TV

Would I Lie To You?
14x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

It was time for another TV column on 100 Films in a Year this week...





But film was not left out, with 3 new movie reviews too...


Rope (1948)

Nowadays fake single takes are all over the place — some of them even last whole movies. But, as with so much cinematic trickery, it’s not actually a new idea. I don’t know if Alfred Hitchcock was the first director to attempt to trick the viewer into thinking they were watching one long take, when in fact it’s several shots stitched together via hidden cuts, but his effort is certainly one of the most famous. As an exercise in style, it’s a mixed success. Hitch is presumably inventing techniques that other filmmakers would polish and perfect in later attempts at the same stunt, but these first attempts don’t always come off perfectly

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XXIII

Featuring...
- Sherlock Gnomes
- Swimming with Men

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Twilight Zone
5x04 A Kind of a Stopwatch
5x07 The Old Man in the Cave
+ the commentary on A Kind of a Stopwatch by TZ expert Martin Grams, Jr.

WandaVision
Part 4 We Interrupt This Program

Films

Sansho Dayu (1954)
[#25 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]
Blindspot 2021 #1
+ the introduction by Tony Rayns on the Masters of Cinema Blu-ray

Collection Count

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

After last week's busy-ness, it's back down to a more acceptable level this week... although I have so much stuff in the post or awaiting dispatch, if it all manages to turn up in the next 7 days then next week might be back up in record-breaker levels. Oh dear!

Well, for now, here's a reasonably-sized update — and, along with it, the first running time update of 2021...

Number of titles in collection: 2,526 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,080 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,446 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 96 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,479 [up 4]
Number of films: 2,920 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 206 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,010 [no change]
Number of short films: 812 [up 1]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
468 days, 7 hours, and 57 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 17 hours, and 25 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
3x03 Cult Movies [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Twilight Zone
5x02 Steel
+ audio commentary by TZ expert Marc Scott Zicree and classic sci-fi expert Bill Warren

Films

Cats (2019)
[#24 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

The Secret Garden (2020)
[#23 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

TV

The Twilight Zone
2x24 The Rip Van Winkle Caper

TV

The Twilight Zone
4x18 The Bard [season finale]
+ audio commentary by TZ expert Marc Scott Zicree and classic sci-fi expert Bill Warren

Films

3 Idiots (2009)
[#21 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
[#22 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]
+ the 2 featurettes on the Blu-ray, Too Shocking for Its Time and A Daring Work of Raw Excellence

TV

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
3x02 Pop Movies
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Crimson Tide (1995)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2021 #2

The Social Dilemma (2020)
[#20 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

TV

WandaVision
Part 3 Now in Color

Films

Tower Heist (2011)
[#19 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

TV

Cobra Kai
2x09 Pulpo
2x10 No Mercy [season finale]
Such a great finale. Now I have the internal debate of whether to rush on to season 3 or save it for a bit...
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

this week on 100 Films

4 new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


The 100-Week Roundup XXII

Featuring...
- Hacksaw Ridge
- Leave No Trace
- Inception: The Cobol Job
- Fences

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Cobra Kai
2x08 Glory of Love
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Staged
2x07 The Loo Recluse
2x08 Until They Get Home [season finale]
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wheel
1x09 Episode 9 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Blithe Spirit (2020)
[#18 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (1975)
[#17 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Collection Count

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

After a quiet start to the year, things kicked off back up to 2020 levels this week, with 12 new purchases — that's my most in one week since... well, only two months ago, actually. But several of those were DVD upgrades — the net title increase of 11 is the biggest since last April! Hopefully this is a one-off spike and not a sign that I'm still unable to cut back... although I do have a few more things in the post and on order, so...

Number of titles in collection: 2,523 [up 11]
Of which DVDs: 1,080 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,443 [up 12]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 96 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,475 [up 24]
Number of films: 2,917 [up 14]
Number of additional cuts: 205 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 9,010 [up 28]
Number of short films: 811 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Staged
2x05 The Warthog and the Mongoose Part 1
2x06 The Warthog and the Mongoose Part 2
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Who? (1974)
[#16 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]
+ featurette The Man Behind the Mask, in which Kim Newman talks about the author of the novel the film is based on, Algis Budrys; and also the selected scene commentary by star Elliott Gould. It sounds like Gould must have recorded a commentary for the entire film, but it was so dull they’ve cut it down to just 21 minutes of highlights... and even that features a fair bit of silence.

Podcasts

David Tennant Does a Podcast with…
1x09 Krysten Ritter

TV

Cobra Kai
2x07 Lull
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Doctor Who
A Business Proposal for Mel
They do one of these specially-shot mini-episode-type trailers for every box set in the Doctor Who: The Collection Blu-ray range, but, to be honest, I normally don't bother to watch them. This one was fab, though — maybe they're worth the time after all...
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

Staged
2x03 The Dirty Mochyns
2x04 Woofty Doofty, David
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Under Siege (1992)
[#15 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

TV

Cobra Kai
2x06 Take a Right
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Staged
2x01 Saddle Up Sheen
2x02 Long Time, No See
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Calling Dr. Death (1943)
[#14 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]
+ the commentary by author and screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner and the director’s daughter, Regina Le Borg.
This is the first Inner Sanctum Mystery. More to come.

TV

Cobra Kai
2x05 All In
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

TV

Cobra Kai
2x04 The Moment of Truth
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Joint Security Area (2000)
[#13 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
[#12 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

TV

Cobra Kai
2x03 Fire and Ice
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
3x01 British Comedy
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
14x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Podcasts

David Tennant Does a Podcast with…
1x07 Jennifer Garner
1x08 Catherine Tate

this week on 100 Films

2021 finally got underway on 100 Films in a Year this week, with the announcement of my Blindspot picks for this year...





There were also 11 new reviews published...


The 100-Week Roundup XIX

Featuring...
- Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
- Cool Hand Luke
- 1941
- Rambo

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XX

Featuring...
- The Stewardesses 3D
- Experiments in Love 3D
- La jetée

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XXI

Featuring...
- The Player
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- First Reformed
- Gods and Monsters

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Wheel
1x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo (2017)
[#10 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

One Night in Miami... (2020)
[#11 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Collection Count

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

This week... there's nothing to report! Wonders will never cease. Several things are in the post or on order, though, so expect next week to be considerably busier (though hopefully not back up to 2020 levels).

Number of titles in collection: 2,512 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,431 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 95 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,451 [no change]
Number of films: 2,903 [no change]
Number of additional cuts: 203 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change]
Number of short films: 811 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

WandaVision
Part 1 Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience
Part 2 Don't Touch That Dial

Films

Wolf Warrior (2015)
[#9 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

TV

Cobra Kai
2x02 Back in Black
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Hotel Transylvania 3D (2012)
[#8 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
[#7a in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Films

The Frighteners: Director's Cut (1996)
[#7 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Podcasts

David Tennant Does a Podcast with…
1x04 Ian McKellen
1x05 Jon Hamm
1x06 Gordon Brown
I couldn't sleep last night, so ended up finally returning to this podcast and binge-listening to a bunch of episodes.

TV

Cobra Kai
2x01 Mercy Part II
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Festen (1998)
[#5 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

You Only Live Once (1937)
[#6 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

this week on 100 Films

My look back at last year on 100 Films in a Year continued this week. First up, one of my highlights of every year: the statistics!





In a different arrangement to normal, I dedicated a whole post to my "worst of" list...





But I still rounded things off with my list of the top 10% of movies I watched last year, plus some honourable mentions, and my usual list of 50 noteworthy titles that I missed...





Aside from all of that, there was also time for my annual look back at Christmas TV...





And that's all for now. Hopefully I'll get in some actual film reviews before next Sunday.

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of Everything 2021
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Wheel
1x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
14x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Just two purchases to kick off the new year. If I can keep things at that kind of level, I'll have a much more sensible end-of-year total than I did for 2020...

Number of titles in collection: 2,512 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,431 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 95 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 6,451 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,903 [up 2]
Number of additional cuts: 203 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change]
Number of short films: 811 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Ernest & Celestine (2012)
[#3 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Happy Death Day (2017)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2021 #1
+ all of the Blu-ray's special features, because there aren't many: 12 minutes of deleted/alternate scenes and 8 minutes of featurettes

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
[#4 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]
+ the Blu-ray's special features, which are even worse than the first film's. The pathetic little “featurettes” were clearly designed for social media promo. Shame they couldn’t have even just recut the same interviews into a decent featurette or two. I'm sure it still would be EPK-ish stuff, but it could have been a little more detailed — at least the first film's manage to squeeze in some interesting info. But no, 2U’s are even shorter and even more vapid. I mean, the third one just explains the plot of the movie in 2 minutes. Whhhhhy?

Films

WolfWalkers (2020)
[#2 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Films

Bill (2015)
[#1 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]
My 15th year of this (yes, really, 15th) begins!

TV

Mock the Week
19x08 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Lots going on at 100 Films in a Year this week, with a final flurry of reviews before the new year; and then, from January 1st, the start of my "review of the year" posts.

First up, then, 10 new reviews were published at the tail end of last month...


Death to 2020 (2020)

It turns out the film's biggest problem isn’t unoriginality or too broad a target audience, but rather that 2020 was such a shitshow that it’s just no fun to be reminded of it, even in an intentionally comedic context.

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XVI

Featuring...
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
- Redline

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XVII

Featuring...
- Danger: Diabolik
- Boy
- Dad's Army (2016)

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XVIII

Featuring...
- Torment
- Music in Darkness
- Hachi: A Dog's Tale

Read more here.


And then my look back of 2020 got underway, first with my regular monthly review of December...





Followed by an overview of my most-read new posts of last year...





And finally (for now) my full list of 2020 viewing...





More next Sunday.

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games Night
1x06 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
14x00 At Christmas
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week, it's the monthly running time update — which really should've been last week, but I've pushed it on one because, as you may've noticed, it's a new year (hopefully better than the last one), so I can include all the 2020 increases too.

Aside from that, just one new addition this week; though I also vetted the numbers in prep for the annual increases and noticed a couple of minor discrepancies. No idea how they came about, but everything should be on track now.

Number of titles in collection: 2,510 [up 1 this week; up 234 in 2020]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [no change this week; down 43 in 2020]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,429 [up 1 this week; up 277 in 2020]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 93 [no change this week; up 56 in 2020]

Wait... 234 titles in one year? What the fuck?! I had to double-check the maths because that's mad. I mean, I knew I'd gotten carried away sometimes this year (there were several "biggest months ever"), but I didn't realise it had been that bad! My previous high (since I've been recording it here) is 154 in 2017, and the average of the previous seven years is 108 — so this year alone I've acquired more than double my average. And if we just look at Blu-rays, they're almost 2.5 times my average of 111. Jesus.

And, remember, that isn't even all my purchases, because any upgrades didn't increase the titles total. For example, DVDs are down by 43, and all of those would've been upgrades (though some may be accounted for by box sets, etc). That's also higher than my norm, which has been decreasing by an average of 22 a year for the past four years. Meanwhile, my UHD collection is icnreasing exponentially: I acquired 9 in 2018, tripled that to 28 in 2019, and doubled that to 56 this year. I'd wager 2021 will see a further increase.

Okay, so, let's move on to what will surely be some more scary numbers...

Number of discs in collection: 6,446 [up 8 this week; up 514 in 2020]
Number of films: 2,901 [up 15 this week; up 234 in 2020]
Number of additional cuts: 203 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change this week; up 289 in 2020]
Number of short films: 811 [up 4 this week; up 135 in 2020]

Somehow, those numbers aren't as scary... though maybe that's just because I've got used to these barmy increases now. I mean, over 500 discs in a year is still insane. My average is 300, so it's still a 71% increase. Meanwhile, the film number is slightly compromised by this year's addition of an "additional cut" count — but even allowing for that, 234 is 54% above my average. On the other hand, 289 episodes of TV is actually well below my average of 428; in fact, it's the lowest its ever been (the previous smallest was 323 in 2018). This perhaps says something about less TV getting released on disc nowadays; or my reluctance to buy something I'm less likely to rewatch (due to length). As for shorts, 135 is over 3 times my average increase; and the previous high was 91 in 2017. I've not been buying any shorts collections, so I think this speaks to the increasing prevalence of shorts being included as special features.

And so, finally, the big one...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
466 days, 14 hours, and 32 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 19 hours, and 28 minutes from last month.)
(Up 32 days, 7 hours, and 29 minutes from last year.)

Unsurprisingly, that's also the most ever — although the previous high, just under 29¼ days in 2015, is relatively close — but it's still 44% above the average of 22 days, 10 hours, and 35 minutes. That reverses a trend, as it's been dropping the past couple of years. I do hope I manage to calm it down again next year...

And next year begins next week — in which I can already promise a couple of new additions. I'm hopeless.

TV

Doctor Who
39x00 Revolution of the Daleks [New Year's Day special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Happy New Year Live!
A pre-filmed stand-in for the usual fireworks. It was alright. I'm certainly not going to moan about the inclusion of some broadly political topics, unlike those right-wing snowflakes on social media this morning.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Hogmanay 2020
Meanwhile, in Scotland, they still had actual fireworks. Also music and interviews and stuff.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Only Connect
Doctors: Medics v Gallifreyans [Series 16 Specials 3/4]
Music: Festival Fans v Choristers [Series 16 Specials 4/4]
Two episodes from the "Series 16 Specials", which thus challenge my episode numbering methodology. Maybe it's for the best I don't watch Only Connect on a regular basis...
[Watch Doctors and Music (again) on iPlayer.]

Talking Pictures
Dames
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2020 ep10 Grand Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Videos

Fare Well - Edinburgh's Hogmanay 2020

A prerecorded New Year's celebration from Edinburgh — you may have seen part of it on the news (like I did) but then been unsure where to find it (like I was), so here it is in full, because it's very good. (Click through above or below to watch it bigger.)