Films

New Tale of Zatoichi (1963)
[#75 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Films

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
[#74 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Blindspot 2017 #5

+ the 10-minute interview with cinematographer Jack Cardiff that is the DVD's only special feature. Why is there no extras-laden Blu-ray of this classic?!

Films

The Accountant (2016)
[#73 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

TV

The Persuaders!
1x02 To the Death, Baby

Films

Underworld: Blood Wars 3D (2016)
[#72 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

+ the Blu-ray's special features, though they only amount to half-an-hour.

this week on 100 Films

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


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

A sci-fi thriller about a stealth alien invasion using human duplicates (clue’s in the title), this original film version of the oft-remade Invasion of the Body Snatchers is best not at genre-movie chills, but at evoking and commenting on paranoia and what causes it.

Read more here.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)

Here’s the first in an infrequent new series of posts, inspired by my 100 Favourites entries, which I’ll be using to plug some of the gaps in my review archive. As a good starting example, this is the only Pirates of the Caribbean film I haven’t reviewed.

Read more here.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2017)

Dead men may tell no tales, but lucrative franchises never die, so Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean has taken to the high seas once again... Despite the unusually-long six-year gap since the previous film, and all the promotional talk of this being a fresh start for the series that tonally harks back to the standalone fun of the first movie, Salazar’s Revenge (or, if you prefer, Dead Men Tell No Tales) seems doomed to repeat bits and bobs from the series’ other instalments. It’s not a complete wash-out, however, because it at least executes some of those bits quite well. Sadly, other bits are beginning to look a little tired.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
36x07 The Pyramid at the End of the World
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Kettering Incident
1x03 The Search
1x04 The Mill

Who Dares Wins
10x05 (20/5/17 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Underworld Awakening 3D (2012)
[2nd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #15

Collection Count

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

A single brand-new Blu-ray this week (it's not actually out 'til Monday -- how exciting!), plus a pair of DVD-to-BD upgrades. Also, it's that time of the month: the running time update. Hurrah!

Number of titles in collection: 1,979 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,183 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 796 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 5,049 [up 2]
Number of films: 2,185 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 7,697 [no change]
Number of short films: 559 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
373 days, 14 hours, and 44 minutes.
(Up 1 day and 2 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Elementary
5x24 Hurt Me, Hurt You [season finale]

Jamestown
1x03 Episode 3

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge (2017)
[#71 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]
aka Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

TV

The Flash
3x22 Infantino Street

TV

Grantchester
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 3D (2011)
[2nd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #14

TV

Arrow
5x21 Honor Thy Fathers

The Persuaders!
1x01 Overture
RIP Sir Roger Moore. He's brilliant in this. (The only time I've watched The Persuaders before: after Tony Curtis died. So that's kinda depressing.)

Twin Peaks
3x03 The Return Part 3
3x04 The Return Part 4
I was going to try to space these out, but they're too good! And now I have to wait a fortnight for more...

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
4x07 Episode 7 [season finale]

Jamestown
1x02 Episode 2

Twin Peaks
3x01 The Return Part 1
3x02 The Return Part 2

TV

The Flash
3x21 Cause and Effect

The Kettering Incident
1x02 The Lights

Films

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
[3rd watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #13

Dead Man's Chest may have improved with age (or I've softened to it), but I'm not sure At World's End has. There are some brilliant scenes and bits, really great sequences, but it's far too long, with an overly complicated plot that drags in the middle. I still enjoyed it, but I'd've enjoyed it more if it was half-an-hour shorter.

Fiction

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Pages 273-362 [the end]
Ready for later this evening now...

this week on 100 Films

It's the time of the month when 100 Films in a Year looks back at what I've been watching on TV...





As well as that, there were 4 brand-new reviews...


Alien: Covenant (2017)

if you put Prometheus, Aliens (as opposed to Alien), Blade Runner (yep), and Frankenstein into a blender, then poured the resulting mixture into a novelty tie-in glass from the Star Wars prequels, you’d get Alien: Covenant. Weirdly, it’s the Prometheus stuff in that blend that tastes finer than the Aliens stuff. In fairness, that’s because it’s complemented by the notes of Blade Runner and Frankenstein.

Read more here.


Twin Peaks: Pilot (International Version) (1990)

When judged as a standalone movie, Twin Peaks is a disaster. After an hour-and-a-half of sheer quality, we reach the 19-minute tacked-on ending. This climax is rushed, simplistic, and refuses to touch on the vast majority of the episode’s subplots. I mean, of course it doesn’t — it was a rush job at the end of production to fill a contractual requirement. It wraps up the Laura Palmer case as quickly and perfunctorily as it can, then Lynch basically says a humungous “eff you” to the notion of having to do a movie version by bunging in a nonsensical dream sequence.

Read more here.


Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was not a success. For fans of the TV programme, it was a story about events they already knew, rather than a resolution to the series’ cliffhanger. For non-fans, it didn’t seem to stand alone in the way a ‘proper’ movie should. [It] went down as a poorly-regarded failure, unquestionably one of Lynch’s worst films. Well, opinions change. Nowadays you’re just as likely to see someone contend that Fire Walk with Me is the pinnacle of Lynch’s career as you are to see someone express the view it’s his nadir; perhaps even more likely. From what I can gather, a quarter-of-a-century’s distance has allowed people to become more understanding about what it was Lynch was actually trying to achieve with the film

Read more here.


Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014)

As you’d expect from a deleted scenes section, but in opposition to what some people claim about it, The Missing Pieces is a collection of just that — pieces; fragments divorced from their whole. It’s definitely an experience aimed squarely at fans, then, but that doesn’t mean it’s not one worth taking for the initiated.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.