TV

Broadchurch
2x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Elementary
3x09 The Eternity Injection

Film 2015
Episode 2 (20/1/15 edition)
Episode 3 (27/1/15 edition)
Reviews of Ex Machina, A Most Violent Year, Big Hero 6, The Gambler, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Trash, Inherent Vice, and Son of a Gun (phew!)
[Watch the 20/1 edition (with sign language) and the 27/1 edition (with or without) on iPlayer.]

The Flash
1x11 The Sound and the Fury

Outnumbered
3x03 The Tennis Match [2nd watch]

TV

The 87th Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars, of course. A mixed bag of the predictable and the perhaps-not-worthy, with some fantastic acceptance speeches.

Castle
4x23 Always [season finale]
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 1st April.]

Two Tribes
2x05 (20/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
4x22 Undead Again
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 25th March.]

The Great Comic Relief Bake Off
2x02 Episode 2 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]


And of a similar theme...

Film 2015
Episode 6 (18/2/15 edition)
Discussing the Oscar nominations.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Oscar 2015 Nominations Special
Discussing the Oscar nominations.

Oscar 2015: Red Carpet Live
I'm still watching as this is posted, but I bet they're discussing the Oscar nominations.

this week on 100 Films

A whopping seven brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, including a previous Oscar Best Picture winner, and one of the frontrunners for this year's awards...


12 Angry Men (1957)

the outcome rarely seems certain, each victory hard won, so that the film holds you rapt, desperate for sense and reason to prevail. There are moments of tension which may literally push you to the edge of your seat; moments of exultant success which may elicit an exclamation of approval similar to a point scored in a sports match.

Read more here.


2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

This is the first in an occasional series in which I revisit films that are highly acclaimed but I didn’t enjoy first time round... let me begin with a point of clarification: I don’t remember when I first saw 2001, but I was very young, and most likely looking for SF films in the vein of others I’d enjoyed, like, say, Star Wars. I think we can all agree that 2001 is not like Star Wars.

Read more here.


Argo (Extended Cut) (2012/2013)

Hollywood loves a look at itself, and here it’s both satirical (“So you want to come to Hollywood, act like a big shot, without actually doing anything? You’ll fit right in!”) and congratulatory — after all, the plan goes ahead and so (spoilers) Hollywood saves the day. The film creates just the right balance between taking the mick out of Hollywood and bigging-up its role in saving some lives, while also not spending too long on this section that we forget the perilous situation on the other side of the world.

Read more here.


Boyhood (2014)

writer-director Richard Linklater strives to keep things almost unrelentingly normal. Okay, there are abusive relationships — things get a little extreme with her second husband — but even that doesn’t go as far as it could have. No one gets in a shocking accident or develops a fatal illess or dies suddenly; no one is seriously bullied or mugged; no one is arrested or imprisoned; no one is made homeless; no one gets pregnant… the list could go on. Every time you second guess that — every time you think, “oh now we’re going to have something big” — the film just rolls on with normality. Just like real life does, in fact.

Read more here.


Last Action Hero (1993)

a spoof of action-thrillers, albeit with a real-world framing device instead of just leaping in Airplane-style... the film is most alive in the first and third acts, when the two worlds initially collide and, later, when the fictional characters enter our world only to find that not everything’s the same as in the movies.

Read more here.


The Lego Movie (2014)

Despite looking like a 100-minute toy commercial with an irritating theme song, plus a moral message about nonconformity that seems like it’ll get bungled (but doesn’t), The Lego Movie is so much more — and better — than that.

Read more here.


The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)

For my money, unquestionably the series’ weakest entry so far, though others disagree — some even reckon it their favourite. The charm and banter between Powell and Loy is present and correct, though... and there are some good Asta bits.

Read more here.


The Oscars-related fun continues in all of this week's seven archive repost reviews: every one of them is a Best Picture winner...


Annie Hall (1977)

One might call it a romantic comedy, but it’s very much an indie comedy-drama (for one thing, it utilises the ever-popular tactic of not taking place in chronological order), rather than the mainstream cliché-fest that first springs to mind whenever “rom-com” is mentioned.

Read more here.


The Apartment (1960)

Wilder employs long scenes and long takes, but Lemmon never stops bustling through them, always doing something, keeping the film active and moving even when Wilder declines to follow. It's the latter that makes the former so effective, rendering Lemmon's character the odd one in an otherwise static world

Read more here.


Chicago (2002)

In its favour are a number of memorable songs, all performed with impressive routines. On the downside, they’re all quite stagey in their choreography, though this suits the daydream-fantasy style in which they come about.

Read more here.


Crash: Director's Cut (2004)

I'll take any chance I can get to go on about how this is a much better and more Oscar-deserving piece than a certain overrated film about gay cowboys. In my opinion this is a film that should be seen, not necessarily for its message, but for its quality in terms of performance, direction, etc.

Read more here.


Gone with the Wind (1939)

The direction is brilliant, displaying styles you think weren’t invented for another 20 years; all of the design work is gorgeous; and the story is epic and expertly told, moving across genres (romance, war, melodrama, comedy) with ease.

Read more here.


Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

The acting is what shines in this multiple-Oscar-winning custody drama... I personally didn’t find the later courtroom scenes quite as edge-of-your-seat intense as some have, but you can’t fault the abilities of the actors.

Read more here.


Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Everything that claims it’s a “feel-good film” is being slightly disingenuous. It has a happy ending, but until those closing moments it’s unrelentingly grim. Realistic, I’m certain, and depressingly so, but it seems designed for anything but making you feel good.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x06 Jake and Sophia
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Two Tribes
2x04 (19/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
4x07 The Blind Auditions 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Big Hero 6 (2014)
[#28 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Feast (2014)
[#28a in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Excellent short, which screened before Big Hero 6 in cinemas and is on its Blu-ray release (and DVD too, probably). Also up for an Oscar this weekend.

Collection Count

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

This week, four new additions boost almost every stat (no new DVDs, though one BD has a DVD copy, so, y'know). It's also time for the monthly running time count, so it really is an update-tastic edition.

Number of titles in collection: 1,739 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 531 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 4,341 [up 9]
Number of films in collection: 1,876 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,474 [up 10]
Number of short films in collection: 442 [up 2]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
313 days, 19 hours, and 13 minutes.
(Up 23 hours and 37 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Broadchurch
2x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Castle
4x21 Headhunters
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 18th March.]

Room 101
15x06 Episode 6

Two Tribes
2x03 (18/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Boyhood (2014)
[#27 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Death in Paradise
4x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Two Tribes
2x02 (17/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Toy Story That Time Forgot (2014)
[#26b in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

The latest Toy Story short/TV special, released just before Christmas, is sadly disappointing.

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x07 You Can Face Time or You Can Face This
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Two Tribes
2x01 (16/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wolf Hall
Part 3 Anna Regina
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Arrow
3x10 Left Behind
Olly meets up with everyone exactly five years later, doesn't he? Funny that...

Castle
4x20 The Limey
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 11th March.]

The Last Leg
6x06 (13/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
[#26a in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
[3rd watch]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x06 (13/2/15 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
4x19 47 Seconds
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 4th March.]

Broadchurch
2x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Castle
4x18 A Dance with Death
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 25th February.]

The Mentalist
7x01 Nothing But Blue Skies
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Time Lapse (2014)
[#25 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

What We Did on Our Holiday (2014)
[#26 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...


Byzantium (2012)

The most effective part of the movie isn’t so much its plot or its mythology, though, but its atmosphere. Vampire movies take place in castles or drawing rooms, or high schools in more modern iterations. They are grand and sensuous. Any glamour in Byzantium is discarded and decrepit, like the titular hotel that Clara reshapes as a whorehouse; faded and left to ruin.

Read more here.


Knights of Badassdom (2013)

perhaps best known for its behind-the-scenes wrangles, which saw it taken out of director Joe Lynch’s hands and re-edited... by the time it was released Stateside in early 2014, reception was poor. A lot of this was put down to it not being Lynch’s cut, but I disagree for two reasons: one, I thought this version was good fun; and two, based on what I’ve read, I’m not convinced Lynch’s preferred cut would help any of the elements that might need helping.

Read more here.


The Last Days on Mars (2013)

it plays a bit like an R-rated, traditional-zombie-emphasised remake of Doctor Who adventure The Waters of Mars... the award-winning Who episode concerns the first manned mission to Mars battling a previously-undiscovered alien menace that mysteriously turns them into zombie-like creatures and prevents them leaving the planet. And the similarities go further than that

Read more here.


Series 7: The Contenders (2001)

Another entry in the Battle Royale, etc. subgenre, it sees six randomly-selected people forced by law to participate in a kill-or-be-killed reality TV contest. More grounded than most of its genre compatriots thanks to its filler-TV visual aesthetic and middle-America setting

Read more here.


Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)

As incidental as the case may be, it’s a pretty good one — the solution to the jockey’s murder is a particularly neat change of pace, and while the culprit is deducible using the series’ regular “the least-likely person did it for a reason we’ll cook up at the end” formula, if you play by the rules it’s a trickier spot.

Read more here.


Plus seven archive reviews were reposted, including two past Oscar Best Picture winners -- all of the coming week's reposts will be past winners, in honour of next weekend's ceremony.


An American in Paris (1951)

it’s got a Gershwin score, and I always like that; particularly memorable is I Got Rhythm being performed by Gene Kelly and a group of young kids who can’t speak English. It’s a different take on a familiar number that’s thoroughly entertaining.

Read more here.


The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

The most striking thing about the film is that, for about the first 40 minutes, it takes place almost entirely within the head of Jean-Do... From the opening shot we literally see through his his eyes, blurry and limited as that is, and hear his thoughts, which brings us a lot closer to him than any character in the film can be... Jean-Do’s situation is obviously far from everyday, so this device makes for a highly effective — and, indeed, affective — form of identification.

Read more here.


The Met Ball (2010)

Depending on your level of generosity, this could be described facetiously as either “The September Issue 2” or “a deleted scene from The September Issue”. It’s sort of both.

Read more here.


Secretary (2002)

attempts to depict a realistic and sympathetic dominant/submissive relationship. Unfortunately this seems to come a bit unstuck with the feeling that the relationship is initially based in an emotionally (and physically) abusive act against a clearly vulnerable character

Read more here.


The September Issue (2009)

surprisingly enjoyable. Is it illuminating? I’m not sure, though some bits are occasionally fascinating — director R.J. Cutler’s handful of interview snippets with Wintour are well-chosen; brief but potentially revealing, even as she does her best to given nothing away.

Read more here.


Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

often listed as the first Film Noir [yet] so imbued with the recognisable calling cards of noir in its cinematography, characters and plot points that it feels more like an entry in a well-established genre than a formative inclusion.

Read more here.


West Side Story (1961)

underneath the song and dance numbers (some impressive, some embarrassing), the Shakespearian romance story, and the vibrant and beautiful cinematography, beats the heart of a gritty, political, social drama about gangs, racism, immigration, and more

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Great Comic Relief Bake Off
2x01 Episode 1 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
4x06 The Blind Auditions 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Hairspray (2007)
[3rd watch]
This was #53 in 100 Films 2008 and is reviewed here.
It's the 3rd time I've watched it, 3 years and 3 months since the last time, which was 3 years and 3 months after the first time.

Tropic Thunder: Director's Cut (2008)
[#24 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: 1,735 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 527 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,332 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,873 [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

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x05 The Mole
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Outnumbered
3x02 The Internet [2nd watch]

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
3x02 The Ties That Bind [series finale]

Films

Runner Runner (2013)
[#23 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Castle
4x17 Once Upon a Crime
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 18th February.]

Outnumbered
3x01 The Family Outing [3rd watch]
(Skipping the 2009 Christmas special as we only watched it two months ago.)

Films

The Last Days on Mars (2013)
[#22 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x06 Country File
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

The Flash
1x10 Revenge of the Rogues

The Last Leg
6x05 (6/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

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]