Films

Batman & Robin (1997)
[2nd watch]

Believe it or not, Batman & Robin isn't a complete disaster. Relatively significant screen time is given to a subplot involving Alfred being very ill. Thanks to the general warmth of feeling felt toward the character, plus the acting abilities of Michael Gough and George Clooney, this storyline deserves to be part of a far better film.

Also, the realisation of Gotham is impressive. Mixing gigantic sets, model work and CGI, Schumacher and co crafted a towering fantasy landscape straight out of the comic's wilder imaginings. The neon colouring may not be to everyone's taste, but this is an animated-series-style Gotham writ in live-action.

The rest of the film is an irredeemable mess, however. I'll write more on 100 Films in a few days, but one thing I hate is a foul new look for the Batmobile -- though the DVD featurette on the film's vehicles almost makes you appreciate it. The behind-the-scenes version is much more impressive than what we see in the film.

Non-Fiction

Holy Franchise, Batman! by Gary Collinson
Part 1: Live-Action Batman - The Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Era (pages 63-119)

Subtitled Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Silver Screen, this new book covers all the on-screen incarnations of the Dark Knight to date. As you can see, I'm basically reading along with my viewing (retrospectively, anyway), to perhaps inform the mini-reviews I'll post on 100 Films later this week.

TV

Parents
1x01 Episode One
Well that was... mediocre.

Starlings
1x01 Episode One
Or, as the title card would have it, "STarLINGS". Or perhaps "sTarLINGs", who can say. It's kind of like Stella, but not quite as good.

Superstar
1x03 Mallorca
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Yes, Prime Minister
2x02 Official Secrets

Films

Batman Forever (1995)
[4th or so watch]

Three observations I personally hadn't made before:

1) everyone goes on about how the pre-Begins Batman films dealt with the villains and ignored Bruce Wayne. That's true of Burton's pair, but this one spends a ton of time with Bruce (a lot of that's about Robin, but it's about Robin in relation to Bruce). The one who's hard done by is Harvey Dent/Two-Face, who gets relatively little screen time and most of it is spent as a cackling halfwit sidekick to the Riddler. Not befitting the character at all.

But 2) talking of Two-Face, wow does Tommy Lee Jones over-act furiously! Perhaps that's not news, but crikey it's so unlike anything else I've ever seen him in.

And 3) I swear Elliot Goldenthal's score referenced the music of the '60s Adam West series on several occasions. Which, considering the overall tone of the film, feels entirely possible. (I watched the featurette on the BD about the music but they didn't mention it, sadly.)

this week on 100 Films

I didn't get round to writing and posting either Green Lantern or Cowboys & Aliens (both of which have premiered on Sky Movies recently, and I've seen 'n' everything), so it's just one new review again this week...

Devil (2010)

Devil launched a series of films dubbed “The Night Chronicles”... as I recall the idea is they were a series of low-key/low-budget horror-thrillers conceived by M. Night Shyamalan (he has a Story and Producer credit here) but helmed by others... Funny thing is, this is better than anything Shyamalan has done in a long time.

Read more on my new blog.

Also, because of problems with my old blog, I've decided not to continue posting full reviews there, at least for the time being. Just in case you wondered where those links had gone.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Cube
5x07 Gold Medallist Special
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

How I Met Your Mother
7x21 Now We're Even
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Wallander [British]
3x01 An Event in Autumn
2½ years since the last British Wallander, Kenneth Branagh's more-prone-to-tears interpretation of the Swedish detective is back, this time with an adaptation of a short story. There are only so many novels for them to do, so clearly they're branching out before they run out. It's good stuff still though.
(Saying that, according to Branagh in this article, he hopes for another series adapting the two remaining full-length novels and then leave it at that. Hopefully they'll be able to do that much, then.)
(Also, it's coming up to two years since I last watched any of the longest-running Swedish Wallander! God, time flies.)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Cowboys & Aliens: Extended Director's Cut (2011)
[#56 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Articles

Game of Thrones reveals new cast members for Season 3!
by Lauren Davis (from io9)

Including a tonne of people reading for British viewers to proclaim, "oh, it's him/her from... oh y'know... that thing..."

Clive Russell, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ellie Kendrick, Paul Kaye, Mackenzie Crook, Tara Fitzgerald, Tobias Menzies, Anton Lesser -- if you don't know the name you'll probably know the face. Plus someone who I think was in Hollyoaks, someone who I think played Matilda on stage, some people I don't recognise at all even after Googling their face, and none other than Dame Diana Rigg(!)

Game of Thrones may have a cast bigger than the population of a small country, but at least you'll recognise them.

TV

The Newsroom
1x01 We Just Decided To
Seems to have been quite a lot of criticism of this in the press, but I really enjoyed it. Took a while to get going certainly, and there were flaws in other areas too, but overall I thought it worked. If it can build up the good bits and pull back on the bad over the next few episodes, it'll be great.

Mock the Week
11x05 (12/7/12 edition)
Last week it was episode 100, week before that they'd actually made a Monsoon Poultry Hospital DVD, this time Andy Murray's in the audience -- they seem to be rolling out the special this series.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Famous Five set for a TV comeback
(from ScreenTerrier)

This has all kinds of intriguing written all over it, from the premise (modern girl travels back in time to join '50s gang -- way to get modern kids on board) to the format ("allowing channels to run it as a 13x45 minute or 26x22 minute series").

Collection Count

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

This week, everything that was meant to turn up last week arrives -- and more! And almost all of them DVDs too. Can't remember the last time I bought so many DVDs (as opposed to Blu-rays), especially when they're all films and several of them from the past decade (I still get plenty of classic TV on DVD).

So I sail past 1,500 and on to... a number slightly bigger than 1,500. Shame really, because this week also sees the monthly running time update, and wouldn't it have been nice to have that at a round number like 1,500? Ah well, never mind.

Number of titles in collection: 1,504 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,161 [up 5]
Of which Blu-rays: 343 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,719 [up 6]
Number of films in collection: 1,587 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,566 [down 13]

Also this week, I came across a glaring error in my list, where I discovered I'd credited a single-film BD as having 2 films and 13 episodes of TV. The fact I didn't notice this before concerns me that my current explanation (2:13 is also the film's running time, so I think I'd accidentally duplicated it) is a coincidence and somewhere I've listed something else (or somethings else) incorrectly. But I'll just have to go with what I know and have adjusted the numbers accordingly.

With that said, here's the always-exciting running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
267 days, 6 hours, and 13 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 4 hours, and 16 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Once Upon a Time
1x11 Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

Pointless
6x38 (4/5/12 edition)

Twenty Twelve
2x05 Catastrophisation
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror is handed second series
by Alex Fletcher (from Digital Spy)

Very pleased about this. Enjoyed the first series and I think there should always be room for thought-provoking boundary-pushing sci-fi on TV. And anthology series too, which are also few and far between but an excellent form.

TV

Once Upon a Time
1x10 7:15 A.M.
They have all the fairytale characters speaking cod-historical fantasy dialogue, then one asks, "are you OK?" Must try harder.

Pointless Celebrities
2x06 (26/5/12 edition)

TV

A Short History of Everything Else
1x04 Episode 4
Why does anyone ever book Roisin Conaty? She's not funny and seems to be quite incredibly dense.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Superstar
1x01 Auditions
1x02 Superstar Island Auditions
Andrew Lloyd Webber tries to find his own personal Jesus, as it were.
[Watch episodes one and two (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Batman Returns (1992)
[4th or so watch]

Tim Burton's first Batman film is great, no doubt, but Returns is a much better film in so many ways. The direction, writing, acting, action and effects are all slicker. They spent over twice as much money on it and it really shows. Plus they have exactly the same running time (to the very minute), but Batman feels surprisingly small scale and Returns feels epic.

Watched today, Batman feels Old now, whereas Returns… it's from '92, of course it doesn't feel New -- but it feels more like newer films, in a good way. Easily the franchise's best effort until at least Begins, possibly until Dark Knight, perhaps even of all (I've not seen Nolan's two for a long time, so we'll see when I get to them).


Passchendaele (2008)
[#55 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

TV

Dexter
5x10 In the Beginning
5x11 Hop a Freighter
5x12 The Big One [season finale]
Episode 10 ended with too much exciting unresolvededness to stop, and then 11 felt more like the first half of a finale than its own episode (honestly, that ending… it felt like they made a double-length episode with various possible break points halfway through and just went with the place nearest the middle).
Anyway, the season as a whole I enjoyed. Like I said some time before, it's probably not the very best Dexter's had to offer, but it's not below its usual standard either. Though I agree with critics that Lumen's exit wasn't wholly plausible and could perhaps have been handled better.
I've not heard fab things about season six... but then, same for this one, so we'll see.

Episodes
2x09 Episode 9 [season finale]
Good ending. Hope we get a third series.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Batman (1989)
[4th or so watch]

I realised yesterday that I haven't watched a Batman film since the Adam West one three years ago, and I haven't watched one of the modern (i.e. Tim Burton and later) ones since I saw The Dark Knight in cinemas! With my curiosity piqued, I worked out that I probably haven't watched the others (i.e. Batman, Returns, Forever, and Robin, Begins) since 2006. That's like forever.

So, with the final part of Nolan's Bat trilogy less than two weeks away, I thought, "what better time to re-watch them all?" So I intend to.

Main thought after this one is how weird it is watching it in the wake of Nolan's films. This used to be the dark and serious take on superheroes, treating them in a more grown-up fashion. Now, it looks positively comic book-y. Sure, it's a bit grown-up -- there's elements of psychology and adult relationships, not just Boy's Own Adventure -- but the level of heightened reality and camp... nothing like comic book adaptations now.

Also, you forget just how true it was that the earlier Batman films focussed more on the villains than the hero. Batman's in the first scene, but that's it for a while, and it takes Bruce Wayne ages to appear. The story follows Jack Napier/the Joker and a pair of journalists, primarily Vicki Vale, though (again) I think it's easy to forget how prominent her partner (Alexander Knox, played by Robert Wuhl) is. The film puts a little more emphasis on Wayne/Batman later on, but for a hefty chunk it's not really about him at all. You can really see why Nolan & co thought that was a seam waiting to be tapped when it came to Begins.

(Incidentally, I first saw Batman when I was a kid, so I have no idea how many times I've actually seen it. Same goes for Returns (same situation) and Forever (which I saw in the cinema, but don't really know how many times I may've watched it on TV, etc). All of these numbers are, therefore, a guesstimate.)

TV

Wimbledon 2012
Andy Murray, the first Brit in the men's final for 76 years... and he lost to Roger Federer. Thank God.
[Watch the men's final, and many other matches, on iPlayer.]

Yes, Prime Minister
2x01 Man Overboard

Films

16 Blocks (2006)
[#54 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Articles

The Judge Dredd Movie Trilogy, As Loosely Planned By Writer Alex Garland
by Brendon Connelly (from Bleeding Cool)

They know roughly what they'll do for sequels to Dredd, and that sounds exciting. This is an important point to take away, for those of us hoping we'll get more:

Putting a number on it is always a bit approximate, but Garland said that $50 million box office from Dredd in the US would be enough to get a sequel in motion.

These things are never 100% -- it could flop at the US box office but do incredibly well round the world, say, and if you're making a profit in most markets then a sequel is still a good idea. Plus there's always DVD/Blu-ray, which can be huge for a film like this: Kick-Ass 'only' made $96m at the worldwide box office, but it's done more like $250m with home ent included. (I believe Dredd cost a little more than Kick-Ass, but they're in the same ballpark.)

this week on 100 Films

One new reviews was posted to 100 Films in a Year this week...

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)

Naturally there are plenty of action sequences, several of them tacked on for the sake of it. Personally I wasn’t impressed. They’re all clearly shot on digital video, several are under-lit, there’s too much Hollywood-style choppy editing, it felt like some had bits missing, others are stop-start in a way that adds up to not very much… Many of them left me confused about what was meant to be going on, not in awe of the performer’s abilities or entertained. One of them features the hero fighting a gaggle of cheap CGI deer.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

As its terrestrial TV premiere was last Friday night, I also added my review of the 2009 film version of State of Play to the new blog. You can find that here.

More next Sunday.

Films

Green Lantern: Extended Cut (2011)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who: Assimilation² #2 by Scott & David Tipton (with Tony Lee) & J.K. Woodward

This is marginally better than the awful issue one, but not by much. That showed us an adventure with the TARDIS crew in ancient Egypt, ending with them meeting the Enterprise gang in '20s San Francisco; this issue shows their perspective, having an 'adventure' on a water-covered planet before encountering the Doctor & co, in what is actually a Holodeck simulation (of course). Except their 'adventure' involves four or five pages of people discussing mining works, followed by a little bit of flooding. It's as thrilling as watching paint dry.

When the two crews get together things liven up a little, but it's all too brief. I say "brief" -- it's a 20-page comic, it's just hardly anything happens on each page. The Tiptons' dialogue is clunky, though that might just be the Trek style. Still, it doesn't wring right, often coming across like a first draft no one bothered to refine. Woodward's art is still awful, a loose mishmash of photo reference and indistinct long-shots.

With the two crews teaming up, and some mysteries that promise to be built upon (the cover for #3 features the fourth Doctor, Kirk and Spock), there's potential for this series to improve. But Woodward's art isn't going to do it any favours, and the kerfuffle over regular IDW Who scribe Tony Lee leaving the book halfway through is concerning too. I don't hold out great hope.

Articles

Ron Perlman Is Hellboy Again For Make-A-Wish
by Brendon Connelly (from Bleeding Cool)

Reviews of Batman: Earth One from
ACB by John Barringer
CBR by Doug Zawisza
iFanboy by Chris Arrant
IGN by Joey Esposito

They're all very positive, and make it sound enticingly intriguing -- not something you'd expect from yet another re-telling of Batman's origin story -- which is why I've decided to dive in and buy it.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x10 The Passage

How I Met Your Mother
7x20 Trilogy Time
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Mock the Week
11x04 (5/7/12 edition)
aka Episode 100. Loved the "best bits" montage.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

Animal Man #7 & #8 by Jeff Lemire, Steve Pugh & Travel Foreman

I've slipped dreadfully far behind with Animal Man (#11 was out last Wednesday, and there's been an annual too), so it's about time I began to catch-up -- starting (obviously) with this two-parter.

Sadly, I didn't think it was up to the standard I remember the book having. It's too slow (taking four pages to tell something you could do with just as much depth in two) with the occasional horrendous gap in logic (you're driving along, you see a massive stampede of angry animals coming toward you, so you... get out and run the other way on foot?!) The second part is better, with some twists and a big cliffhanger, but still slight.

And there's no way this should only be rated T+.

Articles

10 Interesting Things From The Dark Knight Rises Press Pack
by Alasdair Stuart (from Bleeding Cool)

My favourite was about how they've done the Batcave (#9 on that list). The full, surprisingly lengthy (49 pages! Throw in a few pictures and paperback-sized formatting and you've got yourself a book!), press pack can be found here.


Dark Knight Rises: Christopher Nolan takes Batman to new place
by Geoff Boucher (from Hero Complex at the Los Angeles Times)

An in depth feature on TDKR -- and a proper newspaper-with-access-y one, not a fansite "cribbed together from old news articles and our opinions"-y one. Belying the professionalism, it was riddled with typos when I read it last night, but they may have fixed those by now.

Collection Count

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

Last time I mentioned that "TheHut have been typically tardy in sending out a recent order for several titles." A week later and two-thirds of them are still awaiting despatch, and the other third hasn't turned up yet. That wasn't all I was expecting in the regular post either, so Royal Mail have thoroughly let me down there. They've been appalling recently.

So rather than reach a nice round 1,500 titles as I thought I would this week, there's absolutely nothing to report. Sucks.

Number of titles in collection: 1,498 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,156 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 342 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,713 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,582 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,579 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Episodes
2x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)
[#52 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

It's on Film4 tonight (by the time you might be reading this), so I'll try to have a review up during the day -- keep an eye out if you're interested.

Comics

Amazing Fantasy #15 (2012 reprint) by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko & Jean-Francois Beaulieu

As part of the celebration of Spider-Man's 50th anniversary, Marvel have re-printed his first ever appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, alongside the stories from The Amazing Spider-Man #1, all with new colours by Beaulieu. Some people fundamentally object to that, but where's the arm when the original version has been collected in numerous different editions down the years?

One thing it does prove is how much comic book art has changed since the '60s. You put modern colours on an '80s, maybe even a '70s, book and it looks like it was produced yesterday; this, however, looks like an imitation of an old-fashioned style. Still cracking stories though.

TV

Dexter
5x09 Teenage Wasteland
This season keeps spinning in surprising directions. I'm loving it.

Rules of Engagement
2x03 Mr. Fix It
Random late-night comedy viewing, this time courtesy of E4. See also:

The War at Home
2x11 Out & In
Dear God this was awful. And then, every once in a while, it threw in a couple of inspired funny bits. Weird. And the storyline featured/started in this episode even got nominated for awards, so that's even weirder.

Yes, Prime Minister
1x08 One of Us [season finale]
This, on the other hand, is always excellent. (Even if it took long enough to continue watching it.)

TV

Dexter
5x08 Take It!
Structural changes abound (what I thought would be this season's on-going case, the Fuentes brothers, has been resolved... though it has longer-lasting implications; and that's a helluva cliffhanger too), but that's a good thing -- helps keep the series fresh. I know some fans objected, especially after the high-point of season four, but I think it's working. It may not be the best season ever, but the quality's still up there.

Mock the Week
10x01 (9/6/11 edition) [2nd watch]
11x03 (1/7/12 edition)
In which they discuss the Jimmy Carr thing. Was that really so recent? I know this would've been taped nearly a week ago now, but the Carr stuff feels even older.
(Series 10 episode courtesy of Dave.)
[Watch 11x03 (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Sky Living to screen US Sherlock rival Elementary
by Paul Jones (from Radio Times)

That doesn't bode well, does it? Do Living show anything good?

Also in that article, news that Sky have bought Green Arrow adaptation Arrow -- but that gets to air on Sky1. I thought it looked potentially interesting from the trailers, rather than another throughly cheesy/cheapy/campy Smallville, so we'll see.

TV

MythBusters
6x05 Viewers Special 2!

A Short History of Everything Else
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Dexter
5x07 Circle Us
I like Dexter's funny-punny titles. This isn't one. Boo. Still, good episode, and the trailer for next time looked incredible too.

Would I Lie To You?
6x09 The Unseen Bits [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

No new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, but it's July today and so the June update is now available. Exciting times.

I also added a few old reviews to my new blog. They were...

Double Indemnity (1944)

perhaps the archetypal film noir — unsurprising, really, when you have Raymond Chandler co-adapting a novel by James M. Cain. Present and correct are the femme fatale, dry-witted lead man, voice-over narration, shadowy photography, murder, cover-ups, investigations, twists…

Read more here.

Public Enemies (2009)

Mann continues his love affair with digital video, but here he pushes it to the limit: gone is any pretence of 35mm gloss, much of the film looking ungraded and featuring the fluidity of video’s higher frame rate. Some reviewers see this as progressive, bringing an unpolished documentary realism to a period setting. Others lament the lack of polish and glamour

Read more here.

Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960)

After the ‘origin story’ becoming the default setting for new versions of well-known heroes in the past few years, it’s quite nice to witness a tale that dives in assuming we know who Robin Hood, Little John, the Sheriff, and so forth, are... This allows the film to get on with its plot, such as it is — a bit of an excuse for an array of action and humour, mainly.

Read more here.

Note that Sword of Sherwood Forest is available on iPlayer to view and download, until 1:44pm today.

More next Sunday.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x09 Unfinished Business [extended cut]

I had thought I was going to watch the broadcast version of this episode -- I usually do with things, first time round (see: Neon Genesis Evangelion. (I say "see" -- I watched that before I started this blog.)). But goodness knows when second-time-round might be, and this particular extended version makes a regular episode feature-length, with 26½ minutes of added material.

According to executive producer Ronald D. Moore, this is "an 'editor's cut'... the starting point for cutting down the episode to the standard length... while it offers a lot more details on the characters, it is a rough cut (unlike the Pegasus extended cut). He considers some scenes better and some worse than in the final cut, sometimes preferring story points only being told by implication and not spelled out. He thinks some scenes may be too long, with the ideal cut maybe somewhere between the two." (There's also an odd situation with the episode's music score, which you can read about in a little more detail here.) So my decision to watch the longer version was based on the premise that if neither's perfect, I may as well see the one with more material.

It certainly felt like quite an epic episode -- in character terms, anyway -- dealing with a lot of long-standing issues (even if the viewer didn't know about all of them yet). Moore also notes that there was "a faster pace in the aired version", so it would be interesting to see the contrast. Hopefully someday there'll be a second-time-round and I can watch it then.

Articles

Daniel Kleinman Joins Skyfall
(from MI6)

I am ever so happy about this news! Kleinman designed all the Bond title sequences from GoldenEye to Casino Royale (those two in particular being amongst the finest the entire series has to offer), but was replaced on Quantum of Solace by the director's preferred effects company... who turned in a woeful, uninspired sequence that may be among the franchise's worst. Hopefully Kleinman will be on full form and deliver something incredible once again.


July 2012 Preview
by Ray Subers (from Box Office Mojo)

If you're interested in movies' box office grosses (which I am, at least a bit), then here's an interesting preview/analysis of the next month's films. That includes the likes of The Dark Knight Rises (will it best The Dark Knight? Can it possibly beat The Avengers?); The Amazing Spider-Man (can it equal Sam Raimi's trilogy? Will it get lost in DKR build-up?); Ice Age: Continental Drift (as only the second animated series ever to reach a fourth entry, coming behind two very successful CG 'toons already this year, is it doomed?); and, of course, more (all of which will almost certainly be less successful).


The mystery of The Killing Zone
by John Cox (from The Book Bond)

Easiest way to explain this intriguing work is from the article itself:

One of the more mysterious stories in the world of the literary James Bond is that of the little-known 007 novel The Killing Zone by Jim Hatfield. [It] appeared in 1985 -- the year official continuation novelist John Gardner had off -- and claims on its copyright page to be officially licensed by Glidrose Publications (now Ian Fleming Publications). But this book is far from official.

More (naturally) at the link.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
7x19 The Broath
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Cars 2 (2011)
[#51 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation (2011)
[#50a in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 2009 by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
3: Let It Come Down
Minions of the Moon Chapter Three: Saviours

The final part of Century begins with Orlando. S/he's been an increasingly big presence in the books -- a lot of background material in Black Dossier, then one of the three leads throughout Century -- but this is the first time the focus has really moved from Mina (and Allan). It remains odd, but his/her increased presence has kind of earnt it.

It also contributes towards his/her character arc. Indeed, if there's one thing I'd note about Century's contribution to the series, it's the focus on character. All three leads undergo significant emotional changes throughout this series, more so than in previous ones I'd say, a lot of it focusing on their varied experiences of immortality. Those seeking an action/adventure book with pop-culture super-beings could probably care less, but despite being that on the surface, LoEG has never been about that -- the much-hated film proved that.

That's not to say the final chapter isn't without incident. I won't go spoiling stuff in case anyone who hasn't read it yet reads this, but the involvement of Harry Potter has received some press attention so there's no point trying to hide it. The stuff at Hogwarts is brilliant, though I'd argue Moore could occasionally do with remembering he's rendering a comic, not a storyboard -- there's a stream of panels that mirror each other very nicely, but putting them in blocks of three (rather than two or four) mucks this up slightly, in my opinion. Maybe he and O'Neill were trying to avoid making it too heavy-handed, but it's a deliberate parallel and the layout obscures it.

Then there's the Big Climax. Two things: firstly, it's good to see Allan turn up again here. He's barely in 2009. That said, when he does turn up his limited page-time is put to good use, with a particularly dramatic mini-arc. No spoilers on the end of it though. That said, I imagine this is quite possibly the end of the ongoing adventures of the League -- Moore has discussed doing other stories in already-established backstory, which is a grand idea because there are so many asides that could be more deeply explored there (and it might placate those who never liked the series' move into the 20th Century). Plus, having tackled the biggest franchise in modern media with the climax to this volume, perhaps it's a wise idea to not keep moving on. That said, there's an unresolved note at the end of this story -- I'm sure we all want to know what that's about!

Secondly (I got distracted there, but this is indeed "secondly"), the person who turns up at the climax of the climax to defeat the villain is genius. Well done on that one, Mr Moore. I loved it.

After three years of waiting and saving-up volumes of Century, I thought it was worth the wait. It's a different kind of story to previous League instalments, and certainly moves at a different pace. But hey, it's presented differently -- three long segments instead of six regular-sized ones, and, compared to most current comics, it comes out at nearly 11 issues of material. Can't sniff at that. But I can understand some of the objections to the series moving away from the style of the first two volumes, because that was great, but Moore and O'Neill are pushing the concept in interesting directions, and that's exciting and entertaining in its own way. You can always re-read the first two after all.

But it really will be interesting to see where they go next, whether that's back into the old style or increasingly pushing on.

Articles

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
by Edward Champion (from Reluctant Habits)

I'm not especially excited for The Amazing Spider-Man, but I'm not desperate for it to be a failure in the way some fans of Raimi's previous trilogy seem to be. Considering Spider-Man was a huge superhero success, and the first film fullstop to have a $100m+ opening weekend, this one's looking surprisingly overshadowed, tucked between The Avengers (which has already claimed the first $200m+ opening) and The Dark Knight Rises (more likely to challenge that number, though without 3D is unlikely to do so).

Either way, this slagging off is a good read, entertainingly highlighting a myriad of problems with the film. It makes it sound, like I've heard in some other reviews, "fine" -- not bad per se, just uninspired (especially compared to Raimi's first) and consequently uexciting.

Collection Count

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

There should have been more this week (even with four titles turning up this morning), but TheHut have been typically tardy in sending out a recent order for several titles. Still, this morning's delivery is quite a boost -- though lower still than it might've been, because I finally got round to removing a couple of DVD box sets.

Number of titles in collection: 1,498 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,156 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 342 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 3,713 [up 8]
Number of films in collection: 1,582 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,579 [up 47]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x07 A Measure of Salvation
3x08 Hero
It's been nearly 18 months since I last watched Galactica -- oops, that wasn't meant to happen! I tried reading the episode summary at that link to remind me where I was, but it didn't really help, so instead just settled down to watch the episode and hope the "previously on"s would do the trick. And thank frak for those, they did. Shame I didn't manage one more episode before my accidental abandonment, though, because that really wrapped up the ongoing stories (for the time being, anyway) before apparently moving on to more episodic tales with Hero.

TV

Dexter
5x06 Everything is Illumenated
Halfway through the season and what one might think was the premise has been established. Interesting change of pace, and I presume therefore they still have somewhere different to go with it. Personally, though they'd reach this point was pretty inevitable, I think it's working.

Films

The Lost Weekend (1945)
[#50 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1969 by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
2: Paint It Black
Minions of the Moon Chapter Two: The Distance From Tranquility

Despite being set 59 years later, Paint It Black picks up where What Keeps Mankind Alive? left off in the investigation of Oliver Haddo and his attempts to take over the world with a Moonchild. (Aside: it would be interesting to read the League in chronological order, as the main story part of Black Dossier takes place between the first two parts of Century.)

While the first part almost functioned as a standalone tale, this is very much the next instalment of a longer story -- an Empire Strikes Back, if you will, that does have its own contained narrative but also ends on a devastating cliffhanger. The League is all but gone as the book begins, and as it ends it's certainly destroyed, with one member completely missing (both to the characters and to the reader), so it'll be interesting to see where 2009 picks things up.

I didn't find it to be as satisfying a read as 1910, perhaps, though there's some very nice character stuff about how Mina is coping with immortality. O'Neill's art seems to be scratchier and rougher than usual to me, which is a shame -- it looks positively rushed in places, rendering things too cartoonish -- but he pulls off the crazy climax well nonetheless. Maybe it's excused by rendering the psychedelic world of the '60s, but the gangland stuff feels sketchy too. Hopefully he's returned to his usual level of preciseness on 2009.

Last time I forgot to discuss Minions of the Moon, the three-part prose story that closes every issue of Century. It's surprisingly followable. Not what one might call "readable" -- it's still prose by Moore, after all -- but it's far from his densest, most frustrating work. And it's another League-related story, set largely in the '60s, so that's a plus. Will it fill in any gaps from the main story? That remains to be seen...

TV

Hitler's Children
A one-off documentary about "the descendants of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime" (so, not literally Hitler's children). I stumbled across it during the Sign Zone last night and was quickly engrossed. It's a fascinating look about the various ways such people have coped with the horrendous events in their families' pasts.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

A Short History of Everything Else
1x02 Episode 2
This episode tackled such historical years as 2005, 2004, and 2011. 2011! I'm not sure HIGNFYs from as recently as 2011 are even on Dave yet! Cast the net a little further back please, programme-makers.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Alien in "3D": Just one frame
by Jim Emerson (from jim emerson's scanners :: blog)

It's a regular screengrab from regular Alien, which means it's in 2D -- but it demonstrates well the three-dimensionality of regular film; and, therefore, by implication, why "3D" as it's currently promoted is just a gimmick rather than a necessary tool.

And aside from that point, the brief article is just a good breakdown of how much a single frame can potentially convey about an entire scene, or movie, or even career.

TV

Pointless
6x37 (2/5/12 edition)

Films

The Spiral Staircase (2000)
[#49 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910 by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
1: What Keeps Mankind Alive?
Minions of the Moon Chapter One: Into The Limbus

I've been waiting years to read this: I read (and reviewed in six parts) the third League title, Black Dossier, four years ago this month; I've had this opening book of Century since it came out in 2009; but the third (and final) part came out this week, and turned up in my post today, so I'm finally settling down to read it (over three days is my plan).

It takes a different structural form for League: whereas the first two were traditional six-issue miniseries, and the third a mixed-format book, Century exists as three standalone-but-connected books. This first is 72 pages, or the equivalent of three 24-page issues, so I guess that makes it three three-parters or one nine-parter. It's nice to mix things up.

It's a form that works here: without spoiling anything, there's a definite story that begins and concludes within the book itself, while events are set in motion that will obviously continue through the next two volumes. It's as entertaining as the rest of the League stories too, for my money, with the usual heady mix of horror, violence, humour, adventure, and some song now too. There's a new League, one that has obviously been working together for a little while, and that keeps things moving and entertaining for the reader. While Moore does mix in a few cultural reference points and a bit of filling-the-gaps-in-League-history, it's mostly slotted in around the story, unlike Black Dossier which some criticised for foregrounding it.

Anyway, the important thing is I enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing it develop over the next two instalments.

Articles

Watch A 25 Minute Version Of The Amazing Spider-Man Made Up Of Only Promo Clips
by Devin Faraci (from Badass Digest)

How many clips are too many clips? Probably when you can construct a TWENTY-FIVE MINUTE MINI-MOVIE from them. That's what Vimeo user SleepySkunk has done. He has taken all of the legally, publically available footage from The Amazing Spider-Man and edited it together linearly into a short film that essentially gives you the entire movie.

That's, what, a quarter of the movie? That's insane.

TV

Dexter
5x05 First Blood
It's been 10 months since I last watched Dexter (in which time FX have not only finished airing it, they've aired all of the next season too), but now that there's not much else on I can get back to it.
And thank goodness for its solid "previously on" too, because without it I was struggling to remember what was going on, and with it I'm fully back up to speed. I knew I'd appreciate those things one day.

Episodes
2x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

MythBusters
5x17 Superhero Hour
5x16 Red Rag to a Bull
5x18 Myth Evolution
The episode about superhero stuff was pretty cool. Nearly didn't watch the second one -- I know bulls don't care about red; you know how a bull in a china shop is going to turn out -- but the other half of the episode, about bullets in ovens/on campfires, was cool... and it turns out a bull in a china shop isn't so obvious after all. And then the third one goes for a load of stuff they missed, according to fans, which fortunately meant it was more packed with stuff than usual. I like Mythbusters, but damn it's full of repetitious recaps.

Would I Lie To You?
6x08 Episode 8
Why the BBC have hung on to this until now I don't know. The outtakes episode, sure, they often air that later, but just a single regular episode of the series? Why?
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

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

The Man from Earth (2007)

what one might call Proper Science Fiction. Most films classed as sci-fi just feature aliens or what have you; they’re space opera, or just action movies where Americans fight off-planet enemies instead of out-of-country enemies; the kind of thing Ray Bradbury termed fantasy rather than sci-fi. Instead of Shooting And Blowing Up Stuff, or even comedy antics with a twist, The Man from Earth deals in Ideas.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

The Scarlet Claw (1944)

it really is a horror movie too. There’s not just the elements of occult in the myth of the Canadian town Holmes and Watson find themselves in almost by chance, but also the way the production is staged... [Roy William Neill's] direction is incredibly atmospheric, from a wonderful mist-covered opening scene, replete with an incessantly tolling bell, to regular instances of shadow-drenched photography afterwards

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

Tonight sees the UK terrestrial TV premiere of Up in the Air (9pm BBC Two), so I've also added my review from last year to my new blog. You can read it here. (It should be there, anyway. If it isn't, it'll be at that link later today.)

More next Sunday.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
11x11 (22/6/12 edition)
Jumping ahead to last night's episode -- The One With mir.i.am -- due to the online reaction. It was indeed uproarious.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
11x02 (21/06/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

How I Met Your Mother
7x18 Karma
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Rules of Engagement
1x02 The Birthday Deal
More random late-night comedy viewing. It was quite good, as these things go.

Silk
2x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
I really enjoyed the first series of Silk, but I think it's been even better this year. Just fantastic stuff. How good is Maxine Peake? That first meeting with Jody Farr, the number of emotions and feelings she puts into it just by being there... Brilliant. And let's not forget Neil Stuke as Billy -- he could be a very simplistic, single-dimensioned character, but he too brings so much to the role.
So glad there's going to be a third run. Long may it continue.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Comics

Batman #10 by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo

This seemed to be all over twitter when it came out nine days ago, so it's nice to finally be able to catch up with it (Forbidden Planet (.com) may be slow at sending comics out sometimes, but the fact I can do a whole month's order for flat-rate p&p and get it delivered every week (even if it's late) is what keeps me coming back).

And wow did it deserve the hype! The Court of Owls storyline has been fantastic on the whole, and this is the start of a blinding climax (it finishes next issue). Both Snyder's writing and Capullo's art are incredible -- the issue contains three splash pages, which normally means a dearth of story, but each exists for a reason: they pack a punch, and there's more than enough plot elsewhere to make up for it. Sure, the main talking point is a final-pages revelation/twist, and that's justifiably been much-discussed, but it's the overall quality of the storytelling (from both writer and artist) that makes this exceptional. (For a spoilersome interview with Snyder discussing his thinking behind the twist, the entire story arc, and his future plans, look here.)

The Snyder/Tynion-penned, Albuquerque-drawn backup The Fall of the House of Wayne continues with its second part (of three). I wasn't sold on the first part (the backup strips in general across The New 52 have felt like a waste of space to me), but this one really sells its worth. It builds up on the backstory hinted at in the main strip, making it feel an essential part of the story.

This is 100% wonderful. Next issue's concluding parts can't come soon enough.


Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 by Darwyn Cooke

Another big, much-discussed comic. DC's summer event begins here. Well, I say summer event -- it's 35 issues (across seven miniseries) and will go on until the end of January. Not so summery. But it is a big, controversial event, for all kinds of reason that have been discussed to death across the internet, so I shan't be going into them here.

Personally, I really enjoyed this issue. Cooke's art is perfectly suited to a classic-styled '30s/'40s book, and the typical-Watchmen hard-edge (criminals pissing themselves, heroes paying off the cops, explicit swearing, etc) undercuts it nicely. Plus his compositions are visually arresting, making it a joy to behold all round. Phil Noto's colours compliment this perfectly.

Then Cooke's storytelling is very good to boot. This is clearly the very beginning of a multi-part tale -- but that's fine, so is the original Watchmen. Here he introduces each of the eight Minutemen one by one. Some get more time than others, suggesting relative importance, but with just six issues and so many characters that's always going to happen. And nonetheless, it feels longer than the usual modern 20-page book. That's partly because it's 26 pages, but still, it's super.

It's hard to judge an entire comic objectively on what is almost entirely setup for the rest of the story -- that hasn't stopped some laying into it, apparently forgetting that Watchmen was a longer tale told in smaller parts too. I think this is a solid opening with much promise, even if the ending is a bit unclear (is that supposed to be a cliffhanger? If so, how so?), and I look forward to the rest. Wise decision by DC to start here, I feel.

Linking the 35 issues together in their publication order is backup strip The Curse of the Crimson Corsair: The Devil in the Deep...! (to give the full title as rendered in the book), by Len Wein and John Higgins, included in two-page chunks. Whether there will be multiple Crimson Corsairs stories or it's 70 pages of The Devil in the Deep, I don't know.

This is less successful than the main story, unfortunately. If it's meant to be a contemporaneous comic (as readers may remember, in the Watchmen universe the presence of real-life heroes meant pirate comics were the most popular genre, not superheroes) then the art & colouring is far too modern. Even if it isn't, it's scuppered by only being two pages long -- that's nothing like enough to get a feel or tell a good chunk of story. It attempts to nonetheless, meaning it's stuffed with dialogue boxes instead of telling the story through art. Presumably it will somehow end up commenting on the main story, much like Tales of the Black Freighter did in the original, though how that's supposed to happen when it's spread across seven separate miniseries I don't know.

Articles

Clive James: 'I’m not dead yet!’
by Clive James (from The Telegraph)

Remember what I said about Clive James? Turns out, not so much with the imminent death. But this is more than just a "it's not true" -- it's a great piece on the media.

Collection Count

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

Very minor additions this week. Not much schedule for the foreseeable future, actually, just the odd one here or there. Loads in September though. Loads.

Number of titles in collection: 1,495 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,157 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 338 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,705 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,581 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,532 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

No Ordinary Family
1x20 No Ordinary Beginning [series finale]
Thank God that's over! Though after a typically dreadful episode they managed to find a cliffhanger-ish ending that made the next series look almost enticing. That said, while the potential new direction had promise, they'd probably have fluffed it in their usual fashion. It's no loss.

Articles

Andrew Sarris and the “A” Word
by Richard Brody (from The Front Row at The New Yorker)
American film critic Andrew Sarris died yesterday. To be frank, I'd never heard of him. This tribute explains why I really should have, as well as discussing his abiding influence on all English-language film criticism. I have mixed feelings when it comes to auteur theory, but this piece almost convinces me I should just go along with it.

Hollywood: A Love Story
by Clive James (from the Atlantic)
Clive James is in the news at the minute because of his terminal illness. Related to that, someone posted this article by him on twitter, as proof that reviews/criticism can be art in themselves. It's a very lengthy read, but you can see what that tweeter meant. Partly it's because the piece is not merely a "should you buy this?" review but also a riposte to the book it's covering. It works for the reader because, even if you've not read the text it comments on, it has something new and interesting to say.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats
13x08 (15/6/12 edition)
I gave up watching 8 Out of 10 Cats (for the second time) about 18 months ago, but I needed something funny to watch and this was the best thing on offer that I hadn't seen. And it wasn't too bad, though having people from TOWIE or Made in Chelsea or whatever didn't do much to convince me to become a regular viewer.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

No Ordinary Family
1x19 No Ordinary Future
Oh. Dear. God.
But it's nearly over... nearly over...

Playhouse Presents
1x04 King of the Teds
aka The One With Tom Jones. He did a pretty good job.

Pointless
6x36 (1/5/12 edition)

TV

Just Good Friends
3x07 The Wedding [series finale]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
21x12 Episode 12 [2nd watch]

No Ordinary Family
1x18 No Ordinary Animal
Oh yes, that's right! Six months after I last watched it and a year or more since it was cancelled, I've returned for the final three episodes of this. I will finish it, goddammit.
It's even more laughable than I remembered. Which is probably to the benefit of Once Upon a Time, because for all that programme's numerous faults, it is better than this.

Articles

League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009: The Bleeding Cool Review
by Rich Johnston (from Bleeding Cool)

Looking forward to this. It's the third and final volume of Century, and I've been saving up the other two ever since they were published to read it all in one go (and the first was released in May 2009!) After several days of having it locked into "dispatching soon", Amazon sent mine this evening. So only a couple of days to go...

TV

Just Good Friends
3x06 Employment Prospects
After nearly a year it seemed like a good idea to finish this. (That's nothing compared to Gilmore Girls, mind.)

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
21x10 Episode 10 [2nd watch]
21x11 Episode 11 [2nd watch]
More quite-old-repeat viewing courtesy of Dave. I've very definitely seen this series. My favourite bit was the band I've never heard of who the NME said were going to be big in 2008 (the year these first went out). Clearly, they were very wrong.

Playhouse Presents
1x03 Nixon's The One!
15th April, 19th May, 18th June -- I'm watching these pretty precisely at once a month. Ought to step that up considering there's 11 of them.
This one was... weird. Not sure what to make of it, to be honest. Is it really based on real tapes (which they reiterated twice with no kind of retraction note at the end), or is it a complete spoof? I couldn't be sure. It wasn't especially dramatic, but I didn't really laugh either. And it's getting a full-series spin-off too! Bizarre.

Silk
2x05 Episode 5
Despite starting this significantly through its run, I've now caught up -- because it's great. The finale's on Wednesday, which means if you haven't watched it yet the whole series will be available on iPlayer for another nine days.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]