Sunday 16 April 2017

TV

Elementary
5x18 Dead Man's Tale

Unforgotten
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]

Films

The Magnificent Seven (2016)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

this week on 100 Films

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


Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)
You surely know the story of A Christmas Carol, so what matters is which particular adaptation this is and if it’s any good. Well, this is the one made by Robert Zemeckis back when he was obsessed with motion-captured computer animation, following the financial (though, I would argue, not artistic) success of The Polar Express and Beowulf. Fortunately A Christmas Carol seemed to kill off this diversion in his career, because it’s the worst of that trilogy.
Read more here.


The Russia House (1990)
Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer are on fine form in this romantic spy thriller adapted from a John le CarrĂ© novel... I’m not sure Connery, playing against type as a washed-up ageing no-name, has ever been better. There’s a top-notch supporting cast too, including Roy Scheider as a CIA agent, James Fox as Connery’s MI6 handler, plus Michael Kitchen, Klaus Maria Brandauer, David Threlfall, and even Ken Russell.
Read more here.


Star Trek Beyond (2016)
The cover of Star Trek Beyond’s Blu-ray proudly proclaims that it’s “the best reviewed action movie of the year”. I don’t think that’s true, but it does indicate the mindset producing these films nowadays: they’re not the serious-minded sci-fi the Trek franchise was once known for, but action-orientated summer blockbusters. As that, Beyond is pretty entertaining.
Read more here.


Swiss Army Man (2016)
If you’ve heard of Swiss Army Man, it’s likely for one thing and one thing only: this is the movie where Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe plays a farting corpse with an erection. But rather than the childish super-gross-out comedy that short pitch would seem to suggest, Swiss Army Man is actually quite a sweet indie comedy-drama. With some super-gross-out comedy thrown in, natch.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.