TV

Armchair Detectives
1x01 Watercolour Crime
I like the general concept behind this show (three contestants attempt to solve a TV-drama-style murder mystery), but being a daytime quiz show the 'drama' bits leave something to be desired. I might give it a few more episodes to see.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Bounty Hunters
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
I was wondering how there could be a second season of this. Turns out "by not exactly wrapping everything up" was the answer. Cheats.

The Good Place
1x09 ...Someone Like Me as a Member

TV

Castle
8x12 The Blame Game

Insert Name Here
3x02 Lou
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Punisher
1x13 Memento Mori [season finale]

Films

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
[#163 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Blindspot 2017 #11

+ some of the Blu-ray's special features, including visual essay You Must Become Caligari. I need to watch/read more before I attempt to review this...

TV

Bounty Hunters
1x05 Episode 5

The Good Place
1x08 Most Improved Player

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
6x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Punisher
1x12 Home

Films

Men in Black II (2002)
[3rd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #45

TV

The Good Place
1x07 The Eternal Shriek

The Musketeers
3x10 We Are the Garrison [series finale]

The Punisher
1x11 Danger Close

Would I Lie To You?
11x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Men in Black (1997)
[3rd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #44

TV

Bounty Hunters
1x04 Episode 4

Castle
8x11 Dead Red

The Good Place
1x06 What We Owe to Each Other

Films

Saludos Amigos (1942)
[#161 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Tea for Two (1950)
[#162 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

this week on 100 Films

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


Another Earth (2011)

I’ve seen it decried for not ditching the sci-fi stuff to focus on the characters’ emotional situation and relationship, and the same for not ditching the emotional stuff to focus on the sci-fi concepts. Personally, I think the film is doing exactly what it sets out to do: using aspects of each genre to comment on, reflect, and influence the other.

Read more here.


Hail, Caesar! (2016)

maybe there are indeed hidden depths here, but I think I’d prefer it as just a zany caper centred on Josh Brolin’s character, surrounded by the game all-star supporting cast, rather than having lengthy asides where a room of kinda-recognisable supporting actors discuss economics and communist philosophies and that kind of thing.

Read more here.


Napoleon (1927)

At 5½ hours, Napoleon is rather like a miniseries from the silent era — a comparison that feels more apt than ever in this age of binge-watching... Yet despite that length, the film doesn’t even reach the Napoleonic Wars. No wonder Gance wanted to do six movies — or six seasons, as we might interpret it today. (In the end, he went over-schedule and over-budget on this first film, covering just two-thirds of the story he’d intended and spending the budget for the entire series. I imagine I’d outrage some silent film fans/scholars if I called him the Peter Jackson of his day…)

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Arrow
6x03 Next of Kin

Detectorists
3x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Punisher
1x10 Virtue of the Vicious

Films

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 3D (2017)
[#160 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

This week, I picked up the 40th anniversary Blu-ray of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, replacing both an old DVD and an old Blu-ray. With one new release purchased as well, the net result is very little change.

Number of titles in collection: 2,053 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,168 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 885 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,270 [no change]
Number of films: 2,287 [down 2]
Number of TV episodes: 7,980 [no change]
Number of short films: 594 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Insert Name Here
3x01 Tom
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Musketeers
3x09 The Prize

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
6x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Punisher
1x09 Front Toward Enemy

Films

Zatoichi the Fugitive (1963)
[#159 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

The Punisher
1x08 Cold Steel

TV

Castle
8x10 Witness for the Prosecution

The Good Place
1x05 Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis

Films

Spider-Man: Homecoming 3D (2017)
[2nd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #43

TV

Bounty Hunters
1x03 Episode 3

The Good Place
1x04 Jason Mendoza

The Punisher
1x06 The Judas Goat
1x07 Crosshairs

Would I Lie To You?
11x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Flash
4x03 Luck Be a Lady

The Good Place
1x03 Tahani Al-Jamil

The Punisher
1x05 Gunner

TV

The Punisher
1x04 Resupply

Films

The Great Wall 3D (2016)
[#158 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

this week on 100 Films

It was already time for another TV round-up this week over at 100 Films in a Year...





There were 3 brand-new reviews, too...


Fandango (1985)

If we’re being picky then its structure is a little episodic, but the scrapes the gang get into are linked by arcs that chart their characters’ development, which is where the film has it’s heart. It’s also resplendent with nice little touches, like well-composed shots (for a first timer, Reynolds clearly knew what he was doing), poignant character moments, and some occasionally profound dialogue, too.

Read more here.


Justice League (2017)

I enjoyed it. On the whole it’s not as thought-provoking as Batman v Superman, but is instead a fun time with some good character bits thrown in. From early reviews I feared the whole story would be choppily edited, and the opening act is indeed a bit disjointed and jumpy, but the closer it gets to the team being assembled the more it settles down. Once they’re together, it’s a fairly straightforward action-adventure movie, with the heroes in pursuit of the villain to stop his world-ending plan. Unlike BvS it’s not full of portentous (or, depending on your predilections, pretentious) themes to ponder, but it’s still a reasonably entertaining action movie.

Read more here.


Wonder Woman (2017)

The fourth film in DC’s shared cinematic universe is by far its best reviewed to date. It’s also the first superhero movie of the modern era to be based around a female character. I can’t help but think one has a lot to do with the other, because, in my estimation, Wonder Woman is not massively better than or different to the action-adventure blockbusters we get several of every year — the only exception being, of course, that it stars a woman. While that is undoubtedly important, and its meaningfulness can apparently not be understated, it doesn’t automatically elevate the quality of the rest of the movie. Or maybe it does for some people — maybe “the same, but with a woman” is enough to make it a genre classic.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Punisher
1x03 Kandahar

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

Number of titles in collection: 2,053 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,169 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 884 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 5,270 [up 15]
Number of films: 2,289 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes: 7,980 [up 13]
Number of short films: 594 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Punisher
1x01 3AM
1x02 Two Dead Men

Films

Baby Driver (2017)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2017 #42 -- just 4½ months since the first time, too. Can't remember the last time I rewatched a film that quickly where an alternate version wasn't involved. (For example: I rewatched Ghost in the Shell also 4½ months later, but that was in 3D, and before that Suicide Squad in under 2 months, but that was an extended cut.) This is part of the point of my Rewatchathon, though.

Justice League (2017)
[#157 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

Rick and Morty
1x03 Anatomy Park
Another really good one. If it keeps this up then I guess I'll be seeing what other people see after all.

TV

Stranger Things 2
2x08 Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer
2x09 Chapter Nine: The Gate [season finale]

TV

Red Dwarf
12x06 Skipper [season finale]
An excellent, fan-pleasing episode. Perfectly placed as a finale, too. Apparently Red Dwarf XIII is already in the works -- hurrah!

Rick and Morty
1x02 Lawnmower Dog
A massive improvement on the pilot -- I actually enjoyed this.

Stranger Things 2
2x07 Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister
Hm. This episode has attracted a lot of criticism online. It's not great, but I don't think it was that bad. The real problem is that it rushes through a character arc for Eleven that would've been better presented over multiple episodes. Basically, there were better ways to structure her role this season.

TV

Arrow
6x02 Tribute

The Good Place
1x02 Flying

TV

Castle
8x09 Tone Death

Red Dwarf
12x05 M-Corp

Stranger Things 2
2x05 Chapter Five: Dig Dug
2x06 Chapter Six: The Spy

this week on 100 Films

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


Anomalisa (2015)

Although an everyday kind of drama that would be largely achievable in live-action, it uses its animated form to its advantage when depicting the central conceit, giving every character who isn’t Michael and Lisa the same face and having them all voiced by the same actor (Tom Noonan). For me, this was the most effective part of the movie. It’s a really neat way of executing the concept of not being able to tell people apart. Noonan is the film’s real star, too, voicing “everyone else” in a way that makes them sound plausibly unique but also all the same

Read more here.


Assassin's Creed (2016)

the action carries no weight: our hero can’t change the past, just witness it as he helps the bad guys watch to see where the MacGuffin ended up. So we are literally watching someone watch someone else do all the action — like, y’know, watching someone else play a video game. It’s almost a meta commentary on video game movies, except I don’t think that was the intention.

Read more here.


Batman vs. Two-Face (2017)

we don’t want a serious Bat-adventure, we want something light, daft, and above all fun. Batman vs. Two-Face isn’t exactly a sombre affair, but it isn’t funny enough either... The tone is just wrong. The makers admit they were trying to mix “camp with noir”, but — as I think any of us could’ve told them — that’s an unnatural combination that just doesn’t work.

Read more here.


Eye in the Sky (2015)

After a multinational mission is launched to capture wanted terrorists in Kenya, surveillance observes them prepping suicide bombers. The mission objective is changed to “kill”, but commanders watching from afar via drone are forced to reconsider their options due to a civilian presence near the target. It’s a tense thriller driven by a compelling moral dilemma — in fact, the dilemma is an old one: would you sacrifice one innocent life to potentially save dozens more? It’s just that it’s now framed in the super-modern context of using drones to dispatch death from the other side of the world.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
8x08 Mr. & Mrs. Castle

The Flash
4x02 Mixed Signals

The Good Place
1x01 Everything is Fine

Stranger Things 2
2x03 Chapter Three: The Pollywog
2x04 Chapter Four: Will the Wise

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

Eight new purchases this week -- everything I mentioned last week finally showed up, and a couple more! You won't see that many new titles added, however, because one upgrades a DVD and two upgrade Blu-rays to better Blu-rays. Still, a wealth of new discs thanks to how many of those BDs have (useless to me) DVD copies.

Number of titles in collection: 2,049 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,169 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 880 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 5,255 [up 12]
Number of films: 2,284 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 7,967 [up 22]
Number of short films: 594 [no change]

It's also time for another running time update. Despite all those new titles, this is actually the smallest increase since May (only by about three hours though, so it's hardly anything outside the norm).

Total running time of collection (approx.):
389 days, 19 hours, and 58 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 2 hours, and 45 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Castle
8x07 The Last Seduction

The Musketeers
3x08 Prisoners of War

Stranger Things 2
2x01 Chapter One: MADMAX
2x02 Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak

TV

Arrow
6x01 Fallout
Oh look, everybody apart from the minor guest star survived. There's a surprise.

Bounty Hunters
1x02 Episode 2

Detectorists
3x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
8x06 Cool Boys

The Flash
4x01 The Flash Reborn

Red Dwarf
12x04 Mechocracy

Films

Passengers 3D (2016)
[#156 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

Castle
8x05 The Nose

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
6x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Films

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
[2nd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #41

Articles

X-Men at 25: The Unlikely Story of the Animated Hit No Network Wanted
by Aaron Couch & Byron Burton (from The Hollywood Reporter)

Celebrating a quarter-century of one of the great superhero TV series. Personally, it was a defining part of my childhood -- I'd credit it with my enduring love of the X-Men franchise.

TV

Bounty Hunters
1x01 Episode 1

Films

Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends (2014)
[#155 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

The Great British Bake Off
8x10 The Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
4x10 Episode 10 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
6x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Films

Awakenings (1990)
[#154 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

this week on 100 Films

A new month began this week, so it was time for 100 Films in a Year to look back at the last one...





Additionally, 4 brand-new reviews were published this week...


Awakenings (1990)

I’m not sure why it isn’t better remembered. Okay, it’s a little schmaltzy towards the end, but there are plenty of films that are worse for that which are held in higher esteem by some. Perhaps it’s not schmaltzy enough for those people, but still too much for people who hate that kind of thing? Or maybe it’s something else — but I don’t know what, because the rest of the film is packed with quality and subtlety.

Read more here.


The Exorcist (1973)

Everyone’s so busy talking about The Scary Stuff when it comes to The Exorcist, no one ever tells you how low-key and grounded a lot of it is. Okay, the talking in voices and spinning heads and vomiting green gunk and bloody crucifix masturbation are pretty memorable, so fair enough. Before that, though, it’s more of a character drama, about a single mother struggling to handle what appears to be her daughter’s out-of-control mental health problems.

Read more here.


The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

For the third Halloween in a row, I subjected myself to true cinematic horror: a Twilight film. I suppose this one’s theoretically the turning point of the franchise: it’s the middle movie in the film series, while in the books it’s the penultimate instalment — surely in every regard placed to set up the final conflict. Well, you wouldn’t know it, because this is another Twilight film where very little happens.

Read more here.


What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

it embraces mundanity — putting these supernatural creates in the same dull suburban lifestyles that we all know, like struggling to get into the good nightclubs, or a supposedly grand ball taking place in a rundown community centre. Perhaps best of all are bits which straddle the two stools — the practicalities of being a vampire; like how do you get dressed up to go out if you can’t see your reflection, or having to clean up the mess after drinking someone’s blood. The film plays these various comic facets with a great deal of wit and cleverness, but it’s also suitably silly

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
8x04 What Lies Beneath

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
6x07 Episode 7

Films

Batman vs. Two-Face (2017)
[#153 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Candyman (1992)
[#152 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

I was expecting about seven new Blu-rays this week, but in the end only one turned up. Slightly concerned where some of the others have got to, actually...

Number of titles in collection: 2,044 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,170 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 874 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,243 [up 1]
Number of films: 2,280 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 7,945 [no change]
Number of short films: 594 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
4x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Upstart Crow
2x06 Sweet Sorrow [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Great British Bake Off
8x09 Patisserie Week
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
4x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Upstart Crow
2x05 Beware My Sting!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Blade Runner 2049: How VFX Masters Replicated Sean Young as Rachael
by Bill Desowitz (from IndieWire)

Interesting piece on how they created one of the film's most amazing special effects. (Sorry about the spoiler in the headline, but it has been out for almost a month now.)

Articles

Ghostwatch: The 1992 paranormal investigation that just had to be true, because it was on the BBC
by David Barnett (from the Independent)

I know I shared one good, long piece on Ghostwatch just last week, but here's another anyway. It was the 25th anniversary this year, so no wonder a host of articles popped up (there were many more than these two). If I'd been at home last night I might've finally watched it, but I wasn't, so I didn't. Is it weird to watch it in November?