this week on 100 Films

The 100 Films Advent Calendar continues apace, with seven new reviews published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Chatroom (2010)

Chatroom is born of trying to find a viable way of depicting the world of online chatrooms on film... presumably presenting the online world in a filmic way was a necessary aside for wanting to set a story in that world. Sadly, the actual tale being told isn’t up to all that much.

Read more here.


The Expendables (2010)

What you do get is a film that revels in its action-movie-ness. I mean, most of the characters have great (read: daft) action movie names: Barney Ross, Lee Christmas, Yin Yang, Toll Road, Hale Caesar, Paine… How is that not a film aware of its own absurdity? How can you not enjoy that, even a little?

Read more here.


The Keep (1983)

it’s really good; a film that is genuinely creepy, with an effective sense of foreboding and mystery… for about half an hour or so. [...] Events become convoluted and borderline nonsensical, and whatever thematic points the film has to make about evil and belief get lost in the mix.

Read more here.


The Last Airbender (2010)

The plot pings back and forth between locations and characters, basing itself in a heavy mythology that isn’t adequately explained. Chunks of it seem to be missing, conveyed through clunky voiceover rather than on-screen action. The first rule of screenwriting is Show Don’t Tell, but Shyamalan does exactly the opposite.

Read more here.


M (British version) (1931/1932)

Let’s establish one thing right away: this is unquestionably an inferior version of Fritz Lang’s masterpiece, M. Never mind that it’s an old, unrestored, thoroughly battered print; it’s the conscious changes that — unavoidably — lessen the film.

Read more here.


Predators (2010)

it’s not an entirely stock plot merely peppered with gunfights. Rodriguez and co have made the effort to push the mythology in new directions; ones which seem to build naturally out of other Predator media, even though those aren’t specifically mentioned.

Read more here.


The Sum of All Fears (2002)

it’s a solid little thriller. A bit plodding at times, but engrossing enough... There’s A Big Twist in the middle that would easily have been one of the best bits about the film, had they not blown it in the trailers. Even still, it’s a bit audacious

Read more here.


If that wasn't enough, also new to the new blog were...


Predator (1987)

Let’s not pretend here: although the series have become intrinsically linked, Predator is Alien’s poorer cousin. Not that it’s a bad film — it’s an entertaining war flick that turns into a sci-fi/action/horror skirmish thingy — but it doesn’t have the same finesse that imbues Alien and its sequel.

Read more here.


Predator 2 (1990)

the action is moved from a jungle to the concrete jungle (see what they did there?) of LA... the vastly different settings and setups mean that, even with the involvement of the same sneaky alien hunter, the films have a vastly different feel too. It’s just a shame Predator 2’s “urban jungle” concept is so poorly executed

Read more here.


Another seven (hopefully!) next Sunday.

TV

Merlin
5x10 The Kindness of Strangers
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Expendables (2010)
[#94 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

Dial H #3, #4 & #5 by China Miéville & Mateus Santolouco

Here's a funny one, then. After the fun of the first two issues, Dial H takes a sharp downward turn into confusing babble here. It builds back up to something that makes sense and a clever climax, but it's not really much fun until quite near the end. There's nothing wrong with making your reader work a bit -- not spoon-feeding them everything -- but this goes too far down the road of oblique mysteriousness for the sake of it, giving us multiple characters who all know what they're babbling about while locking the reader out. And then, like I say, it does get a bit better. Now I'm torn between dropping this and keeping going.


Dial H #0 by China Miéville & Riccardo Burchielli

As for the Zero Issue, it tells a completely unrelated story that manages to illuminate the mythology of the dial, with some interesting revelations about how it works. Again, it trades on confusion until quite near the end, but at least in this instance the answers are actually in the same issue.


Extermination #2 by Simon Spurrier & Jeffrey Edwards

See below.


Revival #2 by Tim Seeley & Mike Norton

It's 6 months since I read Extermination #1, and though a bit foggy I did manage to pick it back up fine.

It's 4 months since I read Revival #1, and though I largely followed it I felt I really ought to re-read the first one to fully appreciate just what was going on.

I don't know what that says about each respective series, but they're both great. Extermination is bold, dark, but funny and entertaining, while Revival is more serious, grown-up and mysterious. And if the latter continues on its current path -- and retains its current levels of praise -- it's a dead cert for a Walking Dead-style cable TV series at some point, because that's exactly what it feels like. And I look forward to that.

Collection Count

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

It's nearly Christmas -- things are meant to be winding down! But no, here's a pile of new stuff, about half of it late arrivals from Black Friday sales and the other new releases; things so much desired that I couldn't wait another two weeks in the hope of getting them on Christmas Day.

Number of titles in collection: 1,513 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 367 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 3,775 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,563 [up 7]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 373 [up 2]

This is the last of it though (random good bargains that I can't resist notwithstanding), so I can say with absolute certainty that there won't be anything to report for the next two weeks! And the first post-Christmas one is a running time update, so that'll always be a bumper bonus of fun and excitement, oh yes it will.

See you next week nonetheless, faithful reader.

TV

Dragons' Den
10x11 Episode 11
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
12x06 (30/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

FAN ART: Comics And Marvel Movie Images Integrated
by DCMarvelFreshman (from ComicBookMovie.com)

A very talented Graphic Artist has visually analyzed just how “thin is the line that separate Modern from classic and Pixels from ink,” by integrating Marvel films with comics. Check out his digital art!

Neat idea, well done. One of the best ones as an example:

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x15 (30/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Dave's One Night Stand
4x04 Milton Jones

Films

Predators (2010)
[#93 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

TV

Goodnight Britain
Episode 1 (of 2)
Episode 2 (of 2)
[Watch episodes one and two (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off
3x14 Masterclass 3 [season finale]

Articles

Skyfall becomes highest-grossing film ever in UK
by Mayer Nissim (from Digital Spy)

The film has taken £94,277,612 [in just 40 days]. Avatar took 11 months to reach its lifetime gross of £94,025,632.

Hurrah! And thats without 3D too, which would've added a huge premium to Avatar's numbers. Well done, Bond.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x14 (29/11/12 edition)
Skipping one again, this time due to Virgin's incompetence. Maybe I should go back and fill them in on 4oD...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
2x19 Wrapped Up in Death
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

John Bishop's Big Year
Episode 1 (of 2)
Seems a little early for a review-of-the-year programme, but I suppose it gets around having to tape it in late December in order to be up-to-date.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

Spearhead From Space Remastered In High Definition
by John Bowman (from Doctor Who News)

Short piece on the work they've done for the Blu-ray release (next summer) of the only classic Doctor Who story that can be released in true HD. Sounds promising, though when they say that it's had its "grain lessened" I do hope they mean "lessened" and not "scrubbed out". If they've made it as clean as video, what's the point?

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x02 The Guest Stars

Elementary
1x05 Lesser Evils

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x02 Tasty Tech
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x12 (27/11/12 edition)
That must be the smallest contribution to the prize pot yet. Unsurprisingly none of them were bright enough to even get to the final question, never mind actually win the money. Only fair.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

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

James Bond: A BAFTA Tribute [2nd watch]
BBC special from 2002 celebrating 40 years of the Bond films. It's interesting to watch it again now: 10 years doesn't necessarily seem like such a long time, especially when you're only going back to the '00s, but it actually really feels it. You wouldn't think TV has changed so much in that time, for instance, but at points this has a borderline-old-fashioned sense; and certainly everyone looks older now, especially Roger Moore (as seen on HIGNFY the other night).

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
1x18 Identity Crisis

this week on 100 Films

The start of December means two things for 100 Films in a Year this year: firstly, the November update, which is as fascinating as ever; secondly, the inaugural 100 Films Advent Calendar, sharing 25 new reviews throughout (most of) December. The first two are up already and, of course, are shared below -- along with the one other brand-new review posted in the last week.


2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Poor acting, a plot done by the numbers, and a style that sometimes feels like a rap video writ into a film. Oh dear. Yet the chases and other car-based action sequences are pretty coolly done, and there’s more of them than I remember there being in the first film. That’s a definite plus — really, it’s all you want from a film like this.

Read more here.


Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part I (2012)

the team behind these direct-to-DVD DC animated movies have taken a reverent route to bringing DKR to the screen. It’s in two parts because the original story is too long to faithfully adapt in their limited-length movies, but that also works out OK from a storytelling point of view: this first half ends with a major threat rapped up and a great cliffhanger to kick off the second half.

Read more here.


Tombstone (1993)

Not knowing more than the name, and a few key players, I fully expected the gunfight at said corral to be the story’s climax. Maybe it is in other versions, but here it comes about halfway through. It’s the pivot around which the story turns, however, with the first half building to it and the second handling its consequences.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


Heat (1995)

will probably always be best remembered for two things: the excellent running shoot out on the streets of L.A., and De Niro and Pacino on screen together for the first (and, so far, last) time.

Read more here.


Ivanhoe (1952)

swashing buckles are the order of the day... Most notable is an excellent siege sequence, a moderately epic extended battle that is certainly the film’s high point. The randomly hurled arrows and choreography-free sword fights may look a tad amateurish sixty years on, but the scale and rough excitement of the battle easily makes up for it.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Live at the Apollo
8x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
5x05 Red Dawn
For the 100th episode, the series goes back to the first time the CBI team met Patrick Jane. Nice idea, but not wholly satisfying in its execution, if you ask me.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Merlin
5x09 With All My Heart
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Spy
2x07 Codename: Ball Busted

Films

The Keep (1983)
[#92 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

I hadn't even heard of this before yesterday, but Mike's review at Films on the Box put me on to it. In the comments section I said it sounded like "a fascinating failure", and that pretty much sums it up.

Comics

2000 AD #1812
Judge Dredd / The Simping Detective / Low Life: Trifecta by Al Ewing, Simon Spurrier, Rob Williams & Carl Critchlow

In an incredibly rare occurrence, the anthology comic gives over its entire 28 pages to a single story, the climax of the three-way crossover that's been running for the last couple of months. An epic feat it is too, and surely deserving of such an accolade. It's in shops from Wednesday.

Next Prog, the bumper-length Christmas issue. Then in January it's back to business as usual, which is in danger of feeling a bit pedestrian after two such epic Progs. Though for me, I now have over a year's worth that I need to get caught up on...

Collection Count

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

A couple more things this week, with even more in the post to make next week a big'un. And it's once again time for a running time update, so look for that slab of excitement at the end of the regular stats.

Number of titles in collection: 1,508 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 362 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,765 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,556 [up 9]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 371 [up 1]

Plus...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
273 days, 4 hours, and 46 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 15 hours, and 42 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x11 (26/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
12x05 (23/11/12 edition)
Having missed a couple (since this one, exactly a month ago), trying to get back on track -- I still have most of series 11 to watch, so don't want 12 going the same way.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x06 (23/11/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
10x10 Jungles (XL edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Bond Designer Danny Kleinman On His Skyfall Title Sequence (And How To Craft A Great 007 Opener)
by Jan Yamato (from Movieline)

I loved Skyfall's title sequence, so I also liked this short piece in which Kleinman discusses some of the thinking behind it.


Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: 49 Ways The BBC Could Celebrate
by Dave Golder (from SFX)

On one hand, this article is quite jokey. On the other, an awful lot of these are actual very good ideas. The more of them that actually happen the better.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x10 (23/11/12 edition)
Missed one. Seems the only thing I missed were the questions as no one won. That said, questions are the only reason I watch, so...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Arrow
1x04 An Innocent Man

Hunted
1x08 Snow Maiden [season finale]
I knew it wasn't going to wrap everything up, because the Radio Times said so, but even still it was disappointing. I mean, what the hell was that "One Month Later"? How did she survive being shot in the chest and falling so far into a river? Are we meant to believe that's her baby? And so on and so forth. I didn't care about there being a second series before, but now I want some proper bloody answers please.

Articles

The Dark Knight Rises Epilogue – Nightwing, Huntress, Robin and more
(from Live for Films)

Short fan-made comics about what might happen to several major characters in the wake of The Dark Knight Rises. They'd make a pretty awesome fourth film... one that we'll never see, but still.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x08 (21/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Person of Interest
1x17 Baby Blue

Proms 2012
Prom 59 The Broadway Sound
Very belatedly watching this year's John Wilson Prom

Articles

Skyfall sinks Titanic to become second highest grossing UK box office film
by Author (from RadioTimes)

It seems like such a short time ago that Mamma Mia sat quite clearly atop this list -- that was a big story at the time, which I don't recall happening when Avatar, Toy Story 3, Harry Potter 8 or Titanic's re-release all overtook it.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, Skyfall is now a solid second (almost £3m up on third place). Can it take the top spot? It's got nearly £11m to go if it will -- quite a stretch after five weeks on release. But you never know -- after all, it took Mamma Mia 23 weeks to sneak past Titanic...

TV

Dragons' Den
10x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Hebburn
1x06 A Very Big Day [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
5x04 Blood Feud
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart return for X-Men Days of Future Past
by Paul Martinovic (from Digital Spy)

Ooh, exciting news!

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x07 (20/11/12 edition)
Gooood riddance.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Elementary
1x04 The Rat Race

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x01 Super Commuter
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Comics

The Amazing Spider-Man #698 by Dan Slott & Richard Elson

It's the beginning of the end for Peter Parker as Spider-Man: ASM comes to a close with next month's #700, before a new series with a new Spidey launches in 2013. Naturally this has some fans up in arms, as if Slott were the devil himself. Of course, there's also the climax of this issue, which has some pretty shocking developments. But c'mon, it's a story, and it's far from done.

And it's in comics -- even if something terrible happens, it'll be undone within a few years at most. How do comics fans not get that by now?


Dial H #2 by China Miéville & Mateus Santolouco

The Iron Snail! Awesome.


Judge Dredd #1 by Duane Swierczynski
featuring Ripe with art by Nelson Daniel
and Protection Racket with art by Paul Gulacy

The new US Dredd comic from IDW. I wasn't going to bother (regular readers know how well my reading of 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine is going), but it has a rather cool foil-stamped alternate cover of Dredd's badge (still available here) which was hard to resist.

And the content is good stuff too, thank Grud. Swierczynski seems to have a handle on the action, humour and ideas that are inherent to Dredd. A promising beginning.

Articles

Merlin to end after series five
by Andy Joannou (from Digital Spy)

The internet flooded with moaning and wailing Merlin fans at midnight on Sunday/Monday when it was announced that the currently-running fifth series would be Merlin's last. Which is funny, because they've said since the start that they have a five year plan, and as the series has remained successful that's surely the reason they've chosen to end it now. Pay attention, 'fans'.


Seitz on Liz & Dick: A Retro-Bad TV Biopic
by Matt Zoller Seitz (from Vulture)

Ladies and gentlemen, behold Liz & Dick, the worst reviewed program of 2012.

As the Telegraph put it, it's been "savaged by American critics". More here.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x06 (19/11/12 edition)
The most irritating quiz show contestant of all time, and he becomes the first to get on three editions?! Bloody typical.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Arrow
1x03 Lone Gunmen

Castle
2x18 Boom!
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Dave's One Night Stand
4x02 Patrick Kielty
Seems I missed the first episode of the series. It starred Al Murray. Can't say I'm fussed.

Spy
2x06 Codename: Citizen Lame

Films

Moonfleet (1955)
[#91 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

this week on 100 Films

Two new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, both of biographical documentaries...


Bill Cunningham New York (2010)

What he actually is, more than a “fashion photographer”, is a documentarian, recording how people choose to present themselves to the world, both as individuals and how that translates en masse. Fashion may seem like a meaningless, arbitrary, frivolous thing to afford such time to, and I’d have no argument against Fashion being called exactly that. But fashion — the actual clothes we wear in our actual lives — is something a good many people spend a good amount of time obsessing over; it’s how they choose to represent themselves in the world, how they indicate what they’re like as a person, how they show which groups or types of people they align with. We all do it, even if it’s not a conscious choice. Surely that’s worth recording?

Read more here.


Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project (2011)

Briefly covering his upbringing, to better set in context what follows, Unauthorized tells the story of how Harvey and his brother Bob took their success as concert promoters and applied the techniques to the movie business, moving from simply buying and distributing foreign and indie films, to actually producing them, in the process revolutionising the American film industry for a decade or two.

Read more here.


And also new to the new blog was...


Gambit (1966)

With the Colin Firth / Cameron Diaz remake in cinemas now, it seemed a good time to re-post my review of the Michael Caine / Shirley MacLaine original. I don't know what the remake's like (not that good, according to what I've seen), but this is wonderful.

Read my review here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Comic Strip Presents...
Five Go to Rehab
Well that was disappointingly rubbish.

Merlin
5x08 The Hollow Queen
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
1x16 Risk

QI
10x08 Jumble (XL edition)
The one I said I'd fill in.

Comics

2000 AD #1805-1808
• Low Life: Saudade, Parts 1-4 by Rob Williams & D'Israeli

Remember how I read The Judge Dredd Story Everyone's Been Going On About, only to discover part of the reason for that was, a few parts in, it tied in to the current story in The Simping Detective, so I had to go back and read all of that? Well, turns out it's tying in to the current story in Low Life too, as revealed even further down the line, so I need to go back and re-read all of that too. And this is a case in point of why one should read the whole Prog in one go as it comes, rather than story-by-story -- especially as the surprise of it happening not only once but twice has now been spoiled for me.

But my, have they clearly gone big with this one!

Anyway, I've now caught them all up to the same point (a couple of Progs back) so can proceed in an orderly fashion through the rest of their stories… or story.


2000 AD #1809-1811
• Judge Dredd: The Cold Deck, Parts Four - Six by Al Ewing & Henry Flint
• Low Life: Saudade, Parts 5-7 by Rob Williams & D'Israeli
• The Simping Detective: Jokers to the Right, Parts Six - Eight by Simon Spurrier & Simon Coleby

And here it all gets pretty epic, if occasionally confusing thanks to ties to long-standing continuity and the three strips all lightly playing off each other, not to mention Spurrier's tendency towards purplish verbosity. But in spite of that, it's pretty awesome.

Prog 1811 is with subscribers today and in shops from Wednesday. Looks to be Prog 1812 (in shops Wednesday 5th December) is the final part of all these tales. Can't wait.


Dial H #1 by China Miéville & Mateus Santolouco

This series is quite far through now, but I'm only just getting round to starting it. It's OK, I would've bought all of the first arc anyway. And it's even more OK because I thought it was pretty good, with a promising concept well executed. I've heard not a lot of people like it and perhaps it's been getting low sales, so maybe it takes a downward turn, and even if it doesn't it may turn out to be one for the chop before too long, but I'll keep going for the moment at least.

Collection Count

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

This week's update includes a DVD I actually received a couple of weeks ago, but thought I'd be returning. I imported the Thai DVD of Birth because it was the only one in the world to include a second disc of special features. The website said it had two discs; the packaging boasts about the two discs; but inside was just the film disc. After emailing the retailer, turns out the second disc isn't made any more, so that was a bit of a waste. Luckily it was no more expensive than just buying the UK DVD (especially after I got a compensatory refund) so I'm not ludicrously out of pocket for no reason. Shame about those extras though.

Number of titles in collection: 1,506 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 360 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,755 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,547 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 370 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x01 From Stage to Screen

Castle
2x17 Tick, Tick, Tick…
This feels very much like a season finale two-parter, which is very odd as it's still very much mid-season.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Derren Brown: Fear & Faith
Part 2 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Mentalist
5x03 Not One Red Cent
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x05 (16/11/12 edition)
Featuring one of the more irritating contestants I've ever seen on a quiz show. And he won too! Which means we have to suffer him next time as well. Ugh.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Hebburn
1x05 She Doesn't Just Give It Away
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Hunted
1x07 Khyber
I presume that was meant to be an "is Sam poisoned?!" cliffhanger, which was promptly spoilt by plastering her all over the trailer. Not that we don't know she'll survive, but still.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x04 (15/11/12 edition)
On which two players amass all the money, then a third swoops in, finally gets some questions right, and waltzes off with over £5,500. Seems somehow immoral...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Live at the Apollo
8x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Hunted creator Frank Spotnitz confirms Sam Hunter spin-off series
by David Brown (from Radio Times)

So, basically, Hunted series 2 but by a different name. And probably not on over here. Or on Sky1, I suppose, but they seem to be doing less pinching of drama these days than they used to.

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x03 (14/11/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part I (2012)
[#90 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Adapting the first two books of Frank Miller's seminal tale. This hits UK DVD and Blu-ray next Monday, while the second half is out in the US at the end of January.

Articles

Tweetnotes - Skyfall
by Andrew Ellard (from Storify)

Ellard analyses the latest Bond film in his usual insightful way. A few massive spoilers in there, so make sure you've seen the film first (but then, who hasn't?)

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x01 (12/11/12 edition)
Weirdly, Virgin put it on eventually. Handy. It's a nice show, because most of the questions are so easy it makes you feel quite clever.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Elementary
1x03 Child Predator

The Hour
2x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Yes, Prime Minister
2x06 The Patron of the Arts

Films

The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
[#89 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

DVD Extras

Extras on The Call of Cthulhu DVD

These are headed up by half-hour making-of Hearing "The Call", which is both informative and entertaining, with good insight on how they made this quite fascinating production for virtually no money. It's better put together than some behind-the-scenes features on professional releases and definitely worth a watch for anyone who enjoyed the film.

The disc also houses eight minutes of deleted footage, including more of the stop-motion monster; a few easter eggs in the same vein; galleries of both behind-the-scenes photos and production stills; and the obligatory trailer, which doesn't sell the film quite as well as it could in my opinion.

TV

A Mark Heap double bill...

Friday Night Dinner
2x06 The Mouse [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Spy
2x05 Codename: Family Bonds

Comics

Bleeding Cool Magazine #0

With Bleeding Cool Magazine #1 due any week now (it was originally slated for October), I've finally got round to reading June's #0 preview issue. It's exactly what you'd expect in many ways -- gossipy, irreverent, but informative. Even more if the latter than the website, really, because it's had a bit more time and effort poured in than the primarily news-driven site.


Sword of Sorcery #0
featuring Amethyst by Christy Marx & Aaron Lopresti
and Beowulf by Tony Bedard & Jesus Saiz

DC's new fantasy comic is, for want of a less demeaning adjective, a bit girly. Back-up strip Beowulf, a sci-fi/fantasy retelling of the classic poem, shows more promise.


Talon #0 by James Tynion IV & Guillem March

Spinning out of the recent Batman epic, The Court of Owls, this launch issue is all setup. Tynion IV has cut his teeth writing the back-up strips on several Bat titles, and with Scott Snyder helping out by co-plotting there's sure to be promise here.

Articles

The Colourisation Debate - Not All Black and White
by Julian Upton (from MovieMail)

Some time ago I had to sit through a lecture by an ‘expert’ on colour cinema, who began by showing a YouTube clip of the colourised version of It’s a Wonderful Life. “What’s that?” he asked. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” we said. “No,” he said in his best Jeremy Clarkson voice, “it’s an abomination.”

He then showed a YouTube clip of the black-and-white It’s a Wonderful Life — a clip that was horizontally stretched, pixelated and whose sound and image was all but destroyed by the low-quality upload — and proceeded to talk about that as if it wasn’t an abomination.

Such a true example. The rest of the piece is very good too.

this week on 100 Films

No new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week! But Bill Cunningham New York is on Sky Arts 1 tonight, so my review of that will go live later today at this location.

Still, new to the new blog there was...


High Plains Drifter (1973)

Clint rides into town, has a beer and a bottle of whiskey, kills three men for no good reason and rapes the only woman in sight. It’s a fine introduction to our ‘hero’. But instead of setting the sheriff on him, the townsfolk bend over backwards to help him (more or less). Why? Are they as uncaring as he? Or do they need something from this capable man?

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Children in Need 2012
Specifically, everything after midnight; though the link below will just take you to all the CiN stuff on iPlayer.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x05 (9/11/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
5x07 A Lesson in Vengeance
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week, my Paralympics Blu-ray finally arrives, a Dynamo box set I'd half forgotten I ordered also turns up, and Masters of Cinema's gorgeous Passion of Joan of Arc BD arrives a week or so before its release date (yay for direct ordering).

Number of titles in collection: 1,504 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,145 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 359 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,753 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,545 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [up 11]
Number of short films in collection: 370 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Children in Need 2012
As ever, there'll be more CiN tomorrow to cover the post-midnight stuff (which is, naturally, still on as I post this).
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Derren Brown: Fear & Faith
Part 1 (of 2)
Or, to put it another way, Derren Brown: Fear -- next week is the Faith part. Although it does work, because there's certainly some faith in here and I wouldn't be at all surprised to discover there's some fear in religious faith.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x02 (13/11/12 edition)
C4's new daytime quiz show, which I primarily watched because it's presented by Sandi Toksvig and she seemed an arbiter of quality. It's not bad, but it's basically just a simple question format -- pleasant enough but hardly taxing. Not likely to make the jump to a prime-time variant. (And I started with episode two because episode one wasn't available on Virgin Media's version of 4oD, because Virgin are useless like that.)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Hebburn
1x04 Feeling Dynamic
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Hunted
1x06 Ambassadors
See also today's Articles.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Only Connect
Children in Need Special: Goldfingers vs Fowls
I did surprisingly well at this... though, as you may remember from last year, they apparently make it slightly easier for the celebrity/special editions, so that might not be saying a whole lot.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

BBC1 spy drama Hunted axed after one series by Tom Cole
and
ITV axes James Nesbitt medical drama Monroe by Jack Seale
(from Radio Times)

A pair of cancellations yesterday. Can't say I'm surprised by Hunted -- it's never quite clicked -- but it's a shame about Monroe. It faced unbeatable competition from BBC's not-as-good behemoth, New Tricks, and I should imagine was dropped because of it.

TV

Arrow
1x02 Honor Thy Father

Spy
2x04 Codename: Mistaken Identity

TV

Crime Stories
1x01 Episode 1
ITV1 enters the daytime drama sphere that's been such a success for BBC One with this documentary-style drama about relatively minor crimes (things like theft, as opposed to the incessant murders that occupy prime-time detectives). The choice of a documentary aesthetic means it can looks cheap without looking cheap, though the largely improvised (I hope!) acting is distinctly daytime. Still, has promise in its own way.
[Watch episode 2 on ITV Player.]

Heston's Fantastical Food
1x01 Heston's Big Breakfast
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Weekend Report: Skyfall Scores Best Bond Debut Ever
by Ray Subers (from Box Office Mojo)

Bit late to the party on this one because I've been mostly away from the 'net since Sunday, but in case you missed it too this is worth reporting. Essentially, Skyfall had a fab opening weekend in the US, smashing previous Bond records (the next nearest, Quantum of Solace, is nearly 24% lower) and winding up the fourth-largest opening of the entire year. Go Bond!

TV

Castle
2x16 The Mistress Always Spanks Twice
Castle finally returns to Channel 5's schedule, after a whole five months' pause mid-season... but at least it's not the mooted next-year, so hurrah. Double-billing it with the tonally similar Mentalist seems excessive, but I suppose if they then feed off each other's success...
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Mentalist
5x02 Devil's Cherry
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Monroe
2x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
I would wonder where we'll find the characters next series, but based on the fact this was consistently trounced by BBC One's lower-quality New Tricks, we may not see another run. Shame.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

QI
10x09 Jeopardy (XL edition)
I skipped one. Will fill it in later.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Comics

2000 AD Free Comic Book Day 2012

Continuing my attempt to re-start reading the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, I went for this year's FCBD issue. Five stories, only one of which I'd read before. The first is an all-new four-page Judge Dredd, written by creator John Wagner, which manages to be both entertaining and function as an intro for complete newbies. This is what the launching-soon US Dredd comic from IDW should aspire to with its first issue... except even if it does, it'll take 20 pages to achieve what Wagner does so well in just four.

Also, the first part of The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael, from a couple of years ago. It seemed an enticing introduction, certainly made me want to read more. A new tale started a while after this (not somewhere I've got to in my reading, obviously), but to continue his origin I guess I'll have to find the paperback. Then the first part of Zombo from my first Prog; a classic self-contained Ro-Busters by Alan Moore and Steve Dillon (from 1982); and a fun superhero-lampooning Future Shock (from 2010), perfect for this US-comics-fan-aimed one-off promo.

Good fun and fairly representative of what 2000 AD is like week-to-week, I thought. Nice job droids.

Comics

2000 AD #1806-1808
Judge Dredd: The Cold Deck, Parts One - Three by Al Ewing & Henry Flint

This seems to be getting an uncommon amount of praise and attention online, so I decided to skip ahead with my frankly shocking 2000 AD backlog (I last read a full Prog a year ago (crikey!), and I was behind then) and see what all the fuss is about with the still-ongoing Dredd story. If you want a go too, they've made Part One available online for free.

Plus, three Progs' worth is more or less the same size as a regular US comic, so it's a fair chunk to assess. That said, a good 2000 AD writer will get as much into six pages as your typical US comic will in 20, and Al Ewing is a good writer. Clearly the story is set in the wake of a Massive Event (the day of chaos stuff that was going on even when I last read a Prog), but it still makes sense and is an interesting read. I don't get why people were harping on about the amazing twist at the end of part two, though, so I wonder if that's something striking in light of everything that's happened in the past year-ish? In which case, maybe stop trying to push it so hard to casual readers/newbies!

And then I read the intro to Prog 1809 (in stores Wednesday), which pointed out that the plots of Dredd and another current Thrill are linked -- so I guess that was the twist. Kinda lost if you're only reading one to catch up on what everyone's on about. Still, guess what I'm reading next...


2000 AD #1804-1808
The Simping Detective: Jokers to the Right, Parts One - Five by Simon Spurrier & Simon Coleby

Once 2000 AD starts a line-up of strips, they usually stay in the same order until they end. In Prog 1806, they suddenly re-arrange so that Dredd is immediately followed by The Simping Detective. I guess they wanted to make sure people immediately saw the link.

And immediate it is, in 1807, connecting via the same line of dialogue. Simping Part Four plugs the gap between Dredd Parts Two and Three, and then... then they become unconnected again (and are re-split in the next Prog). Will they reunite again later? Tharg only knows.

this week on 100 Films

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


16 Blocks (2006)

A Bruce Willis action movie? You know what you’re in for here, don’t you? Well, not quite. 16 Blocks casts Willis as less John McClane and more John McCane: old, fat, drunk, limping. He’s a copper still, but the kind of detective whose primary duties are being left to watch over an apartment full of bodies until uniform can show up.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


Night of the Demon (1957)

beloved by some, but I don’t think I quite got it myself. There are some great sequences, but I didn’t always find it hung together in between. Ironically, while many have criticised the actual appearance of the titular beast at the end, I think it works rather well.

Read more here.


The Thief (1952)

if The Thief is known for anything it’s for its dialogue — as the poster proclaims, “not a word is spoken…!” At some points in cinema history that would go without saying, but this is 25 years after the first talkie, so it’s being Experimental. It’s not silent film styled either, unlike recent attempts to recreate that early era like The Artist.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Friday Night Dinner
2x05 The Yoghurts
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Merlin
5x06 The Dark Tower
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week, I tip over 1,500 titles in my collection -- again. I barely noted it last time, but what I meant to do was compare it to this, a record of my DVD collection at 750 titles, four years and eight months ago. After the regular stats, then, there's a replica of that post with new stats.

Number of titles in collection: 1,501 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,144 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 357 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,743 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,544 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,689 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 370 [no change]

So, as mentioned, here are those new numbers.

We begin with ones you know: that I now own 1,501 titles with a grand total of 3,743 discs. That's an average of 2.494 discs per title -- slightly higher than last time's 2.367, but not by much. Box sets and multiple-discs-for-single-films are only slightly more prevalent, then.

Last time I listed my eight largest individual sets. This time it will be nine, because there are three tied at seventh place; plus one drops out, so there's only two new ones here: the complete Lost on Blu-ray (36) and The Sopranos (30). The others remain Angel (30), Babylon 5 with Crusade and TV movies (41), The Bergman Collection (30), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (39), Farscape (42), The West Wing (44) and The X-Files (59). If we take eight of them (ignoring one of the three 30s), these 0.53% of my titles make up 8.58% of my discs -- it might sound a lot, but it's nothing like as big as last time.

A fairer way to look at it might be to again take the top 1%-ish of titles and see how many discs they contribute -- I imagine that's what I was going for last time, and why I did the top eight sets rather than ten. Last time that single percentile accounted for 17.5% of my discs; now it's 13.2%. Clearly I've not bought so many huge box sets in the past few years... though come Christmas the ginormous Harry Potter set will kick things up a little further.

What about the spread of decades -- do I own many films? Last time the largest part of my collection was the then-present '00s, at a massive 52%; now, it's 46.8%. It's nice that I've spread things around a bit more, but then since then we've changed decade -- the last three years are the '10s (obviously). They've already contributed 7.3%, which together with the '00s makes 54.1%... but that's covering 13 years, not last time's 10, so it's all a bit scruffy. Either way, the '00s are already in fifth place -- ahead are the '90s at 13.99% (formerly 20.6%), the '80s at 9.2% (formerly 10.2%), and the '70s at 7.9% (formerly 7%). It's interesting that the proportion of '70s films has grown as my collection doubled -- wouldn't've called that one.

I imagine some of the other slides are due to the '00s diluting the waters, and maybe earlier decades bulking up. The 1890s and 1900s weren't present last time, though they account for a grand total of 0.1998%; the '10s increase marginally, from 0.2% to 0.3%, while the '20s are more significant, up from 0.6% to 1.67%. The remaining decades all see their percentage share increase too: the '30s up to 1.87% (from 1.3%), the '40s to 2.07% (from 1.6%), the '50s to 2.47% (from 1.3%), and the '60s to 5.66% (from 5%). I guess this general spread of increases accounts for the drops elsewhere -- I've clearly bought primarily new releases and a lot of older titles, and not so many from the '90s and '80s. So there you have it.

I've at this point noted how arbitrary many of the remaining stats are -- even more so than those decades. Maybe that's why I skipped them last time.

I will take a look at the ever-popular running time, though. Last time that came to 118 days, 18 hours and 55 minutes. Now, it's 271 days, 23 hours and 41 minutes. the number of titles has (just over) doubled, but the running time has clearly much more than -- closer to two-and-a-half times as big, actually. Box sets, I guess.

So that's that then. See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Downton Abbey
3x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
Aww, everything's resolved Happily Ever After... until the Christmas special, anyway. And series four, of course.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Red Dwarf
10x06 The Beginning [season finale]
Aww, everything's resolved... except it isn't, because there were those couple of mentions of Kochanski that didn't go anywhere. So, Series XI? After the ratings this got, I expect so.

TV

30 Years of the Comic Strip
Everyone goes on about Five Go Mad in Dorset, and indeed that's the only one I've seen, so it was nice to get this thorough overview of some of the Comic Strip's other greatest hits.

Hebburn
1x03 Dressing Up Fancy
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Hunted
1x05 Ambassadors
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Frankenstein: A Modern Myth
Well-made overview of the ongoing impact of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, featuring footage from Danny Boyle's theatrical production (which apparently ended its run 18 months ago! Time flies). Lots of analysis of the continued relevance of the tale; lots of clever editing with archive footage, often drawing comparisons and parallels of its own. Good stuff.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Spy
2x03 Codename: Lie Hard

Yes, Prime Minister
2x05 Power to the People