What Films Did You Watch Last Week? (20/08-26/08) 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 hosts (us) posts our weekly movies and you can comment on those and list your movie for the same time frame. We 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

Upgrade (2018, Leigh Whannell)
Solid, well paced sci-fi actioner that is refreshingly around the old school 90 minute mark. Some of the performances could have been better but for the most part they get away with it.
7/10

Night Tide (1961, Curtis Harrington)
In this curious little B film, Dennis Hooper plays a young sailor falls in love with a mysterious woman, performing as a mermaid at the local carnival. He soon comes to suspect the girl might be a real mermaid, who draws men to a watery death during the full moon.
This one has a good atmosphere, some acting is suspect here and there.
6/10

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018, Susan Johnson)
Netflix
This lower budget tee-film about a teenage girl's secret love letters that are exposed and wreak havoc on her love life is pretty solid.
The writing is good, the actor do a good enough job but the direction is pretty ho-hum.
6/10

Grand Prix (1966, John Frankenheimer)
tv
I thought I had already seen this but I was thinking of another film from the same period. This film has some inventive photography and a great cast but the dramatics are mostly dull and the film is way too long. The best moments were between James Garner and Toshiro Mifune.
5/10

The Deep (1977, Peter Yates)
After the success of Jaws, another Peter Benchley novel set in the  ocean was greenlit and whilst this was a commercial success it is not as good or as enduring as Jaws. This one is set in Bermuda with  two amateur treasure-hunting divers (Nick Nolte, Jacqueline Bisset) who have a run-in with local criminals when they inadvertently discover the secret cargo of a World War II shipwreck.
The underwater scenes are superb but I found it hard giving a crap about the characters or story.
5/10

Eloise (2017, Robert Legato)
tv
This film had a pretty good set up where it follows four friends who break into an abandoned insane asylum in search of a death certificate which will grant one of them a large inheritance. However despite some work to set up the plot and characters in the first half hour the rest of the film turns to badly written and executed schlock.
3/10

Killing Hasselhoff (2017, Darren Grant)
tv
David Hasselhoff (Night Rider, Baywatch) plays himself in this lowbudget, badly written shit-show of a comedy.
1.5/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

Le Samourai (1967, Jean-Pierre Melville)
blu ray
This is the second time viewing  this iconic crime film from the great french director. The first time I watched Le Samourai, it went straight into the back end of my top 100. This re-watch only solidified it even more as i got even more out of the film.
8.5/10

Elevator to the Gallows (1958, Louis Malle)
blu ray
This French Crime-drama is the debut feature film for  now famed director Louis Malle but in my opinion is his best. It sees a self-assured businessman murder his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.
It is a well written and wonderfully executed piece.
8/10

Christine (2016, Antonio Campos)
blu ray
This true story of a 70's journalist with mental health issues is put together well enough but is elevated by a superb central performance by Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona). The film goes a little long and slow at times but pays off with a strong finale.
7/10

Uncle Buck (1989, John Hughes)
blu ray
Latter day Hughes family comedy that hits some dramatic notes throughout. Great cast and some classic moments.
6.5/10

Hang 'Em High (1968, Ted Post)
tv
In a film that is trying to replicate the tone of his earlier Spaghetti Westerns, Clint Eastwood plays an innocent man who barely survives a lynching, he returns as a lawman determined to bring the vigilantes to justice.
It is a solid western but suffers from a boring score and a lack of grit with cheep uninspired sets. Still, there are some good performances even if the story runs a little longer than the story warrants.
6-6.5/10

High Spirits (1988, Neil Jordan)
blu ray
Fun haunted house romp with a great cast that feels  like a mess at times and apparently suffered from producer interference where the director was shit out of editing.
5.5/10

WEEKLY AWARDS

BEST FILM: Le Samourai
BEST ACTOR: Alain Delon - Le Samourai
BEST ACTRESS: Rebecca Hall - Christine
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Toshiro Mifune - Grand Prix
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tracy Letts - Christine
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Henri Decrae - Le Samourai
BEST DIRECTOR: Jean Pierre Melville - Le Samourai



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