TV

Hey Duggee
2x44 The Comedy Badge
Apparently this is my little nephew's favourite show, so we thought we'd watch an episode. It was actually quite fun (as programmes aimed at 2-to-5-year-olds go).
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Shelf Isolation
1x02 Denise Mina
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The South Bank Show [Sky Arts]
5x01 George R.R. Martin
This was filmed back in 2015, when Martin was being criticised for taking so long to finish The Winds of Winter. Five years on, there's still no publication date in sight.

Films

Do the Right Thing (1989)
[#145 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #6
+ a look through some of the Criterion Blu-ray's special features, including one where Spike Lee reads out some of the contemporary racist reactions from the mainstream media

this week on 100 Films

7 new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Gemini Man (2019)

a film that, at every point I can remember it being talked about, was discussed more for its various technical feats than anything else. Partly that’s because there are a couple of angles. Firstly, the most obvious: it stars Will Smith as an ageing assassin who must fight… a 25-years-younger Will Smith, achieved with motion capture and CGI. Secondly, director Ang Lee shot it in 3D 4K HFR — that’s High Frame Rate, if you don’t know, with the picture running at 120 frames per second rather than the 24fps we’ve been used to for the past 90-odd years. Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that Gemini Man often feels more like a tech demo with a plot grafted onto it than it does a fully functioning movie in its own right.

Read more here.


Tomb Raider 3D (2018)

successfully recreates the running, jumping, shooting, puzzle-solving action of its inspiration without too overtly abandoning real-life logic for video game logic. Well, I say “real-life logic” — it’s actually “action/adventure movie logic”, but I think that’s allowed in an action/adventure movie. As an entry in that genre, it’s fun enough. It’s not going to compete for greatest-of-all-time status with its urtext, the Indiana Jones films, nor does it quite challenge the heights of more-overt homages like The Mummy, but it’s not a bad couple of hours’ entertainment in their mould.

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup V

Featuring...
- Blade of the Immortal
- Cash on Demand
- Free Enterprise
- Iron Monkey
- Muppet Treasure Island

Read more here.


More next Sunday.