What I’ve already seen :

Fight Club : I’m going to break the first rule of Fight Club…

I was 14 years old when this came out, around the age where you start getting into your own type of music, film, etc. basically getting your own identity. Thought this film was the pinnacle of cool & loved it basically because it was “cool” to like it… rewatched it a few years ago & holy shit, it’s so, so much better than I remember it being. I honestly can’t find a single flaw in this film. Unconventional story & plot, a truly great “HOLY SHIT!” moment that you didn’t see coming & also makes complete sense, AMAZING performances from every single member of the cast, iconic characters, beautifully shot, achingly cool, darkly funny & witty, directing & editing is so tight… it’s just… flawless technically.

By definition for me, it’s a 10 out of 10, but… it’s not absolutely my favourite film of all time so don’t feel like I can give it quite the perfect score. I don’t know why! It’s one of my favourites, but not the favourite.

9.9/10

Saving Private Ryan : I guess for a lot of people this is considered the quintessential film about WWII. The opening is iconic & truly one of the most remarkable set pieces in cinema history in terms of technical execution & how hard it punches the audience in the gut. The film carries on in that vein, moving on from one spectacular set piece to another, all whilst keeping it grounded as you relate to the people fighting, witnessing the horror. There is genuine dread & tension in near every scene, all packing an emotional punch (Marvel take note, this is how you do big action scenes). It didn’t glorify or lie about what the war was like… it often asked “why do we need to pull the trigger” & “why we have the right to take another one’s life”. It’s brutal & chaotic.

9/10

I personally preferred the Spielberg & Hanks produced TV series Band Of Brothers which is somewhat of an unofficial partner to the film, the nature of a TV show meant you really get to know the characters. But you can’t use it as a critiscism to level again against the film at all.

No Country For Old Men : Javier Bardem, what a performance. Great thriller, incredibly tense with foreboding terror, you’re petrified, laughing & wincing often at the same time. Shot by Roger Deakins so obviously it’s absolutely beautiful… confusing as fuck ending though.

8/10

Strong week.

My updated running list of films we’ve done here that I’ve seen so far :

1. Fight Club - 9.9/10
2. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - 9
3. The Prestige - 9
4. Saving Private Ryan - 9
5. Silence Of The Lambs - 8.75
6. Blade Runner - 8.5
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8
8. No Country For Old Men - 8
9. 2001 : A Space Odyssey - 8
10. Coco - 8
11. Gone Girl - 8
12. The Wolf Of Wall Street - 7
13. Avengers : Infinity War - 6

Determined to watch more of the films we’ve missed off so far.

Juan Flo Evra - 23 January 2019 07:49 PM

Week Four :

Saving Private Ryan (Sky & NowTV)
Singin’ In The Rain (Sky & NowTV)
No Country For Old Men (Sky & NowTV)
Good Will Hunting (Netflix)
Fight Club (Amazon Prime)

Be amazed if there is a stronger week ever than this one.

Watched Casablanca from the previous week’s options. Good film, not up there with the best for me but it had its moments, a lot of iconic lines in the dialogue, but you could kind of see where it was going towards the end. Very interesting to see a war film made during the war too, weird to think they didn’t know how things were going to turn out at the time it was filmed. Solid 8/10 for me.

Random question and I don’t know if we’ve talked about it before but how do people judge their ratings. I feel like everyone rates their average as 7 rather than 5

Na, they wanted someone good - 24 January 2019 01:22 PM

Random question and I don’t know if we’ve talked about it before but how do people judge their ratings. I feel like everyone rates their average as 7 rather than 5

Well on a rating scale of 1-10, 5 is the literal definition of average. That’s how I treat it.

Weird thing I’ve found with films, I can prefer a 1-3 out of 10 compared to a 5. 5 means it’s average but commendable - it’s a bit of nothing. Whereas a film could be 1 or 2 out of 10, however I’d find it more entertaining for how hilariously bad it is & therefore probably more likely to recommend it because you need to see how terrible it truly is.

The ‘How Did This Get Made’? effect.

Na, they wanted someone good - 24 January 2019 01:22 PM

Random question and I don’t know if we’ve talked about it before but how do people judge their ratings. I feel like everyone rates their average as 7 rather than 5

Based on my enjoyment:

10 - Exceptional, lucky to get one a year
9 - Great
8 - Very Good
7 - Good
6 - Average with something good about it
5 - Average
4 - Bad
3 - Very Bad
2 - The worst films Ive watched at a cinema would be here.
1 - So bad a major studio basically couldnt put it out in the cinema

Nickperson - 24 January 2019 01:42 PM

Na, they wanted someone good - 24 January 2019 01:22 PM

Random question and I don’t know if we’ve talked about it before but how do people judge their ratings. I feel like everyone rates their average as 7 rather than 5

Based on my enjoyment:

10 - Exceptional, lucky to get one a year
9 - Great
8 - Very Good
7 - Good
6 - Average with something good about it
5 - Average
4 - Bad
3 - Very Bad
2 - The worst films Ive watched at a cinema would be here.
1 - So bad a major studio basically couldnt put it out in the cinema

I’d go along with that… I give films a decimal rating after that too to try & be a little more definitive.

Going even further, I’ll give you my 1-10 scale of films on a particular subject.

Zombies :

10 - Dawn Of The Dead (Original)
9 - Shaun Of The Dead
8 - Night Of The Living Dead
7 - 28 Days Later
6 - Zombieland
5 - Dawn Of The Dead (remake)
4 - Land Of The Dead
3 - World War Z
2 - Diary Of The Dead
1 - Die You Zombie Bastards!

Could be an idea in those lists… might think of some more

My ranking system:

6 good (three stars in a five star ranking system)
7 very good
8 excellent (four stars)
9 exceptional
10 masterpiece (five stars)

7 is very good to differentiate between the stuff that I find good from an objective point of view and the stuff that I find both good and to my liking. 9 is for stuff that I am ambivalent about it being “just” excellent or a proper masterpiece. It’s also very useful for, err, let’s call them masterpieces with an asterisk.

Like Nick says above I rarely get a clear masterpiece on my hands, there may be a year without, but when I revisit my charts I notice stuff that I had thought of as excellent but has stayed with me many years in a way that makes it very special and subsequently I upgrade to a 10. I don’t get to read books or watch movies in any significant amount anymore but I still keep up with music, so I thought I’d look right now on my RateYourMusic charts and, since 2010, I seem to have 5 five star albums and 11 four and a half star albums, off which I may just bump a couple up to five stars and one down to four stars. I think that’s a balanced harvest for almost a decade.

In terms of movies and I can name overall a few tens of masterpieces off which my top 10 would contain only those that are special on a personal level to me. I had a good spell of watching movies starting from around 2005 and going for a decade from there, but I still have seen so little. I have yet to see an Iranian or Turkish movie, I’ve watches a handful of Korean movies at best, etc.

Juan Flo Evra - 23 January 2019 08:24 PM

No Country For Old Men : Javier Bardem, what a performance. Great thriller, incredibly tense with foreboding terror, you’re petrified, laughing & wincing often at the same time. Shot by Roger Deakins so obviously it’s absolutely beautiful… confusing as fuck ending though.

8/10

 

Rewatched this last night.

Stand by what I wrote above, I did enjoy the film a lot more than I remember so feel like I should adjust the score.

The story is actually incredibly simple, hunter goes on the run after stumbling upon a dug deal gone wrong. He’s chased by a violent silent assassin & drug cartel whilst a soon-to-be retired Sheriff oversees the investigation trying to convince the hunter’s wife to give up the loot or it will end in tragedy. It’s so tense, with some beautiful set-pieces & scenes. Javier Bardem as the silent assassin is absolutely mesmerising… however the final act of the film is a major disappointment with some odd decisions made by the film makers. The film is based on a book, so they shot it true to the source material, but in this medium it really doesn’t work & jars you out of the film.

Will amend my score to 8.25 , would have been higher - but I’m not a fan of the third act of the film. There’s no doubt deeper meaning behind it all, but it just didn’t work for me.

I watched No Country for Old Men a few years ago. Never rewatched it but it’s an 8/10 for me. Good film with a gripping story but just let down by the ending.

Week 5

The Godfather (Sky & NowTV)
The Godfather : Part II (Sky & NowTV)
Leon
Fargo (Netflix)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Sky & NowTV)

Note, random number generator threw up Godfather Part II only, but thought it was stupid to have that on there if people hadn’t seen the first one.

Also going to start having to choose films which aren’t readily available on streaming services as the choices dwindle down.

To summarize my posts from before:

Godfather 1 - Really good
Godfather 2 - Not so much

Am going to rewatch the two Godfather films, was massively underwhelmed when I first watched them but willing to give them another go.

Leon : Some of the subject matter in the film might make people feel a little uncomfortable, but this film really is fucking great. It’s a stylish 90’s action that pulls more on your heartstrings rather than going in for the adrenaline kill. It’s stylish, looks great, fantastic score & 3 of the best - yet very different - performances you’ll see committed to film. This is Natalie Portman’s first ever film & her performance is beyond her years (which suits the character because of the subject matter), Jean Reno as Leon is equally terrifying & hopelessly naive whilst Gary Oldman properly hams up the performance, but it really, really works. How can a scene where he takes a pill be so fucking cool?!

The set pieces are tense & OTT, it’s a little bit mental - but that’s part of what makes it great. It’s more than a brainless action movie, it’s an incredibly emotional action movie. 8.9

Fargo : Ordinary people getting thrown into extraordinary & absurd situations as mishap happens upon mishap creating a farce of lies & confusion - and it’s all really fucking funny. It’s the absurd & terrifying coming up against the ordinary of middle America & half the humour just comes from this juxtaposition. The real comes up against the oddball - but it’s all so plausible somehow. It’s funny without trying to be, one of the best black comedies there has ever been. 9.3

My updated running list of films we’ve done here that I’ve seen so far (scores out of 10) :

1. Fight Club - 9.9
2. Fargo - 9.3
3. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - 9.2
4. The Prestige - 9.1
5. Saving Private Ryan - 9
6. Leon - 8.9
7. Silence Of The Lambs - 8.75
8. Blade Runner - 8.5
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8.5
10. No Country For Old Men - 8.25
11. 2001 : A Space Odyssey - 8
12. Coco - 8
13. Gone Girl - 8
14. The Wolf Of Wall Street - 7
15. Avengers : Infinity War - 6

Determined to watch more of the films we’ve missed off so far.

Fargo is incredible! Frances McDormand’s performance in that blew me away, and I was already a huge McDormand apologist coming in.
Still have to get around to Gone Girl.

I do feel guilty for greatly enjoying the content in this thread whilst contributing absolutely nothing to it.

Huntz - 31 January 2019 12:05 PM

To summarize my posts from before:

Godfather 1 - Really good
Godfather 2 - Not so much

I was really underwhelmed by 1 and enjoyed 2 but I don’t know if it’s because I watched 1 when I was younger and less appreciative of it

SatNav 18/22 - 05 February 2019 03:42 PM

I do feel guilty for greatly enjoying the content in this thread whilst contributing absolutely nothing to it.

Word.

Week 6

L.A. Confidential (Amazon Prime)
The Big Lebowski (Netflix)
Alien
Aliens (Sky + NowTV)
Django Unchained (Sky + NowTV)

Alien double bill is due to the number generator throwing up Aliens rather than the original. Both well worth a watch though, two completely different in tone but awesome films.

Legit watched Django Unchained last Sunday night so it’s very fresh in my memory.

Tarantino will Tarantino. Waltz, DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson (he goes meta going against the type of character you’d expect him to play when the subject is slavery) & Jamie Foxxx pull in amazingly charismatic & enigmatic performances which Tarantino certainly seems to have a skill with his actors.

Most of the film is absolutely riveting & tense, you’re going along with the ride - but there is an exact moment in the film where it’s all just downhill from there & you feel a little jaded & start clock watching. The film eats itself at the point Tarantino introduces himself in a cameo role. Suddenly the cartoonish & hyperreal violence in juxtaposition with the subject matter doesn’t translate & sits uncomfortably next to each other. Don’t get me wrong, the violence is relevant & slaves experienced it, but Tarantino will Tarantino & suddenly it seems like he’s making a black comedy of the situation. It undoes everything that was strong & punchy that goes before it.

It’s a very good watch, but falls in on itself because of the long running time. The film is long, but the story is short - it could have easily moved along faster without losing any of it’s quality. 7.2

Have seen most of the other films too, but will write something later…

Writing that got me thinking on the scale of Tarantino films where does this one rank. If I was listing his film from best to worst it would be the following :

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Reservoir Dogs

-

4. Kill Bill: Vol 1 & 2
5. Jackie Brown
6. The Hateful Eight
7. Django Unchained

-

8. Death Proof

To be honest, Kill Bill, Jackie Brown & The Hateful Eight are all fairly interchangeable in that list, once could easily rank above the other depending on my mood, Django can sit with them but is fundamentally not as good a film as the other 3. The top 3 are a real cut above the rest though - it’s Champions League finalists compared to Europa & then complete relegation fodder with Death Proof.

I only watched Django Unchained once which was at the cinema when it came out, and I remember thinking it was brilliant. Fairly sure I gave it a 9/10 on IMDB. The running time is very long but I remember it keeping me interested all the way through, although being in the cinema and not having access to distractions may have helped that.

RKMF - 07 February 2019 11:55 AM

I only watched Django Unchained once which was at the cinema when it came out, and I remember thinking it was brilliant. Fairly sure I gave it a 9/10 on IMDB. The running time is very long but I remember it keeping me interested all the way through, although being in the cinema and not having access to distractions may have helped that.

Yeah fair point, it kisses a solid 8 out of 10 for me for the most part - but I really got pulled out of the film when Tarantino has his unnecessary cameo (WTF was that accent?!). Then it really nosedives & I began questioning all the films flaws whilst still watching it. Not great.

Jackie Brown is Tarantino’s best film.

Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs are both brilliant, but Jackie Brown has an organic flow as the story plays out naturally. Nothing is forced or overly flash and the characters aren’t all pushing for the limelight everything and everyone is in its right place and is there for the narrative. Both Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs feel like an ensemble cast where they all want to be the lead. Within the context of those films that does work, but by comparison Jackie Brown is a more complete work with a depth that the others don’t have, covered up with flash.

Sid - 07 February 2019 01:18 PM

Jackie Brown is Tarantino’s best film.

Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs are both brilliant, but Jackie Brown has an organic flow as the story plays out naturally. Nothing is forced or overly flash and the characters aren’t all pushing for the limelight everything and everyone is in its right place and is there for the narrative. Both Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs feel like an ensemble cast where they all want to be the lead. Within the context of those films that does work, but by comparison Jackie Brown is a more complete work with a depth that the others don’t have, covered up with flash.

Have heard that from a lot of people - Kermode has even said Jackie Brown is Tarantino’s best work. I do enjoy Jackie Brown, it’s his least ‘Tarantino will Tarantino’ film which I think explains why it’s a lot of people’s favourites.

I was planning to see Godfather part 3 yesterday but realized I wasn’t in the mood for a mopy mafia film, so instead I watched Remember the Titans, which wasn’t on my list but I’ve been wanting to see it for a while anyway.

Uhh, it’s not a good movie, but I enjoyed it nevertheless because I really like films about sportsballs. And since it seems like I have a weekly Al Pacino quota to meet these days, I might even watch Any Given Sunday.

Juan Flo Evra - 07 February 2019 02:48 PM

Sid - 07 February 2019 01:18 PM

Jackie Brown is Tarantino’s best film.

Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs are both brilliant, but Jackie Brown has an organic flow as the story plays out naturally. Nothing is forced or overly flash and the characters aren’t all pushing for the limelight everything and everyone is in its right place and is there for the narrative. Both Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs feel like an ensemble cast where they all want to be the lead. Within the context of those films that does work, but by comparison Jackie Brown is a more complete work with a depth that the others don’t have, covered up with flash.

Have heard that from a lot of people - Kermode has even said Jackie Brown is Tarantino’s best work. I do enjoy Jackie Brown, it’s his least ‘Tarantino will Tarantino’ film which I think explains why it’s a lot of people’s favourites.

It definitely either people’s number 1 or number 6/7

Catching up from previous weeks watched Bicycle Thieves earlier today. Boy what a film. I never thought I’d love an Italian language film from the 1940s so much. If you can’t get emotionally attached to this you simply don’t possess a human heart. Great music too. Probably too early for me to rate it now but it’s somewhere between 8.5-9.5. Slight spoiler in white as to why it’s not a 10: Would probably be a 10 if the ending wasn’t so gut wrenching. I’d got so emotionally involved by this point it felt so disappointing to have an unhappy ending.

This week’s films I’ve already seen :

The Big Lebowski : Another beauty from the Coen brothers & apt it follows a week after Fargo. It’s another black comedy where the mundane & the ordinary of middle America comes up against organised crime - to be specific in this case Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski who is a ‘70’s hippy slacker who is assaulted by hired goons in a case of mistaken identity for a multimillionaire that shares his name. Realising they have made a mistake, they piss on his rug as they leave. The Dude is encouraged by his bowling buddies (with iconic performances from John Goodman & Steve Buscemi) to seek vengeance for his piss-stained rug. That’s the plot of the film…

Obviously as it’s a Coen brothers film, mishap happens mishap as The Dude finds himself embroiled in more escalating situations. It’s very much like Fargo, but lighter & more obvious with the comedy. It’s a black comedy of errors. It’s a must watch, the bowling scenes have some of the most iconic moments & performances in pop culture.

But, that’s, you know, my opinion, man. 8.5

Alien : Was massively late to this… to the point I had already seen 2012’s Prometheus in the cinema before watching the original. This is a slow, claustrophobic sci-fi horror that builds & build to a spectacular payoff & the creation of an iconic monster. The design of the monster, the atmosphere that surrounds the whole film, the constant feel of uneasiness & eeriness… it’s a masterpiece & the reason why it spawned a series. It’s essential viewing. 9.5 

Aliens : The gung-ho, no-holds barred, cathartic releasing Terminator 2-esque sequel to the slow burning original. It’s white-knuckled & still has the same suspense & sense of dread as the first - but now there is a team of mercenaries going after the monster with huge fuck-off guns. A side-step away from the original with it’s huge jolt of energy it packs into the action, but it keeps the sophistication & it really, really works. A lot of people prefer this to the original, i can see why as it’s a far more accessible & crowd-pleasing film - it’s really, really, really good - but the original is an absolute masterpiece of cinema & a smidgen ahead of this.9.2

My updated running list of films we’ve done here that I’ve seen so far (scores out of 10) :

1. Fight Club - 9.9
2. Alien - 9.5
3. Fargo - 9.3
4. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - 9.2
5. Aliens - 9.2
6. The Prestige - 9.1
7. Saving Private Ryan - 9
8. Leon - 8.9
9. Silence Of The Lambs - 8.75
10. Blade Runner - 8.5
11. The Big Lebowski - 8.5
12. The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8.5
13. No Country For Old Men - 8.25
14. 2001 : A Space Odyssey - 8
15. Coco - 8
16. Gone Girl - 8
17. The Wolf Of Wall Street - 7
18. Avengers : Infinity War - 6

Determined to watch more of the films we’ve missed off so far.

I’m loving your love of Alien and Aliens. The sequel is preferred for me, mainly due to the charcter of the support, something I think the original lacked slightly as there was only really Bishop that’s truly memorable, whereas Aliens has Hicks, Hudson and Vasquez as especially brilliant characters that all carry weight on their own. Apone is the absolute quinissential future marine Sgt too - all cigars and authority. Both films though up there as some of my greatest ever and a big reason I like sci-fi as much as I do.

In (almost) relative news, some I know loosely due to his support of QPR also has a website dedicated to 80s films. His reviews and additional info of the Alien series is decent. Although he prefers the 2nd Predator film to the first, so I usually take his points with a pinch of salt

http://www.the80smovieclub.co.uk/

Quite unconnected to this, just re-watched Godfather and Godfather 2.

Godfather 2 is an 8 out of 10, but the first one is just phenomenal. 11/10. So so so many amazing scenes.

Watched The Prestige last night as I’ve been hearing good things recently, and I saw it was on the list.

tbh I was a little disappointed by the reveal at the end (that’s not a spoiler, most of the film is about obsession over how a particular magic trick is pulled off), but it was a well put together story of two people’s obsession and rivalry over a few decades. 7/10 overall.

People who liked that should try The Duellists, a film very much in the same vein of obsession and rivalry over time. It’s also Ridley Scott’s first film - his next two were Alien and Blade Runner, that’s one hell of a streak!

Just watched Gone Girl yesterday. My goodness what a good plot and I loved the ending, so open and unsolved.

Week 7 :

12 Years A Slave (All 4)
Interstellar
To Kill A Mockingbird (NowTV & Sky Cinema)
City Of God (Netflix)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Amazon Prime)

Personally, a very strong week I think.

Forgot to throw in my 2 cents for a few of the Week 6 ones: The Big Lebowski I’ve only seen once but really liked it, imagine it would be good to watch again too. Plenty of funny moments and a good enough story to keep you interested, great characters too. Somewhere between 8-8.5 for me.

L.A. Confidential was a solid 8. Quite a pleasant surprise as I wasn’t expecting it to be that great. Solid story and a good cast, even taking out the Kevin Spacey shaped elephant in the room.

City Of God : If you stuck a gun to my head & demanded to know which film I think is the best of all time ; my answer would be City Of God.

It’s a brutal & visceral experience of a life of crime & violence for kids & teenagers in the slums of Rio De Janeiro. It’s difficult to watch at times, but it’s impossible to look way. The film is shot in an episodic flashback structure, with the voiceover giving you his first-hand account of events that happened in the city’s bloody turf war. Unbelievable stories & a plethora of fascinating characters weave in & out of the narrative keeping up the film’s momentum, an innocuous turn from a minor character can end up being crucial to the narrative later on. Yet it all makes sense… it’s as if George RR Martin managed to instil Game Of Thrones into a single film & it still managed to be coherent.

It’s worth pointing out that a lot of the actors in this films aren’t professional actors. Due to the sheer number needed & the rawness that the director wanted, open auditions were held to cast real life favela kids. Not only that, they were encouraged to improvise large sections of the script. The results are mind blowing.

It’s the South American GoodFellas, with snot-nosed kids. Absolute must watch.10

Pan’s Labyrinth : Another one of my absolute favourites this week, this is up there in my Top 10, possibly Top 5 films of all time.

Two parallel stories interweave, one a visceral depiction of life in the war, the other about a young girl discovering & being enveloped into a fantasy world that is every bit as real to her as what’s going on around her in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. The film follows young Ofelia as she discovers a labyrinth in her new home after her mother marries a fascist dictator. In this labyrinth, she meets Pan, a magical faun who tells her could very well be the lost princess of a magical kingdom - and can fulfil that destiny if she follows his orders. The juxtaposition of the faun’s orders & her fascist dictator father’s order mean the film is about choice & standing up for what you believe in.

Del Toro blends war-movie horror with fairy-tale fantasy to such an effect. It’s extremely dark, twisted, hard to watch at times yet also absolutely beautiful. There are trips into magical worlds where you meet simultaneously beautiful & horrifying monsters, but it doesn’t overwhelm the film as you’re immediately grounded in the brutal reality of the real world. 9.75

Have actually seen all the other films this week too, will review them when I get time - was excited to get my opinions out on these ones.

My updated running list of films we’ve done here that I’ve seen so far (scores out of 10) :

1. City Of God - 10
2. Fight Club - 9.9
3. Pan’s Labyrinth - 9.75
4. Alien - 9.5
5. Fargo - 9.3
6. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - 9.2
7. Aliens - 9.2
8. The Prestige - 9.1
9. Saving Private Ryan - 9
10. Leon - 8.9
11. Silence Of The Lambs - 8.75
12. Blade Runner - 8.5
13. The Big Lebowski - 8.5
14. The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8.5
15. No Country For Old Men - 8.25
16. 2001 : A Space Odyssey - 8
17. Coco - 8
18. Gone Girl - 8
19. The Wolf Of Wall Street - 7
20. Avengers : Infinity War - 6

1. City Of God - 10
2. Fight Club - 9.9
3. Pan’s Labyrinth - 9.75
4. Alien - 9.5
5. Fargo - 9.3

That’s such an impressive top 5 (so far), and one I really agree with. I remember City of God being one of my favourite films and one I obsessed over when I was younger. It’s hard to not think back on it and let nostalgia warp my perception of how good it is, so I am definitely going to re-watch it, but it’s always been up there as a top 10 of mine.

Looking forward to how/if this changes…

I’ve seen 4 of the 5 from this week which is a rare high.

Pan’s Labyrinth - I got panned (pun intended) in the movie thread for saying I didn’t really like this a few months back. As Juan Flo said it’s two stories running parallel, and I found one story interesting, but just couldn’t get into the other one and found it difficult to care for it. It wasn’t a bad film though. I give it a 6/10.

12 Years a Slave - watched this when it came out in the cinema and not watched it since, from what I can recall I thought it was great. Very harrowing and graphic watch, gets you right in the feels. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender particularly stood out for their performances. 9/10.

To Kill a Mockingbird - flipping excellent. The court room scene is superb. Another 9/10 for me, tempted to go 9.1 maybe.

City of God - Juan Flo’s description tells you all you need to know. I had this at 8.5/10, but after reading Juan’s description I’m finding it hard to remember why I’ve not gone higher. Maybe it was the mood/time I watched it at. That often has an effect.

Other films from this week’s list :

Interstellar : A thinking man’s sci-fi exploration epic. It hits you hard & fast with quantum mechanics, physics alongside with some moral philosophy thrown into it but with a lot of hand holding. I like the fact it’s a mainstream film that challenges the audience which is something Christoper Nolan is known for, but it can feel a bit overbearing at times, like when someone is talking at you rather than to you.

It’s big, it’s bold & it’s beautiful. It’s good, but it’s certainly not my favourite Nolan film. At 3 hours long, it can feel like a chore to watch at times as it’s continually challenging the watcher. 8

12 Years A Slave : Like RKMF, I’ve only watched this the once & thinking it was great, but have never gone back to it purely because it’s such a harrowing experience. Seems fitting it follows Django which covered the same issue of the shocking violence & misery of the slave trade, like Tarantino it doesn’t hold back with making you witness the horror with shots lingering longer than they should to purposefully make you feel uncomfortable. What makes this pack the harder punch compared to Django is that it foregoes the quirks & inappropriate humour that you associate with Tarantino. It’s a completely different beast.

It’s powerful, visceral, brutal & raw. A must watch, but uncomfortable to witness. It’s a film that will stick with you for a long time, but you won’t be in a rush to pick it back up to relive the horror, which is a selling point & flaw to the film. My wife was in absolutely tears watching this. 9

My updated running list of films we’ve done here that I’ve seen so far (scores out of 10) :

1. City Of God - 10
2. Fight Club - 9.9
3. Pan’s Labyrinth - 9.75
4. Alien - 9.5
5. Fargo - 9.3
6. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - 9.2
7. Aliens - 9.2
8. The Prestige - 9.1
9. Saving Private Ryan - 9
10. 12 Years A Slave - 9
11. Leon - 8.9
12. Silence Of The Lambs - 8.75
13. Blade Runner - 8.5
14. The Big Lebowski - 8.5
15. The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8.5
16. No Country For Old Men - 8.25
17. 2001 : A Space Odyssey - 8
18. Coco - 8
19. Gone Girl - 8
20. Interstellar - 8
21. The Wolf Of Wall Street - 7
22. Avengers : Infinity War - 6

Gerry Francis’ Mullet - 15 February 2019 11:28 AM

1. City Of God - 10
2. Fight Club - 9.9
3. Pan’s Labyrinth - 9.75
4. Alien - 9.5
5. Fargo - 9.3

That’s such an impressive top 5 (so far), and one I really agree with. I remember City of God being one of my favourite films and one I obsessed over when I was younger. It’s hard to not think back on it and let nostalgia warp my perception of how good it is, so I am definitely going to re-watch it, but it’s always been up there as a top 10 of mine.

Looking forward to how/if this changes…

I’m somewhat surprised Alien is that high in the list as it’s never a film I really consider when people ask me what my favourite films are. This could be because it’s just genuinely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, so you kind of forget about it when thinking about your own favourite films. I absolutely stand by the score & it’s rankings in the context of the other films though.

Interstellar currently tops my all time list. It’s flawed, but there is nothing I don’t love about this film:
- I think the music is genuinely the best movie score I’ve ever heard. Heartbreaking, uplifting, terrifying and beautiful in equal measure. I think I’ve watched this piano cover of the theme about a hundred times
- Sensational sequences and set pieces, particularly the entire sequence with the actor who was kept out of the marketing for this film. Last time I watched it Mrs Slumdog told me that I’d been gradually increasing my vicelike grip on her hand throughout that entire sequence.
- Hands down my favourite Matthew McConaughey performance
- Lots of great supporting performances, in particular Casey Affleck and Mackenzie Foy and the unnamed acrtor above. Michael Caine is also excellent.