Films

New Tale of Zatoichi (1963)
[#75 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Films

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
[#74 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Blindspot 2017 #5

+ the 10-minute interview with cinematographer Jack Cardiff that is the DVD's only special feature. Why is there no extras-laden Blu-ray of this classic?!

Films

The Accountant (2016)
[#73 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

The Persuaders!
1x02 To the Death, Baby

Films

Underworld: Blood Wars 3D (2016)
[#72 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

+ the Blu-ray's special features, though they only amount to half-an-hour.

this week on 100 Films

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


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

A sci-fi thriller about a stealth alien invasion using human duplicates (clue’s in the title), this original film version of the oft-remade Invasion of the Body Snatchers is best not at genre-movie chills, but at evoking and commenting on paranoia and what causes it.

Read more here.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)

Here’s the first in an infrequent new series of posts, inspired by my 100 Favourites entries, which I’ll be using to plug some of the gaps in my review archive. As a good starting example, this is the only Pirates of the Caribbean film I haven’t reviewed.

Read more here.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2017)

Dead men may tell no tales, but lucrative franchises never die, so Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean has taken to the high seas once again... Despite the unusually-long six-year gap since the previous film, and all the promotional talk of this being a fresh start for the series that tonally harks back to the standalone fun of the first movie, Salazar’s Revenge (or, if you prefer, Dead Men Tell No Tales) seems doomed to repeat bits and bobs from the series’ other instalments. It’s not a complete wash-out, however, because it at least executes some of those bits quite well. Sadly, other bits are beginning to look a little tired.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
36x07 The Pyramid at the End of the World
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Kettering Incident
1x03 The Search
1x04 The Mill

Who Dares Wins
10x05 (20/5/17 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Underworld Awakening 3D (2012)
[2nd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #15

Collection Count

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

A single brand-new Blu-ray this week (it's not actually out 'til Monday -- how exciting!), plus a pair of DVD-to-BD upgrades. Also, it's that time of the month: the running time update. Hurrah!

Number of titles in collection: 1,979 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,183 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 796 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 5,049 [up 2]
Number of films: 2,185 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 7,697 [no change]
Number of short films: 559 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
373 days, 14 hours, and 44 minutes.
(Up 1 day and 2 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Elementary
5x24 Hurt Me, Hurt You [season finale]

Jamestown
1x03 Episode 3

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge (2017)
[#71 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]
aka Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

TV

The Flash
3x22 Infantino Street

TV

Grantchester
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 3D (2011)
[2nd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #14

TV

Arrow
5x21 Honor Thy Fathers

The Persuaders!
1x01 Overture
RIP Sir Roger Moore. He's brilliant in this. (The only time I've watched The Persuaders before: after Tony Curtis died. So that's kinda depressing.)

Twin Peaks
3x03 The Return Part 3
3x04 The Return Part 4
I was going to try to space these out, but they're too good! And now I have to wait a fortnight for more...

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
4x07 Episode 7 [season finale]

Jamestown
1x02 Episode 2

Twin Peaks
3x01 The Return Part 1
3x02 The Return Part 2

TV

The Flash
3x21 Cause and Effect

The Kettering Incident
1x02 The Lights

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
[3rd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #13

Dead Man's Chest may have improved with age (or I've softened to it), but I'm not sure At World's End has. There are some brilliant scenes and bits, really great sequences, but it's far too long, with an overly complicated plot that drags in the middle. I still enjoyed it, but I'd've enjoyed it more if it was half-an-hour shorter.

Fiction

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Pages 273-362 [the end]
Ready for later this evening now...

this week on 100 Films

It's the time of the month when 100 Films in a Year looks back at what I've been watching on TV...





As well as that, there were 4 brand-new reviews...


Alien: Covenant (2017)

if you put Prometheus, Aliens (as opposed to Alien), Blade Runner (yep), and Frankenstein into a blender, then poured the resulting mixture into a novelty tie-in glass from the Star Wars prequels, you’d get Alien: Covenant. Weirdly, it’s the Prometheus stuff in that blend that tastes finer than the Aliens stuff. In fairness, that’s because it’s complemented by the notes of Blade Runner and Frankenstein.

Read more here.


Twin Peaks: Pilot (International Version) (1990)

When judged as a standalone movie, Twin Peaks is a disaster. After an hour-and-a-half of sheer quality, we reach the 19-minute tacked-on ending. This climax is rushed, simplistic, and refuses to touch on the vast majority of the episode’s subplots. I mean, of course it doesn’t — it was a rush job at the end of production to fill a contractual requirement. It wraps up the Laura Palmer case as quickly and perfunctorily as it can, then Lynch basically says a humungous “eff you” to the notion of having to do a movie version by bunging in a nonsensical dream sequence.

Read more here.


Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was not a success. For fans of the TV programme, it was a story about events they already knew, rather than a resolution to the series’ cliffhanger. For non-fans, it didn’t seem to stand alone in the way a ‘proper’ movie should. [It] went down as a poorly-regarded failure, unquestionably one of Lynch’s worst films. Well, opinions change. Nowadays you’re just as likely to see someone contend that Fire Walk with Me is the pinnacle of Lynch’s career as you are to see someone express the view it’s his nadir; perhaps even more likely. From what I can gather, a quarter-of-a-century’s distance has allowed people to become more understanding about what it was Lynch was actually trying to achieve with the film

Read more here.


Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014)

As you’d expect from a deleted scenes section, but in opposition to what some people claim about it, The Missing Pieces is a collection of just that — pieces; fragments divorced from their whole. It’s definitely an experience aimed squarely at fans, then, but that doesn’t mean it’s not one worth taking for the initiated.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
36x06 Extremis
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Elementary
5x23 Scrambled

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
[3rd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #12

Maybe it's just nostalgia talking now that the film's 11 years old (where does time go?!), but I think this might be the first time I've properly enjoyed Dead Man's Chest, rather than merely thinking it was muddled but OK.

Fiction

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Pages 169-272

Collection Count

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

Five additions this week, one of which is a Blu-ray to Blu-ray upgrade with the same number of films and same number of discs, so it's completely invisible. Except on my shelf.

Number of titles in collection: 1,978 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,185 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 793 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 5,047 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,184 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 7,697 [no change]
Number of short films: 559 [up 25]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
4x06 Episode 6

The Kettering Incident
1x01 Anna
Described by some as the Aussie answer to Twin Peaks, which isn't an itch that particularly needs scratching right now! Oh well.

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
[4th watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #11

Can't remember the last time I watched this, but it was before this blog began -- and that was 9 years ago this month, which more than likely means it's been over a decade. Where does time go?! On a similar note, it's been six years since I watched any of the Pirates films. With a new one imminent, it's an exceptionally good time to get round to a revisit.

Anyway, the first is a great movie. In fact, as a blockbuster action-adventure, I'd say it's pretty much perfect.

Fiction

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Pages 124-168

TV

Cowboy Bebop
1x23 Brain Scratch

Grantchester
3x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Who Dares Wins
10x04 (13/5/17 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Pages 112-123

TV

Cowboy Bebop
1x21 Boogie Woogie Feng Shui
1x22 Cowboy Funk
It's been nine months since I last watched any Bebop. Where does time go?! There are only four episodes left now -- maybe this time I'll actually finish it!

Elementary
5x22 Moving Targets

Our Friend Victoria
1x06 Fame [series finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Pages 86-111

TV

Jamestown
1x01 Episode 1

Our Friend Victoria
1x05 Television
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Twin Peaks (1990)
[#70 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]
aka Twin Peaks: Pilot (International Version)

This is the first time I've watched the extended standalone version of Twin Peaks' pilot episode, but the 4th time I've watched the pilot fullstop.

TV

Arrow
5x20 Underneath

Who Dares Wins
10x03 (6/5/17 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Alien: Covenant (2017)
[#69 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

The British Academy Television Awards 2017
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Flash
3x20 I Know Who You Are

Films

Prometheus 3D (2012)
[2nd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #10

Coincidentally, it's 4½ years to the day since I first watched this. This is the first time in 3D, though. It was good. The 3D, that is. The film is still muddled.

this week on 100 Films

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


Hell or High Water (2016)

I don’t think it would be unkind to describe Hell or High Water as a genre picture: it’s a crime thriller about bank robbers and the police out to catch them, with its setting and tone also bringing something of the Western... There is something more to it than that though, which might explain its slightly incongruous presence among 2017’s Best Picture nominees. In part it’s a social drama, the characters’ motivations based in very topical concerns... In another part it’s a character drama. Indeed, the acting is the best part.

Read more here.


Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

I really wanted to enjoy this, because I have a soft spot for the original. Sure, it’s cheesy as hell, but mostly the cheese works thanks to an earnestness and some degree of emotion... This follow-up wants to do the same thing on a bigger scale, and it is indeed even cheesier at times, but not in the same likeable way. If the first is a tasty chunk of mature cheddar (which, for the purposes of this analogy, we’re going to say it is) then the second is a thin slice of processed burger cheese.

Read more here.


Prometheus 3D (2012)

Watching in 3D is never going to gloss over Prometheus’ more fundamental flaws — it’s never going to make up for issues with the screenplay or the edit. What you do get is a sense that effort was made to make the 3D experience worthwhile. It may be an inessential component of the movie (a virtual necessity when there will always be people watching in 2D, of course), but it’s one that nonetheless adds an appreciable extra dimension.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
36x05 Oxygen
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Eurovision Song Contest: Kiev 2017
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014)
[#68 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

A 90-minute selection of deleted scenes from Fire Walk with Me, which some people reckon work as a film in their own right, but they don't. They're still interesting though, and make a good companion piece to FWWM.

Fiction

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Pages 1-85

Collection Count

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

After some busy times of late, a bunch of stuff that was meant to turn up didn't, so just one new thing this week.

Number of titles in collection: 1,974 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,185 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 789 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,042 [up 2]
Number of films: 2,181 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 7,697 [no change]
Number of short films: 534 [up 3]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Grantchester
3x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Our Friend Victoria
1x04 Appearance
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
[#67 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
4x05 Episode 5

Films

Blair Witch (2016)
[#66 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

Elementary
5x21 Fly Into a Rage, Make a Bad Landing

Our Friend Victoria
1x03 Sex
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Twin Peaks
2x21 Episode 28 aka Miss Twin Peaks, aka The Night of the Decision
2x22 Episode 29 aka Beyond Life and Death [series finale]
Or "season finale", depending how you want to count the imminent revival.

Films

Four Lions (2010)
[#65 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Articles

'Peak' Performance
by Maureen Ryan (from Variety)
Talking of the Twin Peaks revival, here's a good piece on how it came about and how it was done (kinda).

TV

Arrow
5x19 Dangerous Liaisons

Elementary
5x20 The Art of Sleights and Deception

Films

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
[#64 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

Grantchester
3x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Our Friend Victoria
1x02 People
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Twin Peaks
2x20 Episode 27 aka The Path to the Black Lodge

TV

Our Friend Victoria
1x01 Age
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Twin Peaks
2x19 Episode 26 aka Variations on Relations

Vera
7x04 The Blanket Mire [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

this week on 100 Films

It may be nearly a week ago now, but the past seven days saw the start of a new month, so it was time to look back on April at 100 Films in a Year...





After that, 4 brand-new reviews were published...


Elstree 1976 (2015)

In a studio near London in the summer of 1976, filming took place for a movie that the crew regarded as a children's flick and several cast members assumed would be a flop. They couldn't've been more wrong, because that film was Star Wars, probably the most influential movie of the last 40 years. You know the names of many of the people who were there: George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness… But there was also an army of supporting actors and extras. This is their story.

Read more here.


Green Room (2015)

The main point everyone seems to make about Green Room is how unbearably tense it is. Well, I can imagine it might’ve been pretty tense if I hadn’t spent the whole time struggling to work out what was going on from all the mumbled dialogue. It’s not helped by much of the early chatter being music scene gobbledegook. Is this what watching sci-fi feels like to normal people?

Read more here.


Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

The franchise that some thought might kill the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but which actually turned out to be one of its most popular successes, is back for the difficult second album. And difficult it is, because Guardians 2 takes a lot of what made that first movie work and ramps it up to 11, consequently slipping over into bouts of self-indulgence.

Read more here.


Nightcrawler (2014)

the film belongs to Jake Gyllenhaal. Wild-eyed, eager to please, but not quite right in how he interacts with other human beings, and with a real thirst for the gory profession he lands upon, Bloom has a sense of morality that is quite removed from the norm. From the start we’re in no doubt that this is a guy prepared to take relatively extreme measures to secure what he wants, but how far will he go?

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

A slightly delayed update this week, due to some last-minute shenanigans with late arrivals, including one that needs to be returned.

In the end there were four additions this week, three new and one an identical (for the purposes of these stats) DVD-to-Blu-ray upgrade. But there's some additional jiggery-pokery too, because it seems I completely forgot to include a disc I received as a present months ago. Most unlike me.

I also did some overdue updates to my disc count, and discovered the version I had here was seven discs higher than in my other records. Not 100% sure which is right and which is wrong, but I'm going to side with the other one, so have updated this accordingly.

Number of titles in collection: 1,973 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,185 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 788 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 5,040 [down 1]
Number of films: 2,180 [up 7]
Number of TV episodes: 7,697 [no change]
Number of short films: 531 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Doctor Who
36x04 Knock Knock
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Flash
3x19 The Once and Future Flash

Twin Peaks
2x18 Episode 25 aka On the Wings of Love

TV

24: Legacy
1x12 11:00PM - 12:00PM [season finale]

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
4x04 Episode 4

Twin Peaks
2x17 Episode 24 aka Wounds and Scars

Films

Nightcrawler (2012)
[#63 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2017 #5

+ the Blu-ray's single featurette, which is quite interesting but sadly only five minutes long.

TV

24: Legacy
1x11 10:00PM - 11:00PM

TV

Twin Peaks
2x16 Episode 23 aka The Condemned Woman

TV

Twin Peaks
2x14 Episode 21 aka Double Play
2x15 Episode 22 aka Slaves and Masters

Vera
7x03 Broken Promise

Who Dares Wins
10x02 (29/4/17 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Car Share
2x04 Episode 4 [season finale]
Ooh, there'll be clamour for a third series after that!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Elementary
5x19 High Heat

Films

Back to the Future (1985)
[4th or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2017 #9. Finally playing the Blu-ray set I bought almost seven years ago! Man, time flies.

Split (2016)
[#62 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]