Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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Oh yes - I had a bit of a crush on Mary in this movie (and others)! She has a sweetness in her eyes when she smiles that's hard to describe.
She's usually the highlight for me in any movie she's in. I really haven't seen her in much and should make a point to do a Mary Steenburgen movie marathon! I've seen these and really liked the movies and her in it.
Melvin and Howard
Cross Creek
Parenthood (of course)
Back to the Future Part III

One thing I could never figure out: Tom Hulce - he had such a huge hit with Amadeus (1985) - another great movie - that I thought his career would skyrocket after the movie won Best Picture - but it just seemed to fizzle as he never went beyond bit parts.
Yeah I wonder why his career just fizzled out? Maybe he was meant to be only one of those background characters that a person see's in movies but never really pays attention to them...but then he got lucky with Amadeus.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
[center]
Back to the Future (1985)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi


++
People at work have told my I look like Biff Tannen.






People here tell me I look like Ron Perlman.



__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews



Originally Posted by Citizen Rules;2
:(063271
You do! Hey Biff make sure and put two coats of wax on my car!
"Darth Vader came down from Planet Vulcan and told me if I don't ask Lorraine to the dance, he'll melt my brain."



Judy (2019)
Director: Rupert Goold
Writers: Tom Edge (screenplay), Peter Quilter (based on the stageplay)
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock
Genre: Bio Pic


Renee Zellweger won a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Judy Garland in the 2019 bio pic, Judy.

I sometimes seen Judy Garland while watching this Best Actress nomination but sometimes I seen Bette Midler...weird I know! I guess Renee looked like Judy as much as any actress could. And I'd give the make-up people an Oscar for their efforts. But I'm not sure if I 'seen' Judy in Renee's performance as much as I had wanted to.

I've seen a lot of Judy Garland films that's for sure, but who cares, that doesn't mean I know who the real Judy was. In fact I don't know who she was and either do you...unless of course Liza is reading this. But I do know I've watched a lot of her live interviews in the 1960s and one thing that struck me about her was that she was a very needy person. She'd physical cling to people around her as if she was drowning and they were a life-preserver. It's like she just wanted to be loved and craved affection, not attention, but affection...and I didn't see that aspect of Judy in this film.



What I did see was a nice tribute to Judy and kudos to Renee for singing, she did an excellent job here. But...I asked myself one question before writing this review: What if there had been no Judy Garland and this was a fictional movie about a child star from the 1930s who grew up and had all sorts of problems. And if this was a fictional movie, then my review would strictly be about the entertainment value of this film. And when I think about the quality of the movie, sans the allure of Judy Garland, then the movie itself just wasn't all that great. I never felt like I seen the soul of Judy.


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Judy (2019)
Director: Rupert Goold
Writers: Tom Edge (screenplay), Peter Quilter (based on the stageplay)
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock
Genre: Bio Pic


Renee Zellweger won a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Judy Garland in the 2019 bio pic, Judy.

I sometimes seen Judy while watching this Best Picture nomination but sometimes I seen Bette Midler...weird I know! I guess Renee looked like Judy as much as any actress could. And I'd give the make-up people an Oscar for their efforts. But I'm not sure if I 'seen' Judy in Renee's performance as much as I had wanted to.

I've seen a lot of Judy Garland films that's for sure, but who cares, that doesn't mean I know who the real Judy was. In fact I don't know who she was and either do you...unless of course Liza is reading this. But I do know I've watched a lot of her live interviews in the 1960s and one thing that struck me about her was that she was a very needy person. She'd physical cling to people around her as if she was drowning and they were a life-preserver. It's like she just wanted to be loved and craved affection, not attention, but affection...and I didn't see that aspect of Judy in this film.



What I did see was a nice tribute to Judy and kudos to Renee for singing, she did an excellent job here. But...I asked myself one question before writing this review: What if there had been no Judy Garland and this was a fictional movie about a child star from the 1930s who grew up and had all sorts of problems. And if this was a fictional movie, then my review would strictly be about the entertainment value of this film. And when I think about the quality of the movie, sans the allure of Judy Garland, then the movie itself just wasn't all that great. I never felt like I seen the soul of Judy.


Wow, we have completely different feelings abut this movie.



Wow, we have completely different feelings abut this movie.
I'm going to try and watch all the Best Picture Nominated films for the last Oscars.
Just so you know, this wasn’t nominated for Best Picture, only best actress for Zellweger.



Just so you know, this wasn’t nominated for Best Picture, only best actress for Zellweger.
Thanks ahwell, I didn't know that. I don't follow new films at all, but I thought I'd try and watch some of them...I'll go and edit my review.



...
What I did see was a nice tribute to Judy and kudos to Renee for singing, she did an excellent job here. But...I asked myself one question before writing this review: What if there had been no Judy Garland and this was a fictional movie about a child star from the 1930s who grew up and had all sorts of problems. And if this was a fictional movie, then my review would strictly be about the entertainment value of this film. And when I think about the quality of the movie, sans the allure of Judy Garland, then the movie itself just wasn't all that great. I never felt like I seen the soul of Judy.
Yeah, Zellweger and the writers pretty well missed Garland's personality. But Zellweger did a decent impression of Garland's movements while singing. Otherwise it was simply Zellweger playing Zellweger's impression of Garland.



Never heard of it. Interesting though.

Rainbow was terrible but the 2001 mini-series Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows with Judy Davis and Tammy Blanchard as Judy, Victor Garber as Sid Luft, and Hugh Laurie as Vincente Minnelli is absolutely superb. Davis and Blanchard both won Emmys for their work.




The Big Country (William Wyler,1958)

Director: William Wyler
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charleston Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford
Genre: Western Drama Romance
Length: 2h 45min


About
: A wealthy, former sea captain from New England travels to the west to marry a woman he had meant on the east coast. There he finds his ethics and sensibilities in conflict with the brutish nature of the open range


Awesome film...it has everything I could want in a film:



Superb story telling of a big story arch that encompasses idealism, romance, individuality and action too....All done with characters who act and speak in-accordance with their established personalities and back story. In other words they act real and have real convictions, which gives each of the characters real motivation for doing what they do.

Breathtaking cinematography
, Wow! does this film look great! It's the gorgeous shooting locations, like the open vast prairie that fills the screen, or the stark white of Blanco Canyon...and the Terrill mansion! Was that cool looking or what?....And the camera work itself takes full advantage of this epic vastness. This should have won the Oscar for best cinematography.

Majestic music score, Right off the bat I noticed how special the music score was. It never over powered the film but really added to the epic feel of the movie. I loved it...and the score was nominated for an Oscar too.

Great Performances, Gregory Peck is the man! The more I see of him, the more I like him. He co-produced the film along with William Wyler and his personal style is apparent. I thought all the actors did a top notch job, especially Burl Ives who was a powerhouse, he gave one of the most powerful speeches I've seen done. Burl Ives did win a well deserved Oscar for best supporting actor.




Parting thoughts, At 2 hours and 45 minutes, this is a long movie, but the time flew by! There was always something going on that furthered the story and the character arcs.....I do believe I have a new Top 10 Favorite!

Just finished watching the restored version on BluRay, wow epic! wth kinda camera did they use?, those were some of the widest best looking cinematic shots I've seen in a while. Loved it!



Just finished watching the restored version on BluRay, wow epic! wth kinda camera did they use?, those were some of the widest best looking cinematic shots I've seen in a while. Loved it!
So cool that you could see a BluRay version of The Big Country! I'm jealous

I don't know what type of camera they used, but as it was a late 1950s film, it had to been shot in extra wide format, so maybe like Panavison or Cinemascope? Glad to hear there's another fan of this wonderful western drama! It's in my Top 10 profile.

Geez all of my photos are missing from my review, I'll have to fix that.



So cool that you could see a BluRay version of The Big Country! I'm jealous

I don't know what type of camera they used, but as it was a late 1950s film, it had to been shot in extra wide format, so maybe like Panavison or Cinemascope? Glad to hear there's another fan of this wonderful western drama! It's in my Top 10 profile.

Geez all of my photos are missing from my review, I'll have to fix that.
I'm in the list section, scratched it off the MofoTop 100 of the 1950s but to my surprise it's not on the BFI Screen Guide's 100 Westerns.



Just finished watching the restored version on BluRay, wow epic! wth kinda camera did they use?, those were some of the widest best looking cinematic shots I've seen in a while. Loved it!

I didn't like it as much as you did, but it is a good movie.



I'm in the list section, scratched it off the MofoTop 100 of the 1950s but to my surprise it's not on the BFI Screen Guide's 100 Westerns.
I'm not a real fan of the BFI's 100 Western list, though it does have some great westerns on it.



I'm not a real fan of the BFI's 100 Western list, though it does have some great westerns on it.
Agreed same here, the mofo list will probably be much better. (I hope)




Joker (2019)
Director: Todd Phillips
Writers: Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Brilliant first hour! The film held me spellbound like few films do. I was very focused on the story of the mentally ill Arthur Fleck and his continual downward spiral into something very dark and disturbing. And yet I liked Arthur, or at least I had great sympathy for him. In the first hour of the film three key ingredients came together: a disturbing story of the ultimate underdog...and a music score that accentuated the emotions of the scenes...and the third key component is Joaquin Phoenix who in my opinion is the best actor working today. Phoenix is able to dive into his roles and bring a resonances that makes us believe his angst, even when his character is unsavory as is the Joker. That first hour gets a 5/5+ rating. And Phoenix well deserved the Oscar for Best Actor.

However, and you know there had to be a however! Like most all blockbuster Hollywood movies Joker goes to far over the top and lost it's balance in my eyes in the second half. The first killings in the subway was justifiable (in movie standards) as Arthur had just been attacked and beaten. But the next two killings were more for shock value and gore and lost any empathy I had for the character. I get it that the target audience like that type of shock/gore, but it's too bad because what I seen building in the first hour was washed away by the super-hero movie craze of the second half.

Don't get me wrong there was still moments of genius in the second half but to much of it relayed on Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1982). I couldn't believe how similar the two were. Now if someone tells me the director/writer Todd Phillips was a fan of The King of Comedy and was paying homage to it...then cool. But otherwise it looks pretty close to plagiarisms to me. Maybe not by legal standards but as far as creative script writing goes, pffft.

I rate the second half at 3/5

I'll balance out the two ratings and my official rating:

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