Over at Alex on Film I’ve added notes on three movies taking the premise that an individual has to relive the same day in their life over again and again in a loop until some condition is met. I think Groundhog Day (1993) was the first, or at least the best known film to do this. We still call it a Groundhog Day plot. More recently the idea has proven itself to be highly portable, being featured in Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Happy Death Day (2017).

What I find interesting is how different, in most other respects, these films are. In Groundhog Day the time loop has a vaguely spiritual dimension to it, related to Buddhist teachings or Nietzsche’s eternal return. In Edge of Tomorrow there’s a ridiculous explanation for it based on some connection between alien biology and time travel. This is a throwaway, as the real connection being made is to video game play. In Happy Death Day it seems like the device is being invoked in a more ironic way. What do these different approaches have in common? I’m not sure. I can’t help thinking there’s some deeper connection though.

Joseph K. Before the fall.

Over at Alex on Film I’ve posted my notes on two film versions of Franz Kafka’s The Trial. The first is the Orson Welles film from 1962. It’s not my favourite Welles, but he manages the text well and really makes it his own. The second is a far more literal adaptation, directed by David Jones, which came out in 1993. I didn’t like it nearly as much, but it’s still worth seeing if you’re a fan of the book.

I’ve updated a few times on this site with links to my notes over at Alex on Film on various movies featuring Sherlock Holmes. Mostly I’ve been talking about the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce series that ran through the late 1930s and early ’40s. If you’re interested, this is an up-to-date master list. If I review any more Holmes movies I’ll just add them here.

The Copper Beeches (1912)
Le Trsor des Musgraves (1912)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
The Spider Woman (1943)
The Scarlet Claw (1943)
The Pearl of Death (1944)
The House of Fear (1945)
The Woman in Green (1945)
Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
Dressed to Kill (1946)
Murder by Decree (1979)
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Over at Alex on Film I’ve been watching the two versions of Oldboy: the Korean original and the 2013 American remake (where the title was changed to Old Boy).

I’m still scratching my  head as to why anyone would want to remake Oldboy. It’s a great movie, but so weird and idiosyncratic  I don’t see how anyone could have thought a Hollywood version was going to work. In the event, Spike Lee’s version doesn’t have any of the visual inventiveness and grotesque imagination of the original.

Over at Alex on Film I’ve been watching a bunch of movies relating to what I refer to as the Game of Death genre. The basic idea has a bunch of people trapped together having to solve some kind of problem or complete a test, or else, at least in most cases, die. My starting point is the Canadian film Cube, but the genre really took off with the success of Saw.

What it is that made such movies so popular at this time? Is it that we all relate to the situation the contestants find themselves in? That’s a scary thought.

Cube (1997)
Phone Booth (2002)
Saw (2004)
Cube Zero (2004)
Saw II (2005)
The Method (2005)
House of 9 (2005)
Saw III (2006)
Saw IV (2007)
Breathing Room (2008)
Saw V (2008)
Kill Theory (2009)
Exam (2009)
Saw VI (2009)
Nine Dead (2010)
Devil (2010)
Elevator (2011)
Would You Rather (2012)
The Maze Runner (2014)
Circle (2015)
The Belko Experiment (2016)

Over at Alex on Film I’ve posted a new movie quiz featuring some famous (and not-so-famous) movie headlines. These quizzes are actually a lot harder than they seem, mainly because not all of the images can be easily Googled. Challenge yourself!

Over at Alex on Film I’ve posted my first movie image quiz, featuring some famous (and not-so-famous) movie tattoos. I hope to make this a monthly contest. If you like these sorts of games you should check it out.