Films

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part I (2012)
[#90 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Adapting the first two books of Frank Miller's seminal tale. This hits UK DVD and Blu-ray next Monday, while the second half is out in the US at the end of January.

Articles

Tweetnotes - Skyfall
by Andrew Ellard (from Storify)

Ellard analyses the latest Bond film in his usual insightful way. A few massive spoilers in there, so make sure you've seen the film first (but then, who hasn't?)

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x01 (12/11/12 edition)
Weirdly, Virgin put it on eventually. Handy. It's a nice show, because most of the questions are so easy it makes you feel quite clever.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Elementary
1x03 Child Predator

The Hour
2x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Yes, Prime Minister
2x06 The Patron of the Arts

Films

The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
[#89 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

DVD Extras

Extras on The Call of Cthulhu DVD

These are headed up by half-hour making-of Hearing "The Call", which is both informative and entertaining, with good insight on how they made this quite fascinating production for virtually no money. It's better put together than some behind-the-scenes features on professional releases and definitely worth a watch for anyone who enjoyed the film.

The disc also houses eight minutes of deleted footage, including more of the stop-motion monster; a few easter eggs in the same vein; galleries of both behind-the-scenes photos and production stills; and the obligatory trailer, which doesn't sell the film quite as well as it could in my opinion.

TV

A Mark Heap double bill...

Friday Night Dinner
2x06 The Mouse [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Spy
2x05 Codename: Family Bonds

Comics

Bleeding Cool Magazine #0

With Bleeding Cool Magazine #1 due any week now (it was originally slated for October), I've finally got round to reading June's #0 preview issue. It's exactly what you'd expect in many ways -- gossipy, irreverent, but informative. Even more if the latter than the website, really, because it's had a bit more time and effort poured in than the primarily news-driven site.


Sword of Sorcery #0
featuring Amethyst by Christy Marx & Aaron Lopresti
and Beowulf by Tony Bedard & Jesus Saiz

DC's new fantasy comic is, for want of a less demeaning adjective, a bit girly. Back-up strip Beowulf, a sci-fi/fantasy retelling of the classic poem, shows more promise.


Talon #0 by James Tynion IV & Guillem March

Spinning out of the recent Batman epic, The Court of Owls, this launch issue is all setup. Tynion IV has cut his teeth writing the back-up strips on several Bat titles, and with Scott Snyder helping out by co-plotting there's sure to be promise here.

Articles

The Colourisation Debate - Not All Black and White
by Julian Upton (from MovieMail)

Some time ago I had to sit through a lecture by an ‘expert’ on colour cinema, who began by showing a YouTube clip of the colourised version of It’s a Wonderful Life. “What’s that?” he asked. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” we said. “No,” he said in his best Jeremy Clarkson voice, “it’s an abomination.”

He then showed a YouTube clip of the black-and-white It’s a Wonderful Life — a clip that was horizontally stretched, pixelated and whose sound and image was all but destroyed by the low-quality upload — and proceeded to talk about that as if it wasn’t an abomination.

Such a true example. The rest of the piece is very good too.

this week on 100 Films

No new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week! But Bill Cunningham New York is on Sky Arts 1 tonight, so my review of that will go live later today at this location.

Still, new to the new blog there was...


High Plains Drifter (1973)

Clint rides into town, has a beer and a bottle of whiskey, kills three men for no good reason and rapes the only woman in sight. It’s a fine introduction to our ‘hero’. But instead of setting the sheriff on him, the townsfolk bend over backwards to help him (more or less). Why? Are they as uncaring as he? Or do they need something from this capable man?

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Children in Need 2012
Specifically, everything after midnight; though the link below will just take you to all the CiN stuff on iPlayer.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x05 (9/11/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
5x07 A Lesson in Vengeance
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week, my Paralympics Blu-ray finally arrives, a Dynamo box set I'd half forgotten I ordered also turns up, and Masters of Cinema's gorgeous Passion of Joan of Arc BD arrives a week or so before its release date (yay for direct ordering).

Number of titles in collection: 1,504 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,145 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 359 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,753 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,545 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [up 11]
Number of short films in collection: 370 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Children in Need 2012
As ever, there'll be more CiN tomorrow to cover the post-midnight stuff (which is, naturally, still on as I post this).
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Derren Brown: Fear & Faith
Part 1 (of 2)
Or, to put it another way, Derren Brown: Fear -- next week is the Faith part. Although it does work, because there's certainly some faith in here and I wouldn't be at all surprised to discover there's some fear in religious faith.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x02 (13/11/12 edition)
C4's new daytime quiz show, which I primarily watched because it's presented by Sandi Toksvig and she seemed an arbiter of quality. It's not bad, but it's basically just a simple question format -- pleasant enough but hardly taxing. Not likely to make the jump to a prime-time variant. (And I started with episode two because episode one wasn't available on Virgin Media's version of 4oD, because Virgin are useless like that.)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Hebburn
1x04 Feeling Dynamic
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Hunted
1x06 Ambassadors
See also today's Articles.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Only Connect
Children in Need Special: Goldfingers vs Fowls
I did surprisingly well at this... though, as you may remember from last year, they apparently make it slightly easier for the celebrity/special editions, so that might not be saying a whole lot.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

BBC1 spy drama Hunted axed after one series by Tom Cole
and
ITV axes James Nesbitt medical drama Monroe by Jack Seale
(from Radio Times)

A pair of cancellations yesterday. Can't say I'm surprised by Hunted -- it's never quite clicked -- but it's a shame about Monroe. It faced unbeatable competition from BBC's not-as-good behemoth, New Tricks, and I should imagine was dropped because of it.

TV

Arrow
1x02 Honor Thy Father

Spy
2x04 Codename: Mistaken Identity

TV

Crime Stories
1x01 Episode 1
ITV1 enters the daytime drama sphere that's been such a success for BBC One with this documentary-style drama about relatively minor crimes (things like theft, as opposed to the incessant murders that occupy prime-time detectives). The choice of a documentary aesthetic means it can looks cheap without looking cheap, though the largely improvised (I hope!) acting is distinctly daytime. Still, has promise in its own way.
[Watch episode 2 on ITV Player.]

Heston's Fantastical Food
1x01 Heston's Big Breakfast
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Weekend Report: Skyfall Scores Best Bond Debut Ever
by Ray Subers (from Box Office Mojo)

Bit late to the party on this one because I've been mostly away from the 'net since Sunday, but in case you missed it too this is worth reporting. Essentially, Skyfall had a fab opening weekend in the US, smashing previous Bond records (the next nearest, Quantum of Solace, is nearly 24% lower) and winding up the fourth-largest opening of the entire year. Go Bond!

TV

Castle
2x16 The Mistress Always Spanks Twice
Castle finally returns to Channel 5's schedule, after a whole five months' pause mid-season... but at least it's not the mooted next-year, so hurrah. Double-billing it with the tonally similar Mentalist seems excessive, but I suppose if they then feed off each other's success...
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Mentalist
5x02 Devil's Cherry
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Monroe
2x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
I would wonder where we'll find the characters next series, but based on the fact this was consistently trounced by BBC One's lower-quality New Tricks, we may not see another run. Shame.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

QI
10x09 Jeopardy (XL edition)
I skipped one. Will fill it in later.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Comics

2000 AD Free Comic Book Day 2012

Continuing my attempt to re-start reading the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, I went for this year's FCBD issue. Five stories, only one of which I'd read before. The first is an all-new four-page Judge Dredd, written by creator John Wagner, which manages to be both entertaining and function as an intro for complete newbies. This is what the launching-soon US Dredd comic from IDW should aspire to with its first issue... except even if it does, it'll take 20 pages to achieve what Wagner does so well in just four.

Also, the first part of The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael, from a couple of years ago. It seemed an enticing introduction, certainly made me want to read more. A new tale started a while after this (not somewhere I've got to in my reading, obviously), but to continue his origin I guess I'll have to find the paperback. Then the first part of Zombo from my first Prog; a classic self-contained Ro-Busters by Alan Moore and Steve Dillon (from 1982); and a fun superhero-lampooning Future Shock (from 2010), perfect for this US-comics-fan-aimed one-off promo.

Good fun and fairly representative of what 2000 AD is like week-to-week, I thought. Nice job droids.

Comics

2000 AD #1806-1808
Judge Dredd: The Cold Deck, Parts One - Three by Al Ewing & Henry Flint

This seems to be getting an uncommon amount of praise and attention online, so I decided to skip ahead with my frankly shocking 2000 AD backlog (I last read a full Prog a year ago (crikey!), and I was behind then) and see what all the fuss is about with the still-ongoing Dredd story. If you want a go too, they've made Part One available online for free.

Plus, three Progs' worth is more or less the same size as a regular US comic, so it's a fair chunk to assess. That said, a good 2000 AD writer will get as much into six pages as your typical US comic will in 20, and Al Ewing is a good writer. Clearly the story is set in the wake of a Massive Event (the day of chaos stuff that was going on even when I last read a Prog), but it still makes sense and is an interesting read. I don't get why people were harping on about the amazing twist at the end of part two, though, so I wonder if that's something striking in light of everything that's happened in the past year-ish? In which case, maybe stop trying to push it so hard to casual readers/newbies!

And then I read the intro to Prog 1809 (in stores Wednesday), which pointed out that the plots of Dredd and another current Thrill are linked -- so I guess that was the twist. Kinda lost if you're only reading one to catch up on what everyone's on about. Still, guess what I'm reading next...


2000 AD #1804-1808
The Simping Detective: Jokers to the Right, Parts One - Five by Simon Spurrier & Simon Coleby

Once 2000 AD starts a line-up of strips, they usually stay in the same order until they end. In Prog 1806, they suddenly re-arrange so that Dredd is immediately followed by The Simping Detective. I guess they wanted to make sure people immediately saw the link.

And immediate it is, in 1807, connecting via the same line of dialogue. Simping Part Four plugs the gap between Dredd Parts Two and Three, and then... then they become unconnected again (and are re-split in the next Prog). Will they reunite again later? Tharg only knows.