Tuesday, 2 July 2019

TV

Glastonbury 2019
Kylie Minogue
Well, the Sunday afternoon BBC One show was billed as Kyle, but it began with Jeff Goldblum and ended with a fair old chunk of Miley Cyrus, so them too.
[Watch these sets, and many more (again), on iPlayer.]

Films

Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1971)
[#99 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Sunday, 30 June 2019

TV

Glastonbury 2019
Sigrid
The Cure
Plus bits & bobs of all sorts of other stuff, mainly based on what the Beeb decided to pad their main-channel shows with, but I did dip into Kylie’s set a few times.
[Watch these sets, and many more (again), on iPlayer.]

Films

Shaft (2019)
[#98 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

this week on 100 Films

Time for a TV review this week at 100 Films in a Year...





Plus, 3 new films reviews...


Shaft (2000)
This is almost 20 years old now (obviously), and yet all the white privilege bullshit that drives its story makes it feel like it could’ve been made yesterday. (Why are you so enable to evolve societally, America?) Other than that apparently-eternal timeliness, it’s a pretty standard kinda thriller, with most of its charm coming via an array of likeable performances.
Read more here.


Stalker (1979)
Described by the blurb on its Criterion Collection Blu-ray release as “a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic post-apocalyptic landscape”, Stalker is… probably that… I guess…?
Read more here.


True Romance (1993)
Directed by Tony Scott from Quentin Tarantino’s first screenplay, this is pretty much everything you’d expect from an early Quentin Tarantino screenplay directed by Tony Scott... I’m a fan of both men’s work, so of course it was up my alley. I don’t think it’s the best from either of them, but mixing together the distinct styles of two such trend-setting iconoclasts does produce a unique blend.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 29 June 2019

TV

Glastonbury 2019
The Killers
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

As mentioned last week, there are a few more additions this week (3 releases with 9 feature films across 12 discs, plus 1 BD-to-UHD upgrade that added 1 disc), just in time for the monthly running time update.

Number of titles in collection: 2,238 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,132 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,106 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 30 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,814 [up 13]
Number of films: 2,569 [up 9]
Number of TV episodes: 8,609 [no change]
Number of short films: 671 [up 2]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
426 days, 7 hours, and 59 minutes.
(Up 4 days, 17 hours, and 7 minutes from last month.)

That's my biggest monthly increase this year by far... although there were a couple even bigger in 2018, never mind in previous years, so it's not one for the all-time record books.

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 28 June 2019

TV

Glastonbury 2019
Stormzy
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Summer of Rockets
Part 5 (of 6)
[Watch the entire series (again) on iPlayer.]

Wednesday, 26 June 2019

TV

Summer of Rockets
Part 3 (of 6)
Part 4 (of 6)
[Watch the entire series (again) on iPlayer.]

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

TV

Summer of Rockets
Part 1 (of 6)
Part 2 (of 6)
[Watch the entire series (again) on iPlayer.]

Monday, 24 June 2019

TV

Beecham House
1x01 Episode 1
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch episodes one and two (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Sunday, 23 June 2019

TV

The Truth About...
Getting Fit
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

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


The Happytime Murders (2018)
there are some legitimately funny bits along the way, often found among the riffs on the puppet thing (for example: one of the victims is drowned, and before bagging the body they ring him out). Unfortunately it isn’t funny as often as it should be, too often relying on worn or lacklustre humour. I mean, it tries to run with the old playground favourite “idiots say what?” as a running gag. It also leans on puppets being lewd and crude as the extent of the gag, which simply isn’t that funny in itself, partly because it isn’t as original as the film seems to think it is.
Read more here.


Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)
Before Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle there was Zathura, which is sort of a sequel to Jumanji… but more of a spin-off, I guess… well, really it’s a completely unrelated movie with the exact same plot... But this game is about space, so it’s completely different, obviously... I did enjoy it — in some respects, more than I enjoyed Jumanji when I rewatched that recently — but it also doesn’t feel as polished and complete as its predecessor
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 22 June 2019

Opera

La damnation de Faust
at Glyndebourne

Collection Count

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

Only one new addition this week, but there are already several box sets in the post and more releases due to dispatch imminently, so there should be a bump next week just in time for the monthly running time update.

Number of titles in collection: 2,235 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,132 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,103 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 29 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,801 [up 1]
Number of films: 2,560 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 8,609 [no change]
Number of short films: 669 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 21 June 2019

TV

The Graham Norton Show
25x12 (21/6/19 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

CGI art with a heart: How Toy Story started a revolution in cinema
by Robbie Collin (from the Telegraph)

A good reminder of the impact and importance of the original Toy Story.

Thursday, 20 June 2019

TV

Have I Got News For You
57x09 (31/5/2019 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Killing Eve
2x06 I Hope You Like Missionary!
2x07 Wide Awake
2x08 You're Mine [season finale]
[Watch every episode (again) on iPlayer.]

Wednesday, 19 June 2019

TV

Killing Eve
2x04 Desperate Times
2x05 Smell Ya Later
[Watch every episode (again) on iPlayer.]

Tuesday, 18 June 2019

TV

Killing Eve
2x02 Nice and Neat
2x03 The Hungry Caterpillar
[Watch every episode (again) on iPlayer.]