What Films did You Watch Last Week (7/10 - 13/10) CLOSED

Welcome back to another week of the BEST & WORST edition of 'what movies did you see last week?' thread. For those who haven't been part of it before, basically your host (me) posts my weekly movies and you can comment on those and list your movie for the same time frame. I will get back to you on yours and you can talk to other users here about their films. It's a great place to talk about film.

FIRST TIME MOVIE VIEWING

The Naked Street (1955, Maxwell Shane)
This feels underrated to me as it is well made with a great cast putting in good work. You have Anthony Quinn (Lawrence of Arabia), Farley Granger (Strangers on a Train), Peter Graves (Airplane!) and Anne Bancroft (The Graduate).
6.5/10

Black Angel (1946, Roy William Neill)
This film noir has a classic set up of a man who is convicted of a singer's murder, his wife tries to prove him innocent...aided by the victim's ex-husband.
The film has some great noir moments despite being  a very familiar type story. A great cast elevates the material, worth checking out.
6.5/10

The Second Woman (1950, James V. Kern)
This film feels reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) in many ways, only not as good. Still worth checking out though.
6/10

I Love Trouble (1948, S. Sylvan Simon)
A wealthy man hires a detective to investigate his wife's past. The detective (Franchot Tone) discovers that the wife had been a dancer and left her home town with an actor which only leads to more mysteries about her past. A pretty good detective noir for sure.
6/10

Dementia 13 (1963, Francis Ford Coppola)
Famous B movie producer Roger Corman wanted something like Psycho and a Young Franci Ford Coppola tried to deliver it to him. This cheap film sees a scheming widow hatch a bold plan to get her hands on the inheritance, unaware that she is targeted by an axe-wielding murderer who lurks in the family's estate. The film show flashes of what Coppola would become but on the whole does not work.
4.5/10

The Ward (2010, John Carpenter)
John Carpenter's return to film making 9 years after a string of duds pretty much retired him unfortunately feels like a paycheck movie. There does not feel like there is much love or attention given to the direction in this pretty bland horror set in a mental asylum. It does get a little bit better in the second half and exceeds some of his other latter day films.
4/10

Ghosts of Mars (2001, John Carpenter)
So I finally completed Ghosts of Mars which was the film I had been putting off to complete the John Carpenter filmography, which is now done. What can I say, it was worse than expected and one of the worst films I have ever seen.
Set on Mars with the red planet filling in for the old west, we have a group of police going to a small town to pick up a criminal. However when they get there it has become a ghost town... the ghosts of Mars! So yes, it is not a great set up but more could have been done with it than was done here. Sure it has a bad script but the execution of the material by Carpenter is the biggest offender. The direction is very poor, the editing style is bizarre and the story structure of constant flash backs and flashbacks within flashbacks is a disaster. The design of the villains is laughable and the score by John Carpenter and the band Anthrax is the pits.
So despite a name director, some good set design for the pretty strong cast to play in, this is a mess and a misfire of epic proportions.
1/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

Sisters (1972, Brian De Palma)
blu ray
This early De Palma film is one of his best but as per usual borrows a lot of tropes from Hitchcock. Jennifer Salt (Plat it Again Sam)plays a Staten Island journalist who witnesses a murder in the neighboring apartment of a French-Canadian model, but the police do not believe that the crime took place. With the help of a private detective, she seeks out the truth.
It is a very creepy film and won't be for everyone.
7.5/10

Escape from New York (1981, John Carpenter
UHD Disc
In one of Kurt Russell's many iconic characters he is sent into the Prison island of Manhattan to retrieve the President. Great mood for the film  which is mostly good through out bar a few patches that seem to be rushed.
7.5/10

Christine (1983, John Carpenter)
UHD Disc
This is one of my favourite Steven King adaptions. Carpenter creates an excellent mood with this one.
7.5/10

Nick and Norahs Excellent Playlist (2008, Peter Sollett)
blu ray
Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim) plays a High school student Nick O'Leary who is a member of the Queercore band The Jerk Offs. He meets college-bound Norah Silverberg (Kat Dennings) when she asks him to be her boyfriend for five minutes.
Very funny and sweet.
7.5/10

REPEAT TV VIEWING

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008, Season One)
blu ray
The Clone Wars tv series is going to be resurrected next year for a seventh season on Disney + so I decided to rewatch the first 6 seasons. The first two seasons suffer from some cringey stuff from the prequels but are a lot better than the animated Clone wars film that proceeded season one as an intro to the show. Season 3 is where things really pick up and take the show  to sensational levels but as it is, this first season is...
Solid Television

WEEKLY FILM AWARDS

BEST FILM: Sisters
BEST ACTOR: Dan Duryea - Black Angel
BEST ACTRESS: Jennifer Salt - Sisters
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: William Finley - Sisters
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Margot Kidder - Sisters
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Donald M. Morgan - Christine
BEST SCORE: John Carpenter, Alan Howarth - Christine
BEST SCRIPT: Brian De Palma, Louisa Rose - Sisters
BEST DIRECTOR: Brian De Palma - Sisters

10/10 - Perfection (or as close to it as possible)
09/10 - An Excellent film
08/10 - A VERY Good film
07/10 - A Good film
06/10 - A Solid film
05/10 - An Average film
04/10 - Below Average film
03/10 - A mostly bad film
02/10 - A mostly terrible film
01/10 - Awful through and through
00/10 - Not only awful but offensive too