Films

Con Air (1997)
[#58 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home (2018)
This ad for Australian tourism, released back in 2018, initially got people excited because it looked like it was a trailer for a surprise fourth Crocodile Dundee movie. Eventually, the truth was revealed (I think during the Superbowl?) Anyway, they never released a 'complete' version — it only exists as a collection of four or five teasers/trailers/adverts, which you can find on YouTube edited together by just being stuck one after another. They tend to be called "extended version"s, but really it's just playing all the clips back to back. If they'd properly cut all the variants together into one complete version, I'd probably count it and review it as a short on 100 Films; but they didn't, so I'm just mentioning it here (and on Letterboxd).

TV

Films

Come Together (2016)
[#185a in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

The Wes Anderson-directed Christmas short-cum-advert for H&M. Watch it on YouTube here.

Articles

John Lewis Christmas advert: who is Moon Hitler?
by Stuart Heritage (from the Guardian)

Perfectly skewering John Lewis' annual mawkishness-fest.

Articles

Steven Moffat on Sherlock movie: "How does it make it better?"
by Morgan Jeffery (from Digital Spy)

"The Doctor Who special we did, The Day of the Doctor, we put in the cinemas and on that weekend it came number two at the American box office," Moffat said.

"That's a TV programme - number two at the American box office for the weekend it came out, with limited distribution. That's television handing cinema its own arse!"

Veronica Mars Is on the Case in the First Poster Reveal
by Bryan Enk (from Yahoo! Movies)

Click to enlarge.

Articles

Movie Cities' Olympic Promo Posters
(from Empire)

What if the 2020 Olympics weren't taking place in a real city, but One From The Movies? In this fun piece, Empire imagines how the promo posters for 13 such cities might look.

Articles

Lots to report today, so...


12 Gotham Newspaper Headlines During The Dark Knight Rises by Dan Hopper (from Jest)
and
New Alternate TDKR Poster by thefirerisesnolan (from Reddit)

Both of these are absolutely stuffed with spoilers, but if you've seen the film the newspaper headlines are funny and the poster is awesome. I'd include it below but, like I said, spoilersome. (In case you can't find it on that page (took me a bit), here's a direct link.)


BBC Two orders another series of Rev
and
Room 101 recommissioned for 13th series
(from The British Comedy Guide)

Fantastic news and pretty good news respectively, as far as I'm concerned. Just a shame Rev. won't be back until 2014 -- that's at least 18 months from now, and two-years-plus since it was last on! Madness.


The Doctor Daleks Danger!
(from Doctor Who official site)
A big new pic from the next series of Who, before a new trailer hits at 6am (8pm on the telly).



The Greatest Films of All Time 2012 by Nick James (from Sight & Sound)
and
Vertigo is named 'greatest film of all time' (from BBC News)
and
The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time (from BFI)
and
On Writing My Top Ten For ‘Sight & Sound’ by Edgar Wright (from edgar wright here)

It's the film poll, and it only happens once a decade, and here's the new top 10 -- including a new #1! I won't go into all the details, but the various links above will. Worth noting, however, that the most recent film on the list is 44 years old. Should the debate be, is this poll still relevant when it only selects such old films?

Articles

Dark Knight Animated Movie Sets Voice Cast
by Borys Kit (from Heat Vision at The Hollywood Reporter)
DC finally announce the voice cast for their forthcoming two-part animated adaptation of Frank Miller's seminal graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. More exciting is the article comes with eight shots from the film itself, which confirm the style is what one would probably expect it to be: based on the original book, but with the kind of stylistic simplisation and blockier colours animation almost always brings. Looks like it could be good though.

RED 2 Teaser Poster Arrives
by Kevin Melrose (from Spinoff Online)
I enjoyed RED, so I'm certainly looking forward to this one.

Articles

Skyfall poster: New James Bond movie unveils teaser image
by Simon Reynolds (from Digital Spy)
Trailer soon! Yay!

Click to enlarge.

Non-Fiction

Drew Struzan: Oeuvre by Drew & Dylan Struzan

This large-format art book of Struzan's work -- movie posters, album covers, and more -- is stunning. There's very little text (just some introductions to each of the sections, plus a list of works featured at the back), just full-page reproductions of his incredible work. Highly recommended to anyone who has a liking for this kind of thing.

Articles

BBCA Enjoys Viral Spread Of NYC Outdoor Ads
by Kent Gibbons (from Multichannel News)

BBC America is getting social media mileage out of a new outdoor advertising campaign it's launched in the New York City area.

Lots more detail at the link, including many examples (better quality here). This one's my favourite:

Articles

The Best New Action Classics, Volume 1
by Scott Weinberg (from Movies.com)

I was tweeting in highly opinionated fashion about how "foreign" films are presently kicking Hollywood's ass, as far as quality action films are concerned. Then I got a response from Duncan Jones, director of Moon and Source Code, asking me to write a piece about the best recent action movies I've seen from around the planet. And when the guy who debuted with one of the best sci-fi films in 20 years asks for a favor, you do it.

Now here's a list that merits some reading, watching and ticking-off-of-the-list-what-I've-watched...

James Bond Movie Poster Mashups
(from Empire)
Fun fun fun.

Articles

If 2012's Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth
by Ali (from The Shiznit)
Hilarity.

Revisiting Alan Moore's Official Watchmen Prequel
by Timothy Callahan (from Comic Book Resources)
Amongst all the fuss around Before Watchmen, someone linked to this article from September 2008 looking back at the official Watchmen role-playing game, which was created with the help of Moore and Dave Gibbons while they were creating the very series on which it's based. Sounds fascinating, and a shame it's long out of print. Surely someone must have rights to re-print it?

Articles

Best And Worst Sci-Fi Movie Posters 2011 by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
You might not agree with every choices in either category (I certainly didn't), but it's a good reminder of the last year nonetheless.

Doctor Who: Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill to leave next series by Daniel Sperling
(from Digital Spy)
I know no one really believed it when they left toward the end of the last series, but the thing is kids probably did, and it was a good surprise, and more importantly it was a good, well-reasoned send off. How are they going to bring them back after the Doctor's resolve that he was messing up their lives? And how will they write them out again in a way that tops that? As much as I love Rory, it's a shame they've not just let them go.

Doctor Who: "The assumption that the audience is intelligent has paid off" says Steven Moffat by Tim Glanfield
(from Radio Times)
Yes indeed. Though to be honest, I preferred it before all these intricate multi-year timey-wimey plots. Self-contained one- and two-parters with maybe a big linking season finale for me, please.

Articles

Downton Abbey bosses hit back at critics over 'ludicrous' storylines claims by Simon Boyle
(from Mirror)
Downton Abbey is not a soap because it gets incredibly high ratings and "combines comedy, romance and tension around 20 characters"? OK, if you say so...

New Mission: Impossible Poster Online by James White
(from Empire)
Or, as the poster seems very very keen for you to call it, Ghost Protocol. How small is that Mission: Impossible logo?! Especially relative to what is, technically, the subtitle. Bizarre. Obviously someone in the film's marketing has decided the M:I name is the opposite of a selling point.

Click to enlarge.

Steven Spielberg discusses Jurassic Park 4 and Indiana Jones 5 by Venkman
(from Geektyrant)
JP4 is on the scriptwriting stage and George Lucas is still developing a story for Indy 5... but never mind that, because what's most interesting here is what he has to say about the last Indy film:

I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin. I didn't want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings.

More just-as-interesting comments at the link.

Unofficial Title Sequence for The Adventures of Tintin by Gig Patta
(from LatinoReview)
There's more to that title than meets the eye, though: the director/producer of Tintin, who is no less than Steven Spielberg of course, saw the video and liked it enough to invite its maker to the premiere... and give him a job on the next movie. Well crikey!
In case you don't fancy following the link, here it is:

Articles

Columbia showcases impressive extended teaser for David Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Chris Eggertsen
(from HitFix)
As the tweet I saw promoting the article put it, "Extended Girl with the Dragon Tattoo teaser wows reporters, audiences". And it sounds brilliant too.

Articles

Face/Off poster for Picturehouse Stratford by Sam Gilbey
(from Sam Gilbey illustrates)
Title pretty much covers it. Good poster, though. In fact, here it is:

Click to enlarge.

It must be great having a 'passion' for sport. Which is why I'm going to develop one by Charlie Brooker
(from Comment is free at guardian.co.uk)
Brooker on, essentially, why BBC Four is better than sport. Obviously he's right.

Articles

A closer look at DC’s ‘New 52′ commercial by Kevin Melrose
(from Robot 6 at Comic Book Resources)
DC's promised big push for their relaunched New 52 begins with this, the TV commercial. Unfortunately, for all the reasons Melrose points out, it really isn't very good.

Articles

Exclusive: Tintin One-Sheet Online by Phil de Semlyen
(from Empire)
Brilliant. And look how big the writers' names are! The writers!
Trailer tomorrow, apparently.

No way to run a railway brand - how South West Trains have managed to trash their image. by Chris Arnold
(from Arnold on Ethical Marketing at Brand Republic)
This article feels like it's getting nowhere about something you've not heard, if you read it from the start. I suggest jumping to paragraph four ("The whole incident revolves around...") to get to the shocking point. If you keep going 'til the end, you'll find there's a petition here.

Articles

16 movie poster traditions that need to die in a horrible fire by Ali
(from theshiznit.co.uk)
I don't entirely agree with some of them -- the "from the producer of" credit is kinda irritating, but at the same time producers do tend to make the same kind of films because they know how to make those kind of films, so it's not a worthless comparison, especially in the age of producers like Jerry Bruckheimer, who arguably have more control over the final film than the director -- but most are spot-on, and several quite amusing too.

If this summer's movie posters told the truth by Ali
(from theshiznit.co.uk)
And from the same site, a better take on posters. These are most amusing. I particularly like the Super 8 one -- "E.T. With Lens Flare". It's funny because it's true.

Steven Moffat speaks out against spoiler "vandals" by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)
Moffat's 'anti-fan' comments seem to be increasingly regular and causing an increasing stir amongst certain aspects of fandom. But the thing is, pretty much everything he has to say is true -- proper fans should be agreeing, not moaning about it. It's only 'fans' -- the people who claim to like the show but always complain about it, or deliberately spoil it and take the fun out of it -- that need to feel offended, and offended they should feel because... well, he's right about them.

Where are today's Steinbecks? by Michael Goldfarb
(from BBC News)

Millions of men and women have lost their jobs in the latest global downturn - the biggest for decades. Why do we hear so little about them?

Or, why art is so slow to respond to the current global recession when it wasn't last time.