Films

The Maltese Falcon (1941)
[#142 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2016 #8

TV

Castle
6x02 Dreamworld

Doctor Foster
1x02 Episode 2

TV

Castle
6x01 Valkyrie
Got fed up of waiting for this to appear on whichever-Channel-5-channel-it's-on-these-days.

Friday Night Dinner
4x06 For Sale [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Salvation (2014)
[#141 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...


Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Leto and Garner’s characters are fictional. So, some would argue, is Ron Woodroof — this version, anyway. For one thing, reportedly the real Woodroof was widely believed to be bisexual by people who knew him, so depicting him as a raging homophobe (who contracted HIV from a druggie prostitute) is completely inaccurate. I suppose that just calls into question how far one can go when adapting reality into fiction while still claiming it’s a true story, because in some respects it’s more interesting to follow the film’s version of Ron, who has to come to terms with a whole new world.

Read more here.


Duel (1971)

Although Duel has been analysed as a horror movie, or a Western, or a commentary on class war in America, Spielberg didn’t see it that way, regarding it as a pure Hitchcockian suspense thriller. He’s bang on the money. It’s not scary in the way a horror movie would be, and I think calling it a Western is a bit of a reach, though I can kind of see where the class war thing is coming from; but you can absolutely see the ingredients for a Hitchcock movie here.

Read more here.


Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD (2014)

Talking heads documentary about the galaxy’s greatest comic, [it] tells of the project’s birth, then the years when the US industry used the comic to scout talent, cherrypicking all its best creators. Today, it’s an influential institution that punches above its weight.

Read more here.


Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

It’s kind of hard to avoid the praise Grave of the Fireflies has attracted... It’s the third highest-rated animation on IMDb, which also places it in the top 25% of the Top 250, not to mention various other “best animated” and “great movie” lists. I mention all this because I fear the weight of expectation somewhat hampered the film for me. It’s by no means a bad film, but, despite the subject matter, it didn’t touch me to the same degree as, say, My Neighbour Totoro

Read more here.


A Royal Night Out (2015)

Gently amusing and relatively briskly paced, A Royal Night Out is lightweight and unchallenging, the definition of Heritage-ish lazy Sunday afternoon viewing. That means it will rub some viewers up the wrong way, but others will love its simple, old fashioned charms.

Read more here.


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


On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

a shadowy man drives an Aston Martin accompanied by the Bond theme. (As in we hear it — he’s not got it on the stereo.) To his surprise, he’s overtaken by a woman. A few miles down the road, he sees her car stopped by the beach, and she’s walking out to sea. He runs after her, scoops her up and carries her back to the shore. As she wakes up, we see his face for the first time — and it’s not Sean Connery! But he does say, “My name’s Bond. James Bond.” Then he has a punch-up.

Read more here.


Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

In one of the most iconic opening sequences in cinema history, three gunmen arrive at a train station and… wait for a train. For ten minutes. Ten real-time minutes, accompanied only by sounds like a squeaky windmill, a dripping water tower, and distant bird cries. Then the train arrives… and then the train leaves… and then a harmonica plays. And the action… threatens to start. Ah, Leone

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Foster
1x01 Episode 1
Finally catching up on this popular drama from last year (almost a whole year ago, in fact!) It's an interesting start, particularly to see how there's four more episodes in it.

The Great British Bake Off
7x01 Cake Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week was going to be completely devoid of new additions... until a huge sale-acquired title turned up this morning, and the following happened...

Number of titles in collection: 1,883 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 681 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,861 [up 24]
Number of films in collection: 2,075 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,422 [up 98]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

24: Live Another Day
9x12 10:00PM - 11:00AM [series finale]

Films

Duel (1971)
[#140 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

24: Live Another Day
9x10 8:00PM - 9:00PM
9x11 9:00PM - 10:00PM

Miranda
4x02 The Final Curtain [series finale; 2nd watch]

TV

24: Live Another Day
9x09 7:00PM - 8:00PM

Miranda
4x01 I Do, But to Who? [2nd watch]

The Musketeers
2x04 Emilie

The Tick
Pilot
Was underwhelmed by this, unfortunately. Will write more in the next 100 Films TV round-up.
[Watch it (again) on Amazon Prime Instant Video.]

TV

Britain’s Favourite Dogs

Films

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
[#139 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

24: Live Another Day
9x07 5:00PM - 6:00PM
9x08 6:00PM - 7:00PM

Miranda
3x06 A Brief Encounter [season finale; 2nd watch]
You know, I think Miranda is a good demonstration of why so many British sitcoms tap out after two series. That's not to say the third is bad -- there are some great bits, even whole episodes -- but at times it leans too heavily on the catchphrases, or just runs round in circles (this episode is particularly guilty of that).

Films

Deep Blue Sea (1999)
[#138 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

24: Live Another Day
9x06 4:00PM - 5:00PM

Friday Night Dinner
4x05 The Funeral
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Miranda
3x05 Three Little Words [2nd watch]

this week on 100 Films

Lots of exciting TV covered in 100 Films in a Year's monthly round-up...




3 brand-new reviews were also published this week...


The Bank Job (2008)

Inspired by a real 1971 robbery, plus a host of other issues that were in the news around that time, The Bank Job is a rich stew of fact, supposition, and wild imagination. Apparently the filmmakers claimed it was very much based on a true story, including new information from an inside source, though eventually admitted some of it (including a major character) was wholly fiction.

Read more here.


Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

it’s visually sumptuous and impressively mounted, with well-imagined semi-plausible versions of the tale’s fantastical elements. However, despite the epic length (and four screenwriters), it never gets inside characters’ heads — they’re just going through motions dictated centuries ago.

Read more here.


Scotland, Pa. (2001)

Shakespeare gets transposed to 1970s Pennsylvania in this blackly comedic reimagining of Macbeth, which converts the Thane of Glamis into a diner chef and the Scottish throne into ownership of a new concept: drive-thru.

Read more here.


And my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

The plot hinges on the romance of Claudio and Hero, and the machinations of Don John to disrupt it, but the central characters are Beatrice and Benedick and the witty verbal sparring that characterises their love-hate relationship [which] at its best, plays like a period screwball comedy.

Read more here.


Mystery Men (1999)

it’s an undervalued comedy. The ensemble cast are all perfect... the material they have to deliver is both witty and suitably silly, and it incorporates superhero tropes and references without relying on them. In the sub-subgenre of superhero comedies, all others are number two, or lower.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

24: Live Another Day
9x05 3:00PM - 4:00PM

Miranda
3x04 Je Regret Nothing [2nd watch]

Films

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
[#137 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Collection Count

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

Thanks to sales and offers from the past few weeks all turning up at once, there are six new additions this week (one of them an upgrade from a previous Blu-ray), featuring a mass of films and TV episodes.

Number of titles in collection: 1,882 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 680 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 4,837 [up 12]
Number of films in collection: 2,075 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,324 [up 16]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.