What did You Watch Last Week (06/04 - 12/04) 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

The Invisible Man (2020, Leigh Whannell)
This latest retelling of the Invisible Man story sees Elisabeth Moss (the handmaids tale) playing a woman escaped from an abusive relationship who fears her now dead ex may not really be dead and is now messing with her life.
The direction and script are really flat for the everyday drama of the script but where the film shines are the more intense parts and set pieces.
6.5/10

Black Sunday (1977, John Frankenheimer)
This terrorist story feels like it’s taken inspiration visually from the French Connection but is a much more complicated drawn out affair. It feels like it needs editing down but still has some great scenes.
6/10

Untamed Heart (1993, Tony Bill)
Marisa Tomei ( The Wrestler) plays a waitress who hardly notices a shy busboy (Christian Slater) who secretly loves her; until one night she's attacked and he comes to her rescue. The acting is fine but the film feels like it lumps along a lot of the time.
5/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

Ronin (1998, John Frankenheimer)
Blu ray
This French set action film feels like what Mission Impossible could have been if it were done in a more serious manner. Great cast, great car chases, very entertaining and one last great film from this director in his final years.
7.5-8

Bowfinger (1999, Frank Oz)
Blu ray
A return to form for Eddie Murphy after many dull years with this fantastic little film set in the film industry of Hollywood. Great script, great cast (even Steve Martin is fine here) and very funny.
7.5-8

White Men Can’t Jump (1992, Ron Shelton)
A really well put together film which is both a sports film, race relations and relationship film. Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes and Rosie Perez are fantastic and really only the third act being a little too drawn out holds the film back.
7.5-8

The Mist: Directors cut (2007, Frank Darabont)
Blu ray
A well put together film based on the short story by Stephen King about a group of people held up in a Supermarket that is surrounded by a mist that has dangerous creatures in it. The film is made all the better by restoring it to the directors original vision of having the film in black and white.
7.5-8

Unforgiven (1992, Clint Eastwood)
Netflix
This is the third time I’ve seen this and it is my favorite viewing of the film. I really enjoyed the film, especially Gene Hackmans performance. Visually it’s probably the best looking Eastwood directed film which are usually pretty flat.
7.5/10

The Princess Bride (1987, Rob Reiner)
Blu ray
This classic fantasy is very well written and so charming.
7/10

Happy Gilmore (1996, Dennis Dugan)
Blu ray
Adam Sandler plays a rejected hockey player puts his skills to the golf course to save his grandmother's house. This was a big breakthrough film for Sandler’s style of comedy and still his best comedy film.
7/10

Boyz n the Hood (1991, John Singleton)
Netflix
This film follows the lives of three young males living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, dissecting questions of race, relationships, violence, and future prospects. It’s well done but needs a half hour of meandering edited out.
7/10

The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988, Vincent Ward)
This visually stunning film follows a group of men who are seeking relief from the Black Death. They guided by a boy's vision and dig a tunnel from 14th century Scotland to 20th century New Zealand.
This is a very ambitious project out of New Zealand in the 80’s but as a whole does not quite live up to its promise.
6.5/10

Beverly Hills Cop III (1994, John Landis)
Blu ray
This third film in the series has a terrible reputation. I really disliked it when I saw it in the cinema but I’ve softened to it over time. I think the main problem is the direction which is very flat and tv like which in comparison to Tony Scott’s sunbaked stylish visuals of the second film in the series is quite a step down.
6/10

The Quick and the Dead (1995, Sam Raimi)
netflix
This western from Sam Raimi features all of his signature visual tricks as well as a lot of spaghetti western stylings that he was trying to emulate, even down to the Morricone styled score.
Sharon Stone plays a female gunfighter who returns to a frontier town where a dueling tournament is being held, which she enters in an effort to avenge her father's death.
The film feels more like a parody of a western though and makes no pretense to be set in the real world so the stakes do not feel high. On the plus side most of the cast are great, especially Hackman, DiCaprio and Crowe.. Stone however is really bad in it.
I enjoyed some of the gun fights and visuals but it kind of drags at time and Stone is hard to watch here.
5.5/10

WEEKLY FILM AWARDS

BEST FILM: Ronin
BEST ACTOR: Woody Harrelson - White Men Can’t Jump
BEST ACTRESS: Elisabeth Moss - Invisible Man
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Gene Hackman - Unforgiven
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Angela Bassett - Boyz n the Hood
BEST EDITING: Kimberly Ray - White Men Can’t Jump
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Geoffrey Simpson - The Navigator
BEST SCRIPT: Ron Shelton - White Men Can’t Jump
BEST SCORE: Mark Isham - The Mist
BEST DIRECTOR: John Frankenheimer- Ronin


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

The Invisible Man - 7/10

Ronin - 7/10

White Men Can't Jump - 7.5/10

The Mist - 7.5/10

Unforgiven - 9/10

The Princess Bride - 9/10

Happy Gilmore - 7/10

Beverly Hills Cop III - 6/10

The Quick and the Dead - 6/10

Seen the coloured version of The Mist but not the director's cut (theatrical would get a high 8/10)
Happy Gilmore - 7/10

First Time Viewings:

Onward (2020) - Disney+
I really enjoyed Pixar’s new movie, and I don’t fully understand why it’s overlooked. It’s a fun road trip and the brother dynamic is charming. I also almost felt teary-eyed near the end. High recommendation.
8/10

Massacre at Central High (1986) - YouTube
Low-budget cult film about a teenager taking revenge on bullies and the rest of the high school. It’s one of the first of its kind although as it is low-budget, there have been films later on with its ideas that were done better. It’s enjoyable for the second half, and the ending would go on to inspire Heathers.
7/10

Prom Night (1980) - TV
Very slow and takes a while to get to the killing, but has some good ideas in it. Plus I have to give it credit for building tension.
6.5/10

Terror Train (1980) - TV
Another Jamie Lee Curtis slasher released the same year. This is a lot better than Prom Night, though. Liked the train setting and the twist was interesting. I also love how the killer uses different masks and costumes throughout the film, which was fun and creative.
7.5/10

Big Trouble in Little China (1986) - TV
This Carpenter cult classic is lots of fun. Russell gives a fun performance.
8/10

Robin Hood (1973) - Disney+
Cute and decently enjoyable, but nothing too special about it.
7/10

Braveheart (1995) - Netflix
Very good historical war drama. I’m not sure how accurate it is (I heard it’s not but I don’t know much about the real story), but the story is still engaging and the violent action is great.
8/10

Cast Away (2000) - DVD
This is a great survival film with Tom Hanks stranded on an island. He does a great job and the story is very touching, even after he's saved.
8/10

There’s Something About Mary (1998) - TV
Surprisingly clever and funny comedy.
8/10

Repeat Viewings:

Brave (2012) - Disney+
Pixar’s most underrated IMO. I really like Merida and the mother-daughter bond, making it one of the recent Disney Princess films where romantic love isn’t the focus (if at all), the others being Frozen and Moana.
8/10

Big Hero 6 (2014) - Disney+
Also underrated. Sure it’s derivative but most movies are. The action, story and characters (for the most part) are all on point.
8/10

Dinosaur (2000) - Disney+
Watched this on VHS when I was younger quite a lot. It’s got the nostalgic feels. I do think the movie would’ve worked better without dialogue but it doesn’t bother me much. The animation is also incredible for its time.
7/10

Aladdin (1992) - Disney+
An animated classic. Very fast-paced and entertaining.
8/10

The Lion King (1994) - Disney+
One of Disney’s very best, my second favourite of all of them.
8.5/10

Hercules (1997) - Disney+
A bit better on second viewing. I really like Ron Clements and John Musker’s directing for their films.
7/10

The Little Mermaid (1989) - Disney+
I'm not a big fan of Ariel as a character, but the rest of the movie is still great.
8/10

Speed (1994) - TV
Saw this a while back and wanted to watch it again. It’s a lot better than I remember and what a relentless thrill ride.
8/10

Bening would have been my win, but I'm actually leaning towards her being co-lead with Cusack and Huston.

First Time Viewing:


Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel; 1975) – Classic exploitation film which is quite tame by today’s standards. The concept is great but the low budget means that the movie cannot do it any justice.
5/10

Nighthawks (Bruce Malmuth; 1981) – A weird mixture of goofiness and realism. Rutger Hauer is an almost cartoonish villain as terrorist Wulfgar. Sly Stallone is solid and there are some good ideas, but it’s never quite as gripping as it should be.
5/10

The Gingerbread Man (Robert Altman; 1998) – Solid atmosphere, but Altman is not very good with plot and the great twist can be seen coming for a mile.
5/10

Riddick (David N. Twohy; 2013) Extended Cut - I caught bits of this on TV years ago. Thought it was about time I watched the whole thing. Turns out I needn’t have bothered. The plot is a lame rehash of Pitch Black. It also has a lot of green-screen and CGI making it look like the Sci-Fi version of Zack Snyder’s 300. The new creatures are not scary and the writing is unbelievably poor too, and this from the guy who wrote The Fugitive.
4/10


TV

Animal Kingdom – Season 1 – Good addition to the Aussie gangster movie. I thought no-one could match Ben Mendelsohn’s psycho turn as Pope, but Shawn Hatosy is every bit as good and even manages to make this disturbing f*ck-up of a character almost sympathetic. I’m not sure whether I’ll keep watching though.
6/10


Repeat Viewing:

The Lincoln Lawyer (Brad Furman; 2011) – Solid thriller with McConaughey on top form.
7/10

Murder On The Orient Express (Sidney Lumet; 1974) – This is perhaps the best of the several adaptations of the book. It still doesn’t really work. It’s a quite stagey, static affair and there is little sense of claustrophobia. Finney’s pantomime turn as Poirot is also a bit of a laughing stock.
6/10

Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton; 1964) – In memoriam Honor Blackman I rewatched her greatest hit. Still a piece of classy entertainment.
9/10

Magic Mike: nothing magical there. 5/10
Road to perdition: Beautiful. 8/10
Locke: PVR'd it
Adaptation: Solid and unique. 7.5-8/10

Mine:

Short circuit (1986 DVD): E.T. meets Robocop, and it works! I loved it as a child so it was mandatory for me to watch it with my children. With my adult perspective it was really different than I remembered but still awfully enjoyable, thoroughly entertaining,l and genuinely memorable. 8/10



Wreck-it Ralph (2012 TV): I saw the sequel on Netflix last summer and it was visually impressive but I had found the story to be a bit flat. Probably because I was missing some connections because I was surprised to find such a rich, touching, intelligent and fun film in the first installment. I recommend any parent looking for a good family movie to watch this during the pandemic. There were so many sumptuous layers to this delicious dessert of a movie. My rating: 8/10



Psycho (1960 TV): So this is the one that started it all, is that right? Because if it’s not, frankly, I don’t see what is SUCH a big deal about it. And I thought there were good horror movies in the 50’s and 40’s weren’t there? So what’s so special with this one? It has solid acting and a fun little story but the kills were cheap, the editing amateurish, the dialogue was pretty corny and the twist ending funny more than anything. I enjoyed it but it wasn’t as special as I thought it would be. My rating: 6.5/10



Delicatessen (1991 DVD): I didn’t like it much the first time around and I didn’t like it much more this time and that’s unfortunate for a film coming from one of my favourite directors. It shows a nice attention to details and there are some memorable scenes (like the room of frogs and snails or the crazy clown and scary monkeys nightmare) but bottom line is; I didn’t care much for any of the plot points and the characters were not too likeable. My rating: 6/10



London as fallen (2016 netflix): Even though the first one agreeably surprised me, I did not expect much from this sequel and indeed, it was predictable, it felt uninspired and was just plain ugly. A few good action scenes here and there but that’s it. The last 10 minutes were actually the best. My rating: 4.5/10



Bloodride (2020 Netflix): I watched an episode of Tiger king and I did not find it interesting enough to continue for now so I tried this neat little Norwegian horror anthology filled with twisted and violent short stories, just like I like’em.

Ep1: 7

Ep2: 6

Ep3: 7.5

Ep4: 8

Ep5: 5

Ep6: 6





Outbreak (1995 TV): I saw this one at the theatre didn’t I? I’m not too sure but I think so. Anyways, 95’s the greatest movie year and this is another one of its gems. Actually, it’s one of the lesser one but still, it’s gripping, well acted and I loved these cute little monkeys. It’s also very scary to watch in our actual context. My rating: 7.5/10

Random fact: The other day my wife asked me what I thought would happen if there was no one to work in the supermarkets anymore and I told her that the army would probably roll down our street and we would eat what’s being delivered to us. That was before watching this movie.



Twins (1988 TV): Unlike Junior, that I also rewatched recently, this one was a very pleasant experience. Arnie’s character was much more sympathetic and the chemistry with Danny was much more palpable. This is the kind of 80s flick that makes me feel all fuzzy inside. my rating: 7.5/10