TV

The Great British Bake Off
5x02 Biscuits
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Tumble
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,689 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,203 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 486 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,204 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,826 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,177 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 435 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Last Leg
5x02 (8/8/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Pointless Celebrities
6x12 (9/8/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Simpsons
25x20 Brick Like Me
I haven't watched The Simpsons in a very, very long time (so long it's never been mentioned on this blog aside from the movie, in fact), but the promise of a LEGO-themed episode (i.e. this one) got my attention. It was pretty good, though the fact so many reviewers have described it as "the best of the season" proves the show must be a shadow of it's former self: not bad -- in fact, funny and entertaining on the whole -- but not laugh-out-loud, instantly-memorable, classic TV. Which I suppose would happen to anything after 25 years and 550 episodes.

this week on 100 Films

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


Amélie (2001)

My quirky review of a quirky film about the quirky life of a quirky girl.

Read more here.


Cloudy 2: Extra Toppings (2013)

On Blu-ray, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 comes with a selection of four “mini-movies” — that’s “shorts” to you and me. When the film airs on Sky Movies Premiere, each screening will be preceded by three of these, under the Extra Toppings title.

Read more here.


And seven were new to the new blog...


Fatal Instinct (1993)

It’s a little difficult to understand exactly why it flopped so badly in the US... perhaps its targets were just too broad to attract a mass audience. While it ostensibly tackles then-recent thrillers like Basic Instinct, Cape Fear and Fatal Attraction, it also has a lot of time devoted to the tropes of film noir, in particular Double Indemnity. Relying so heavily on a 50-year-old film isn’t likely to earn you much favour among the masses.

Read more here.


High Anxiety (1977)

Mel Brooks pays comedic tribute to Alfred Hitchcock — in case you can’t tell, the second credit is a prominent dedication — but those unfamiliar with the Master of Suspense’s output need not apply.

Read more here.


Matchstick Men (2003)

Twists are fine. Twists can be great. You can guess a twist is coming and it can still work. A really good twist works even when you know for certain it’s coming; its existence raises what you’ve seen, makes it all work even on repeated viewings when the element of surprise is obviously gone. Matchstick Men doesn’t have that kind of twist. It has the kind of twist that undermines everything you’ve just seen. Not because it’s illogical — it isn’t in the slightest — but because it tramples over the film’s emotional resonance.

Read more here.


Nosferatu (1922)

One of the earliest and most-referenced horror films, and the first screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (faithfully, albeit unofficially). With such a weight bearing down upon it I found it quite hard to watch it objectively...

Read more here.


Seraphim Falls (2006)

it makes for an unusual story. It’s centred neatly around Neeson chasing Brosnan, but the encounters they have along the way are increasingly bizarre. It’s readily apparent that there’s some Meaning and Subtext here... but I’m not sure if one has to process this to appreciate the film — it’s a still a chase movie

Read more here.


Sunshine (2007)

what some would call "grown-up science fiction", often more concerned with the crew's moral dilemmas than thrilling action set pieces or dazzling CGI. Luckily, though, the former aren't too pretentious and both of the latter are still present.

Read more here.


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp collaborate for the sixth time (as the DVD’s blurb is so keen to point out) for a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical adaptation of the classic tale of the titular barber who slaughters instead of shaves and sells the resultant meat to all of London in the pies of his accomplice, Mrs Lovett.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x09 Run Away, Little Boy [2nd watch]

The Musketeers
1x04 The Good Soldier

Films

After Earth (2013)
[#69 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Collection Count

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

Somehow some of my totals have gone screwy. No idea how that happened, but as best I can tell I've fixed them now -- just in time for a running time update!

Number of titles in collection: 1,688 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,203 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 485 [down 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,203 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,825 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,177 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 435 [no change]

And that running time update tells us...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
302 days, 7 hours, and 51 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 18 hours, and 35 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
2x04 Dynamite and a Woman

TV

The Great British Bake Off
5x01 Cake
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
2x03 Become Man

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x08 The Ins and Outs of Inns [2nd watch]

The Musketeers
1x03 Commodities

Films

Inseparable (2011)
[#68 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Wallander [Swedish]
3x03 Sveket (aka The Betrayal)

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
1x02 Sex is Fun
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Gilmore Girls
2x07 Like Mother, Like Daughter [2nd watch]
I like it when headmaster Charleston gets a good talking-to. Pompous twonk.

Films

Cloudy 2: Extra Toppings (2013)
[#67a in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Three short films that will air before Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 on Sky Movies. They include Steve's First Bath, Super Manny, and Attack of the 50ft. Gummi Bear!. The Blu-ray includes a fourth short, Earl Scouts, which I also watched.

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x06 Presenting Lorelia Gilmore [2nd watch]

The Last Leg
5x01 (1/8/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Clear and Present Danger (1994)
[#67 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

this week on 100 Films

A busy week at 100 Films in a Year! Our recap starts with the fact it's now August, meaning it was time for the July update.


Then, two brand-new reviews were published this week...


Blue Velvet (1986)

Before he brought the disquieting underbelly of small-town America to television audiences with Twin Peaks — and revolutionised the medium in the process — auteur David Lynch subjected cinemagoers to its perversions in this 1986 cult masterpiece, the first cohesive expression of concepts, themes and motifs (and cast members) that would inform the rest of his career.

Read more here.


Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)

it moves at a restless rate of knots, much as the first one did. That’s not something to be sniffed at, as it throws plot and humour at the viewer with wild abandon. Sometimes such a methodology is a recipe for “chuck everything at the screen and see what sticks” — with the latter usually being “not a huge percentage” — but here it creates a pretty fine hit rate.

Read more here.


And finally, seven classic reviews were new to the new blog...


Bhaji on the Beach (1993)

It was no doubt bitingly relevant, showcasing a different set of cultural rules and expectations... viewed today, the film feels less "this is how things are" and more "this is how things were then", emphasised by the ever-so-'90s costumes, cars, locations… It feels as much a period piece as, say, Ashes to Ashes.

Read more here.


Great Expectations (1946)

there’s little to dislike about the adaptation. John Mills is too old to convince as a 20-year-old Pip, but his performance is good and he’s ably supported. However, the main highlights are undoubtedly all in Lean’s brilliant direction.

Read more here.


Guess Who (2005)

The plot isn’t a direct copy of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, preferring to take the gist of the concept and a few of the story beats and surround them with a bunch of Funny Situations. [It] does manage the odd laugh or smile, increasingly so as it goes on (though this may be because I was getting increasingly inebriated).

Read more here.


Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

a white girl falls in love with a black man and brings him home to meet the parents... this is still the era of Martin Luther King Jr. battling for equality and when interracial marriage was still illegal in 14 states. Hollywood may be known for its liberal politics, but it’s not always so, which makes the outcome of the film — will they or won’t they be given permission to marry? — a constant guessing game.

Read more here.


Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005)

All comedy is an acquired taste, of course, but what Silverman offers here must take some acquiring. I mostly like what I’ve seen of her work in the past, but the lack of laughs here is enough to put me off bothering with her in future.

Read more here.


Solaris (1972)

one of those films I think we can safely say is Not For Everyone. There’s much to ponder for the so inclined, not least the intriguing ending. I feel certain I, much like the scientists in the film itself, have barely scratched the surface.

Read more here.


Waitress (2007)

looks like another breezy rom-com... a chick flick, or to sound inappropriately less derogatory, “woman’s film”. Waitress is a “woman’s film”, but in a good way: written and directed from a female perspective, with its central roles being female, it doesn’t pander to a perceived female demographic and nor does it bellow “this is what we women think, and it’s so different to you damn men” — it’s more subtle than that.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
2x05 Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy [2nd watch]

The Musketeers
1x02 Sleight of Hand

Films

The Expendables 2 (2012)
[#66 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]