102 Dalmatians (2000)
It’s at its best early on, with Cruella de Vil turned nice. It’s different and allows more room to be original and funny. Director Kevin Lima imbues it with a kind of craziness that transcends being a Silly Children’s Film and borders on silliness-as-art. A moment where London is completely dalmatian-coloured is particularly goodRead more here.
The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
Sanders’ portrayal of Templar is witty and enjoyably knowing, even more so than Louis Hayward in the previous film. He’s at once more laid-back and less self-certain; by which I mean you can sometimes see him working out his devilishly clever plans as he goes along, rather than floating through with invulnerability... Though I’ve never seen the ’60s TV series, here I can see clearly how Roger Moore was suited to the role.Read more here.
The Saint in London (1939)
Best of all is Sally Gray as Penny Parker, a charming girl Templar bumps into — as he’s wont to do — who forcibly strings along for the ride. Every film in the series contains a pretty young thing who falls for the Saint, and who he seems to fall for back before casually disregarding at the end. Of all the girls the series offers, though, plucky Penny is the one you’d wish had stuck around.Read more here.
The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)
the way events unfold feels like no one paid a huge amount of attention to the plot. It all just about makes sense, if you care to think about it, and some of it is deliberately confusing... But I don’t think that excuses everything; instead, I believe it’s structured to sweep you along from one bit of derring do to the next.Read more here.
The Saint Takes Over (1940)
Fernack has been suspended from the force. Naturally his BFF Simon Templar swings by to help. What ensues is a 180 from the usual formula: rather than Fernack constantly suspecting the Saint of being the actual perpetrator of the crimes he claims to be solving, here every murder occurs while the Saint is out of the room, but while Fernack has plenty of opportunity to commit it. Much fun ensues as Templar teases his chum.Read more here.
The Saint in Palm Springs (1941)
Wendy Barrie is, for once, simply the ingénue and not some form of criminal mastermind. Don’t worry, there’s another girl for that: Linda Hayes, who seems a promising match for the Saint but, though prominent early on, is ultimately disregarded. The highlight for both women comes when they get invited along for a horse ride with the Saint and have a good bitch at each other. It’s a pickle quite unlike the ones Templar usually finds himself in!Read more here.
And as if that weren't enough, I added a couple more animation reviews too...
Presto (2008)
Completely dialogue free, it quickly becomes a breakneck feast of visual, mostly slapstick, humour. It may be violent, but it’s also highly witty, marvelously inventive, and wholly entertaining… even if the hero is morally dubious. But then, Roadrunner was a total wanker and he always won.Read more here.
Ratatouille (2007)
it is a good film, but it is also a flawed one. It’s not nearly funny enough for a kid’s movie — laughs are almost non-existent in the first half and hard to come by in the second — and it’s too long, needing a good chunk taken out of that duller first half. It’s a bit confused as to who the villain is, meaning there’s a lack of real menace from either of the candidates. Despite a professed aim to make rats lovable, they’re not really.Read more here.
More (though I seriously doubt more) next Sunday.
