Sunday 6 June 2010

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Alice in Wonderland (3D) (2010)
this new Alice positions itself freshly by following in the footsteps of the specific side of the filmic fantasy genre started by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Although it uses the original’s most famous elements, the narrative and its structure — particularly a final epic (well, epic-ish) battle in which our unlikely heroine emerges as the long-prophesised One Who’ll Win It For The Good Guys — is familiar from those recent films

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)
National Treasure 2 essentially offers more of the same. That’s often levelled as a criticism, but in this instance it’s absolutely fine: it isn’t a rehash — there’s a new mystery with new puzzles — but is another adventure in the same vein, with clue-hunting and the occasional action sequence.

Public Enemies (2009)
I’d be among the first to be worried about Mann’s unglamorous, cheap digital video style — indeed, when I saw the first trailer, I was distinctly unimpressed — but colour me converted, because it largely works here. I wouldn’t want to see it on every film, but as a stylistic choice it’s a valid one

Also this week, the first in a new monthly series looking at my progress. This one was, naturally, for May 2010.

More next Sunday.

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