's happening to me.

Well said GBG. "Whatever happens to them, feels like it's happening to me."

I bet that's true for many movie fans. Perhaps those who don't like movies can't let themselves 'go' and can't emotionally connect to what their watching.

I'd say it's the artist, the dreamers and the romantics who can readily disembody their minds for the duration of the movie and live vicariously through the characters and narrative.

I wonder if some people lack the ability to place their mind in an abstract image that we call movies?

Look interesting !! curious to see that Thread !

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I love the emotional connection I feel from a really great movie. I think that is why I respond to character driven films so much. It gives me a chance for that connection. I love that a movie like that will make me think about it for a long time. I love when I can clearly relate a movies themes to real life. Anything that makes me ponder what it is saying to me for a period of time.

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I levitate towards character driven films too. Yet, I can enjoy in an aesthetic way, a movie heavy on cinematic looks. But those kind of films don't draw me in as much. I watch some strange movies but I bet we all do.

Yeah, there are always exceptions to every rule. I like the idea behind the thread Citizen, hopefully we can get some good conversations going.

So my first review here will be an OBSCURE film that I doubt anyone here has seen. But you guys constantly amaze me with your diversity in movie watching, so maybe you did see this?

Thanks Seanc!

I've never heard of the movie Swamp Fire. I've seen a couple of the old Tarzan movies, but that was so long ago that I don't even remember who played Tarzan in them. Many years ago, one of the local channels used to air them on Saturday afternoons along with the old Abbott & Costello movies.

GBG, I've been watching the Tarzan movie collection. Some are pretty good, some are goofy. The one's I'm watching are all Johnny Weissmuller he made 12 of them. That's why I watched Swamp Fire.
(Weissmuller) "Won 5 Olympic Gold Medals 1924-1928 for swimming. Broke the record in each race. From 1921-1929 he won every free style race he entered."

The movie itself was an Alpha video DVD. You guys ever watch those? Alpha videos are the best digital transfers around...not.

The picture that you posted above looks like the DVDs found in the dollar stores around here. They're usually public domain movies, so anyone can make a DVD and sell it. That's why the movie quality is usually pretty bad. It's usually a copy, of a copy ,of a copy, x number of times.

was a big fan of the weismuller/maureen o'hara Tarzan flicks as a kid. Like GBG, they played out on local channels back in the 70's along with abbott & costello (which i watched faithfully as a kid)
I'll have to keep an eye out for this movie; always enjoy a good oldie - or even a semi goodie for that matter.

As for you initial question, citizen: for me its really an enjoyment of the senses on a variety of levels. From emotional to the cerebral; when it comes to following the story line and, either guessing the outcome or hopping on and with hands in the air, riding the roller coaster of the movie. That includes enjoying the characters, the actors' performances, the director's influence, the way a scene unfolds, how the camera moves about and captures what we see. The enhancement of music, or the enhancement of sans music.
There is so much that a movie can offer on so many different levels for so many different reasons.
My question is: how can you NOT get excited about movies and get, happily, caught up in them?

Good post, Edarsenal, I like what you said about the various components of a movie that you can enjoy. Movies are much more than just acting or CG or camera work.

I usually can find something to like in a movie, even if it's just the sets done nicely by the Art Director or a certain performances.

The only movies I really dislike, are the one that I want to see the most. These have my highest expectations and so I hold them to a higher 'bar' than other movies. Then I'm often let down and usually it's the ending that fails my expectations.

I think one of the problems with reading reviews of classic movies is that they've gotten such great reputations over the years that it's hard for them to live up to that reputation. Usually when I watch a movie that I really wanted to see, I can appreciate that it's a good movie, but I can't see it for the brilliance that everyone else seems to see.

Maybe that's why most of the top movies in the 70s countdown aren't even on my list. Movies like Chinatown, Taxi Driver, The Godfather, etc., are all movies that I watched because they've been recommended so highly that I felt like I was missing something if I didn't see them. I consider them all to be great movies, but they may never make it onto my favorites list.

That could be true GBG.I just requested Chinatown which I've never seen, so it will be very interesting to see if it lives up to it's reputation.Most movies have some plot hole or unbelievable actions by a character. So I'll see how it goes.

But what I was meaning (but didn't write very well) was movies where there's a mystery like in Contact, and my imagination for what the movie will be is usually different than what the movie is. I'm sure Contact was a good movie but I 'dreamed' it bigger. If that makes senses?

Same thing happened with the movie I watched last night.

Never judge a movie by it's cover, that's what I did. I requested this from my library a couple months ago. I took one look at the cover and seen a young guy with an ax over his shoulder and said to myself, 'nope I'm not watching a slasher horror film.' So I never watched it.

But as fate would have it, this movie was discussed here. So once again I requested it. This time I watched it.
Donnie Darko is no horror film, it wasn't even particularly violent, at least in a gory way. This is more of a psychological Sci fi movie, akin to a 21st century Twilight Zone episode...punched up and brought to the big screen.

At the start I had an idea of what the movie might turn out to be. But the ending was completely different than what I had imaged. I liked it.

There's tons of Donnie Dark fans here. Or, at least, there used to be. I still think you'll find one or two, though.

BTW, Donnie Dark was listed as horror? There's another one for me to rail against.

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Honeykid did you see Donnie Darko? If so did you know beforehand what the movie was about? (same questions to anyone who's seen it)

I was impressed by the first part of the movie. It set up a mystery as to what the heck is wrong with Donnie? Or maybe he's fine? To me the mystery was the best part.

After they mentioned Donnie taking meds, I figured that the 6 foot tall, talking rabbit and cryptic messages of destruction would be, us the viewer, seeing through Donnie's eyes as if his hallucinations were real. I half expected the end to be an expose on a mass school shooting as seen inside-out, through the eyes of a deranged person.

Hitchcock and Rod Sterling would have liked Donnie Darko