Films

The Book of Life (2014)
[#50 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x07 The Festival of Living Art [2nd watch]

Shetland
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Barely Lethal (2015)
[#49 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
[#48 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

A new month (nearly a week ago, I know) means it's time for a look back at the past month over at 100 Films in a Year, and February was a good'un:




Around that, three brand-new reviews were published to this week...


12 Years a Slave (2013)

[Chiwetel Ejiofor gives] an incredible lead performance — restrained most of the time, evoking Solomon’s internal life subtly rather than showily, but with carefully executed break-outs of emotion.

Read more here.


Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. (2012/2013)

I’ve read more than one review bemoaning the confusion at the opening of the film [...] for me this was the most engaging and exciting segment of the movie. As well as a couple of thrilling action scenes, it juggles character relationships in interesting ways, establishing a new status quo unlike that we’ve seen before in the franchise. It culminates in a fantastic stand-off between former allies — indeed, former friends.

Read more here.


Snatch. (2000)

Guy Ritchie’s second feature met with relative indifference 16 years ago, consensus deeming it Lock Stock Mk.2 and finding Ritchie needed to branch out if he was to meet his debut’s promise... The consensus is very different today: taking IMDb’s Top 250 as a bellwether, Snatch is #94 and Lock Stock is #138.

Read more here.


Finally, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Technical Wizardry: The cinematography and editing, according to some.
Letting the Side Down: The cinematography and editing, according to some.

Read more here.


Casablanca (1942)

remembered now as much for its selection of ever-quotable lines as for anything else — you don’t have to have seen the film to know that if you go walking into all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world and someone’s looking at you, kid, then maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon you should round up all the usual suspects again, Sam, for the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Or something.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x06 An Affair to Remember [2nd watch]

The Voice UK
5x09 The Battles 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
[#47 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Collection Count

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

After this week's new release arrived early last week, next week's new release arrives early this week. Probably nothing at all next week, then.

Number of titles in collection: 1,844 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,210 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 634 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,726 [up 7]
Number of films in collection: 2,017 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,187 [up 14]
Number of short films in collection: 465 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x05 The Fundamental Things Apply [2nd watch]

Shetland
3x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Blackhat (2015)
[#46 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Dickensian
1x19 Episode 19
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gilmore Girls
4x04 Chicken or Beef? [2nd watch]

Grantchester
2x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x03 The Hobbit, the Sofa, and the Digger Stiles [2nd watch]

Person of Interest
4x01 Panopticon
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Films

Chappie (2015)
[#45 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Death in Paradise
5x08 Episode 8 [season finele]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Elementary
4x10 Alma Matters

Films

Lucy (2014)
[#44 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

The 88th Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars. One of the best ceremonies for quite a while, with a few good surprises too. Great that Mad Max did so well.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
3x10 Yippie Kayak
A sitcom doing a Die Hard riff in a department store for its 2015 Christmas special? Never seen that before.
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Dickensian
1x18 Episode 18
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gilmore Girls
4x02 The Lorelais' First Day at Yale [2nd watch]

Ripper Street
4x06 Edmund Reid Did This [season finale]
Cliffhangertastic! Hope we don't have to wait too long for the next (presumably final) series.
[Watch it exclusively on Amazon Prime Instant Video.]

TV

Oscars 2016: Nominations Special

Oscars 2016: Preview Live

Films

Cinderella (2015)
[#43 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. (2012/2013)
[#42 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

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


AfterDeath (2015)

A low-budget British single-location thriller with a mostly unknown cast... mainly trades on the mystery established by its situation. The characters are quickly sketched and somewhat archetypal, and the twists in their storylines aren’t all that surprising, but combined with the relatively brisk running time this means they crack on with trying to solve what’s going on.

Read more here.


Heaven Can Wait (1943)

It starts brilliantly: the bookend scenes are excellent, and the early parts of the plot are buoyed by consistent wit and enjoyable characters, particularly Charles Coburn as a slyly raucous grandfather. As it heads into its second half, it loses momentum and focus

Read more here.


Paddington (2014)

a fine example of why you can’t judge a film by its marketing, because the critics were right: this is a joyous, funny movie; a delight for all ages. It also shows that sometimes euphemistic PR phrases like “creative differences” or “we agreed he wasn’t right for the part” aren’t actually euphemistic at all: Firth would’ve been all wrong for Paddington [...] Whishaw, on the other hand, nails it

Read more here.


Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

at this point, one or two other people on the internet have written the odd word about The Force Awakens — you have to really go looking, but trust me, there are some articles out there. [So,] for an angle of moderate uniqueness, I’ll talk about the five elements of the film that have been singled out for recognition by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Read more here.


Also, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Bloody Sunday (2002)

The British Army don’t come across in the best light, with Tim Piggot-Smith’s Major General Robert Ford issuing hostile orders, and the troops eager for a fight. The depiction is tempered by Nicholas Farrell as Brigadier Patrick MacLellan, battling his conscious even as he must carry out his orders.

Read more here.


The Bourne Identity (2002)

Perhaps the Paul Greengrass-helmed sequels have been even more influential... but for me this first film is still the best of the bunch: an engaging mystery-thriller adrenalised by excellent action sequences.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x01 Ballrooms and Biscotti [2nd watch]

The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story
1x02 The Run of His Life
So, turns out this is a comedy (I guess)...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
5x08 The Battles 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The X Files
10x03 Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster
This is definitely a comedy. And so good for it.
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Collection Count

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

As I mentioned a while ago, I'm currently getting one new release a week. This week: next week's arrives early.

Number of titles in collection: 1,842 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,210 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 632 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,719 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 2,016 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,173 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 465 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.