What Films did You Watch Last Week (29/11 - 05/12) CLOSED

First Time Viewings:

The Double (2013, Richard Ayoade) - 7/10 6.5/10

Passing (2021, Rebecca Hall) - 7/10

Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One (2021, Chris Palmer) - 7/10 8/10

Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two (2021, Chris Palmer) - 7/10

10 Rillington Place (1971, Richard Fleischer) - 8/10



Repeat Viewings: 

Black Rain (1989, Ridley Scott) - 7/10 5.5/10

Sabrina (1954, Billy Wilder) - 8/10

Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg) - 8.5/10 9/10




Movie Awards: 

BEST FILM: Minority Report
BEST ACTOR: Richard Attenborough - 10 Rillington Place
BEST ACTRESS: Audrey Hepburn - Sabrina
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: John Hurt - 10 Rillington Place
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kirsten Dunst - The Power of the Dog
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ari Wegner - The Power of the Dog
BEST SCORE: Jonny Greenwood - The Power of the Dog
BEST SCRIPT: Scott Frank & Jon Cohen - Minority Report
BEST DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg - Minority Report

First Time Viewing:

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017; Chad Stahelski) - You can tell they had more money than on the first film, but they didn't always use it wisely. Lots of action, but compared to the crazily inventive 3rd instalment this feels somewhat flat and the villains are boring.
5.5/10

The Haunted Palace (1963; Roger Corman) - Advertised as an E. A. Poe adaptation this has more in commong with the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Vincent Price has some fun in a double role and the sets are nice, otherwise it's mostly by-the-numbers gothic horror stuff.
5.5/10

TV

Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994; Robert Markowitz) - Why did they even bother with this? Two previously unfilmed scripts intended for the original Twilight Zone get the 90s TV treatment. Not only are the stories not very good, instead of the elegant black&white photography of the original series we get cheap-looking colour film.
4/10

Repeat Viewing:

The Arrival (1996; David Twohy) - For a B-movie this is tremendous fun. Charlie Sheen plays a radio astronomer who one night discovers a signal sent from Aliens, but when he goes to his superiors they try to hush it up, which leads to him investigating on his own and discovering a worldwide conspiracy. This has some nice twists and solid effects (aside from the cheap-looking CGI aliens). I have to say, I prefer this to the Villeneuve movie.
7.5/10

Die Hard (1988; John McTiernan) - Still the smartest and best Christmas-set action movie.
9/10

High Plains Drifter (1973; Clint Eastwood) - A great supernatural revenge western with some poignant moments of black comedy.
8/10

My only disagreement is with your score win. That goes to Minority Report.

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 Last Duel (2021, Ridley Scott)
This is one of the directors best films and most likely his best sword era films. The story is told in rashomon style and is quite effective. Some really great performances all around, this film deserved more at the box office and will likely be snubbed come awards season.
7.5/10

The Brothers Rico (1957, Phil Karlson)
blu ray
Interesting film noir with Richard Conte playing the oldest of three brothers, he having lefts the mob but his brothers still locked in that life. 
7/10

The Power of the Dog (2021, Jane Campion)
This is a well acted and stunning looking film. It is never dull but I don’t think it reaches its potential by closing credits.
7/10

The Damned United (2009, Tom Hooper)
Solid biopic of a very colourful 1970’s football manager. Easy to watch.
6.5/10

No Time to Die (2021, Cary Joji Fukunaga)
Cinema
The final Craig Bond is not very good. It starts well enough but quickly starts going down hill. I did not care for a lot of the direction or dialogue. It has a few fun scenes but it is so bloated that I was pretty relieved when it was over.
5/10

Belfast (2021, Kennett Branagh)
Much like Roma a couple of years back we have a director shooting a black and white film set in the era of their youth. This one however feels so thin and light that it barely feels like a movie and at least Roma was visually stimulating. This is tipped as an Oscar front runner which is probably right cos they often get it wrong.
4.5/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

Broadcast News (1987, James L. Brooks)
Good drama about the ethics of the news room and inter office romances.
7/10

Dune (1984, David Lynch)
This much maligned film still has quite a lot to offer with its great visuals, costume and set design. The new film of Dune follows all the same beats of the first 2 acts here but the. Unfortunately what will become Dune Part  2 in the next few years is stuffed into the last 45 minutes and is a total mess.
5.5-6/10

FIRST TIME TV VIEWING

Chucky (2021, Season One)
This is a direct continuation of the long time movie series. It is poorly written, especially the dialogue for the teens. It does get better as it goes when it focuses on mythology and legacy characters but these parts may be confusing to those unfamiliar with the films.
Average TV

WEEKLY FILM AWARDS

BEST FILM: The Last Duel
BEST ACTOR: Richard Conte - The Brothers Rico
BEST ACTRESS: Holly Hunter - Broadcast News
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Adam Driver - The Last Duel
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Argentina Brunetti - The Brothers Rico
BEST EDITING: Claire Simpson - The Last Duel
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ari Wenger - The Power of the Dog 
BEST SCORE: Jonny Greenwood- The Power of the Dog
BEST SCRIPT: Nicole Holofcener, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck - The Last Duel
BEST DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott - The Last Duel

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

Hey Billy

I gave no time to die the same rating as skyfall but I prefer Spectre by quite a bit (although it is also bloated). I really di dnot like the end to No time to die either.

Hell Bound - not seen but im always on the look out for noir


Mogambo -think i saw this as a kid


Planes, Trains and Automobile - not a fan really, I generally do not like Steve Martin apart from a few exceptions. 5/10