TV

Death in Paradise
4x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wolf Hall
Part 2 Entirely Beloved
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Byzantium (2012)
[#21 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Broadchurch
2x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Top Gear
22x01 (25/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
[#20 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

The British Academy Film Awards 2015
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Castle
4x16 Linchpin
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 11th February.]

Films

Song of the Thin Man (1947)
[#19 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

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


Another Thin Man (1939)

Husband-and-wife detective duo Nick and Nora Charles — now with a baby in tow — are once again coerced into investigating a crime when the manager of Nora’s estate fears a dismissed employee is plotting murder.

Read more here.


Cockneys vs Zombies (2012)

It’s genuinely laugh-out-loud funny in places, buoyed by a quality cast that includes the likes of Honor Blackman and Richard Briers, the latter of whom stars in a genius “why has no one thought of this before?!” moment

Read more here.


The Tourist (2010)

Much maligned on its release, I thought The Tourist was actually a decently entertaining light thriller.

Read more here.


Transcendence (2014)

best known for the massive negative reaction it received on release, from critics and viewers alike. To be frank, I don’t really know why. Some say it’s too slow — well, I thought it moved like the clappers. What I thought was going to be the story was done in under an hour, from which point it spiralled off in new and interesting directions.

Read more here.


The Wall (2012) aka Die Wand

It’s adapted from an enduringly popular Austrian novel, one of those many books labelled “unfilmable”. Unfortunately the solution seems to have been an over-reliance on voiceover narration, meaning at times it feels more like a prettily-illustrated audiobook than a proper film.

Read more here.


Plus nine archive reviews were reposted on the new blog...


4 short films

Featuring...
The End (2005)
Bus Stop (2004)
Park (2005)
Nine 1/2 Minutes (2002)

Read more here.


Cinderella (1965)

This clearly made-for-TV adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a rather weak affair, easily demonstrating why no one seems to remember it... The musical numbers are quite entertaining, if mostly insipid, not that any approach R&H’s best anyway.

Read more here.


Fist of Legend (1994)

I’m no expert on martial arts, but I do like a good fight (on film) and Fist of Legend serves up plenty of those. In fact, there’s approximately one every five minutes, an impressively high ratio that consciously — and very pleasingly — fulfills what you want from this kind of film. This quantity doesn’t seem to have damaged quality either

Read more here.


Get Smart (2008)

mostly quite good fun. Not all the jokes hit home, but enough do to keep it amusing — which is better than some comedies manage. Even after three Austin Powers films it seems there’s enough left to do with the spy genre to keep a comedy rolling along

Read more here.


Nirvana (1997)

Most sci-fi we see is of the American variety... that tends to mean tonnes of CGI, a fast pace and action sequences up to the eyeballs. Nirvana is more stereotypically European, however: it’s clearly a Deep and Meaningful film, though unlike many examples of Thoughtful cinema it at least has a slightly thriller-ish plot and a hefty dose of cyberpunk styling for us plebs to pick up on.

Read more here.


Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

The characters occasionally sing along to some popular songs (and sometimes to ones you’ve never heard in your life), and sometimes do fun dance routines. This sits at odds with the gritty-ish melodrama of the plot, but that’s the fun.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x05 (6/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x04 Halloween II
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Room 101
15x04 Episode 4

The Voice UK
4x05 The Blind Auditions 5
[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: 1,734 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 526 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,331 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,872 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,464 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 441 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x04 (30/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
4x15 Pandora
Finally caught up with 5USA... just in time for them to have only aired the first half of a two-parter!
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Outnumbered
2x07 The Long Night [season finale; 2nd watch]

Wolf Hall
Part 1 Three Card Trick
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x03 The Jimmy Jab Games
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

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

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x05 Thwarted Sex Pests
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Castle
4x14 The Blue Butterfly

The Last Leg
6x04 (30/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x02 Chocolate Milk
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Room 101
15x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
3x01 Beyond the Pale
I had mixed feelings about the second Whicher, but this third (the first of two that aired back in September) was rather good.

Films

Gone Girl (2014)
[#18 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Broadchurch
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Castle
4x13 An Embarrassment of Bitches

Films

The Black Cauldron (1985)
[#17 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Death in Paradise
4x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Newsroom
3x06 What Kind of Day Has It Been [season finale]

Films

Transcendence (2014)
[#16 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

It's the first day of a brand new month, which means over at 100 Films in a Year it's time to look back on the one just gone. Here's to my best January ever:




On top of that, five brand-new reviews were published this week. They were...


After the Thin Man (1936)

For my money, a more successful venture than the first film, however good that was. From the start it has its focus in the right place: rather than a lengthy preamble with the supporting cast (as in the first film), here we begin with Nick and Nora arriving in San Francisco and teasing the horde of journalists that greet them.

Read more here.


All is Lost (2013)

It’s hard to succinctly pigeonhole All is Lost. It’s a survival movie, if that’s really a genre; man vs the elements. It’s an adventure movie, a little bit in the old-fashioned sense, as here’s a man who, through no choice of his own, has what you might describe as “an adventure”.

Read more here.


Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

I’ve never seen a Wes Anderson film before, but his reputation is such that I don’t think you need to have to spot that Mr. Fox has been heavily Anderson-ised... So it’s Quirky with a capital Q, and yet, miraculously, not irritatingly so

Read more here.


The Running Man (1987)

In an ever-so-’80s vision of the future (my God, those costumes!), Arnie’s wrongfully-convicted fugitive ends up on TV’s most popular show, where criminals fight for their freedom against a variety of imposing opponents. Secretly, he’s there to try to overthrow the corrupt regime.

Read more here.


This is Not a Film (2011)

After being banned from filmmaking for 20 years, and while waiting for a decision on his appeal against the sentence, [Iranian director Jafar] Panahi invites his friend and fellow filmmaker Mojtab Mirtahmasb to his house, where the latter films the former as he reads and enacts portions of the screenplay for his intended next project, as well as chatting about the nature of filmmaking.

Read more here.


Finally, six archive reviews were reposted on the new blog...


Burn After Reading (2008)

It's nothing like No Country for Old Men, other than being occasionally obtuse, but that's the Coen's style. Still, I'm sure No Country is the better -- or Better -- film, but in the same way I prefer eating a bacon cheeseburger to a pile of vegetables, I think I enjoyed watching Burn After Reading more.

Read more here.


His Girl Friday (1940)

an acknowledged classic — 19th on the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs, 58th on Empire’s 500 Greatest, 106th on They Shoot Pictures’ 1,000 Greatest, 245th on IMDb’s Top 250, preserved by the US’s National Film Registry, and countless other such accolades — so you probably don’t need me to tell you why it’s so good. But it really, really is.

Read more here.


An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Famous/infamous documentary centred on Al Gore’s presentation about global warming.

Read more here.


Léon: Version Intégrale (1994/1996)

personally, I prefer this version. Not because there's anything wrong with the original -- far from it -- but because this one has more... The additions build on the characters and relationships, primarily between the two leads, and also add extra doses of humour and action.

Read more here.


Texas Across the River (1966)

a fairly entertaining film. Little more than a comedic Western runaround, it sees Alain Delon — as a Spanish nobleman — trying to get to Texas to escape the Cavalry (led by Jim Phelps himself, Peter Graves) and marry his betrothed. On the way he enlists the help of Dean Martin and his Indian sidekick. Hilarity ensues!

Read more here.


The Wraith of Cobble Hill (2005)

its modern, urban story seems to clash with the cartoonish style employed to bring it to the screen. There are no flights of fantasy, few implausible shots, nothing that couldn't be achieved in live action even on a low budget. Ultimately the only reason for it being animated is, why shouldn't it be?

Read more here.


More next Sunday!

TV

The Voice UK
4x04 The Blind Auditions 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
[#15 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,732 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 524 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,329 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,870 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,464 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 441 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x04 A British Asian Comedian Can No Longer Afford to Buy a House Because of James Brown
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Castle
4x12 Dial M for Mayor

The Last Leg
6x03 (23/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Outnumbered
2x06 The Football Match [2nd watch]

TV

Castle
4x11 Till Death Do Us Part

The Last Leg
6x02 (16/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x03 (23/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Broadchurch
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Castle
4x10 Cuffed

Outnumbered
2x05 The Night Out [2nd watch]

Films

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981)
[#14 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Produced for Russian TV as a two-parter... which of course means it's feature-length, and perfectly good enough to consider as a film. This will be my contribution to the Russia in Classic Film Blogathon, so more on it then.

Films

Argo (Extended Cut) (2012/2013)
[#13 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

I launched a new mini-series of reviews this week on 100 Films in a Year: every Thursday between now and the end of February will be Thin Man Thursday, reviewing the six detective comedies starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. If you've not seen them, they come highly recommended.


Elsewise, six new reviews were posted this week...


The Crab with the Golden Claws (1947)

Adapted from the ninth Tintin adventure, which is the one that introduces popular supporting character/co-lead Captain Haddock, the plot sees Tintin following clues left by a dead seaman to uncover an opium smuggling operation being run on Haddock’s boat without his knowledge. Animated via stop motion using doll-like puppets, the film was only ever screened twice

Read more here.


The Grey (2011)

Promoted as Liam Neeson’s latest Taken-style actioner, The Grey is more of a survival horror, but with wolves instead of some mystical entity — though given the apparent lack of accuracy in the wolves’ behaviour, perhaps they’re supernatural after all.

Read more here.


Parker (2013)

Parker trailed well — funny lines, promising action, solid setup — but doesn't deliver. The funny lines remain funny, but the trailer has them all. The plot's generic — not necessarily a problem, but here it's hampered by pointless asides and subplots. The action only delivers once or twice

Read more here.


The Thin Man (1934)

Playing like a cross between an Agatha Christie mystery and a screwball comedy... The murder mystery is standard enough, albeit with enough genuine suspects and twists to keep the viewer guessing. The real joy comes from the investigators: retired detective and alcohol fan Nick Charles (William Powell) and his rich, interested wife Nora (Myrna Loy). Plus their dog, Asta, who gets up to all kinds of mischief.

Read more here.


The Woman in Green (1945)

it seems Moriarty may have finally outwitted our hero, leading to a remarkably effective climax with a hypnotised Holmes at the villains’ mercy. Moriarty’s plan is genuinely despicable, with the initial murders being entirely incidental to his end goal. It gives the film a subtly different tone to the rest of the series.

Read more here.


Finally, six archive reviews were also reposted to the new blog -- including four animated adventures for Sherlock Holmes...


La Antena (2007)

it's incredibly imaginative, especially with its visuals, which are often pleasantly barmy. The setting is a dystopian future (or alternate reality) where people can no longer speak (thus justifying the silent film styling), and this world is wonderfully realised without a hint of realism or awkward attempts to explain why things are the way they are.

Read more here.


The Baskerville Curse (1983)

this is an adaptation of that perennially popular Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and as such Peter O’Toole barely features. A shame, as he’s the only half decent thing in this mess.

Read more here.


The Sign of Four (1983)

a 49-minute animated Sherlock Holmes adaptation from the ’80s, one of four in this particular series [featuring] the voice of Peter O’Toole. Vocally he makes for a good Holmes, though the character design could be a little better.

Read more here.


A Study in Scarlet (1983)

Peter O’Toole is again the voice of the famous sleuth in this disappointing animated adaptation of the first Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Read more here.


Valley of Fear (1983)

The negatives of the previous films still remain, primarily the weak ’80s TV animation. It’s not as badly designed as the bright-and-colourful version of Baskervilles, at least. O’Toole’s performance is nothing to write home about either.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Outnumbered
2x04 The Airport [2nd watch]

The Voice UK
4x03 The Blind Auditions 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Hancock (Extended Version) (2008)
[#12 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

An addition and an upgrade this week make small tweaks, but there's a running time update to coalesce the past month's additions in an exciting way.

Number of titles in collection: 1,731 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 523 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,327 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 1,869 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,464 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 441 [no change]

As promised...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
312 days, 20 hours, and 50 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 13 hours, and 51 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x03 Two Lesbians Pissed on by Bats
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Outnumbered
2x03 The Old-Fashioned Sunday [3rd watch]

Fiction

The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun by Hergé
[second half]

TV

Hergé's Adventures of Tintin
The Calculus Affair

This is the animated 'film' (actually a TV series edited together into one 57-minute chunk) that I referred to when I read the book. My comment that it "bears no resemblance to the book whatsoever" was based on the series' Wikipedia entry, which says the following:

The Calculus Case (The Calculus Affair) was the most altered series, the changes amounting to a completely different story altogether.

Having watched it, I can say that's utter poppycock. Lots has been changed, certainly, but all of the set piece action sequences remain, and the fundamentals of the plot are the same too. One character has been cut, there's a bigger role for the Thom(p)sons, and who gets where when and how has been tweaked, but it's still about Bordurians kidnapping Calculus because he's invented a sonic weapon, and Tintin and Haddock travelling to Borduria to rescue him from a castle-prison.

It's actually pretty good, too, with a nice clean animation style and some fun antics. Absolute purists must hate the deviations, but it's mostly in the right spirit.

Fiction

The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun by Hergé
[first half]

As mentioned, this is Part 2 of one of the most popular Tintin stories. It's pretty good, but I have to say I'm not quite seeing what's so good (unlike with The Calculus Affair, for instance).

TV

Death in Paradise
4x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
10x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x02 (16/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x01 Undercover
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Newsroom
3x05 Oh Shenandoah

Room 101
15x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x02 The Pig Knows You're Frightened
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Broadchurch
2x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Celebrity Mastermind
2014/2015 Episode 10 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
4x09 Kill Shot

Outnumbered
2x02 The Dead Mouse [4th watch]
Contender for the best Outnumbered episode. Certainly, the mouse's funeral is one of the best bits of the entire series.

Films

The Sugarland Express (1974)
[#10 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
[#11 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Fiction

The Adventures of Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls by Hergé

I bought a complete Tintin box set a couple of years ago, but hadn't got round to reading any of them until the other week. Having enjoyed the last two so much, I decided to continue -- though not in order, as the last two weren't. The Seven Crystal Balls is another fan favourite, a possible contender for the second Jackson/Spielberg Tintin movie, and was adapted for one of the animated films I intend to watch soon (as mentioned last time), so it seemed a good choice.

It's also "Part 1 of 2", so I'll read the follow-up sometime in the next few days.

this week on 100 Films

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


Always (1989)

Released the same year as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and followed by Hook, Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in his filmography, Steven Spielberg’s remake of 1943 fantasy drama A Guy Named Joe is sandwiched between several all-time classics (and Hook), which probably explains why it’s been widely overlooked and, consequently, underrated.

Read more here.


American Movie (1999)

A behind-the-scenes making-of with a difference, American Movie: The Making of Northwestern is a documentary about wannabe-filmmaker Mark Borchardt attempting to produce a horror feature film with little more than some mates and good intentions, battling against a lack of money, interest, and dedication.

Read more here.


Frankenweenie (2012)

Even if the narrative is no great shakes, there’s plenty of fun to be had along the way. The dog, Sparky (ho ho), is very well observed; indeed, all of the animation is naturally top-notch. It retains an indefinable but desirable stop-motion-ness, something I felt Burton’s previous animation, Corpse Bride, lacked

Read more here.


Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978)

quite a slight story, but that’s OK: we’re here for the action, and it delivers that in droves. There are more fights than you can shake a stick at; and not just minor skirmishes littered between two or three headline bouts: regular highly-choreographed duels make up the bulk of the running time.

Read more here.


Plus a full seven archive reviews were reposted this week too...


Alone in the Dark (2005)

I could go through every scene in the film describing what’s wrong in this way, but no one wants to suffer that. Suffice to say it only gets worse — none of the initial flaws improve, but are compounded by more weak performances (Tara Reid as some kind of scientist?) and the story entirely vacating proceedings.

Read more here.


The Aristocrats (2005)

The Aristocrats is, apparently, an incredibly famous joke, well known to all comedians -- and, generally, only told to each other, not to audiences -- that is flexible enough for anyone to tell in their own way and still have it work. It's also incredibly vulgar; in fact, the point is often to make it as vulgar as humanly possible. To explain much more would ruin the point of the film, which aims to expose and explain this cultish joke to the masses.

Read more here.


Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004)

What if the Americans made a movie of Winston Churchill's life, prone as they are to re-write World War 2 history to show they won it all by themselves?

Read more here.


Exiled (2006)

features several impressive action scenes. They're Leone-like in the way there's often an extended pause, the threat of violence hanging in the air -- then a sudden burst, over quickly. But within this style there's a lot of visual flair -- unlike Leone, slow motion makes the moments last minutes, underlined by the entire climatic shoot-out taking place in the time it takes for a can of Red Bull to be kicked in the air and drop back down.

Read more here.


Frankenstein (2004)

According to the blurb on my DVD, it's a "contemporary retelling of Mary Shelley's gothic horror classic". I guess no one in the publicity department actually watched it. In actuality it's more a sequel: Dr Frankenstein has somehow survived to the modern day and emigrated to New Orleans, where he continues his experiments, while his original monster... has tracked him down in the name of justice.

Read more here.


Holiday (1938)

not the funniest of comedies — though I did think it was funny — instead hitting a level of dramatic/character interest that I didn’t predict. I think it’s more a personal favourite than an objective Great Film (but then, one might argue, what is?), so the best I can do is encourage you to seek it out

Read more here.


Ripley's Game (2002)

the Radio Times criticises the humour included in the murders and thriller sections, viewing it as a failure of director Liliana Cavani; conversely, Roger Ebert approves of it, praising them as appearing somewhere "between a massacre and the Marx Brothers"... I'm inclined to agree with Ebert: these sequences do have tension, but they marry the humour to it, leaving you chuckling on the edge of your seat.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

All Star Family Misfortunes
Because funny answers are funny.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Outnumbered
2x01 The Wedding [3rd watch]

The Voice UK
4x02 The Blind Auditions 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut (2005)
[#9 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

This week's sole addition is the Die Hard: Legacy Collection Blu-ray, which at £15 for all five films + an exclusive bonus disc was a bargain not to be missed. Unfortunately, the dearth of extras on the first film in this edition, plus the lack of the extended cut of the fourth, means I won't be shifting the trilogy DVD set or original release of the fourth that I already own (at least, not yet). But HD, oo-ooh!

Number of titles in collection: 1,729 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,207 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 522 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,324 [up 6]
Number of films in collection: 1,867 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,464 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 441 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Adam Hills: Happyism Live
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
4x08 Heartbreak Hotel

Films

The Big Knife (1955)
[#8 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Atlantis
2x06 The Grey Sisters
All caught up! Now when's it back?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Outnumbered
1x06 The Dinner Party [season finale; 3rd watch]

Films

Persona (1966)
[#7 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2015 #1

TV

Castle
4x07 Cops & Robbers

Celebrity Mastermind
2014/2015 Episode 9 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Newsroom
3x04 Contempt

Films

Last Passenger (2013)
[#6 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Death in Paradise
4x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Last Leg
6x01 (9/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Machine Gun Preacher (2011)
[#5 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x01 Simple People Eating Complex Carbohydrates
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Broadchurch
2x01 Episode 1
Has it really been almost two years? (Yes.) Interesting new direction -- an area rarely (if ever) explored in TV dramas before -- but a bit less of the obvious "we both know secrets about the past, but let's not tell the audience"-type dialogue, please.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Outnumbered
1x05 The Mystery Illness [3rd watch]

Fiction

The Adventures of Tintin: The Calculus Affair by Hergé

I recently bought a box set of three animated Tintin movies from the '60s and '70s. One of them is an original story and one a faithful adaptation of The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun, but the first is a version of The Calculus Affair that reportedly bears no resemblance to the book whatsoever... so I thought I ought to read the original first, especially as "some, such as Benoit Peeters in his book Tintin and the World of Hergé, consider this as the greatest and most "detective-like" of the whole series" (so says Wikipedia).

And it is a very good one, actually; a kind of Cold War spy thriller, but through a Tintin filter of course -- there's still plenty of slapstick and so on. Considering the next Spielberg/Jackson film is being scripted by Anthony Horowitz, of Alex Rider and Foyle's War and the next Bond novel, this would seem to be a good candidate to base it around...

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x01 (9/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
4x06 Demons

Room 101
15x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
[#4 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

We're well into the new year now, but back on Monday at 100 Films in a Year I finally wrapped up last year with my Top 10, Bottom 5, and 50 I missed from 2014 (amongst other delights).


Then, to kick off 2015 properly, the selections for my "What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" challenge were announced. Read all about it here.


Additionally, a new review was also published:


Modern Times (1936)

Charlie Chaplin satirises technology and modernisation in arguably the last film of the silent era. It actually has a synchronised soundtrack, primarily for music and effects, but also dialogue — though “we hear spoken voices only when they come from mechanical devices, a symbol of the film’s theme of technology and dehumanization.”

Read more here.


And finally, two archive reviews were brought to the new blog...


C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004)

Mockumentary about the history of America had the South won the civil war. While an intriguing idea, in practice it’s disappointing. Apparently such a victory would have led to everything the nation did since being in order to maintain slavery.

Read more here.


The Locket (1946)

a passable melodrama. We're presented with plenty of evidence that Nancy is definitely a tricksy operator, but then is the man telling the tale an unreliable narrator? I don't know if the filmmakers were even aware of such a concept. Maybe that's unkind; maybe they just didn't want him to be one; but the ending we do get is very pat, and I'm not sure it quite makes sense.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Voice UK
4x01 The Blind Auditions 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
8x09 Episode 8
(Those numbers aren't incorrect -- this happened.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
[#3 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Fiction

The Adventures of Tintin: The Crab with the Golden Claws by Hergé
[second half]

Collection Count

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

As predicted, loads more stuff this week...

Number of titles in collection: 1,728 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,207 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 521 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 4,318 [up 11]
Number of films in collection: 1,862 [up 9]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,464 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 441 [up 3]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Outnumbered
1x04 The Quiet Night In [3rd watch]

Fiction

The Adventures of Tintin: The Crab with the Golden Claws by Hergé
[first half]

That film adaptation I watched the other day is almost frame-for-frame faithful, while it's clear to see what Spielberg's film got from here -- it may not have retained the title or second half, but what it did use was pretty darned faithful.

TV

Castle
4x05 Eye of the Beholder

Outnumbered
1x03 The City Farm [3rd watch]

Films

Parker (2013)
[#2 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Castle
4x04 Kick the Ballistics

Mapp & Lucia
1x03 Episode 3 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Room 101
15x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Crab with the Golden Claws (1947)
[#1 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

aka Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or -- the very first Tintin film, a stop-motion animation that was only screened twice, and is now only available on DVD in France (or on the internet, of course...)

TV

Arrow
3x09 The Climb

Celebrity Mastermind
2014/2015 Episode 8 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Elementary
3x08 End of Watch

Mrs Brown's Boys
Mammy's Gamble [New Year's special]
Not sure why I watched this...
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
7x04 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Celebrity Mastermind
2014/2015 Episode 7 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mapp & Lucia
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Darcy Oake: Edge of Reality
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Last Leg
6x00 The Last Leg of the Year [2014]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Outnumbered
1x02 The Special Bowl [3rd watch]

this week on 100 Films

You may have noticed that 2015 has begun, and so for 100 Films in a Year that means it's time to look back at 2014 through a variety of posts.

First, WordPress provide their annual summary of site statistics. Find out how many shows I could sell out at the Sydney Opera House.

Then, there's my December summary:



And now the big one: The Full List of my 2014 viewing, complete with a bunch of fun statistics and graphs. That's fun, right?


As well as all that, a total of two new reviews were published this week:


The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

The screenplay’s balance between peril and comedy is spotlessly enhanced by Spielberg's peerless direction. In a world stuffed to the gills with lesser blockbusters that palely imitate the groundwork Spielberg and co laid in the ’70s and ’80s, work like this should remind people why he’s still the master of the form.

Read more here.


The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)

Though Zatoichi is best (or quickest) defined as a series of samurai films, those taking that to mean copious swordplay will leave with their expectations unmet after this first movie. Tale is more of a dramatic piece, exploring the dilemmas faced by Zatoichi and Hirate — honour and what is right vs. money and misplaced promises

Read more here.


And finally, two further reviews were new to the new blog...


Becoming Jane (2007)

The big advantage to this being a somewhat Hollywoodised version of the story is the slew of English acting talent on display. Julie Walters, Maggie Smith and Ian Richardson are all present, in roles of varying sizes, plus the younger Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House) and Laurence Fox (son of Edward); not to mention James McAvoy, busy appearing in everything under the sun at the time.

Read more here.


Young Guns (1988)

Considering this is ‘the Brat Pack Western’, one might well expect a modernised, sanitised West; something rated PG-13. Instead the film seems to have begun life as a serious attempt at a Billy the Kid biography, right down to bloody violence that earns it an 18. This intention seems to survive — bar a music-video-styled opening, a couple of lines of dialogue, and the wailing ’80s guitar score — but how successful it was is another matter.

Read more here.


More next Sunday -- including my Top 10 of 2014!

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2014/2015 Episode 6 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mapp & Lucia
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
13x14 New Year's Eve Special [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

I didn't think I'd be buying much for a little bit... and then I saw sale stuff. There'll be even more (lots more) next week.

Number of titles in collection: 1,721 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,205 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 516 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,307 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,853 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,464 [up 12]
Number of short films in collection: 438 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2014
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Outnumbered
1x01 The School Run [3rd watch]
Looks like I last watched this in 2008! We got the complete DVD set for Christmas, though, so expect a complete re-run over the coming weeks/months.

TV

It'll Be Alright on the Night
(28/12/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Miranda
4x02 The Final Curtain [series finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Atlantis
2x04 The Marriage of True Minds
2x05 The Day of the Dead
Finally catching up, and these two episodes were as good as I'd heard.
[Watch The Marriage of True Minds and The Day of the Dead (again) on iPlayer.]

Castle
4x03 Head Case

On Angel Wings
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Requiem for a Dream (2000)
[#136 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2014 #12

And that's WDYMYHS completed for 2014! Hurrah!

TV

Elementary
3x07 The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction

The Flash
1x09 The Man in the Yellow Suit

Not Going Out
7x11 The Outtakes [special]
Some places listed the title of this bloopers special as Not Going Outtakes, which I rather liked.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Knights of Badassdom (2013)
[#135 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death

Live at the Apollo
10x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless Celebrities
6x30 Comedians
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
[2nd watch]

This was #92 in 100 Films 2013 -- I re-watched it before posting my review today.

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2014/2015 Episode 5 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

James May's Toy Stories
Action Man at the Speed of Sound
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wrong Mans
2x02 Action Mans/Wise Mans [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)
[#134 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

this week on 100 Films

Christmas is over for another year -- well, apart from all the remaining special TV entertainment, and no doubt a big pile of leftovers to eat (am I right?)

Still, technically it's over -- and that means the 100 Films in a Year 2014 Advent Calendar came to a close too. Here are its final reviews, plus one other, making five this week:


Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

the problem with Marvel’s massive shared universe (where the events of one film impact not only on future films but tie-in TV series, etc) is that, watching Cap 2 just seven months after its release, the film already feels like very old news... it now feels like watching a press conference after you’ve read a summary of the key points: there’s probably something to be gained from experiencing the whole thing, but it’s also like a slow-paced unveiling of surprises you already know.

Read more here.


Frozen (2013)

You don’t need me to tell you that Frozen is a phenomenon [but] you don’t actually have to go very far on the internet to find people baffled by its success. Plenty of people think the music is bland, the characters underdeveloped, the moral and emotional arcs not fully thought-through, the visual style a rip-off from Tangled, and more. While they do have some points, they’re also being a tad harsh.

Read more here.


Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

leaves you with an instant feeling of having seen a top-quality blockbuster, thanks to its likeable heroes, abundant humour, frequent irreverence, uncommonly colourful visual style, retro-cool soundtrack, and so forth. Unfortunately, once you dig underneath that there’s a little too much that’s rote ‘modern blockbuster’

Read more here.


John Carter (2012)

I was expecting, or perhaps hoping, to like it; to find a misunderstood old-style adventure full of entertainment value. It may be an old-style adventure, but that’s beside the point, because whatever it is, I just felt it wasn’t particularly well made: poorly constructed, weakly performed, lazily (and wrongly) assumptive of the audience’s familiarity with the material.

Read more here.


Seven Samurai (1954)

Despite its epic running time, Seven Samurai isn’t really an epic film — this isn’t the story of a war, or even a battle, but of a skirmish to defend one village. How does it merit such length, then? By going into immense detail, by having plenty of characters to fuel its narrative, and by using the time to familiarise us with these people, so that when the final fight comes, we care what happens.

Read more here.


More next Sunday -- when my year-end wrap-up posts will have started, because it'll be 2015!