What did You Watch Last Week (20/04 - 26/04) 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 King (2019, David Michod)
Netflix
This fictionalised Historical drama is great, superb cast, one of the best films of last year.
7/10

Outlaw King (2018, David Mackenzie)
Netflix
A kind of spiritual sequel to Braveheart with the action taking place after William Wallace's death and focusing on Robert the Bruce's attempt to free Scotland from English Tyranny. Solid cast and Chris Pine can handle a Scottish accent better than Mel Gibson ever could.
6.5/10

Hands of Stone (2016, Jonathan Jakubowicz)
Netflix
The story of legendary boxer Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other’s lives.
Deniro is great as Arcel and the film is way better than I expected.
6/10

Reindeer Games (2000, John Frankenheimer)
After the success of Ronin, the directo rmade this thriller with Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron and Gary Sinese. It is a pretty bad film but amusingly enough so for a one off viewing.
3.5/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

From Russia With Love (1963, Terence Young)
blu ray
For my money the best Bond film, It does aa rather slow set up but once it gets going it is unbeatable and Robert Shaw (Jaws) is a wonderful villain.
8-8.5/10

Dr. No (1962, Terence Young)
blu ray
The first and still one of the best Bond films for sure. It has a much lower budget but its success assured a larger budget from there on out.
8/10

Goldfinger (1964, Guy Hamilton)
blu ray
Often considered one of the best Bond films and it is not hard to see why. It is well made and the first 55 minutes are stellar. It does slow down and meander for a bit after that but is still good.
7.5-8/10

Never Say Never Again (1983, Irvin Kershner)
blu ray
The film is based on the James Bond novel Thunderball, which was previously adapted in a 1965 film under that name. Unlike the majority of Bond films, Never Say Never Again was not produced by Eon Productions, but by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm in association with Kevin McClory who was one of the original writers of the Thunderball storyline with Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham. McClory retained the filming rights of the novel following a long legal battle dating from the 1960s.
Connery returns to the role that made him famous after 12 years for the seventh and final time. The film's title is a reference to Connery's declaration in 1971 that he would "never again" play that role. As Connery was 52 at the time of filming, although nearly three years younger than incumbent Bond Roger Moore, the storyline features an ageing Bond, who is brought back into action to investigate the theft of two nuclear weapons by SPECTRE.
The film was released in October 1983, and opened to positive reviews, with the acting of Connery and Klaus Brandauer singled out for praise as more emotionally resonant than the typical Bond films of the day. The film was a commercial success, with the largest opening weekend haul to date for the series.
Even with the rights in hand to make the film, the longtime Bond rights holders tried everything in their legal means to have the film production and release halted. Constant law suits prevented the production from using many elements synonymous with the EON Productions, even down to small things like stylized opening credits and pre-credit sequences among many other things.
Irvin Kershner fresh of the success of The Empire Strikes Back is hired to direct And with him came a lot of essential personnel from Raiders of the Lost Ark, including first assistant director David Tomblin, director of photography Douglas Slocombe, second unit director Mickey Moore and production designers Philip Harrison and Stephen Grimes.
Even on a lower than normal budget for a Bond film, the assembled team made a terrific looking film and the cast are more effective than most other Bond films and it’s worth mentioning that the great combat scenes were choreographed by Steven Seagal. The downside however is the lack of a classic John Barry Bond score and the score in its place being a sparse jazz score that does not have the same urgency. The underwater scenes don’t drag as much as they did in Thunderball but the third act could do with some tightening up.
For all it had running against it we end up with a wonderful swan song with a Connery who looks like he is having a blast and certainly proved that no one does it better. Also some of the best villains of the series with a great aim villain and my all time favourite hench person in Barbara Carreras Fatima Blush who won nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.
7.5/10

Thunderball (1965, Terence Young)
blu ray
Thunderball was a co production between Kevin McClory and EON pictures and the first film in the series to be shot in such a glorious widescreen. It is stunning visually and has great villains. Word is that the beautiful underwater scenes cost so much that the producers wanted as much of that money on the screen as possible. In the end the main wide held criticism of the film is that those underwater scenes go on too long and slow down the film. Despite that it is a top notch film and I only marginally prefer the remake (Never Say Never Again) for Connery's better performances, the crisper dialogue but Thunderball is certainly the more gorgeous film with the better climax.
7.5/10

This is the End (2013, Seth Rogan, Evan Goldberg)
blu ray
Funny all star comedy with everyone playing heightened versions of themselves in one way or another. Very funny, silly stuff.
7/10

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982, Taylor Hackford)
Netflix
Richard Gere plays a young man with a rough upbringing wgo wants to become a pilot and an officer in the Navy. This is a solid drama with good action and somewhat a precursor to Top Gun in some ways.
6/10

You Only Live Twice (1967, Lewis Gilbert)
blu ray
This film is a mixed bag and its obvious that so many Bond films in a row was taking its toll on Connery as he announced it was his last during filming. It has a lot of good scenes but the second half is very bloated and feels too long. There is some plot issues, especially the ridiculous turn of Connery becoming a Japanese man for no real reason.
6/10

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom (1984, Steven Spielberg)
Netflix
This prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark has a fantastic opening but as soon as they make it to India the film grinds to a halt and looks pretty cheap with no locations and  a lot of stage sets. They fill it with gimmicks that have not aged well and Jones sidekicks are a screaming woman who is a large departure from the strong leading lady of Raiders and  a young boy who also screams a fair bit. The back end of the film does have some cool moments and Spielberg knows how to frame a scene. For a film that people call the darkest.. and it does have dark moments, it is also the silliest and most screwball of the original trilogy.
5/10

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969, Peter R. Hunt)
blu ray
So Connery is tired of the long Bond shoots year after year and they bring in Australian model George Lazenby who has more dated hair than any bond before or since. He is not a very good actor but he gets the job done but it is very noticeable how much post work was done in adding dialogue when his head is turned, hes off screen or sometimes when he is on screen with his mouth shut to try and give his character some life. 
This film was supposed  to be shot before You Only Live Twice but there were some technical issues they could not square away on time. So despite Bind having met Blofeld in the previous film, Blofeld does not recognise him in this chapter. This was the longest Bond film  to date and it feels it although it does have some good stretches and  some stunning cinematography.
It gets heaving bogged down for almost an hour in the middle with  scenes set in a mountain hideaway with a bunch of women undergoing hypnosis that feels like it should have been plugged straight into Austin Powers or a Roger Moore vehicle. It certainly does not fit the tone of the rest of the film. Revisionists and contrarians will like to try and champion this film but its mostly pretty bad.
4/10

FIRST TIME TV VIEWING

Devs(2020, Limited Series)
Intriguing futuristic series from the creator of Ex Machina and Annihilation.
Good TV

Sincerely Louis CK (2020, Stand Up Special)
Very funny as usual
Good TV

WEEKLY FILM AWARDS

BEST FILM: From Russia With Love
BEST ACTOR: Timothee Chalamet - The King
BEST ACTRESS: Debra Winger - An Officer and a Gentlemen
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Robert Deniro - Hands of Stone
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Barbara Carrera - Never Say Never Again
BEST EDITING: Ernest Hosler - Thunderball
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ted Moore - Thunderball
BEST SCRIPT: Kevin McClory, Ian Fleming, Jack Whittingham, lorenzo Semple Jr. - Never Say Never Again
BEST SCORE: John Barry, Monty Norman - From Russia with Love
BEST DIRECTOR: Terence Young - From Russia with Love

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