TV

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2012
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Celebrity Mastermind
2012-13 Episode 4 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
12x10 New Year's Eve
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Little Crackers
3x12 Le Concert de L'école [season finale]
Being Darren Boyd's.

The Mentalist
5x09 Black Cherry
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

New Year Live 2012
Fireworks! Yay!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Restless
Part 1 (of 2)
Good period spy drama (double period, in fact, as it's set in both the '40s and the '70s), but I've no idea what the title means.
I'm also not sure that "look, it's Michael Gambon!" works as a cliffhanger when his name's in the opening credits.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Plank (1967)
[#97 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

And that's 100 Films for 2012 done... at less than 100 films. Oh well.

Articles

Skyfall becomes first $1 billion James Bond movie
by Simon Reynolds (from Digital Spy)

Skyfall has also crossed the £100 million barrier at the UK box office, making it the first movie to achieve that milestone.

Huzzah!

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2012-13 Episode 2 (of 10)
2012-13 Episode 3 (of 10)
[Watch episodes two and three (again) on iPlayer.]

James May's Toy Stories
Flight Club
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Little Crackers
3x04 Nutcracker
3x05 The Autograph
Being, respectively, Caroline Quentin's and Alison Steadman's. (And I must add, it's a complete accident I watched these in 'order' and following on from watching two and three on Friday -- they're listed randomly on Virgin's catch-up and so I've been choosing them randomly.)

QI
10x14 Jingle Bells (XL edition)
If for any reason anyone persists in watching the 30-minute edition, they really do miss out on some quite interesting stuff.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Stiff Upper Lips (1998)
[#96 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

this week on 100 Films

The 100 Films 2012 Advent Calendar came to an end this week and... golly, was Christmas less than a week ago? Feels forever!

Anyway, that means two brand-new reviews were published to finish that off, and they were...


Cowboys & Aliens: Extended Director's Cut (2011)

It’s still an action-adventure summer blockbuster, but with pretensions at times to be a Western drama. I think that’s the fundamental problem with the entire film, and probably why it feels slow... One wonders if these particular writers, versed in the art of the blockbuster, don’t really know what they’re doing.

Read more here.


Skyfall (2012)

I had been intending to write a sort-of commentary on Skyfall, talking through my opinion of the film on a scene-by-scene basis. But then I thought it a bit too distant to write now. And then I sat down and it happened anyway. So here is a 4,400 word (yes, really) natter through the film in broadly chronological order, but taking asides to discuss particular elements in their entirety.

It contains whopping great spoilers about almost everything, just in case you hadn’t guessed.

Read more here.


With the advent calendar over, I've returned to reposting old reviews. Also new to the new blog, then, were...


Alice in Wonderland (3D) (2010)

Burton has created a sort of "Alice 2", crafting a new plot from the novels’ elements... Consequently, this new Alice positions itself freshly in two ways: one, as “Burton’s version”, and two, by following in the footsteps of the specific side of the filmic fantasy genre started by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.

Read more here.


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Despite the modern stylings, dark themes and attention-grabbing characters, much of the film unfolds as a procedural whodunnit like, for instance, the Wallanders, complete with piles of red herrings and last-minute twists.

Read more here.


The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)

One solution to the sequel problem is to “make it personal”, and that’s exactly what we get... A journalist and his girlfriend working for Mikael are murdered and Lisbeth is suspected of the crime. It’s somewhere around here that the coincidences begin to pile up. It makes perfect sense as a plot in itself, but in bringing Mikael and Lisbeth back together it doesn’t work.

Read more here.


The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (2009)

The final third of the film is dominated by a series of immensely satisfying courtroom scenes in which the defence trounce the opposition, not through American-esque grandstanding but through a quiet and thorough application of facts and truth. You can see the satisfaction bubbling under Lisbeth’s almost-static face as the prosecution unknowingly hang themselves

Read more here.


How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

I saw a trailer for How to Train Your Dragon a few months before release. I thought it looked to have basic animation and a too daft tone. I wrote it off, expecting the kind of animated movie that would be slagged off as a Pixar-wannabe… My impression from the trailer was massively wrong. How to Train Your Dragon is, as everyone else has likely already impressed upon you, brilliant.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
2x23 Overkill
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

It'll be Alright on the Night
(28/12/12 edition)

Mock the Week
11x13 Christmas Special [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Panto!
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Iron Sky (2012)
[#95 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Not looking good for 100...

Collection Count

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

This is the first post-Christmas update, and it was a relatively light haul this year (lots of books instead). Still, it did include the 31-disc Harry Potter Wizards Collection, and the large and awesome limited edition of Lawrence of Arabia. Both are instant centrepieces to a collection.

Also, the digibook re-release of Peter Jackson's King Kong (not replacing my old DVDs (at least not just yet) because I don't think it's even close to having all the extras); plus E.T. (which I'm moderately certain I've never seen) and the new release of A Trip to the Moon. Post Christmas purchases include Underworld: Awakening (it was only a fiver) and... other stuff that hasn't arrived.

All BDs except Trip to the Moon, and Lawrence replaces my old DVD, which you'll see reflected in these numbers...

Number of titles in collection: 1,521 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 375 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 3,834 [up 36]
Number of films in collection: 1,600 [up 14]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 374 [up 1]

And just to make it a bumper bonus of excitement, this week it's the regularly scheduled running time update too! As I'm not expecting anything on Monday, this also serves as an end-of-2012 update. Shiny.

So without further ado...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
276 days, 18 hours, and 57 minutes.
(Up 3 days, 14 hours, and 11 minutes from last month.)

That's a pretty big jump these days.Happy times.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2012-13 Episode 1 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Dragons' Den
10x13 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Little Crackers
3x03 Howler
3x02 Rainy Days & Mondays
Being, respectively, Tommy Tiernan's and Rebecca Front's.

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x06 Christmas Special [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Downton Abbey
3x09 A Journey to the Highlands [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Live at the Apollo
8x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
at Christmas
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Spy
2x11 Codename: Show Stopper [Christmas special]
2x12 Behind the Scenes
If the technical-season-finale resolved most of the season's on-going plot threads, this resolves the rest -- including some stuff that's formed part of the backbone of the entire series. But it also definitively sets it up for a third run, so hurrah!
Plus, an uncommonly serious-minded making-of for a comedy show, but also good fun with it. Win-win.

TV

Castle
2x22 Food To Die For
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Have I Got News For You
44x10 (21/12/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Little Crackers
3x06 The Awkward Age
Sky show these in all sorts of different orders, so I figured I may as well jump in where I please -- it's not like they really form a series. Plus they're all over the place on catch-up (listed individually as, for instance, Dylan Moran's Little Cracker, rather than as a series of Little Crackers), so what's a man to do?
I like the addition of making-of attachments this year, but that might just be me.

Miranda
3x01 It Was Panning
Hurrah for the much-belated return of Miranda! And I thought it was fabulous too, so even better.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Paddy's 2012 Show and Telly
I remembered this as being not too bad last year, but clearly I wiped it from my memory because looking it up now I hated it. And this one was definitely awful. Just... ugh.
[Watch it (again), if you must, on ITV Player.]

The Sarah Millican Television Programme
2x00 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

World's Biggest Pets
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

DIY Tardis looks bigger on inside with augmented reality
by Leo Kelion (from BBC News)

Kinda awesome. I'm sure someone at the BBC is now beavering away to make this a toy people can buy. And if they're not, they should be.

TV

Doctor Who
33x06 The Snowmen [Christmas special]

Well I thought that was a properly Christmassy and properly special Christmas special, with some real magic moments (the "taller on the inside" staircase, for just one). Considering I've found myself moderately underwhelmed by large chunks of the last two series, and didn't care for last year's Christmas special, it was a nice to finally just enjoy some Who.

Also, it was completely standalone, which a good Doctor Who Christmas special really should be, but also was absolutely aware of what had gone on in the first half of this season and considerably set up what's to come in the second half. Nice job, Mr Moffat.

Plus, Ian McKellen was awesome, Richard E Grant wasn't irritating (in fact, he was pretty good too), and as much as I hated Oswin Oswald in Asylum of the Daleks, I liked Clara here. So that was a nice surprise!

The other Big New Things were, of course: the TARDIS interior, which I like stylistically but seems a bit small after the grandiose last one; the new theme music, which sounded like the build-up of the old one (with added bass), but lacking the big dramatic proper-theme pay-off; and a new title sequence, which I thought was fantastic. 1.5 out of 3 on those counts, then, but maybe the rest just takes some getting used to.

All in all, I think it was a certifiable success.

(I rather like the poster, a full-size version of which should be viewable here.)

[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]


Friday Night Dinner
2x07 Christmas [special]
aka Mark Heap Christmas Special 2 of 3.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


The Mentalist
5x08 Red Sails in the Sunset
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]


Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x07 Rolf's Animal Christmas [special]
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]


Room on the Broom
[#94a in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
Wasn't familiar with this one, from the writer, illustrator and filmmakers behind the two Gruffalos, but I loved it! Wonderful family entertainment.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Has 3D film-making had its day?
by Vincent Dowd (from BBC News)

"Not exactly, but maybe a bit," is kind of the conclusion of this balanced article -- a rare thing when it comes to 3D, which tends to come with a love-it or hate-it bias. Worth a read for the interested.

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x05 Christmas [final episode]

The Great British Bake Off
Christmas Masterclass
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x09 (14/12/12 edition; extended repeat)

Merlin
5x13 The Diamond of the Day Part Two [series finale]
Well that surprised me -- I wasn't expecting anything nearly as definitive. They only announced it was the final finale recently, as if a sixth series was a genuine possibility. Perhaps they shot two endings? Who knows.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x13 Christmas Special [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Outnumbered
5x00 The Sick Party [Christmas special]
aka Mark Heap Christmas Special 1 of 3.
Took a while to get going, but it turned out OK. I think the kids are quite definitively too old for it now though -- Ben and Karen really seem to have shot up and matured in the last year. It would still be nice if they properly wrapped it up somehow, but I think it's time for that now.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Snowman
I haven't watched this since I was very little, but it is still rather magical.

TV

Doctor Who
33x05b Vastra Investigates
After the one we got during Children in Need, here's another brief prequel to Tuesday's Doctor Who Christmas special. Intriguing...
[Watch it (again) on the official Doctor Who site.]

The Graham Norton Show
12x09 (21/12/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Loving Miss Hatto
It must be Christmas -- I actually watched something when it was actually on! See also below.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mr Stink
Quite marvellous this was -- perfect Christmastime family entertainment. Slightly wish I had a 3D TV to have seen its full effect; not because it needed the extra dimension, but just because... well, it's a gimmick, isn't it -- but sometimes a fun one. I don't think you can watch it online in 3D though. Heck, you can't even watch it in HD!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spy
2x10 Codename: Last Scupper [season finale]
I say "season finale" -- there's a double-length Christmas special on Boxing Day that I should imagine picks up where this left off. But it was billed as the season finale nonetheless, and did rather wrap some things up at least.

this week on 100 Films

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, Life got in the way of the 100 Films Advent Calendar this week. Nonetheless, five new reviews were published, and they were...


Conan the Barbarian (2011)

I just didn’t really care at any point. The plot kind of pings about through some disconnected set pieces, few of them particularly inspiring with the exception of one featuring ninja-types who are formed out of sand.

Read more here.


The Court Jester (1956)

I’d never heard of The Court Jester before it popped up on on-demand while I had Sky Movies for the Oscars, but apparently it’s “a television matinee favorite”. Maybe just in America (note the spelling in the quote); maybe it just passed me by. Either way, it’s an entertainment worth catching if you can. Get it?

Read more here.


The Return of the Musketeers (1989)

16 years after they first swashed their buckles for director Richard Lester, Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay and Richard Chamberlain return as the titular swordsmen in an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ Twenty Years After. As feats of sequalisation go, there’s something inherently pleasing about reassembling a cast and crew the best part of two decades later to adapt a tale set at a similar distance.

Read more here.


RoboCop (1987)

Hailed by those who love it as some kind of satirical masterpiece, RoboCop does manage to raise itself above other mindless ’80s action fare, at least to some degree. Equally, should you choose to watch it brain-off then I doubt you’ll be too troubled by its criticisms of corporate greed or the privatisation of public services

Read more here.


RoboCop 2 (1990)

The consensus opinion seems to be that the RoboCop films exist on a steep downward trajectory of quality, starting with the pretty-good first film and ending with the nadir-of-humanity third. In this equation the second lands, naturally, somewhere in the middle — not that good, but not so bad. Personally, I enjoyed it more than the first.

Read more here.


More next Sunday, including the final pair of reviews from the advent calendar!

TV

Adam Hills Stands Up Live
Absolutely hilarious, and nice to see a one-person stand-up on TV that isn't an edited version of a year-old DVD release. Heard some of the stories before in various other places, but they're still hilarious and there was new stuff too. Grand.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Merlin
5x12 The Diamond of the Day Part One
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x12 Touching People
The regular slightly-alternative best-of-the-series. Next week (which was actually on tonight), a Christmas special. Hurrah!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x05 Body Beautiful
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Collection Count

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

Two weeks ago I said there'd be nothing between then and the post-Christmas update (which is next week, fact-fans). Turns out I'm a great big liar, because not only was there something last week, there's a bit more this week too.

In my defence, I thought these things (all imported from America) were going to turn up next week. But hey ho, what can you do? Amazingly fast Christmastime post it is!

Number of titles in collection: 1,516 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 370 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,798 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,586 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 373 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader, for a running time-containing Christmas-fuelled update.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
12x08 (14/12/12 edition) [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Merlin
5x11 The Drawing of the Dark
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
10x13 Jobs (XL edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

I've been away. There's an awful lot of catching up to do. Here's a small fraction of it...

Castle
2x21 Den of Thieves
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Live at the Apollo
8x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
5x07 If It Bleeds, It Leads
A new on-going plot? Did we really need one of those? And I swear the Red John story took a jump -- I felt like I'd missed an episode. I appreciate it when series don't treat their viewers like idiots, but every once in a while a helpful nudge of how things got where they are is also appreciated.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Spy
2x09 Codename: Pulp Friction

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x04 The Plays Wot Ernie Wrote
These were always my favourite part of Morecambe & Wise, so this episode was a particular delight.

The British Comedy Awards 2012
Last year, they found a Harry Hill clip that actually made me laugh. This year, it was a Leigh Francis one. What's the world coming to?
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

this week on 100 Films

I'm still working my way along the 100 Films Advent Calendar, so there's another seven new reviews this week...


The Call of Cthulhu (2005)

The marriage of low-budget and silent film style is one made in heaven, particularly when you add in the dedication of the makers. They built impressive props, ingenious sets, and employed model work in various inventive ways, all to execute a story that includes a cultist swamp orgy, a mysterious island, a sea battle, and a skyscraper-sized monster.

Read more here.


Drive Angry (2011)

It’s got a crazy plot, crazy action, gratuitous violence, gratuitous nudity, rough production values, variable acting, loopy bad guys — the highlight is definitely the latter, with William Fichtner channelling Christopher Walken. The whole thing could do with being punchier and pacier, and shorter

Read more here.


Fantastic Four (2005)

this incarnation of the FF doesn’t really have a story. They kind of meander through a few things that Happen, then a villain finally emerges and they defeat him. It leaves the film bereft of narrative drive; a series of scenes strung together without a common goal.

Read more here.


The Final Destination (2009)

None of the deaths matter because nothing is done to make us care about these characters, or even be broadly interested in them, unlike the best of the earlier entries. So there's zero tension, zero emotion, just elaborate death after elaborate death. It's one of the most hollow films I can think of.

Read more here.


The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

it’s a solid crime/legal thriller; the kind of thing we’d probably get as a 90-minute TV episode over here, but thanks to America not really having that format, it gets the cinema treatment. Nonetheless, it’s well enough acted, with an interesting enough story, to sustain the grander status automatically afforded to something released theatrically.

Read more here.


Passchendaele (2008)

Despite winning a bunch of Canadian film awards, this First World War drama seems to have been really poorly received by critics — the Radio Times even saw fit to award it just 1 star! I must dissent, however, because I thought it was very good.

Read more here.


Tiny Furniture (2010)

Tiny Furniture comes with a predisposition to dislike it from anyone who isn’t a hipster or desperate to be relevant to hipsters... It’s a slow-paced, consciously arthouse-drama-y story film about unlikeable people leading unlikeable lives. I think everyone in it is either selfish or at least self-centred.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
12x08 (14/12/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
10x13 Jobs
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Despite my assertion last week, I can't resist a bargain, and getting The Hammer Collection box set for what equates to 89p per film definitely counts as a bargain in my book. But that really is it until after Christmas now.

Probably.

Number of titles in collection: 1,514 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,147 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 367 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,796 [up 21]
Number of films in collection: 1,584 [up 21]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 373 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
12x07 (7/12/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x09 (14/12/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x04 Fun and Games
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x20 (7/12/12 edition)
[Watch episodes it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
44x08 (7/12/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x11 Episode 11
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x03 At Home with Eric and Ern

Castle
2x20 The Late Shaft
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

John Bishop's Big Year
Episode 2 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Spy
2x08 Codename: Double Oh

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x17 (4/12/12 edition)
1x18 (5/12/12 edition)
[Watch episodes 17 and 18 (again) on 4oD.]

The Mentalist
5x06 Cherry Picked
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

QI
10x11 Jumpers (XL edition)

Articles

Creating The IDW Covers: Judge Dredd Year One
by Dave Sim (from A Moment of Cerebus)

Interesting piece on the thought and work that goes into creating a comic's cover.

TV

Have I Got News For You
44x07 (30/11/12 edition; extended repeat)

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x10 Episode 10
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Royal Variety Performance 2012
Now, I thought this switched between the Beeb and ITV every year, but it was on ITV last year and again this year, so... Well, it doesn't matter; just baffled me slightly.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x03 Work Made Easy
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Skyfall blows past Spider-Man 3 to become Sony's top-grossing film
(from HitFix)

Records are falling before it like flies and its placing in various charts is constantly on the rise. Where will it stop? Nobody knows!

Comics

The Amazing Spider-Man #699 by Dan Slott & Humberto Ramos

Explanations! Great if you've been reading ASM for years, I'm sure, but it's a little thumb-twiddly otherwise -- it's all prelude to whatever's coming next issue.


Extermination #3 & #4 by Simon Spurrier, Jeffrey Edwards & V Ken Marion

This is such fun, especially if you're a fan of Batman and/or Superman, which two of the main characters are delightfully unsubtle riffs on. Which is fine, because you could never do this in a licensed story. It's also generally witty and clever too, even if the art is occasionally scruffy.


Revival #3 by Tim Seeley & Mike Norton

Continues to slow burn, but still great.

this week on 100 Films

The 100 Films Advent Calendar continues apace, with seven new reviews published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Chatroom (2010)

Chatroom is born of trying to find a viable way of depicting the world of online chatrooms on film... presumably presenting the online world in a filmic way was a necessary aside for wanting to set a story in that world. Sadly, the actual tale being told isn’t up to all that much.

Read more here.


The Expendables (2010)

What you do get is a film that revels in its action-movie-ness. I mean, most of the characters have great (read: daft) action movie names: Barney Ross, Lee Christmas, Yin Yang, Toll Road, Hale Caesar, Paine… How is that not a film aware of its own absurdity? How can you not enjoy that, even a little?

Read more here.


The Keep (1983)

it’s really good; a film that is genuinely creepy, with an effective sense of foreboding and mystery… for about half an hour or so. [...] Events become convoluted and borderline nonsensical, and whatever thematic points the film has to make about evil and belief get lost in the mix.

Read more here.


The Last Airbender (2010)

The plot pings back and forth between locations and characters, basing itself in a heavy mythology that isn’t adequately explained. Chunks of it seem to be missing, conveyed through clunky voiceover rather than on-screen action. The first rule of screenwriting is Show Don’t Tell, but Shyamalan does exactly the opposite.

Read more here.


M (British version) (1931/1932)

Let’s establish one thing right away: this is unquestionably an inferior version of Fritz Lang’s masterpiece, M. Never mind that it’s an old, unrestored, thoroughly battered print; it’s the conscious changes that — unavoidably — lessen the film.

Read more here.


Predators (2010)

it’s not an entirely stock plot merely peppered with gunfights. Rodriguez and co have made the effort to push the mythology in new directions; ones which seem to build naturally out of other Predator media, even though those aren’t specifically mentioned.

Read more here.


The Sum of All Fears (2002)

it’s a solid little thriller. A bit plodding at times, but engrossing enough... There’s A Big Twist in the middle that would easily have been one of the best bits about the film, had they not blown it in the trailers. Even still, it’s a bit audacious

Read more here.


If that wasn't enough, also new to the new blog were...


Predator (1987)

Let’s not pretend here: although the series have become intrinsically linked, Predator is Alien’s poorer cousin. Not that it’s a bad film — it’s an entertaining war flick that turns into a sci-fi/action/horror skirmish thingy — but it doesn’t have the same finesse that imbues Alien and its sequel.

Read more here.


Predator 2 (1990)

the action is moved from a jungle to the concrete jungle (see what they did there?) of LA... the vastly different settings and setups mean that, even with the involvement of the same sneaky alien hunter, the films have a vastly different feel too. It’s just a shame Predator 2’s “urban jungle” concept is so poorly executed

Read more here.


Another seven (hopefully!) next Sunday.

TV

Merlin
5x10 The Kindness of Strangers
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Expendables (2010)
[#94 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

Dial H #3, #4 & #5 by China Miéville & Mateus Santolouco

Here's a funny one, then. After the fun of the first two issues, Dial H takes a sharp downward turn into confusing babble here. It builds back up to something that makes sense and a clever climax, but it's not really much fun until quite near the end. There's nothing wrong with making your reader work a bit -- not spoon-feeding them everything -- but this goes too far down the road of oblique mysteriousness for the sake of it, giving us multiple characters who all know what they're babbling about while locking the reader out. And then, like I say, it does get a bit better. Now I'm torn between dropping this and keeping going.


Dial H #0 by China Miéville & Riccardo Burchielli

As for the Zero Issue, it tells a completely unrelated story that manages to illuminate the mythology of the dial, with some interesting revelations about how it works. Again, it trades on confusion until quite near the end, but at least in this instance the answers are actually in the same issue.


Extermination #2 by Simon Spurrier & Jeffrey Edwards

See below.


Revival #2 by Tim Seeley & Mike Norton

It's 6 months since I read Extermination #1, and though a bit foggy I did manage to pick it back up fine.

It's 4 months since I read Revival #1, and though I largely followed it I felt I really ought to re-read the first one to fully appreciate just what was going on.

I don't know what that says about each respective series, but they're both great. Extermination is bold, dark, but funny and entertaining, while Revival is more serious, grown-up and mysterious. And if the latter continues on its current path -- and retains its current levels of praise -- it's a dead cert for a Walking Dead-style cable TV series at some point, because that's exactly what it feels like. And I look forward to that.

Collection Count

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

It's nearly Christmas -- things are meant to be winding down! But no, here's a pile of new stuff, about half of it late arrivals from Black Friday sales and the other new releases; things so much desired that I couldn't wait another two weeks in the hope of getting them on Christmas Day.

Number of titles in collection: 1,513 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 367 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 3,775 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,563 [up 7]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 373 [up 2]

This is the last of it though (random good bargains that I can't resist notwithstanding), so I can say with absolute certainty that there won't be anything to report for the next two weeks! And the first post-Christmas one is a running time update, so that'll always be a bumper bonus of fun and excitement, oh yes it will.

See you next week nonetheless, faithful reader.

TV

Dragons' Den
10x11 Episode 11
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
12x06 (30/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

FAN ART: Comics And Marvel Movie Images Integrated
by DCMarvelFreshman (from ComicBookMovie.com)

A very talented Graphic Artist has visually analyzed just how “thin is the line that separate Modern from classic and Pixels from ink,” by integrating Marvel films with comics. Check out his digital art!

Neat idea, well done. One of the best ones as an example:

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x15 (30/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Dave's One Night Stand
4x04 Milton Jones

Films

Predators (2010)
[#93 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

TV

Goodnight Britain
Episode 1 (of 2)
Episode 2 (of 2)
[Watch episodes one and two (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off
3x14 Masterclass 3 [season finale]

Articles

Skyfall becomes highest-grossing film ever in UK
by Mayer Nissim (from Digital Spy)

The film has taken £94,277,612 [in just 40 days]. Avatar took 11 months to reach its lifetime gross of £94,025,632.

Hurrah! And thats without 3D too, which would've added a huge premium to Avatar's numbers. Well done, Bond.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x14 (29/11/12 edition)
Skipping one again, this time due to Virgin's incompetence. Maybe I should go back and fill them in on 4oD...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
2x19 Wrapped Up in Death
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

John Bishop's Big Year
Episode 1 (of 2)
Seems a little early for a review-of-the-year programme, but I suppose it gets around having to tape it in late December in order to be up-to-date.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

Spearhead From Space Remastered In High Definition
by John Bowman (from Doctor Who News)

Short piece on the work they've done for the Blu-ray release (next summer) of the only classic Doctor Who story that can be released in true HD. Sounds promising, though when they say that it's had its "grain lessened" I do hope they mean "lessened" and not "scrubbed out". If they've made it as clean as video, what's the point?

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x02 The Guest Stars

Elementary
1x05 Lesser Evils

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x02 Tasty Tech
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x12 (27/11/12 edition)
That must be the smallest contribution to the prize pot yet. Unsurprisingly none of them were bright enough to even get to the final question, never mind actually win the money. Only fair.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Dragons' Den
10x10 Episode 10
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

James Bond: A BAFTA Tribute [2nd watch]
BBC special from 2002 celebrating 40 years of the Bond films. It's interesting to watch it again now: 10 years doesn't necessarily seem like such a long time, especially when you're only going back to the '00s, but it actually really feels it. You wouldn't think TV has changed so much in that time, for instance, but at points this has a borderline-old-fashioned sense; and certainly everyone looks older now, especially Roger Moore (as seen on HIGNFY the other night).

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
1x18 Identity Crisis

this week on 100 Films

The start of December means two things for 100 Films in a Year this year: firstly, the November update, which is as fascinating as ever; secondly, the inaugural 100 Films Advent Calendar, sharing 25 new reviews throughout (most of) December. The first two are up already and, of course, are shared below -- along with the one other brand-new review posted in the last week.


2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Poor acting, a plot done by the numbers, and a style that sometimes feels like a rap video writ into a film. Oh dear. Yet the chases and other car-based action sequences are pretty coolly done, and there’s more of them than I remember there being in the first film. That’s a definite plus — really, it’s all you want from a film like this.

Read more here.


Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part I (2012)

the team behind these direct-to-DVD DC animated movies have taken a reverent route to bringing DKR to the screen. It’s in two parts because the original story is too long to faithfully adapt in their limited-length movies, but that also works out OK from a storytelling point of view: this first half ends with a major threat rapped up and a great cliffhanger to kick off the second half.

Read more here.


Tombstone (1993)

Not knowing more than the name, and a few key players, I fully expected the gunfight at said corral to be the story’s climax. Maybe it is in other versions, but here it comes about halfway through. It’s the pivot around which the story turns, however, with the first half building to it and the second handling its consequences.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


Heat (1995)

will probably always be best remembered for two things: the excellent running shoot out on the streets of L.A., and De Niro and Pacino on screen together for the first (and, so far, last) time.

Read more here.


Ivanhoe (1952)

swashing buckles are the order of the day... Most notable is an excellent siege sequence, a moderately epic extended battle that is certainly the film’s high point. The randomly hurled arrows and choreography-free sword fights may look a tad amateurish sixty years on, but the scale and rough excitement of the battle easily makes up for it.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Live at the Apollo
8x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
5x05 Red Dawn
For the 100th episode, the series goes back to the first time the CBI team met Patrick Jane. Nice idea, but not wholly satisfying in its execution, if you ask me.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Merlin
5x09 With All My Heart
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Spy
2x07 Codename: Ball Busted

Films

The Keep (1983)
[#92 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

I hadn't even heard of this before yesterday, but Mike's review at Films on the Box put me on to it. In the comments section I said it sounded like "a fascinating failure", and that pretty much sums it up.

Comics

2000 AD #1812
Judge Dredd / The Simping Detective / Low Life: Trifecta by Al Ewing, Simon Spurrier, Rob Williams & Carl Critchlow

In an incredibly rare occurrence, the anthology comic gives over its entire 28 pages to a single story, the climax of the three-way crossover that's been running for the last couple of months. An epic feat it is too, and surely deserving of such an accolade. It's in shops from Wednesday.

Next Prog, the bumper-length Christmas issue. Then in January it's back to business as usual, which is in danger of feeling a bit pedestrian after two such epic Progs. Though for me, I now have over a year's worth that I need to get caught up on...

Collection Count

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

A couple more things this week, with even more in the post to make next week a big'un. And it's once again time for a running time update, so look for that slab of excitement at the end of the regular stats.

Number of titles in collection: 1,508 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 362 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,765 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,556 [up 9]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 371 [up 1]

Plus...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
273 days, 4 hours, and 46 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 15 hours, and 42 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x11 (26/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
12x05 (23/11/12 edition)
Having missed a couple (since this one, exactly a month ago), trying to get back on track -- I still have most of series 11 to watch, so don't want 12 going the same way.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x06 (23/11/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
10x10 Jungles (XL edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Bond Designer Danny Kleinman On His Skyfall Title Sequence (And How To Craft A Great 007 Opener)
by Jan Yamato (from Movieline)

I loved Skyfall's title sequence, so I also liked this short piece in which Kleinman discusses some of the thinking behind it.


Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: 49 Ways The BBC Could Celebrate
by Dave Golder (from SFX)

On one hand, this article is quite jokey. On the other, an awful lot of these are actual very good ideas. The more of them that actually happen the better.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x10 (23/11/12 edition)
Missed one. Seems the only thing I missed were the questions as no one won. That said, questions are the only reason I watch, so...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Arrow
1x04 An Innocent Man

Hunted
1x08 Snow Maiden [season finale]
I knew it wasn't going to wrap everything up, because the Radio Times said so, but even still it was disappointing. I mean, what the hell was that "One Month Later"? How did she survive being shot in the chest and falling so far into a river? Are we meant to believe that's her baby? And so on and so forth. I didn't care about there being a second series before, but now I want some proper bloody answers please.

Articles

The Dark Knight Rises Epilogue – Nightwing, Huntress, Robin and more
(from Live for Films)

Short fan-made comics about what might happen to several major characters in the wake of The Dark Knight Rises. They'd make a pretty awesome fourth film... one that we'll never see, but still.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x08 (21/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Person of Interest
1x17 Baby Blue

Proms 2012
Prom 59 The Broadway Sound
Very belatedly watching this year's John Wilson Prom

Articles

Skyfall sinks Titanic to become second highest grossing UK box office film
by Author (from RadioTimes)

It seems like such a short time ago that Mamma Mia sat quite clearly atop this list -- that was a big story at the time, which I don't recall happening when Avatar, Toy Story 3, Harry Potter 8 or Titanic's re-release all overtook it.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, Skyfall is now a solid second (almost £3m up on third place). Can it take the top spot? It's got nearly £11m to go if it will -- quite a stretch after five weeks on release. But you never know -- after all, it took Mamma Mia 23 weeks to sneak past Titanic...