Sunday, 23 July 2023

Films

The Calm (2003)
A BMW short film, produced as "an homage" to their great short film series, The Hire. It's not as good as any of those were, but it's not bad. You can watch it here.

Podcasts

Light the Fuse - The Official Mission: Impossible Podcast
2x02 How Simon Pegg Ended Up in Mission: Impossible
2x03 Hayley Atwell Graces Us with Her Presence

Comics

2000 AD #2337–2338
Skipping #2336 for now because it's another Regened prog. But I'm almost caught up (next Wednesday's prog (which, as a subscriber, I received yesterday) is #2342), so it won't be long before I'm tackling the small pile of Regeneds I've built up.

Saturday, 22 July 2023

TV

The 1% Club
2x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on ITVX.]

Films

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
[2nd watch]
Well, I say "second"... Yeah, like Sully last week, I'm not really sure this counts. More thoughts in that vein on Letterboxd.

Living (2022)
[#53 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2023]

Comics

2000 AD #2334–2335

Articles

Mission Impossible Director Chris McQuarrie on Stunts, VFX, COVID
by Iain Blair (from postPerspective)

Maybe these kinds of interviews happen all the time and I just don’t see them, I dunno; but across various articles & podcasts, it feels like McQ is the filmmaker who’s most open and detailed in his discussion of the actual process of making movies. This is a fantastic piece in that vein if you're intested in how the Missions are done.

Collection Count

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

This week's major addition is Arrow's 4K box set of Bruce Lee films. I've owned most of these on DVD for over a decade, which I've never watched; and I bought the similar Criterion Blu-ray box set a couple of years ago, which I think is still unopened; and yet the promise of all-new transfers, plus a raft of versions and new extras... well, I couldn't resist! I should probably sell those DVDs, and maybe the Criterion set too, but I need to work out if they've got any unique special features worth keeping first. Either way, they're never likely to grace my player — why would they when I've got these Arrow versions now? (Well, for the special features, obviously; but, actually, I rarely watch those. So I should just sell them. But... Yeah, I'm hopeless.)

So, while that set only adds one title (and one Blu-ray and one UHD Blu-ray), it ratchets up numbers in the second half: across ten discs (a mix of UHD and regular BD), there are eight films, plus 13 further alternate cuts — six of the films have at least one alternate version, with one having five or six (depending what you count as an alternate cut and what as a special feature curio).

The only other newcomer this week was also an Arrow release, upgrading Dario Argento's debut film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, from regualr BD to 4K. All that really does is take away one disc (because the BD also had a DVD copy, whereas the 4K doesn't have a BD copy).

Number of titles in collection: 3,123 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,029 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,094 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 270 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 7,652 [up 9]
Number of films: 3,832 [up 8]
Number of additional cuts: 335 [up 13]
Number of TV episodes: 9,611 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,062 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader, when I am currently expecting... nothing. Gasp!

Monday, 17 July 2023

TV

University Challenge
2023/24 Episode 1
A new era begins, with Amol Rajan starting as only the third host since the show began 60-odd years ago.

...but that wasn't why I watched. I only saw it because I was at my parents' house and they watch regularly.

[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Sunday, 16 July 2023

Films

Santo vs. Infernal Men (1961)
[#51 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2023]

Podcasts

Light the Fuse - The Official Mission: Impossible Podcast
2x01 When in Rome with Tom Cruise & Christopher McQuarrie

Former fan podcast Light the Fuse is now the official M:I podcast, just in time for the release of Dead Reckoning Part One. That's not why I've finally got round to actually listening to it... but I guess it kinda is.

Comics

2000 AD #2331,2332,2333

Saturday, 15 July 2023

TV

The 1% Club
2x05 Episode 5
2x06 Episode 6
[Watch the whole series (again) on ITVX.]

Films

Sully: Miracle on the Hudson (2016)
[2nd watch]
...well, sort of. As I wrote on Letterboxd, I caught roughly the second half of this on BBC One this evening after turning it on by chance and getting sucked in. I'm never sure if I should count viewings like that (not that they happen often), because while I didn’t watch the whole film, I did watch a significant chunk; including, in this case, the best bit. At present, I've decided to note it here and on Letterboxd, and probably on 100 Films' Recently Watched page, but not allow it to count towards the 100 Films Challenge.

Comics

2000 AD #2329–2330

Articles

Henry Czerny On The Return of Kittridge In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
by Mike Ryan (from Uproxx)

I actually read this a few days ago but forgot to share it. It's a great read for fans of the M:I series.

Collection Count

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

Seven additions this week, include a trio of new releases (one in 4K; two arriving early), a trio of Arrow sales purchases (one in 4K, and also an upgrade from Arrow's regular BD), and one from Amazon's Prime Day offers (the third season of anime Attack on Titan. I've not actually got round to watching seasons one and two yet, which did make buying season three feel a bit silly, but while it was on offer I couldn't resist. Now I've just got to resist completing my collection with the parts of season four, in the hope they bundle them into a complete set eventually (as I've got complete series sets for the seasons so far).)

Number of titles in collection: 3,122 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,029 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,093 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 268 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 7,643 [up 10]
Number of films: 3,824 [up 6]
Number of additional cuts: 322 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,611 [up 22]
Number of short films: 1,062 [up 6]

Plus, it's once again time for the monthly running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
543 days and 13 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 6 hours, and 35 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.