this week on 100 Films

With Christmas been and gone, the 100 Films Advent Calendar has to come to a close for another year. But if you've not been keeping up daily, that means there's still three new reviews for you to read...


Arthur Christmas (2011)

a breathless global knockabout — it rattles along so fast, an hour in you’ll think it must be nearly over. Aside from a few longueurs that give you pause to think such thoughts, it’s an entertaining ride, perfect for the family at Christmas.

Read more here.


Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

Kick-Ass joins up with a superhero team trying to do good, the M***********r gradually assembles his own team of villains, and Mindy tries to fit in as a regular high school girl... Whereas the first film riffed on archetypal characters and plots from regular superhero movies, as such providing an entertaining deconstruction of the genre, the sequel doesn’t feel as focussed.

Read more here.


Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Unfortunately, despite the rarely-filmed milieu of video games, it’s all a bit predictable — it basically does with video game characters what Toy Story did with toys, both in terms of the story and its themes of acceptance.

Read more here.


Plus, one new to the new blog...


Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides [3D] (2011)

The film burns through ideas and plot points at a rate of knots. While I’m all for not stretching ideas thin, here the opposite is true, with not enough time devoted to explaining things, to characterisation, to making us give a damn about what’s going on or why it’s going on.

Read more here.


With 2013 nearly at a close, I'll be sharing my usual series of wrap-up articles soon. Keep an eye on 100 Films for that, or check back here for more next Sunday.