Sunday 26 October 2014

TV

The 10th Kingdom
Part 7 (of 10) [2nd watch]
Part 8 (of 10) [2nd watch]

Would I Lie To You?
8x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Ten Little Indians (1965)
[#105 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

this week on 100 Films

Three brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


The Conspirator (2010)
eight people were tried for conspiracy to kill America’s 16th President; this is the story of what happened to the only woman among them. Or, rather, it’s the story of the young lawyer who is forced to represent her. Rather than cave to pressure and more-or-less let the prosecution have their way, he fights her corner against a ludicrously biased system that would execute her without trial
Read more here.


The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)
Starring, co-written and directed by rapper and Asian culture fan “the RZA”, this is a riff on old-fashioned chopsocky actioners. The plot is... just a way to string together some outlandish characters and equally extreme action sequences.
Read more here.


Safe (2012)
Jason Statham plays a cop turned cage-fighter turned vagrant, who rescues a young girl and finds himself amidst a three-way brawl between the Triad, the Russians, and corrupt cops. They want the child for a number she’s memorised, but what is its significance?
Read more here.


Plus three were new to the new blog too...


Inglourious Basterds (2009)
The whole film is a grab-bag of filmmaking styles, techniques and modes, thrown together with a gleeful abandon. Tarantino uses what he wants when he wants it, sometimes for no reason at all, and with no eye to creating a stylistic whole... It’s like that square Uma Thurman drew in Pulp Fiction, only instead of being one thing once he does it again and again, with any trick he fancies, throughout the film.
Read more here.


Iron Eagle (1986)
The plot, for those unaware of the film (which included me), is that an American pilot is captured by Qatar due to flying into their airspace, even though he was hundreds of miles outside it. When he’s sentenced to execution and the US Government refuses to do anything practical to get him back, his teenage son — who he’s been illicitly teaching to fly fighter jets — resolves to steal one and go get his dad. Hells yeah! Or something.
Read more here.


Speed Racer (2008)
it's visually astounding. Speed Racer’s blocks of vibrant colour and computer whizzery are a natural fit for the modern digital experience. Action sequences are mind-meltingly fast, but also incredibly thrilling.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.