Articles

Bon anniversaire! 25 facts about Les Mis by Tim Masters
(from BBC News)

To mark the Silver Jubilee, here are 25 facts about the world's longest-running musical

Start at the top and work your way down by Roger Ebert
(from Roger Ebert's Journal)
The introduction to Ebert's new book (available on his blog; the introduction, that is, though I'm sure you can order the book there too). He's always worth a read, particularly when he's being evangelical about the wonders of film, but one bit in particular caught my attention -- because it's all truth:

I ruffled some feathers after Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was released... It was so stupid it was almost criminal. Noting that some of its fans considered it one of the greatest films ever made, I suggested perhaps they were not "sufficiently evolved." Oh, did that make people angry. What snobbery! Who did I think I was?

I was indeed a snob, if you agree with this definition: "A person who believes that their tastes in a particular area are superior to those of other people." I do believe that. Not superior to all other people, but to some, most probably including those who think Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a great film. That is not simply ego on my part. It is a faith that after writing and teaching about films for more than 40 years, my tastes are more evolved than those of a fanboy... to argue I am a snob for not liking T2RF as much as "everybody does" devalues thought and experience.

Have to agree with Ebert on this one: 'T2RF' was an unentertaining mess (and, note, I really enjoyed the first live-action Transformers film). Personally, I think it's perfectly correct to wonder if those who truly think the second is a great film are sufficiently evolved.

Moore’s Law: Apple, 2000—2010

from Colt + Rane / Singularity Hub

Collection Count

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

Absolutely nothing new this week. Which is a shame, because I have several releases out on Monday on pre-order and they're usually here by today. Ho hum.

Number of titles in collection: 1,220 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 115 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 2,979 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,283 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,195 [no change]

Statistic of the week:

Number of titles rated PG:
219
(17.95% of the total)

It's been a little while since I've done a stat on classifications -- the previous ones were Us, 15s, 18s and unrated titles -- so it's as good a time as any to continue. PGs are currently my second-largest group, behind 15s (by quite some way, actually).

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Ask Rhod Gilbert
1x01 Episode 1
Well that was... bizarre...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Story of England
Part 1 Romans to Normans
Or Michael Wood's Story of England, as everywhere except the programme itself calls it. It's an interesting idea -- the whole of English history presented via the microcosm of one (well, three, technically) village -- but I'm not yet convinced of how well it works as a format for genuinely looking at history.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Hurt Locker (2009)
[#100 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Yep, 100! Hurrah!

Now, my previous best was 129...

Music

The Social Network: Five Track Sampler by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Being (a sampler of) the soundtrack to David Fincher's new film. I liked it, though not sure if I liked it enough to buy the whole thing. Though having it in 5.1 on Blu-ray is appealing...
You can download the sampler, or pre-order from a choice of four formats, here. Not sure if the ordering bit is available outside the US, but the sampler is.

Articles

Hearing Voices by Clayton Hickman & Benjamin Cook
(from Doctor Who Magazine #426, p.18-24)
A surprisingly candid interview with Nick Briggs, voice of the Daleks, Cybermen, Judoon and so on in the revived Doctor Who. It seems to suggest that the super-lovely-dovely behind-the-scenes world of nuWho that we're usually presented with isn't quite the truth -- as many have suspected, I'm sure.
As time rolls on we're sure to see more interviews that reveal more of the nasty (or, at lease, less-perfect) truth about what it was like to work on the show -- it certainly happened with the classic series. Personally, I'm quite looking forward to those.

Remembering 7 Quintessential Clips From the Quentin Tarantino/Sally Menke Canon by S.T. Vanairsdale
(from Movie|Line)
Following the sad news of Sally Menke's death, this is the most appropriate way to pay tribute: a selection of the excellent sequences that she should be best remembered for.

TV

Mad Men
4x03 The Good News
Words fail me for how good this was -- particularly Don and Lane's night out, and especially the scene in the cinema. Hilarious.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Jared Harris to Play Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes 2 by Matt Goldberg
(from Collider)
Following the announcement of Stephen Fry as Mycroft, this is another great bit of casting. Such a notion hadn't occurred to me -- in part because they were bandying around Big Star Names for the role -- but Harris could fit it like a glove. He's an excellent actor, as much as anything. Can't wait.

Virgin Media brings 3D TV to UK living rooms
(from Virgin Media Press Office)
And there's nothing worth watching on it! It looks to be, quite literally, one film a month, and they're all pretty poor. I suppose no one will notice -- hardly anyone has a 3D TV, and I bet those that do have got Sky for their 3D channel.

TV

Law & Order: UK
3x03 Defence
Another strong and thought-provoking episode, though it might be nice to have an uncompromised happy ending sometime, just for once.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Rob Brydon Show
1x02 (24/9/10 edition)
No, I didn't forget to mention episode one, I just missed it because it wasn't put on Virgin's version of iPlayer (I have downloaded it though, so just need to get round to watching it now).
As for this edition... well, I like the programme in general, but it also confirmed that Mark Ronson is still irritating and largely devoid of discernible talent.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Colin Baker: 'I'll never forget Doctor Who' by Justin Harp
(from Digital Spy)

"I've enjoyed immensely watching it [since the revival]. However when I left, the ratings were exactly the same, 5 to 6 million, as they are now... I know the television landscape has changed but it's ironic nonetheless."

Going Up River: Inside Apocalypse Now by Bill Hunt
(from The Digital Bits)
An interview with four of the people involved in the Blu-ray release of Apocalypse Now, which is out in a couple of weeks in the US (not seen a UK date mentioned yet). Page 1 is mainly about the remastering of the feature, while page 2 covers the extras, old & new. Interesting details for those who are interested.

SFX Whedon Special Previews by Dave Golder (from SFX)
Exploring Book’s Backstory
and
Serenity 2 Painful To Think About, Says Joss
and
Ripper
SFX have a Joss Whedon-centric special out this Thursday, and their website is currently littered with previews of it. Here are the three that interested me most: some details on the next Firefly/Serenity graphic novel, which finally explores the mystery of Shepherd Book; Joss' thoughts on a Serenity sequel; and Anthony Head on the proposed British Buffy spin-off, Ripper, and why it still hasn't happened.

TV

Downton Abbey
1x01 Episode One
Rather good, that, as you'd expect from writer/creator Julian Fellowes and such a talented cast, really. The only mystery is what it's doing on ITV -- surely such classy material is the domain of BBC One?
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

QI
8x02 H Anatomy (extended repeat)
"H Anatomy"?! When Fry begins the episode with a list of parts of the anatomy that begin with H -- hands, head, heart, etc etc -- one wonders why it couldn't've been named after those instead.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Hercules (1997)
[#99 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
One to go!

Articles

Muse beat The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash to win best cover song of all time
(from NME)
Don't disagree with the winner -- or with Mark Ronson featuring in any "worst of" list -- but more interesting are some of these covers I didn't even know existed. Ronan Keating doing Fairytale of New York? Take That's take on Smells Like Teen Spirit? I have to hear these...

Stephen Fry to play Mycroft in Sherlock 2 by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
The Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes sequel, that is, not the second series of Sherlock. Tsk.
With further apologies to Mr Gatiss, then, I'll say that this is rather perfect casting. Though I still want to see a Fry/Laurie Holmes/Watson at some point, please.

The Walking Dead: brilliant fan-made opening credits

I'm somewhat excited for the forthcoming TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore's zombie comic The Walking Dead -- I've never read any of it, nor followed news of the TV version particularly closely, but the comic's meant to be good and there are good people involved in the TV production.

This opening credit sequence was made by a fan -- to stress the point, they're not what we'll be seeing on screen when the series airs -- but they're rather cool, undoubtedly to a professional standard (unlike the vast majority of fan-produced videos, of course) and, I suspect, unlikely to be topped by the final sequence.

Which is a shame, because they've actually made me even more interested.

The Walking Dead Opening Titles
by Daniel Kanemoto on Vimeo

this week on 100 Films

2 new feature-film reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Night at the Museum (2006)

everything in said museum comes alive at night. This results in largely comical hi-jinx. These are fine — the easily-impressed will love it, the highly cynical will probably despise it, and the rest of us can sit in the middle, being adequately entertained while the film plays but require nothing else from it ever again.

Ocean's Eleven (1960)

It does have its moments [but] this would definitely be for Rat Pack fans only had it not been for the remake… and, really, there’s no reason the remake should change that.

Also this week, a review of a short film...

The Met Ball (2010)

Culled from footage shot while making The September Issue, The Met Ball clearly had no place in the finished film but does work as a piece in its own right... The interest for us normal, sensible folk lies in what it exposes about the fashion world; the ludicrous lengths they go to, the shockingly inflated sense of self importance.

More next Sunday.

TV

Grand Designs
10x02 Cotswolds: The Stealth House
I have often seen parts of Grand Designs -- mostly the ending -- but not usually enough to make it worth a mention. But this episode promised something unusual: an 'invisible' house, built underground below a barn that couldn't be demolished. It didn't live up to all expectations -- it was quite thoroughly visible on one side -- but the stuff with building under the barn was rather nifty.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

How I Met Your Mother
5x18 Say Cheese
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Merlin
3x03 Goblin's Gold
Considering how daft and puerile this looked, I thought it was a largely entertaining episode. Nice to have a bit of lightness after the very heavy opener.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
2x02 Sunderland
I would say it was a particularly good episode, but every episode seems to be particularly good. Which is nice, because 'undiscovered' stand-ups -- as Russell Howard's series proved week-in-week-out -- can be bloody awful.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Moffat On The Doctor Who Christmas Special And Season Six by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Title says it all. Just a couple of snippets, hints and teases, mind, nothing astoundingly huge or new.

TV

Dragons' Den
What Happened Next 2 Duncan Bannatyne
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys
Part 2 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Review Show
03/09/2010 edition
...though, if I'm honest, not all of it -- just the bits covering Tamara Drewe, Jonah Hex and CLiNT, and half of This is England '86 (before I got bored of it, having not seen the film or the series).

Articles

How To Reboot Resident Evil by Nathan Ditum
(from Total Film)
This whole article is worth reading just for the comments form "CthuluGonnaCall.com" on page 10. I laughed probably more than it deserved. Also amusing: page 13 on, where the article switches from "largely plausible (if fans were extraordinarily lucky)" to "not gonna happen. Ever."

Collection Count

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

This week, a few new Blu-rays give a little boost to the numbers. One is technically a DVD upgrade -- Psycho -- but as I own the DVD in a box set it won't be going anywhere. (Plus I think the DVD still has some special features that aren't on the BD, so...)

Another is... well, also a DVD upgrade, actually -- the wondrous Firefly. Somehow, they've stuffed the entire series into one of those slim US Blu-ray cases -- if/when I buy Serenity on (UK) Blu-ray, it'll be in a bigger box than the whole of the TV series. That's madness. Anyway, at the minute I'm keeping hold of the DVD for it's proper-sized, shiny-slipcased, nostalgia-filled loveliness, so Firefly just increases numbers rather than replacing them.

Number of titles in collection: 1,220 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 115 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 2,979 [up 6]
Number of films in collection: 1,284 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,195 [up 14]

Statistic of the week:

Total running time of collection (approx.):
209 days, 17 hours, and 49 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 20 hours, and 21 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Family Guy
8x20 Something, Something, Something, Dark Side [season finale]
Having spoofed A New Hope (which, as I noted before, I watched before this blog began), the Family Guy team latterly turned their attention to The Empire Strikes Back. It's as hit-and-miss as you might expect, effectively retelling Empire with a bunch of non sequiturs and humorous criticisms thrown in.
The Family Guy version of Return of the Jedi, titled It's a Trap!, is due later this year. Wonder if they'll do the prequels...

Mock the Week
9x09 (23/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The South Bank Show
37x01 Andrew Lloyd Webber Revisited
aka The South Bank Show Revisited for the series' final run of ten programmes, which all (unsurprisingly) revisited past subjects. It aired back in March/April/May and I've had half of them on my V+ box ever since. About time I got round to them, I thought. So, um, I am...

Articles

The 33 Greatest Movie Trilogies by Helen O'Hara, Ian Freer & Alastair Plumb
(from Empire)
It's an odd list in places, which is what happens when you ask The Public, but not an uninteresting one.

A knock on Betjeman’s door by David Allen Green
(from The Staggers at New Statesman)

Why the CPS prosecution of Paul Chambers matters.

aka #TwitterJokeTrial. The appeal is tomorrow. And it really does matter.

TV

Law & Order: UK
3x02 Hounded
A rather good episode, I thought -- yes, it succumbed to 'justice' at the end, but it was never definitively cleared up who committed the central crime (though I'm sure some more simplistic viewers assumed it was by dint of what occurred in the end).
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Mad Men
4x02 Christmas Comes But Once a Year
Aww, poor Don's Secretary (Whose Name I Don't Even Know).
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

It Happened Here (1965)
[#98 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Plus the extras, including a US trailer that cost more than the film itself(!) and an extended newsreel, in which the production team faked footage of a tank driving by filming it being transported backwards with the camera upside-down, then turning the film the other way up. Don't get much of that sort of ingenuity these days.

TV

Cheetah Kingdom
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Spooks
9x01 Episode 1
They're back! It's all a bit daft now! Some things will never change, I suspect. Until they cancel it, naturally.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)
[#97 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Articles

Traffic wardens 'advised to issue illegal tickets' by Liz Webb
(from the Express & Echo, via this is Exeter)
I always knew they were a shifty, untrustworthy, immoral lot 'round here. And 'round most places, I suspect.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats
10x04 (17/9/10 edition)
I think I missed the last series or two of this, largely because it had become thoroughly rubbish. Either I've recuperated or it's improved. (Incidentally, I swear the Radio Times billed this as the first of a new series, while C4 insist it's episode four. That said, episode one was on in June, episode two was a Big Brother special, and episode three doesn't exist, so what do they know?)
This episode, they seem to be going a bit QI: it's series 10 -- or, in QI World, J -- and the guests appearing alongside regulars Jimmy Carr and Jason Manford are Jack Dee, Jack Whitehall, Dr Christian Jessen and Jamelia. Suspicious.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Doctor Who: Adventure Games to return by Matthew Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
Well, I hope they make them better next time!
In fairness, I've still only played the first one. I know I forgot to leave comments -- suffice to say, I didn't like it (repetitive, old-fashioned, full of soul-sapping 'stealth' segments rather than intelligence-requiring point-n-click style adventuring like proper 'adventure games'). Maybe games two and three improve it? I ought to find out. I'm not optimistic.
And, based on the comment that "the feedback we've had has been overwhelmingly positive", I don't expect we'll see an improvement in quality any time soon.

Top 10 'unanswerable' questions revealed
(from BBC News)
This list is funny, because it starts out profound ("What is the meaning of life?"), continues to be stereotypical ("Do blondes have more fun?"), and then gets specific with something you might assume was answerable but isn't (#9). Well, it made me chuckle.

TV

Dragons' Den
What Happened Next 1 Peter Jones
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
2x01 Glasgow
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

The Devin's Advocate: Why Breaking Dawn Must Be Made Into A Movie by Devin Faraci
(from CHUD.com)
I read this a while ago and think I forgot to mention it. It sounds like it could make the whole Twilight franchise worthwhile. Almost. Maybe.

this week on 100 Films

2 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Ministry of Fear (1944)

To say too much about what Ministry of Fear is actually about would ruin it, which I don’t want to do because in fact it’s a great twisty little thriller, a rather Hitchcockian ‘wrong man’ tale with a baked MacGuffin.

Robin Hood: Director's Cut (2010)

In short, the pace is off. It drags for most of the middle, waiting for something of genuine interest to occur. The climax feels slightly rushed... The Director’s Cut is 15½ minutes longer, a potentially significant chunk that could throw the whole centre of the film out of whack

More next Sunday.

TV

Merlin
3x02 The Tears of Uther Pendragon Part 2
That's another season of Merlin over then.
Oh, that wasn't a finale? Well, it felt like one. So what's next week? Lots of farting!? Christ, did they learn nothing from Doctor Who?!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
8x01 Hodge Podge (extended repeat)
I have a feeling I missed some episodes of the last series of QI. At least, there are a couple that were never mentioned on here. To be frank, they now produce so many a year, and have a tendency to scatter them about, and drop in repeats and skip extended editions, that it's no surprise I could've missed some.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
4x09 The Unseen Bits [season finale]
Some people seem to have become fed up with Rob Brydon's interjections and participations this series, but personally I don't mind them. And his Quick Fire Lie tonight was one of the funniest bits... even if it was thanks to the panels' responses.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Robin Hood: Director's Cut (2010)
[#96 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Read my review here.

TV

Cheetah Kingdom
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Dexter
4x12 The Getaway [season finale]
So that's that for Dexter's fourth season, complete with a shocking ending... which, unfortunately, I found out about ages ago. (I won't mention more for the sake of anyone watching the series on FX, which is up to episode five tonight.) I look forward to seeing how it's dealt with next season, which I believe starts in the US imminently.

Mock the Week
9x08 (16/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Gigi (1958)
[#95 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Collection Count

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

This week, a Blu-ray replaces a DVD, though any evidence is wiped out by the last-minute arrival of a new Blu-ray and a new DVD. Exciting stuff, eh what?

Number of titles in collection: 1,216 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 111 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 2,973 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,281 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,181 [no change]

Statistic of the week:

Number of titles produced in the '70s:
91
(7.5% of the total)

Having now counted titles produced in the '00s, '90s, '80s, and over 100 years ago, it seems reasonable to continue back into the '70s. (Based on form, you can expect the '60s in about two months.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Dexter
4x11 Hello, Dexter Morgan
Cliffhanger-tastic! Though I guessed weeks (well, "episodes", certainly -- I probably watch it too quickly for "weeks") ago who would be saying the titular line. Next time: season finale! Tense.

How I Met Your Mother
5x17 Of Course
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

I'll be at 100 before I know it at this rate...

Brigadoon (1954)
[#93 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Force of Evil (1948)
[#92 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

The History Boys (2006)
[#94 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

TV

Dexter
4x10 Lost Boys

Grandma's House
1x06 The day Simon finally found the strength to accept that his mother was getting married [season finale]
Perhaps not Grandma's House's finest (half-)hour, but still an amusing episode. I hope we get more.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Roger & Val Have Just Got In
1x06 The Valerie Step [season finale]
An excellent final episode to an excellent series. I hope we get more.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Band Wagon (1953)
[#91 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Articles

The Death Star of the 1930s (and other great retro scifi diagrams) by Cyriaque Lamar
(from io9)
A gallery of illustrations from the '30s, some of which are rather spectacular in their own retro way. I particularly like the A City On series, though the Future Ocean Liner appears to be amazingly prescient -- I think more-or-less everything it suggests has since come to pass.

TV

Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys
Part 1 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
5x16 Hooked
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Dragons' Den
8x10 Episode 10 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Law & Order: UK
3x01 Broken
L&O:UK returns with a particularly strong episode dealing with a very difficult and emotive issue. It's to the series' credit that while the ending is ostensibly a good result, it's one few are wholly happy with.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Mountain Gorilla
Part 3 Safe in Our Hands [final episode]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Fox orders Outnumbered remake by Morgan Jeffery
(from Digital Spy)
Let's put this headline in perspective: they've not ordered a series, they've ordered a pilot only; and this isn't even the first time they've done that -- they made a pilot back in 2007 (clearly, it didn't go well). So this is less a case of "we'll see" more "will we see?"

Google Instant is trying to kill me by Charlie Brooker
(from Comment is free at guardian.co.uk)
Brooker, as usual, has a point, and he makes it amusingly. Hurrah! This is my favourite bit:

[Google Instant is] the internet on fast-forward, and it's aggressive – like trying to order from a waiter who keeps finishing your sentences while ramming spoonfuls of what he thinks you want directly into your mouth, so you can't even enjoy your blancmange without chewing a gobful of black pudding first.

TV

A Concert for Heroes
Recorded it and watched an hour behind so I could fastforward the boring bits. No, not the charity stories -- the rubbish comedians and (copious) rubbish 'music' acts.
See also: today's Articles.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Help for Heroes concert, Twickenham Stadium, review by Neil McCormick
(from Telegraph.co.uk)
Pretty much spot on.

this week on 100 Films

2 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Bhaji on the Beach (1993)

The perspective is definitively female — no bad thing for a medium where, almost 20 years later, there are still few female directors, and those that garner the widest recognition tend to do so in typically male genres.

Bride & Prejudice (2004)

Melodramatic love story/stories? Check. A couple of over-acted comedy characters? Check. Characters bursting into song? Check. Bright, colourful, extravagant song-and-dance numbers? Check.

More next Sunday.

TV

Merlin
3x01 The Tears of Uther Pendragon Part 1
Darker? Check. Grittier? Check. Well, sort of check. I mean, it's scarier, isn't it. Anyway, my point was: ah, third seasons (/books/films/etc) of fantasy series...
Still, Merlin seems to get better with each passing season. Or even episode -- next week's looks like a belter; more season finale than episode two. I hope they've got even bigger things planned, then.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
4x08 (10/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

another Inception trailer 'spoof'

Most amusing:

via Live for Films

TV

Mock the Week
9x07 (9/9/10 edition)
Back from the six-week break it took for the Fringe. (I know, my comments are frequently invaluable.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mountain Gorilla
Part 2 Last Stand of the Silverback King
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Heroes cancellation: Source says NBC not moving forward with movie that will wrap up series by Lynette Rice
(from at EW.com)
Title says it all. No surprise, really -- Heroes was a long way from popular by the end (hence why it got cancelled).

Torchwood writer John Fay excited by The New World, plus why killing Ianto was ‘right thing to do’ by XXNAPOLEONSOLO
(from scyfilove)
Again, the title more-or-less sums this up. It's an interview though, so there are a few more tidbits for fans to pick up on (though nothing about the plot of The New World, really, just the way it's being written and the point it starts from).

Collection Count

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

The numbers are all over the place this week, thanks to a couple of oversights and a new Blu-ray set that replaces four DVDs (it would've been more dramatic if another set had turned up to replace another four, but that's still in the post).

So, the number of titles go down, the number of DVDs goes down, and the number of Blu-rays goes up. The number of discs also goes down, thanks to BDs having plenty of room to house a two-disc-DVD's extras on a single disc. The number of films goes up slightly, due to a mistake last week, while the number of TV episodes goes down massively due to an error goodness-knows-when.

Ooh, exciting stuff.

Number of titles in collection: 1,214 [down 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [down 4]
Of which Blu-rays: 109 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 2,971 [down 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,278 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,181 [down 24]

Statistic of the week:

Number of Batman titles in the collection:
12
(0.99% of the total)

Inspired by upgrading my four two-disc '80s/'90s Batman film DVDs to the Blu-ray set (yep, that's the box set I was referring to) (and, if you're interested, I upgraded both the Nolan films early in my BD days), I thought I'd round up how many Batman titles I own. It's perhaps more than you'd think (though it would've been 3 greater a few days ago!)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Grandma's House
1x05 The day Simon felt the family was ready to be healed
...he was wrong.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mad Men
4x01 Public Relations
Hurrah for the unusually-early return of Mad Men to British TV! Lots of intriguing threads already set in motion, and I'm sure there are many more to come. Can't wait to find out what the next twelve weeks have in store.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Roger & Val Have Just Got In
1x05 Reply All
Many of the series' plots reach their apex this episode, making it less comedic and more dramatic/tragic as everything explodes. Certainly leaves things in an interesting place for tomorrow's final episode. Incidentally, just to reiterate from past weeks, this is an excellent series; critics who dismissed it were, I think, expecting a Comedy, whereas in fact it's more of a drama that, in accurately observing real life, is often very funny.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Universal Lands Stephen King's The Dark Tower And Plans Unprecedented Feature/Network TV Adaptation by Mike Fleming
(from Deadline New York)

"Unprecedented" almost seems like an understatement. Look what craziness they're planning:

The plan is to start with the feature film, and then create a bridge to the second feature with a season of TV episodes. That means the feature cast — and the big star who’ll play [lead character] Deschain — also has to appear in the TV series before returning to the second film. After that sequel is done, the TV series picks up again, this time focusing on Deschain as a young gunslinger... The third film would pick up the mature Deshain as he completes his journey. They will benefit from being able to use the same sets cast and crew for the movie and TV

It'll either be a fantastic, revolutionary success, or an embarrassingly huge flop.

TV

Derren Brown Presents Hero at 30,000 Feet

I normally have a comment after a Derren Brown special, but... no, not really. Other than to note the whole live bits seemed purely so they could set another countdown in motion! I guess we can expect another live special on 8th October at around 10pm, then.

Actually, one other comment: some people seem to feel cheated that he only landed a simulator. What, you really thought they were going to let a completely untrained man who was afraid of flying be responsible for landing a plane filled with hundreds of people? You really, genuinely believed that?

[This will be available to watch (again) on 4oD "soon".]

Films

Bhaji on the Beach (1993)
[#90 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Read my review here.

Magazines

SFX #200
Gradually making my way through this. Thought I ought to mention it at least once, as it's their 200th and full of celebratory things.

TV

Dragons' Den
8x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Even Hit Like Kick-Ass Can Seem Like Miss at Debut by Brooks Barnes
(from the New York Times)
Kick-Ass was considered a flop after its US opening weekend (which, incidentally, was nonetheless at #1), but it went on to make 3½ times its budget at the worldwide box office and is now storming away on DVD and Blu-ray too -- which means a sequel will be coming (hooray!) This discrepancy (between opening weekend & total gross) is the point of the article: you can't (and shouldn't, though many do) judge a film by its opening weekend alone. See also: How to Train Your Dragon (labelled a flop, earned $479 million, sequel in the works), Date Night (labelled a flop, earned $152 million), and more.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
5x15 Rabbit or Duck
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

My Funniest Year: 2000
Quite funny. Bit long.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Webseries

CarPool
Episode 2 Jonathan Ross

Ah, CarPool. I've been meaning to try this out for a while because it looked an interesting idea, and today I finally did by accident. The concept, for those who've missed it, is that Robert Llewellyn (aka Kryten off Red Dwarf) drives someone somewhere and chats to them.

It's like a chat show with a twist, essentially. And only one guest. It's been running on the web for quite a while now (since January '09) and amassed quite a few episodes (74, to be precise), and there's soon to be a TV version on Dave (of course). This is one of the earliest ones (well, as you can see) and also one of the shortest. I have no idea if it's exemplary of the whole series or not.

Also, if you're interested, the video announcing the TV series is a kind of "best bits" + reminder of what it's all about, and that kind of thing. Lovely. Plus, a camera test/interview with the producer of the TV version with some more details. Oh, and they get pulled over by Anti-Terrorism Police.

Got that covered, then.

Magazines

CLiNT #1

And lo, the new great hope for comics in the UK has launched. So after the middling reaction it's received in some quarters (that one review is representative of several I've seen), what's issue one actually like?

Well, that depends on one of two things: your age; or your ability to connect with your inner schoolboy. Features on "Hot TV Mums" and interviews with questions like "Would you fuck your dad to save your mum?" are not for the intellectually developed. I'm sure they must be pleasing to a certain demographic though; namely, the teenage/underdeveloped-twentysomething CLiNT has to convince to buy it for decent sales figures and 'mainstream' acceptance. That said, I found the Jimmy Carr interview interesting (it wasn't the one with the above-cited question).

Alternatively, you can just ignore the features and stick to the comics. For your £3.99 you get two full-length (as in US-full-length, i.e. 20-something pages) comics, which is already cheaper than you'd pay to buy them regularly, plus there's moderately decent amounts of three others. It's a disappointment that Kick-Ass 2 is a bite-sized opening snippet rather than a proper full-length edition. I don't know if this will change in future, but I hope so -- I want it in real chunks, not drip-fed in quarter-issue size. And, of course, the more full-length comics there are the better value for money.

What of the strips themselves? The two full-length strips are Jonathan Ross' Turf, which has been widely praised and rightly so, even if it is a bit text-heavy, and Mark Millar's Nemesis (soon to be a major motion picture from Tony Scott), which I haven't read yet but looks to have potential.

Of the shorter strips, I've already noted my disappointment at Kick-Ass 2's brevity (though the actual content is decent enough); Huw Edwards Presents Space Oddities is a 'wittily' named 3-or-4-page anthology series so will vary from issue to issue, but this example is quite good (I have no idea what, if any, involvement Huw Edwards actually has in this); and Frankie Boyle's Rex Royd is much better than the universally negative reviews led me to believe -- not perfect, but an interesting start. I enjoyed it anyway.

So that's CLiNT, issue 1. Certainly not perfect, but certainly aimed at a different demographic (both age-wise and experience-of-comics-wise) than most who've reviewed it. Will it be a success with the intended audience? No idea. But it does show promise, and if it's a success it might lead someone else -- or several someones -- to launch similarly comics-centric mainstream title(s) with a more adult/intelligent bent. And that would definitely be good news.

Articles

Sonic Screwdriver [Wii] Controller coming by Marcus
(from Doctor Who News Page)
I'm gonna get a Wii. Then this. Then use it to play GoldenEye. I'm sure you don't need me to explain why that's awesome.

Tesco goes to Trolleywood by Patrick Barkham
(from guardian.co.uk)
With the first direct-to-DVD-exclusive-to-Tesco movie out today (the first of many, they plan), I wound up stumbling across this article (from last month) which goes behind the scenes on said film, as well as hinting more broadly at the supermarket's plans. Quite interesting, even if the film -- a Jackie Collins adaptation -- holds very little interest in itself.

TV

Dexter
4x09 Hungry Man
I managed to guess the revelation Deb had last episode, but I didn't see that final twist coming. (Apologies if this is vague -- trying to keep it spoiler free.

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert Documentary
With highlights of the concert itself (yes, the one I watched yesterday), plus interviews with many of the acts about the significance/importance of Freddie, Queen, this concert and AIDS.
(Today was Freddie's birthday, incidentally, which I'd like to claim I knew before choosing to watch these but... I didn't.)

Would I Lie To You?
4x07 (3/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

The classic Doctor Who monster that terrified young John Barrowman by Carole E. Barrowman
(from io9)

Carole Barrowman talks about growing up as a fan of Doctor Who alongside her younger brother John — who became famous as the Doctor's sexiest companion, Captain Jack Harkness, in this excerpt from the anthology Chicks Dig Time Lords.

Do note, John didn't become famous as Captain Jack in this anthology. Just in case you read the sentence as it was written.

Renamed Dredd wants to lure you in with new title, dark story by Nathalie Caron
(from Blastr)
That's Judge Dredd to you and I. And that's not a good move. I know titles shouldn't really matter, but now it sounds like a crap horror with a 'cleverly' misspelt title. And it's needless -- are people really so stupid as to think "the old film was rubbish, so the new one must be, even though it has no relation besides the same character"? Really? And that's if they even remember a near-20-years-old flop.
All that aside, the rest of the news about this project does sound promising. Fingers crossed...

Ridley Scott Talks Alien Prequels by Adam Quigley
(from /Film)
More hints emerge about Scott's plans for the two new Alien prequels. Not sure if I think it sounds intriguing or franchise-ruining.
The full interview from which the quotes come is here, in which Scott talks about his whole career, the reception and forthcoming Director's Cut of Robin Hood, and generally sounds a bit too self-agrandising.

there is an "I" in "TEAM"

via Dash M and @tweet_fail

this week on 100 Films

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

Dragonslayer (1981)

a little scrappy, in a way — the narrative, the acting, the effects — and yet, for that, it’s a minor treat... as someone who in his childhood watched many examples of this kind of film on video from the small rental place in town, it fits nostalgically into that era. And there’s a lot to be said for nostalgia.

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007)

allegedly based on Susan Cooper’s five-volume fantasy series, The Dark is Rising, and specifically the second novel, The Dark is Rising, changes from book to screen abound... the lead character is changed to an ex-pat American, because, of course, Americans would never go to see a fantasy movie starring a British kid.

Terminator Salvation: Director's Cut (2009)

it turns out McG is a surprisingly good director — he certainly does better work than the cheap hack job Jonathan Mostow made of Terminator 3. I doubt everyone agrees on this point, but whatever else you may wish to say about McG, he knows how to put an action sequence together. Most of the time.

You may also have noticed we passed into September this week. Ah, the bliss of children finally back in school. But it also meant it was time for the August update -- also blissful, in its own way.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness
Plus most of the DVD extras, mainly Freddie montages from the first half of the show.
Sadly, said first half isn't on the DVD (it was included on previous VHS releases), not to mention the deletion of Innuendo and cropping the picture to widescreen. Ho hum.

TV

Dexter
4x08 Road Kill

Mountain Gorilla
Part 1 Kingdom in the Clouds
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

It's Official: Duke Nukem Forever Coming From Gearbox Software by Michael McWhertor
(from Kotaku)
Christ, this has been in development since I was a proper gamer -- and that's many years ago indeed.

Jane Espenson tells us about Torchwood's 'intense' next season by Thomas Mill
(from Blastr)
More tidbits emerge...

Collection Count

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

As if last week's jump wasn't enough, here's one that's even bigger (in some regards, anyway). Hurrah! Should begin to quieten down again now though. These things cost money y'know.

Number of titles in collection: 1,217 [up 10]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [up 4]
Of which Blu-rays: 108 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 2,975 [up 16]
Number of films in collection: 1,276 [up 11]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,205 [up 10]

Statistic of the week:

Number of titles in the 'Thriller' genre:
178
(14.6% of the total)

'Thriller' is my second-largest genre. (I've previously covered the largest, Drama, and two of the smallest, Anime and Music. Incidentally, the once-king 'Action' has slipped all the way to fourth. Maybe I grew up or something.) With several new titles supplementing Thriller's ranks this week, it seemed as good a time as any to highlight it.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Grandma's House
1x04 The day Simon decided he was forlorn
Every episode, I love this series a little bit more. I was going to quote some more excellent lines, but in the end there were just too many.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Dragons' Den
8x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Roger & Val Have Just Got In
1x04 Be Our Guests
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

The Stig. He’s ours by Andy Wilman
(from Transmission blog at the Top Gear official site)
As the BBC lose the court case to keep the Stig's identity secret to the money-grabbing fun-spoilers at HarperCollins, it's worth remembering why the defence of this seemingly inconsequential little bit of TV silliness did actually matter.

TV

Agatha Christie's Marple
5x01 The Pale Horse
A Bank Holiday means ITV trot out a Marple; one that was probably filmed half a decade ago, knowing them. It's also not adapted from a Marple story, as per about half the episodes (it seems).
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

Review: CLiNT Magazine #1 by Danny Graydon
(from Bleeding Cool)

Review of Mark Millar's attempt to bring comics back to the British mainstream -- essentially, by packaging a few that are either written by star-studded names or tied to successful movies in which a bunch of lad's mag content. Hopefully it has potential -- the basic idea of selling comics into the mainstream has legs -- but it sounds like a faltering start.

Of course, the alternative perspective is that all the lad's mag twaddle that doesn't appeal to people with taste who already enjoy comics will appeal to the kind of people who don't read comics but might be persuaded to, and so it'll hit that market right on the nose, while comics fans will buy it and ignore the laddish bits. What you're still missing are the audience who aren't adverse to comics but have grown beyond the level of a particularly filthy 13-year-old boy.

Maybe if CLiNT's a success someone will try another new magazine aimed at them. Fingers crossed.

TV

The Deep
Part 4 Everything Put Together Falls Apart
As full of codswallop as The Deep is, I do quite like its structure: it's a five-part story, yes, but each episode also manages to present a fairly self-contained, almost stand-alone chunk of this longer narrative. That's quite neat.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
5x14 The Perfect Week
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Vexed
1x03 Episode 3 [season finale]
Well, in spite of what the Radio Times had to say, I enjoyed that. Here's hoping for a second run.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

BBC's Sherlock to return in 2011 by Colin Daniels & Paul Millar
(from Digital Spy)
The return of Sherlock has already been announced, this just confirms the already-suspected format (another three 90-minuters) and already-suspected time (in a year). The real news here is that Luther has managed to earn itself another run. Be interesting to see how they get out of that cliffhanger, and where they take the characters from there.

TV

Dexter
4x07 Slack Tide
That was probably the most uneventful, borderline-dull episode of Dexter ever. Apart from the nice twist at the end, that is, even if I did see it coming.

Who Do You Think You Are?
7x06 Alexander Armstrong
I don't normally watch this (as you may've noticed from its near total absence from this blog), but this one was meant to be rather good. It certainly has a surprising, quite extraordinary ending.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
4x06 (27/8/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007)
[#89 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Read my review here.

Articles

Next series of Doctor Who to be split transmission (from the BBC Press Office)
and
Live blog: Doctor Who Masterclass by Neil Wilkes (from Digital Spy)

Today's big TV news, then: the next series of Doctor Who will be split in two, with the first seven episodes to air from Easter (when the whole series has aired since the revival), followed by the remaining six in the Autumn, and the regular Christmas special. It seems to have divided opinion, but I quite like it.

While it's been nice to a large, unbroken 13-episode run, this means (as Moffat noted) that kids (and, indeed, fans) will never be a few months away from new Who on the telly, and that we get two season openers and two season finales every year. I hope this doesn't mean they go overboard on the Great Big End Of The Universe finales we've had for all five series so far, though; but it does mean an extra promotional push, which is always a good thing -- it attracts new viewers. Plus Who surely works better as the nights are drawing in, rather than when the distractions of sunny evenings are beginning to open up.

Also worth a quick watch is this two minute video of Moffat making the announcement. In it he mentions something no news article I've seen has covered: that we shouldn't think of this as "one series split in two" but as "two separate series". He has a point when he says that 13 eps of Who is two series compared to most UK shows, true; but, more interestingly (from a fan point of view) will this mean they're branded and released as Series Six and Series Seven? Or are his words here the same as when he called Series Five Series One, and they'll just get released as Series Six Part One & Series Six Part Two (or just the Complete Series Six)?

I know it doesn't really matter, especially to the casual viewer, but as a fan it's the kind of thing we ponder. Well, I ponder.

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review was posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and it was...

Snake Eyes (1998)

I always like a bit of noir. Snake Eyes fits the bill, with ‘heroic’ characters of questionable morality, voluptuous femme fatales, vicious villains, double dealings, punch-ups in shadowy alleys, and dozens of other generic signifiers that I’ll leave it for you to discover and/or remember. I was rather surprised to discover it wasn’t on Wikipedia’s era-encompassing list of film noir (until I added it)

More next Sunday.

TV

Joanna Lumley's Nile
Part 4 (of 4)

Proms 2010
Prom 49 A Celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein
The full programme for this Prom can be found online here.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

5 Annoying Trends That Make Every Movie Look the Same by Dan Seitz
(from Cracked.com)
Funny, but true.

Films

The Met Ball (2010)
[#88a in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Short companion piece to The September Issue, covering the organisation of 2007's New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, aka the Met Ball.

Opera

Don Giovanni
(at Glyndebourne)

Collection Count

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

As mentioned last week, a large number of DVDs are now turning up for a nice big jump. And there's still a lot more to come. This batch includes my 100th Blu-ray -- that's only taken me just over a year, then. It was The Inglorious Bastards, if you're interested.

Number of titles in collection: 1,207 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [up 3]
Of which Blu-rays: 102 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 2,959 [up 18]
Number of films in collection: 1,265 [up 7]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,195 [up 19]

Statistic of the week:

Total running time of collection (approx.):
208 days, 8 hours, and 33 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 3 hours, and 11 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Night at the Museum (2006)
[#88 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Articles

How cute – Star Wars meets Winnie the Pooh
(from Live for Films)
Does what it says there, like. There's also a few not pictured.

TV

Grandma's House
1x03 The day Simon announced that he was in control of the Universe
Perhaps the best episode yet. After my initial doubts, this has certainly settled into its own, rather good, rhythm.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Vexed
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

The Deep
Part 3 Ghosts of the Deep
Over halfway through now... thank God...
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Joanna Lumley's Nile
Part 3 (of 4)

That Mitchell and Webb Look
4x06 Episode 6 [season finale]

Articles

Award-Winning Anime Director Satoshi Kon Passes Away
(from Anime News Network)
I have to admit, I didn't recognise his name when I saw it as the top twitter trend earlier tonight. But I do recognise the names of everything he's directed, all highly-acclaimed productions -- and, it seems to me, it's not often that everything someone's done is well-thought-of. Not to mention the fact that he was just 47, which is too young. RIP.

Take That, Theatrical Re-Release! Avatar Special Edition DVD Will Feature Sixteen Minutes of New Footage by Russ Fischer
(from /Film)
Clearly Cameron & co aren't happy with the couple of billion dollars Avatar has raked in with its original theatrical run and first DVD/BD release -- there's got to be a slightly-longer theatrical re-release, and a slightly-longer-again- DVD/BD re-release, and no doubt a slightly-changed-again 3D Blu-ray release even further down the line. Maybe they're aiming for trillions now...

TV

Dexter
4x06 If I Had a Hammer
Halfway. I'd intended to make this season last a little while... Oops.

Dragons' Den
8x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Daylight (1996)
[#87 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Articles

'Ground Zero mosque'? The reality is less provocative by Charlie Brooker
(from Comment is free at guardian.co.uk)
Insightful and amusing, as always.