Sunday 14 July 2013

TV

The Good Life
4x07 Anniversary [season finale]

Horrible Histories
4x13 Savage Songs [season finale]

Ripper Street
1x08 What Use Our Work [season finale]
All resolved, while also leaving almost every character and storyline potentially open for more. Neat.

Films

Akira (1988)
[2nd watch]

I'm not sure when I first (and last) watched Akira, but it's somewhere in the region of 10 or more years ago. I didn't really get it then -- I thought it had some impressive visuals but was otherwise overhyped -- and, truth be told, I didn't completely understand the ending now (does anyone?)

However, I found the rest of the film a lot more followable, and I liked it a lot more for that. The animation is still stunning, so is the sound (watched in Japanese rather than English this time out), and I'm sure it has much to say if you want to read into it. Even as just an out-there sci-fi movie centred around the friendship between two outcasts, though, it has plenty going for it.


The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
[#62 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

this week on 100 Films

Two brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Battleship (2012)
something to do with an alien invasion and they do it at sea and there’s only one ship that can stop them but the only person who can command it is the young loudmouth playboy recruit who has so much potential but never fully realises it… until now! Honestly, it’s that clichéd
Read more here.


Underdog (2007)
The film is widely disliked, it seems, with a very low rating on IMDb; but I thought it was actually good fun. It’s a kids’ comedy-adventure, but it also has enough wit and charm to see it through for some older viewers.
Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


The Illusionist (2006)
The story — you remember those? It’s the bit between the attention-grabbing opening and preposterous-twist finale — is mediocre with or without the finale. It’s a something-and-nothing account of a Poor Boy who loves a Rich Girl he can’t have and… oh, I can’t even be bothered to explain it.
Read more here.


True Grit (1969)
Mattie Ross is a great character — plain speaking, knows her own mind, ready & prepared for anything… Kim Darby was 21 at the time but is completely convincing not only as a 14-year-old but as a 14-year-old who’s wise beyond her years.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.