TV

Doctor Who
2x36 The Watcher
aka The Time Meddler Part 1. Taking a break from watching animated missing episodes to check out the story that recently came a surprising (to me) second place in Doctor Who Magazine’s “First Doctor World Cup” Twitter poll.

Films

Misbehaviour (2020)
[#113 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Ready to watch the FilmBath Q&A tomorrow evening.

Stuber (2019)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
[#111 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

Marriage Story (2019)
[#110 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the 2 three-minute featurettes Netflix offer, Directing with Noah Baumbach and An Ensemble Story. Obviously they’re really EPK promo pieces, but not wholly without insight.

TV

Archer
6x12 Drastic Voyage Part 1
6x13 Drastic Voyage Part 2 [season finale]

Films

Zero Charisma (2013)
[#109 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

American Animals (2018)
[#107 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
[#108 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

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


Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)

I haven’t reviewed this until now because I didn’t have much to say about it... Even after reflecting on it, and reading other’s critical reactions, then reflecting on it some more (for over eight months at this point), I didn’t have much to contribute. Why was that? And I’ve kind of realised it’s because the film didn’t make me feel very much... I do consider Once Upon a Time to be a very good film. But at the same time, I didn’t leave the cinema feeling moved or wowed.

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup III

including...
Power Rangers
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Warriors
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2018)
[#105 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Top Secret! (1984)
[#106 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

Last week I mentioned that I was going to start counting "films" and "cuts" separately, to finally settle a matter of uncertainty that's been bothering me for years (i.e. when a release includes multiple cuts of the same film, do those count as multiple films or just one film?) As I have over 2,300 titles to go through working it out (some I knew off the top of my head, some I had to check), I thought it would take a while -- weeks, maybe months -- but I've actually finished it this week! Once I started I spent altogether too much time on it (even though I've finished it between updates, it's taken multiple sessions across every day this week). I've done a lot of it from memory rather than double-checking every single title, so hopefully I've not overlooked anything in my speed. If I have, well, it'll get corrected someday.

As you can see, I found well over 100 alternate cuts ‘hiding’ among my film tally, but also quite a few that hadn’t been counted. Also, for the cuts tally I decided to only count additional cuts -- i.e. if a film only has one version it'll be listed as 1 film + 0 cuts, but if there are two versions it'll count as 1 film + 1 cut, and so on. Still haven't worked out how to square this with the running time total, nor what to do about alternative cuts of TV episodes (there are enough that I want to record them, but few enough that having a whole column for it seems daft). For now, they carry on as they were before.

And while all that is the big news this week, there were also some new additions, prime among them an upgrade of the 1989-1997 Batman movie series to UHD.

Number of titles in collection: 2,364 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,259 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 55 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 6,122 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,645 [down 119]
Number of additional cuts: 168
Number of TV episodes: 8,887 [no change]
Number of short films: 722 [up 2]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
[#103 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
[#104 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #5

Films

Black Angel (1946)
[#102 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ all of Arrow's Blu-ray's special features, including an audio commentary (bit dry but full of trivia and biographical information), an appreciation by Neil Sinyard (the highlight being a story about a member of the supporting cast and Frank Sinatra's wig), a trailer and photo galleries

Flash Gordon (1980)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #20. Inspired by the announcement of the gorgeous-looking 40th anniversary 4K edition — I thought I ought to watch my current copy before that renders it obsolete! (Though as I own this edition, its fun cover art would ensure it wasn’t a wasted purchase.)

TV

Archer
6x11 Achub y Morfilod

Films

The Head Hunter (2018)
[#101 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

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

Films

August 32nd on Earth (1998)
[#99 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Denis Villeneuve's debut feature.

Theatre

Frankenstein
This is the one directed by Danny Boyle and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, in which they alternated the roles of Frankenstein and the Creature for each performance. Both versions are available on YouTube at the moment. Consensus seems to be that the one with Miller as the Creature is better, so that's what I watched.
[Watch Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature and/or Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature (again) on YouTube.]

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x29 Four O'Clock
5x18 Black Leather Jackets
More of the series' worst episodes, which I'll be reviewing in 100 Films' next TV column.

Films

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
[#98 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Green Hornet 3D (2011)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #19. First time in 3D, which was pretty good overall, especially bearing in mind this was a relatively early post-conversion.

Films

Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
[#97 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

DC Showcase: Jonah Hex (2010)
[#96a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

It's once again time to look back over the past month at 100 Films in a Year -- and it's a record-smasher...





In other news, 2 reviews were published this week...


The Lunchbox (2013)

This week the world heard the sad news that the actor Irrfan Khan had passed away aged just 53. An award-winning film star in India, Khan also had a noteworthy presence as a supporting actor in Western films... I’d seen those films and noted Khan’s presence — he’s the kind of actor who turns up and elevates the film almost just by being there, bringing a depth and interest to even the smallest roles. But I’d never seen any of the many films in which he played the lead, so it seemed appropriate to turn to one of the most internationally acclaimed of his films in tribute.

Read more here.


Zatoichi at Large (1972)

The 23rd film in the Zatoichi series is also the worst according to Letterboxd users, who rate it below even the ’00s spinoff, Ichi. But as with all things in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours, there are those who disagree: The Digital Bits give it a B+, which puts it in the series’ top half (to be precise, it makes it =7th, but with seven other films). You can add me to that (very short) list. It’s not an exceptional Zatoichi film by any means, but it is a middle-of-the-range entry, and a long way from the worst the series has to offer.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Twilight Zone
4x15 The Incredible World of Horace Ford
+ the audio commentary by TZ expert Marc Scott Zicree (who here talks a mile a minute, seeming to just pour out everything he knows and thinks) and TV writer/producer Jeff Vlaming. They’re much more fond of the episode than I was; but rather than illuminating for me what’s good about it, I felt like they were trying to make up justifications for why bits that aren’t good are good.

Collection Count

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

This week's additions include another classic season of Doctor Who on Blu-ray, which replaces some of my DVDs but not all (due to missing special features, titles in box sets, etc). At some point this series of re-releases is going to start including that missing stuff, and it'll swing from "upgrading fewer DVDs than it should" to "upgrading more DVDs than it should". That'll be nice. I also got the complete Samurai Jack on Blu-ray, so together they marked a big increase on the TV episode count.

Also this week: 3-for-£30 4K UHD titles, so the Ultra HD tally jumps up a bit. Two were upgrades: one from DVD (American Gangster), one from Blu-ray (Gladiator), but I'm keeping the original Blu-ray for the time being because it's in a digibook. I really ought to read that book and see if it's worth keeping...

Number of titles in collection: 2,360 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [down 3]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,255 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 51 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 6,117 [up 20]
Number of films: 2,764 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,887 [up 80]
Number of short films: 720 [up 1]

Those UHD titles also highlighted a dilemma I struggle with regularly, because both contain theatrical and extended cuts of the movie. Does that count as one film each or two? Some would say one, because the different cuts are alternatives, not different films. On the other hand, on a list of "films I have to watch" I would list both cuts, because they're different, so that count should include them, right? Often these days I side a bit more with the former, but in the past I've done the latter, and now my film count is a mess of contradicting points of view. It's finally gotten to me enough that I'm going to add a "cuts" column next to the "films" one, kind of like how Blu-ray.com will list a release as having "1 movie, 2 cuts". It'll take a lot of work (I'll have to go through all 2,360 titles and figure them out), but it might be worth it in the long run.

Of course, that still doesn't settle how I should count it for the running time -- all cuts or just one? Eesh. Oh, and what about TV shows with multiple variants of some episodes? Arrgh...

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
27x04 (1/5/20 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
[#96 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #18

Zatoichi in Desperation (1972)
[#95 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Archer
6x10 Reignition Sequence

The Twilight Zone
2x14 The Whole Truth

Films

Ice Age: Continental Drift 3D (2012)
[#93 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Lunchbox (2013)
[#94 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

The Two Popes (2019)
[#92 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Music

Human. :II: Nature. by Nightwish

I'll always buy a new Nightwish album, though while I was waiting for this one to turn up (it took 10 days longer than it should've thanks to current events) I looked back at their last one and realised I'd only listened to it once in the five years since it came out (not logged on here, for some reason). I listened to it again and, frankly, could see why (though there are some tracks I like).

This new one is a double album, with CD1 containing nine tracks and CD2 a 31-minute track split into eight sections -- so very Nightwish (it's been 20 years since they released a studio album without at least one song over 10 minutes, and the last one included a 24-minute piece). Anyway, it made for amiable enough background music, but not much jumped out at me. I'll have to listen to it again -- I'll try not to wait five years this time.

TV

Star Trek: Picard
1x07 Nepenthe
[Watch it (again) on Prime Video.]

Films

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
[#91 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Ready or Not (2019)
[#90 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

The Twilight Zone
1x31 The Chaser

Films

The Escape (2016)
[#89a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Wedding Guest (2018)
[#89 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

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


The Elephant Man (1980)

The Elephant Man is sometimes placed alongside Dune and The Straight Story as anomalies in Lynch’s filmography, which is more often characterised for its horror-inducing oddness and sometimes-incomprehensible plotting. Of course, upon proper examination, all three of these movies exhibit Lynchian touches, perhaps none more so than The Elephant Man. It’s there in the avant-garde opening; the dream sequence; the sound design, for which he’s co-credited; the focus on industrial machinery. The film can certainly be read as a Victorian melodrama, but in execution it’s far from a Merchant Ivory movie.

Read more here.


Extraction (2020)

the action sequences are great, more than making up for the lightweight plot mechanics. Letting stunt coordinators move into full-on directing has been the saviour of the action movie genre in recent years, working wonders for the John Wick series in particular... Hargrave is the latest to suggest he might have a bright career ahead of him on the basis of his ability to stage electrifyingly choreographed combat scenes.

Read more here.


Men in Black: International (2019)

It’s not that the movie is bad per se, it’s just mediocre; bland; uninspired. It’s devoid of wit or charm — which, considering the cast, is kind of remarkable. I mean, it’s not just Hemsworth and Thompson — two appealing, capable leads. There’s also Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson, and Rebecca Ferguson pops up (I didn’t even know she was in it ’til she did), and there’s Rafe Spall (limited by having to be a blatant red herring), and the voice of Kumail Nanjiani. Whoever’s your favourite out of that talented cast, they’re wasted.

Read more here.


Review Roundup: Superman Sequels

You'll believe a franchise can die!
Featuring:
Superman II
Superman III
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
4x36 The Faceless Ones Episode 6

Films

Extraction (2020)
[#88 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Music

Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Nightwish
[2nd listen]

I listened to this back when it came out in 2015 (I assumed I'd logged it here, but it seems not), but haven't listened to it in full since; though there are two tracks (Shudder Before the Beautiful and Alpenglow) that I've listened to over 100 times each (fun what you can learn from iTunes Apple's Music app).

Anyway, it was alright. Not my favourite. Their new album's out now but I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive.

Collection Count

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

Thanks in part to nothing turning up (when it should have) last week, this week is a record-breaker! It's the most new additions I've had in a single week since starting this column. The previous high was 14 in July 2011, but this week sees 18 new purchases for a +16 net (one DVD-to-BD upgrade and one BD-to-4K upgrade).

Now, I really must slow down my purchasing.

Number of titles in collection: 2,356 [up 16]
Of which DVDs: 1,108 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,248 [up 17]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 48 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,097 [up 26]
Number of films: 2,758 [up 17]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [no change]
Number of short films: 719 [up 12]

All of that was just in time for the monthly running time update. Although there were lots of new titles and discs, many of them were quite short films, and the previous weeks of this month were nothing special, so this month's increase isn't huge (though there have been plenty lower).

Total running time of collection (approx.):
444 days, 22 hours, and 51 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 12 hours, and 54 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
27x03 (24/4/20 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
59x04 (24/4/20 edition)
[Watch the it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Sheik (1921)
[#86 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Son of the Sheik (1926)
[#87 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

The Big Night In
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Men in Black: International (2019)
[#85 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

End of the Century (2019)
[#84 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Long Day's Journey Into Night 3D (2018)
[#83 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

The Twilight Zone
1x35 The Mighty Casey
Another of the series' very worst episodes.

Films

Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman (2006)
[#82 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Secret Life of Pets 2 3D (2019)
[#81 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Archer
6x09 Pocket Listing

Doctor Who
4x35 The Faceless Ones Episode 5

Films

6 Underground (2019)
[#80 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Quiz
Part 1 (of 3)
Part 2 (of 3)
Part 3 (of 3)
I didn't necessarily intend to watch it all in one sitting, but it was so good.
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Sarah Jane Adventures
6x00 Farewell, Sarah Jane [special]
A touching little video, written by Russell T Davies and featuring a host of cameos, to mark the anniversary of Lis Sladen's death.
[Watch it (again) on the YouTube.]

this week on 100 Films

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


The 100-Week Roundup II

including...
Laura
Jigsaw
and
Inferno in 3D

Read more here.


The Avengers (1998)

much to my surprise, I kind of loved it... the film embraces the mannered, quirky tone of the TV series, then turns it up to eleven. Personally I think it’s a tonne of fun, with arch performances, ripe dialogue, and a deliciously camp air. If it wasn’t for WB’s post-production fiddling, which has left the plot feeling a bit janky and spasmodic, I reckon this would be a cult classic by now.

Read more here.


Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Some people criticised Homecoming for having too much Iron Man and going too far in making Spider-Man into Iron Man Jr. I felt they got the balance about right, all things considered — it’s not very true to comic book canon, but, as the third big-screen iteration of Spidey in the modern era, it made a reasonable change. Far from Home is where it becomes overpowering. It has to lean heavily on the overall continuity of the MCU, which means all the business of The Blip (as what we call The Snap is called in-universe) and Iron Man’s death is front-loaded into the movie. The former is waived away as quickly as they can; the latter weighs heavy on the entire rest of the plot.

Read more here.


Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D (1991/2017)

As you might expect from a genuine 3D advocate like Cameron, a lot of the effect is quite subtle — it’s aiming for realistic spacing, not an in-your-face exaggeration of depth. That kind of subtlety is arguably a reason a lot of people feel 3D adds little [but] Put a good subtle-3D shot against its 2D counterpart and suddenly you’re aware of the natural awareness of shape and depth the extra dimension is adding. [T2] does have moments that I think demonstrate that kind of effect. And, at other times, the 3D is much more obvious; mostly during big action set pieces, as you’d expect.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

The Rock (1996)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #17

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
[#79 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the audio commentary by co-writer Mark Rosenthal. I don’t very often listen to audio commentaries, so why I did this one, of all films, I don’t really know. But here we are. It was moderately interesting.

Collection Count

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

There should have been loads turning up this week -- at least 13 additions, maybe even 15 or 16, which would've been record-setting (see other recent updates for more on that). The reason being that, after a couple of quiet weeks, I got suckered by an Easter sale; and there were some new releases due too.

But none that has turned up yet. Not a sausage. It's a mix of both slow dispatch and slow delivery times. Some of it is due to the current situation, but, honestly, the big load of sale items are from somewhere that's always tardy at dispatch during their sales. And as for the new releases, at least one seems to have gone AWOL, if it was even dispatched at all. So nothing's arrived this week, but I have spent an awful lot of time checking on statuses or trying to chase things...

Number of titles in collection: 2,340 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,231 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 47 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,071 [no change]
Number of films: 2,741 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [no change]
Number of short films: 707 [no change]

Of course, this does mean next week might be a banner one, if everything does finally turn up en masse. See you then, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
27x02 (17/4/20 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Avengers (1998)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #16. I think the first and last time I saw this was at the cinema in 1998, i.e. 22 years ago. I remember not disliking it, but it's got such a poor rep I expected to hate it now -- I was watching out of idle curiosity. But, turns out, I actually enjoyed it. More here.

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
[#78 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Doctor Who
4x34 The Faceless Ones Episode 4

Films

Had myself a Kathryn Bigelow double-bill for no reason...

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
[#75 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Near Dark (1987)
[#76 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

And then...

The Thin Red Line (1998)
[#77 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
As part of Blindspot 2020, a leftover from WDYMYHS 2019.

TV

Archer
6x06 Sitting
6x07 Nellis
6x08 The Kanes

TV

Doctor Who
4x33 The Faceless Ones Episode 3

Films

Dune: The Alternative Edition Redux (1984/2012)
[#73 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
I have seen Dune before, but only in its 137-minute theatrical cut form, and that was over 20 years ago. This fanedit restores a bunch of material from the extended TV cut, plus even more from some deleted scenes, and runs just shy of 3 hours. It doesn't fix all of the film's problems, but some of what it adds is definitely worthwhile. More info about it here.

Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
[#74 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Fiction

Shōgun by James Clavell
Chapter 32
I knew it'd been a little while since I read any of this, but five-and-a-half months?! Oops. And it's been a long time since I was properly, regularly reading it. No wonder I had next to no idea who some of the characters were and what's going on… I'm still less than halfway through it (page 548 of 1,211), but I do want to finish it.

Articles

Behold Dune: An Exclusive Look at Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, and More
by Anthony Breznican (from Vanity Fair)

Oh my, this looks as good as I hoped. Let's hope it's as good as it looks.

Films

Andrei Rublev (1966)
[#72 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #4

TV

Archer
6x05 Vision Quest

Doctor Who
4x32 The Faceless Ones Episode 2

Films

It Chapter Two (2019)
[#71 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

It was time for 100 Films in a Year's monthly TV roundup this week, but it was so long I wound up splitting it in two...







There was also 1 new film review this week...


Yesterday (2019)

a pleasant bit of fluff about a guy becoming famous with borrowed music while finally realising that the girl who’s wasted her life waiting for him to realise she loves him, er, loves him (Jack doesn’t deserve Lily James). Yeah, it’s mostly predictable, but that’s part of the comfort factor. There’s some good music, some likeable performances, and a general amiability to its tone.

Read more here.


And there were 2 new "Guide To"s published as well, both on the same theme...


Sean Connery as James Bond, Part 2

If everything had gone according to plan, this weekend Americans would've been flocking to cinemas to see Daniel Craig's final performance as Bond, James Bond, secret agent 007, in No Time to Die (us Brits would've all been to see it last weekend, of course). As that's not to be, here's something both entirely similar and entirely different: my reviews of Sean Connery's final performance in the role — both of them...

Neither of these films is Connery's finest hour as Bond — they're his worst hours, in fact — but, I must say, they were both better than I had remembered.

featuring Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
Lockdown: Rory's Story
Tonight's Doctor Who Lockdown watchalong was The Doctor's Wife, and to accompany it Neil Gaiman wrote a new scene starring former companion Rory (and a special guest...) Rory was one of my favourite companions, so it's lovely to see him again.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

Films

Never Too Young to Die (1986)
[#70 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 big news: I bought a DVD! Can't remember the last time I bought a DVD. But then the increase was immediately cancelled out by upgrading another DVD. Hey-ho.

Number of titles in collection: 2,340 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,231 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 47 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,071 [up 2]
Number of films: 2,741 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [no change]
Number of short films: 707 [up 7]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Doctor Who
4x31 The Faceless Ones Episode 1
On to the next animated classic serial.

The Graham Norton Show
27x01 (10/4/20 edition)
I don't normally watch Graham anymore, but I wanted to see what the lockdown version was like. Turns out, pretty entertaining.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Archer
6x01 The Holdout
6x02 Three to Tango
6x03 The Archer Sanction
6x04 Edie's Wedding
After I finally got round to Archer season 5 over four years after I watched season 4, I figured I'd quite quickly carry on and catch up... but it's been almost two years. Oops. I did give season 5 high scores on IMDb, but in my 100 Films reviews (here and here) I commented that I thought it wasn’t as good as it used to be, which explains why it's taken me so long to get round to continuing. Well, maybe season 6 was a return to form, because I watched all four of these episodes in one sitting purely because I was enjoying it so much.

Red Dwarf
13x01 The Promised Land [special]
[Watch it (again) on UKTV Play.]

Films

The Devil's Harmony (2019)
[#68a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Watch it on Short of the Week.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
[#68 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Next Karate Kid (1994)
[#69 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

The Diamond Arm (1969)
[#67 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
[#66 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

Aniara (2018)
[#65 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Burning (2018)
[#63 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Karate Kid Part III (1989)
[#64 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

Stop Making Sense (1984)
[#62 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

As ever, a new month means it was time to look back at the old one at 100 Films in a Year -- and it was a big'un...





Meanwhile, 1 new review was published too...


Hustlers (2019)

Strippers conspire to rip-off Wall Street bastards in the wake of the 2008 financial crash... Crime movies are sometimes criticised for glamourising the illegal acts of their characters... Sometimes it’s unavoidable, because we’re going to be on the criminals’ side however you present it — and I think that’s the case here. Those fuckers had it coming, and these girls brought it to them. Not all heroes wear capes clothes.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
2x03 Spy Movies [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Star Trek: Picard
1x06 The Impossible Box
[Watch it (again) on Prime Video.]

Films

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
[3rd or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #15. First Bond film I've (properly) watched since June 2018; and technically it continues a series rewatch I've been doing since 2012(!)

Collection Count

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

After an incredibly busy month, things calm back down a bit with just four additions this week: one 4K new release, a pair of HMV-exclusive BDs, and one cheap second-hand 3D pickup. Even more shockingly, next week shouldn't see any additions at all! Though you never know when I'll cave to something on offer or get a random whim to pick up an old release -- that's what three of this week's four were, after all.

Number of titles in collection: 2,339 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,230 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 47 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,069 [up 8]
Number of films: 2,740 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [no change]
Number of short films: 700 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

The Three Caballeros (1944)
[#61 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Theatre

One Man, Two Guvnors

The National Theatre's acclaimed production, filmed. It was released in cinemas in 2011, one of those live broadcast things they do all the time nowadays, and has now been made available on YouTube for free (but only until next Thursday).

The real question for me is: does it count as a film for 100 Films? I mean, is it a film? If it's not a film, what is it? Live theatre, obviously... but live theatre that's been filmed, and was released in the cinemas. Do those very acts make it a film? Argh!

[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

TV

Doctor Who
4x30 The Macra Terror Episode 4

+ all the special features on the Blu-ray (except the commentary), which are mostly just censored clips, photos, or behind-the-scenes bits from the animation. There are also several alternate presentations of the story, and...

Doctor Who
5x35 The Wheel in Space Episode 1 [mini-episode]
An 11-minute animation of some of The Wheel in Space Episode 1. It's as good as any of the other animations, and it's a nice little bonus in its own way, but ultimately it's rather pointless -- if they do the full story someday, this will be unnecessary; if they don't, well, there's still five-and-a-half episodes not animated.

Films

The Kid (1921)
[#60 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Rang De Basanti (2006)
[#59 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Currently ranked as the 219th greatest film of all time on IMDb.

Films

Missing Link (2019)
[#58 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

The Twilight Zone
5x27 Sounds and Silences
As I continue to watch some of the worst of The Twilight Zone, I come to this, which is regarded as the worst out of all 156 episodes.

Films

The Breakfast Club (1985)
[#56 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
As part of this year's Blindspot list, I included 8 films that I'd failed to watch in previous years of the challenge and so hoped to tick off this year. This is the first of those I've watched, originally from 2019's list.

+ the This American Life radio episode included in Criterion’s special features, where Molly Ringwald talks about watching the film with her ten-year-old daughter for the first time. It’s a fascinating interview for a variety of reasons.

So Dark the Night (1946)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the featurette and trailer on Arrow's Blu-ray

Films

Knives Out (2019)
[#55 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

One Cut of the Dead (2017)
[#54 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Doctor Who
4x29 The Macra Terror Episode 3

The Twilight Zone
3x36 Cavender Is Coming
4x12 I Dream of Genie
The second episode inspired an ingenieous double-bill *badum-tish*

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Films

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 3D (2009)
[#46 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Platform (2019)
[#47 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

The Rookie
1x15 Manhunt

Films

The Lady Vanishes (1938)
[#45 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

The Rookie
1x13 Caught Stealing
1x14 Plain Clothes Day