Films

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
[#17 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

TV

The British Academy Film Awards 2019
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Gods and Monsters (1998)
[#16 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

this week on 100 Films

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


High Flying Bird (2019)

it took less than two minutes for High Flying Bird to leave me feeling lost and confused, as it dives into an “inside baseball” (as the saying goes) depiction of basketball right from the off. It felt like watching a French movie without subtitles, except here the language isn’t French, it’s basketball.

Read more here.


Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Despite being adapted from a kids’ picture book, and resolutely rated PG, it didn’t strike me as a kids’ movie at all. It’s glum, depressing, and surely only understandable when filtered through an adult perspective.

Read more here.


The Ragtag Review Roundup

A real mixed back of films that have basically nothing in common. In today’s roundup:
- American Psycho (2000)
- Logan Lucky (2017)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

Memories of Murder (2003)
[#15 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]
What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2019 #2

Collection Count

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

Having last week promised more 4K UHD discs soon, that's all I have to add this week! There were six of them, almost all upgrades: two from other Blu-rays, two from DVDs (now that's a quality jump!), and one where I'm also keeping the previous edition (for now, at least); plus one brand-new title, too.

All of which works out like this:

Number of titles in collection: 2,186 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,140 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,046 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 16 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 5,657 [up 11]
Number of films: 2,499 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 8,426 [up 1]
Number of short films: 652 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Russian Doll
1x07 The Way Out
1x08 Ariadne [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

High Flying Bird (2019)
[#14 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

TV

Russian Doll
1x05 Superiority Complex
1x06 Reflection
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Would I Lie To You?
12x08 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Punisher
2x04 Scar Tissue
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Russian Doll
1x03 A Warm Body
1x04 Alan's Routine
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

TV

Insert Name Here
4x02 Mo

Podcasts

David Tennant Does a Podcast with…
1 Olivia Colman
2 Whoopi Goldberg

I don't have a specific category for podcasts -- maybe I should add one? I'm more likely to listen to those than regular radio nowadays.

Anyway, this one does what it says on the tin, and it's a lovely way to spend a bit of time with some friends nattering.

TV

Hanna
1x01 Forest
Amazon's TV adaptation of the 2011 movie is actually released in March, but they made the first episode available for 24 hours following the Super Bowl. If you're quick it might still be there...
[Watch it (again), if you're quick, on Amazon Prime.]

Films

First Reformed (2017)
[#13 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

TV

Les Misérables
Part 4 (of 6)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

It's a new month, which means it was time for 100 Films in a Year's first progress report of 2019...





Also this week, 2 new reviews were published...


Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

The team behind neo-noir modern classic Nightcrawler (writer-director Dan Gilroy, stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo, cinematographer Robert Elswit, among others) reunite for this direct-to-Netflix genre mash-up — it’s part art-world satire, part mystery-thriller, part horror. The Verge described it as “Robert Altman’s Final Destination”, and that so succinctly articulates what the film reminded me of that I decided to just lift it. Well, just pilfering someone else’s work is in-keeping with the film’s themes, at least.

Read more here.


Zatoichi the Outlaw (1967)

The sixteenth Zatoichi movie begins by boldly declaring it’s “the first feature by Katsu Productions”, the production company of series star Shintaro Katsu. While the change isn’t radical — this is still the Zatoichi we know and love — there does seem to be a different style and tone about this particular instalment.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

I say "every week" -- I missed last week, for various dull reasons, so this week's count includes a fortnight of updates, plus a "monthly" running time update that actually counts five weeks. Ah well.

Of note: a new 4K UHD title, which turned up just yesterday. There'll be even more of those coming soon...

Number of titles in collection: 2,184 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,042 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 10 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,646 [up 16]
Number of films: 2,497 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,425 [up 47]
Number of short films: 653 [up 2]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
417 days, 10 hours, and 28 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 11 hours, and 5 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Russian Doll
1x01 Nothing in This World Is Easy
1x02 The Great Escape
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
[#12 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

TV

The Punisher
2x03 Trouble the Water
Didn't mean to leave it 11 days between episodes of this, but I've been away and busy.
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
[#11 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

Zatoichi Challenged (1967)
[#10 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

The Happytime Murders (2018)
[#9 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

The Player (1992)
[#8 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]
Blindspot 2019 #1

TV

Grantchester
4x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Midsomer Murders
19x04 Red in Tooth & Claw
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Poirot
5x05 The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review was published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Unsane (2018)

Probably the best-known thing about Unsane is that Steven Soderbergh shot it on an iPhone. Well, he’s not the first person to shoot a feature on a phone, nor will he be the last, but I guess he must’ve been the most high-profile. It’s a shame that’s all people seemed to talk about, though, because the content of the film is worth a look too.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Death in Paradise
8x03 Caught Off Camera
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Poirot
5x04 The Case of the Missing Will
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Death in Paradise
8x02 The Poison Dart Gun
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Poirot
5x03 The Yellow Iris
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Nailed It!
2x01 High Society
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Les Misérables (2012)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #5. Next to the current BBC adaptation, this just feels like one massive abridged montage. Not to mention the new one is relatively subtle, whereas here everyone sings all the subtext out loud.

TV

Death in Paradise
8x01 Murder on the Honore Express
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
37x11 Resolution [New Year's Day special; 2nd watch]
Here's the review I wrote on my other blog, FYI.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Poirot
3x10 The Affair at the Victory Ball [season finale]
5x01 The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
[Watch The Affair at the Victory Ball and The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

The Punisher
2x02 Fight or Flight
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Articles

Glass Was Always Building Toward This Ending
by Richard Newby (from The Hollywood Reporter)
An interesting (but super spoilery) reading of Glass and the Eastrail 177 trilogy.

this week on 100 Films

It was time for the monthly sidestep into the world of TV this week on 100 Films in a Year...





As well as which, 5 new reviews were published...


Glass (2019)

Want to see Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson face off again in a film that’s fundamentally Unbreakable 2? That’s not an unreasonable hope, but Glass is as much a sequel to Split as it is to Unbreakable, perhaps even more so. Certainly in tone, Glass has more in common with the slightly-pulpy, almost-B-movie style of Split than it does with the quiet, characterful mode Unbreakable operated in. That first film was a Drama, all about believable people coping with their personal issues, whereas the two follow-ups are much more genre movies. That said, they’re still genre movies that have been filtered through the unique mindset of this particular writer-director — don’t expect a great deal of easy satisfaction here.

Read more here.


Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)

There have been some interesting ideas tucked away in this trilogy, both in how it reimagined the kaiju and their mythologies, and in the brand-new stuff it attempted to introduce with the alien races and their beliefs. Unfortunately, that promise has been lost under unengaging characters, poorly defined relationships, and the kind of philosophising you might expect from a Sixth Form student.

Read more here.


Blindspot Review Roundup

Quick review of:
- The 400 Blows
- Big Fish
- Strangers on a Train

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Great News
2x08 Sensitivity Training
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Collection Count

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

Two new purchases this week, both Blu-ray-to-Blu-ray upgrades, which results in a cumulative total of one new disc.

Number of titles in collection: 2,179 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,037 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,630 [up 1]
Number of films: 2,491 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,378 [no change]
Number of short films: 651 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Punisher
2x01 Roadhouse Blues
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Glass (2019)
[#7 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

TV

Les Misérables
Part 3 (of 6)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Split (2016)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #4. Tomorrow: Glass.

Films

Ghostbusters (1984)
[4th or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #3. I don't know how many times I saw this as a kid, but I reckon I haven't actually watched it in the last 20 or so years, and yet I still vividly remembered whole chunks of it. Iconic.

Unbreakable (2000)
[4th watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #2. Almost time for Glass...

Films

Twelve Monkeys (1995)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #1

Films

Experiments in Love 3D (1977)
[#6a in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

La jetée (1962)
[#6b in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

The Stewardesses 3D (1969)
[#6 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

Rambo (2008)
[#5 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

this week on 100 Films

It was all about finished 2018 and belatedly starting 2019 this week at 100 Films in a Year.

Firstly, I finished off last year by listing my best & worst films I saw in 2018...





Then, 2019's goal got underway with two lists of 12 films I must watch this year...


What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…? 2019

A new year, a new challenge… or, rather, an old challenge with new components. Yes, for a seventh year I’m setting myself the goal of watching 12 specific films I really should have seen but haven’t... WDYMYHS is selected by analysing lists of great and/or popular movies to try to determine a consensus view of what I’m a fool to have missed.

Read more here.


Blindspot 2019

12 films I should’ve seen but haven’t that I must watch this year — and, because I’m doing both WDYMYHS and Blindspot, that’s 24 films I must watch... Blindspot choices are simply personally selected from my DVD/Blu-ray collection. Nonetheless, I do try to add a bit of variety to the mix, with different countries, genres, and eras represented.

Read more here.


Finally, there was even 1 new review...


Zatoichi's Cane Sword (1967)

Anyone who watches and enjoys the Zatoichi series is bound to end up with their own particular favourites, for whatever reason. Cane Sword particularly clicked for the writers at The Digital Bits; for me, it's been other films... Either way, Cane Sword is another very good entry in a series which is, fortunately, full of them.

Read more here.


Regular business resumes next Sunday.

Films

1941 (1979)
[#4 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

The final Steven Spielberg film I've definitely never seen! (Believe it or not, I can't remember if I've ever seen E.T. I'll settle that for certain sometimes soon-ish, then.)

Collection Count

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

Just one DVD to Blu-ray upgrade this week; plus I'd messed up the film count on a previous week, so there's a correction to that.

Number of titles in collection: 2,179 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,037 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,629 [up 1]
Number of films: 2,491 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,378 [no change]
Number of short films: 651 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
24x13 (11/1/19 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Cool Hand Luke (1967)
[#2 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]
What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2019 #1

Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
[#3 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Films

Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018)
[#1 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Mopping up some Christmas specials I missed...

The Imitation Game
1x07 Episode 7 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Would I Lie To You?
12x07 At Christmas
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Les Misérables
Part 2 (of 6)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

With the new year only just underway, the past week at 100 Films in a Year has been almost entirely concerned with looking back at 2018.

First, the monthly progress report for December...





Then, three posts looking back over the whole year...


My Top 5 Most-Read New Posts in 2018

Last year, my top five most-viewed new posts were dominated by TV reviews, with no film getting a look in... This year, one film did crack the top five... Nonetheless, as this is supposedly a film blog, I’m still presenting the two separate top fives: first, which five sets of TV reviews attracted the most hits; then, which five film reviews were most visited.

Read more here.


2018: The Full List

2018 was the biggest year of 100 Films ever in terms of films viewed, and by some margin: my previous highest total was 2015’s 200, but this year I made it all the way to 261. Throw in my Rewatchathon and I watched 311 feature-length films this year. This post is, as the title should suggest, a list of those.

Read more here.


2018 Statistics

For today’s portion of my review of 2018, it’s one of my personal highlights every year: the statistics! For any newcomers among you, this is where I take the 261 films I watched for the first time in 2018 and analyse them in all kinds of different ways, and compare them to previous years too. It’s exciting, I promise. (Well, it is to me.)

Read more here.


My best and worst of the year will (hopefully) follow soon. Meanwhile, in more regular business, there was my review of Christmas TV...





...and 1 new film review, too:


Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)

Primarily, I think Ab Fab: The Movie is targeted at fans of the series, and isn’t really designed to stand on its own feet as an independent movie. I’ve only seen some of the TV show, and I think that was essential to understanding who all the characters were, how they were connected, and why they behaved in certain ways. Even then, I felt like there was stuff flying over my head because I haven’t seen all of the original episodes and/or because it’s been some years since I did watch any.

Read more here.


And that's the lot! More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Three new Blu-rays to kick off 2019, but one upgrades a pair of DVD sets, so the numbers go something like this...

Number of titles in collection: 2,179 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,143 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,036 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,628 [up 6]
Number of films: 2,487 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 8,378 [up 50]
Number of short films: 651 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of Everything 2019
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

A Series of Unfortunate Events
3x05 The Penultimate Peril Part One
3x06 The Penultimate Peril Part Two
3x07 The End [series finale]
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 The Grand Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Island of Dreams
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A Series of Unfortunate Events
3x03 The Grim Grotto Part One
3x04 The Grim Grotto Part Two
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Semi-Final 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

A Series of Unfortunate Events
3x01 The Slippery Slope Part One
3x02 The Slippery Slope Part Two
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

The Twinstitute
1x01 Get Thin Fast
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Semi-Final 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who
37x11 Resolution [New Year's Day special]
The first Doctor Who episode of 2019! ...and the last, with the next series announced for 2020. At least it was a really good one.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Madness Rocks Big Ben Live
Part 2 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
17x13 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mrs Brown's Boys
Mammy's Motel [New Year's Day special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

New Year's Eve Fireworks
2018/2019
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 St Catherine's, Oxford v Peterhouse, Cambridge
Christmas 2018 Edinburgh University v LSE
[Watch these episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Gogglesprogs
Christmas Special 2018
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Madness Rocks Big Ben Live
Part 1 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Les Misérables
Part 1 (of 6)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Sheffield University v Manchester University
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The ABC Murders
Part 1 (of 3)
Part 2 (of 3)
Part 3 (of 3)
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Travel Man
8x00 96 Hours in Jordan [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

this week on 100 Films

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


Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)

The latest addition to Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror universe is the kind of work that pushes at the boundaries of form and medium — and therefore is the kind of work that challenges how I count things at 100 Films. Is it a film? An episode of TV? A video game? Or is it genuinely something new? Well, it’s not really a video game — it’s not interactive enough to qualify as that. So is it a TV episode, then? It carries the Black Mirror branding, and that is a TV series. Plus it’s not a theatrical release… but then, neither are most Netflix films. It's promoted by Netflix as an “interactive film”. So, taking them at their word, I’ve decided that means it counts as a film.

Read more here.


Christine (2016)

The true, tragic story of newswoman Christine Chubbuck is told in this affecting drama. For those that don’t know, it’s the ending that is why her story is famous: Christine was the first person to commit suicide live on television. The film attempts to help us understand Christine’s life and mental state, and what led her to that moment.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

This week, it's time for the delayed running time update (as mentioned here), as well as all the whole-year stats increases. Of course, there are actually a couple of days left in 2018, and some titles that should have arrived but haven't could still turn up on Monday... but, eh, they'll just have to count towards 2019.

Number of titles in collection: 2,178 [up 3 this week; up 103 in 2018]
Of which DVDs: 1,145 [no change this week; down 21 in 2018]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,033 [up 3 this week; up 124 in 2018]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change this week; up 9 in 2018]

Number of discs in collection: 5,622 [up 34; up 297 in 2018]
Number of films: 2,486 [up 42; up 172 in 2018]
Number of TV episodes: 8,328 [up 16; up 323 in 2018]
Number of short films: 651 [up 2; up 52 in 2018]

I don't think I've bought any short film collections this year, and yet the odd one or two here and there do mount up.

Total running time of collection (approx.):
414 days, 23 hours, and 23 minutes.
(Up 5 days, 2 hours, and 9 minutes from last month.)
(Up 21 days, 5 hours, and 43 minutes from last year.)

That's my smallest year-on-year running time increase since 2014! It's good, really, because I shouldn't buy so much stuff... but I'm gonna keep doing it!

And so, as ever, see you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Black Mirror
5x00 Bandersnatch
The interactive Black Mirror "movie", as many sites/articles are calling it. Netflix call it an "event", which feels more accurate; though they also go with "interactive film", which, y'know, is also accurate. I thought about it a lot, because it's also 'just' an episode of Black Mirror. That's how I'm listing it for now, though I have a suspicion I'll change that imminently.
But whatever you call it, I thought it was superb throughout. There's a great article on how it was made from Wired, and another interesting (and slightly less techy) piece about its creation from The Hollywood Reporter.
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Exeter University v Birmingham University
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Upstart Crow
3x03 If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed? [2nd watch]
3x04 Sigh No More [2nd watch]
[Watch If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed? and Sigh No More (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #50

Articles

The BBC's crazy scheduling may have killed off the Film Show, but movie criticism is more alive than ever
by Robbie Collin (from The Telegraph)

A good article on the ignominious demise of the BBC's Film programme.

TV

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
1x06 Christmas [special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

A Christmas Carol (2018)
[#260 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2018
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Pembroke College, Cambridge v King's College, London
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
[2nd or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #49. I rewatched the first film last Christmas, and intended to get round to this sequel too. Well, it's only taken me 371 days…

TV

The Dead Room
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mrs Brown's Boys
Exotic Mammy [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Westminster University v University of East Anglia
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Upstart Crow
3x07 A Crow Christmas Carol [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Click & Collect
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Not Going Out
10x00 Ding Dong Merrily on Live [Christmas special]
10x00 Ding Dong Merrily on Live [Christmas special; 2nd watch]
So good I watched it twice.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Brasenose, Oxford v Bristol
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)
[#259 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

The Chase
The Bloopers
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Have I Got News For You
56x11 Have I Got 2018 News For You [special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
1x01 Edinburgh [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Murder on the Blackpool Express
[2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on UKTV Play.]

Watership Down
Part 3 The Escape
Part 4 The Siege
[Watch parts three and four (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Not too much to report in the past week at 100 Films in a Year, but it did include the monthly TV review...





...and just 1 new film review...


Ready Player One (2018)

Steven Spielberg’s latest foray into the style of popular moviemaking he helped create in the ‘70s and ’80s — the summer tentpole action-adventure mega-blockbuster — is an adaptation of a novel so bedded in the popular movies of the ‘70s and ‘80s that the whole thing is a bit too meta: it’s a movie obsessed with the brilliance of ‘80s pop culture, made by one of the primary creators of that culture. At least Spielberg insisted that all references to his own work be cut, otherwise it could’ve become a mite self-congratulatory. Though it does mean that Spielberg becomes conspicuous by his absence in a Spielberg movie. Oh, it’s enough to make your head spin…

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Goodness Gracious Me
Christmas Special
20 Years Innit!
A documentary marking the sketch show's 20th anniversary by discussing some of its landmark sketches, and the Christmas special from 1998.
[Watch the Christmas special and 20 Years Innit! (again) on iPlayer.]

Watership Down
Part 1 The Journey
Part 2 The Raid
Some thoughts here.
[Watch parts one and two (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

I thought there was going to be stuff to report this week, but some distribution errors mean nope, nothing whatsoever.

Number of titles in collection: 2,175 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,145 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,030 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,588 [no change]
Number of films: 2,444 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,312 [no change]
Number of short films: 649 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader, for the post-Christmas end-of-year tally.

TV

Doctor Who
37x09 It Takes You Away [2nd watch]
37x10 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos [season finale; 2nd watch]
[Watch It Takes You Away and The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (again) on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
24x12 (21/12/18 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who
37x08 The Witchfinders [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Insert Name Here
4x01 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
[#258 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Doctor Who
37x06 Demons of the Punjab [2nd watch]
37x07 Kerblam! [2nd watch]
[Watch Demons of the Punjab and Kerblam! (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
12x06 Episode 6 [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who
37x05 The Tsuranga Conundrum [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
7x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Poirot
2x06 Double Sin
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Poirot
2x04 The Cornish Mystery
2x05 The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
[Watch The Cornish Mystery and The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Best Christmas Ever with Alexander Armstrong
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Royal Variety Performance 2018
I used to watch this every year but haven't for yonks (this ever-handy blog informs me it was 2012). This year I only watched because it was on shortly after the aforementioned Christmas programme and I got sucked in. And it was actually rather good on the whole, I thought.
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

this week on 100 Films

The week began with a special announcement at 100 Films in a Year...





Click the image for more.

After that, 5 brand-new reviews were published this week...


Light the Fuse... Sartana is Coming (1970)

Arrow’s blurb claims this “brings the series to a fine conclusion”; that it “sees Sartana sign off on a high [in] one of the best entries in the series”. I’d almost go so far as to say the opposite — it was one of my least favourite. There’s fun along the way, to be sure, but the plot borders on the meaningless and therefore becomes a tad boring. It’s not a bad film, as this series goes, but it certainly feels like a generic one.

Read more here.


A Monster Calls (2016)

The most immediately striking element of A Monster Calls may be that it stars a giant tree monster with the grumbling voice of Liam Neeson, but this isn’t just a fantasy adventure, it’s a powerfully emotional drama about the pain of impending loss and grief. In this respect it’s not just a good movie, but potentially an important one — I can imagine it being of great help to children who find themselves in similar circumstances

Read more here.


The Shape of Water (2017)

I still can’t quite believe a creature-feature fantasy romance won Best Picture. It remains surreal to see a genre movie conquer the Oscars like that. Even The Lord of the Rings, for all its so-Fantasy-it-defined-the-genre-ness, has a lot of the “historical war epic” in its form (not to mention the genre-transcending cultural impact that film trilogy had), and so its win seems less striking than this out-and-out monster movie. Naturally, The Shape of Water doesn’t actually conform to the commonly-understood connotations of what a “monster movie” is, and therein lies what makes it something fresh, and therefore Best Picture material.

Read more here.


Shrek Forever After (2010)

DreamWorks’ golden-goose animated franchise was running out of fairytales to subvert, so this fourth — and final (for the time being) — movie turns its attention on the series itself... The filmmakers take this as an opportunity to give us a look at how characters might’ve turned out in a Shrek-less world... and it’s in this upending of familiarity that the film finds its greatest entertainment value.

Read more here.


Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

lives up to the hype, if you give it the time to get there. It's a movie that will satisfy comic book fans in particular, I think, but also anyone who enjoys animation as an artform. This isn't your standard Disney/Pixar/Illumination/etc fare, but a thrillingly-realised vision of what animation can do.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Michael McIntyre's Big Show
4x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Strictly Come Dancing
16x25 The Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
12x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Normally this post would have a running time update, because it's been four weeks since the last one, but I've decided to put that back a couple of weeks in order to do my usual "end of year" numbers post-Christmas.

For now, all there is to report is one new Blu-ray box set, its increases half wiped out by selling an old DVD.

Number of titles in collection: 2,175 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,145 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,030 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,588 [up 2]
Number of films: 2,444 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,312 [no change]
Number of short films: 649 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader, when (depending on the whims of Royal Mail) there may see a pre-Christmas surge.

TV

Have I Got News For You
56x08 (30/11/18 edition)
56x09 (7/12/18 edition)
56x10 (14/12/18 edition) [season finale]
[Watch these episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
24x11 (14/12/18 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Zatoichi the Outlaw (1967)
[#257 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Great News
2x07 A Christmas Carol Wendelson
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Live at the Apollo
14x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Death Becomes Her (1992)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #48

Films

The Shape of Water (2017)
[#256 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Great News
2x06 Pool Show
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Music in Darkness (1948)
[#255 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Scooby-Doo (2002)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #47

TV

Doctor Who
37x10 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Light the Fuse… Sartana is Coming (1970)
[#253 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
[#254 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

this week on 100 Films

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


Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Entertainment is definitely the name of the game here, and to that end director Peyton Reed and the five credited screenwriters (including star Paul Rudd) set out to tickle various emotional responses. The most obvious one is, as mentioned, the funny — there are laugh-out-loud moments here, as well as a never-ending barrage of one-liners and comedic business. But it also takes time to be emotive and heartfelt.

Read more here.


Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)

a frustratingly imperfect experience. I believe it’s fundamentally a unique-enough variation on the material that it could’ve escaped the shadow of Disney’s film, but a few misguided creative decisions have dragged it down almost irreparably.

Read more here.


Sorry to Bother You (2018)

It felt like everyone was on about Sorry to Bother You early this year, after it was released in the US in July. It’s taken ’til now to make it to UK screens — I don’t know if that was a conscious delay, or if the outpouring of recommendations from critics and audiences on social media had something to do with creating demand for distribution. Anyway, it’s fortunate that, as a small movie, most of the discussion (that I saw) was about urging people to see it and not giving away the twist (naturally, this review is equally spoiler-free.), because it is indeed a helluva turn to come across unaware. As for the rest of the movie, well, I was less convinced.

Read more here.


February Review Roundup

Featuring:
- Being John Malkovich
- I Origins
- WarGames

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

This post is a bit later than usual (not that there's anyone who'll notice) because a whole bunch of stuff only arrived this morning that required some working out to add to (and subtract from) the tallies below.

For starters, there's a 4K UHD Blu-ray box set which upgrades several Blu-rays... except I'm also keeping the original releases because they all have bonus discs. That's a whole bunch of discs I don't need and cases taking up space. Ugh. But I do love special features.

There's also a Blu-ray box set which upgrades a bunch of DVDs... except I'm keeping most of the DVDs too, for now, because the box set doesn't duplicate all of their special features. Ugh. But I do love special features.

As well as that, there's quite simply a pile of brand-new Blu-rays. It's been like Christmas here! Heck, I'll probably get fewer things than this for Christmas itself...

Number of titles in collection: 2,175 [up 8]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,029 [up 10]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 9 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,586 [up 26]
Number of films: 2,441 [up 14]
Number of TV episodes: 8,312 [up 18]
Number of short films: 649 [up 8]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
24x10 (7/12/18 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)
[#252 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Snowpiercer (2013)
[#251 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]
Blindspot 2018 #12