Films

Iron Man 2 (2010)
[2nd watch]

Forget The Dark Knight Rises' 13 months, here's one I haven't watched for 27! But it is also one I enjoyed first time, enjoyed again now, and think some people are overly harsh on -- the Avengers stuff barely features, never mind dominates!

The third one's out on DVD/Blu-ray in three weeks (the UK details were announced today, apparently). Definitely looking forward to it.

this week on 100 Films

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


Haywire (2011)

Like ponderous arthouse fare, but also action-thrillers? Disappointed that these two passions must always be sated independently? Well recent retiree (we’ll see how long that lasts) Steven Soderbergh has come to your rescue.

Read more here.


Underworld Awakening (2012)

By taking such a bold move with the plot, the story pushes the series’ mythology in new and relatively interesting ways. It’s becoming a bit dense and fan-only (unless you let it wash over you and just enjoy the punching), but at least they’re not regurgitating the same old stuff.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


(500) Days of Summer (2009)

An opening voiceover warns the viewer that “this is not a love story”. Of course, it is, just one without the traditional ending. Don’t worry, no spoilers here, but I will say that romantics would do well to heed this warning anyway... viewers who are prepared for a story that rings true may well be pleasantly surprised.

Read more here.


Born Free (1966)

the true story of Joy and George Adamson, a Senior Game Warden in 1950s Kenya, who adopted three lion cubs after mistakenly killing their mother. Though they give two away to a zoo, Joy can’t bear to part with one, Elsa, and so they raise her

Read more here.


Flash Gordon (1980)

When I noticed how much I was enjoying it — about five minutes in — I began keeping my eyes open for flaws, any niggling thing that detracted from the experience Hodges created. I couldn’t find a single thing. Not one.

Read more here.


Living Free (1972)

a tale of obsession... The Adamsons devote months of their time, give up a promising career, spend all their savings, drive themselves into debt, and are nearly killed several times, all in a frequently-extreme effort to save three delinquent lion cubs who would be put down were it not for their sentimental attachment.

Read more here.


Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)

He’s put down the hound of the Baskervilles; silenced the voice of terror; uncovered the secret weapon; had, um, some other adventures; and, uh, been to Washington… but now, Sherlock Holmes faces death! Not a man in a black robe with a scythe, just, y’know, the threat. Of dying. Except there’s no threat, really. I suppose Sherlock Holmes Does Some Investigating With No Real Threat To Himself doesn’t sound quite as dramatic.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Once Upon a Time
2x06 Tallahassee
Oh my, that was hilarious! I don't think I've seen special effects that poor since the '90s. And the facial expression of Jorge Garcia (the giant) whenever he had to run anywhere -- "grrargh, frowny run!" This show remains my definition of "so bad it's good".

Top of the Lake
Part 5 The Dark Creator
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
2x13 Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough

Films

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
[2nd watch]

TDKR was #58 100 Films in a Year 2012, but I haven't watched it since that opening weekend 13 months ago. My (spoiler-free) initial thoughts from that day are here, while my later (shorter) 'review' is here.

Coming back to it now, I really enjoyed it again. I think its minor flaws are far outweighed by its major successes, and so many of the criticisms that are levelled at it by 'picky' viewers are actually explained either in the film or with the tiniest bit of independent thought. Also, the IMAX sequences look stunning on Blu-ray, especially around the climax.

Collection Count

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

This week, Veronica Mars adds a swathe of TV episodes, and an upgrade to The Green Death Special Edition adds one disc and two episodes (thanks to it including a Sarah Jane Adventures two-parter).

Number of titles in collection: 1,591 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,173 [up 3]
Of which Blu-rays: 418 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,979 [up 19]
Number of films in collection: 1,699 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,873 [up 66]
Number of short films in collection: 383 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
4x03 (9/8/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Doctor Who
1x10 The Ordeal

In their review for The Television Companion (now available on the official BBC episode guide at the link above), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker assert the following:

One of the potential problems with [The Daleks] is its length. Nation had a job to sustain the action over the full seven episodes... The master-stroke was to ensure that the only way of approaching the city for a final covert attack was to do so via a lake of mutations, a pipeline going up a sheer cliff-face and a dangerous cave system, helping to ensure that the story remains watchable and interesting throughout.

These sequences are not merely padding, though; rather, they pay homage to the Jules Verne school of science-fiction storytelling... in which an arduous trek through a series of strange and hazardous environments is typically not just an interlude in the story but is the story.

Despite the story being seven episodes long, this "arduous trek" that is "not just an interlude in the story but is the story" lasts... an episode and a half. Hm. Nice concept, but there's plenty of padding-padding in The Daleks to make it a full seven episodes, not just the journey for the final attack.


Suburgatory
2x05 The Wishbone
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Veronica Mars
2x12 Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle

TV

The Graham Norton Show
13x13 (28/6/13 edition)

Top of the Lake
Part 4 A Rainbow Above Us
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Cowboy Bebop
1x05 Ballad of Fallen Angels

Doctor Who
1x09 The Expedition

Top of the Lake
Part 3 The Edge of the Universe
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
2x11 Donut Run

TV

The Last Leg
3x02 (7/8/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Law & Order: UK
7x05 Mortal
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Doctor Who
1x08 The Ambush

Top of the Lake
Part 2 Searchers Search
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
2x10 One Angry Veronica
My DVDs finally arrived, meaning higher picture quality, end credits, and no more "previously on"s. Good thing I don't watch them too far apart!

Films

Sharknado (2013)
[#66 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Side by Side (2012)
[#67 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

TV

Family Tree
1x04 Country Life
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
2x09 My Mother, the Fiend
Plus the episode's alternate ending, which is certainly very different!

Films

The Falcon and the Co-eds (1943)
[#65 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

It's been nearly a year since I last watched a film in the Falcon series, which I'd been getting through regularly, so it's about time that was resumed.

this week on 100 Films

This week's big news at 100 Films in a Year is that I finally got round to adding lovely header images to the various pages over there, including a particularly striking new logo on the main page. Read (and see) all about them here.


Meanwhile, business as usual, as two new reviews were published this week...


Akira (1988)

I came to Akira slightly later, and I confess I didn’t much care for it... I haven’t revisited the film for something like a decade, but always felt I should. I bought Manga’s Blu-ray release a few years ago, but it was the mention of this year being the film’s 25th anniversary that led me to finally pop it in.

Read more here.


The Pearl of Death (1944)

Holmes first rescues the priceless Borgia Pearl, but then quite spectacularly loses it. The notion of Holmes being doubted, of having to prove himself to reassert his reputation, is a good one — one recently borrowed by avowed Rathbone fans Moffat & Gatiss for their modern-day Sherlock, in fact.

Read more here.


And finally, new to the new blog...


Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

the send-up of inherently paedophilic beauty pageants at the climax [is] so hilarious it almost single-handedly pushed my mark up to a five.

Read more here.


Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)

The name’s Holmes, Sherlock Holmes, as Universal’s loose adaptations of Britain’s Greatest Detective deliver a low-key proto-Bond, 22 years before Goldfinger applied the same tricks to Britain’s Greatest Spy.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Archer
4x08 Coyote Lovely
4x02 The Wind Cries Mary
This is the order 5USA showed them in. Why? Why do 5 do anything that they do with this show. By which I mean, "God only knows".
That said, on Coyote Lovely's page on TV.com (see link above), someone notes that the original US airings appear to be out of order, so perhaps this is how it's meant to be?
[Watch Coyote Lovely and The Wind Cries Mary (again) on Demand 5.]

Top of the Lake
Part 1 Paradise Sold
Finally making a start on this one, as it approaches the end on BBC Two. Odd, eerie, but very good so far.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
2x08 Ahoy, Mateys!
Because it's about pirate radio, see.

Collection Count

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

Just one addition this week, but to make up for that lack of excitement it is the monthly running time update.

Number of titles in collection: 1,588 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,170 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 418 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,960 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,699 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,807 [up 4]
Number of short films in collection: 383 [no change]

And our little monthly treat...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
284 days, 1 hour, and 5 minutes.
(Up 19 hours and 26 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Cowboy Bebop
1x04 Gateway Shuffle

Doctor Who
1x07 The Escape
I'm harbouring very mixed feelings about this story. On the one hand there are great bits -- the Daleks, of course, who are indeed instantly iconic -- but for all that there's the dodgy bits -- this episode the Thals, and their acting. Doctor Who Magazine's Mighty 200 poll ranked this the 37th greatest Who story, and I'd go so far as to say it's only that high because it's the Daleks' debut. That said, there's still over half of it to go, so who knows.

Suburgatory
2x04 Foam Finger
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Top Gear
20x06 (4/8/13 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Sharknado sinks Jaws to become Syfy’s biggest film of the year
by Emma Daly (from Radio Times)

The shark-cum-tornado flick attracted four times the UK subscription channel’s usual primetime average

I have it recorded...

TV

Archer
4x01 Fugue and Riffs
Channel 5 have not only taken an age to show the new series of Archer, they've also switched its channel and, worst of all, taken the decision to dump it in the middle of the night. I guess it doesn't get the viewing figures or something, though I don't imagine 5* or 5USA's figures can be that great at the best of times. Anyway, it's an undeserved treatment, because it's still hilarious.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Cowboy Bebop
1x03 Honky Tonk Women

Law & Order: UK
7x04 Fatherly Love
Best episode of the series so far, said Radio Times, and they were right, with particularly remarkable performances from the girls playing the two 16-year-olds.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Veronica Mars
2x07 Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

You Saw Them Here First
Episode 2 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

The Final UK Cover Art For Solo Is Here!
by John Cox (from The Book Bond)

This news about the new James Bond novel was announced on August 1st, but somehow I missed it until last night. Personally, I think the cover looks great, and the dust jacket / underneath combo looks like it will work really well. The new Bond novels are pretty much the only things I buy in hardback, because I want to read them quickly, but work like this banishes any consideration of possibly switching to the ebook -- it's the kind of thing I want to collect.

Click the image above for a huge version. Also follow the link for more pack shots (albeit weirdly compressed and looking noisier than the real thing is likely to be), plus a long bit by the cover's designer on her thinking. It's quite fascinating. You can also see the US art there, which is alright but nowhere near as good.



Doctor Who StoryBundle - Pay What You Want Offer
by Marcus (from Doctor Who News)

Talking of ebooks, here's some Doctor Who ones at a bargain price! Put simply, you pay what you want and in exchange you get DRM-free copies of several Who-related ebooks.

Minimum amount is $3 (c.£2), which gets you fan memoir Dalek I Loved You (if you happen to have the original from 2008, this is an expanded '50th Anniversary Edition'), Barry Letts autobiography Who & Me, critical history of the Second Doctor TARDIS Eruditorum Volume 2, and recipe book Dining With The Doctor: An Unauthorized Whovian Cookbook. That last one has one recipe from every nuWho episode up until the end of series six, plus a bunch of extra ones for fish fingers & custard. Kinda scary...

However, if you choose to pay $10 (c.£6.66) or more you get all that plus VWORP!, "a key primer to the Doctor Who canon from 1963 through to the 2011 Xmas special, for both novices and experts alike", and The Best of TARDIS Eruditorum, "twenty-one of the best and most popular essays from Philip Sandifer's acclaimed blog", compiled exclusively for this bundle. I was going to do a price comparison with buying the other five as ebooks from Amazon, but only three are there... though even that adds up to £8.34.

Plus, as well as picking how much to pay, you can set what percentage goes to the authors and what to running StoryBundle; and you can choose to give 10% to charity too (they offer two appropriate options). The books can either be flat-out downloaded or, if you have a Kindle device/app, be sent directly there (so long as you're prepared to quickly fiddle with a few online settings first).

Do note that there's a time limit to this offer: the ability to buy the bundle expires in about 12 days. If ebooks interest you, they've done this before and I'm sure will again. A list of their previous offers can be perused here.