Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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Nice review! I find this to be a really effective slow-burner. I think this movie works so well because it's slow and drawn out. It makes it feel like Christina is stuck in a never ending nightmare. I felt her distress throughout the picture, and this constant slow-burning tension is what makes the climax so terrifying and unexpected.

Regarding Clouzot, have you seen The Wages of Fear? I watched it a month ago, and I also loved it.
Thanks! Glad you liked the review. I use to do a review a day, because I watch a film day, but lately I haven't had the time to do them. Maybe I'll do more.

You're so right, it's a slow burner and it never spoon feeds the audience, instead it lets us go along for the ride and that's the kind of film I like.

No, I haven't seen The Wages of Fear but people seem to really think highly of it. Good to know that there's another vote for it. One of these days I'll get to it.



Thanks! Glad you liked the review. I use to do a review a day, because I watch a film day, but lately I haven't had the time to do them. Maybe I'll do more.

You're so right, it's a slow burner and it never spoon feeds the audience, instead it lets us go along for the ride and that's the kind of film I like.

No, I haven't seen The Wages of Fear but people seem to really think highly of it. Good to know that there's another vote for it. One of these days I'll get to it.
Yeah, it's becoming harder and harder for me to do a movie a day as well, especially with college.

Hopefully, you enjoy The Wages of Fear btw!
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The trick is not minding
I recently watched Diabolique for the Halloween Challenge. I didn’t love it as much as you, but I agree with the hitchcockian vibe. Considering it from the same director as Le Corbeau, which I loved, it makes sense.
To be honest, I was disappointed with what felt a bit of a rushed ending and the wife’s acting at times.
Simone Signoret was great though.
It may benefit from a rewatch sometime I guess.



Gee, Officer Krupke! ...was hilarious, loved the way it was staged and loved the lyrics to the song, very clever.
.....Gee, Officer Krupke, Krup you!
Ha! that cracked me up.
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra




Blue Ruin (2013)
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Writer: Jeremy Saulnier
Cast: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves
Genre: Crime Drama


Hell yeah! Gotta love a movie with Jan Brady toting a Tec 10 semi auto, like some backwoods survivalist in a modern day Hatfield and McCoy feud...I didn't even know Eve Plumb was in the movie and then the credits rolled, good thing I watched them as otherwise I'd never had spotted her.

I should probably hate this movie, but hot damn I really liked it. Right at the get go I was onboard when we first see the homeless guy and follow him around town...all without him speaking. I knew then that I liked this movie. I mean he could've just went dumpster diving for the next 90 minutes and I would've dug it. It's hard to explain but the movie felt like what I call 'honest cinema'. I loved that non-glossy, you are there style of film making and the main actor/character was interesting too. Gosh, I wish more movies were made without the bombastic need to 'wow' the audience.



Yes Blue Ruin had some graphic violence, but...and this is a big but...the film never presented that violence as tawdry, cheap thrills. I've watched other movies that made graphic violence seem like a thrill ride in an entertainment park. Blue Ruin on the other hand never did that and for that reason I was OK with the violence as it was done for fun. That's the best I can explain that. The violence was there but it was never presented as a reward to the movie goer, instead the violence was an integral part of the story.

Loved the low key ending, less is more and that ending worked perfectly. Blue Ruin rocks!







The Matrix (1999)
Directors: Wachowskis
Writers: Wachowskis
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss
Genre: Sci-fi


Agent Smith is so cool! Damn what a character with that distinctive way of talking...and with the way he tilts his head I believed he was a sentient program inside the matrix. Kudos to Hugo Weaving for creating one helluva distinct & imaginative character...now that's acting!

While I'm singing the praises of the cast, Morpheus was cool as ice! And what a great casting choice to use Laurence Fishburne, he totally made the role. Morpheus gets those cool shades and all the great lines.

Come to think of it, Agent Smith has cool sunglasses too. To me the best thing about The Matrix is the very unique look the film had. I'm talking about the sets & clothing. I swear for years after this film I seen people dressed in black in those long angle length coats. Even Trinity's short slicked back hair added to the unique fashion style of the movie.

Then there's all those ground breaking special effects that has shaped the direction of movies and even TV commercials for decades. The Matrix was as influential as other great sci fi's like 2001 or Blade Runner.

I wish I could say I liked all the action-fighting sequences but in general I'm not a big action fan, it's just not my thing...Though the action scenes were well done and very unique. Mostly I loved the sci-fi concept of The Matrix and the look of the film...and Agent Smith too!






State of Siege (1972)
Director: Costa-Gavras
Writers: Franco Solinas, Costa-Gavras
Cast: Yves Montand, Renato Salvatori, O.E. Hasse
Genre: Political drama
Language: French


I want that Cadillac convertible! The one the dead guy was in at the start of the film. That would be such a sweet car! Come to think of it the film was loaded with classic old cars. Even the police remark about how nice and old 1920s car is when they are searching for the rebels in the auto garage.

Anyway...I liked this film! Before watching it I read the synopsis at IMDB. It's a good thing I didn't go into this blind or I would've been totally confused about what was going on. But thanks to IMDB I seen that this was a French made film about a right wing government in Uruguay that has it's para military police being trained by right wing operatives from the USA. And that's true, the USA did meddle in South American politics by supporting right wing dictatorships, just so that leftist rebels with communist leanings didn't get a foot hold.

We see the police rounding up suspects and killing them, that is the death squads. Those type of police death squads still operate in Latin America and other parts of the world. So this film which was done documentary style really felt like you were there back in the day. We don't really get to know the characters and we don't need to, this is about the subject of U.S. involvement in Uruguay.

It did feel like propaganda, notice how we see the brutal torture of a suspect by the police, but we never see the actual killing of the American by the rebels. I for one don't have a problem with propaganda, most films have a message that they want to make clear and State of Siege certainly did.

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Shine
(1996)

Director: Scott Hicks
Writers: Jan Sardi (screenplay), Scott Hicks (story)
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Justin Braine
Genre: Biography

This is the kind of movie I look forward to watching, an uplifting tale about the triumph of the human spirit.

I went into this blind, I'd never heard of the movie or of David Helfgott. I should've loved this, but I didn't. As much as I usually like Geoffrey Rush, I couldn't stand his take on a mentally ill person. It was annoying and somewhat comical when comedy wasn't appropriate. He was not believable to me, I was very aware of an actor 'acting odd'. I've seen other actors do the same kind of performance with the same rapid fire, confused speech and it never works for me. I thought that he might be someone high on drugs in the first scene, either that or he just drank 10 cups of coffee.

The odd thing is the teenage David Helfgott, Noah Taylor was really good in this. His performance was nuanced. I was hoping so much that Rush's adult David would be a small part of the film. Unfortunately we see him quite a bit in the third act and for me the third act was the weakest.

The other thing that I didn't like about Shine was that the entire story felt rushed and abbreviated. It was like there was a 2hr 30min long story here, but the film was cut down to 1hr 45mins in the edited room, leaving only a framework of the story. I didn't even know for sure what was wrong with David. I seen him collapse at the piano during his big performance, then he was in a mental hospital. All the scenes were so brief without any center to them.

And then he just seemed to pop into different people's lives...I still don't know why a rich and successful Lynn Redgrave would marry him? When we just had seem him jumping on a trampoline with his genitally flopping in the air, as small children watched him. To me, that would signal that he wasn't well enough to care for himself and he sure isn't ready to be married or be around children! Or maybe the Australians think that's funny? Maybe they do as there was another scene just like that earlier in the film.

I didn't buy into the movie and I didn't care about David. It could've been a good story if another director made it.





Queen of Hearts (2019)
Dronningen original title

Director: May el-Toukhy
Writers: Maren Louise Käehne, May el-Toukhy
Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, Magnus Krepper


"A successful lawyer jeopardizes her career and threatens to tear her family apart after engaging in an affair with her teenage stepson."

That painting on the wall is sure foreboding looking and as with all set designs it was chosen for effect...Anyway I just wanted to mention that.

Dronningen is a well crafted movie with a subtle message that can be left open to interpretation. However the end results are clearly tragic. I appreciate a movie that doesn't hammer it's message into the audiences head, and Dronningen never did. I won't say this was an easy watch, the first hour was slow, but did set up tensions in the marriage and home life...Then boom and there's an expletive sex scene I wasn't expecting that. The sex in the movie isn't pretty, it's like watching two dogs on the front lawn copulate...an odd view.

As the second hour progresses the plight of Gustav becomes more sadder as we see the wreckage of Anne's self indulgent act. At first I didn't like Gustav as he seemed like a punk, but then we see he's really good with the twin girls and is just struggling and somewhat confused about which direction he's life should take. Anne goes from sympathetic to a pedophile predator.

There's a couple of explanations for Anne's seduction of the teen boy. I like that the film didn't spell it out for us and we can decide for ourselves just why she did it. Though a clue is when she tells of her first sexual experience and says it shouldn't have happened. We don't really know what should not have happened but we can guess. Even after the sex is over, Anne continues to inflict damage on poor Gustav with dire results.





Waco The Rules of Engagement (1997)


I love documentaries, but it's going to be hard to rate this one. The production values weren't high, but yet the subject matter really got to me in a way no film ever could.

The doc was able to present information that made me do a 180 on the Waco incident. Anytime a doc can change your mindset that's powerful stuff. All I had remembered about the Waco incident was that some kook, cult leader held up in a religious compound ended up committing mass suicide by burning their own building. That's what I had though happened...The doc presented evidence, such as the infrared recordings that totally changed my mind.

You know it's hard not to react to the incident, vs purely judging the doc's production values. So I'm not going to try...

David Koresh was a nut case and it never ceases to amaze me how people can follow a nut case right into the grave. I never knew Koresh was a polygamist and was accused of being a pedophile. I can't stand to look at the guy he just creeps me out.

For all the crazy **** that the Branch Davidians embraced, they didn't deserve to be gassed to death & machined gunned down by the FBI! Wholly **** I can't believe the images of the FBI using machine guns on the backside of the compound where no one could see them. I mean the children in there didn't deserve to be cooked alive....When it's all over, it's very telling that the FBI removes the Davidian's flag and runs their own FBI banner up the flag pole. Then the FBI proceeds to alter the crime scene and conveniently lose evidence that could've proved the FBI's wrong doing.

Mind bending stuff!

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The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Director: Orson Welles (uncredited)
Writers
: Sherwood King (novel), Orson Welles (screenplay)
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders
Length: 87 minutes
Production Co: Columbia Pictures
Genre: Film Noir

Premise (spoiler free): Michael O'Hara (Orson Welles) is an Irish seaman who has a chance encounter with Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth). Elsa is the beautiful wife of a powerful and dangerous lawyer, Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane). O'Hara is hired as a crewman aboard the lawyer's yacht. They sail from New York through the Caribbean to Mexico. But Michael O'Hara has a duel job as a would be assistant to Mrs. Bannister, or so he thinks.

Review: When Lady From Shanghai first came out in 1947 it was a flop. The audiences didn't like it, neither did the critics and it didn't make money either. The film was then mostly forgotten. Some years later Truman Capote wrote that he admired the film....At that point Lady From Shanghai began to move from flop to classic.

What might have been?...if only Orson Welles' vision for the movie had been released. Orson's rough cut of the film was 155 minutes. At 2 1/2 hours, Columbia Picture executives considered the film too long and ordered it cut to 90 minutes. Welles' then sent detailed instructions to the film editor on how and where to edit the film. Sadly his wishes were ignored.

What we get today is a choppy film with an hour missing from it. If one watches the film closely you can see where some of the scenes were shortened. At two different times there's a sloppy splice. One is a close up of George Grisby (Glenn Anders) towards the beginning of the film, he's in a car with Orson, if you watch closely the film jumps where the splice is. Latter in the film it happens again. Orson was too much of an artist and perfectionist to have allowed this to happen, so the blame isn't his.

In several places, most notably on the yacht, the scenes are choppy with quick edits, the scenes feel unfinished. Once again the editing was out of Orson's hands. The most famous cut to the film is the fun house mirror scene. We can only guess at the symbolic, cinematic achievements Orson made here, what we can see of the fun house scene is potent.

Much of Orson's trademark cinematography is apparent in the film. The spy glass triple diffuse to Rita Hayworth via a closeup of Glenn Anders is amazing!

I'd give Orson a 5/5 for the material he shot, BUT I have to review the film I seen, the cut and chopped version.

Orson deserved better than the treatment he received in Hollywood. After The Lady from Shanghai he retreated to Europe. He would make only one more major Hollywood film, Touch of Evil.





Never saw this movie but for some reason the guy in the picture somehow gives me this Vince Vaughn vibe, I thought it was him for a sec lol
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do you have a list somewhere of the movies that you reviewed on here? if not it's fine, but damn there's alot of pages in here



Never saw this movie but for some reason the guy in the picture somehow gives me this Vince Vaughn vibe, I thought it was him for a sec lol
You do know that the guy in the picture is Orson, yes?

Come to think of it, Citizen Rules currently looks a little like Vince Vaughn (although I never would have made the connection previously)!



You do know that the guy in the picture is Orson, yes?

Come to think of it, Citizen Rules currently looks a little like Vince Vaughn (although I never would have made the connection previously)!
Nope didn't know it was him and yea he does a little bit



Nope didn't know it was him and yea he does a little bit
If, before this, someone had said Vince Vaughn looks like a young Orson Welles... I might've said, "Mmm, not really."

Now younger Vincent D'Onofrio looking like young Orson Welles? Definitely.
(D'Onofrio played Orson in the film Ed Wood (1994) and again in a short film in 2005.)




Wedding Crashers (David Dobkin, 2005)

I like Owen Wilson's style of comedy, there I said it! He's like this flaky Southern California dude who's into holistic foods and mood rings, and yet he's always trying to be honest with everyone. I can dig it! I liked his laid back philosophy that he lays on Rachel McAdams. However I didn't like Vince Vaughn. At first his fast talking dialogue drove me crazy and he seemed like a jerk. I kept thinking if he was cast as some strong man villain he'd be perfect. But I must admit by the time we get to the Senator's house I was liking his character a whole bunch more.

BTW did Owen Wilson really feel up Jane Seymour in the movie? Or was that a breast stunt double? Kind of looked real to me. At any rate Jane Seymour was funny in this, as was Christoper Walken as the senator and Rachel McAdams was great too.

I though the movie was 20-30 minutes to long and it would have been much funnier if instead of being lawyers, they worked in a hardware store or in construction, you know regular guys. That would have allowed a juxtaposition between the posh world of the weddings, compared to their real life as working stiffs.

Here's where everyone is going to disagree me with me...All through the movie we hear about this guy named Chazz who invented Wedding Crashing, he was some kind of living legend. I knew when Owen Wilson went to meet Chazz it just couldn't be nobody, Chazz had to be something BIG!..........Will Ferrell owned that role, that to me was funny! It was a good pay off and I'm not sure who else could've been Chazz, though for some reason I could see Jon Lovitz as a burn out Wedding Crasher.

The funniest line...was Owen Wilson getting all serious to Rachel McAdams at the wedding of her sister. He interrupts the whole damn wedding to tell her how he feels...and he's doing a good job of it too. Then, he says, "I did crash a funeral yesterday" OMG! you could hear a pin drop...That made me laugh out loud. I loved the way everyone was so shocked in the church. I even watched that scene twice it was so funny.

Ma The Meatloaf F*ck!!!!! , I laugh everytime I hear it, good movie though, I think Will Ferrell was a good choice to play as chazz