Sunday 20 May 2018

Films

Game Night (2018)
[#111 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Fiction

Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz
Chapters 20-21
Remember the gag from Austin Powers about the home lives of henchmen? In Chapter 20, Horowitz does a serious version of that... and makes it work!

this week on 100 Films

Time for another jam-packed TV review on 100 Films in a Year...





Plus, 3 brand-new reviews this week...


Atomic Blonde (2017)
It’s based on The Coldest City, a graphic novel [that] I got the impression was a Le CarrĂ©-style thriller, so I was very surprised to eventually learn it was the basis for this film, the trailers for which promised a hyper-stylised actioner from the director of combat-focused John Wick. Watching the film, however, it’s easier to see how I might not’ve been wrong about the novel after all — take out the elaborate fight scenes and shoot it more like Tinker Tailor Solider Spy than The Guest, and this could indeed be a Le CarrĂ©-esque Cold War thriller.
Read more here.


Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018)
anyone expecting a straight-up adaptation may be disappointed, but taken as a film in its own right, for the most part it works. Having all the different familiar characters pop up makes it feel like a proper Batman tale, rather than a Ripper story that happens to have a costumed vigilante in it. Most prominent is Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, although she isn’t really the latter here — Batman gets fully suited up, but the most Miss Kyle gets is a whip. The relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina is one of the film’s best aspects, in fact, with the Elseworld setting seeming to allow a different focus than the usual antagonism that pairing has in screen adaptations
Read more here.


Superman (1978)
Every member of the cast is excellent, though none more so than Christopher Reeve in the dual role of Clark Kent / Superman — he makes them feel like two different people, each equally believable. Richard Donner’s direction is first-rate, keeping our interest through a long storyline that could be slow but in fact never drags. There’s a pure heart here, a childlike sense of wonder and excitement that shines off the screen. Superman’s “boy scout” image could be a barrier in our modern, cynical world, coming across as twee and old-fashioned, but instead the film somehow makes it triumphant and magical.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.