Saturday 29 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x33 The Dummy

Films

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
[#29 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

It's a little late this week (only a few hours, not that anyone'd care whatever) because it's time for the monthly running time update, and I've been buying so much stuff recently that there was a lot I hadn't yet added. As for this week itself, there are only three new additions, which normally would be a kinda average number, but for recent times is on the low end. (Never fear, I've got loads on order.)

One other observation this week: I've landed on exactly 6,000 discs. 6,000! Crikey.

Number of titles in collection: 2,301 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,114 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,187 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 45 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,000 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,693 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 8,769 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
439 days, 7 hours, and 9 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 1 hour, and 15 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday 28 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x09 Deaths-Head Revisited
+ the audio commentary by Twilight Zone expert Marc Scott Zicree and author Neil Gaiman

Films

The Karate Kid (1984)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #8. I'm sure we rented this on video when I was a kid, but I don't remember any of it. No idea if I ever saw the sequels.

Tuesday 25 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
1x27 The Big Tall Wish

Films

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
[#26 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #2

+ the special features on the Blu-ray, which amount to a short introduction, a re-release trailer, and two of the featurettes Universal produced for their 100th anniversary, Restoring the Classics and Academy Award Winners

Seasons of War (2015)
A short Doctor Who-related fan film, made to promote a charity anthology book (which is no longer available). You can watch the film on YouTube here. Normally I'd count this kind of thing for 100 Films, but eh, I'm not sure I can be bothered.

Monday 24 February 2020

Sunday 23 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x09 Ascension of the Cybermen
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
13x09 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Escape Room (2019)
[#24 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


Emma. (2020)
According to IMDb, Jane Austen’s Emma has only been adapted for the big screen twice before — and one of those was Clueless. There have been multiple TV movie and miniseries takes on the novel, though, but as the most recent was over a decade ago I guess someone felt it was about time to trot it out again (after all, every major Dickens and Austen must be adapted for the screen at least once a decade or so, right?)
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday 22 February 2020

Films

The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983)
[#21a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
The short film that precedes (and is usually considered part of)...

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
[#22 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Us (2019)
[#23 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

This week, I discovered I owned a copy of a film that I also owned in a box set -- the exact same disc -- and somehow I'd missed this fact when I bought the box set (over seven years ago, yikes!) and hadn't removed the standalone copy from my collection. So I've done that this week... alongside another busy week with seven new additions.

One of those is the UK limited edition of World on a Wire, for which I already own the Criterion release. Originally created as a two-part miniseries for German TV, the Criterion version features it as a single long movie, running at 24fps. The UK release retains the original two-part structure, across two discs, running at the correct 25fps -- that seemed like a good bet to me, especially as it has more special features. The Criterion release has a long-ish unique extra, however, so I'm keeping it for the time being, making this an addition rather than replacement.

Same goes for Doctor Who series 4 on Blu-ray, finally getting the Steelbook to go with my copies of series 1-3 and the David Tennant Specials. It should probably just replace the DVD, really, but I have a sentimental attachment to those big ol' box sets. Also a DVD-to-BD upgrade is Heroes Shed No Tears, but, similar to World on a Wire, the old edition has unique extras, so for now I'm keeping both.

The other four newcomers are all flat-out new, so that's nice.

Number of titles in collection: 2,298 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,114 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,184 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 44 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,995 [up 12]
Number of films: 2,691 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,769 [up 22]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader -- when I may well pass 6,000 discs!

Friday 21 February 2020

TV

Would I Lie To You?
13x08 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Thursday 20 February 2020

Wednesday 19 February 2020

Tuesday 18 February 2020

Monday 17 February 2020

Sunday 16 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x08 The Haunting of Villa Diodati
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

There were 2 new posts on 100 Films in a Year this week, only one of them a review...


Toy Story 4 (2019)
Last weekend, with dull inevitability, Toy Story 4 won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Of course it did — in the last decade, the award has gone to a Disney or Pixar movie eight times out of ten. I’ve not seen any of the four other nominees, but I strongly suspect at least one of them deserved it more, because Toy Story 4 is… fine. Heck, it’s good, even. But when the three films that precede it are all-time classics that formed a perfectly complete trilogy, just being “good” is not enough.
Read more here.


The Random Mid-Monthly Review for Valentine’s Day
Hello, dear readers. It’s been a while since my last post, but I don’t have any reviews banked ready to go, so here’s a random mid-month update... After the back half of last year was sent into relative disarray by house moves and whatnot, 2020 is off to a similarly bumpy beginning...
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday 15 February 2020

TV

My Dad Wrote a Porno
One-off live special version of the hit podcast, which I've heard things about but never listened to (as you may've noticed from their absence from this blog, I don't really 'do' podcasts). I thought this was pretty funny though, and by all accounts it's inferior to the podcast itself, so maybe I should check that out.

Theatre

Dial M for Murder
at Theatre Royal Bath

Collection Count

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

A whole pile of new additions this week, and only one of them an upgrade (going all the way from DVD to 4K). And I've got loads more on order (I've gone a bit OTT recently), so expect similar increases next week.

Number of titles in collection: 2,292 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,115 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,177 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 44 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 5,983 [up 7]
Number of films: 2,688 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,747 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday 14 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 6 The Very Last Day of the Rest of Their Lives [series finale]
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

Tag (2018)
[#16 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Thursday 13 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 5 The Doomsday Option
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)
[#15 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Wednesday 12 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 4 Saturday Morning Funtime
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

The Nightingale (2018)
[#14 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Monday 10 February 2020

TV

The 92nd Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars. A good ceremony this year -- and, of course, an historic winner in Parasite. I look forward to getting a chance to see it...

Friday Night Dinner
5x05 The Violin
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x06 90 Degrees [season finale]
They must make more, I demand it. (The DVD release is labelled "Series 1", which I'm taking as a good sign.)
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Good Place
3x02 The Brainy Bunch
3x03 The Snowplow
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x19 Orange is the New Maze
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x04 The Switch

Sunday 9 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x07 Can You Hear Me?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

E! Live from the Red Carpet: Oscars 2020

The Rookie
1x03 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Films

Christopher Robin (2018)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #7

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #6. I counted this as a new first-time viewing back in 2008, but I always suspected I'd seen it before. You see, I knew I'd seen some Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films before I embarked on the whole series, but I wasn't certain which; but now, having definitely seen them all, I'm pretty sure this was one (possibly even the only one) I'd seen in my childhood.

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


1917 (2019)
I love a bit of real-time, so that was right up my street. I have similar feelings about single takes (fake or not), so I loved that aspect too. Plus I’ve got a long-standing interest in World War One, which I don’t feel is represented well enough on film (at least, not as well as its sequel), so getting a big-budget high-profile movie about it is something else I welcome. And I love the work of cinematographer Roger Deakins, who is absolutely on fine form here (when isn’t he?) The long and the short of it is, 1917 was always a movie almost tailored to things that interest me.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday 8 February 2020

TV

The Good Place
3x01 Everything Is Bonzer!
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x06 Tea Party [season finale]
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x18 The Last Heartbreak
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x02 Crash Course

Collection Count

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

My overzealous purchasing spree continues this week, with seven new acquisitions. Most of those were in sales (four Jackie Chan Blu-rays and two films in 3D that aren't well regarded but I enjoyed in 2D), plus a Blu-ray to Blu-ray upgrade for Doctor Who: The Specials, aka Series 4b. This Steelbook version includes improved transfers for the episodes, plus HD versions of two animated specials I previously owned on DVD (though I'm hanging onto one of those for the special features). That would play merrily with my numbers, but thanks to the sheer volume of stuff, nearly everything goes up -- except DVDs, dropping for the fourth week in a row.

Number of titles in collection: 2,288 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,116 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,172 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 41 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,976 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,684 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,747 [up 3]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday 7 February 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x06 Praxeus [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x04 Lord Luck
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x05 Harper's Locket
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
1x01 Pilot

Thursday 6 February 2020

TV

The Great British Bake Off
1x05 Pastry
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x16 Infernal Guinea Pig
3x17 Let Pinhead Sing!
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Wednesday 5 February 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x05 Fugitive of the Judoon [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x03 The Surprise
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x04 Puddings
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Would I Lie To You?
13x07 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Tuesday 4 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 3 Hard Times
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

Films

Booksmart (2019)
[#13 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Monday 3 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 2 The Book
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

Sunday 2 February 2020

TV

The British Academy Film Awards 2020
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x06 Praxeus
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Good Omens
Part 1 In the Beginning
Finally making a start on this -- it's only taken me 8 months. That's not because of disinterest -- actually, quite the opposite. I loved the book when I read it as a kid, and have therefore been waiting (in a very passive sense) for a screen adaptation for the best part of 25 years. So this wasn't something I could "bung on", or watch an episode casually now and then -- I needed to approach it with due reverence. But things have been up and down and hectic for me this last year, so I didn't feel I could commit to it properly... until now.
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

Star Trek: Picard
1x02 Maps and Legends
[Watch it (again) on Prime Video.]

this week on 100 Films

A new month began this week, so it was time for 100 Films in a Year to look back at the old one...





There were 2 new film reviews published too...


Ad Astra (2019)
Ad Astra is certainly a journey into darkness — of space; of mind. Whether it gets to the heart of it, I’m not convinced. But it’s still a trip worth taking.
Read more here.


Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
Like any good blockbuster, Laputa has it all: thrills, humour, emotion, wonder… It’s the complete package. Plus, that level of broad familiarity (it wouldn’t take too many steps to imagine this remade as a Hollywood blockbuster, although they’d inevitably mess it up somehow) probably makes it the perfect starting point for any newbies to anime or Ghibli.
Read more here.


And my latest TV column 'n' all...





More next Sunday.

Saturday 1 February 2020

Collection Count

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

A mix of new releases and sale pick-ups means another healthy boost to my collection this week -- well, apart from for DVDs, which drop for the third week in a row.

It's also time for the monthly running time update, which gives an idea just how much stuff I've already bought in 2020.

Number of titles in collection: 2,283 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,117 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,166 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 41 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,971 [up 9]
Number of films: 2,678 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,744 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [up 5]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
437 days, 5 hours, and 54 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 22 hours, and 51 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.