Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman (2006)
[#82 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
The Secret Life of Pets 2 3D (2019)
[#81 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Monday, 20 April 2020
Sunday, 19 April 2020
TV
Quiz
Part 1 (of 3)
Part 2 (of 3)
Part 3 (of 3)
I didn't necessarily intend to watch it all in one sitting, but it was so good.
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]
The Sarah Jane Adventures
6x00 Farewell, Sarah Jane [special]
A touching little video, written by Russell T Davies and featuring a host of cameos, to mark the anniversary of Lis Sladen's death.
[Watch it (again) on the YouTube.]
Part 1 (of 3)
Part 2 (of 3)
Part 3 (of 3)
I didn't necessarily intend to watch it all in one sitting, but it was so good.
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]
The Sarah Jane Adventures
6x00 Farewell, Sarah Jane [special]
A touching little video, written by Russell T Davies and featuring a host of cameos, to mark the anniversary of Lis Sladen's death.
[Watch it (again) on the YouTube.]
this week on 100 Films
6 new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...
The 100-Week Roundup II
The Avengers (1998)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D (1991/2017)
More next Sunday.
The 100-Week Roundup II
including...Read more here.
Laura
Jigsaw
and
Inferno in 3D
The Avengers (1998)
much to my surprise, I kind of loved it... the film embraces the mannered, quirky tone of the TV series, then turns it up to eleven. Personally I think it’s a tonne of fun, with arch performances, ripe dialogue, and a deliciously camp air. If it wasn’t for WB’s post-production fiddling, which has left the plot feeling a bit janky and spasmodic, I reckon this would be a cult classic by now.Read more here.
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Some people criticised Homecoming for having too much Iron Man and going too far in making Spider-Man into Iron Man Jr. I felt they got the balance about right, all things considered — it’s not very true to comic book canon, but, as the third big-screen iteration of Spidey in the modern era, it made a reasonable change. Far from Home is where it becomes overpowering. It has to lean heavily on the overall continuity of the MCU, which means all the business of The Blip (as what we call The Snap is called in-universe) and Iron Man’s death is front-loaded into the movie. The former is waived away as quickly as they can; the latter weighs heavy on the entire rest of the plot.Read more here.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D (1991/2017)
As you might expect from a genuine 3D advocate like Cameron, a lot of the effect is quite subtle — it’s aiming for realistic spacing, not an in-your-face exaggeration of depth. That kind of subtlety is arguably a reason a lot of people feel 3D adds little [but] Put a good subtle-3D shot against its 2D counterpart and suddenly you’re aware of the natural awareness of shape and depth the extra dimension is adding. [T2] does have moments that I think demonstrate that kind of effect. And, at other times, the 3D is much more obvious; mostly during big action set pieces, as you’d expect.Read more here.
More next Sunday.
Saturday, 18 April 2020
Films
The Rock (1996)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #17
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
[#79 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the audio commentary by co-writer Mark Rosenthal. I don’t very often listen to audio commentaries, so why I did this one, of all films, I don’t really know. But here we are. It was moderately interesting.
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #17
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
[#79 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the audio commentary by co-writer Mark Rosenthal. I don’t very often listen to audio commentaries, so why I did this one, of all films, I don’t really know. But here we are. It was moderately interesting.
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.
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.
Friday, 17 April 2020
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]
[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]
Thursday, 16 April 2020
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.
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.
Tuesday, 14 April 2020
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]
[#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.
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.
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.
Monday, 13 April 2020
Sunday, 12 April 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)
And there were 2 new "Guide To"s published as well, both on the same theme...
Sean Connery as James Bond, Part 2
More next Sunday.
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...Read more here.
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
More next Sunday.
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