Comics

2000 AD #1770-1771

Prog.1771 was a (slightly) bumper-length Prog to commemorate 2000 AD's 35th anniversary. What this means in practice is two variant covers, slightly better paper than normal, a free poster, lots of ads for future strips, and two more Thrills than usual -- all for a slightly higher price than your regular issue. Well, it is only a half decade...

• Judge Dredd Day of Chaos: Eve of Destruction, Parts 6-7 by John Wagner & Ben Willsher
• Grey Area The Do & Personal Space, Part One by Dan Abnett & Lee Carter
• Nikolai Dante The Wedding of Jena Makarov, Parts 8-9 by Robbie Morrison & Simon Fraser
• Absalom Ghosts of London, Parts Six - Seven by Gordon Rennie & Tiernen Trevallion
• Strontium Dog The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha, Chapter Two: The Project, Parts Eight - Nine by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra & Hector Ezquerra
• What If...? Gunnar Survived the Quartz Zone Massacre by Andy Diggle & Colin Wilson
• What If...? The Visible Man Returned to Earth by Pat Mills & Henry Flint

Grey Area could be great if Abnett didn't remind readers of the entire premise every other instalment. It grates, especially when reading them in such close proximity. I know elsewhere I moan about my lack of understanding when it comes to long-running stories, but they're things that have returned from months/years away only to pick up where they left off -- Grey Area has been running weekly for a couple of months at this point, we don't need telling what it's about again.

As, to all intents and purposes, a new fan, the two What Ifs make barely any sense. Nice art by Colin Wilson though. Conversely, I'm beginning to get a handle on Nikolai Dante and enjoying it -- makes me want to find the whole thing and read it through. Maybe they'll reprint it all in collections at some point (they have as it's gone along, but I think some of the early ones are out of print).

Collection Count

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

This week, I got the Men in Black Trilogy BD dirt cheap. I like the first one, haven't seen the second since it came out, and haven't seen the third yet... so maybe not the world's greatest purchase... especially as I already own the first on DVD and BD (though the latter was free). But, hey, it was cheap, and I can flog my current copies to make it cheaper still.

Until Saturday morning, most changed numbers actually went down this week... but then I received two random sales purchases, and this happened:

Number of titles in collection: 1,536 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,152 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 384 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,855 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,614 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,722 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 374 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
12x18 (22/2/13 edition)

"Are you a Judi Dench fan?"
"Uh, yeah, of course, of course."
"No, is that seriously what that T-shirt means?"
"Heh heh, no."
"What does it mean?"
"Uh, it's some, y'know, the kids these days, their urban, urban slang, Graham."
"Ok. Does it mean anything?"
"Heh heh, it's vacuous, it doesn't mean anything."

a) it does mean something.
b) if you don't think it means anything, why the hell are you wearing it?!

[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]


How I Met Your Mother
8x05 The Autumn of Break-Ups
Love Brover.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Top Gear
19x05 (24/2/13 edition)
Effectively the last of the series, because they're off on a two-episode jaunt along the Nile in their 'Christmas Special' next week.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
[#21 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

That's a helluva title, isn't it? Shame about the film -- a definite case of the overrated for me.

Comics

2000 AD #1769
Featuring...
• Judge Dredd Day of Chaos: Eve of Destruction, Part 5 by John Wagner & Henry Flint
• Grey Area Feel the Noise, Part 3 by Dan Abnett & Karl Richardson
• Nikolai Dante The Wedding of Jena Makarov, Part 7 by Robbie Morrison & Simon Fraser
• Absalom Ghosts of London, Part Five by Gordon Rennie & Tiernen Trevallion
• Strontium Dog The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha, Chapter Two: The Project, Part Seven by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra & Hector Ezquerra

TV

Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe
1x04 (21/2/13 edition)

Climax!
1x03 Casino Royale
The first ever screen appearance of James Bond -- sorry, 'Card Sense' Jimmy Bond, an American secret agent. For all the drawbacks -- it's a 48-minute '50s-TV adaptation of the novel, so is Americanised and sanitised -- it's actually not that bad. And Peter Lorre is a perfect choice for Le Chiffre.
Sadly, though a complete version now exists, MGM insist on only putting out the initially-found truncated version which is missing the final few minutes/seconds. Shame.

The Last Leg
2x05 (22/2/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

The Ice Warriors: missing episodes animated
by Chuck Foster (from Doctor Who News)

BBC Worldwide have finally confirmed that August's DVD release of Second Doctor adventure The Ice Warriors will indeed include animated versions of the missing episodes two and three, as well as the previously announced 'telesnap' version of the episodes

Finally indeed!

And, even better news, they've been done by a different company to the awful Reign of Terror animations. The preview clip looks pretty decent.

(Sadly, the Reign of Terror chaps were commissioned to do the very-important Tenth Planet 4, so we still must hope they've improved.)

TV

Death in Paradise
2x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
And there will be a third series. Hurrah!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Good Life
1x04 Pig's Lib

Stella
2x07 Episode 7

Films

Safe House (2012)
[#20 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Articles

Wikipedians wage war over a capital "I" in a Star Trek film
by Kevin Morris (from The Daily Dot)

Wikipedians and Wikipedia Star Trek fans have engaged in a heated conflict that's raged for nearly two months. In total, more than 40,000 words have been lobbed in the fight.

The point of contention? Whether "Into" should be capitalized in the movie's name.

How bloody ridiculous. And it came to the most ridiculous conclusion ever too:

users have reached a compromise. A way to please everyone and no one—and at the same time make the encyclopedia look rather ridiculous.

The first line of the entry now reads:

Star Trek into Darkness (usually written as Star Trek Into Darkness)

I despair.

TV

Arrow
1x10 Burned

Elementary
1x14 The Deductionist

The Good Life
1x03 The Weaker Sex?

TV

The 85th Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars, obviously.

Mixed reactions in the press, but then there always are. I thought it was largely a good show, Seth MacFarlane was largely a funny host, and largely the right people won. I'd've liked more for Skyfall of course, but that's life. And a tie in one category! Only the sixth ever. That was quite exciting... though, apparently, not exciting enough to make most news stories. But I guess it was in a technical category.

Oh, and shame on Sky for cutting off the closing song. Wouldn't've happened on the BBC.


How I Met Your Mother
8x04 Who Wants to Be a Godparent?
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


The Mentalist
5x10 Panama Red
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]


The Sarah Millican Television Programme
2x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]


Stella
2x06 Episode 6

TV

The Culture Show
Forget the Oscars, Here Are the Kermodes [2013 special]
A little to my surprise, I watched 2011's Kermodes. That's one of the advantages of this blog -- reminding me of things I've completely forgotten.
I assumed I'd just missed it last year (and probably had it downloaded somewhere, still waiting to be watched), but I can find no evidence of it on the BBC's Culture Show website. I guess it just didn't get its own special, especially as you can indeed find the results online.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Oscar 2013: Red Carpet Live
As usual, the ceremony begins at 1:30am over here, so here's a lot of speculation and red carpet nonsense from Sky's chosen team (read: whoever would agree to come in for the night). Apparently this is now Sky's ninth year having exclusive rights to the ceremony. About time it went back to the Beeb, no?

Room 101: Extra Storage
13x07 Episode 7

Top Gear
19x04 (17/2/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
[#19 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

The year on this one is a real matter of perspective. It was made and first shown in 2011, but widely released (here, in the US, and everywhere else) in 2012. Websites disagree, but the latter turns up more Google hits, so...

Comics

2000 AD #1767-1768
• Judge Dredd Day of Chaos: Eve of Destruction, Parts 3-4 by John Wagner & Henry Flint
• Grey Area Feel the Noise, Parts 1-2 by Dan Abnett & Karl Richardson
• Nikolai Dante The Wedding of Jena Makarov, Parts 5-6 by Robbie Morrison & Simon Fraser
• Absalom Ghosts of London, Parts Three - Four by Gordon Rennie & Tiernen Trevallion
• Strontium Dog The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha, Chapter Two: The Project, Parts Five - Six by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra & Hector Ezquerra

Articles

Twilight Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Kristen Stewart, Rihanna win Razzies
by Colin Daniels (from Digital Spy)

The Twilight finale fairly swept the board, winning seven of the ten awards. Well, it's traditional for awards to give a series' final instalment all it deserves, isn't it.

this week on 100 Films

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


Birth (2004)

Nicole Kidman’s rationalist husband dies suddenly; years later, as she gets engaged to another man, a boy arrives claiming to be her husband reincarnated. More realistic art house drama about grief and insecurity than thrill-giving occult mystery, it nonetheless keeps you guessing

Read more here.


The Plank (1967)

The film opens with the credits being sung to the viewer — a surreal touch that indicates the kind of experience you’re in for. The humour is primarily of a slapstick variety, much of it unsurprisingly revolving around the titular slab of wood. Some of it is very amusing, but... I can’t see this as a film that will convert anybody.

Read more here.



And new to the new blog...


The Invention of Lying (2009)

I enjoyed the religious plot. I don’t think it’s misjudged satire, as some reviews have claimed; I think it’s pretty decent satire, in fact... It’s a decently amusing deconstruction of religion and the ideas that underpin it, coming from a rational perspective that can see through the obvious flaws and falsehoods in (specifically) Christianity.

Read more here.


National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

essentially offers more of the same. That’s often levelled as a criticism, but in this instance it’s absolutely fine: Book of Secrets isn’t a rehash — there’s a new mystery with new puzzles — but is another adventure in the same vein, with clue-hunting and the occasional action sequence.

Read more here.


The Wolfman: Unrated Version (2010)

this is not your modern whizzbang horror movie, but something more classically inspired... the film makes this clear pretty quickly — or rather, quite slowly. The plot and character are allowed to unfurl at a gradual rate, building up to bursts of action later on rather than trying to keep the audience’s adrenaline pumping with a constant barrage of set pieces.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Arrow
1x09 Year's End

Elementary
1x13 The Red Team

Let's Dance for Comic Relief 2013
Episode 2 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Muppets (2011)
[#18 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Comics

2000 AD #1764-1766

Featuring...

• Judge Dredd Day of Chaos: The Assassination List, Part 6 by John Wagner & Leigh Gallagher
• Judge Dredd Day of Chaos: Eve of Destruction, Parts 1-2 by John Wagner & Henry Flint
• Grey Area Meet & Greet, Parts 2-4 by Dan Abnett & Karl Richardson
• Nikolai Dante The Wedding of Jena Makarov, Parts 2-4 by Robbie Morrison & Simon Fraser
• Past Imperfect H Battalion by T.C. Eglington & Warren Pleece
• Strontium Dog The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha, Chapter Two: The Project, Parts Two - Four by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra & Hector Ezquerra
• Absalom Ghosts of London, Parts One - Two by Gordon Rennie & Tiernen Trevallion

'New' Dredd tale Eve of Destruction kicks off a whopping 20-part run (and at the end of it, Chaos Day itself is just two). As Grey Area's first story closes I think it has promise, but, for an acclaimed-in-some-circles writer, Abnett's dialogue is shockingly clunky. The final part read like a recap of the entire premise coupled with a resolution, which was very odd for only the fourth instalment.

This is the last-ever Nikolai Dante story and I'm sure pays off handsomely to fans, but is hardly the right point for newbies. Still has its moments, at least. The Past Imperfect wasn't much cop, all set up for a final reveal that, even though it was the entire point, felt needless. Strontium Dog begins to become more followable as it focuses on the present predicament, and Absalom… begins. We'll see.