Films

Zatoichi Challenged (1967)
[#10 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

The Happytime Murders (2018)
[#9 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

The Player (1992)
[#8 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]
Blindspot 2019 #1

TV

Grantchester
4x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Midsomer Murders
19x04 Red in Tooth & Claw
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Poirot
5x05 The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review was published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Unsane (2018)

Probably the best-known thing about Unsane is that Steven Soderbergh shot it on an iPhone. Well, he’s not the first person to shoot a feature on a phone, nor will he be the last, but I guess he must’ve been the most high-profile. It’s a shame that’s all people seemed to talk about, though, because the content of the film is worth a look too.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Death in Paradise
8x03 Caught Off Camera
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Poirot
5x04 The Case of the Missing Will
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Death in Paradise
8x02 The Poison Dart Gun
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Poirot
5x03 The Yellow Iris
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Nailed It!
2x01 High Society
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Les Misérables (2012)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #5. Next to the current BBC adaptation, this just feels like one massive abridged montage. Not to mention the new one is relatively subtle, whereas here everyone sings all the subtext out loud.

TV

Death in Paradise
8x01 Murder on the Honore Express
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
37x11 Resolution [New Year's Day special; 2nd watch]
Here's the review I wrote on my other blog, FYI.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Poirot
3x10 The Affair at the Victory Ball [season finale]
5x01 The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
[Watch The Affair at the Victory Ball and The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

The Punisher
2x02 Fight or Flight
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Articles

Glass Was Always Building Toward This Ending
by Richard Newby (from The Hollywood Reporter)
An interesting (but super spoilery) reading of Glass and the Eastrail 177 trilogy.

this week on 100 Films

It was time for the monthly sidestep into the world of TV this week on 100 Films in a Year...





As well as which, 5 new reviews were published...


Glass (2019)

Want to see Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson face off again in a film that’s fundamentally Unbreakable 2? That’s not an unreasonable hope, but Glass is as much a sequel to Split as it is to Unbreakable, perhaps even more so. Certainly in tone, Glass has more in common with the slightly-pulpy, almost-B-movie style of Split than it does with the quiet, characterful mode Unbreakable operated in. That first film was a Drama, all about believable people coping with their personal issues, whereas the two follow-ups are much more genre movies. That said, they’re still genre movies that have been filtered through the unique mindset of this particular writer-director — don’t expect a great deal of easy satisfaction here.

Read more here.


Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)

There have been some interesting ideas tucked away in this trilogy, both in how it reimagined the kaiju and their mythologies, and in the brand-new stuff it attempted to introduce with the alien races and their beliefs. Unfortunately, that promise has been lost under unengaging characters, poorly defined relationships, and the kind of philosophising you might expect from a Sixth Form student.

Read more here.


Blindspot Review Roundup

Quick review of:
- The 400 Blows
- Big Fish
- Strangers on a Train

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Great News
2x08 Sensitivity Training
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Collection Count

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

Two new purchases this week, both Blu-ray-to-Blu-ray upgrades, which results in a cumulative total of one new disc.

Number of titles in collection: 2,179 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,037 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,630 [up 1]
Number of films: 2,491 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,378 [no change]
Number of short films: 651 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Punisher
2x01 Roadhouse Blues
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Glass (2019)
[#7 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

TV

Les Misérables
Part 3 (of 6)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Split (2016)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #4. Tomorrow: Glass.

Films

Ghostbusters (1984)
[4th or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #3. I don't know how many times I saw this as a kid, but I reckon I haven't actually watched it in the last 20 or so years, and yet I still vividly remembered whole chunks of it. Iconic.

Unbreakable (2000)
[4th watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #2. Almost time for Glass...

Films

Twelve Monkeys (1995)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #1

Films

Experiments in Love 3D (1977)
[#6a in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

La jetée (1962)
[#6b in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

The Stewardesses 3D (1969)
[#6 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

Rambo (2008)
[#5 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

this week on 100 Films

It was all about finished 2018 and belatedly starting 2019 this week at 100 Films in a Year.

Firstly, I finished off last year by listing my best & worst films I saw in 2018...





Then, 2019's goal got underway with two lists of 12 films I must watch this year...


What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…? 2019

A new year, a new challenge… or, rather, an old challenge with new components. Yes, for a seventh year I’m setting myself the goal of watching 12 specific films I really should have seen but haven’t... WDYMYHS is selected by analysing lists of great and/or popular movies to try to determine a consensus view of what I’m a fool to have missed.

Read more here.


Blindspot 2019

12 films I should’ve seen but haven’t that I must watch this year — and, because I’m doing both WDYMYHS and Blindspot, that’s 24 films I must watch... Blindspot choices are simply personally selected from my DVD/Blu-ray collection. Nonetheless, I do try to add a bit of variety to the mix, with different countries, genres, and eras represented.

Read more here.


Finally, there was even 1 new review...


Zatoichi's Cane Sword (1967)

Anyone who watches and enjoys the Zatoichi series is bound to end up with their own particular favourites, for whatever reason. Cane Sword particularly clicked for the writers at The Digital Bits; for me, it's been other films... Either way, Cane Sword is another very good entry in a series which is, fortunately, full of them.

Read more here.


Regular business resumes next Sunday.

Films

1941 (1979)
[#4 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

The final Steven Spielberg film I've definitely never seen! (Believe it or not, I can't remember if I've ever seen E.T. I'll settle that for certain sometimes soon-ish, then.)

Collection Count

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

Just one DVD to Blu-ray upgrade this week; plus I'd messed up the film count on a previous week, so there's a correction to that.

Number of titles in collection: 2,179 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,037 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,629 [up 1]
Number of films: 2,491 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,378 [no change]
Number of short films: 651 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
24x13 (11/1/19 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Cool Hand Luke (1967)
[#2 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]
What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2019 #1

Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
[#3 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018)
[#1 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Mopping up some Christmas specials I missed...

The Imitation Game
1x07 Episode 7 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Would I Lie To You?
12x07 At Christmas
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Les Misérables
Part 2 (of 6)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

With the new year only just underway, the past week at 100 Films in a Year has been almost entirely concerned with looking back at 2018.

First, the monthly progress report for December...





Then, three posts looking back over the whole year...


My Top 5 Most-Read New Posts in 2018

Last year, my top five most-viewed new posts were dominated by TV reviews, with no film getting a look in... This year, one film did crack the top five... Nonetheless, as this is supposedly a film blog, I’m still presenting the two separate top fives: first, which five sets of TV reviews attracted the most hits; then, which five film reviews were most visited.

Read more here.


2018: The Full List

2018 was the biggest year of 100 Films ever in terms of films viewed, and by some margin: my previous highest total was 2015’s 200, but this year I made it all the way to 261. Throw in my Rewatchathon and I watched 311 feature-length films this year. This post is, as the title should suggest, a list of those.

Read more here.


2018 Statistics

For today’s portion of my review of 2018, it’s one of my personal highlights every year: the statistics! For any newcomers among you, this is where I take the 261 films I watched for the first time in 2018 and analyse them in all kinds of different ways, and compare them to previous years too. It’s exciting, I promise. (Well, it is to me.)

Read more here.


My best and worst of the year will (hopefully) follow soon. Meanwhile, in more regular business, there was my review of Christmas TV...





...and 1 new film review, too:


Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)

Primarily, I think Ab Fab: The Movie is targeted at fans of the series, and isn’t really designed to stand on its own feet as an independent movie. I’ve only seen some of the TV show, and I think that was essential to understanding who all the characters were, how they were connected, and why they behaved in certain ways. Even then, I felt like there was stuff flying over my head because I haven’t seen all of the original episodes and/or because it’s been some years since I did watch any.

Read more here.


And that's the lot! More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Three new Blu-rays to kick off 2019, but one upgrades a pair of DVD sets, so the numbers go something like this...

Number of titles in collection: 2,179 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,143 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,036 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,628 [up 6]
Number of films: 2,487 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 8,378 [up 50]
Number of short films: 651 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of Everything 2019
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

A Series of Unfortunate Events
3x05 The Penultimate Peril Part One
3x06 The Penultimate Peril Part Two
3x07 The End [series finale]
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 The Grand Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Island of Dreams
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A Series of Unfortunate Events
3x03 The Grim Grotto Part One
3x04 The Grim Grotto Part Two
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Semi-Final 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

A Series of Unfortunate Events
3x01 The Slippery Slope Part One
3x02 The Slippery Slope Part Two
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

The Twinstitute
1x01 Get Thin Fast
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Semi-Final 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who
37x11 Resolution [New Year's Day special]
The first Doctor Who episode of 2019! ...and the last, with the next series announced for 2020. At least it was a really good one.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Madness Rocks Big Ben Live
Part 2 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
17x13 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mrs Brown's Boys
Mammy's Motel [New Year's Day special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

New Year's Eve Fireworks
2018/2019
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 St Catherine's, Oxford v Peterhouse, Cambridge
Christmas 2018 Edinburgh University v LSE
[Watch these episodes (again) on iPlayer.]