What Movies Did You Watch Last Week? (26/09-02/10)

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.


Caught up on a lot of Tv this week, some of which was completed and reviewed below, I also tried to watch ARQ (2016) and Seas of Trees (2016) but did not care for or finish either but I may give ARQ another go.

FIRST TIME MOVIE VIEWING

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940, Boris Ingster)
This film is often cited as the first "true" film noir of the classic period (1940–1958) and it certainly contains a lot of the hallmarks of the genre such as an urban setting, heavy shadows, diagonal lines, voice-over narration, low camera angles shooting up multi-story staircases, and an innocent protagonist falsely accused of a crime who is desperate to clear himself. It is a pretty well made and acted piece, the narration is a bit heavy handed and the score a little maudlin but it is still a quality noir.
7/10

The Good Neighbour (2016, Kasra Farahani)
This partial found footage thriller sees a pair of mischievous high school kids create the illusion of a haunting on an unsuspecting neighbour (James Caan). While keeping his every reaction under surveillance, they see much more than they bargained for. I never really bought the reasons behind the experiment the kids in the film were running and did not care for them either. Caan is excellent though, it is a shame the weird structure and format of the film was not executed better.
4.5/10

Shock (1977, Mario Bava)
In what was Mario Bava's final film we see a couple terrorized in their new house by a vengeful ghost of the woman's former husband who possesses her young son. This film was marketed in America as Beyond the Door II despite having no connection to Beyond the Door. The script, acting and music are pretty bad and all in all is a sad send off for the cult director.
2.5/10

REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING

Nothing this week

FIRST TIME DOCO' VIEWING

The Case of: Jonbenet Ramsey (2016)
This two part documentary is compelling stuff.
recommended

REPEAT DOCO' VIEWING

Crystal Lake Memories (2013)
blu-ray
A very thorough chronicle of the history of the Friday the 13th franchise.
recommended

FIRST TIME TV VIEWING

The Night of (2016) Season One
Based on the UK series Criminal Justice we have this 8 episode American version that takes place after a night of partying where a man wakes up to find a girl hr met that night stabbed to death and is charged with her murder. A very well made show that has some artistry to it as well as great characters that are well acted.
Highly Recommended

Roots (2016) mini-series
tv
An excellent remake of the cultural phenomenon that was the Roots mini-series from the 1970's.
Highly Recommended

Damien (2016) Season One
This is made as a direct sequel to The Omen (1976) as an alternate timeline from the films theatrical sequels. It even has flashbacks using footage from the original film. For the most part it works quite well although gets kind of messy in the last couple of episodes and has a few supernatural tropes added that are unnecessary.
Recommended

REPEAT TV VIEWING

Spaced (1999) Season One
dvd
This is still an amazing show that is set up with a standard sitcom premise but turned on its head with cult references at every turn. It also brought together Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who would go on to make Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End together.
Highly Recommended


WEEKLY MOVIE AWARDS

BEST FILM - Stranger on the third Floor
BEST ACTOR - John McGuire - Stranger on the Third Floor
BEST ACTRESS - Margaret Tallichet - Stranger on the Third Floor
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - James Caan - The Good Neighbour
BEST SUPPORTING Bailey Noble - The Good Neighbour
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - Nicholas Musuraca - Stranger on the Third Floor
BEST DIRECTOR - Boris Ingster - Stranger on the Third Floor

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