TV

The Great Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Jessica Jones
2x12 AKA Pray for My Patsy
2x13 AKA Playland [season finale]

Shetland
4x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
3x12 9 Days

Jessica Jones
2x10 AKA Pork Chop
2x11 AKA Three Lives and Counting

Shetland
4x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

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


Annihilation (2018)

Despite Paramount’s insistence that the film was too intelligent for non-US audiences (you can take a moment to laugh at that notion if you like), Annihilation is perhaps more accessible than Arrival, at least initially. Whereas Villeneuve’s film played like a character drama, Garland’s has a strong adventure-movie vein, also laced with elements of the horror genre.

Read more here.


Make/Remake: Deaths at a Funeral

In 2007, Frank Oz directed a gaggle of British thesps (plus Peter Dinklage) in a darkly comic farce set during an English funeral. Just three short years later, director Neil LaBute and a gaggle of American comedians (plus Peter Dinklage) remade it in the US. Why did they so speedily re-do an English-language film in English? Goodness only knows. But I watched both versions almost back to back, so here are my thoughts…

Read more here.


Transformers: The Last Knight 3D (2017)

Here we have the fifth Transformers film in 11 years from director Michael Bay. At this point you ought to know what you’re getting — the style hasn’t fundamentally changed since at least the third movie, arguably since the first, so if you dislike those then most probably there’s nothing for you here. I say “probably” because I’ve seen at least one review from someone who despised the fourth film but enjoyed this one, so clearly there’s always room for variability.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
3x11 Hostage Situation
Just over two years since I accidentally stopped watching Brooklyn, I'm diving back into it (thanks to most of it being available on Netflix). I don't really know why I stopped before, it is funny.

Jessica Jones
2x07 AKA I Want Your Cray Cray
2x08 AKA Ain't We Got Fun
2x09 AKA Shark in the Bathtub, Monster in the Bed

Not Going Out
9x02 Escape Room
A particularly good episode. Good day for comedy, then.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Shetland
4x01 Episode 1
And talking of two years ago, that's when the last series of Shetland aired. This new one finishes on Tuesday, so now's more-or-less the perfect time to start binge-watching it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Two new additions this week, one an upgrade, both with two cuts of their respective films.

Number of titles in collection: 2,088 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,163 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 925 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,352 [up 3]
Number of films: 2,330 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,017 [no change]
Number of short films: 605 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Jessica Jones
2x04 AKA God Help the Hobo
2x05 AKA The Octopus
2x06 AKA Facetime

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
1x07 The Giuoco Piano Affair

Nailed It!
1x02 Fantasyland
1x03 Head Under Water

TV

Jessica Jones
2x01 AKA Start at the Beginning
2x02 AKA Freak Accident
2x03 AKA Sole Survivor
It's getting close to two-and-a-half years since Jessica Jones season one was released. Where does time go? Well, on Netflix making too many Marvel shows, I guess.

Lucifer
1x12 #TeamLucifer
1x13 Take Me Back to Hell [season finale]

Nailed It!
1x01 First Date to Life Mate
Why would you make a reality show about baking and call it Nailed It? Surely that's a show about manicurists...

TV

Lucifer
1x11 St. Lucifer

Not Going Out
9x01 Home Improvements
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Room 101
7x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Transformers: The Last Knight 3D (2017)
[#47 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

The Great Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off
1x01 Episode 1
aka Celebrity Bake Off, now on its third charity.
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Lucifer
1x10 Pops

Films

Death at a Funeral (2010)
[#46 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Films

Annihilation (2018)
[#45 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Films

Death at a Funeral (2007)
[#44 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

this week on 100 Films

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


The Jungle Book 3D (2016)

the visuals are stunning. It’s incredible stuff by the animators, though also by Favreau and DP Bill Pope to make all that hard work look great as a film too — they put special effort into making sure the CGI was properly lit, etc. And I reckon it’s even better in 3D. Presented in a screen-filling 1.78:1 ratio, unconstrained by the black bars of your nowadays-standard 2.35:1, it honestly feels like a window into another world.

Read more here.


Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

It’s a film of its genre and heritage — by which I mean it functions the way Christie-style murder mysteries always do, and it’s staged and shot mostly with a classical dignity — so if you have a dislike for that then this isn’t revisionist in a way that will win you over. But within those ‘constraints’ it’s very well done. The photography, in particular, is magnificent. Shot on 65mm, but without showing off about it in the way some other directors have recently, it has a richness, a grandeur, and an elegance that is most befitting.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

Happy Death Day (2017)
[#43 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

The Jungle Book (2016)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #12

Collection Count

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

Just one more addition, for the third week in a row.

Number of titles in collection: 2,087 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,163 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 924 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,349 [up 4]
Number of films: 2,327 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,017 [up 12]
Number of short films: 605 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
[#42 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Films

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
[#41 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Lucifer
1x08 Et Tu, Doctor?
1x09 A Priest Walks Into a Bar

Films

The Jungle Book 3D (2016)
[#40 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

+ all the special features (bar the audio commentary) included on the UK 2D Blu-ray, which made for a very interesting insight into the film's production. (I specify it was the UK BD because the US 3D release, which came out some three months later, adds a further 15 minutes of featurettes.)