Films

Mirror (1975)
[#54 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]
Blindspot 2022 #7

Films

Mona Lisa (1986)
[#53 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2022 #7

TV

House of the Dragon
1x01 The Heirs of the Dragon
Alright, here we go: Game of Thrones 2.0 — heck, it's even got the same theme music! Well, you can't improve on perfection so why even try, I guess.

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x23 Episode 23
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
4x03 In the Line of Fire

Films

Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour (1931)
aka The Sleeping Cardinal

TV

How I Met Your Father
1x02 FOMO

Life After Life
Part 4 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x21 Episode 21
4x22 Episode 22
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
4x02 Five Minutes

Films

Carousel (1956)

TV

Life After Life
Part 3 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x19 Episode 19
4x20 Episode 20
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Love & Friendship (2016)
[2nd watch]

Repeat Performance (1947)
[#52 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]

Collection Count

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

Three new titles this week, including an extensive box set... but two are DVD-to-BD upgrades where the BD closely mirrors the DVD (the aforementioned box set is Masters of Cinema's collection of Buster Keaton shorts, both versions of which contain 32 short films across 4 discs), and the third is a BD-to-4K upgrade, so you won't see much change in the stats below.

Number of titles in collection: 2,907 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,045 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,862 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 198 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 7,218 [up 2]
Number of films: 3,483 [no change]
Number of additional cuts: 275 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,350 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,002 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

How I Met Your Father
1x01 Pilot

Life After Life
Part 2 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x18 Episode 18
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Winter Guest (1997)

TV

Grantchester
6x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Life After Life
Part 1 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x17 Episode 17
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
4x01 Life and Death

TV

Agatha Raisin
4x04 There Goes the Bride [season finale]

Grantchester
6x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x16 Episode 16
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Mystery Science Theater 3000
Jackbox Showdown... Crow vs Servo
13x03 Beyond Atlantis Post-Premiere Q&A

Wasn't sure I was awake enough for a film late last night, but instead wound up watching all two hours of the replay of the Jackbox Showdown livestream special. Oh well. It's quite fun, but would've been more fun to join in live (I wasn't able to when it happened, unfortunately).

And talking of watching replays, this evening I finished off those premiere Q&As... except for the ones on episodes I haven't watched. It's nice there are more to look forward to.

[Watch the Jackbox Showdown event (for free) on the Gizmoplex.]

Collection Count

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

Five new titles this week, including a DVD-to-BD upgrade that barely leaves a mark in the below (just -1 DVD and +1 BD), and what would have been a DVD-to-4K upgrade, but for some reason they couldn't get the rights to a cast & crew commentary, so I'm keeping the DVD with it on (at least for the time being).

Also this week, the number of shorts in my collection passes the 1,000 mark. I dread to think how few of them I've actually watched. The majority are spread around film releases as special features — the odd one or two here or there; early works by the director of the feature title, or archive shorts with a connection to the feature (the BFI are particularly fond of doing that, but there's also a lot on Indicator's noir box sets, plus Warner's releases of classic movies) — which makes it hard for me to ever really dig into them.

Number of titles in collection: 2,907 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,047 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,860 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 197 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,216 [up 7]
Number of films: 3,483 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 275 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,350 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,002 [up 3]

Also also, it's time for the monthly running time update. The ever-flowing drip-drip-drip of new titles into my collection has this month produced the following increase...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
515 days, 16 hours, and 49 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 4 hours, and 39 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

this week on 100Films.co.uk

5 new reviews were published to 100Films.co.uk this week...


Paris, Texas (1984)

to keep calling it “Lynchian” is to do Wenders’ work a disservice, because it’s not a copy — indeed, in 1984 Lynch was releasing his Dune, and had yet to embark on most of the films that define “Lynchian” for us. An alternate comparison might be the Coen brothers: it’s of a piece with their heightened worlds and semi-outlandish stories. But this was released the same year as their debut, Blood Simple, so, again, it’s not exactly a fair comparison. Or if it is fair, it’s backwards: if anyone influenced anyone, it would be Lynch and the Coens drawing on Wenders.

Read more here.


2022 | Weeks 24–25

Featuring...
- The Ghost Writer (2010)
- Escape in the Fog (1945)
- Pretty in Pink (1986)
- House of Gucci (2021)

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Mystery Science Theater 3000
13x06 Demon Squad
13x02 Robot Wars Post-Premiere Q&A

Keeping up my pace of only watching one new MST3K per month, apparently (I thought it had been longer than that and I was even more behind than I am, to be honest. Still need to catch up, though: episode 8 premiered last night). This one seems to have gone down well with fans, although I suspect that has more to do with the return of Joel as host than the episode itself. I didn't think it was bad — a few riffs even had me laughing out loud — but not that inspired overall.

Afterwards, I finally got round to going back to episode 2 and watching the Q&A from its (second) premiere (as I did with episode 1). I quite enjoy these chaotic live Zoom-chat-esque post-shows, so I'll keep watching them — I've got episode 3's to catch up on, plus all the future premieres, of course.

Games

Deponia

Just under another hour's play, bringing me to exactly 7½ hours, and the game's completed. Despite what I was saying yesterday, it did feel like the game was nearing the end, and a look at the table of contents for the walkthrough I’d been using (or “trying not to use”, as much as I could resist) suggested I was right. It doesn't really surprise me — as I said, it felt like the story was nearing the end, and the playtime seems about standard for point-and-click games.

But it means there are a bunch of achievements that I've somehow missed. I thought I’d played the game pretty thoroughly (I’m the kind of person that talks to every character, chooses every dialogue option, looks at everything I can look at, etc), so I’m not sure what I’ve overlooked. Adventure games aren't (usually) the kind of thing you can go back over again and again to score faster times or collect more stars or kill more bad guys or whatever other stuff other types of games have as achievements, so I can't work out what I've missed. I wonder if they're listed online anywhere else...

Anyway, I enjoyed the game overall, even in spite of a few buggy bits and some iffy translations (I think it was made in Germany, and the English dialogue is almost there but has a few bits that suggest it wasn't written (nor polished) by someone who's first language is English). Which is good, because it doesn't really feel like the story is actually over — and there are three more games in the series.

Edit: I found the achievements listed elsewhere. I'd forgotten there are things like minigames that maybe I skipped, but if you don't skip them you get an achievement; and other things you can get an achievement for getting it right first time, whereas I took several goes. And the final achievement involves playing the whole game again but with all dialogue replaced with the word "droggeljug". Yeah, I'm not doing that.

Games

Deponia

An hour and 25 minutes today, slightly contradicting what I said yesterday. Well, part of that was me trying desperately not to use the walkthrough when I got stuck... but I eventually gave in. Most of the time, when I do, the solution is so obscure that I'm not surprised I didn't work it out, so I don't feel too bad. (And sometimes, I think I should've tried harder first.)

Also, I now have 58% of achievements. If they're evenly spaced (which they might not be) then I've still got quite a bit of the game to go. That said, these can't all be linear achievements, because these most recent ones are "uncommon", with only 14–17% of players achieving them; but there are some I haven't got with commonness ratings up to 34%. They're all 'secret' so I have no idea what they entail, but presumably it's not just reaching unmissable points in the game (which, in a narrative point-and-click game like Deponia, I assumed they would be). Hmm...

Games

Deponia
Another hour-and-a-quarter played. Seems to be fairly consistent that around that time is how long I like to play these things for...

Games

Deponia
Another 1 hour 11 minutes played. (1:11? That wasn't deliberate.)

Games

Deponia

With TV I list episodes; with books I list chapters; films I watch the whole sitting in one go, so that's fine... but what about games? I know I've just been posting the title up til now, but I'm not playing the whole thing in one go (at least, not so far), so I feel like I need more demarkation. That's partly why I started keeping track of my playtime in the earlier Monkey Islands. And, actually, playing these newer games through GOG, it keeps track of my playtime automatically (I believe Steam does the same thing), so maybe I should start listing that?

Well, I'm up to 2 hours 43 minutes so far. No idea how far through that gets me, other than that I've got 21% of the game's achievements — if that's an indicator of progress, the rest should take a little over 10 hours. We'll see... As for the game itself, I admit that today I finally resorted to a walkthrough for a couple of puzzles. Life's too short to spend ages wandering around the same locations with the same items in my inventory waiting for a brainwave (that's what we used to do Back In The Day, of course, but nowadays... nah. Especially when I've got dozens of other games lined up waiting for me to get to them).

Games

Deponia

Collection Count

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

My total titles crosses the 2,900 mark this week — will I get to 3,000 by the end of the year? Well, last year I added 240 titles to my tally, which is an average of 20 per month, and there are 4½ months of the year left, which works out at 90 titles. Ooh, so close! Of course, I'm sure the increase wasn't neatly spread throughout the year — maybe the end is normally even busier? I could work it out at such a granular level, but that might ruin the surprise. I know that I've had multiple very large weeks this year already, but whether that means I'll slow down towards the end or surge forth to even higher heights, only time will tell...

Number of titles in collection: 2,903 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,048 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,855 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 196 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 7,209 [up 11]
Number of films: 3,479 [up 9]
Number of additional cuts: 274 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,350 [up 14]
Number of short films: 999 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Taskmaster
3x05 The F.I.P. [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Films

Batman: Dead End (2003)
[2nd watch]
[#51 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]
This "Batman vs Predator" fan film was ever so popular Back In The Day, and for some reason came up on Twitter this afternoon, so I watched it — I wasn't sure I'd actually ever seen it, but once it got going it all came back. Mad that it's nearly 20 years old. It holds up really well too, which you might not expect — it's not just "good for an amateur production in the early '00s", it's genuinely well made. No wonder it caused such a stir all those years ago.

Games

Deponia
Decided to go for something a bit more modern for my next point-and-click adventure (it's ten years old, but that's "modern" by my standards). Also, there are three sequels to this, so if I enjoy it my list of games to play will get even longer (next time they're on sale, anyway). Only played for about half-an-hour, but it's off to a decent start — the cartoon visuals are pleasant, and the puzzles are logical without being ludicrously easy. Nothing too taxing yet, but then I have only just started.

Films

Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (1972)
[#50 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]

Normally for foreign language films I use the title as seen on the copy I watched, but my DVD copy of this has for some reason chosen to call it Tintin and the Mystery of Shark Lake, whereas the title above — a more accurate translation of the original, Tintin et le lac aux requins — is much more commonly used online.

Games

Flight of the Amazon Queen
Finished, in just over 6 hours. Bit of a lacklustre ending — in a movie it would be a Big Action Climax, but that doesn't really translate to point-and-click adventure games, so it's just a couple of simple puzzles to end on. Hey-ho. It was fun overall, but not truly a classic; more a likeable imitation of better things.

Now... what next?

Podcasts

Doctor Who: Pieces of Eighth
1x05 The Eighth Doctor Action Figures

I became aware of this podcast — dedicated to media about the 8th Doctor — a while ago and have been meaning to catch up on it, but (as is typical of me and podcasts) I keep not getting round to it. But with today's announcement of a new 8th Doctor action figure set, someone on Twitter pointed towards this edition, which covers the genesis and history of the 8th Doctor in action figures (at least until mid-2021) via an interview with Alasdair Dewar of Character Options, the company who make Doctor Who toys.

[Listen to it (again) on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.]

YouTube

Georgia & David Tennant's Doctor Who Quiz
Somehow stumbled across this quiz (from back in December 2020!), which was done in aid of Marie Curie, and I ended up getting sucked in to it. Well, if you've got David & Georgia Tennant, plus guest stars, testing my Doctor Who knowledge (and I do love a quiz), how could I resist? (Apparently I resisted back in December 2020. But I don't recall knowing it was happening, so...)
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

this week on 100Films.co.uk

We may now be a whole week into August, but the month did only start at the beginning of this week, and that means this 100Films.co.uk update begins with my review of last month...





Plus, the summary of films I failed to watch in July...





Additionally, there was 1 new review published this week...


Prey (2022)

Plot-wise, Prey is pretty straightforward. And therein lies a big part of its success, because what more do we want from a Predator movie than “a hero has to fight a technologically-superior Predator”? If you do want more than that, I think you’ve come to the wrong franchise. Of course, simply rehashing what’s gone before is just another path to failure, and so what Prey does is take those basic bones and dress them up with fresh settings, ideas, and perspectives.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

DVD

Big Finish Talks Back: Paul McGann
[2nd watch]

Not quite sure what to file this as — it's not a movie; it's not TV; it's not an extra, because it's a release unto itself... It's a feature-length interview, anyway. It came out in 2002 and I guess I bought it and watched it around then — 20 years ago! — because I know I've seen it but I don't remember it. It was a nice thing to revisit, though.

Plus, a bonus short interview that adds in McGann's first Doctor Who audio companion, India Fisher, after they'd recorded their second series. A nice little time capsule.

Theatre

The Lion King
UK & Ireland Tour at Wales Millennium Centre
Finally seen this super-acclaimed and -popular show. I thought the songs added beyond the film were mostly a bit lacklustre, but the costumes and puppetry were incredible. I can see why it's a stage spectacle that's been enduringly popular for decades now.

Collection Count

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

Five new additons this week — a quiet one, by current standards. Three new releases, too. Only one 4K, but both the older titles are 3D (one an upgrade to the 2D copy I already had).

Number of titles in collection: 2,899 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,048 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,851 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 194 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,198 [up 9]
Number of films: 3,469 [up 6]
Number of additional cuts: 273 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,336 [no change]
Number of short films: 999 [up 3]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Prey (2022)
[#49 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]

Games

Flight of the Amazon Queen
I've not said much (or anything) when I've logged this, but I'm making steady progress. It's not a bad game, but it's no LucasArts classic. It's clearly inspired by Indiana Jones, but executed with some of the self-aware humour of Monkey Island, but it doesn't hit the mark as precisely as either. I guess that's what happens when you're taking off things that are already fundamentally perfect! But the most annoying thing is the voice acting — everyone speaks so slowly, probably in some effort to beat the compression of the day (the game is from the early '90s, after all), and half the lines are delivered with the emphasis in the wrong place. But I'm nitpicking, really, because overall it's a likeable dose of retro adventuring. I'm five-and-a-half hour of playtime through, so if typical playtimes are anything to go by, I've only got a couple of hours left to go.

Games

Flight of the Amazon Queen

Games

Flight of the Amazon Queen