Magazines

SFX #200
Gradually making my way through this. Thought I ought to mention it at least once, as it's their 200th and full of celebratory things.

TV

Dragons' Den
8x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Even Hit Like Kick-Ass Can Seem Like Miss at Debut by Brooks Barnes
(from the New York Times)
Kick-Ass was considered a flop after its US opening weekend (which, incidentally, was nonetheless at #1), but it went on to make 3½ times its budget at the worldwide box office and is now storming away on DVD and Blu-ray too -- which means a sequel will be coming (hooray!) This discrepancy (between opening weekend & total gross) is the point of the article: you can't (and shouldn't, though many do) judge a film by its opening weekend alone. See also: How to Train Your Dragon (labelled a flop, earned $479 million, sequel in the works), Date Night (labelled a flop, earned $152 million), and more.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
5x15 Rabbit or Duck
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

My Funniest Year: 2000
Quite funny. Bit long.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Webseries

CarPool
Episode 2 Jonathan Ross

Ah, CarPool. I've been meaning to try this out for a while because it looked an interesting idea, and today I finally did by accident. The concept, for those who've missed it, is that Robert Llewellyn (aka Kryten off Red Dwarf) drives someone somewhere and chats to them.

It's like a chat show with a twist, essentially. And only one guest. It's been running on the web for quite a while now (since January '09) and amassed quite a few episodes (74, to be precise), and there's soon to be a TV version on Dave (of course). This is one of the earliest ones (well, as you can see) and also one of the shortest. I have no idea if it's exemplary of the whole series or not.

Also, if you're interested, the video announcing the TV series is a kind of "best bits" + reminder of what it's all about, and that kind of thing. Lovely. Plus, a camera test/interview with the producer of the TV version with some more details. Oh, and they get pulled over by Anti-Terrorism Police.

Got that covered, then.

Magazines

CLiNT #1

And lo, the new great hope for comics in the UK has launched. So after the middling reaction it's received in some quarters (that one review is representative of several I've seen), what's issue one actually like?

Well, that depends on one of two things: your age; or your ability to connect with your inner schoolboy. Features on "Hot TV Mums" and interviews with questions like "Would you fuck your dad to save your mum?" are not for the intellectually developed. I'm sure they must be pleasing to a certain demographic though; namely, the teenage/underdeveloped-twentysomething CLiNT has to convince to buy it for decent sales figures and 'mainstream' acceptance. That said, I found the Jimmy Carr interview interesting (it wasn't the one with the above-cited question).

Alternatively, you can just ignore the features and stick to the comics. For your £3.99 you get two full-length (as in US-full-length, i.e. 20-something pages) comics, which is already cheaper than you'd pay to buy them regularly, plus there's moderately decent amounts of three others. It's a disappointment that Kick-Ass 2 is a bite-sized opening snippet rather than a proper full-length edition. I don't know if this will change in future, but I hope so -- I want it in real chunks, not drip-fed in quarter-issue size. And, of course, the more full-length comics there are the better value for money.

What of the strips themselves? The two full-length strips are Jonathan Ross' Turf, which has been widely praised and rightly so, even if it is a bit text-heavy, and Mark Millar's Nemesis (soon to be a major motion picture from Tony Scott), which I haven't read yet but looks to have potential.

Of the shorter strips, I've already noted my disappointment at Kick-Ass 2's brevity (though the actual content is decent enough); Huw Edwards Presents Space Oddities is a 'wittily' named 3-or-4-page anthology series so will vary from issue to issue, but this example is quite good (I have no idea what, if any, involvement Huw Edwards actually has in this); and Frankie Boyle's Rex Royd is much better than the universally negative reviews led me to believe -- not perfect, but an interesting start. I enjoyed it anyway.

So that's CLiNT, issue 1. Certainly not perfect, but certainly aimed at a different demographic (both age-wise and experience-of-comics-wise) than most who've reviewed it. Will it be a success with the intended audience? No idea. But it does show promise, and if it's a success it might lead someone else -- or several someones -- to launch similarly comics-centric mainstream title(s) with a more adult/intelligent bent. And that would definitely be good news.

Articles

Sonic Screwdriver [Wii] Controller coming by Marcus
(from Doctor Who News Page)
I'm gonna get a Wii. Then this. Then use it to play GoldenEye. I'm sure you don't need me to explain why that's awesome.

Tesco goes to Trolleywood by Patrick Barkham
(from guardian.co.uk)
With the first direct-to-DVD-exclusive-to-Tesco movie out today (the first of many, they plan), I wound up stumbling across this article (from last month) which goes behind the scenes on said film, as well as hinting more broadly at the supermarket's plans. Quite interesting, even if the film -- a Jackie Collins adaptation -- holds very little interest in itself.

TV

Dexter
4x09 Hungry Man
I managed to guess the revelation Deb had last episode, but I didn't see that final twist coming. (Apologies if this is vague -- trying to keep it spoiler free.

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert Documentary
With highlights of the concert itself (yes, the one I watched yesterday), plus interviews with many of the acts about the significance/importance of Freddie, Queen, this concert and AIDS.
(Today was Freddie's birthday, incidentally, which I'd like to claim I knew before choosing to watch these but... I didn't.)

Would I Lie To You?
4x07 (3/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

The classic Doctor Who monster that terrified young John Barrowman by Carole E. Barrowman
(from io9)

Carole Barrowman talks about growing up as a fan of Doctor Who alongside her younger brother John — who became famous as the Doctor's sexiest companion, Captain Jack Harkness, in this excerpt from the anthology Chicks Dig Time Lords.

Do note, John didn't become famous as Captain Jack in this anthology. Just in case you read the sentence as it was written.

Renamed Dredd wants to lure you in with new title, dark story by Nathalie Caron
(from Blastr)
That's Judge Dredd to you and I. And that's not a good move. I know titles shouldn't really matter, but now it sounds like a crap horror with a 'cleverly' misspelt title. And it's needless -- are people really so stupid as to think "the old film was rubbish, so the new one must be, even though it has no relation besides the same character"? Really? And that's if they even remember a near-20-years-old flop.
All that aside, the rest of the news about this project does sound promising. Fingers crossed...

Ridley Scott Talks Alien Prequels by Adam Quigley
(from /Film)
More hints emerge about Scott's plans for the two new Alien prequels. Not sure if I think it sounds intriguing or franchise-ruining.
The full interview from which the quotes come is here, in which Scott talks about his whole career, the reception and forthcoming Director's Cut of Robin Hood, and generally sounds a bit too self-agrandising.

there is an "I" in "TEAM"

via Dash M and @tweet_fail

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Dragonslayer (1981)

a little scrappy, in a way — the narrative, the acting, the effects — and yet, for that, it’s a minor treat... as someone who in his childhood watched many examples of this kind of film on video from the small rental place in town, it fits nostalgically into that era. And there’s a lot to be said for nostalgia.

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007)

allegedly based on Susan Cooper’s five-volume fantasy series, The Dark is Rising, and specifically the second novel, The Dark is Rising, changes from book to screen abound... the lead character is changed to an ex-pat American, because, of course, Americans would never go to see a fantasy movie starring a British kid.

Terminator Salvation: Director's Cut (2009)

it turns out McG is a surprisingly good director — he certainly does better work than the cheap hack job Jonathan Mostow made of Terminator 3. I doubt everyone agrees on this point, but whatever else you may wish to say about McG, he knows how to put an action sequence together. Most of the time.

You may also have noticed we passed into September this week. Ah, the bliss of children finally back in school. But it also meant it was time for the August update -- also blissful, in its own way.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness
Plus most of the DVD extras, mainly Freddie montages from the first half of the show.
Sadly, said first half isn't on the DVD (it was included on previous VHS releases), not to mention the deletion of Innuendo and cropping the picture to widescreen. Ho hum.

TV

Dexter
4x08 Road Kill

Mountain Gorilla
Part 1 Kingdom in the Clouds
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

It's Official: Duke Nukem Forever Coming From Gearbox Software by Michael McWhertor
(from Kotaku)
Christ, this has been in development since I was a proper gamer -- and that's many years ago indeed.

Jane Espenson tells us about Torchwood's 'intense' next season by Thomas Mill
(from Blastr)
More tidbits emerge...

Collection Count

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

As if last week's jump wasn't enough, here's one that's even bigger (in some regards, anyway). Hurrah! Should begin to quieten down again now though. These things cost money y'know.

Number of titles in collection: 1,217 [up 10]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [up 4]
Of which Blu-rays: 108 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 2,975 [up 16]
Number of films in collection: 1,276 [up 11]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,205 [up 10]

Statistic of the week:

Number of titles in the 'Thriller' genre:
178
(14.6% of the total)

'Thriller' is my second-largest genre. (I've previously covered the largest, Drama, and two of the smallest, Anime and Music. Incidentally, the once-king 'Action' has slipped all the way to fourth. Maybe I grew up or something.) With several new titles supplementing Thriller's ranks this week, it seemed as good a time as any to highlight it.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Grandma's House
1x04 The day Simon decided he was forlorn
Every episode, I love this series a little bit more. I was going to quote some more excellent lines, but in the end there were just too many.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Dragons' Den
8x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Roger & Val Have Just Got In
1x04 Be Our Guests
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

The Stig. He’s ours by Andy Wilman
(from Transmission blog at the Top Gear official site)
As the BBC lose the court case to keep the Stig's identity secret to the money-grabbing fun-spoilers at HarperCollins, it's worth remembering why the defence of this seemingly inconsequential little bit of TV silliness did actually matter.

TV

Agatha Christie's Marple
5x01 The Pale Horse
A Bank Holiday means ITV trot out a Marple; one that was probably filmed half a decade ago, knowing them. It's also not adapted from a Marple story, as per about half the episodes (it seems).
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

Review: CLiNT Magazine #1 by Danny Graydon
(from Bleeding Cool)

Review of Mark Millar's attempt to bring comics back to the British mainstream -- essentially, by packaging a few that are either written by star-studded names or tied to successful movies in which a bunch of lad's mag content. Hopefully it has potential -- the basic idea of selling comics into the mainstream has legs -- but it sounds like a faltering start.

Of course, the alternative perspective is that all the lad's mag twaddle that doesn't appeal to people with taste who already enjoy comics will appeal to the kind of people who don't read comics but might be persuaded to, and so it'll hit that market right on the nose, while comics fans will buy it and ignore the laddish bits. What you're still missing are the audience who aren't adverse to comics but have grown beyond the level of a particularly filthy 13-year-old boy.

Maybe if CLiNT's a success someone will try another new magazine aimed at them. Fingers crossed.