TV

Castle
4x17 Once Upon a Crime
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 18th February.]

Outnumbered
3x01 The Family Outing [3rd watch]
(Skipping the 2009 Christmas special as we only watched it two months ago.)

Films

The Last Days on Mars (2013)
[#22 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x06 Country File
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

The Flash
1x10 Revenge of the Rogues

The Last Leg
6x05 (6/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Death in Paradise
4x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wolf Hall
Part 2 Entirely Beloved
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Byzantium (2012)
[#21 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Broadchurch
2x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Top Gear
22x01 (25/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
[#20 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

The British Academy Film Awards 2015
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Castle
4x16 Linchpin
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 11th February.]

Films

Song of the Thin Man (1947)
[#19 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

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


Another Thin Man (1939)

Husband-and-wife detective duo Nick and Nora Charles — now with a baby in tow — are once again coerced into investigating a crime when the manager of Nora’s estate fears a dismissed employee is plotting murder.

Read more here.


Cockneys vs Zombies (2012)

It’s genuinely laugh-out-loud funny in places, buoyed by a quality cast that includes the likes of Honor Blackman and Richard Briers, the latter of whom stars in a genius “why has no one thought of this before?!” moment

Read more here.


The Tourist (2010)

Much maligned on its release, I thought The Tourist was actually a decently entertaining light thriller.

Read more here.


Transcendence (2014)

best known for the massive negative reaction it received on release, from critics and viewers alike. To be frank, I don’t really know why. Some say it’s too slow — well, I thought it moved like the clappers. What I thought was going to be the story was done in under an hour, from which point it spiralled off in new and interesting directions.

Read more here.


The Wall (2012) aka Die Wand

It’s adapted from an enduringly popular Austrian novel, one of those many books labelled “unfilmable”. Unfortunately the solution seems to have been an over-reliance on voiceover narration, meaning at times it feels more like a prettily-illustrated audiobook than a proper film.

Read more here.


Plus nine archive reviews were reposted on the new blog...


4 short films

Featuring...
The End (2005)
Bus Stop (2004)
Park (2005)
Nine 1/2 Minutes (2002)

Read more here.


Cinderella (1965)

This clearly made-for-TV adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a rather weak affair, easily demonstrating why no one seems to remember it... The musical numbers are quite entertaining, if mostly insipid, not that any approach R&H’s best anyway.

Read more here.


Fist of Legend (1994)

I’m no expert on martial arts, but I do like a good fight (on film) and Fist of Legend serves up plenty of those. In fact, there’s approximately one every five minutes, an impressively high ratio that consciously — and very pleasingly — fulfills what you want from this kind of film. This quantity doesn’t seem to have damaged quality either

Read more here.


Get Smart (2008)

mostly quite good fun. Not all the jokes hit home, but enough do to keep it amusing — which is better than some comedies manage. Even after three Austin Powers films it seems there’s enough left to do with the spy genre to keep a comedy rolling along

Read more here.


Nirvana (1997)

Most sci-fi we see is of the American variety... that tends to mean tonnes of CGI, a fast pace and action sequences up to the eyeballs. Nirvana is more stereotypically European, however: it’s clearly a Deep and Meaningful film, though unlike many examples of Thoughtful cinema it at least has a slightly thriller-ish plot and a hefty dose of cyberpunk styling for us plebs to pick up on.

Read more here.


Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

The characters occasionally sing along to some popular songs (and sometimes to ones you’ve never heard in your life), and sometimes do fun dance routines. This sits at odds with the gritty-ish melodrama of the plot, but that’s the fun.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x05 (6/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x04 Halloween II
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Room 101
15x04 Episode 4

The Voice UK
4x05 The Blind Auditions 5
[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: 1,734 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 526 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,331 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,872 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,464 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 441 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x04 (30/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
4x15 Pandora
Finally caught up with 5USA... just in time for them to have only aired the first half of a two-parter!
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Outnumbered
2x07 The Long Night [season finale; 2nd watch]

Wolf Hall
Part 1 Three Card Trick
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x03 The Jimmy Jab Games
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Death in Paradise
4x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x05 Thwarted Sex Pests
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Castle
4x14 The Blue Butterfly

The Last Leg
6x04 (30/1/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x02 Chocolate Milk
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Room 101
15x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
3x01 Beyond the Pale
I had mixed feelings about the second Whicher, but this third (the first of two that aired back in September) was rather good.

Films

Gone Girl (2014)
[#18 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Broadchurch
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Castle
4x13 An Embarrassment of Bitches

Films

The Black Cauldron (1985)
[#17 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Death in Paradise
4x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Newsroom
3x06 What Kind of Day Has It Been [season finale]