Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,885 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 683 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,863 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 2,076 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,421 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Are You Being Served?
You Can't Teach a New Dog Old Tricks [2016 special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Castle
6x05 Time Will Tell

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

One of Us
Part 1 The Storm
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
6x04 Number One Fan

The Great British Bake Off
7x03 Bread Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Midnight Special (2016)
[#145 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
5x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Films

Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[2nd watch]

This was #18 in 100 Films 2010.

TV

Doctor Foster
1x05 Episode 5 [season finale]

John Bishop: In Conversation With...
1x01 James Corden

Films

Spotlight (2015)
[#144 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

2016 entered yet another new month this past week, meaning it was time to look back at August on 100 Films in a Year...




As well as that, only 2 brand-new reviews were published this week... but one of them was an epic...


The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)

100 Films in a Year #1000 — Written, directed, and narrated by film journalist/historian/fan Mark Cousins, The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an epic 15-hour account of innovation throughout the history of moviemaking, which began its premiere broadcast five years ago today. It’s an acclaimed work, to be sure, but one that also attracts its fair share of controversy — about films and filmmakers that Cousins chose to leave out, in some cases about those he chose to include, and about how the documentary itself was made: the oddly framed interviews, the artistic shots of baubles, Cousins’ accent and vocal inflections.

Read more here.


Zoolander (2001)

The story of an almost-past-it model who’s brainwashed into being an assassin, it’s essentially a one joke film (“aren’t models dumb?”), but gets surprisingly good mileage out of that. Not relentlessly amusing, nor the best thing on anyone’s CV, but some bits are very funny.

Read more here.


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


One Hour Photo (2002)

“Family photos depict smiling faces… births, weddings, holidays, children’s birthday parties. People take pictures of the happy moments in their lives. Someone looking through our photo album would conclude that we had led a joyous, leisurely existence free of tragedy. No one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget.”

Read more here.


Phone Booth (2002)

Regular readers will know of my fondness for the single-location thriller, and this is one of the films that helped define that love. And events occur in real-time, which is just a bonus. Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland are both on excellent form as the hostage who maybe has it coming and the hostage taker who maybe has a point.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
6x03 Need to Know

Doctor Foster
1x04 Episode 4

Collection Count

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

One new title this week, and a couple of tweaks on numbers that I must've got wrong somewhere. Hey-ho.

On the bright side: running time update! Yay!

Number of titles in collection: 1,884 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 682 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,862 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 2,075 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,421 [down 1]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
357 days, 19 hours, and 22 minutes.
(Up 4 days, 4 hours, and 53 minutes from last month.)

That's the biggest running time increase in six months, which was also caused by adding a complete TV series -- a slightly longer once, hence being slightly bigger!

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Ben-Hur (1959)
[#143 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2016 #9

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
5x01 Episode 1
Seems I accidentally missed a whole series of this back in April & May. Hey-ho.

The Great British Bake Off
7x02 Biscuit Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Foster
1x03 Episode 3

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.