Film-a-day: Week 3: 30 Jan-5 Feb 2011

I've really neglected this over the last month, so I figured I'd get caught up with the notes I've got for the films I've seen. As usual, the best is at the top, the rest follow after the cut!

Con Air (1997) ****

I don't know if I mentioned, but I am currently on a bit of a crusade to watch all of Nicolas Cage's films. One of which that came most highly recommended was Con Air, and I had a great time finding out why. From the outset, it's one of the dumbest films I've ever heard of, but that is its charm, and why it works so darn well. The whole cast are at their nutty best, and the whole two hours is spent ramping up every situation to it's most ridiculously plausible conclusion. The fact that a sequel is in the works to help Cage fund his IRS problems is superb.

After the cut: The Rescuers, Sherlock Holmes, Extract, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and The Other Guys.

Film-a-day 16-22 Jan 2011

Another regular feature I plan on updating every week is what film's I've been watching during the week. My plan for the rest of the year is to try and watch a film every day, or at least seven films in a week. I haven't done brilliantly this first week (this is more of the last 10 days really), but the plan is to update every week with a little review and star rating for each one. The best one of the week is here, the others are beyond the jump!

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) ****/

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) *****
Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi (1983) ****

Of course, what a way to start! While it's easy to pick out the bad parts of the trilogy, if you just let it wash over you and just enjoy it the good parts are brilliant and plentiful. Of course Empire is the best of the three, especially considering most of Jedi can be boiled down to Jabba the Hutt, Ewoks and a lot of shots of Luke Skywalker waiting to get angry enough to almost turn to the dark side. While it's not as easy to pidgeonhole A New Hope, it barely misses the five star mark and is as fine an introduction to a trilogy as there has ever been. But of course, The Empire Strikes Back is the best! It introduced Yoda, Lando Calrissian and Boba Fett and included the brilliant scenes of the battle on Hoth, the wonderful looking Cloud City and the classic training scene from Yoda on Dagobah. And that's just for starters. Superb!

This week was a bit all over the spectrum of film with Lord Of War, Safe Men, Inception and Dog Day Afternoon getting a look after the jump!