Collection Count

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

There should have been loads turning up this week -- at least 13 additions, maybe even 15 or 16, which would've been record-setting (see other recent updates for more on that). The reason being that, after a couple of quiet weeks, I got suckered by an Easter sale; and there were some new releases due too.

But none that has turned up yet. Not a sausage. It's a mix of both slow dispatch and slow delivery times. Some of it is due to the current situation, but, honestly, the big load of sale items are from somewhere that's always tardy at dispatch during their sales. And as for the new releases, at least one seems to have gone AWOL, if it was even dispatched at all. So nothing's arrived this week, but I have spent an awful lot of time checking on statuses or trying to chase things...

Number of titles in collection: 2,340 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,231 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 47 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,071 [no change]
Number of films: 2,741 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [no change]
Number of short films: 707 [no change]

Of course, this does mean next week might be a banner one, if everything does finally turn up en masse. See you then, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
27x02 (17/4/20 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Avengers (1998)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #16. I think the first and last time I saw this was at the cinema in 1998, i.e. 22 years ago. I remember not disliking it, but it's got such a poor rep I expected to hate it now -- I was watching out of idle curiosity. But, turns out, I actually enjoyed it. More here.

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
[#78 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Doctor Who
4x34 The Faceless Ones Episode 4

Films

Had myself a Kathryn Bigelow double-bill for no reason...

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
[#75 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Near Dark (1987)
[#76 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

And then...

The Thin Red Line (1998)
[#77 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
As part of Blindspot 2020, a leftover from WDYMYHS 2019.

TV

Archer
6x06 Sitting
6x07 Nellis
6x08 The Kanes

TV

Doctor Who
4x33 The Faceless Ones Episode 3

Films

Dune: The Alternative Edition Redux (1984/2012)
[#73 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
I have seen Dune before, but only in its 137-minute theatrical cut form, and that was over 20 years ago. This fanedit restores a bunch of material from the extended TV cut, plus even more from some deleted scenes, and runs just shy of 3 hours. It doesn't fix all of the film's problems, but some of what it adds is definitely worthwhile. More info about it here.

Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
[#74 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Fiction

Shōgun by James Clavell
Chapter 32
I knew it'd been a little while since I read any of this, but five-and-a-half months?! Oops. And it's been a long time since I was properly, regularly reading it. No wonder I had next to no idea who some of the characters were and what's going on… I'm still less than halfway through it (page 548 of 1,211), but I do want to finish it.

Articles

Behold Dune: An Exclusive Look at Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, and More
by Anthony Breznican (from Vanity Fair)

Oh my, this looks as good as I hoped. Let's hope it's as good as it looks.

Films

Andrei Rublev (1966)
[#72 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #4

TV

Archer
6x05 Vision Quest

Doctor Who
4x32 The Faceless Ones Episode 2

Films

It Chapter Two (2019)
[#71 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

It was time for 100 Films in a Year's monthly TV roundup this week, but it was so long I wound up splitting it in two...







There was also 1 new film review this week...


Yesterday (2019)

a pleasant bit of fluff about a guy becoming famous with borrowed music while finally realising that the girl who’s wasted her life waiting for him to realise she loves him, er, loves him (Jack doesn’t deserve Lily James). Yeah, it’s mostly predictable, but that’s part of the comfort factor. There’s some good music, some likeable performances, and a general amiability to its tone.

Read more here.


And there were 2 new "Guide To"s published as well, both on the same theme...


Sean Connery as James Bond, Part 2

If everything had gone according to plan, this weekend Americans would've been flocking to cinemas to see Daniel Craig's final performance as Bond, James Bond, secret agent 007, in No Time to Die (us Brits would've all been to see it last weekend, of course). As that's not to be, here's something both entirely similar and entirely different: my reviews of Sean Connery's final performance in the role — both of them...

Neither of these films is Connery's finest hour as Bond — they're his worst hours, in fact — but, I must say, they were both better than I had remembered.

featuring Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
Lockdown: Rory's Story
Tonight's Doctor Who Lockdown watchalong was The Doctor's Wife, and to accompany it Neil Gaiman wrote a new scene starring former companion Rory (and a special guest...) Rory was one of my favourite companions, so it's lovely to see him again.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

Films

Never Too Young to Die (1986)
[#70 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

This week's big news: I bought a DVD! Can't remember the last time I bought a DVD. But then the increase was immediately cancelled out by upgrading another DVD. Hey-ho.

Number of titles in collection: 2,340 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,109 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,231 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 47 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,071 [up 2]
Number of films: 2,741 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 8,807 [no change]
Number of short films: 707 [up 7]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Doctor Who
4x31 The Faceless Ones Episode 1
On to the next animated classic serial.

The Graham Norton Show
27x01 (10/4/20 edition)
I don't normally watch Graham anymore, but I wanted to see what the lockdown version was like. Turns out, pretty entertaining.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Archer
6x01 The Holdout
6x02 Three to Tango
6x03 The Archer Sanction
6x04 Edie's Wedding
After I finally got round to Archer season 5 over four years after I watched season 4, I figured I'd quite quickly carry on and catch up... but it's been almost two years. Oops. I did give season 5 high scores on IMDb, but in my 100 Films reviews (here and here) I commented that I thought it wasn’t as good as it used to be, which explains why it's taken me so long to get round to continuing. Well, maybe season 6 was a return to form, because I watched all four of these episodes in one sitting purely because I was enjoying it so much.

Red Dwarf
13x01 The Promised Land [special]
[Watch it (again) on UKTV Play.]

Films

The Devil's Harmony (2019)
[#68a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Watch it on Short of the Week.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
[#68 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Next Karate Kid (1994)
[#69 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]