Weeks 29-30

Introduction

Another two week stretch on my quest to see 100 new films by the end of the year. I'm just not seeing enough films per week to warrant entries that often, it would seem.

This time round I blame TV -- so many new things have started, as well as continuing shows, that I spend most of my time keeping up! During these two weeks I've been watching Boomtown, British Film Forever, Cape Wrath, Dexter, Dirt, Dragons' Den: Where Are They Now?, Eight Out of Ten Cats, Firefly, Heroes, House, Hyperdrive, Jekyll, Mock the Week, Shark, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Time of Your Life, Vanished, The Wire and Would I Lie To You, as well as a variety of one-off things. Quite a bit, I'm sure you'll agree!


Weeks Twenty-Nine and Thirty

Nonetheless, I've managed to get a few things watched (half of them right at the end of the second week!) -- and they've all turned out to be of good quality too, as you will surely see when you read my reviews...


66) Mystic River (2005, Clint Eastwood, DVD) 4/5
The acting is the main draw of this Oscar-winning murder drama, in which three childhood friends who grew apart are brought back together when one of their daughters is murdered. Tim Robbins is particularly excellent, easily earning his Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Unfortunately most of the plot is not far above the standards of your average police procedural show, albeit fleshed out with more insight into the various characters and plot complexities -- and, of course, with superior acting from all involved.

67) Right at Your Door (2006, Chris Gorak, DVD) 4/5
LA is hit by a series of 'dirty bombs' in this indie suspense thriller, that follows the story of what happens to one man in the suburbs, as well as the various people whose path cross his. Mainly based in one location (his home), the film is an effective and suspenseful account of what it's like to be an ordinary person almost in the middle of such an attack. The frantic early pace does let up a little as the film goes on, but it remains gripping right up to the well-executed twist.

68) Heat (1995, Michael Mann, DVD) 5/5
Heat will probably always be best remembered for two things: the excellent running shoot out on the streets of LA, and De Niro and Pacino on screen together for the first (and, so far, last) time. There's a lot more to it than that, of course: ostensibly a cops-and-robbers crime drama, the film follows the personal lives of each side as well as the usual professional actions. The cop-with-failed-marriage/criminal-with-successful-relationship juxtaposition may already feel cliched, it works well enough here, and is well executed without distracting from the meat of the plot -- which is, still, the crime and justice.

69) Mean Creek (2004, Jacob Aaron Estes, DVD) 5/5
A group of teenagers concoct a plan for revenge on a bully in this drama from first-time writer/director Estes. Whilst the premise might sound straightforward and liable to be morally simplistic, the writing, acting and direction combine to make a film that is complex, tense, tragic and ultimately believable. Some might argue it loses its way a little towards the end, almost struggling to find a suitable conclusion, but it doesn't do so enough to make it anything less than an excellent film. Highly recommended.