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
Queen & Slim (2019, Melina Matsoukas)
This film was written by Emmy Award winning writer Lena Waithe who won for her superb thanksgiving episode of Master of None. I'm glad to see her moving forward with movies now. The premise sees a couple's first date that takes an unexpected turn when a police officer pulls them over.
It feels a like Bonnie and Clyde but with race relations in the mix. It works really well and despite being perhaps bloated by 25 mins it is still one of the best films of last year.
7.5/10
The Natural (1984, Barry Levinson)
This baseball film has a fairly magical quality to it with a great lead performance from Robert Redford. It is a little bloated and should certainly have been under two hours.
6.5/10
Downhill Racer (1969, Michael Ritchie)
Quietly cocky Robert Redford (The Sting) joins U.S. ski team as downhill racer and clashes with the team's coach, played by Gene Hackman (The Conversation). Most of the films story and characters are very thinly painted here but it does end up leading to an exciting climax.
Overall though this one disappointed me.
5/10
Johnny Handsome (1989, Walter Hill)
After being double crossed and thrown in jail, a deformed gangster (Mickey Rourke) gets a new face and rehabilitation, but his desire for revenge looms.
Unfortunately this one does not quite work, you can tell its a Walter Hill film, albeit a sloppy one. It certainly has some moments though.
5/10
REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING
Fargo (1996, The Coens)
blu ray
This is a wonderfully written crime film set in the cold winter of Minnesota. A great cast with great dialogue and a treat to watch.
7.5/10
The Lost Boys (1987, Joel Schumacher)
blu ray
This film sees a family moving to a new town where the two brothers (Corey Haim, Jason Patric) discover that the area is a haven for vampires.
This area in particular is in real life Santa Cruz which I visited a few months ago and it was fun seeing all the locations we visited popping up on screen.
7.5/10
Harold & Kumar go to White Castle (2004, Danny Leiner)
blu ray
This comedy follows a Korean-American office worker and his Indian-American stoner friend who embark on a quest to satisfy their desire for White Castle burgers.
It has a good pace with fairly consistent laughs.
6/10
10 to Midnight (1983, J. Lee Thompson)
blu ray
In lesser hand this super cheap crime/slasher film could have been a disaster but with an experienced director and leading man it is a very flawed but quite entertaining.
6/10
FIRST TIME TV VIEWING
The Most Dangerous Animal of All (2020, Documentary mini-series)
Interesting enough documentary about a man who believes his father was the Zodiac killer
Good TV
WEEKLY FILM AWARDS
BEST FILM: Fargo
BEST ACTOR: William H. Macy - Fargo
BEST ACTRESS: Frances McDormand - Fargo
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Steve Buscemi - Fargo
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Dianne Weis - The Lost Boys
BEST EDITING: The Coens - Fargo
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Thomas Newman - The Lost Boys
BEST SCRIPT: The Coens - Fargo
BEST SCORE: Carter Burwell - Fargo
BEST DIRECTOR: The Coen Brothers - Fargo
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
Hi. Dasrk.
Here I am.
Curious about Queen & Slim. About 10 to Midnight too.
Yours:
The Natural 7.5/10
I saw it a good while ago. I remember kind of liking but feeeling it was a bit overrated. I'd need to rewatch it though.
Downhill Racer 8/10
I liked it. I liked the documentary style. I thought the skiing scenes were great. Robert Redford was good too. Have you seen The Candidate? The director is the same, Michael Ritchie.
Johnny Handsome 7.5/10
I enjoyed it, but yeah, I prefer other Walter Hill's film. Both Mickey and Morgan Freeman were good.
Fargo 8.5/10
Loved it, but I haven't seen it in quite a while.
The Lost Boys 5/10
I never really liked it actually.
I prefer the original Fright Night, but I might be one of the few.
Mine:
Danny Collins 7/10
It's the movie with Al Pacino where he plays an old rockstar, who was huge in the 70s. He doesn't like his career anymore, feels like he's a sell out, and decides to abandon everything to get in touch with the son he never met. It's O.K., it's a bit bland though. Al Pacino is really good. I liked Jennifer Garner and Christpher Plummer, but he's a bit wasted, IMO.
God Told Me To 8/10
It's a Larry Cohen movie, it's about a New York cop who investigates the cases of some random people who suddenly went into killing sprees, and all give the same reason, that God told them to. I liked it, it's totally insane, the twists too.
Also, I'm pretty sure it was shot on the streets, and that the background players were actual people passing by. I liked that, the glimpses of New York in the mid-70s...
Lethal Weapon 8/10
I really like it, it holds up so well for me, Mel and Danny Glover are really good together.
I like Gary Busey too. Have you heard they might be making a new one for real now?