TV

The Mentalist
7x05 The Silver Briefcase
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Only Connect
Comic Relief Special: Waterbabies v Tillers
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
4x11 The Knockouts 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Violet & Daisy (2011)
[#34 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

Just three brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, again. They were...


The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981)

Sherlock Holmes has appeared in more films than any other fictional character... “Who’s the best?” debates usually settle around Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett and, these days, Benedict Cumberbatch, however the “Sherlockian’s Sherlock” is, believe it or not, a Russian: Vasily Livanov, who starred in five popular (in their homeland) Russian miniseries/TV movies between 1979 and 1986 that some regard as definitive adaptations. The most famous Holmes adventure of them all was the subject of the third series, a two-part feature-length adaptation.

Read more here.


Last Passenger (2013)

If you’ve ever found a late-night train commute dull, this single-location thriller may make you rethink any complaints. Half-a-dozen people travelling from London to Tunbridge Wells find their train speeding out of control. It’s up to them to discover what’s happening and how to stop it.

Read more here.


Toy Story That Time Forgot (2014)

manages the tricky feat of feeling both too rushed and too long. There’s no time for mystery or surprise as it hurtles through the plot — not that there’s too much of that, either. Half of it recycles Buzz’s arc from Toy Story 1... the other half is a villain with what I think is an original idea, but isn’t given enough time to be developed.

Read more here.


A more solid six archive reviews were reposted, however...


The Band Wagon (1953)

There are several great numbers: Astaire dancing his way around an amusement arcade; That's Entertainment, written for the film and easily demonstrating why it quickly became a standard; and a big closing dance routine... that I actually liked! It's a hard-boiled crime thriller told through the medium of dance

Read more here.


Best in Show (2000)

The script, acting and direction always err just this side of believability, meaning if you came to this cold (and managed to not recognise any actors) you might be fooled into believing it was genuine. That doesn’t mean it’s short on laughs however — quite the opposite

Read more here.


Eastern Promises (2007)

Viggo Mortensen’s Oscar-nominated performance is the focus... Apparently thoroughly immersed in the role, he gives a distinguished performance throughout and is central to what are by far the film’s most memorable moments: a nude steam baths fight, which has become justifiably infamous, and a game-changing twist

Read more here.


Jane Eyre (1944)

Despite a suitably dramatic entrance, Orson Welles’ stilted and occasionally overplayed performance, as well as a lack of chemistry with the equally weak Joan Fontaine, does nothing to liven up what is already a rather uninspired production.

Read more here.


Rock n Roll Nerd (2008)

aspiring filmmaker Rhian Skirving decided to film [her neighbour] Tim Minchin’s last ditch attempt at making it. They expected to film, at best, a small-scale suburban documentary about a wannabe failing to become a somebody, but what they wound up with was something rather different. Minchin was a hit at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, from where he was whisked off to the famous Fringe, where he had “the most successful first season of any performer in the history of Edinburgh…” Not what either of them had expected

Read more here.


Unthinkable (2010)

wholly reliant on the script and performances to draw us into its story, and its debate. The debate in question is torture, and whether it’s excusable, and under what circumstances, and how far it’s OK to go. Though it’s grafted on to a story, it’s pretty clear that screenwriters Oren Moverman and Peter Woodward are as much, if not more, concerned with the issues at play... In my opinion, it works; at least, works well enough.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.