TV

The Great British Bake Off
5x03 Bread
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
2x06 A Stronger Loving World

Films

Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King (2014)
[#70a in 100 Films in a Year 2014]
Still the most recent Marvel short, as found on the Blu-ray of…

Thor: The Dark World (2013)
[#70 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Articles

Doctor Who Confidential returns online under new guise
by Alex Fletcher (from Digital Spy)

Doctor Who Confidential's back?!

No, not really. Though the series description -- "the inside take on series 8 from the people who made it... Casual viewers will enjoy the fun, fast pace and lighter side of Doctor Who Extra but there’s plenty for fans, too... reflecting on how Doctor Who’s history is echoed in this current series" -- does sound an awful lot like Confidential's initial setup.

Only 10 minutes an episode, though. Still, better than nothing.

TV

Cuckoo
2x02 Potato Party
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gilmore Girls
2x11 Secrets and Loans [2nd watch]

A Touch of Cloth III
3x02 Too Cloth for Comfort Part Two

TV

Cuckoo
2x01 A New Beginning
Taylor Lautner -- who knew?!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gilmore Girls
2x10 The Bracebridge Dinner [2nd watch]

Ripper Street
2x05 Threads of Silk and Gold

A Touch of Cloth III
3x01 Too Cloth for Comfort Part One
You feel like this should have lost its spark by now, but it's as funny as ever.

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
1x03 The Bringer of Spiders
Because I watched episodes four and five when they first aired, this is the last one for me. I thought it was a particularly good one too... though I might have said that about any episode: somehow, this slightly bizarre format really works.
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Musketeers
1x05 The Homecoming

this week on 100 Films

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


The Expendables 2 (2012)

Whereas the first film was played straight and fairly serious, the sequel has more of the self-awareness that fans expected — and, indeed, wanted — from the franchise: the action sequences are bigger, faster and dafter; the cameos are longer and more knowing.

Read more here.


Despite my commitment to re-posting archive reviews daily, an incredibly busy week means just one archive re-post...


It (1927)

Proof if it were needed that the format of the rom-com has gone largely unchanged for at least 80 years!

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Great British Bake Off
5x02 Biscuits
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Tumble
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,689 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,203 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 486 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,204 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,826 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,177 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 435 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Last Leg
5x02 (8/8/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Pointless Celebrities
6x12 (9/8/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Simpsons
25x20 Brick Like Me
I haven't watched The Simpsons in a very, very long time (so long it's never been mentioned on this blog aside from the movie, in fact), but the promise of a LEGO-themed episode (i.e. this one) got my attention. It was pretty good, though the fact so many reviewers have described it as "the best of the season" proves the show must be a shadow of it's former self: not bad -- in fact, funny and entertaining on the whole -- but not laugh-out-loud, instantly-memorable, classic TV. Which I suppose would happen to anything after 25 years and 550 episodes.

this week on 100 Films

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


Amélie (2001)

My quirky review of a quirky film about the quirky life of a quirky girl.

Read more here.


Cloudy 2: Extra Toppings (2013)

On Blu-ray, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 comes with a selection of four “mini-movies” — that’s “shorts” to you and me. When the film airs on Sky Movies Premiere, each screening will be preceded by three of these, under the Extra Toppings title.

Read more here.


And seven were new to the new blog...


Fatal Instinct (1993)

It’s a little difficult to understand exactly why it flopped so badly in the US... perhaps its targets were just too broad to attract a mass audience. While it ostensibly tackles then-recent thrillers like Basic Instinct, Cape Fear and Fatal Attraction, it also has a lot of time devoted to the tropes of film noir, in particular Double Indemnity. Relying so heavily on a 50-year-old film isn’t likely to earn you much favour among the masses.

Read more here.


High Anxiety (1977)

Mel Brooks pays comedic tribute to Alfred Hitchcock — in case you can’t tell, the second credit is a prominent dedication — but those unfamiliar with the Master of Suspense’s output need not apply.

Read more here.


Matchstick Men (2003)

Twists are fine. Twists can be great. You can guess a twist is coming and it can still work. A really good twist works even when you know for certain it’s coming; its existence raises what you’ve seen, makes it all work even on repeated viewings when the element of surprise is obviously gone. Matchstick Men doesn’t have that kind of twist. It has the kind of twist that undermines everything you’ve just seen. Not because it’s illogical — it isn’t in the slightest — but because it tramples over the film’s emotional resonance.

Read more here.


Nosferatu (1922)

One of the earliest and most-referenced horror films, and the first screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (faithfully, albeit unofficially). With such a weight bearing down upon it I found it quite hard to watch it objectively...

Read more here.


Seraphim Falls (2006)

it makes for an unusual story. It’s centred neatly around Neeson chasing Brosnan, but the encounters they have along the way are increasingly bizarre. It’s readily apparent that there’s some Meaning and Subtext here... but I’m not sure if one has to process this to appreciate the film — it’s a still a chase movie

Read more here.


Sunshine (2007)

what some would call "grown-up science fiction", often more concerned with the crew's moral dilemmas than thrilling action set pieces or dazzling CGI. Luckily, though, the former aren't too pretentious and both of the latter are still present.

Read more here.


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp collaborate for the sixth time (as the DVD’s blurb is so keen to point out) for a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical adaptation of the classic tale of the titular barber who slaughters instead of shaves and sells the resultant meat to all of London in the pies of his accomplice, Mrs Lovett.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x09 Run Away, Little Boy [2nd watch]

The Musketeers
1x04 The Good Soldier

Films

After Earth (2013)
[#69 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Collection Count

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

Somehow some of my totals have gone screwy. No idea how that happened, but as best I can tell I've fixed them now -- just in time for a running time update!

Number of titles in collection: 1,688 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,203 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 485 [down 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,203 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,825 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,177 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 435 [no change]

And that running time update tells us...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
302 days, 7 hours, and 51 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 18 hours, and 35 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
2x04 Dynamite and a Woman

TV

The Great British Bake Off
5x01 Cake
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
2x03 Become Man

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x08 The Ins and Outs of Inns [2nd watch]

The Musketeers
1x03 Commodities

Films

Inseparable (2011)
[#68 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Wallander [Swedish]
3x03 Sveket (aka The Betrayal)

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
1x02 Sex is Fun
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Gilmore Girls
2x07 Like Mother, Like Daughter [2nd watch]
I like it when headmaster Charleston gets a good talking-to. Pompous twonk.

Films

Cloudy 2: Extra Toppings (2013)
[#67a in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Three short films that will air before Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 on Sky Movies. They include Steve's First Bath, Super Manny, and Attack of the 50ft. Gummi Bear!. The Blu-ray includes a fourth short, Earl Scouts, which I also watched.

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x06 Presenting Lorelia Gilmore [2nd watch]

The Last Leg
5x01 (1/8/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Clear and Present Danger (1994)
[#67 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

this week on 100 Films

A busy week at 100 Films in a Year! Our recap starts with the fact it's now August, meaning it was time for the July update.


Then, two brand-new reviews were published this week...


Blue Velvet (1986)

Before he brought the disquieting underbelly of small-town America to television audiences with Twin Peaks — and revolutionised the medium in the process — auteur David Lynch subjected cinemagoers to its perversions in this 1986 cult masterpiece, the first cohesive expression of concepts, themes and motifs (and cast members) that would inform the rest of his career.

Read more here.


Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)

it moves at a restless rate of knots, much as the first one did. That’s not something to be sniffed at, as it throws plot and humour at the viewer with wild abandon. Sometimes such a methodology is a recipe for “chuck everything at the screen and see what sticks” — with the latter usually being “not a huge percentage” — but here it creates a pretty fine hit rate.

Read more here.


And finally, seven classic reviews were new to the new blog...


Bhaji on the Beach (1993)

It was no doubt bitingly relevant, showcasing a different set of cultural rules and expectations... viewed today, the film feels less "this is how things are" and more "this is how things were then", emphasised by the ever-so-'90s costumes, cars, locations… It feels as much a period piece as, say, Ashes to Ashes.

Read more here.


Great Expectations (1946)

there’s little to dislike about the adaptation. John Mills is too old to convince as a 20-year-old Pip, but his performance is good and he’s ably supported. However, the main highlights are undoubtedly all in Lean’s brilliant direction.

Read more here.


Guess Who (2005)

The plot isn’t a direct copy of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, preferring to take the gist of the concept and a few of the story beats and surround them with a bunch of Funny Situations. [It] does manage the odd laugh or smile, increasingly so as it goes on (though this may be because I was getting increasingly inebriated).

Read more here.


Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

a white girl falls in love with a black man and brings him home to meet the parents... this is still the era of Martin Luther King Jr. battling for equality and when interracial marriage was still illegal in 14 states. Hollywood may be known for its liberal politics, but it’s not always so, which makes the outcome of the film — will they or won’t they be given permission to marry? — a constant guessing game.

Read more here.


Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005)

All comedy is an acquired taste, of course, but what Silverman offers here must take some acquiring. I mostly like what I’ve seen of her work in the past, but the lack of laughs here is enough to put me off bothering with her in future.

Read more here.


Solaris (1972)

one of those films I think we can safely say is Not For Everyone. There’s much to ponder for the so inclined, not least the intriguing ending. I feel certain I, much like the scientists in the film itself, have barely scratched the surface.

Read more here.


Waitress (2007)

looks like another breezy rom-com... a chick flick, or to sound inappropriately less derogatory, “woman’s film”. Waitress is a “woman’s film”, but in a good way: written and directed from a female perspective, with its central roles being female, it doesn’t pander to a perceived female demographic and nor does it bellow “this is what we women think, and it’s so different to you damn men” — it’s more subtle than that.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x05 Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy [2nd watch]

The Musketeers
1x02 Sleight of Hand

Films

The Expendables 2 (2012)
[#66 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Collection Count

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

This week's sole addition is a big one: Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery on Blu-ray, the definitive release of the series, featuring every episode, the movie, and a feature-length selection of long-awaited deleted scenes. Magnificent! I already own the series and movie on DVD (season one twice, too), but I'm loathe to sell those old copies just yet because they have extras that have now gone astray. There aren't many though, so the famous Gold Box may one day get sacrificed on the ebay altar.

Number of titles in collection: 1,687 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,201 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 486 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,201 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,824 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,177 [up 30]
Number of short films in collection: 435 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Friday Night Dinner
3x06 The Big Day [season finale]
Martin being a pimp -- comedy gold.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Gilmore Girls
2x04 The Road Trip to Harvard [2nd watch]

Ripper Street
2x02 Am I Not Monstrous?
Bit grim. Only half resolved. Ah well.

Films

Amélie (2001)
[#65 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2014 #7

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x03 Red Light on the Wedding Night [2nd watch]

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x02 Hammers and Veils [2nd watch]

Mock the Week
13x06 (17/7/14 edition) [mid-season finale]

Films

Frozen (2013)
[#64 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
1x01 Cupped by a Shammy Hand
Repeats shall fulfil my wish!
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Gilmore Girls
2x01 Sadie, Sadie... [2nd watch]
Picking up right where the last season ended (the next morning, it seems like) makes continuing straight on feel less weird than it sometimes does. In fact, this feels positively "just the next episode"-y.

TV

Gilmore Girls
1x21 Love, Daisies and Troubadours [season finale; 2nd watch]

Ripper Street
2x01 Pure as the Driven
Ripper Street's first two series aired in the same year for some reason, so we've (semi-deliberately, semi-accidentally) created our own enlarged (over a year!) gap between them. (It's now nine months since this episode aired. I feel suitably tardy.) Plus, I'm also one of the people who signed a petition (or something; I forget) to get the series picked up as an Amazon/BBC co-production for a third season (on the strength of the first alone, obviously), so it's a doubly good idea to actually get the second run seen before that turns up. Anyway, good start. Bit different. Hope the cliffhanger-y ending is resolved next week rather than forcibly dragged out across the whole season.

Films

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)
[#63 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
[2nd or so watch]
Said I'd watch it soon!

this week on 100 Films

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


Night of the Big Heat (1967)

Opting for slow-burn tension rather than alien invasion excitement, the film takes rather a while to get to the point, attempting to distract us with a subplot about the sudden appearance of the pub landlord’s former mistress, who gets the already hot-and-bothered islanders hotter and bothereder. On the audio commentary, co-writers Pip and Jane Baker talk about how you had to sneak in and dash through such character/romantic subplots, because the audience wanted to get to the sci-fi stuff — which rather begs the question, why put it in at all?

Read more here.


I missed two days in my "post an archive review every day" mission this week, but that still means five reviews new to the new blog...


Flesh for Frankenstein [3D] (1973)

the European cast are unable to pronounce “laboratory” — every time it’s uttered it comes out as “lavatory”. Childish I know, but it’s one of the film’s few enjoyable moments. “I had to work for two years before I could even stick my nose in the lavatory” is an instantly classic line.

Read more here.


Happy Feet (2006)

There are a couple of enjoyable songs, a few exciting action sequences, and even some bits that actually make you laugh. Couple this with a positive (if improbable) pro-environment message, and an even better anti-religious one that's only half-hidden, and you have an entertaining film

Read more here.


The Last Days of Pompeii (1913)

The fact that it’s an old silent film will be enough to put most people off. Some of those are worth seeking out, of course, but I would hesitate to recommend this one.

Read more here.


The Paleface (1948)

It’s clearly designed as pure entertainment, mixing styles in a way no film would dare attempt today — there’s broad comedy, gunfights, horse chases, and even a song or two!

Read more here.


Russian Ark (2002)

Apparently some sort of artistic documentary on the history of Russia, told via a fantastical time-travelling-ish tour of a Russian museum, Russian Ark is certainly ‘artistic’. Unfortunately, it doesn’t teach you much and is at no point clear about what it’s covering.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
1x20 P.S. I Lo... [2nd watch]

Mark Lawson Talks To
Jo Brand
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Musketeers
1x01 Friends and Enemies
Finally getting round this (hopefully to squeeze it all in before the villain turns up in his new role!) It was good swashbuckling fun. Some of the dialogue felt like it could've done with an edit or polish, and a few of the actors were a little subpar... but then that impression might just be because I've only recently finished such an exceptional, subtle programme as The Americans. For big, bold, swordfight-y entertainment, The Musketeers is first rate.

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,686 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,201 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 485 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,191 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,823 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,147 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 435 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Americans
2x13 Echo [season finale]
Mysteries solved! Characters changed! Future plots teased! Can't wait for next season already...

Gilmore Girls
1x19 Emily in Wonderland [2nd watch]

Mock the Week
13x05 (10/7/14 edition)

Monty Python Live (Mostly)
[2nd half]

TV

The Americans
2x12 Operation Chronicle

Gilmore Girls
1x18 The Third Lorelai [2nd watch]

TV

The Americans
2x11 Stealth


Friday Night Dinner
3x05 The Piano
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Gilmore Girls
1x17 The Breakup, Part 2 [2nd watch]


Monty Python Live (Mostly)
[1st half]

Monty Python's last ever show, a mix of live stuff and video -- hence "mostly" -- broadcast live on Gold, then recorded by me and watched later, so now not live at all. But anyway. Sadly the pre-watershed original broadcast of this first half meant it was heavily censored, so I'll probably watch all of this again at some point. Nonetheless, it was still good fun, and the second (which I'll get to soon enough) started just after 9pm, so will be entirely uncut.

Plus, to help fill the time, there were some bonus celeb-filled behind-the-scenes bits pre-show and during the interval. I guess some people hate that stuff, and while it is rather chaotic and not exactly illuminating, I do quite like it -- it lets you feel some of the atmosphere there, at any rate.

TV

The Americans
2x10 Yousaf
Ooh, you can feel the climax looming... and yet there's three whole episodes to go!

Gilmore Girls
1x16 Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers [2nd watch]

Mock the Week
13x04 (3/7/14 edition)

TV

The Americans
2x09 Martial Eagle

Family Guy
12x01 Finders Keepers

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
6x07 (18/7/14 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Gilmore Girls
1x15 Christopher Returns [2nd watch]
In Germany, this episode is called Sex mit den Ex. Classy. Spoilery.

Films

Romancing the Stone (1984)
[2nd or so watch]

I remember really liking this when I was much younger, but I haven't seen it for a very very long time. Fortunately, I'm happy to report it was still great fun. (And, by complete chance, I've watched it just before it reaches exactly 30 years old. Anniversarytastic.) Must catch the sequel sometime, too.

this week on 100 Films

One brand-new review was published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and it was...


Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape (2010)

feature-length documentary exploring the ‘video nasty’ scare that gripped early-VHS-era Britain. Starting with a primer on the birth of home video, and what it was like to watch movies in those days (because, ladies and gents, we’ve now reached a point where even fans of that (second-)most adults-only of genres, the gory horror flick, are young enough to not recall a time before DVD), archive news clips and a wide array of new talking head interviews take the story from the UK’s first video recorders in 1978, through a newspaper-led panic, up to the infamous Video Recordings Act of 1984, which irrevocably changed the face of home entertainment releasing in the UK.

Read more here.


Meanwhile, my new goal of re-posting at least one archive review every day continued apace, with the following eight gems...


Alfie (1966)

If you’re only familiar with the Jude Law-starring remake, most of the original might come as a shock to you — whereas the 2004 version was pretty light and amusing, this is actually a more serious affair.

Read more here.


Basil the Great Mouse Detective (1986)

A seriously underrated Disney film... if you’re a Sherlock Holmes fan you should definitely catch it.

Read more here.


The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

There are some good lines, and it’s a Christie so obviously the fundamental story is good, but the direction is flat and lacks suspense, half the cast phone in their performances, and Angela Lansbury, lumbered with a sprained ankle and premature aging, seems to be in a dry run for Murder, She Wrote.

Read more here.


Sherlock: Case of Evil (2002)

Holmes is recast as a kind of Victorian James Bond, both in terms of his character and the plot structure. It begins with the end of the previous mission, before progressing through various familiar beats... Dr Watson is revealed to be “a bit of an inventor” — a Q in the making? Even Holmes himself is not immune: young, dashing, and womanising. Yes, womanising. He even has a threesome, shot and scored like soft porn

Read more here.


Titanic (1997)

it's over-reaching itself size-wise. This is true of both vessel and film, one being too big to dodge an iceberg, the other simply too long. I can't be certain, but it feels like the entire film following the iceberg's arrival is in real-time, which would make the length an excusable narrative trick, were it not for Cameron padding it out with endless contrivances to have Jack and Rose running around the ship.

Read more here.


True Lies (1994)

The comedy is quite broad, but it’s definitely a comedy, as opposed to an action movie that’s aware it’s a bit silly. Situations are pushed to extremes, clichés are played up, things go wrong in a way they’re liable to in real life but rarely do in films, action sequences are played for laughs as well as genuine excitement… The advantage to Cameron is he’s allowed to do some audacious things that might get laughed out in a straight actioner.

Read more here.


Zodiac (2007)

Zodiac is really a film about obsession, and it makes for as engrossing a tale as the case was for those investigating it. In following the story the film chooses to eschew normal structural niceties... it jumps from character to character, and if you step back and analyse it that’s odd, but while watching it doesn’t matter one jot — this is more like real life than some shallow crime thriller dependent on a twist ending.

Read more here.


Zodiac: Director's Cut (2007/2008)

Despite the minimal number of changes, the Director’s Cut of Zodiac is certainly the superior version. Not by a lot, obviously, but if you had to choose between the two, everything else being equal, then it’s the Director’s Cut to go with. And it’s still an exceptional film, one of the very best I’ve seen in this blog’s lifetime.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Americans
2x08 New Car

Gilmore Girls
1x14 That Damn Donna Reed [2nd watch]
Guest starring a younger Superman!

Films

Pacific Rim (2013)
[#62 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,686 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,201 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 485 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,191 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,823 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,147 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 435 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Americans
2x07 ARPANET

Gilmore Girls
1x13 Concert Interruptus [2nd watch]

TV

The Americans
2x06 Behind the Red Door

Friday Night Dinner
3x04 The Anniversary
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Gilmore Girls
1x12 Double Date [2nd watch]

TV

The Americans
2x04 A Little Night Music
2x05 The Deal
I've been trying to ration this, because it's so good and there's only so much of it; but A Little Night Music ended on an almighty cliffhanger, and indeed this is really a two-parter without that name attached, so I don't feel so bad bending the 'rules' just this once.

Gilmore Girls
1x11 Paris is Burning [2nd watch]

TV

The Americans
2x03 The Walk In

Gilmore Girls
1x10 Forgiveness and Stuff [2nd watch]

Mock the Week
13x03 (26/6/14 edition)

Films

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)
[#61 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

The Americans
2x02 Cardinal

Gilmore Girls
1x09 Rory's Dance [2nd watch]
I know some would brand it 'soapy' and it's certainly 'girly', but pfft, season one of Gilmore is really good. (And later seasons may be too, I can't quite remember. Though it definitely got less good once Rory went off to college.)

TV

Gilmore Girls
1x07 Kiss and Tell [2nd watch]
1x08 Love & War & Snow [2nd watch]

this week on 100 Films

This week on 100 Films in a Year, I started a new initiative to post at least one archive review every day.

I have literally hundreds of them left languishing on my old blog still (having been moved to the new one for several years now), and I only repost them now and again when they're on TV or a sequel comes out or something. There are dozens -- hundreds, probably -- of more obscure films that would never get brought over if I stuck to that, so I'm making a concerted effort to change it. Nonetheless, there are so many posts left that I think it will take me a full year or more to finish this -- and that's if I keep it up non-stop.


Anyway, we'll come to what was posted in a minute. First, there were two brand-new reviews published this week. They were:


Journey into Fear (1943)

Remembered largely thanks to the involvement of Orson Welles (he has a supporting role, produced it, co-wrote it, and reportedly directed a fair bit too, though he denied that), Journey into Fear is an adequate if unsuspenseful World War 2 espionage thriller, redeemed by a strikingly-shot climax.

Read more here.


The Raid (2011)

perhaps the other film that The Raid is most like is Mamma Mia: a perfunctory plot that exists purely to link together the bits we’re really here for — Abba songs. Or “fights”, in The Raid’s case… though, let’s be honest, how much more original and interesting would it be if they were fighting to Abba songs?

Read more here.


And as promised, the bumper crop new to the new blog were...


Calendar Girls (2003)

The film could so easily have been quite a lowly, cheap TV movie effort, what with its apparently farcical premise, worthy cause and older characters. But instead the filmmakers have crafted a movie that is both utterly hilarious and deeply moving — even for this younger male viewer.

Read more here.


Doom (2005)

When it does kick off it’s brief and only vaguely entertaining. And the much-discussed first-person sequence is far too much like watching someone play a video game.

Read more here.


Mystic River (2003)

The acting is the main draw of this Oscar-winning murder drama, in which three childhood friends who grew apart are brought back together when one of their daughters is murdered. Tim Robbins is particularly excellent, easily earning his Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Read more here.


The Reckless Moment (1949)

probably only the second or third film noir I’d ever seen, and I don’t think I properly appreciated what I was watching. It doesn’t really come across in this ‘review’, but I’ve felt for several years now that the sense of apathy I felt then (which I think is implied) no longer reflects my memory of the film.

Read more here.


Troy: Director's Cut (2004/2007)

This director’s cut adds almost half an hour of new material, which is about a 15% increase in length. That said, I can’t spot most of what’s new. If you know it well enough to spot the differences then you surely already like it, in which case I expect you’ll like this cut too. If you didn’t like Troy first time round, I doubt you’ll be swayed now.

Read more here.


Tu£sday (2008)

The high-profile cast frequently belie what you’re watching. Most of the production has an amateurish feel. It’s hard to pinpoint, but it seems to be a combination of photography and editing: the look is like plain digital video, the choice of shots often obvious and lacking variety, the editing not as tight as it should be.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
6x06 (11/7/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Episodes
3x09 Episode 9 [season finale]
Considering we're very used to six-episode sitcoms over here, this seemed to be over very quickly! Await season four eagerly.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Gilmore Girls
1x05 Cinnamon's Wake [2nd watch]
1x06 Rory's Birthday Parties [2nd watch]

Collection Count

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

This week, I acquired the huge Hitchcock: The Ultimate Filmmaker Collection 16-film box set. This replaces an old 14-film set and my Psycho Blu-ray (but duplicates To Catch a Thief, which I own on DVD with special features not included here, and North by Northwest twice, because I own it in a DVD box set with titles not yet available on Blu-ray, and in a Blu-ray box set with titles not included here, and that has special features that aren't here).

To show after all that were just a couple of small but strange number shifts... until I also got a new DVD, leaving virtually no trace of anything. Funny thing, my DVD collection...

Number of titles in collection: 1,684 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,201 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 483 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,187 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,821 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,147 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 435 [up 3]

All that does have an effect on the running time, though -- upgrading from DVD to Blu-ray means all those films are devoid of PAL speed-up. Plus there's everything else I've bought recently because, handily, it's the time of the month for an update!

And that is exciting, because, for the first time...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
300 days, 12 hours, and 16 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 1 hour, and 18 minutes from last month.)

...it's crossed 300 days! Madness.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Americans
2x01 Comrades
Here we go, then -- and it's as good as last season, which is by no means a given and so is great news. It's quite wedded in some of the plot lines left over from last year's finale/season in general, which is something I'm generally fond of TV series doing, but is a little awkward when it's been a year or so since you watched it and the "previously on" is a little inadequate. But hey-ho, I kept up well enough.

Mock the Week
13x02 (19/6/14 edition)

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
2x06 The Baby Arrives [season finale]

TV

Gilmore Girls
1x04 The Deer-Hunters [2nd watch]

How I Met Your Mother
9x23 Last Forever Part 1
9x24 Last Forever Part 2 [series finale]
As E4 have decided to split the clearly-conceived-as-an-hour series finale into its constituent parts, I downloaded the US version and watched it all in one go. No idea where the split would be, actually; quite tempted to watch Part 1 on catch-up and see (or just read about it on Wikipedia -- it's where I thought it might be).
Anyway, a lot of people seemed to hate it -- some have branded it the worst finale ever. Personally, I quite liked it. Kinda obvious it's been going somewhere like that all along, surely? Not to many/most, it would seem...
[Watch Last Forever Part 1 (again) on 4oD. Part 2 will be available next week.]

Live at the Apollo
9x05 Episode 5
First of two Apollo episodes I missed in the last series -- and I stumbled on it completely by accident on BBC Three, while simply looking for any old (decent-ish) comedy to pass the time! Coincidencetastic.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Gilmore Girls
1x03 Kill Me Now [2nd watch]

Mad Men
7x07 Waterloo [mid-season finale]
But what does it all mean?!

Films

Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape (2010)
[#60 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Top Gear
21x06 Burma Special Part 1
21x07 Burma Special Part 2 [season finale]
The 2013 Christmas special, shown in the middle of March 2014. Goodness knows why -- perhaps an editing thing: it's just over two hours long in this form, and the DVD/Blu-ray version has a further 35 minutes!

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
6x05 (4/7/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Gilmore Girls
1x02 The Lorelais' First Day at Chilton [2nd watch]

Mad Men
7x06 The Strategy

TV

Gilmore Girls
1x01 Pilot [2nd watch]
It's been 5½ years since we accidentally abandoned Gilmore Girls, so rather than try to pick it up -- and struggle to access years-old memories of what was going on -- it felt best just to start again from the start.

Wimbledon 2014
Men's Final Build-Up & Men's Final
Ah well.
[Watch the build-up and the mens' final, plus many other matches, on iPlayer.]

With Wimbledon now over, and most shows on a summer break, hopefully the next few weeks will finally see me make good on the notion of starting all the stuff I need to catch up on.

Films

We're the Millers (2013)
[#59 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

this week on 100 Films

First up this week from 100 Films in a Year, it's my look back at June.


Elsewise, two brand-new reviews were published this week, and they were...


The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976/1978)

Ever since I read the blurb for Masters of Cinema's DVD of Maurice Pialat's Police, I've been casually enticed by The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Said blurb asserts that "Police is a genre-defying excursion rivaled only by John Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in the pantheon of cinema’s most idiosyncratic thrillers", which is both a nice turn of phrase and an intriguing one. The thriller is very much a Genre — that is to say, it's a label loaded with rules and expectations, and to be idiosyncratic within such a form is an interesting notion. Both "thriller" and "idiosyncratic" are pretty accurate labels for Chinese Bookie, though

Read more here.


Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

It starts off well, with a virtuoso eight-minute pre-credits sequence that reconfigures the past 50 years of Earth’s spacefaring in the story’s image. OK, so it contains a seriously ill-advised, incredibly poorly-realised CGI JFK, but we can let some things go. Unfortunately, from here on out the movie does its best to pile on stuff we can’t let go.

Read more here.


Finally, several older reviews were new to the new blog...


The Three Musketeers (1973)

I like a good swashbuckler. I don’t know exactly what it is about sword fights, but they’re probably my most favourite kind of action sequence. The 1973 Three Musketeers, then, is a film I’m slightly amazed I’ve not seen before. Especially as I absolutely loved it.

Read more here.


The Four Musketeers (1974)

It’s a bit grim too [and] none of it sits well with the jolly swashbuckling tone that still dominates. There are some good action sequences nonetheless — for instance, the ice-covered lake; breakfast/siege in the ruined fort; and the burning-building finale — which go some way to make up for the shortcomings.

Read more here.


Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

It gets off to a flying start. The first 20 or 30 minutes in particular move at a rate of knots, churning through plot in a way no blockbuster would seem to dare these days...: a Borg attack; the Enterpise ordered not to join the fight; Picard doing so anyway; the destruction of the Borg cube; the Borg, erm, ball flying into the past; the Enterprise following; meeting Zephram Cochrane and his lot… It’s boom boom boom, moving on. It’s nice to rattle through a tale

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Friday Night Dinner
3x03 Mr Morris Returns
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

The Raid (2011)
[#58 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,684 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,201 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 483 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,185 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,819 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,147 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 432 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Episodes
3x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
9x22 The End of the Aisle
Well, who guessed The Big Wedding would be in the penultimate episode? Not me!
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

A Late Quartet (2012)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Law & Order: UK
8x08 Repeat to Fade [series finale]
This certainly feels more like a first episode than a finale -- and, as they've now decided to "rest" the series (i.e. "cancel by any other name", I should imagine) it's even weirder.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player].

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
2x05 Father's Clinic
The one with the famous rollerskating sequence. The rest of the episode doesn't have as much to recommend it, unfortunately.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
9x21 Gary Blauman
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
2x04 Frank and Marvin

Films

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
[#56 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Friday Night Dinner
3x02 The Fox
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
6x04 (27/6/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Episodes
3x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
13x01 (12/6/14 edition)

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
1x22 Charges and Specs [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Celebrity Fifteen to One
1x04 (27/6/2014 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Mad Men
7x05 The Runaways

Films

Modern Times (1936)
[#55 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2014 #6

this week on 100 Films

No brand-new reviews on 100 Films in a Year this week, but there were two new to the new blog...


Hard Candy (2005)

The viewer’s never quite sure of any fact about either of the two characters; never quite sure if they’re being genuine or at any moment will undermine their present emotion with the revelation it’s just an act, an attempt to fool the other.

Read more here.


The Invasion (2007)

Much of the dialogue is on the level of bad exposition, but, to rub salt in the wound, it explains things we’ve already been shown. Normally reliable actors turn in flat performances with such an awkward script, which ponderously works its way through a plot that’s far too slow-moving considering how obvious it is.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
2x03 The Public Relations Course

Top Gear
21x05 (2/3/14 edition)

Films

The Conspirator (2010)
[#54 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Collection Count

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

This week!
Network's Buster Keaton set (just £7 direct from them), which compliments Masters of Cinema's set nicely. Well, kinda: all 17 of the short films on Network's set are already in MoC's, but in addition to that there's 11 Keaton feature films and a feature-length 1968 documentary about him. Still good value, as far as I'm concerned.

And!
Hulk Vs. on Blu-ray, which while sold as a feature actually contains two shorter films: Hulk vs. Wolverine and Hulk vs. Thor. Thanks to technicalities of running time, however, Hulk vs. Wolverine would count as a short film (running under 40 minutes) while Hulk vs. Thor would count as a feature film (running over 40 minutes), so (naturally) that's how I've listed them.

Number of titles in collection: 1,684 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,201 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 483 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,185 [up 7]
Number of films in collection: 1,819 [up 13]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,147 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 432 [up 18]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Have I Got News For You
47x09 (30/5/2014 edition; extended repeat) [season finale]

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
2x02 The RAF Reunion

Films

Patriot Games (1992)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Celebrity Fifteen to One
1x03 (20/6/2014 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Friday Night Dinner
3x01 The Girlfriend
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
2x01 Cliffhanger

TV

Episodes
3x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
6x03 (20/6/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

How I Met Your Mother
9x20 Daisy
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Mimic
1x01 Episode 1
1x02 Episode 2
Missed this when it was on originally, but I seemed to remember wanting to give it a go, so when I stumbled across it on on demand I thought I would. It's about someone who does impressions, but instead of doing the usual sketch show they've created a sitcom. It's adequate... which is about the same quality as the impressions, to be honest. (It did get recommissioned... though the "early 2014" broadcast obviously didn't happen.)
[Watch episodes one and two (again) on 4oD.]