What Films Did You Watch Last Week? (14/05-20/05) 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

Deadpool 2 (2018, David Leitch)
Cinema
After the success of the first Deadpool after Fox gambled on an R rated super hero film with a lower budget in the X-universe, they have come back with another hard R rated chapter with only a slightly bigger budget. We see some old faces and some new characters with even some surprises.
The film is well made and has amazing action and combat sequences that put the last couple of films in the MCU to shame.. take note Disney/Marvel... this is how you shoot combat. The film is also hilarious, for the most part matching the laugh hit-rate and almost the unexpected heart that the first film had. It is however a bloodier affair and that works well in this setting.
I was worried that the change of director might negatively impact the film but it was a smooth transition to the new blood and this is most certainly the best superhero film of the year(and in my top 10 superhero films) thus far and will be hard to beat.
8/10

One-Eyed Jacks (1961, Marlon Brando)
This is the only film that the great Marlon Brando directed, taking over for the withdrawing Stanley Kubrick. The story is a fairly familiar one with it being pretty much a riff on the classic Pat Garrett/ Billy the Kid tale. What makes this film quite exceptional though is the direction and cinematography. It is a lush epic visually which carries the film past its humble story and makes it quite special. Brando and Karl Malden (On the Waterfront) are in the lead roles... Malden turns in perhaps a career best and Brando is fine but perhaps at his most mumbling in any of his films.
7/10

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973, Sam Peckinpah)
Years after Stanley Kubrick had Peckinpah replaced as the writer on One-Eyed Jacks, Peckinpah does his own version of the tale here with some interesting results. I am not a fan of James Coburn in general but this might be his best work as Pat Garret, however I didn't quite buy the newcomer Kris Kristofferson as Billy the Kid. The film has a bunch of cool scenes but the score done by Bob Dylan both makes the film stand out and make it hard to believe it is a western from the late 1800's and not a hippy game from the 70's.
6/10

The Appaloosa (1966, Sidney J. Furie)
In this western Marlon Brando plays a man who tries to recover a horse stolen from him by a Mexican bandit (John Saxon).
The film is pretty straight forward but is kept interested by great performances from Brando and Saxon.
6/10

The Girl on the Train (2016, Tate Taylor)
tv
I did not see many good reviews for this film based on the best selling novel of the same name. It was fine though, performances were good, it held my interest well enough.
6/10

Pocahontas (1995, Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg)
tv
Disney's animated take on the famous tale of an English soldier and the daughter of an Algonquin chief who share a romance when English colonists invade seventeenth-century Virginia.
It felt like a bit of a nothing, very short, not memorable.
4/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

Sleepers (1996, Barry Levinson)
blu ray
This epic  takes place just before and after a prank goes disastrously wrong that sees a group of boys sent to a detention centre where they are brutalised. Over ten years later, they get their chance for revenge.
The film is wonderful and should sit closely along side other New York epics such as Goodfellas or State of Grace. The cast is thick with great actors  such as Deniro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon, Billy Crudup, Bruno Kirby and Minnie Driver. The only one who I thought was punching above his weight was Pitt but the rest are fantastic.
8/10

Starsky & Hutch (2004, Todd Phillips)
tv
This is a parody remake of the 70's tv series of the same name. In this version we see Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson play the two streetwise cops who bust criminals in their red and white Ford Torino, with the help of a police snitch called "Huggy Bear" (Snoop Dog).
There are a few good laughs... it is what it is I guess. I am sure fans of the show were horrified though.
5/10

FIRST TIME TV VIEWING

Cobra Kai (2018, Season One)
In this sequel to the Karate Kid films we are set thirty years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, the series focuses on Johnny Lawrence reopening the Cobra Kai dojo, which causes his rivalry with Daniel LaRusso to be reignited. I really loved this
Highly Recommended

Evil Genius (2018, Mini-series)
Netflix
This documentary series covers the extraordinary story of the "pizza bomber heist" and the FBI's investigation into a bizarre collection of suspects. I love this sort of stuff.
Highly Recommended

WEEKLY AWARDS

BEST FILM: Sleepers
BEST ACTOR: Marlon Brando - The Appaloosa
BEST ACTRESS: Emily Blunt - The Girl on the Train
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: John Saxon - The Appaloosa
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Minnie Driver - Sleepers
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Charles Lang - One-Eyed Jacks
BEST SCRIPT: Barry Levinson - Sleepers
BEST SCORE: Hugo Friedhofer - One-Eyed Jacks
BEST DIRECTOR: Barry Levinson - Sleepers

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