Articles

Interview: Alex Garland
Part One and Part Two
(from Edge)
Novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland talks about his experiences writing a video game and more broadly about the state and future of storytelling in gaming. Most of the latter is in the second part, and for me that was the most interesting stuff in the interview.

Read Every Line of Dialogue Rihanna Says in Battleship
by Sarah Lawson (from Vulture)
Clearly Rihanna's character is a deep and complex one. Who, um, doesn't say anything much.

Trailers

This was released on Monday morning. You probably saw it then. But I only saw it today, and by God it's good, so here you can see it again.

Very very exciting.

Skyfall is released in the UK at the end of October, and in the US in November. Quite right too.

Articles

Final List Of Special Features And Two Trailers For The Upcoming Bond 50 Box Set
by Brendon Connelly (from Bleeding Cool)
Disappointingly, it's unsurprisingly disappointing: most of the films look good, and there's a 23rd disc of new features, but Casino Royale isn't the special edition that was released around the time of Quantum of Solace, and they haven't produced the long-promised QoS special edition (for which some extras were completed before even the first DVD/BD release, the cheeky sods).
I'll probably still get this, but now without a rush; but I'll 'have to' keep my Casino Royale SE and keep my fingers crossed for the QoS SE. Bastards.

Game of Thrones: a show that breaks the golden rules of television
by Robert Colvile (from the Telegraph)
Naturally the web is flooded with articles on Game of Thrones (the sheer volume of reviews (or, as Americans apparently like to call them, "recaps") after each episode is daunting even if you're not reading them), but this brief piece has a couple of interesting thoughts, not so much on why it's good (you'll likely have heard those) but on how it's adapting the books.
Be warned, if you've still not started watching it (what?! fool!), this spoils the end of season one.

Articles

Mark Millar interview: Kick-Ass creator on the movie sequel
by Mark Langshaw (from Digital Spy)

The writer/co-creator of the Kick-Ass comic has a chat about the sequel to the film, which is due to start shooting in a couple of months. Be warned, he also chats about Kick-Ass 3 (the comic thereof), and in doing so spoils some events from Kick-Ass 2 (as in the comic, but probably therefore the film too).

this week on 100 Films

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

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

The fights aren’t amongst Chan’s best action sequences, but they’re still quite entertaining. I love sword fights and I love Chan’s acrobatic choreography, so a climax combining the two — plus some sparing atop the Eiffel Tower (or, I presume, a surprisingly good set thereof) — is occasionally spectacular and single-handedly almost justifies the entire film’s existence.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

a fun ride with stand-out moments, but not as a particularly exceptional version of Sherlock Holmes. It’s very enjoyable as a comedy-action movie with amusing characters and entertainingly-staged action sequences, but while my affection for the first has grown to make it one of my favourite movies, this is just an entertaining follow-up.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

More next Sunday.

TV

Archer
3x11 Skin Game
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Mentalist
4x24 The Crimson Hat [season finale]
Another great Mentalist season finale, though I can see why some people have got fed up with all the variations on almost-got-Red-John-but-not-quite they've done now.
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 1st June.]

Once Upon a Time
1x07 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Playhouse Presents
1x02 Nellie and Melba
After not at all liking the first one of these, I've been slightly loathe to watch any more. But it's an anthology series and they're all different, so it's a shame they started with such a pretentious one that could lock out potential viewers. This is a lot more fun, but still with depth. Good good.

The Voice UK
1x13 Live Show 4
They could've had grumpy little Aleks Josh mime along to a Jack Johnson CD and it would've sounded the same. I hope an unthinking teeny fanbase don't guarantee him a place in the semi-final.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
6x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Team America: World Police (2004)
[last act; 3rd watch]
Everything from I'm So Ronery on -- I happened to turn on Channel 4 perfectly in time for that bit and couldn't stop watching. Not seen the whole thing for years; ought to watch it all again.

Comics

Resurrection Man #8 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Fernando Dagnino
Apparently this is a low seller and so potentially on the cusp of cancellation. I hope not -- it's a great concept and they've been telling good stories, I think. Plus it would be annoying if it cut off before the end of the bigger tale they're telling.

Articles

The Traditionalist
by Jeffrey Ressner (from DGA Quarterly: Spring 2012)
If you're interested in filmmaking, the behind-the-scenes-y-ness of it and the process of it and so on, then this is an absolutely excellent -- nay, essential -- interview with Christopher Nolan.

Collection Count

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

I didn't think I'd bought that much recently... until I noticed all the titles I hadn't yet entered running times for on my Big List. (Because it's that time again.) Still, the increase is only on a par with my regular jumps going back a few months, so it's not too bad.

Number of titles in collection: 1,479 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,153 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 326 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,678 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,566 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,479 [no change]

And as I said, this week it's time for a running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
263 days, 5 hours, and 38 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 6 hours, and 33 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Grandma's House
2x05 The day Simon found himself back on the path to fulfilment and joy
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Horrible Histories
4x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Maestro at the Opera
Episode 2 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Matt Lucas Awards
1x06 Episode 6
From what I've heard this series hasn't gone down especially well, so I'm not sure we'll be seeing any more. It certainly wasn't perfect but it did have enjoyable moments. And I must remember I've still got episode 3 to watch. (There's a seventh episode too, but it's just highlights.)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
4x23 Red Rover, Red Rover
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 25th May.]

Comics

Batman: The Dark Knight #8 by Joe Harris & Ed Benes
Hurrah, Finch and Jenkins are gone! Their story appears to live on though, based on the cover (one of the characters on it doesn't even appear), so I feel sorry for a new writer lumbered with that. It has OK points; maybe a good person will rescue it.
As for this one-and-done (presumably to fit with including Night of the Owls next issue, then getting on with its own stuff after that)... it was solid. Lots of blood and violence for a T-rated book. I imagine they don't actually pay much attention to those ratings...

Articles

The Before Watchmen Reviews Are In. From Some People.
by Rich Johnston (from Bleeding Cool)
A few sites have been allowed an advance look at a chunk of Before Watchmen and here Johnston rounds up their (100% spoiler-free) verdicts. It's sounding good to me, though the truest thought comes from Joey Esposito at IGN: "if you are dead-set against this project existing in the first place, the quality of these comics is irrelevant."

TV

House
8x21 Holding On
Oh, cliffhanger! Can't wait for next week's finale. Hope they don't bother with some facile "case of the week" stuff; or if they do, it's gonna have to be a bloody good one.

Pointless
4x25 (15/4/11 edition)

Films

Scre4m (2011)
[#45 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
Despite seeming to hear nothing but bad things about this (though it has higher scores on IMDb than either of the previous two sequels), I enjoyed it.

Comics

Action Comics #8 by Grant Morrison, Rags Morales, Brad Walker, Rick Bryant & Bob McLeod
Morrison & co deliver a suitably exciting climax to their first tale. Against my expectations (as discussed last issue), I shall be continuing with a Superman comic.

Batman and Robin #8 by Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason
A fantastic epilogue to Batman and Robin's first arc. This book has definitely grown to be one of my favourites. I can't believe it's outsold by the woeful The Dark Knight -- I can only presume that's the power of movie titles for you (neither book has anything whatsoever to do with their namesake films).
Beautifully-rendered final page leading in to Night of the Owls, too.

Detective Comics #8 by Tony S. Daniel
A one-and-done? Well I never. Though as it guest stars a bunch of characters who have their own titles or have been popping up in others, it's hard to say how interconnected it is or isn't. Though the only thing footnoted as being from another title is a relatively minor aside from a months-old issue, so maybe it's more isn't... though I swear I spotted a reference to a Dark Knight storyline at least, so why didn't they flag that up? Oh, it doesn't really matter. The story works by itself and it's solid enough, and harks back to the back-up strip from #5... though not particularly overtly, so that still doesn't leave that with any real point.
This issue begins a back-up strip again written by Daniels with art by Szymon Kudranski, this time featuring Two-Face in the first of what seems to be an on-going tale. Still not very interesting though.

Wolverine and the X-Men #8 by Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo
As ever, WatXM demonstrates superior comic book storytelling. Funny and exciting by turns, when appropriate, managing multiple plot threads simultaneously, telling a tale that is both one-and-done (the holy grail of mainstream comics in these days of decompression, it feels like) and vitally linked to the on-going story. Shame AvX looks like it's about to get in the way for anything up to half a year. (Unlike Uncanny, this one I won't be stopping.)

Articles

Skyfall poster: New James Bond movie unveils teaser image
by Simon Reynolds (from Digital Spy)
Trailer soon! Yay!

Click to enlarge.

TV

Archer
3x09 Bloody Ferlin
Will we get episode 11 next week? Or 12? Or some other? Who can tell! Not 5*, apparently.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Die Walküre
[2nd half]
Seven hours down, only nine to go...

Have I Got News For You
43x05 (11/5/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

House
8x20 Post Mortem
Another great episode, I thought. Which is good because there's only two more to go...

Comics

Uncanny X-Men #10 by Kieron Gillen, Carlos Pacheco & Paco Diaz

This was the last issue before Uncanny went all AvX-y, so it's the last one I intended to read until that great big six-month crossover finished. I'd been thinking about ditching this anyway so it didn't feel like a hardship. But it ends on an intriguing note, the whole issue building into a crossover that had felt exploitatively pointless but now is interesting -- and now I want to know what happens!

But God, AvX is going to be expensive: at £2.65 an issue (+ p&p) it's over £40 for the main series alone, never mind the extra issues of Uncanny involved (and that's ignoring any other tie-in series or one-shots, like the #0 issue and AvX: Vs). And after a bit of reading on some sites apparently it's not very good actually. So maybe I won't bother after all. Or just read it on the sly like a very naughty boy.

Articles

First Trailer For US Sherlock Holmes Show Elementary And Official Blurb
by Brendon Connelly (from Bleeding Cool)
It doesn't look bad, but that character isn't Sherlock Holmes, he's just Generic Autistic Spectrum Detective. But what can you really tell from a couple of minutes? We'll see.