TV

Gilmore Girls
2x12 Richard in Stars Hollow [2nd watch]

Ripper Street
2x07 Our Betrayal Part One

Two Tribes
1x05 (22/8/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Local Hero (1983)
[#75 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]
Peter Capaldi again (again)!

St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009)
[#74 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

this week on 100 Films

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


The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

Perhaps it’s “so bad it’s good”, but I’m also not sure of that — I think perhaps director Ken Russell and his ensemble knew they were creating the ludicrous. There’s an indefinable charm that a hundred slicker, objectively more accomplished, films just can’t match.

Read more here.


Thor: The Dark World (2003)

When it works, The Dark World is exciting, inventive, and often genuinely hilarious. Placing most of the movie’s biggest laughs during its climactic battle — which already features a thrilling conceit in and of itself — makes the ending one of the best action sequences in the entire Marvel movie canon.

Read more here.


Tower Block (2012)

Screenwriter James Moran seems to have hit a good idea for a single-location thriller, and there are neat sequences in the mix, but there’s not quite enough juice in the concept or characters to sustain a full 90 minutes.

Read more here.


And six reviews were new to the new blog...


Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (2003)

Documentary, based on the best-selling acclaimed book by Peter Biskind, about the decade in Hollywood between the death and effective re-birth of the studio system. It’s a broad story, with many threads, which means this film has a tendency to sprawl all over the place as it attempts to take an overview of it in chronological order.

Read more here.


The King and I (1956)

there are some recognisable songs and an Oscar-winning performance from Yul Brynner, as well as truly sumptuous sets and costumes.

Read more here.


The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965)

it does a lot of things for a bit: Carry On-level double entendres, intense thriller-like scenes, slapstick sequences, an occasional New Wave-esque light jazz score… flitting around from one style to another with no immediately obvious rhyme nor reason, except perhaps a desire to try out interesting things and see where they lead.

Read more here.


Monster (2003)

Charlize Theron uglies up (and wins an Oscar) portraying Aileen Wuornos, one of America’s first female serial killers, in this ‘true crime’ biopic.

Read more here.


Ong-Bak (2003)

This is a tricky film to rate. The plot is pretty inconsequential and drags things out a bit toward the end, but that’s not what you come to a film like Ong-Bak for — it’s here for the action.

Read more here.


Sherlock Holmes (2010)

You wait decades for a new Sherlock Holmes film and then two come along at once. One is the Guy Ritchie-directed Robert Downey Jr-starring genuine blockbuster moneymaker. The other is thankfully not the rumoured Sacha Baron Cohen/Seth Rogen/Judd Apatow/other faintly irritating people comedy vehicle, but instead this direct-to-DVD cash-in from mockbuster kings The Asylum. Yes, I’d rather this version, thanks.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.