TV

Elementary
4x18 Ready or Not

Game of Thrones
6x01 The Red Woman
It's back! A slow start to the season, but then they almost always are on Thrones -- reminding you what's happened, dealing with some of its repercussions, and positioning pieces for what comes next. I suspect considerable excitement is just around the corner...

Gilmore Girls
6x15 A Vineyard Valentine

Person of Interest
4x17 Karma
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Films

Badlands (1973)
[#87 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Arrow
4x15 Taken

Gilmore Girls
6x14 You've Been Gilmored

Have I Got News For You
51x02 (15/4/2016 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Gilmore Girls
6x13 Friday Night's Alright for Fighting

Grantchester
2x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

this week on 100 Films

First up this week at 100 Films in a Year, my latest TV round-up:




As well, 4 brand-new reviews were published this week:


Locke (2013)

“Tom Hardy goes for a drive and makes some phone calls” is the plot of this film, which is often mislabelled as a thriller. That’s not to degrade its thrillingness, but rather to say that if you’re expecting a single-location single-character phone-based thrill-ride... you’re not going to get it. In reality, Locke is a drama about a man dealing with some woes that are both everyday and life-changing, but as a film it’s been made in an unusual and interesting manner.

Read more here.


Maleficent (2014)

a revisionist re-telling of Sleeping Beauty from the point of view of its villainess... It's an interesting idea to take an archetypal villain who's evil for evil's sake and try to give her motivation, to understand why she did terrible things. Maleficent makes a fair fist of this

Read more here.


Super 8 (2011)

Before he started star warring and between bouts of star trekking, director J.J. Abrams teamed up with producer Steven Spielberg for this homage to the kind of movies Spielberg produced in the ’80s. Those films have endured down the decades; I’m not sure Super 8 endured as far as Abrams’ next lens flare showcase... Which is a little bit of a shame because, by being Abrams’ most personal film, it may also be his best.

Read more here.


Veronica Mars (2014)

There’s no denying that this is primarily a film for fans of the TV series — well, they did fund it, after all. The best way to get the most out of the film is to have watched all 64 episodes of the show first; preferably soon before, in fact, so you can remember who all the minor characters are. However, creator-cowriter-director Rob Thomas is no fool... [It's] accessible to neophyte viewers. You might sense there’s references and whatnot that are passing you by, but everything that’s relevant is explained.

Read more here.


Finally, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts:


For a Few Dollars More (1965)

The Man With No Name (who this time is called Monco) is played as coolly as ever by Clint Eastwood. This time he teams up with The Man In Black — not Johnny Cash, but Colonel Douglas Mortimer. Much older than Monco, but played with equal amounts of cool by Lee Van Cleef.

Read more here.


From Russia with Love (1964)

They may not be as grandiose as the volcano-dwelling types that came later in the series, but From Russia with Love has two of Bond’s most memorable adversaries: the hard former KGB officer Rosa Klebb, with her deadly shoe (well, it sounds silly when you put it like that), and assassin Red Grant, who may not know what wine to have with fish but could certainly gut you like one. A fish, that is. Not wine. You can’t gut wine.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
6x12 Just Like Gwen and Gavin

Person of Interest
4x16 Blunt
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Films

The Iron Giant (1999)
[#86 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2016 #4

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,857 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,211 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 646 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,751 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 2,030 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,197 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 472 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Flash
2x15 King Shark

Gilmore Girls
6x11 The Perfect Dress

Films

Christine (1983)
[#85 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Elementary
4x17 You've Got Me, Who's Got You?

Gilmore Girls
6x10 He's Slippin' 'Em Bread... Dig?

Films

Veronica Mars (2014)
[2nd watch]

This was #22 in 100 Films 2014, but I never got round to reviewing it, so I'm re-watching to jog my memory. Also because it's great.

TV

Gilmore Girls
6x09 The Prodigal Daughter Returns

The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story
1x05 The Race Card

Person of Interest
4x15 Q&A
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

TV

DC's Legends of Tomorrow
1x05 Fail-Safe

Gilmore Girls
6x07 Twenty-One is the Loneliest Number
6x08 Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out

Films

Maleficent (2014)
[#84 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Gilmore Girls
6x06 Welcome to the Dollhouse

Person of Interest
4x14 Guilty
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Films

Locke (2013)
[#83 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Gilmore Girls
6x05 We've Got Magic to Do

Films

A Royal Night Out (2015)
[#82 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Wuthering Heights (2011)
[#81 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

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


The Color Purple (1985)

because it’s a Spielberg film, it never quite feels like we’re getting the full force of the story’s brutality. That’s a mixed blessing: as a viewer, we’re spared all the horrors you can infer from what actually happens; at the same time, how much should a story about such horrors be sparing us from them? Though as it was at one point advertised with the tagline, “Remember how good it made you feel… See it again.”, someone clearly thought it was meant to be a feel-good movie.

Read more here.


The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)

Although the story features a lot of back-and-forth-ing to little avail, there are parts to commend it — the sequence where one son brutally inducts himself into a Buddhist temple is fantastic. Less clever: proving he isn’t too war-obsessed to become a monk by… fighting the other monks.

Read more here.


Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

My main takeaway from the film was a massive list of films I now want to see... Even though the talking heads in the documentary keep saying how awful all of these movies are, the film makes them look awesome. I mean, not “award-winning” awesome, or even “genre classic” awesome, but like magnificently trashy fun.

Read more here.


Home on the Range (2004)

The plot, such as it is, locates us in the Old West, where a trio of singing cows hunt for an outlaw in order to save the farm they live on. The early ’00s box office was not a great place for musicals, Westerns, or traditional animations, so one does have to wonder what inspired Disney to make their 45th Animated Classic a traditionally-animated musical Western.

Read more here.


The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Undoubtedly a comedy, Eastwick is less laugh-out-loud, more wryly amused by small-town tittle-tattle. Nicholson was made for devilish characters like this, but the rest of the film isn’t as focused.

Read more here.


Also, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Face/Off (1997)

Our Hero: Sean Archer, super cop. Looks like John Travolta, until he looks like Nicolas Cage. Don’t overthink it, it works just fine when you’re watching the film.
Our Villain: Castor Troy, super villain. Looks like Nicolas Cage, until he looks like John Travolta. Don’t overthink it, it works just fine when— wait, I did that bit.

Read more here.


Flash Gordon (1980)

In 2009 I said that Flash Gordon was better than Star Wars. Well, I mean, I don’t know if I exactly stand by that, but I’m also not going to contradict it — Flash Gordon is awesome.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.