Sunday, 29 March 2020

Films

Aladdin 3D (2019)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Part of an ingenieous double-bill *badum-tish*

this week on 100 Films

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


Mission: Impossible - Fallout in 3D (2018)
the 3D is superb. It may be a post-conversion, but it’s really well done, in particular during the action sequences — which, in fairness, is most of the movie. The skydive; the Paris bike chase; the helicopter stuff; perhaps most of all the clifftop fight — they all gain something from the third dimension.
Read more here.


Rocketman (2019)
this isn’t just “a film about music”, but a proper musical. It isn’t just a simplistic jukebox musical either, nor a standard musician biopic where the character performs some of their hits. Well, it is both of those... But it’s also more than that in the way it’s executed. Other characters break into song from time to time too, and there are clever reimaginings of several recognisable tracks. This is a restlessly imaginative movie.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 28 March 2020

TV

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
2x02 British History
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

A Man for All Seasons (1966)
[#51 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Viking Queen (1967)
[#52 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Both of these films were featured in the episode of Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema that I watched today. The first one I coincidentally watched before the episode; the second one I chose to watch after he included it. (I didn't even realise I had it in my DVD collection until I Googled where I might be able to watch it.)

Collection Count

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

After reaching weekly numbers unseen for almost a decade earlier this month, I'm at it again. I've equalled that week's total of 13 new additions, but only one of them is an upgrade, so this week's net change of +12 is bigger than that week's +11. That makes it the second biggest week in the history of this column for increasing my collection (the winner is still a week from July 2011 that saw a whopping 14 additions).

This week's additions include a large pile from Indicator, a combination of splurging in their recent sale and a couple of preorders. That's topped up by two imports from Germany to get things unavailable here (Darren Aronofsky's Noah in 3D and Steven Soderbergh's Solaris); a preorder turning up 10 days early (hurrah for ordering direct from the label); and a couple of other random purchases to boot.

Number of titles in collection: 2,335 [up 12]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,226 [up 13]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 46 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,061 [up 22]
Number of films: 2,736 [up 22]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [no change]
Number of short films: 700 [up 9]

Oh, and it's also time for the monthly running time update! With two of my largest weeks of all time within the last month, plus a couple more big-by-normal-standards ones, let's see what effect that's had...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
443 days, 9 hours, and 57 minutes.
(Up 4 days, 2 hours, and 48 minutes from last month.)

Those 4-and-a-bit days are equivalent to 21% of the running time increase across the whole of last year, which is a lot really (if all was equal, each of these running time updates would represent 7.7% of the year). That said, it's less than a year since I had one even bigger, so in the grand scheme of things it's not that phenomenal. But I suspect most of those previous ones were boosted by a big TV box set or two, so, you know, swings and roundabouts.

Of course, all these huge increases have cost a small fortune (I added 39 new titles this month!), so hopefully things will be considerably calmer in April. But you never know...

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 27 March 2020

TV

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
2x01 Superheroes
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Mad Magician 3D (1954)
[#50 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Pardon My Backfire 3D (1953)
[#50b in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
The second and final Three Stooges short made in 3D, and included on Indicator's Blu-ray release of The Mad Magician. It's not very good, but at least it's better than...

Spooks! 3D (1953)
[#50a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
The first Three Stooges short made in 3D, also included on Indicator's Blu-ray release of The Mad Magician. It's rubbish.

Thursday, 26 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
27x01 Rose [4th or so watch]
Watched as part of the big watchalong on Twitter, #TripOfALifetime. It's the first time I've seen it in about 13 or 14 years, and I enjoyed it. See also: the prequel and sequel stories released around this event.
[Watch Rose (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Battle of Algiers (1966)
[#48 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #3

Spider-Man: Far from Home 3D (2019)
[#49 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ a couple of extras on the Blu-ray, including the deleted scenes (good decisions), and what they've billed as a short film -- Peter's To-Do List -- but is really just an extended deleted sequence. But as they've called it a short film, I'll review it as #49a on 100 Films.

Fiction

Things She Thought While Falling by Chris Chibnall

A short prose prequel to The Woman Who Fell to Earth, just released to give people something to read during all this quarantining that's going on. I'd heard on Twitter that it was quite good, some of the best writing in this current era of Doctor Who, but... well, it has its moments, but it definitely peters out by the end -- the last two paragraphs are even rather poor, I think. But hey-ho, it's free and it'll only take up a couple of minutes of your time. But please don't let Chibnall ever write a whole Who novel -- it doesn't seem like he could sustain a reasonable quality of prose for that long.

On the other hand...


Doctor Who and the Time War by Russell T Davies

This leftover from the 50th anniversary -- rendered now as a never-was alternate bit of Who continuity -- is really, really good.


And finally...

Doctor Who: Revenge of the Nestene by Russell T Davies

A 10-minute audiobook sequel to Rose, performed by Jacob Dudman.

Wednesday, 25 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x28 The Macra Terror Episode 2

Films

Mission: Impossible - Fallout 3D (2018)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #14. Following a regular cinema viewing and an IMAX viewing, now in a different format again: 3D. More thoughts on this version here.

Tuesday, 24 March 2020

Sunday, 22 March 2020

TV

The Rookie
1x13 Caught Stealing
1x14 Plain Clothes Day

Films

Quartet (2012)
[#44 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #13

this week on 100 Films

A new way of catching up on unreviewed films at 100 Films in a Year this week...


The 100-Week Roundup
The 100-Week Roundup will cover films I still haven’t reviewed 100 weeks after watching them. Most of the time that’ll be in the form of quick thoughts, perhaps even copy-and-pasting the notes I made while viewing, rather than ‘proper’ reviews. Today’s are... Das Boot: The Director's Cut and Identity
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 21 March 2020

TV

The Rookie
1x12 Heartbreak

Would I Lie To You?
12x06 Episode 6 [3rd watch]
Watched this again because it was an easy go-to on iPlayer. Had forgotten it was that episode. The final round is a classic.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Late Night (2019)
[#43 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Red Joan (2018)
[#42 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

This week's additions include the complete X Files on Blu-ray... except for the first movie, which I bought just a week or two ago. I already had seasons 1-9 and both movies on DVD, so in terms of additions it's only seasons 10 and 11 that are new. But those upgrades are on fewer discs on Blu, meaning that even with two extra seasons it adds 0 to the disc count. The switch from sped-up PAL to original speed on the Blu-rays will mean it still adds significantly to next week's running time update, though.

Numbers are still up healthily this week -- not as much in other recent weeks, but a decent amount nonetheless. And, because I can't stop myself, I've got a tonne more stuff in the post that will land me with another properly big increase next week (unless all deliveries get stopped before they can arrive or something).

Number of titles in collection: 2,323 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,110 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,213 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 45 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,039 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,714 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [up 15]
Number of short films: 691 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 20 March 2020

Thursday, 19 March 2020

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2019/2020 Episode 8 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
1x08 Time of Death
1x09 Standoff
A two-parter. The first half is a measured depiction of what actually happens when a cop shoots someone; the second half is an overblown remix of The Raid. Shame.

Films

Last Chance Harvey (2008)
[#41 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Wednesday, 18 March 2020

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2019/2020 Episode 7 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
3x26 Once Upon a Time [bonus episode]
And that's the end of Lucifer on Amazon. Next: the Netflix years.
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

McDonald & Dodds
1x02 A Wilderness of Mirrors [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Rookie
1x07 The Ride Along

Monday, 16 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x26 The Moonbase Episode 4 [2nd watch]

Sunday, 15 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x25 The Moonbase Episode 3

Films

Godzilla: King of the Monsters 3D (2019)
[#38 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Invisible Guest (2016)
[#37 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
I hadn't even heard of this before it appeared on the IMDb Top 250, seemingly at random. But I'm glad it did, because... no spoilers! But if you like twisty thrillers, trust me: read nothing, just go watch this (it's on Netflix, in the UK at least).

this week on 100 Films

1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


The Lion King (2019)
it’s like a cover song from a TV talent show: a reasonable approximation of the original, although clearly not as good, with unnecessarily added riffs and tricks as the cover artist struggles in vain to “make it their own” while not fundamentally deviating from what made the original so beloved.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 14 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x24 The Moonbase Episode 2 [2nd watch]
As noted yesterday, I've seen the two surviving episodes of this serial before.

Star Trek: Picard
1x04 Absolute Candor
1x05 Stardust City Rag
[Watch Absolute Candor and Stardust City Rag (again) on Prime Video.]

Films

Godzilla 3D (2014)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #11

Collection Count

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

As promised last week, another pile of additions. No records being challenged this time, but it's still bigger than the norm... although, as I've been a bit purchase-mad of late, maybe this is the current norm. Well, it can't last forever... but it will last until next week, at least, when I've got another pile of sales acquisitions turning up. I must develop some restraint.

Number of titles in collection: 2,318 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,112 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,206 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 45 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,034 [up 12]
Number of films: 2,711 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes: 8,792 [up 8]
Number of short films: 690 [up 1]

One of this week's additions is the new animation of Doctor Who serial The Faceless Ones, and it presents a 'challenge' in terms of counting: how many episodes are on it? It's a 6-part serial, but it contains the whole animated serial in colour, and in black & white, and also the two surviving live-action episodes. You might say "it's a 6-parter, so it's 6", but those are all viable viewing options to me, so does that mean it's 14 episodes? Or split the difference and say 8 -- 6 animations (in colour or black & white) plus 2 live-action? I think that's what I'll go with, partly because the last animated release, The Macra Terror, also had both colour and b&w versions and I only counted it as 4. I'm not sure that's the right way to go about it (it seems to hedge it, rather), but it'll have to do.

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 13 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x23 The Moonbase Episode 1
Continuing my watch-through of animated missing episodes that I've not yet seen. This serial's only half missing, and I've seen the surviving episodes before (plus audio to fill the gaps, I presume (I forget)). This first part is one of the animated ones.

Films

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
[#36 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Lion King 3D (2019)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #10

Thursday, 12 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x14 The Power of the Daleks Episode Six
A great serial. How mad it was wiped. The animation isn't perfect, but it's a reasonable stand-in.
Also watched the commentary on episode four by a selection of people involved with the Daleks in nuWho, and the roundup of short clips that survive from the original.

Films

Showman: The Life of John Nathan-Turner (2019)
[#35 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Some might just consider this a special feature on a Doctor Who Blu-ray, but it's feature-length and received some measure of praise, so I'm counting it. And it really is very good -- if you consider yourself a Whovian, it's a must-see.

Wednesday, 11 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x13 The Power of the Daleks Episode Five

Would I Lie To You?
13x12 More Unseen Bits [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Harakiri (1962)
[#34 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The 4th greatest film of all time according to Letterboxd user, and 33rd according to IMDb voters, and yet it's never been on my Blindspot list! It was under consideration this year but, well, there's not room for everything.

Tuesday, 10 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x11 The Power of the Daleks Episode Three
4x12 The Power of the Daleks Episode Four

The Twilight Zone
1x26 Execution
3x12 The Jungle
So far I've been watching episodes judged to be the best of The Twilight Zone, but now I'm switching it up and watching some of those considered to be the worst. (I didn't want to have these be the last ones I viewed if I kept going in order of quality, so I decided to 'jump ahead' to them now.)

Would I Lie To You?
13x11 The Unseen Bits
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Lego Movie 3D (2014)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #9. It really doesn't feel like over 5 years since I last watched this (where does time go?!) First time in 3D, though, and (as I expected, given how good other LEGO movies looked in 3D), the visuals were superb.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part 3D (2019)
[#33 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Monday, 9 March 2020

Films

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
[#32 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Articles

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie is an unappreciated masterpiece
by Karen Han (from Polygon)

I liked LXG (as it was marketed at the time) when it came out. The other people I saw it with agreed with the critics, i.e. that it wasn't very good. I think I rewatched it on DVD at some point and came around a bit to that way of thinking. But I still have kinda-fond memories of it, and this piece (and some of the reaction to it on Twitter) suggests I'm not wholly alone. It also prompted me to the order the Blu-ray (it's going cheap nowadays, of course) to reassess.

Sunday, 8 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x09 The Power of the Daleks Episode One
4x10 The Power of the Daleks Episode Two
Halfway through the recent series of Doctor Who, I realised it had been several years (five years and four months, to be precise) since I last watched any of the classic show. I decided I needed to fix that as soon as the season finished. Plus, with new animations of The Faceless Ones and Fury from the Deep imminent, I was reminded that I hadn't actually got round to watching the other animations of missing serials they've done in the past few years. So now I'm righting both those wrongs, starting with the oldest of those new animations (which came out at the end of 2016, so that's taken me three-and-a-bit years 'n' all).

Would I Lie To You?
13x10 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Just my (slightly later than anticipated) monthly TV column over at 100 Films in a Year this week...





More next Sunday.

Saturday, 7 March 2020

Films

The Karate Kid Part II (1986)
[#31 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

After hitting 6,000 discs last week, this week I've hit the nice round number of 1,200 Blu-rays. Okay, not quite as nice or round as last time, but still. That's thanks to 13 new additions this week (two of them DVD-to-BD upgrades).

That, in case you weren't aware, is a lot of new additions -- the most in one week since July 2011, when I added 8 DVDs and 6 BDs for a total of 14. Of course, the overall net change is 11 additions, but you still have to go back almost as far, to August 2011, to find another week with as big a tally. In the entire history of this count, only one further week has seen a net increase as large as 11 (it was in December 2009), so this is a pretty remarkable week all round.

(None of those is the biggest ever change, though, which was a decrease. When I bought the Bond 50 Blu-ray box set, it replaced my individual DVD copies of all the films, and the overall number of titles dropped by 18.)

Number of titles in collection: 2,312 [up 11]
Of which DVDs: 1,112 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,200 [up 13]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 45 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,021 [up 21]
Number of films: 2,706 [up 13]
Number of TV episodes: 8,784 [up 15]
Number of short films: 689 [up 1]

And I've still got plenty more on order, too! Looks like it's going to be another big running time update in a few weeks' time...

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 6 March 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Good Place
3x11 Chidi Sees the Time-Knife
3x12 Pandemonium [season finale]
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x24 A Devil of My Word [season finale]
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x06 The Hawke

Articles

Candyman Director Bernard Rose Details His Unmade Sequel in More Depth Than Ever Before
by Jason Jenkins (from Bloody Disgusting)

The headline sums up the basis of this article pretty well, but it's worth a read for all the fascinating details. It sounds like a film with a lot of promise -- shame we'll never get to see it.

Thursday, 5 March 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Flesh and Blood
1x04 Episode 4 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x06 Wilson [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Good Place
3x10 The Book of Dougs
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x23 Quintessential Deckerstar
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Wednesday, 4 March 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Flesh and Blood
1x02 Episode 2
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch episodes two and three (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Good Place
3x08 Don't Let the Good Life Pass You By
3x09 Janet(s)
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x21 Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better
3x22 All Hands on Decker
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Flesh and Blood
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Good Place
3x06 A Fractured Inheritance
3x07 The Worst Possible Use of Free Will
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x20 The Angel of San Bernardino
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Monday, 2 March 2020

TV

The Good Place
3x04 Jeremy Bearimy
3x05 The Ballad of Donkey Doug
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

McDonald & Dodds
1x01 The Fall of the House of Crockett
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

this week on 100 Films

A new month began yesterday, which meant it was time to once again look the last one over at 100 Films in a Year...





Also this past week, 1 new review...


Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Now, here’s a film I really need to see again. Not to affirm whether I liked it or not — in fact, I loved it; enough to rank it the #1 film I saw in 2019 — but to fully assess and analyse and process it. This admission is not the best way to begin a review — reviews are meant to be assessment and/or analysis, after all — but, nonetheless, it indicates the kind of effect I felt from the film. What is that effect? In my best-of-year piece I said it was “the kind of film that casts a spell”, by which I’m referring to how it sweeps you in; how it engages you in such a way that you’re just experiencing it
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Sunday, 1 March 2020

Saturday, 29 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x33 The Dummy

Films

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
[#29 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

It's a little late this week (only a few hours, not that anyone'd care whatever) because it's time for the monthly running time update, and I've been buying so much stuff recently that there was a lot I hadn't yet added. As for this week itself, there are only three new additions, which normally would be a kinda average number, but for recent times is on the low end. (Never fear, I've got loads on order.)

One other observation this week: I've landed on exactly 6,000 discs. 6,000! Crikey.

Number of titles in collection: 2,301 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,114 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,187 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 45 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,000 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,693 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 8,769 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
439 days, 7 hours, and 9 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 1 hour, and 15 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 28 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x09 Deaths-Head Revisited
+ the audio commentary by Twilight Zone expert Marc Scott Zicree and author Neil Gaiman

Films

The Karate Kid (1984)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #8. I'm sure we rented this on video when I was a kid, but I don't remember any of it. No idea if I ever saw the sequels.

Thursday, 27 February 2020

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
1x27 The Big Tall Wish

Films

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
[#26 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #2

+ the special features on the Blu-ray, which amount to a short introduction, a re-release trailer, and two of the featurettes Universal produced for their 100th anniversary, Restoring the Classics and Academy Award Winners

Seasons of War (2015)
A short Doctor Who-related fan film, made to promote a charity anthology book (which is no longer available). You can watch the film on YouTube here. Normally I'd count this kind of thing for 100 Films, but eh, I'm not sure I can be bothered.

Monday, 24 February 2020

Sunday, 23 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x09 Ascension of the Cybermen
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
13x09 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Escape Room (2019)
[#24 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


Emma. (2020)
According to IMDb, Jane Austen’s Emma has only been adapted for the big screen twice before — and one of those was Clueless. There have been multiple TV movie and miniseries takes on the novel, though, but as the most recent was over a decade ago I guess someone felt it was about time to trot it out again (after all, every major Dickens and Austen must be adapted for the screen at least once a decade or so, right?)
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 22 February 2020

Films

The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983)
[#21a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
The short film that precedes (and is usually considered part of)...

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
[#22 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Us (2019)
[#23 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

This week, I discovered I owned a copy of a film that I also owned in a box set -- the exact same disc -- and somehow I'd missed this fact when I bought the box set (over seven years ago, yikes!) and hadn't removed the standalone copy from my collection. So I've done that this week... alongside another busy week with seven new additions.

One of those is the UK limited edition of World on a Wire, for which I already own the Criterion release. Originally created as a two-part miniseries for German TV, the Criterion version features it as a single long movie, running at 24fps. The UK release retains the original two-part structure, across two discs, running at the correct 25fps -- that seemed like a good bet to me, especially as it has more special features. The Criterion release has a long-ish unique extra, however, so I'm keeping it for the time being, making this an addition rather than replacement.

Same goes for Doctor Who series 4 on Blu-ray, finally getting the Steelbook to go with my copies of series 1-3 and the David Tennant Specials. It should probably just replace the DVD, really, but I have a sentimental attachment to those big ol' box sets. Also a DVD-to-BD upgrade is Heroes Shed No Tears, but, similar to World on a Wire, the old edition has unique extras, so for now I'm keeping both.

The other four newcomers are all flat-out new, so that's nice.

Number of titles in collection: 2,298 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,114 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,184 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 44 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,995 [up 12]
Number of films: 2,691 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,769 [up 22]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader -- when I may well pass 6,000 discs!

Friday, 21 February 2020

TV

Would I Lie To You?
13x08 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Thursday, 20 February 2020

Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Monday, 17 February 2020

Sunday, 16 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x08 The Haunting of Villa Diodati
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

There were 2 new posts on 100 Films in a Year this week, only one of them a review...


Toy Story 4 (2019)
Last weekend, with dull inevitability, Toy Story 4 won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Of course it did — in the last decade, the award has gone to a Disney or Pixar movie eight times out of ten. I’ve not seen any of the four other nominees, but I strongly suspect at least one of them deserved it more, because Toy Story 4 is… fine. Heck, it’s good, even. But when the three films that precede it are all-time classics that formed a perfectly complete trilogy, just being “good” is not enough.
Read more here.


The Random Mid-Monthly Review for Valentine’s Day
Hello, dear readers. It’s been a while since my last post, but I don’t have any reviews banked ready to go, so here’s a random mid-month update... After the back half of last year was sent into relative disarray by house moves and whatnot, 2020 is off to a similarly bumpy beginning...
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 15 February 2020

TV

My Dad Wrote a Porno
One-off live special version of the hit podcast, which I've heard things about but never listened to (as you may've noticed from their absence from this blog, I don't really 'do' podcasts). I thought this was pretty funny though, and by all accounts it's inferior to the podcast itself, so maybe I should check that out.

Theatre

Dial M for Murder
at Theatre Royal Bath

Collection Count

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

A whole pile of new additions this week, and only one of them an upgrade (going all the way from DVD to 4K). And I've got loads more on order (I've gone a bit OTT recently), so expect similar increases next week.

Number of titles in collection: 2,292 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,115 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,177 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 44 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 5,983 [up 7]
Number of films: 2,688 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,747 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 14 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 6 The Very Last Day of the Rest of Their Lives [series finale]
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

Tag (2018)
[#16 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Thursday, 13 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 5 The Doomsday Option
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)
[#15 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Wednesday, 12 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 4 Saturday Morning Funtime
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

The Nightingale (2018)
[#14 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Monday, 10 February 2020

TV

The 92nd Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars. A good ceremony this year -- and, of course, an historic winner in Parasite. I look forward to getting a chance to see it...

Friday Night Dinner
5x05 The Violin
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x06 90 Degrees [season finale]
They must make more, I demand it. (The DVD release is labelled "Series 1", which I'm taking as a good sign.)
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Good Place
3x02 The Brainy Bunch
3x03 The Snowplow
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x19 Orange is the New Maze
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x04 The Switch

Sunday, 9 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x07 Can You Hear Me?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

E! Live from the Red Carpet: Oscars 2020

The Rookie
1x03 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Films

Christopher Robin (2018)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #7

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #6. I counted this as a new first-time viewing back in 2008, but I always suspected I'd seen it before. You see, I knew I'd seen some Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films before I embarked on the whole series, but I wasn't certain which; but now, having definitely seen them all, I'm pretty sure this was one (possibly even the only one) I'd seen in my childhood.

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


1917 (2019)
I love a bit of real-time, so that was right up my street. I have similar feelings about single takes (fake or not), so I loved that aspect too. Plus I’ve got a long-standing interest in World War One, which I don’t feel is represented well enough on film (at least, not as well as its sequel), so getting a big-budget high-profile movie about it is something else I welcome. And I love the work of cinematographer Roger Deakins, who is absolutely on fine form here (when isn’t he?) The long and the short of it is, 1917 was always a movie almost tailored to things that interest me.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 8 February 2020

TV

The Good Place
3x01 Everything Is Bonzer!
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x06 Tea Party [season finale]
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x18 The Last Heartbreak
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x02 Crash Course

Collection Count

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

My overzealous purchasing spree continues this week, with seven new acquisitions. Most of those were in sales (four Jackie Chan Blu-rays and two films in 3D that aren't well regarded but I enjoyed in 2D), plus a Blu-ray to Blu-ray upgrade for Doctor Who: The Specials, aka Series 4b. This Steelbook version includes improved transfers for the episodes, plus HD versions of two animated specials I previously owned on DVD (though I'm hanging onto one of those for the special features). That would play merrily with my numbers, but thanks to the sheer volume of stuff, nearly everything goes up -- except DVDs, dropping for the fourth week in a row.

Number of titles in collection: 2,288 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,116 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,172 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 41 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,976 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,684 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,747 [up 3]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 7 February 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x06 Praxeus [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x04 Lord Luck
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x05 Harper's Locket
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
1x01 Pilot

Thursday, 6 February 2020

TV

The Great British Bake Off
1x05 Pastry
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x16 Infernal Guinea Pig
3x17 Let Pinhead Sing!
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]