this week on 100 Films

Just one new review was posted to 100 Films in a Year this week...

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

It’s not as funny... nor is it as exciting... it’s not as beautiful to look at... That’s my overriding impression of Kung Fu Panda 2: it’s not bad, but it’s not a patch on the first one.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

But also this week was the look back at April, and I added reviews for four of the Avengers lead-in movies (well, three and Ang Lee's Hulk) to my new blog. So that's some stuff.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Mentalist
4x21 Ruby Slippers
One of the best for a while, I think. Not that I've disliked recent episodes, but this is a particularly good one.
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 11th May.]

QI
9x14 Idleness
The Jeremy Clarkson-featuring episode they skipped in December after his widely misunderstood 'controversial' comments on The One Show. I don't think he said anything offensive on this; I guess they just didn't want him on TV much that week.
The XL version, which was released on to some versions of iPlayer by mistake back in December (and I missed), doesn't seem to be forthcoming this time round. How daft.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
1x09 Live Show 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
6x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Mission: Impossible III (2006)
[2nd watch]

The last time I saw this was in the cinema (has it really been six years? Six?!) I remembered quite liking it, but watching it again now I think it's actually a rather good action-thriller. The Vatican mission and bridge action sequence in particular are excellent.

And I love how things keep going wrong. Everything from big stuff (like jumping off a building several storeys too low or getting the identity of the mole wrong), to little things (like not getting phone signal or our hero alerting the enemy to his presence by knocking some stuff over), goes wrong at some point. Sure, the heroes still win, and sure, some stuff goes fine, but normally the only time things go significantly wrong for the good guys in a movie is when it turns out to be a bluff as part of the plan -- not so here. I liked that.

I may be alone in this, but I've actually really enjoyed every Mission: Impossible film. It often seems like people who like the first hate the second, or people who like the second hated the first, or they just dislike all of them: on IMDb the first has 6.9, the third 6.8, and the second a measly 5.8! I vehemently disagree with all that -- I like all three films, and one of the reasons is how different they all are.

But I've not seen Ghost Protocol yet. I hope it's just as good, and just as different again. It looked similar in tone and style to M:i:III though (whereas the first three differ from each other quite wildly, I'd say), so we'll see. It has 7.5 on IMDb though, so that might bode well...

Free Comic Book Day 2012

Free Comic Book Day – $7,000 we probably don’t see again
by Kenny (from Forbidden Planet International blog)

Today is Free Comic Book Day, which sounds marvellous but is actually a little dubious for various reasons.

I don't approve of publishers releasing new or "essential" (to quote Bleeding Cool's review of one FCBD title) content in a way that can only be accessed if you can, a) make it to a comic shop (which I imagine loads of people can't, especially in the UK), b) if that comic shop is participating (by no means guaranteed, especially in the UK), and c) you can get enough free comics to get the one you want.

The latter is related to another reason I dislike it: the retailer pays. Yep, they're not actually free to the shop; so understandably most shops limit how much you can take, one way or another (only one free, only with a purchase, you get a set-size "goodie bag", etc). Which is fair enough -- they're basically giving money away -- but can't be great if you're after multiple titles. The latter is what this article from 2007 is about. Being five years old might make you think it's now factually inaccurate, but FPI's blog about FCBD 2012 says it's "still valid now".

I'm not saying everyone should be able to get free comics without having to go to a shop or without someone paying. If it was "any comic free" or reprints, I wouldn't mind; if you could purchase it at a later date, maybe even have to wait a month or two for the privilege, then I wouldn't mind. But it's new content, some of it "essential" to the series, which not everyone can get hold of! That's insane.

And can you imagine another industry in which a shop would be forced to pay for a publishers' marketing exercise, and be criticised by customers if they didn't? (Comic shops are regularly accused of "not supporting the industry", etc, if they don't join in with FCBD.) The FP article notes that "it isn’t unusual for us to be given 500 of a 36 page sampler of a novel to give away to our customers" -- that's FCBD, except the difference with FCBD is FP would have to pay for those 500 samplers. Madness.

Doesn't look like such a great industry-boosting event after all, does it?

TV

House
8x19 The C-Word

The Matt Lucas Awards
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
4x22 (12/4/11 edition)

Would I Lie To You?
6x03 Episode 3

Articles

Ricky Gervais: Why I’m an Atheist
by Ricky Gervais (from Speakeasy at the Wall Street Journal)

This article was published nearly 18 months ago, but Stephen Fry mentioned it on twitter so I came to read it today. It's so full of Truth I thought I'd share it. It's very good.

Collection Count

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

Despite last week's prediction, there's still a couple of small boosts this week. And not even everything I was expecting, so there'll definitely be more again next time.

Number of titles in collection: 1,473 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,152 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 321 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,667 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 1,561 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,473 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Archer
3x10 Crossing Over
Looks like 5* mucked up and showed the wrong episode again, skipping two when they should've skipped one. And clearly there was a moderately major development in the last one that meant this doesn't even vaguely work out of sequence. Grr.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Castle
2x10 One Man's Treasure
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Not Going Out
5x03 Camping
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless Celebrities
2x03 (28/4/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

BBC3 to make zombie drama In the Flesh
(from RadioTimes)
So BBC Three had to cancel SF/F drama The Fades because (reportedly) they couldn't afford both it and more-established Being Human, but they can afford SF/F drama In the Flesh? Still, supporting new talent is good, and it does sound like it might be a solid twist on the zombie format. Irritating for Fades fans though.
Of even greater interest in this story (in my opinion) is news of BBC One commission The Musketeers, a 10-part modern-day re-working of The Three Musketeers. Be interesting to see how that works out -- it's not as obviously adaptable as Sherlock. If it's a hit too, I can well imagine us seeing a swathe of these modern-set re-imaginings of classic literature.

Downton, Walking Dead, How I Met Your Mother: Tube Talk Q&A
by Morgan Jeffery & Daniel Sperling (from Digital Spy)
A bunch of handy answers/updates to questions I've been curious about on series I'm interested in: Damages season four (and presumably five) will go straight to DVD in the UK; How I Met Your Mother season seven is finally resuming on E4 in a couple of weeks; The Hour season two is on in late June (has it really been a year since the first series? A British series can't be returning in under 12 months, surely); Episodes returns to UK screens nearly two months before the US; and a few other things too.

Sherlock series three details revealed by Mark Gatiss
by Morgan Jeffery (from Digital Spy)
Gatiss confirms that the first episode will be a version of The Adventure of the Empty House. Absolutely no surprise, but exciting to have it confirmed.

TV

Grandma's House
2x02 The day Simon thought it may be a good idea to find new living arrangements
I don't like most squirm-inducing comedy, even when favourite shows play at it for an episode, or even a scene; but this is endlessly brilliant. And I love the episode titles.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mad Men
5x06 Far Away Places
Well that was weird, but cool. Feels like Mad Men's being more experimental this season, and that can only be a good thing.

Onion News Network
2x10 Year in Review [series finale]
That's that then. I loved ONN at first, but somehow feel it hasn't been working as well recently. Too much emphasis on the presenters/characters and not enough on the actual satirical news stories, maybe. Sadly, I won't particularly miss it now it's been cancelled.

Pointless
4x21 (11/4/11 edition)

Articles

Marvel's Avengers torpedoes Battleship at UK box office
by Simon Reynolds (from Digital Spy)

Avengers Assemble "has already outperformed the entire box office runs of earlier Marvel films The Incredible Hulk (£8.2 million), Captain America (£9.5 million) and Thor (£14 million)." Crikey!

TV

Have I Got News For You
43x03 (27/4/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Scott & Bailey
2x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
Great final episode. Hope we get more of this.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer #3
Wow. Bold trailer. Can't wait for this.

The Return of the Musketeers (1989)
[#42 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
Sequel to The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers.

Non-Fiction

Drew Struzan: Oeuvre by Drew & Dylan Struzan

This large-format art book of Struzan's work -- movie posters, album covers, and more -- is stunning. There's very little text (just some introductions to each of the sections, plus a list of works featured at the back), just full-page reproductions of his incredible work. Highly recommended to anyone who has a liking for this kind of thing.

Articles

5 Scientific Explanations for Game of Thrones‘ Messed-Up Seasons
by George Dvorsky (from io9)
Actually very scientific, but also interesting. If you're interested in this kind of thing.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
10x20 (16/3/12 edition) [season finale]
That's that done; only three episodes behind on the new series. Why am I so poor at keeping up with chat shows these days?

Horrible Histories
4x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
4x20 Something's Rotten in Redmund
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 4th May.]

Pointless
4x20 (8/4/11 edition)

QI
9x19 The Immortal Bard [Shakespeare special]
This is, allegedly, episode 19. Pretty sure I haven't seen 18 others from this series, but God only knows. Apparently the one they skipped last series (because it featured Jeremy Clarkson) is on this coming Friday. Its XL version is currently unscheduled, and it seems this Shakespeare episode doesn't even have one.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Masters of Cinema May 2012 – Pasolini, Coppola, DeMille & Lang Plus Win! Masters of Cinema Posters
by Craig Skinner (from Bleeding Cool)
MoC announced their releases for July through September today, and there are details and (some) covers here. Less exciting than the last quarterly announcement, in my opinion, though I do still want all of the August and September releases! The only current instant-buy for me, though, is a dual-format release of the 1934 Cleopatra, out September 24th.

TV

House
8x18 Body and Soul
They're certainly piling the sadness/failure on right now, it seems. With just four episodes remaining ever, I wonder if they're building up to a very bleak ending.

Once Upon a Time
1x04 The Price of Gold
Different take on Cinderella. Always good to have more of Robert Carlyle, even if he's overacting furiously in the fantasy world bits.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Vera
2x01 The Ghost Position
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Voice UK
1x08 Live Show 1 Results
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Conan the Barbarian (2011)
[#41 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

this week on 100 Films

No new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week (I was away, remember).

But, as it was on TV last night, I did add my old review of Terminator Salvation to the new blog. Have a (re-)read of that here.

Hopefully more new stuff next Sunday.