this week on 100 Films

2017 heads into its final third today, as October begins. As ever, a new month means it's time to look back at the one just past on 100 Films in a Year...





The monthly updates and my TV column don't usually coincide, but this week they do for the second month in a row. Last time it was because I was publishing TV reviews at increased frequency to cover the volume of stuff I was watching. This time it's because I haven't watched much so delayed the column a week. Funny old life, ain't it?





Finally, in regular business, 2 brand-new reviews were also posted this week...


A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

Watching Yojimbo and this back to back, you can’t miss how similar they are — no wonder they settled the legal case, they wouldn’t’ve had a leg to stand on. Yojimbo is the classier handling of the material, giving the whole scenario a weightiness that has gone astray here. Fistful has its own charms, of course, as director Sergio Leone merrily reinvents the Western genre before our eyes

Read more here.


Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Critics, eh? There’s a lot you could say about them, both individually and en masse, but right now I’m concerned with the fact they’ve given Kingsman: The Golden Circle a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 50%. More than that, many have gone further: I’ve read one-star reviews from several major outlets. Audiences disagree. On IMDb it’s got a very respectable 7.4 (just a few points down from the much better-received Wonder Woman, for comparison) and it topped the box office this past weekend, beating the latest LEGO movie in the US and almost doubling the first film’s opening weekend in the UK. Well, I’m definitely an audience member rather than a critic. In fact, I’m still weighing up the possibility that The Golden Circle might be even better than its predecessor.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.