Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

Mirror Mirror (2012)
The second case of great visuals, sloppy plotting from Tarsem Singh in the space of a year. There's no sense of narrative drive to either this or last year's Immortals, and if his take on Snow White isn't quite such an insult to the viewer's intelligence as his murdering of Greek myth it still ends up feeling like bit of an endurance test.
Part of the problem is the very knowing, wink-wink, approach. For the most part the script isn't witty or clever enough to sustain this. There's the odd amusing line about changing endings approved by focus groups, but it won’t go down as this generation's The Princess Bride. And, while the director knows the look he wants, it's debatable how well this works; a forest clearly shot on a sound stage and limited locations give the impression of fairy tales on a budget. The self-consciousness means there's never any sense of atmosphere or danger, while the music reinforces the impression that it’s a…

Blake's 7 2.11: Gambit

So, Robert Holmes and Blake’s 7. There seems to be a well-tapped vein of thinking that he wasn’t quite suited to the series and that his scripts correspondingly weren’t all that. Killer, I thought was solid, but Gambit... I think is superb. A sparkling, densely constructed gem that calls back to many of his pet obsessions and even manages to give the increasingly one-note Servalan and Travis decent roles. And there’s a treasure trove of ex- and future Who supporting actors spattered across it. And George Spenton Foster rises to the occasion after not being arsed with Voice from the Past. It’s very funny too.