What Films did You Watch Last Week (04/03 - 010/03) 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

T-Men (1947, Anthony Mann)
blu ray
I think unlike many I prefer Mann's non westerns so far, like this true story film noir  that follows two U.S. Treasury (“T-men”) agents who go undercover in Detroit, and then Los Angeles, in an attempt to break a U.S. currency counterfeiting ring.
The film is done in a semi-documentary style with a narration that is a little excessive and stops you from getting too far with the characters. Still it's shot really nice and has some cool set pieces.
6/10

Captain Marvel (2019, Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden)
Cinema
Two months before the final chapter (avengers endgame) to this long ass saga comes out, we have this film set in the pre-avengers 1990s. Brie Larson (The Room) plays Captain Marvel who will be a key character in the next Avengers film and this serves as her origin story. The film co-stars Sam Jackson as Nick Fury once more but now computer de-aged to make his appearance suit this earlier timeframe. This is the best use of the de-aging software I have seen and the first time it has been used on a character with an abundance of screen time. Still, there are many uncanny valley moments where it does not look right. You can kind of get away with it on one of these types of films, I just hope they can do a better job in the upcoming Scorsese film The Irishman where this uncanny look will be less forgivable.
As for this film, it is definitely one of the lesser films in the MCU,l. It looks even blander than most MCU films. The special effects are a mixed bag and never carry any weight or gravitas, the direction is bad and the first half hour is a badly written mess.
It does have some saving graces though, Sam Jackson is terrific and his interactions with Brie Larson and Goose are solid. The second half of the film is better that the muddled front end and it has a pretty good score.
Overall this is pretty forgettable stuff but has some essential plot background to the larger story for this 20 film arc we have been following.
5/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

The Fugitive (1993, Andrew Davis)
blu ray
This is a rewatchable classic thriller based on the old tv series of the same name. Good performances and pacing make this one a memorable film.
7/10

FIRST TIME TV VIEWING

After Life (2019, Ricky Gervais) Season One
Netflix
Wonderful new 6 episode series from Ricky Gervais (The Office), this one even more on the dramatic end of the spectrum than his last series Derek was. Great writing and characters bring this one to life with only a couple of missteps with comedic  moments but mostly very strong.
Recommended

WEEKLY AWARDS

BEST FILM: The Fugitive
BEST ACTOR: Harrison Ford - The Fugitive
BEST ACTRESS: Brie Larson - Captain Marvel
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tommy Lee Jones - The Fugitive
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Lashana Lynch - Captain Marvel
BEST SCORE: James Newton Howard - The Fugitive
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: John Alton - The T-Men
BEST SCRIPT: David Twohy - The Fugitive
BEST DIRECTOR: Andrew Davis - The Fugutive



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