Tuesday, 7 April 2020

Monday, 6 April 2020

Sunday, 5 April 2020

Films

Stop Making Sense (1984)
[#62 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

As ever, a new month means it was time to look back at the old one at 100 Films in a Year -- and it was a big'un...





Meanwhile, 1 new review was published too...


Hustlers (2019)
Strippers conspire to rip-off Wall Street bastards in the wake of the 2008 financial crash... Crime movies are sometimes criticised for glamourising the illegal acts of their characters... Sometimes it’s unavoidable, because we’re going to be on the criminals’ side however you present it — and I think that’s the case here. Those fuckers had it coming, and these girls brought it to them. Not all heroes wear capes clothes.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 4 April 2020

TV

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
2x03 Spy Movies [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Star Trek: Picard
1x06 The Impossible Box
[Watch it (again) on Prime Video.]

Films

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
[3rd or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #15. First Bond film I've (properly) watched since June 2018; and technically it continues a series rewatch I've been doing since 2012(!)

Collection Count

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

After an incredibly busy month, things calm back down a bit with just four additions this week: one 4K new release, a pair of HMV-exclusive BDs, and one cheap second-hand 3D pickup. Even more shockingly, next week shouldn't see any additions at all! Though you never know when I'll cave to something on offer or get a random whim to pick up an old release -- that's what three of this week's four were, after all.

Number of titles in collection: 2,339 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,230 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 47 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,069 [up 8]
Number of films: 2,740 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [no change]
Number of short films: 700 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 3 April 2020

Films

The Three Caballeros (1944)
[#61 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Theatre

One Man, Two Guvnors

The National Theatre's acclaimed production, filmed. It was released in cinemas in 2011, one of those live broadcast things they do all the time nowadays, and has now been made available on YouTube for free (but only until next Thursday).

The real question for me is: does it count as a film for 100 Films? I mean, is it a film? If it's not a film, what is it? Live theatre, obviously... but live theatre that's been filmed, and was released in the cinemas. Do those very acts make it a film? Argh!

[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

Thursday, 2 April 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x30 The Macra Terror Episode 4

+ all the special features on the Blu-ray (except the commentary), which are mostly just censored clips, photos, or behind-the-scenes bits from the animation. There are also several alternate presentations of the story, and...

Doctor Who
5x35 The Wheel in Space Episode 1 [mini-episode]
An 11-minute animation of some of The Wheel in Space Episode 1. It's as good as any of the other animations, and it's a nice little bonus in its own way, but ultimately it's rather pointless -- if they do the full story someday, this will be unnecessary; if they don't, well, there's still five-and-a-half episodes not animated.

Films

The Kid (1921)
[#60 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Rang De Basanti (2006)
[#59 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Currently ranked as the 219th greatest film of all time on IMDb.

Wednesday, 1 April 2020

Tuesday, 31 March 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
5x27 Sounds and Silences
As I continue to watch some of the worst of The Twilight Zone, I come to this, which is regarded as the worst out of all 156 episodes.

Films

The Breakfast Club (1985)
[#56 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
As part of this year's Blindspot list, I included 8 films that I'd failed to watch in previous years of the challenge and so hoped to tick off this year. This is the first of those I've watched, originally from 2019's list.

+ the This American Life radio episode included in Criterion’s special features, where Molly Ringwald talks about watching the film with her ten-year-old daughter for the first time. It’s a fascinating interview for a variety of reasons.

So Dark the Night (1946)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the featurette and trailer on Arrow's Blu-ray

Monday, 30 March 2020

Sunday, 29 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x29 The Macra Terror Episode 3

The Twilight Zone
3x36 Cavender Is Coming
4x12 I Dream of Genie
The second episode inspired an ingenieous double-bill *badum-tish*

Films

Aladdin 3D (2019)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Part of an ingenieous double-bill *badum-tish*

this week on 100 Films

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


Mission: Impossible - Fallout in 3D (2018)
the 3D is superb. It may be a post-conversion, but it’s really well done, in particular during the action sequences — which, in fairness, is most of the movie. The skydive; the Paris bike chase; the helicopter stuff; perhaps most of all the clifftop fight — they all gain something from the third dimension.
Read more here.


Rocketman (2019)
this isn’t just “a film about music”, but a proper musical. It isn’t just a simplistic jukebox musical either, nor a standard musician biopic where the character performs some of their hits. Well, it is both of those... But it’s also more than that in the way it’s executed. Other characters break into song from time to time too, and there are clever reimaginings of several recognisable tracks. This is a restlessly imaginative movie.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 28 March 2020