Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Okay, my point is i don't get why a movie/show telling you someone is that smart is enough, there's no effort in A Beautiful Mind to actually show us Nash is smart there's just flying equations and to you that means it's something we don't understand rather than a bad portrayal of intelligence like it should, IMO.

You should look into John Nash think you have the complete wrong idea about him.

That's fine. Sorry, not trying to be forceful just enjoyed talking to you

No, I think I get it. His intelligence is only one part of him. It's also about his schizophrenia, and how he learned to live with it.

I didn't know much about him before I watched the movie, but I read a little bit about him after I watched it.

It's been fun, and educational.

But it's time for me to go to sleep. I have to get up early tomorrow, and if I go to sleep now, I might be able to get about 4 hours of sleep.

Good Night.

Good night.

Gonna delete some of my posts in a way that makes it look like you were harassing me so Citizen doesn't kill me for what we did to his thread

Eddie and the Cruisers is not a well made movie. It's like a 90 minute musical version of the TV show TJ Hooker. Only instead of William Shatner as a cop, we get Michael Paré as the sneering, growling leader of a rock band, who turns his character into a one dimensional parody.

It's like the director didn't give a crap about production values either. I'd compare this to an old Ed Wood movie, but that wouldn't be fair to Ed Wood. At least Ed had interesting subjects, but here we get a hackneyed story with so many plot holes that I didn't care who was breaking into their homes, or where the missing music tapes, from A Season In Hell album were at....And who thought of that name? A Season in Hell, that made me laugh it sounded so corny.


The acting, if you can call it that was horrible. Some of the lines delivered by the actors were out right flat.

I could tell this was a lower budget movie by the way the stage performances were filmed. All the actors were crammed together on what was suppose to be a stage, but looked like a raised platform in the studio. I knew the director had no clue what he was doing, when I noticed he had EVERYONE smoking, and ALL the time. Usually smoking scenes are done to add something to the movie or it tells us something about the characters or what their emotions at the moment.

The director had no clue on how to handle this film. None of the scenes set in 1963 looked any different than the scenes in 1983, it's like they didn't even bother to try. And the editing between the flashbacks was poor too.

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Director: Karel Reisz
Writer: Robert Getchell
Cast: Jessica Lange, Ed Harris, Ann Wedgeworth
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music


I had high hopes for this bio pic about the legendary country singer Patsy Cline. Sadly any type of a moving story never materialized, thanks to a lack luster script. While the two leads, Jessica Lange and Ed Harris are up for the project, they are literally left high and dry by a script that doesn't know how to bring the characters to life and fails to take us along for the meteoric ride that was Patsy Cline's life.

Unlike the bio pic about Loretta Lynn - Coal Miner's Daugher, a movie that stirred the emotions while making us feel we were watching a special person's career unfold before our eyes....Sweet Dreams ...doesn't do that. Largely the scenes are filler material that don't move the story forward or build the character into a three dimensional person. The scenes never give us deep insight into Patsy Cline. What we get is a bunch of rehashed fightin', boozin', singin' scenes that begin to blur after awhile.


I never felt like I was part of Patsy Cline's life story, I never really cared about her or her music...and yet she obviously had a dramatic life story that needed to be told...Patsy Cline was one of the great country singers...but I would never know that from this movie.

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Director: John Huston
Writers: Benedict Fitzgerald (screenplay), Flannery O'Connor (novel)
Cast: Brad Dourif, John Huston, Dan Shor, Harry Dean Stanton, Amy Wright
Genre: Drama

Synopsis: A young, poor man returns to his family farm in the south, only to discover the family is gone and the house is in ruins. Determined to make something of himself he heads to a nearby town and buys a new suit...which people mistake as a preachers suit. The young man is angry about religion as his father was a 'fire and brimstone' preacher. He tells everyone he's not a preacher, but ends up preaching his own strange brand of religion on the street corner. CR

Review: This is one helluva weird film! It's directed by John Houston and based on a novel by the satirical fiction writer Flannery O'Connor. Made on a shoe string budget. The film feels like it's set in the Depression era, and the characters act like that, only it's a contemporary setting.



Brad Dourif is the real draw here. After his break out role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest where he played a gentle natured mental patient, he went on to do many smaller supporting roles, but this is one of his few starring roles. And he commands the screen with his fiery presences and steely cold eyes.

The story is ecliptic, with a capital E. None of the characters are particular likable...but they are sure colorful! Wise Blood is a film that once seen is not soon forgotten.

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That's why I always quote the post that I'm responding to when I reply. You can't delete your quoted post from my post.

I have to disagree with you about Eddie and the Cruisers. While I agree that there were technical issues with this movie, I thought it was an entertaining movie. I thought the story was interesting and the music was good. In fact, even though it's not normally my type of music, this is one of the few movies that I bought the soundtrack almost immediately after the first time I saw the movie.

I also watched the sequel recently, and while it wasn't as good as the first movie, I still thought it was an enjoyable movie.

This movie and The Buddy Holly Story both tell the tale of, 'the day the music died'...That fateful day, February 3 1959, was the day that a plane crash took the lives of three of the great 1950's Rock n Rollers: Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. Sadly no one has made a movie about the life of The Big Bopper.


I really enjoyed this film. It pulled me into the story of the Valenzuela family, and I cared about what happened to them. The story of the hardworking mom and her two sons: the older troubled brother and the younger brother, who dreamed of making music and escaping poverty was a powerful story and the writer/director told the story well!

The interracial dating sub story was also handled well and quite heartbreaking too. The actress who played his girlfriend strongly resembled the real sunny haired blonde that was Ritchie's dream girl.

I watched a mini-documentary about the making of La Bamba and the director of the movie worked very closely with Ritchie Valens family, the Valenzuela's who were usually on the set during shooting. The movie is faithful to the actual events of 17 year old Ritchie Valens life. I never knew much about him or his music and this movie really gave me a new appreciation for his music.

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You are doing the music biopic marathon!
(Have you ever seen Kurt Russell as Elvis?)

That's a 3 minute video of Jack Black begging Led Zeppelin to use their Immigrant Song in the movie. It was an extra on the DVD of School of Rock. So watch it already and try and tell me that this guy doesn't have a passion for music!....I'll wait for you, then when you're done, come on back and read the rest of my lil' review.





Jack Black is the man! I mean that in a good way, not like stick it to the man, ha...but like THE MAN. The guy is funny, and to be really funny you have to be really talented. He's got the same natural talent as Jim Carrey.

About the only thing I've seen him in that was serious was Dead Man Walking (1995) and King Kong (2005). In King Kong I thought he knocked it out of the ball park and his role made the movie. I wish Jack could get some more serious roles too, because like Jim Carrey I think he can pull off drama very well.

So I really, liked School of Rock, and what a fun movie! The fact that it was PG and relied on actual humor and not crudeness, proves that humor can be done without shock value. Amen!

Jack as a goofy, going-nowhere rocker dude posing as a substitute teacher was great fun...and it worked! The whole idea of breaking the rules and doing what's really important in life resonated with me (why couldn't my teachers have been so cool?)


Loved Joan Cusack as the wound-up, up-tight principal. I'm sooooo glad they didn't do the cliche thing and have her be a super nemesis to Jack Black. Same thing with the little girl Summer. I though for sure she was going to be the ultimate heavy and snitching on Jack Black, but the film didn't go there...it didn't go all atypical with pot boiler characters. I liked everything about this film, it made me happy.

++

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No I haven't seen that one. Is it any good? I like Kurt Russell and I like Elvis, but do the two mix?

Director: Milos Forman
Writers: Peter Shaffer (stage play), Peter Shaffer (screenplay)
Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Jeffrey Jones
Genre: Biography, Drama, History

It was 30 years ago, that I last watched Amadeus. I remember liking it, and that's all I remember. Over the years I've heard the film being discussed, and wondered if I would still feel the same way about it.

Three hours! That's how long this movie is...I watched the extended Director's Cut and it had an extra 20 minutes included, making for a 180 minute movie...And I loved all 180 minutes! What a well crafted story Amadeus is.


The juxtaposition of Salieri, a man who makes a vow to his God, so that he can become a musical virtuoso...and Mozart, a musical genius who's vulgar to the nth degree, but seems to make music that is otherworldly and inspired by God himself.


F. Murray Abraham was amazing in this. He made the film great. I loved the framing of the movie with an elderly Salieri who's utterly defeated with his battle with God, definitely telling the priest his life's story. We see how circumstance and self servitude destroys Salieri.

At times I thought the actor who played Mozart, Tom Hulce was quite good, at other times I thought he seemed to much an imbecile to be a genius. But that's the point of the movie...that a man who acted like an idiot was given an amazing gift of music that was beyond the makings of a mere man....while the self righteous and pious Salari wallowed in meritocracy...as he was slowly drive mad by the his Mozart, a man who he both admired and hated. What a beautifully written story.


I quite like the Emperor played by Jeffrey Jones. I like the way he said "well, there it is", when he made a decision, what a great line! On the other hand I did not like the actress who played Mozart's wife. She was way too modern in the way she talked. She took me right out of Vienna 1823 and made me think I was watching someone from a 1980's TV show.

But luckily she's not the biggest part of the movie and I still was wowed by it. Part of that wow came from the sets, wow and double wow. I mean just look at those rooms with the gold gilt trim and the decadently beautiful furniture What a stunning looking film and a Greek tragedy to boot. That's my kind of movie!

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It was a made-for-TV movie shortly after Elvis died. But Kurt Russell was one part outstanding as Elvis and one part shocking because you're going "That's Kurt Russell!"
I thought it was great, but I am only remembering it with an adolescent mind.

Ironically, here's Kurt meeting the real Elvis (in It Happened At The World’s Fair):


And here's Kurt AS Elvis:

Was that THEY John Carpenter that made that? I have got to see that one.

Loved the music! it's right up my alley. I was even thinking about getting a CD of the soundtrack. I loved seeing the streets of Dublin, with the very realistic urban decay. I loved the way this was film, especially the stage shows which looked authentic. I still don't know if The Commitments are real or actors or what? I seen the bands name credited on some of the songs in the closing credits, but were they in the movie? Or were those actors?


It's a good thing this movie has a great soundtrack and is visually unique as I couldn't connect to the characters, which meant I didn't care about them. That's mostly due to the strong accents, I must have only understood about half of what was said. I thought about putting on subtitles, but then again do I really need to read F*** 169 times, I don't think so.

It's like there's a great idea here, but not much story or character development, so in lieu of that the film makers have the band members fighting, and fighting...and bickering and screaming at each other! All this conflict for entertainment's sake, reminded me of Withnail & I (1987), a film I hated.

Luckily the music makes the movie and who ever performed the songs were amazing! I really liked the music!

No argument that the accents were distracting but I LOVED this movie...it was my # 1 vote for the Hall of Fame.

Agree with every word you said about this movie...it was a steaming pile of crap.