Sunday 13 March 2016

this week on 100 Films

4 brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


Daybreakers (2009)
offers an original and imaginative world (how would mankind cope if we couldn’t go out in daylight? Maybe like this). It’s somewhat let down by a few campy performances and a sensibility that reverts to action sequences, but originality counts for a lot
Read more here.


Kill List (2011)
mixes in its genre elements — and they’re elements from a couple of different genres at that — so gradually that it’s hard to discuss them without spoiling the film... It’s kind of a compilation of traditional British movie genres: we begin with kitchen sink, then discover we’re actually watching a crime film, before the final act swerves (though not without foreshadowing) into folk horror.
Read more here.


Macbeth (2015)
The text is heavily cut (a copy & paste & delete-bits job that somehow took three screenwriters), to the displeasure of some critics, though this is primarily because Kurzel chose to supplant some of the dialogue with Filmmaking. In a film?! How very dare he! What I mean, more specifically, is that he’s visualised parts of the text; applied the old rule of “show don’t tell”.
Read more here.


The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Guy Ritchie is a self-confessed non-fan of the classic ’60s spy-fi series, so he seems a somewhat odd choice to helm this long-gestating big-screen reboot... Unsurprisingly, he gives it a bit of the Sherlock Holmeses (namely, a semi-comedic tone and appropriately swish, ’60s-ish direction)
Read more here.


Also, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Casino Royale (2006)
Bourne happened, shifting the playing field of the spy-action genre... What Casino Royale does skilfully is acknowledge the changes brought by Bourne, but adapt them to Bond’s slightly more classical style (something Quantum of Solace fumbled). At the same time, it acknowledges and frequently subverts that Bond formula
Read more here.


Children of Men (2006)
CuarĂ³n mixes intelligent near-future sci-fi with exciting, and excitingly-realised, action sequences to create an action-thriller of a movie that stimulates both the mind and the adrenal glands. A fantastic film in every respect.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.