this week on 100 Films

A new month began during this week on 100 Films in a Year, so we begin with a look back at... wait a minute! I forgot to post the look-back at April! Right then:



And now, May too:




After all that, six brand-new reviews were published this week...


The Black Cauldron (1985)

an intriguing footnote in the history of Disney animation. Their 25th ‘official’ film, it was the first with no songs, the first to earn a PG, and flopped so badly they disowned it for over a decade. Fully-animated sequences were cut after disastrous test screenings for parents, and famed exec Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly ordered 12 minutes cut, muddling the film’s story.

Read more here.


Hancock (Extended Version) (2008)

If you’ve only seen the humour-focused trailers, seeing Hancock described as a comedy-drama might come as a surprise. There’s a whole behind-the-scenes story here, it would seem... [they] thought they were making a character drama superhero movie, while studio executives were more interested in it being a superhero action-comedy... While the marketing went all-out on the comedy angle, the film itself is torn between these two pillars, leaving viewers with mismanaged expectations

Read more here.


Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

The first of Summer 2013’s “Die Hard in the White House” movies... The remarkable thing, watching both movies, is just how many plot beats are so similar. Even when they’re not exactly the same, they’re functionally identical. For example, a plane shoots up Washington merely as a distraction to get the President sent to the White House’s bunker; in White House Down, an explosion at the Capitol is staged merely as a distraction to get the President sent to the White House’s bunker.

Read more here.


Room 237 (2012)

Possibly-crazy people offer definitely-crazy theories on the subtextual meaning of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in this controversial film analysis documentary.

Read more here.


Violet & Daisy (2011)

plays like Tarantino with a metric tonne of Quirk slathered over it. On the bright side, it’s sort of entertaining, albeit fundamentally derivative with a sheen of left-field try-hard wacky-uniqueness.

Read more here.


White House Down (2013)

where your opinion is likely to land is most succinctly summed up in Film4’s review by Rebecca Davis: “Whether or not you enjoy this film depends entirely on whether you judge it to be po-faced or parody. If you believe it’s the former, you’ll probably hate it. If you believe it’s the latter, you’ll have an absolute blast.” I definitely judge it to be a parody... not an out-and-out Airplane-style parody, but very much a self-aware retro-styled tongue-in-cheek Action Movie.

Read more here.


Finally, there were six archive reviews republished too...


Capote (2005)

Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning lead performance dominates this movie... in and around the mechanics of the murder investigation and Capote’s work process, it’s the character of the man, and how it’s affected, that is really revealed to the viewer

Read more here.


Catfish (2010)

a documentary (probably -- we'll come to that) in which 20-something Nev falls in love with a girl somewhere else in America over the internet. He and his friends become suspicious that she's not who she claims and set off to find out The Truth. ...reflects our current relationship with social networking technology... how these tools are and can be used, and what effects this can have on human relations.

Read more here.


The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)

Wordy political intrigue tries to coexist with broad comedy which is squashed against swashbuckling adventure. The latter two could co-exist, but the film feels like it wants to be the former and so suffers for it. The comedy jars too much to be effective... It should at least be able to swash buckles effectively, but entirely fails to achieve this until the climax.

Read more here.


The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)

If some later Disney ventures have lost sight of the correct spirit for Pooh’s adventures, at least this original is a great adaptation. Bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, and, above all, fun fun fun fun fun.

Read more here.


The Naked City (1948)

Police procedural film noir, shot entirely on location in New York... The story is quite straightforward -- girl is murdered, police investigate -- but it exists mainly as a structure on which to hang perspectives of the city, its criminals and its law enforcement

Read more here.


New York Stories (1989)

Anthology of three shorts, connected only by the New York setting, directed by Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

House
5x01 Dying Changes Everything
5x02 Not Cancer
I didn't have Sky1 when they started showing House earlier this year; I do now. So with the discovery that they're rolling straight on into season six this Sunday, it's time for an almighty season five catch-up. (There's no way I'll get it done for ep1, but I can aim for ep2.)
Thanks to Five letting it go, it's been an awfully long time since I've watched House (nearly 16 months, in fact) -- it almost feels a little odd to have it back. The Cases of the Week are still as disposable as usual, even when one features Felicia Day, but House's antics with Wilson -- and an excellent new private investigator character -- more than make up for the shortcomings.

TV

Babylon 5
1x09 Deathwalker

Doctor Who [classic]
19x19 Earthshock Part One [4th watch]
19x20 Earthshock Part Two [4th watch]
19x21 Earthshock Part Three [4th watch]
19x22 Earthshock Part Four [4th watch]
See here for my thoughts on this story.

House
4x15 House's Head
Part one of House's two-part season finale, with a mystery that viewers without a medical degree can actually participate in: House was in a bus crash he can't remember, and must decipher clues from dreams and hallucinations to work out why he was there and what he saw. It's an interesting episode that leads to a neat cliffhanger.

TV

House
5x21 Saviors
5x22 House Divided
The first episode here is nothing to write home about, but the second was brilliant, the return of a familiar face -- though in an unusual way -- making for an excellent twist that works magnificently. The only downside is some poor CGI, the opening shot to Saviors looking no better than a bad computer game and the fire in House Divided having all the reality of a child's painting. That said, it did make for a hilarious scene in the morgue -- not something you see very often. Except in House.

How I Met Your Mother
1x22 Come On [season finale]
2x01 Where Were We?

Merlin
2x04 Lancelot and Guinevere
Wetter than a rainstorm on a river with a wet blanket floating down it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
2x11 The Fifth Bullet
Guest starring Buffy's Marc Blucas, House's Anne Dudek and 24's Carlo Rota. Why so many recognisable faces all at once? Who knows.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Das Rheingold
La Fura dels Baus' 2007 staging of the first opera in Wagner's Ring Cycle (currently showing weekly on Sky Arts 2). I'm no opera expert (far from it), but this is a pretty amazing spectacle, full of giant robot-like creatures and sci-fi imagery on huge video screens, amongst other incredible feats. Plus highly dramatic music and an engrossing fantasy/mythical story. I really enjoyed it.
Three hours down, only 13 to go...

Grandma's House
2x03 The day Simon attempted to express actual feelings just like a person
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mad Men
5x07 At the Codfish Ball

The Making of the Ring
1 Das Rheingold (of 4)
First of four half-hours looking behind the scenes of La Fura dels Baus' production. Worth it for the look at the incredible free live show staged outside their stunning opera house during performances of the operas.

Pointless
4x23 (13/4/11 edition)
I got all 12 in round two! Woo!

TV

...sings The Beatles
Culled from the BBC's extensive archives, a selection of Beatles covers from across the decades. They ranged from truly great to truly bizarre, but at least were never less than interesting -- just like the group being covered then.

The Beatles On Record
A rather nice documentary (as in good, not saccharine), covering the Beatles' work album by album. It largely leaves aside the oft-covered hype and media reaction that permanently surrounded them, and instead focuses solely on the music, a surprisingly rare occurrence for such a documentary. Another welcome rarity is the choice of narrators: the only voices we hear (aside from the odd reporter or somesuch) are the Beatles themselves, plus producer George Martin. No other voiceover narration to guide us through the 'story', no semi-qualified semi-famous (for now) people offering their semi-interesting opinion (and that's being generous) -- just the Beatles themselves, looking back on their own work. It's this undiluted, well-informed focus that makes this such a worthwhile effort.

See also the BBC's Beatles Week page.

FlashForward
1x02 White To Play
Fans of 24 with a good memory for the names of guest stars may've had fun with this episode. Not wishing to give too much away, but the actor in question was excellent at a similar role in 24, so that bodes well here. As does the developing mysteries, though the constant reminders and flashbacks of things we've already seen are too heavy-handed. Please, FlashForward writers, assume your audience has some memory.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

House
5x12 Painless
It's funny: in the early days of House most of the regular characters were a tad bland and even add to differentiate, with the clinic patients and Mystery Ailment Of The Week providing most of the humour and drama. Now, however, the 'main' plot takes a backseat (in the interest stakes at least) to the developing character arcs. This isn't a criticism, just an observation -- House now is a surprisingly different show to the one it started out as.

TV

Friends
9x23 The One in Barbados Part 1 [6th or so watch]
9x24 The One in Barbados Part 2 [season finale; 6th or so watch]

Richard Osman's House of Games
8x43 Week 9: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Watson
1x01 Watson
Giving this Sherlock Holmes-inspired show a go. I'm not sure if it's been shown here in the UK or not, but I acquired it by other means anyway. It's... alright. It's basically House 2.0 with the Sherlock Holmes stuff explicit this time, but I enjoyed House so that's ok by me. I'll certainly stick with it for now.

TV

Leverage
3x14 The Ho Ho Ho Job
Very much a "Christmas special" kinda episode. I probably should've saved it for December.

Richard Osman's House of Games Night
2x01 Group 1: Week 1
2x02 Group 1: Week 2
The first series of House of Games Night was basically "the same, but on in the evening". This time, at least they've tried to make it more obviously different, with a new set, an audience, and distinct rounds. So that's nice.
[Watch House of Games Night (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

2009 Unwrapped extra [2nd watch]

The Graham Norton Show
6x13 New Year's Eve Special [season finale]
Feels slightly odd watching a specifically New Year's Eve-y special several days later, but then it was filmed far in advance anyhow so what does it matter? Still, this is a much preferable choice to the dross BBC One have been offering up on New Year's Eve for the past few years, so I hope it was a success.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

House
6x10 Wilson
An exceptional episode of the show, which (as the title may suggest) centres on Wilson rather than House, as the latter's usual activities continue in the background -- always a nice comedic touch (see Buffy episode The Zeppo for a similar thing). Even more unusual is how unChristmassy it is -- House is usually very full of the festive season for several episodes each year.

Spooks
8x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
Cliffhanger-tastic.

Top Gear
14x07 Episode 7 [season finale]
"How short can a one-hour programme be?" Jeremy Clarkson wonders towards the end of this episode. It's ironic, not that he realises it, because Top Gear almost always overruns by 5 to 10 minutes, which is a right bugger if you're intending to watch something on the other side. And, indeed, it's almost exactly 60 minutes into this episode that he actually muses that, before continuing to go on for a couple more. Clearly they need much, much better timing.
Still, fun episode, even if it was supposedly made with no money and -- here's a real surprise -- was actually full of car reviews.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Broken Saints
Chapter 4 Epiphany
Chapter 5 Awakening
With such short early episodes, Chapter 1 can only provide a brief overview of the four main characters, while the four chapters that follow successively introduce the start of their journey. It's still a bit slow and pretentious, but there's also promise. And 19 chapters to go...

Little Dorrit
Part 13 (of 14)
Part 14 (of 14)
A feature-length dose of Little Boring -- sorry, I mean, Little Dorrit -- as it finally reaches its conclusion. The (very literal) fall of the house of Clenham was perhaps the most entertaining bit yet, and certainly the most ludicrous in a story filled with ludicrous elements. Nothing like as good as Bleak House. Most of its audience understandably dropped off before the end, which is a shame because the format works so well (as proved by Bleak House) and this may've killed off hope of any more done in a similar style.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
22x11 (11/12/08 edition) [season finale]
Josh Groban: surprisingly likable and willing to take the mick out of himself. Grant From Feeder: shouldn't really have bothered going.
Odd length series too. I rather suspect it would've been 12, were it not for the Brand episode.

Articles: TV news

Heroes 'will start from scratch'
(from BBC News)
"Heroes is returning to its roots in a bid to turn round falling audience figures in the US. Creator Tim Kring said series four will start "pretty much from scratch", after fans criticised a lack of direction in the second and third series." But then, remember what Kring said before the start of the third season? So I'll believe it when I see it.

ITV's Demons drops to 4.2m by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
"ITV1's fantasy drama Demons lost another 650,000 viewers last night (Saturday), according to early figures. The third episode pulled in 4.18m... The audience is down almost 1.6m on that for the first episode." Oh dear oh dear. No second series then, I'm guessing.
(On an only-vaguelly-connected note, I love how Digital Spy's staff seem to work every day of the week! Either they have no life, or really love their job. Says the man who updates his blog every day. Hey, at least mine's a hobby.)

Jones feels Gavin & Stacey pressure by Alex Fletcher
(from Digital Spy)
Mostly interesting is something I hadn't yet heard: Gavin & Stacey is definitely getting a third series! Hurrah!

Laurie: Accent caused UK House flop by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
"Hugh Laurie has claimed that his American accent is the reason for House's failure in the UK." For one, it's not really a "failure", is it? If it were a failure it wouldn't still be on a Freeview channel in a primetime slot. And to be honest, I rather suspect it has more to do with it being on Five. Five's ratings may've gone up in the past few years, but back when House started it was still before all this "everyone must have digital TV" stuff that's going on now and Five wasn't available everywhere (far from it!) Plus that there's a huge discrepancy between US and UK viewing figures anyway, and I expect he sees both, making the UK ones look teeny-tiny by comparison.

New Argumental on Dave in March by James Welsh
(from Digital Spy)
Hurray!
That's all.

Ross will not apologise for prank again
and
Jonathan Ross plans new Sachs apology
by Daniel Kilkelly (from Digital Spy)
Don't you just love it when there's a pair of stories like that? I guess we'll have to wait til Friday night to find out which is true, though the latter sounds more convincing.
The pair of stories also have an interesting line in establishing Ross' true thoughts about the affair and the BBC: "Being suspended hit Jonathan hard -- but he says, 'I have learnt my lesson'", and "Jonathan feels let down by some aspects of the BBC... It was a pre-recorded segment and he expected those who needed to check and follow through to do so. He was aware of the potential pitfalls and alerted other people at the BBC before it went out."

Ryan tipped as new Who assistant by Daniel Kilkelly
(from Digital Spy)
I'll believe it when I see it, considering the source; but, considering her recent recurring role in Merlin, her previous appearance in a Moffat production (Jekyll), and that she (supposedly) auditioned when Rose left, it's not at all implausible. She'd certainly be better than Lily bloody Allen. She's probably older than the new Doctor though, isn't she? But then, so's almost everyone they might consider, so...

TV

Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe
One-off special in which Brooker provides what effectively amounts to a Beginner's Guide to Gaming. There's a welcome disdain for the fetishisation of certain genres and their violent content, while continuing to appreciate what's actually good about gaming. Always nice to see Monkey Island turning up anywhere, but my main thoughts on this were how much I agreed with what Dara Ó Briain had to say. That and being rather surprised at just how bloody & gruesome some games are now -- the complaints on the news about the negative impact of games on impressionable minds used to be ludicrous, but I'm not so sure now.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Film 2009 with Jonathan Ross
Episode 16 (29/9/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

House
5x03 Adverse Events
5x04 Birthmarks
What an odd feeling to see the old team working together again. One wonders why they're still around -- they have so little to do in almost every episode, and are doing the new leads out of a place in the title credits. Still, while Adverse Events was perfectly adequate, Birthmarks was one of House's better episodes, thematically consistent (all the parent issues) and nicely revealing about its characters (by which I mean the regulars, particularly House and Wilson).

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
23x01 (1/10/09 edition)
James Corden did a pretty good job as the first incumbent of the newly guest-hosted Buzzcocks. Still, no Simon Amstell; but then, who is?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

House
5x09 Last Resort
5x10 Let Them Eat Cake
5x11 Joy to the World
It's funny seeing House do clinic duty in Joy to the World -- his enforced clinic hours used to be such a major part of the show, and one of its best sources of humour, that putting him back there for a bit this episode just reminds you what's lost. These days, I suppose, it's been replaced by the detailed story arcs afforded to almost every regular character.
Also nice to see was the criticism of America's wealth-based healthcare system in Last Resort, which is also one of the best House episodes ever for reasons far too numerous to list.
(For those interested (but also somehow missed it...), season six started on Sky1 tonight. At my current rate I should be caught up in time for episode two, as planned.)

How I Met Your Mother
1x20 Best Prom Ever

Last Chance to See
Part 3 Aye-Aye
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Babylon 5
1x10 Believers
1x11 Survivors
My slow progression through the first season of Babylon 5 (if I were watching weekly I'd be at episode 14 by now) finally reaches halfway.

Doctor Who [new]
4x10 Midnight
See here for my thoughts on this story.

Gilmore Girls
4x13 Nag Hammadi is Where They Found the Gnostic Gospels
The bizarre title merely explains a throwaway joke in the episode.

House
4x16 Wilson's Heart [season finale]
A surprising, moving episode to round off House's fourth season. As with previous House season finales, there's no direct cliffhanger, but they leave the ongoing plotlines in such a position that I'm desperate for season five to find out what happens next. All in, one of the best ever episodes.

The Kids Are All Right
1x08 (14/6/08 edition)
The kids aren't alright, they're bloody annoying little brats. But in this final episode, the four adults facing them could possibly win the largest amount of cash yet... (They didn't.)

Red Dwarf
2x05 Queeg [2nd watch]

The Weakest Link
Blue Peter Special
Never mind the programme, the website hasn't been updated for two years!

TV

Castle
2x13 Sucker Punch
That was... more significant than I was expecting.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Episodes
2x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

House
8x21a Swan Song
8x22 Everybody Dies [series finale]
And that's it, the end of House! Weird feeling after eight years, and a final season that didn't always feel like it was actually the end (scrapping a major character, introducing two new ones and performing some serious re-organsing at the start of the season didn't help). It was kind of an odd finale, but then House finales often are. I suppose it ultimately worked. Swan Song was a nicely different behind-the-scenes/recap/tribute-thing too.

Maestro at the Opera
Episode 3 (of 3)

The Voice UK
1x14 Results Show 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
6x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

House
5x15 Unfaithful
5x16 The Softer Side
5x17 The Social Contract
This season of House has come in for criticism in some quarters for lacking the humour that made previous seasons so popular. I disagree. Perhaps it's more serious overall, but the characters' storylines are on the whole quite well interesting and well-done, especially in that they ebb and flow -- there's not a Single Huge Arc that takes all season, gradually building in every episode, but rather a variety of stories that come and go, arcs that last only an episode or two. It's more like real-life and, in my opinion, makes for more rewarding drama. Within these, they've pushed the show and its characters further than ever, and all without losing the humour -- it may appear less often, but House's biting wit is still there.
And, occasionally, the Case of the Week is good too. Shocking.

TV

Derren Brown: The Events - Live
1x04 How to Take Down a Casino [series finale]
Out by just one! That's really rather incredible.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

House
5x07 The Itch
5x08 Emancipation
Tying one's plot and subplots together thematically may be widely touted as a Good Thing, but it's also possible to do it a little too obviously or a little too much, which seems to be the case with both these episodes. On the other hand, The Itch uses the agoraphobic patient as a metaphor for House's locked-up feelings, whereas Emancipation's brother-accidentally-killing-brother subplot is just a straight-up mirroring of the main plot's eventual reveal.

How I Met Your Mother
1x18 Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M.
1x19 Mary the Paralegal
How I Met Your Mother messes around with time ever so well. Jumping back 20 hours to show Robin's day in Nothing Good... worked quite well, but the "3 months earlier" thing in Mary the Paralegal is an example of the time-messing-around at its best.

Merlin
2x03 The Nightmare Begins
Nice to see Merlin furthering its arc plots, including bringing back and developing characters from the first season. As well as being good for regular viewers and raising the series above Magician of the Week status, it really gives a feel for the five-year plan the producers have. Even the episode title suggests that things are only just getting under way...
On another note, the music this season seems to have been very heavily influenced by The Dark Knight.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Goes Wrong Show
2x01 Summer Once Again
Nothing else makes me laugh as much as this show. It's so silly and often predictable, and yet utterly hilarious.
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
6x01 Nothing Ever Changes Around Here
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Richard Osman's House of Games Night
2x03 Group 1: Final
[Watch House of Games Night (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Graham Norton Show
6x02 (12/10/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
38x01 (16/10/09 edition; uncut repeat)
It's back! Hurrah! And the extended repeat is still the only way to go.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

House
6x01 Broken Part 1
6x02 Broken Part 2
A couple of weeks late in starting the new season, due to an intensive season five catch-up. But that's fine, because this is actually a two-hour season premiere that was cut in two for the UK broadcast -- so I win.
It's also an excellent episode. Entirely unlike any other episode of House ever (which is something you very rarely get to say with total honesty about any TV programme), but all the more brilliant for it. It probably relies on having spent five seasons getting to know the character, so it's hard to recommend it to everyone, but it's nonetheless a great hour-and-a-half of drama. Not flawless (some of the protocols followed by staff were more lax than they would be in reality; the happy endings for almost anyone stretched credibility), but still great.

How I Met Your Mother
2x06 Aldrin Justice

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
9x15 (21/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Person of Interest
3x22 A House Divided
3x23 Deus Ex Machina [season finale]
[Watch A House Divided and Deus Ex Machina (again) on Demand 5.]