Sunday 23 December 2012

this week on 100 Films

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, Life got in the way of the 100 Films Advent Calendar this week. Nonetheless, five new reviews were published, and they were...


Conan the Barbarian (2011)

I just didn’t really care at any point. The plot kind of pings about through some disconnected set pieces, few of them particularly inspiring with the exception of one featuring ninja-types who are formed out of sand.

Read more here.


The Court Jester (1956)

I’d never heard of The Court Jester before it popped up on on-demand while I had Sky Movies for the Oscars, but apparently it’s “a television matinee favorite”. Maybe just in America (note the spelling in the quote); maybe it just passed me by. Either way, it’s an entertainment worth catching if you can. Get it?

Read more here.


The Return of the Musketeers (1989)

16 years after they first swashed their buckles for director Richard Lester, Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay and Richard Chamberlain return as the titular swordsmen in an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ Twenty Years After. As feats of sequalisation go, there’s something inherently pleasing about reassembling a cast and crew the best part of two decades later to adapt a tale set at a similar distance.

Read more here.


RoboCop (1987)

Hailed by those who love it as some kind of satirical masterpiece, RoboCop does manage to raise itself above other mindless ’80s action fare, at least to some degree. Equally, should you choose to watch it brain-off then I doubt you’ll be too troubled by its criticisms of corporate greed or the privatisation of public services

Read more here.


RoboCop 2 (1990)

The consensus opinion seems to be that the RoboCop films exist on a steep downward trajectory of quality, starting with the pretty-good first film and ending with the nadir-of-humanity third. In this equation the second lands, naturally, somewhere in the middle — not that good, but not so bad. Personally, I enjoyed it more than the first.

Read more here.


More next Sunday, including the final pair of reviews from the advent calendar!

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