Sunday 20 December 2015

TV

The Sound of Music Live
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

this week on 100 Films

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


Building Empire (2006)
Building Empire is an unofficial commentary to The Empire Strikes Back. It contains video clips, audio from cast and crew, alternate angles, reconstructed scenes, text facts and insights into the development and creation of the film.
Read more here.


Ed Wood (1994)
Before he descended into self-parody, Tim Burton made movies like this: a biopic of the eponymous ’50s filmmaker, renowned for his so-bad-they’re-good productions. Burton still contributes his trademark dark quirkiness, but it conjures a subject-appropriate tone rather than aimless Burtonesqueness.
Read more here.


Escape from Tomorrow (2013)
Disney meets David Lynch in this arthouse-y psychological thriller, best known for being shot on the QT (i.e. illegally) in DisneyWorld.
Read more here.


The Informant! (2009)
Matt Damon turns whistleblower (or does he?) in this amusing romp based on a true story of complicated corporate fraud.
Read more here.


Le Mépris (1963)
the centrepiece is a 34-minute quiet, passive-aggressive argument between the playwright and Bardot in the aforementioned flat. They go round in circles about staying together or being apart. The point? Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps it’s the unknowableness of the other gender (whichever gender you are). Perhaps it’s just the unknowableness of other people fullstop. Perhaps it’s the unknowableness of our own emotions
Read more here.


Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
the best James Bond movie released in 2015... For all the effort Spectre made to bring classical Bond elements back into the fold, Rogue Nation arguably feels more like a classically-styled Bond movie. It’s not a faultless like-for-like comparison... but the almost-indefinable sensation of this experience is Bondian.
Read more here.


Mr. Holmes (2015)
The story is slight and the pace sedate, the latter seemingly to stretch the former to feature length. I’m not saying it needs the quick-cut whizziness of Sherlock or the Downey Jr movies — doubly so as this is a movie about an older, slower Holmes — but there are times when it could do with a bit of a kick up the backside.
Read more here.


Returning to Jedi (2007)
Returning to Jedi is an unofficial commentary. It contains video, audio and information from over one hundred sources taking you deep into the making of Return of the Jedi.
Read more here.


Star Wars Begins (2011)
Star Wars Begins is an unofficial commentary on Star Wars. It contains video clips, audio from the cast and crew, alternate angles, bloopers, text facts and insights into the development and creation of the film.
Read more here.


Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015)
The characters and performances are likeable, with Raffey Cassidy standing out as a marvellous young find... There are some suitably entertaining action scenes, some moments of visual splendour thanks to the future city, and one long take that is exquisite.
Read more here.


Willow (1988)
A fantasy adventure with a tone and pace reminiscent of Indiana Jones — no surprise it was conceived by George Lucas — Willow somehow passed me by during my prime “watching ’80s genre movies” phase. It’s just a fun romp
Read more here.


More next Sunday.