Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

It would probably be worth watching just for Sybil Danning.

Don't know if you ever saw any of the Lou Ferrigno Hercules movies (1983 & 1985) - they are awful... except for the women, and Sybil Danning steals the show in the first one.



These Hercules movies wouldn't have been so bad if not for making every monster some weird, mechanical, Transformers-looking thing. That along with some of the "special effects" killed them. Otherwise, Ferrigno looked great (although his voice is dubbed), and the scantily clad, unbelievably beautiful women throughout both movies are the only redeeming features.

OH! I need to watch Hercules! Yeah she was hot in Battle Beyond the Stars. Richard Thomas said she kept popping out of her skimpy costume and they had to tape her in.

Those 2 Hercules movies are so ridiculous that I hunch over laughing. I like the effects, too! Cool colors. Botch job masking but still zany and inspired and, oh yeah, breasts. Like Tina Turner said at the end of that Resilience panty hose commercial, "IIIIII Love it!!"

They do fall into the range of being "so bad, they're good." If MST3K was still around, those movies would make perfect fodder. I love when Ferrigno is fighting the great bear: stock footage of lone grizzly bear, then Ferrigno fighting a guy in a really bad fur suit, then stock footage of the grizzly again by itself, then Ferrigno fighting guy in suit - then Lou hurls a stuffed teddy bear doll into space forming the constellation Ursa Major!

Director: Claudia Weill
Writers: Claudia Weill & Vicki Polon
Cast: Melanie Mayron, Anita Skinner, Eli Wallach, Adam Cohen
Genre: Drama Comedy

A simple tale of a young New York City woman (Melanie Mayron) struggling to make ends meet as a photographer...And her best friend (Anita Skinner) who shares her apartment. When her roommate leaves to get married she is stuck without enough money and finds her married friend no longer has time for her.

Stanley Kurbrick in an interview said of Girlfriends, “I think one of the most interesting American films...that I’ve seen in a long time is Claudia Weill’s ‘Girlfriends.’ That film, I thought, was one of the very rare American films that I would compare with the serious, intelligent, sensitive writing and filmmaking that you find in the best directors in Europe.”

I should have liked this film better, but I was luke warm on it. For me it took over 30 minutes to get a handle on the characters personalities and where the film was taking them. That's a long time to warm up to the film. I did warm up to it, but not completely as it's not a 'nice looking' film cinematographiclly speaking. The film is composed of mostly close focused interior shots. The actors faces fill the frame, which gave the film a claustrophobic look. There's very few shots that tell a story with their composition, this is a dialogue heavy film, composition and camera work isn't it's strong point.

At times the film felt choppy in the scene edits. Which I suppose is OK for the 'you are there' feeling that the film goes for. And it that aspect it feels like we're there listing in on the conversations of two real people. The problem was I didn't really care about the lead character played by Melanie Mayron. I liked her in small doses in other movies, but not so much as a lead.

But if you like 'honest cinema', whatever that means...then this seldom seen film should be a treat.

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I haven't seen Battle Beyond the Stars, and I like both Richard Thomas and Robert Vaughn, but I don't think I've ever seen John Saxon in anything good.

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SHOUT FACTORY just released both of these on blu ray. We should all watch them and review them. You, @Citizen Rules and myself.

It's ironic that this film is centered on a grown up Rusty Griswold since in the Chevy Chase movies, Rusty never ages and is played by a different actor in all four films.

From what you've said about this movie, it sounds pretentious and boring.

I personally wouldn't say the movie was pretentious, as they don't talk about anything high-falutin...but I don't think you would like it. I was luke warm to it myself. But still a good film.

Ha, yup...John Saxon wasn't known for being in great movies. If you like Star Wars and I know you'll do, you might get a kick out of seeing a 'take on it'...

While the City Sleeps (1956)
Director: Fritz Lang
Writers: Casey Robinson (screenplay), Charles Einstein (novel)
Cast: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Sally Forrest, John Barrymore Jr.
Genre: Drama


Not a Film-Noir, 1956's While The City Sleeps, is a slick and sophisticated story of cut throat newspaper men and women, who are using a serial killer murders to promote their own careers in the news business. The movie is like a cross between The Front Page (1931) and a Douglas Sirk movie...the result is an in-depth study of the inter relationships between a half dozen people, some who are really do to anything to get ahead in the news business.

Director Fritz Lang called this his favorite of the movies he made in America. Sadly it doesn't always get the respect it deserves as many people watch it expecting a dark gritty film noir, and that's just not what the film is about...it's technically a melodrama that's meant to look and feel real.

Part of the problem was in the marketing. Look at those two posters side by side at the top of this review. The one on the left clearly gives the impression that this is a edgy film noir, while the one on the left is much more in tune with the movie. Regardless of the posters, this is an excellent movie, and so complex in it's inter connection between the characters that it takes a second or even third viewing to appreciate the genius that is this film.

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have not seen, or even heard of this one, but, yeah, just by the cast alone, it looks like a very good movie to see.
Definitely will be putting this on watchlist. THANKS CR!

I'd be surprised if it didn't show up on the countdown. Of course when it does, you know what I'll say

just looked, it wasn't on the 50's Countdown, making it more of a lost gem

Director: Sophie Barthes
Writers: Felipe Marino & Sophie Barthes (screenplay) Gustave Flaubert (novel)
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Ezra Miller, Paul Giamatti
Genre: Literary Drama

"Bored with her marriage to a simply country doctor and stifled by life in a small country town, the restless Emma Bovary pursues her dreams of passion and excitement, with lavish spending and affairs."

Madam Bovary is based on the classic 1856 French novel by famed author Gustave Flaubert and is directed by a relative newcomer to film, Sophie Barthes. The director takes great care at creating the right atmosphere for a story that takes place among the French nobility in the middle of the 19th century.

Perhaps because the director is a woman there's a genuine focus on the personal limitations of Madame Bovary's life and the few choices that are open to a woman living in France in the mid 19th century. The director also contributed to the screenplay.

It's visually done well without ever going over the top. The same can be said for the script and directing it's all masterfully controlled, just like the controlled world of a rural French village in the mid 1800s. While I never read the novel, I get the feeling that the movie stays true to the novel's intent.

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I trust your opinion, so I added it to my watchlist. I don't have high expectations for it, but it won't be the first crappy John Saxon movie that I've watched, and I'm sure it won't be the last either.



I thought I saw While the City Sleeps when I was watching movies for the 1950s countdown because I watched a bunch of Dana Andrews movies, but it doesn't sound familiar, so I added it to my watchlist.

If you like Dana Andrews you should really like him in While the City Sleeps, he has a plum role. Vincent Price is also in it, but he doesn't get much air time. Though he and George Sanders make good use of what screen time they do have. I thought it was a pretty good film.

Director: Jack Clayton
Writers: Francis Ford Coppola(screenplay), F. Scott Fitzgerald(novel)
Cast: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black
Genre: Drama, Romance

1974's The Great Gatsby is one of five films based on the classic 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The first was a 1926 silent film, now lost. Then came Hollywood's attempt in 1949, a movie that I reviewed and found dismal. After this version, came a TV movie in 2000 and then the big budget Leonardo DiCaprio film in 2013. This 1974 version features two huge stars of the day, Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.


The screen play is credited to Francis Ford Coppola, who replaced Truman Capote. Interesting though Coppola himself says not much of his script made it into production:


The Great Gatsby (1974), is full of beautiful mansions and beautiful breezy costumes...and full of extras doing the Charleston. It looks great. In a way it's a film that's all dressed up and waiting for a spark to make it go...but that spark never comes.


Of course it's a poignantly sad story based on one of the 20th century beloved classics by F. Scott Fitzgerald...But boy did this film fall flat, mainly do to Robert Redford who's as wooden as can be in this. According to an interview with Mia Farrow, the pair had no chemistry as he spent every minute he could watching the unfolding Water Gate crisis on TV and so was emotionally un-invested in the film.

Mia Farrow as Daisy, was more spacey as in a space cadet...than a haughty near-do-well beauty. When combined with a wooden Robert Redford, nothing much happens with the couple. Sam Waterson was a bit better but the only main actors worth their chops was Bruce Dern and Karen Black. Watch this one for the glamorous sets.

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I've enjoyed everything I've seen with Mia so far and I'm sure she'd be excellent in such a film as Madame Bovary. Will have to check it out.
and, in case you ask, seen her in Defiance, the two Alice movies, Lawless, Crimson Peak and Only Lovers Left Alive.
I remember seeing The Great Gatsby as a kid on TV and thinking it was very, very slow and throughout the years thought I'd try again to understand and to see what I missed from the edited version on TV. I kind of wonder now.