TV

Castle
2x03 Inventing the Girl
Don't know what they showed on TV on Friday, and only episode two is on Demand 5 online, but this was the episode available in HD on Virgin Media catch-up. Both two and three are there in SD. Weird. I doubt they'll put up episode two in HD now, or next week, so SD it will be.
[Watch episode two, The Double Down, (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

The Lady Eve (1941)
[#25 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
[#24 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

Action Comics #5 & #6 by Grant Morrison & Andy Kubert

Morrison takes a break from the ongoing Action Comics storyline (I believe while regular artist Rags Morales catches up) to tell a two-part tale about a future Superman saving something or other and blah blah blah. This is a great example of why comic book readership struggles to broaden: it's thoroughly wrapped up in ancient continuity and characters you know nothing about who are treated as if they're intimately familiar. The opening section of #5, picking up on a thread from #3 to finish the tale of baby Superman being sent out from a destructing Krypton, is the best bit.

Also: two short back-up strips written by Sholly Fisch and drawn by ChrisCross. The first, Baby Steps, shows the Jonathan and Martha Kent as they try for a baby in the run up to finding one in a crashed spaceship. It's quite good. The second, Last Day, is about Clark Kent's last day in Smallville before heading off to college. Aside from horrid art, it's fine.

this week on 100 Films

As I mentioned, this past week has seen 100 Films in a Year turn five years old. To celebrate the occasion, I've run a series of posts looking back at some key films from the past five years.

So no reviews this week, but instead you can read some lists. See if you can guess to what these quotes refer...

The 5 Worst Films

It’s not just bad, it’s impressively bad — how do you make a film this shoddy? Of course there always has and always will be bad writing, bad acting, bad directing, but how do you create something with so little awareness of how to tell a story? It baffles me.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

The 5 Most Overrated Films

I didn’t really get either of them. I don’t think they’re bad films, but I struggled to get what they were for, and I certainly didn’t like or enjoy either... Maybe I need to take the time to re-evaluate them, but I’ve already seen one of them two or three times and I’m not sure I can face it again.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

The 5 Most Underrated Films

There are many films Scorsese is praised for, and deservedly so, but having watched Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and more in the past five years, I think this is my favourite... apparently “Scorsese has called De Niro’s role… his favorite of their collaborations.” What better endorsement?

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

The 5 Best Films

So influential its name has become an adjective... There are many imitators, but few have done it with such conviction. Add beautiful cinematography, music and performances and you have a masterpiece.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

My 5 Favourite Films

I haven’t seen this since the cinema, so maybe there’s a degree of nostalgia in my love for it. Or maybe it’s just a great action-thriller... At the time I asserted it was one of the greatest films ever made, and IMDb’s Top 250 continues to bear that out: it’s currently 8th.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

And finally, a little different...

7x7 Link Award

here’s something I was kindly awarded by Colin of Riding the High Country... [I must nominate] one of my posts that I personally think best fits the following categories: Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, Most Pride-worthy Piece

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

And that's that. Normal service resumes next Sunday.

TV

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
5x07 (25/2/12 edition)
Including a list of the 100 highest-grossing films since the year 2000. Grand, what fun! Except whoever their idiot researcher has managed to include all of the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels twice. Seriously. And that didn't make 103 possible answers -- they left three out in order to inaccurately include Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 alongside Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. What bloody idiots. I think I might complain.
You wouldn't get that on Pointless.

Pointless Celebrities
2x02 (3/3/12 edition)
With Brian Blessed! Love Brian Blessed.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Stella
1x08 Episode 8

Top Gear
18x05 (26/2/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

The Graham Norton Show
10x16 (17/2/12 edition)
Despite only seeing him on Jonathan Ross last week (in real life they were four weeks apart, but I'm different amounts behind on both), Daniel Radcliffe was completely unrepetitious. That's some good guesting.

Let's Dance for Sport Relief 2012
Episode 2 (of 5)
"Iain, you've been on that very stage, who could forget that incredible performance?" Me.
Honestly, I have no idea what he did. I didn't even recall he'd been on, and now they come to mention it I kind of remember he was. But I've not got the foggiest what he did. I could probably look it up somewhere, but as they've chosen not to tell us, I can't be bothered.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

My Life in Books
2x03 Anna Chancellor and Nicky Haslam
2x04 Tim Rice and Russell Grant
2x05 Pam Ayres and Don Warrington
[Watch all three episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Room 101: Extra Storage
12x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Couple of small boosts this week, not all that exciting.

Number of titles in collection: 1,457 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,150 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 307 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,607 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,546 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,439 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

House
8x12 Chase
After episodes last season (or was it the one before?) focussing on Cuddy and Wilson, now it's the turn of one of House's few remaining original cast members. (Have they done one about Foreman? I forget.)

My Life in Books
2x02 Natascha McElhone and Chris Hollins
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
6x14 (1/3/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Roger & Val Have Just Got In
2x04 Pam's Collage
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Music

Lungs by Florence + the Machine
Well, here's one I should've gotten round to years ago. But I didn't. It was good.

TV

10 O'Clock Live
2x03 (22/2/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Mad Bad Ad Show
1x02 Episode 2
So after Episode 1 was episode-2, Episode 2 is episode-6. What?
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Pointless
6x13 (29/2/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
[#23 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

TV

Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask
1x04 Episode 4
With a daily quiz show, plus its new Saturday night version, and this panel show, plus the odd guest appearance elsewhere, there does seem to be a lot of Mr Armstrong -- Xander to friends -- around at the moment. Which is surprisingly unirritating.

The Mentalist
4x14 At First Blush
Well, that that was going there is no surprise. But I shall say no more for the sake of any readers watching it on Channel 5.
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 23rd March. Probably.]

Pointless
6x12 (28/2/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The 84th Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars, obviously. As usual (I've done it for a couple of years now), I got Sky Movies to watch this... and lots of on-demand movies for a month. Yay!
Anyway, the ceremony itself... was fine. Billy Crystal started weakly but got better; almost every award went where everyone thought it would; and Sky's coverage was a bit of a shambles. I presume there are very few people who know what they're talking about who'll agree to come on.

Castle
2x01 Deep in Death
It's only been six months since Channel 5 finished airing the first season of Castle, but it's such good fun it feels like a lot longer. Maybe one day we'll even catch up with the US (currently deep in season four).
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

My Life in Books
2x01 Pamela Stephenson and Alexander Armstrong
At the end of the first series I commented that some more would be nice, and lo and behold here it is! Didn't really expect that, but it's most welcome.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
6x11 (27/2/12 edition)
That's right, today's. You don't get much more caught up than that, eh.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Oscar 2012: Red Carpet Live
As per usual the actual awards begin at 1:30am over here, so here's a lot of pre-show speculation from Sky Movies' chosen presenting team. They always call it "red carpet", but there's not much of it on the Sky Premiere coverage. Thankfully, because all of that stuff's a bit dull.

Pointless Celebrities
2x01 (25/2/12 edition)
Was Penny Smith drunk?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Sum of All Fears (2002)
[#22 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Comics

Uncanny X-Men #7 by Kieron Gillen & Greg Land

Wolverine and the X-Men #6 by Jason Aaron & Nick Bradshaw
I don't really like it when X-Men goes too far with the space-y stuff -- the Earth-based sci-fi, the level pitched in all the movies, is more my kind of pace for the franchise -- but this is still a fun book overall.

Currently thinking I won't bother with the super-huge (and therefore expensive) Avengers vs X-Men event Marvel have this summer, and probably ditch the likely-central Uncanny in the process, but hopefully WatX will remain fun enough to stick with.

this week on 100 Films

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

Ip Man (2008)

I’ve decided to try something a little different. I’ve read several different reviews of the film, found by various means, and have compiled a selection of quotes from them below... the "fight choreography is clever and exciting, with sequences that have Ip felling a sword-wielding rival with a feather-duster, or holding off two men with a 10-foot pole."

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

Winnie the Pooh (2011)

The American Academy have overlooked Winnie the Pooh in their nominations this weekend, I imagine writing it off as “just for little kids”. And that’s a shame, because I don’t think it is. I certainly loved it more than Rango and it’s definitely better than Kung Fu Panda 2, to pick on the two nominees I’ve seen. I struggle to believe I’ll find Puss in Boots more endearing.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

Next week sees the fifth birthday of 100 Films, so expect a series of posts marking that august occasion. And probably no actual reviews.

TV

House
8x11 Nobody's Fault
Well that was a bloody good episode. House has definitely still got it.

The Jonathan Ross Show
2x03 (21/1/12 edition)

The Mentalist
4x13 Red is the New Black
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 16th March. Probably.]

Pointless
6x10 (24/2/12 edition)
That literature round was bleak and depressing. How can only 29 out of 100 people know JK Rowling was an author who sold over 2 million books in the '00s?! And Dan Brown at 14?! And so many famous names as pointless?! How is our nation so thick?!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Top Gear
18x04 (19/2/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Legion (2010)
[#21 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

TV

The Graham Norton Show
10x15 (10/2/12 edition)
Graham's show can suffer when he has on an older person (or foreigner) who doesn't really get it, but fortunately Dame Judi Dench is exceptionally excellent in every way and was marvellous.

Roger & Val Have Just Got In
2x03 Surprise!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Room 101: Extra Storage
12x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Stella
1x07 Episode 7

Pointless
6x09 (23/2/12 edition)
I got loads of pointlesses in that final (on films nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar). Fun fun fun!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]