TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
5x05 Episode 5

The Great British Bake Off
7x06 Botanical Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Westworld (1973)
[#155 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Castle
6x15 Smells Like Teen Spirit

Films

The Saint's Return (1953)
[#154 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]
aka The Saint's Girl Friday

TV

The Musketeers
2x06 Through a Glass Darkly

TV

Castle
6x14 Dressed to Kill

Would I Lie To You?
10x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
[2nd watch]

This was #1 in 100 Films 2012.

TV

Scott & Bailey
5x02 Episode 2
5x03 Episode 3 [series finale]

Films

Mr. Turner (2014)
[#153 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

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


Badlands (1973)

"He was 25 years old. He combed his hair like James Dean. He was very fastidious. People who littered bothered him. She was 15. She took music lessons and could twirl a baton. She wasn’t very popular at school. For awhile they lived together in a tree house. In 1959, she watched while he killed a lot of people." As 60-word summaries go, that pretty fairly covers the characters, plot, and, to some degree, the film’s tone.

Read more here.


The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)

The artificially-extended Hunger Games trilogy-turned-tetralogy climaxes here. Presumably you’ve seen the first three and so know what you’re into by this point — either you’re invested or you’ve given up. Unless you want to know “does it end well?” before embarking on the whole thing, of course. While Mockingjay Part 2 is not the series’ finest instalment, it brings things to a decent head… eventually.

Read more here.


Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

the film wasn’t a success, either critically or commercially — despite casting a young, theoretically popular lead in Chris Pine, it didn’t attract the young audience needed to produce blockbuster numbers these days. I guess playing the “thriller” rather than “action” card didn’t pay off... I think the reaction has been unduly harsh, because Shadow Recruit is very effective at what it sets out to do, and is, in my view, easily the most entertaining Jack Ryan movie since at least the first

Read more here.


Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

the film is a romantic confection made up of sunny Côte d’Azur locations, pretty vintage costumes, gently witty dialogue, and quality actors gamely playing along. Colin Firth is hardly stretched as a romantic lead, but Stanley’s pompousness and sarcastic cynicism gives the role a little bite. Emma Stone’s big eyes do half the work for her, though she still gives it her all in a way that makes her character and performance endearing.

Read more here.


Ted 2 (2015)

The plot (about Ted trying to become a legally recognised person) exists to string together comedic set pieces. Perhaps that’s why the pace feels off: individual parts are funny, but it’s slow going.

Read more here.


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


Road to Perdition (2002)

On the surface it’s a revenge thriller, replete with ’30s mob style and Tommy Gun massacres, but under that is a more emotive tale about masculinity as it pertains to the father/son dynamic. It’s all handled with sensitive artistry by director Sam Mendes, supported by first-rate technical merits across the board

Read more here.


The Rock (1996)

While it functions well in Bay’s familiar wheelhouse of adrenaline-pumping action-thriller, it’s elevated by a screenplay that offers dialogue which, at times, can be witty and/or intelligent; and, most importantly, which creates sympathetic characters on both sides of the conflict. There aren’t many actioners where you can say “the writing’s the best bit”, are there?

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Scott & Bailey
5x01 Episode 1

Collection Count

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

A few week's worth of orders coalesced into the last few days, leaving me with my biggest single weekly update in... about a month. Man, I buy too much stuff.

Number of titles in collection: 1,890 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,204 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 688 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 4,881 [up 17]
Number of films in collection: 2,084 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,448 [up 27]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Castle
6x13 Limelight

The Great British Bake Off
7x05 Pastry Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Magnificent Seven (1960)
[#152 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Castle
6x12 Deep Cover

TV

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
5x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Castle
6x11 Under Fire

TV

Castle
6x09 Disciple
6x10 The Good, the Bad & the Baby

TV

Castle
6x08 A Murder is Forever

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
5x03 Episode 3

this week on 100 Films

It's the time of the month for 100 Films in a Year to look back at recent TV...




Also this week, I published 4 brand-new reviews...


American Ultra (2015)

Max Landis’ wish-fulfilment screenplay (by which I mean Max Landis’ screenplay is about fulfilling Max Landis’ wishes) sees Jesse Eisenberg as a laggard stoner who turns out to be a CIA sleeper agent with Bourne-esque abilities, which are revealed when the director of a rival CIA programme (Topher Grace) sets out to kill him and anyone who stands in their way, including girlfriend Kristen Stewart.

Read more here.


Fast & Furious 7 (2015)

the action is ridiculous and implausible. Even the stuff that doesn’t seem physically impossible is overblown. But it’s so ludicrous that the film can’t possibly be trying to claim it’s real anymore, and therefore it kind of works — they’ve committed to it. Though anyone who started out enjoying this series for its broadly-realistic car-racing thrills must be pretty disappointed in it by this point.

Read more here.


Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010)

It’s an action-fantasy movie… starring owls. It’s animated, but in a dark, realistic way (think Rango with less cartoonishness and less light). It’s based on a kids’ book series… but directed by Zack Snyder, clearly reining in his R-rated impulses (violence occurs just off screen, leading to “did that happen?” confusion)

Read more here.


Pride and Prejudice (1940)

The first adaptation of Jane Austen’s ever-popular novel, MGM’s film is a compromised endeavour: by executives softening dialogue and rewriting characters; by changing its setting to permit grander costumes; by Gone with the Wind using all the Technicolor stock, forcing the lavish production to shoot in black-and-white.

Read more here.


Finally, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 huge '80s blockbuster classics...


Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

It’s pretty much a perfect adventure movie: relentlessly paced, packed with action, lightened with humour, full of likeable heroes, who are brave and competent but also a little bit flawed, and hissable villains, with scene after scene of imaginative situations and fabulously staged derring-do.

Read more here.


Return of the Jedi (1983)

These days, the answer to the question “how did they do that?” is “CGI”. Back in the ’80s, however, they had to be a bit more creative... For example, the shot where the Imperial fleet spring their trap on the Rebels was the most complex matte shot ever attempted, with dozens of separate model elements having to be printed in.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.