Films

Murder by Death (1976)
[#120 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

It's so long ago you may've forgotten it happened, but September began this week. That means it was time for 100 Films in a Year to look back at August:




Relatedly, this week I launched a poetical new feature. Learn more about it in the...




Aright, back to business as normal: two brand-new reviews were published this week...


Monsters: Dark Continent (2014)

this sequel to Gareth Edwards’ low-budget sci-fi indie-romance takes things in a completely different direction: we follow a troop of soldier mates as they’re shipped off for their first tour in Nonspecificstan... The guys’ macho posturing is soon undercut by the realities of a combat zone, especially when they’re dispatched to rescue four soldiers left behind deep in the infected zone

Read more here.


Salvation Boulevard (2011)

A soft-toothed satire of America’s fundamentalist mega-churches, Salvation Boulevard trailed very well, but they must’ve stuffed all the funny bits in, because in the final film such moments of hilarity are few and far between.

Read more here.


Plus five archive posts were reposted on the new blog...


Alien vs Predator – Part 3

Having already published my thoughts on the two franchise starters and the remaining films in the Alien series, this is the concluding entry in my coverage of the Alien, Predator and Alien vs Predator franchises.

Read more here.


And the Oscar for Best Picture... of 2007...

It seems appropriate timing to finally publish this group of reviews for (most of) 2007's Best Picture nominees (a 'feature' I've had in the planning for well over a year -- oops). Yes, it's two ceremonies ago, but it's the best I've got.

Read more here.


The ‘Best Pictures’ of the Noughties

With 2010’s Oscar nominees due to be announced tomorrow sometime, I thought I’d have a look back at how I’ve done seeing the Best Picture nominees from the noughties. Feel free to play along.

Read more here.


Do You Wanna Date James Cameron’s Avatar?

when I heard, on the same day, of the expected success of the trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar... and the surprising success of The Guild’s music video for (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar… well, I couldn’t help seeing what would happen were the two to collide…

Read more here.


Wallander 2 (or 6) and 3 (or 13)

There are multiple TV/movie series based on Henning Mankell’s detective Kurt Wallander. This particular one, begun in 2005, features an adaptation of one novel followed by twelve original stories. Of these thirteen feature-length episodes, three were released theatrically — episodes one, six and thirteen — and, because of their initial cinema release, I’ve reviewed those three as part of my objective.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Go (1999)
[#119 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

Just one new title this week, but it's also the running time update, so there's that.

Number of titles in collection: 1,792 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 584 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,457 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,940 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,634 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 454 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
321 days, 2 hours, and 51 minutes.
(Up 15 hours and 54 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
9x16 (28/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 15 Cinema Today and the Future
The end!

Fiction

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Chapter 6 [the end; 2nd read]

TV

The Great British Bake Off
6x05 Alternative Ingredients
That's one name for it...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 13 New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia & Latin America
Part 14 New American Independents & the Digital Revolution

TV

The Americans
3x12 I Am Abassin Zadran
3x13 March 8, 1983 [season finale]
As great as The Americans is (and it is), that wasn't much of a finale. A very good episode in and of itself, but it feels like we're right in the middle of a story rather than at the end of one.

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 12 Fight the Power: Protest in Film

TV

Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime
1x04 N or M? Part One
1x05 N or M? Part Two
1x06 N or M? Part Three [season finale]
These two adventures were good fun, and very watchable even in three-hour single sittings. Hope they make more.
[Watch N or M? parts one, two and three (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
[#118 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Celebrity Fifteen to One
(28/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Would I Lie To You?
9x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Stranger by the Lake (2013)
[#117 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

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


The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened? (2015) (2015)

Jon Schnepp’s widely-reviewed documentary about the batshit-crazy Nic Cage-starring Tim Burton-directed Superman movie that almost happened in 1999. If all you’ve seen are the photos of a stoned-looking Cage in a light-up abomination of a Superman costume that leaked onto the internet a few years ago, prepare to be amazed.

Read more here.


Inherent Vice (2014)

Paul Thomas Anderson here turns his hand to adapting reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 opus. It met with notably less success than most of his previous works. The Alliance of Women Film Journalists were one of few organisations to recognise it come awards season, with a gong for “Movie You Wanted to Love, But Just Couldn’t”. Apt.

Read more here.


Now You See Me (2013)

the whole film works on many of the same principles as a magic show: it’s there to dazzle you, confound you, make you guess how the tricks were done. That there’s eventually a reveal and a twist is an end unto itself, regardless of the believability of the plot or the depth of the characters

Read more here.


RED 2 (2013)

The “retired, extremely dangerous” agents return for more of the same. “More of the same” is all the recommendation — or unrecommendation, or disrecommendation, or whatever the antonym of “recommendation” actually is — you really need.

Read more here.


Scanners (1981)

If you’re versed in sci-fi/fantasy cinema, you’ve heard of Scanners even if you haven’t seen it: it’s the one with the (in)famous exploding head. That moment is distinctly less shocking for those of us coming to the film as a new viewer at this point: gore perpetuates genre cinema nowadays, so it’s less striking, and the scene it’s in is quite obvious, so you know it’s coming. Fortunately, Scanners is so much more than one famous moment.

Read more here.


The Theory of Everything (2014)

Felicity Jones gives a first-class performance as Jane, building genuine poignancy by being impeccably understated. Eddie Redmayne contorts himself into the form of Stephen Hawking with uncanny accuracy, a truly remarkable performance of a truly remarkable man.

Read more here.


Plus seven archive posts were reposted on the new blog...


100 Films on a Cover

Empire, not content with conducting a ludicrously huge reader poll to find the 500 greatest films ever made, also roped in 150 (as yet unnamed) "key directors and producers" and "the world's most influential film critics" to have their say. And Empire, not content with conducting a ludicrously huge reader poll and gathering the opinion of key directors, producers and critics to find the 500 greatest films ever made, also created a "magazine milestone" — 100 different covers for the issue featuring the list

Read more here.


Alien vs Predator - Part 1

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, my repostathon is recapping my recaps of the Alien and Predator film series. In Part 1, the beginnings of them both...

Read more here.


Alien vs Predator - Part 2

Aliens and The Other Two Alien Movies...

Read more here.

(Part 3 will be live tomorrow, and so will feature in the next weekly update.)


The BAFTAs 2008

I won’t offer a comprehensive list of winners, or even many thoughts on them — such things are easily found elsewhere — but I will instead offer my thoughts on one of the few ceremonies this year to be presented in full (well, relatively speaking), and the only film awards ceremony that receives a terrestrial television airing in the UK.

Read more here.


An extended musing on falling in love with films

when was the last time I ‘fell in love’ with a film? It’s got me pondering not only that, but also what caused me to ‘fall for’ the films I do like? Was it the critical reaction as much as my personal opinion? The in-built notion of This Is A Good Film making sure I liked it?

Read more here.


My Quantum of Solace Film Season

Back in 2008, I marked the release of the 22nd James Bond film by watching a bunch of unrelated stuff.

Read more here.


Watchmen 2: a couple of suggestions

After finding Total Film's humourous suggestions for a Watchmen sequel a little lacking in the funniness department, I thought I'd jot down a few myself. It doesn't mean they're actually any better, obviously, but it kept me amused for a few minutes.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Americans
3x11 One Day in the Life of Anton Baklanov

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Yonderland
2x07 The Last Fahl

Films

Shivers (1975)
[#116 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Fiction

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Chapter 5 [2nd read]