Films

All is Lost (2013)
[#130 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

With this, 2014 overtakes 2007 to be the most successful (in terms of number of films watched) year of 100 Films ever!

And I'm not done yet!

TV

Arrow
3x08 The Brave and the Bold

The British Comedy Awards 2014
Plus The British Comedy Awards 2014: Even More Awards, the E4 after-show featuring awkward interviews, montages, and (you guessed it) even more awards.
[Watch The British Comedy Awards and Even More Awards (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
4x02 Heroes and Villains
Watching this immediately after Arrow felt a little deconstructionist...

Would I Lie To You?
8x08 At Christmas [special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2014/2015 Episode 1 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Elementary
3x06 Teri Pericolosa

The Flash
1x08 Flash vs. Arrow

Live at the Apollo
10x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Gotham
1x10 LoveCraft
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Pointless Celebrities
6x29 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

It's the third week of 100 Films in a Year's 2014 Advent Calendar, in which a further seven brand-new reviews were published...


Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

This isn’t the kind of blockbuster that sets out a simple premise then follows it up with half a dozen action sequences, possibly with a twist at the end. No, this is the story of Ape and Man learning to interact and coexist — or, rather, failing to. Political machinations abound — and that’s just in the Ape camp.

Read more here.


Machete (2010)

When it’s on its game, Machete is the best kind of spoof: innovative, comical... Unfortunately it’s far too long, with an overabundance of characters and conflicts dragging things out.

Read more here.


Sin City (Recut & Extended) (2005)

The lack of notable new material isn’t the issue, though. The real problem is the re-structure. Let’s not beat around the bush: it scuttles the film. Individually, each of the three longer narratives is fine, but when watched back-to-back as if it were still one film, the structure is unbalanced.

Read more here.


Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

a collection of hyper-noir short stories, connected by location and overlapping characters, that flits between time periods with abandon — this is both a prequel and sequel to the first film... If the first was noir with a comic book mentality, then the second is a comic book with a noir mentality.

Read more here.


The Spirit (2008)

Comic book creator Frank Miller brings what he learnt co-directing Sin City to this adaptation of Will Eisner’s classic newspaper strip. Turns out, that’s not much.

Read more here.


The World's End (2013)

This is a more mature work than its two predecessors. While they were clever genre mash-up/pastiches, this goes lighter on that crowd-pleasing bumf. There are still generous segments of that in the film, but the genre being manipulated is less clearly defined and occasionally co-writers Pegg and Wright have substituted character development and thematic points for send-up.

Read more here.


X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

There’s an awful lot going on in Days of Future Past, which, if you want to dig into it, makes for quite a rich film. There’s the obvious need to balance major storylines taking place in both the past and the future... but there’s enough [character] material for a quality actor like James McAvoy to sink his teeth into.

Read more here.


Plus one new to the new blog...


Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

at times it reminded me of Pride & Prejudice — a family of daughters seeking marriage — albeit a version of Pride & Prejudice with much of the dramatic tension removed. For instance, Austen’s tale spends a long time creating a bad impression of Mr Darcy, only to eventually reveal his (mostly) good intentions. St. Louis, on the other hand, manages all of five minutes

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Have I Got News For You
48x10 (12/12/2014 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Another Thin Man (1939)
[#129 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

That makes 2014 equal to 2007 as 100 Films' highest-numbering year. One more film in the next 11 days and it'll be the Best. Year. Ever.

Sounds doable...

Collection Count

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

This is the last update before Christmas. Usually a light time, and indeed there's only one addition this week.

Number of titles in collection: 1,714 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,205 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 509 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,279 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,849 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,317 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 438 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader, for my Christmas haul!

TV

Forever
1x11 Skinny Dipper
Mid-season finales are really becoming a thing, aren't they?

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
28x11 Episode 11
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Not Going Out
7x09 Lucy
Whoo! About time. Not because I'm massively into the romance of it all (a "shipper", as the Cool Kids would put it), but because it's been lurking for so long that it is indeed about time they moved on with it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Bill the Galactic Hero (2014)
[#128 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Arrow
3x07 Draw Back Your Bow

Elementary
3x05 Rip Off

Live at the Apollo
10x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Missing
1x08 Till Death [season finale]
Fantastic. One of the best British series for years, I'd go so far as to say. Hopefully the just-announced second run can be just as good.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Not Going Out
2x08 Murder at Christmas [season finale; 2nd watch]

Films

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
[#127 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

The Flash
1x07 Power Outage

The Missing
Part 7 Return to Eden
That ending has given me A Theory. I shall find out tomorrow...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Sin City: Recut & Extended (2005)
[#126 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

I last saw Sin City when it was in cinemas nine years ago, so this is a "2nd watch" really... but the slightly-extended and massively-reordered DVD/BD version mucks around with it so much that I felt it deserved a new number.

TV

Have I Got News For You
48x09 (5/12/2014 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Outnumbered
3x00 The Robbers [Christmas special; 2nd watch]
Seems I've not watched this since it first aired five years ago! Good stuff, though. Ought to re-watch the whole thing sometime...

The Thick of It
2x02 Episode 5
2x03 Episode 6 [season finale]

TV

Castle
4x01 Rise
Channel 5 have not only bumped Castle to 5USA, they also started showing it a couple of months ago without any fanfare (none that I saw, anyway). So I've had to resort to... alternative methods... to catch up. But catch up I will, oh yes.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
28x10 Episode 10
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Not Going Out
7x08 Plane
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

The 2014 Advent Calendar continues this week on 100 Films in a Year, meaning there were another seven new reviews...


Dead Poets Society (1989)

Here’s a film all children should see, to understand the value of free thought and rejecting the system. Cynics probably find its purity of message, coupled with a tragic ending, to be over-sentimental and twee, but this earnestness is what makes it work.

Read more here.


Edge of Tomorrow, aka Live. Die. Repeat. (2014)

It’s Groundhog Day with shoot-the-aliens bits. It’s easy to be cynical about Edge of Tomorrow — it’s a mega-budgeted Tom Cruise actioner that sounds like a semi-rip-off of several other movies and was perceived as a flop (it wasn’t, at all) that no one knew how to sell. In fact, it’s a very entertaining movie — suitably exciting, surprisingly funny, and actually quite clever.

Read more here.


Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Inspired by the true story of a US Army DJ in Vietnam during the war, the resulting film is a showcase for star Robin Williams — reportedly, his antics aren’t even close to what really happened. Doesn’t matter though, does it, because this is Williams at his best.

Read more here.


Good Will Hunting (1997)

Damon and Williams have numerous incredible scenes together; encounters that feel like genuine slowly-evolving therapy, rather than the simplistic and implausible series of repeated revelations and breakthroughs that such treatment is often reduced to on screen. They run the emotional gamut, too, [including] intense humour — that’s what you get when you have Robin Williams at your disposal, of course. His Oscar is well earnt.

Read more here.


Pacific Rim (2013)

This is a film about giant monsters invading Earth, and we fight back with giant robots. It has the logic of the Japanese movies, anime and art that inspired it rather than any basis in the real world. Which is fine — del Toro has said it was aimed at 11-year-old boys (hence the “for over 13s” rating, of course), and it slots pretty neatly into that world.

Read more here.


Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

There’s fun to be had seeing the creation of a classic movie — I’m sure it’s not 100% the honest truth of how it went, but it is based on the tapes Travers insisted were made of the meetings, so it would seem the spirit is faithful. This isn’t a dry “making of” narrative, however, but a lively romp, as the two sides clash over jaunty tunes, characterisation, casting, and made-up words.

Read more here.


The Searchers (1956)

Westerns don’t come more renowned than this Ford-Wayne collaboration about the years-long hunt for a girl kidnapped by Native Americans. Alongside the usual Western thrills, peerlessly executed, it touches on themes of obsession and racism

Read more here.


Also this week, one archive review was re-posted...


Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)

Judi Dench is clearly having a whale of a time in this 1930s-set comedy about a 70-year-old widow who starts up a nude revue.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gotham
1x09 Harvey Dent
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Pointless Celebrities
6x28 Number 1s
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week, the subtraction of that duplicate I mentioned last time, plus four new acquisitions, gives us the following:

Number of titles in collection: 1,713 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,205 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 508 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 4,278 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,848 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,317 [down 5]
Number of short films in collection: 438 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.