Films

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
[#130 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Castle
5x02 Cloudy with a Chance of Murder

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
9x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

What Dreams May Come (1998)
[#129 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Films

Superbad (2007)
[#2015 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

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


Contagion (2011)

Director Steven Soderbergh takes the methodology he used to depict the drug trade in Traffic — an ensemble cast divided among a portmanteau of colour-coded storylines to examine different aspects of the theme — and applies it to the outbreak of a devastating global pandemic.

Read more here.


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

If you’ve read or seen a previous version then you know the story, which hasn’t succumbed to a massive reworking for this American remake — it’s still set in Sweden, even. If you don’t... The novel’s original title translates as Men Who Hate Women, and that’s a pretty succinct summary of the grim, violent, nasty places the stories take us.

Read more here.


Shivers (1975)

The first commercial (i.e. non-student) feature by horror maestro-to-be David Cronenberg, Shivers depicts the sexually-charged chaos that erupts after the spread of a man-made sexually-transmitted parasite in an isolated hyper-modern tower block.

Read more here.


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


Audrey Hepburn, er, ‘Week’…

Channel 4 attempted a week of Audrey Hepburn films. Except for some reason they didn’t schedule one for Monday. And then Friday’s, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, was replaced by delayed horse racing. And for my part, I forgot to record Thursday’s film, Funny Face. So following Valentine’s Day, Channel 4 showed a pair of Audrey Hepburn films

Read more here.


Hercules’ New Groove

Hercules and The Emperor’s New Groove are connected by two things: firstly, they’re among the first Disney films I didn’t see because I’d Grown Up; secondly, I’m not sure I’d’ve wanted to see them anyway because I always thought they looked rubbish... Finally seeing this pair now, I find that my expectations were surprisingly flouted in one case, and sadly vindicated in another.

Read more here.


A pair of comedies — one with snow!

It’s Christmas Eve!... As I have no Christmassy films stacked up in my big pile of things I need to get round to reviewing, I’ve decided the nearest I can offer to the Christmas spirit is a pair of British comedies (comedies being kinda jolly, see), one of which has snow, which is always Christmassy. Except when it’s just at the North Pole. Like in this film. Oh shh, it’s the best I could do.

Read more here.


Robin Hood, without the realism

By the vagaries of chance, I wound up watching two classic (read: old) Robin Hood-related films around the time Ridley Scott’s new realistic (read: still all made-up, but ‘gritty’) film was in cinemas. So for those who felt Scott's Robin Hood lacked the necessary swashing of buckles, what about this pair?

Read more here.


A week of vengeance

Each day this week I’ll be posting a new review of a film about vengeance... The films I’ve picked out are British thriller Harry Brown, flop comic book Western Jonah Hex, classic ’70s Western High Plains Drifter, and violent action-thriller Law Abiding Citizen.

Read more here.


What price a 'Definitive Cut'?

The question of a ‘definitive version’ comes in the multitude of Director’s Cuts, Extended Cuts, Harder Cuts, Extreme Cuts — whatever label the marketing boys & girls slap on them, Longer Versions You Didn’t See In The Cinema is what they are. But are they better? Or more definitive? Does it matter?

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)
[#127 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

North West Frontier (1959)
[#126 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Known in the US as Flame Over India and in Australia as Empress of India.

Collection Count

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

A couple of movies this week. Next week, a big whole-TV-series box set -- should make the next running time update (in a few weeks) a big'un.

Number of titles in collection: 1,795 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 587 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 4,463 [up 6]
Number of films in collection: 1,944 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,634 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 454 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

'80s Day! (Not deliberately.)

The Dark Crystal (1982)
[#124 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
[#125 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

They Live (1988)
[#123 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Films

The Swimmer (1968)
[#122 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Cowboy Bebop
1x16 Black Dog Serenade
An episode or two once a month may not be "a reasonable timeframe", but at least it's better than it was before!

The Great British Bake Off
6x06 Pastry
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Last Leg
7x08 (14/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

One-Eyed Monster (2008)
[#121 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
9x17 (4/9/15 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

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!