TV

Elementary
3x02 The Five Orange Pipz

The Flash
1x04 Going Rogue
Still often cheesy and daft, but easily the best episode yet -- but then, that's what Felicity Smoak does for you.

Live at the Apollo
10x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Star Trek: The Next Generation
3x17 Sins of the Father
5x25 The Inner Light
Anyone with a bizarrely exceptional memory may recall that, back in February, I made a start on the TNG sampler Blu-ray. Well, these are the other two episodes from that disc. Both are regarded as amongst the very best TNG (indeed, the entirety of Trek) ever produced, and rightly so -- they're magnificent. In fact, the second is so good you feel someone should have bought the rights and re-made it as a non-Trek film. More fool the guy who took that idea to the TNG production office rather than just getting it made as a movie...

this week on 100 Films

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


Flirting with Disaster (1996)

adoptee Ben Stiller goes on a kerazee road trip to find his birth parents, accompanied by dissatisfied wife Patricia Arquette and kooky adoption agency psychologist Téa Leoni... Cue an almost-PG-13 sex comedy told among sketch-like encounters with quirky people who turn out to not be Stiller’s folks.

Read more here.


The Green Hornet (2011)

it’s pretty comical, sometimes in that man-child frat-boy way, sometimes with a leftfield quirkiness. The combination makes it unique in the world of superhero movies, but hasn’t gone down well with critics or many viewers. Well, screw them — The Green Hornet is brilliant.

Read more here.


The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

as Katniss finally rises into the arena, the aspect ratio subtly shifts from filmic 2.40:1 to IMAX-derived 1.78:1. It’s remarkable how much impact this has even on a TV screen; nothing like what it must have in a proper IMAX theatre, but striking nonetheless — it really feels like things have just gotten bigger

Read more here.


Local Hero (1983)

Gentle comedy in which Peter Riegert’s middle-management American oil exec has to persuade the residents of a Scottish village to sell up, unaware that they’re only too keen — for the right price. One of Quentin Tarantino’s Coolest Movies of All Time (seriously).

Read more here.


Mad City (1997)

a surprisingly nuanced performance from Travolta. Sam's the manHe plays against type as Sam, the nervous, naïve, childlike, and easily-manipulated hostage taker. It’s Travolta’s performance that makes Sam someone you care about, even if you don’t exactly root for him, so that the outcome is something you’re fully invested in.

Read more here.


Plus six were new to the new blog...


The Cable Guy (1996)

It's a comedy, though at times it seems to wish you’d forget that so it could be a psychological stalker thriller. Perhaps that’s what it had wanted to be... until someone realised the idea was too silly to be taken completely seriously.

Read more here.


Daylight (1996)

a fireball rips through the tunnel. It seems to destroy most cars and kill most people, except for about a dozen survivors. How are they not killed by the fireball? Well, it seems to be by the good fortune of Because We Need Some Characters. Should you ever get stuck in an exploding tunnel, pray you find yourself in a disaster movie and had been doing something mundane yet passably interesting earlier on

Read more here.


Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

the whole film rests on Al Pacino's shoulders, and he’s more than capable of bearing the weight. Some roles allow an actor to subtly be good throughout the film; others allow a few grandstanding set-pieces where they can Act; but Dog Day Afternoon gives Pacino both.

Read more here.


Hidden (Caché) (2005)

Empire’s 15th best film of 2006 is very European. “How so”, you may ask? Well, firstly, it is French; but it certainly feels it: it takes a very good concept/plot for a thriller and then stretches it out a little thin, with a notably slow pace, and a concentration on the dramatic impact on characters rather than plot movements.

Read more here.


Jonah Hex (2010)

Jonah Hex is not a good film. Let's just establish that, before I start being nice about it.

Read more here.


Lumet: Film Maker (1975)

This ten-minute documentary short is made up of behind-the-scenes footage of some of the filming of Dog Day Afternoon, with the occasional on-set interview with some (to be honest, minor) crew members, snippets of audio interview with Lumet himself, and a voiceover narration.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.