What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

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bftlovesRDA
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by bftlovesRDA »

(Enjoyed chatting with you, too, Louby)

Yes, tissues were needed for the ending of this movie for sure. But also I was so angry (like the Chief) that Michael was shot and killed....that shut off the tears. :D :D :D As far as getting it in a better format = not sure how that can happen, but all things are possible... :D :D :D
B
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NiLa
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by NiLa »

Thanks B for the good summary.

First I want to say, that every firefighter all over the world is a hero to me. They risk their lives to help other people every day we can't be thankful enough to those guys.

About the movie...as Kate said it was produced as a pilot for a series that never got picked up. Then the whole thing was reedited to make a movie. And IMHO I think they did a very poor job with it.

First: The a capella band. What was that about? Art? I don't know. The music is ok for me, but why they showed those guys singing on the street never got to me. :roll:

The storyline with Michael is very sad.
He is deeply depressed after his divorce. When he gets shot at a fire and wakes up after his surgery his ex-wife Charlotte is so cruel to him ("Hope you live forever- I need the spousal support"). How can she do that to him? She obviously still loves him, because she has kissed him while he was still unconscious.
Michael also still loves Charlotte, so he gives her the bullet that hit him ("Because it was inside me.").
After his recovery his isn't allowed to work again, because the chief thinks he isn't ready. Later on, the chief is proven right; when Michael comes with to a fire at an apartment house for promotional reasons he freaks out, when something sounds like a gunshot. He runs away and finds a little boy, who accidently has started the fire in the building while playing alone at home, because his parents had left him alone to go to a bar. Later the little boy turns up at the firehouse, because his parents have left him alone again and returned to the bar. Michael gets upset about this, but the chief tells him to let it go.
At the same evening Michael tells Sy, his best friend, that he thinks about how his and Charlotte's kid would have been....
Later on he buys a gun, goes after the sniper and gets killed.

When I first watched the movie and got to know, that Michael was shot, I was shocked. Why did the producers kill him off? I would rather have seen him find the sniper and giving the police the evidence they need to arrest him.

Than Charlotte....she obviously still loves Michael, but that doesn't stop her from being really cruel to him. She claims, that she stopped loving him, because she wanted to protect herself from the fear, that she could lose him due to the dangers of his job. And by doing so hurted him so much more. Now, that he is dead, she realizes, how much she really loves him and is sorry.

The other guys Andre and Gaetano aren't very important to the story, so I won't commment on them.

Kate, the paramedic, who is stationed at the firehouse has a really bad start with the firefighters. She isn't accepted by neither the chief nor the firefighters. Only Michael and Andre (a fellow firefighter) treat her nicely.
When she in the end stopps waiting for the guys to accept her and admits, that not only the firefighters but also she needs to change her point of view she earns some respect from the guys. A nice scene is, when she a - after waiting again for the men to shower - suddenly has enough and marches into the shower to clean herself and the guys nearly jump out of the room.

What I didn't understand was the following scene:
She is picked up from work by her husband (I think it is the day when they got to know, that Michael died), she tells her husband that she is ok, she needs to change too, not only the firefighters, and then "let's go home and make babies".

I was like "WHAT???" :shock:

Her colleague was killed, nearly the only one who treated her nicely, and she wants to have sex with her husband? How sick is that?
To give her credit, I think the scene wasn't meant like that, but is the result of cutting the footage somehow together to make the movie.

I had a similar situation at work some years ago. A colleague of mine just collapsed during his soccer training and died. We got to know that the next day. Believe me, when I saw my husband on that evening, babies weren't on my mind!

Next flaw:
The police detective asks Sy to come with him after the police has indentified the killer and wants to arrest him. When the police comes with the sniper out of the building he shouts: "This is him....that's the guy!" He never has seen him before (at least in the movie). Maybe in the series they have come across each other, but as it is now, the scene doesn't make sense.

So, in the end, we are left to see how the firefighteres walk behind Michaels coffin to his funeral.

I don't like the movie very much. I don't like the flaws in the cutting; it makes sometimes no sense. I have to admit also, I hate movies without a happy end.

But I like to say, that RDAs actings was very convincing and good as always. He portrayed Michael in a way I just wanted to hug the poor guy.

Anja ;)
Walk in love, walk in service, and you will walk in honor.
MacGyver
....by doing so our world will be better each day...
Anja ;)
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bftlovesRDA
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by bftlovesRDA »

I don't like the movie very much. I don't like the flaws in the cutting; it makes sometimes no sense. I have to admit also, I hate movies without a happy end.

But I like to say, that RDAs actings was very convincing and good as always. He portrayed Michael in a way I just wanted to hug the poor guy.
Good comments, all of them! I too want happy endings to movies so I understand where you are coming from on that.....and totally agree with you about RDA's convincing acting.....and that his ex-wife was extremely cruel to him, making me to want to hug him too...but what I really wanted was for her to come back to him - BEFORE he was killed. :cry: :cry: :cry:
B
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by bftlovesRDA »

Any other comments from anyone from anyone about the movie "FireHouse"? :D :D
B
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Juliette
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by Juliette »

Well, Firehouse.. not my favorite movie because it's sad.. I don't like sad movies..
and needless to say I didn't like the ending either :(
I think everything I think about it have been said, I completely agree with the bad cutting thing
I really hope the end was modified for the movie editing and wasn't planned like that for the series because if it was I think we found the reason why it was not picked up ^^
Speaking of editing.. there must be many cut scenes out there.. would love to see them :D

So I watch this movie for RDA's amazing acting (and good looks, as aslways ;)) in a movie that is not all bad but could have been better

and like Anja and B said, I wanna hug him so bad in this movie (well... happy or sad.. I always wanna hug him.. you know... :P)
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bftlovesRDA
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by bftlovesRDA »

Juliette wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:12 pm
So I watch this movie for RDA's amazing acting (and good looks, as aslways ;)) in a movie that is not all bad but could have been better

and like Anja and B said, I wanna hug him so bad in this movie (well... happy or sad.. I always wanna hug him.. you know... :P)
Yes, I know! :oops: :oops: :oops:
B
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NiLa
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by NiLa »

I still owe you my comment on "Ordinary Heroes".

I didn't know about the movie until I came here to Kate's website a few years ago. I watched it and was stunned about the great acting skills our favourite man has got, whom I until then only knew as MacGyver and Jack O'Neill.
Here we have a complete other side of him. First a seemingly cocky young man, Tony, who falls in love with a girl, Maria.
His way to win her is quite hilarious. Their first "blind date" goes perfectly awry, then he nearly stalks her, but in a quite humorous way. I really was amused about the scene at the bus stop, when he asks Maria to come into the car, that their little boy would be crying for his mom and all the other waiting people go after her, what a cruel woman and mother she would be. And she is furious! :lol:
Later he ruins a date of her only to come back in the evening to ask her to go out with him. Great. And he succeds, they become a couple.
On the day they move together into an apartment he gets drafted. He decides to serve as an soldier in Vietnam because he thinks it is the right thing to do to serve his country. He thinks about asking Maria before he has to go to marry her, but on their last evening their friends throw a surprise party for them and when it is over he is afraid to ask her. He can't be sure if he is coming back and out of love for her he doesn't want that she has to wait for him.
Maria misunderstands his intention. She thinks he doesn't take their relationship seriously and is hurt, and when Tony comes back from the bathroom she pretends to have fallen asleep.
In the next morning he has left for the bus to bring him to the base and has left her a note. Regretting her behaviour she drives like crazy to the bus station and meets him in the last possible second. He then gives her the ring and she takes and kisses it. She asks him to be careful and he promises to be.....but three days before his planned return to the US he rescues a friend out of enemy fire and hurts his eyes badly....he loses his sight!

The most interesting part of the story starts right there in my opinion.
Maria gets to know, that he is back and that he is hurt, but nothing more. She doesn't know what happened, how he has been injured, where he is. And Tony doesn't want her to know, so he doesn't contact her. Because he wants to be healed when he meets her again.
When a surgery isn't succesfull and he learns that he has to wait to repeat the surgery and even then might not get his eyesight back he is desperate. He loses his will to live, to deal with the situation. So he is unwilling to learn any skills he needs now that he is blinded. He doesn't want to return to his hometown and his friend's too. He is too ashamed to be blind and helpless.

I the meantime Maria has learned in which army hospital Tony is and travels through the country to see him. Tony's doctor tells her the truth about Tony's blindness and that at the moment he is completely dependent on help. He agrees to let her see Tony, but under one condition: If she isn't absolutely sure, that she is up to it to deal with his blindness she isn't allowed to make herself present to him. As she sees him (totally filthy after first time trying to feed himself) she is shocked and says nothing. She just goes away.
Later we learn that she hates herself for her reaction. She was scared she would lose her life because of him, after she had to fight for every independence in her life so far. And so she backed away and is now ashamed of it.
So, she decides to return home to her family, but first she wants Tony to come back to their friends for Christmas dinner. With the help of Tony's friend she brings him to his former friend's home.
The scene when the little daughter of his friend, Tina, greets him at her home, and she - the way kids are - tells him, she will help him because he hurt his eyes, makes me cry every time I see it.
After dinner, when the others have left, just Maria and Tony stay at home. There they have the first chance to talk to each other alone since his return from Vietnam. And when she bursts out that she has been at the hospital and has seen him there he starts crying.
In the end he admids that he acted the way he did, because he did think he wasn't worth her anymore. He says he wasn't worth her before his injury because he had been just ordinary, but now he wouldn't be even that, because he couldn't see.
So we learn in the very last sentences of the movie, that he never was that confident he pretended to be. And Maria tells him she really loves him and she pretended to be strong and independent, but she can't live her life alone, without him. So, they have to help each other going on with their lifes.

I would have liked to have a sequel about their later life. Will Tony have another surgery? Will he get his sight back or will he be blinded for the rest of his life? How will he deal with it? Will Maria really have the strength to live with a man who is so hurt (not just physically)?
Will they marry, have kids and live their life despites all problems that will show themselves?
Would have been nice to get to know....maybe not with a movie....just a few lines in the end of the film would have been nice.
So, the audience is left alone with his feelings and thoughts and everyone can continues the story the way, he wants it to go.....

Although it is not a "happily ever after" movie I like it. I like the development of the main characters alone and how they deal with the situation when meet again. Great movie, I really like it.

And I hope, you like my again really long comment on the movie, too. :P

Anja ;)
Walk in love, walk in service, and you will walk in honor.
MacGyver
....by doing so our world will be better each day...
Anja ;)
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bftlovesRDA
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by bftlovesRDA »

Anja,

I LOVE YOUR COMMENTS! Love the detail and the emotion they convey. They made me want to watch the movie again, so I will.... :D :D :D

Thank you so much for taking the time to write that summary and your commentary. I too would have loved for there to be a sequel to the movie to tell us how things finally happened for Tony and Maria.

We agree on it all.

Thank you again! VERY GLAD you posted these comments! Now I go to watch Ordinary Heroes again....
B
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NiLa
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by NiLa »

bftlovesRDA wrote: Mon Apr 30, 2018 2:15 am Anja,

I LOVE YOUR COMMENTS! Love the detail and the emotion they convey. They made me want to watch the movie again, so I will.... :D :D :D

Thank you so much for taking the time to write that summary and your commentary. I too would have loved for there to be a sequel to the movie to tell us how things finally happened for Tony and Maria.

We agree on it all.

Thank you again! VERY GLAD you posted these comments! Now I go to watch Ordinary Heroes again....
I'm flattered. :oops: :oops: :oops:

When I have made you wanting to watch the movie again I have accomplished my mission. Not true, I just wanted to write how I feel about the movie. But it's a nice side effect I gladly admit. :lol:

Have fun with it. :D

Anja ;)
Walk in love, walk in service, and you will walk in honor.
MacGyver
....by doing so our world will be better each day...
Anja ;)
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bftlovesRDA
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Re: What do you like/not like about individual RDA movies

Post by bftlovesRDA »

NiLa wrote: Mon Apr 30, 2018 6:42 am
bftlovesRDA wrote: Mon Apr 30, 2018 2:15 am Anja,

I LOVE YOUR COMMENTS! Love the detail and the emotion they convey. They made me want to watch the movie again, so I will.... :D :D :D

Thank you so much for taking the time to write that summary and your commentary. I too would have loved for there to be a sequel to the movie to tell us how things finally happened for Tony and Maria.

We agree on it all.

Thank you again! VERY GLAD you posted these comments! Now I go to watch Ordinary Heroes again....
I'm flattered. :oops: :oops: :oops:

When I have made you wanting to watch the movie again I have accomplished my mission. Not true, I just wanted to write how I feel about the movie. But it's a nice side effect I gladly admit. :lol:

Have fun with it. :D

Anja ;)
Watched it again. Absolutely love Ordinary Heroes more each time I see it. Thanks again for the wonderful commentary. :D :D :D

Now, I wonder if anyone else would like to comment on:

Ordinary Heroes
or
FireHouse
or
Pandora's Clock
or
Beyond Betrayal
or
Through the Eyes of a Killer
or
In the Eyes of a Stranger


Everybody's comments are very welcome.
B
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