What Films Did You Watch Last Week? (27/08-02/09) 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

Tape (2001, Richard Linklater)
This super low budget Linklater film has him with his regular actor of choice (Ethan Hawke) in a single location film where three old high school friends meet in a Michigan motel room to dissect painful memories from their past.
It is pretty intriguing from start to finish and is more even in regards to sexual politics than todays frenzied "rush to judgement" society.
6.5/10 

Permanent Midnight (1998, David Veloz)
This true story is based on the Jerry Stahl (Ben Stiller) book about himself as a young comedy writer who struggles to overcome his addiction to heroin.
It is a lower budget film and is put together pretty well. I felt it got better as it went a long and would say it is worth a look if interested.
6/10

Rolling Thunder (1977, John Flynn)
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This film is one of Tarantino's favourite and follows a returning war veteran who loses his family to a violent home invasion and decides to seek and retaliate against those responsible.
It has a few good moments but it is not til the finale that it gets really juicy.
6/10

The April Fools (1969, Stuart Rosenberg)
This romantic comedy starring the legendary and dependable Jack Lemmon (The Apartment) and french superstar Catherine Deneuve (Repulsion) is quite charming and fun but occasionally goes too strong into silliness. Overall it was an easy fun watch though.
6/10

Mona Lisa (1986, Neil Jordan)
I checked this out because I had heard it described as Melville meets Ken Loach. Unfortunately, whilst there are some elements of Loach, there was little to no signs of Melville. In the story a man (Bob Hoskins) who was  recently released from prison manages to get a job driving a call girl from customer to customer whilst trying to reconnect with his daughter.
The film was ok but the story was a bit of a mess but a strong finale helped.
5/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)
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Stunning visually, brilliant acting, wonderful Bernard Herrmann Score and scene after memorable scene. Scorsese's undeniable masterpiece.
10/10

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986, John Hughes)
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This viewing pushed this up to my second favourite from Hughes as it is held up better than Sixteen Candles which dropped off quite a bit on my last viewing of it. A fun classic that has aged better than many of its comrades.
6.5/10

Defendor (2009, Peter Stebbings)
blu ray
In a span of 12 months, three regular person wants to be a super-hero films were made. Kick-ass was a big hit, Super was a smaller triumph and the even more low budget Defendor seems to have gone unsung but it is not without merits and despite not having a ton of action is a pretty good character piece with a good cast.
6/10

WEEKLY AWARDS

BEST FILM: Taxi Driver
BEST ACTOR: Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver
BEST ACTRESS: Uma Thurman - Tape
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Albert Brooks - Taxi Driver
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Cybill Shepherd - Taxi Driver
BEST SCORE: Bernard Herrmann - Taxi Driver
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Michael Chapman - Taxi Driver
BEST SCRIPT: Paul Schrader - Taxi Driver
BEST DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver


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