Adam Buxton's Bug
1x01 Episode One
1x02 Episode Two
Wasn't sure what I'd make of this -- Buxton can be very funny, but sometimes it just doesn't work for me -- but it's actually consistently brilliant. Shame it's buried away on Sky Atlantic.
London 2012 Olympics
Day Five
And there we go -- golds in rowing and cycling. Hurrah! Also in today's viewing: gymnastics and, as per usual, tennis and swimming -- where we got a silver too. Helps take us from 21st on the medal table last night to 11th tonight. Lovely.
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Articles
Lots to report today, so...
12 Gotham Newspaper Headlines During The Dark Knight Rises by Dan Hopper (from Jest)
and
New Alternate TDKR Poster by thefirerisesnolan (from Reddit)
Both of these are absolutely stuffed with spoilers, but if you've seen the film the newspaper headlines are funny and the poster is awesome. I'd include it below but, like I said, spoilersome. (In case you can't find it on that page (took me a bit), here's a direct link.)
BBC Two orders another series of Rev
and
Room 101 recommissioned for 13th series
(from The British Comedy Guide)
Fantastic news and pretty good news respectively, as far as I'm concerned. Just a shame Rev. won't be back until 2014 -- that's at least 18 months from now, and two-years-plus since it was last on! Madness.
The Doctor Daleks Danger!
(from Doctor Who official site)
A big new pic from the next series of Who, before a new trailer hits at 6am (8pm on the telly).
The Greatest Films of All Time 2012 by Nick James (from Sight & Sound)
and
Vertigo is named 'greatest film of all time' (from BBC News)
and
The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time (from BFI)
and
On Writing My Top Ten For ‘Sight & Sound’ by Edgar Wright (from edgar wright here)
It's the film poll, and it only happens once a decade, and here's the new top 10 -- including a new #1! I won't go into all the details, but the various links above will. Worth noting, however, that the most recent film on the list is 44 years old. Should the debate be, is this poll still relevant when it only selects such old films?
12 Gotham Newspaper Headlines During The Dark Knight Rises by Dan Hopper (from Jest)
and
New Alternate TDKR Poster by thefirerisesnolan (from Reddit)
Both of these are absolutely stuffed with spoilers, but if you've seen the film the newspaper headlines are funny and the poster is awesome. I'd include it below but, like I said, spoilersome. (In case you can't find it on that page (took me a bit), here's a direct link.)
BBC Two orders another series of Rev
and
Room 101 recommissioned for 13th series
(from The British Comedy Guide)
Fantastic news and pretty good news respectively, as far as I'm concerned. Just a shame Rev. won't be back until 2014 -- that's at least 18 months from now, and two-years-plus since it was last on! Madness.
The Doctor Daleks Danger!
(from Doctor Who official site)
A big new pic from the next series of Who, before a new trailer hits at 6am (8pm on the telly).
The Greatest Films of All Time 2012 by Nick James (from Sight & Sound)
and
Vertigo is named 'greatest film of all time' (from BBC News)
and
The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time (from BFI)
and
On Writing My Top Ten For ‘Sight & Sound’ by Edgar Wright (from edgar wright here)
It's the film poll, and it only happens once a decade, and here's the new top 10 -- including a new #1! I won't go into all the details, but the various links above will. Worth noting, however, that the most recent film on the list is 44 years old. Should the debate be, is this poll still relevant when it only selects such old films?
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
TV
How I Met Your Mother
7x23 The Magician's Code Part 1
The title had no apparent relevance to the episode and there was no it's-halfway-through-the-finale cliffhanger. What?
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]
London 2012 Olympics
Day Four
Today's viewing: mixed results in the swimming and tennis, plus (expected) disappointment in gymnastics. Still no gold medals, but that should change tomorrow. Should...
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
7x23 The Magician's Code Part 1
The title had no apparent relevance to the episode and there was no it's-halfway-through-the-finale cliffhanger. What?
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]
London 2012 Olympics
Day Four
Today's viewing: mixed results in the swimming and tennis, plus (expected) disappointment in gymnastics. Still no gold medals, but that should change tomorrow. Should...
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
Films
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 Trailer
Exciting stuff, even if they can't use the right spelling of "Knight" in the official trailer!
The Final Destination (2009)
[#61 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
Skyfall US & International Trailers
Finally, a full-length trailer for Bond 23... and we get two! Fundamentally similar, but with different shots and structure in places. Either way, looks fantastic to me. Can't wait.
Exciting stuff, even if they can't use the right spelling of "Knight" in the official trailer!
The Final Destination (2009)
[#61 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
Skyfall US & International Trailers
Finally, a full-length trailer for Bond 23... and we get two! Fundamentally similar, but with different shots and structure in places. Either way, looks fantastic to me. Can't wait.
Articles
An Olympic Fencer Refuses To Leave The Floor After Getting Screwed
by Kevin Lincoln (from BuzzFeed)
Quite a story, this. Really, you have to read it for yourself.
by Kevin Lincoln (from BuzzFeed)
Quite a story, this. Really, you have to read it for yourself.
Monday, 30 July 2012
TV
London 2012 Olympics
Day Three
Close attention to the aquatic centre today, where there was disappointment for Britain in both the diving and swimming. Good efforts by all, but no medals.
And tennis again, of course.
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
Day Three
Close attention to the aquatic centre today, where there was disappointment for Britain in both the diving and swimming. Good efforts by all, but no medals.
And tennis again, of course.
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
Articles
An unexpected journey
by Peter Jackson
Jackson announces his two-part adaptation of The Hobbit will now be a trilogy in this beautifully-written statement.
by Peter Jackson
Jackson announces his two-part adaptation of The Hobbit will now be a trilogy in this beautifully-written statement.
Sunday, 29 July 2012
TV
London 2012 Olympics
Day Two
Mainly tennis again, even if lots of it was rained off (proper Wimbledon!), but also Team GB's first medal at the end of the women's road race and some success (including Rebecca Addlington's bronze, of course) in the swimming.
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
Day Two
Mainly tennis again, even if lots of it was rained off (proper Wimbledon!), but also Team GB's first medal at the end of the women's road race and some success (including Rebecca Addlington's bronze, of course) in the swimming.
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
Comics
Batman #11 by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
The epic Court of Owls storyline comes to a close with a stonking big fight and a debrief-ish chat between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.
It's a pretty exciting finale, but the downside comes in a number of plot threads left dangling. I suppose that's the nature of serialised never-ending comics -- the Court are a great villain, but to create a truly memorable, enduring enemy in this medium, they have to be able to resurface and pose a threat again and again. That's what Snyder leaves us with here: a collection of possible answers, but none of them definite, so they can always be returned to. Not wholly satisfying, then.
The final part of backup strip The Fall of the House of Wayne (written by Snyder & James Tynion IV, drawn by Rafael Albuquerque) is also a kind of epilogue to the main story. I didn't get as much out of it as I did last issue's, again because it's deliberately inconclusive.
"Great but not perfect," might be the best summary of this ending. It'd be a great story to see on film, actually, because it's atmospheric and exciting, playing on all of Batman's various strengths as a franchise, but an adaptation would surely have the cojones to round it off, to make it a self-contained experience. It would be better for it.
The epic Court of Owls storyline comes to a close with a stonking big fight and a debrief-ish chat between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.
It's a pretty exciting finale, but the downside comes in a number of plot threads left dangling. I suppose that's the nature of serialised never-ending comics -- the Court are a great villain, but to create a truly memorable, enduring enemy in this medium, they have to be able to resurface and pose a threat again and again. That's what Snyder leaves us with here: a collection of possible answers, but none of them definite, so they can always be returned to. Not wholly satisfying, then.
The final part of backup strip The Fall of the House of Wayne (written by Snyder & James Tynion IV, drawn by Rafael Albuquerque) is also a kind of epilogue to the main story. I didn't get as much out of it as I did last issue's, again because it's deliberately inconclusive.
"Great but not perfect," might be the best summary of this ending. It'd be a great story to see on film, actually, because it's atmospheric and exciting, playing on all of Batman's various strengths as a franchise, but an adaptation would surely have the cojones to round it off, to make it a self-contained experience. It would be better for it.
this week on 100 Films
Two brand-new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
The Saint in New York (1938)
Also new-to-new-blog this week were...
M (1931)
Fritz Lang's proto-noir serial killer thriller. It's an exceptional film and I encourage you to see it wholeheartedly.
Wallander: Before the Frost and other stories
Reviews of the Swedish Wallander movies Before the Frost, Mastermind, The Secret, and The Revenge.
More next Sunday.
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
the story is built on slow suspense and mystery: who is Komoko? What happened to him? How does Macreedy know? And what does Macreedy want? Sturges happily lets this mull and build over the best part of an hour, before suddenly darting past the reveals as if they’re unimportant. I’m not saying they need to be sign-posted with dramatic camera angles, weighty overacting and thudding “dun-dun-DUN!” music, but they’re shoved in here as if they’re immaterial; a bit of bookkeeping before the all-action climax.Read more here.
The Saint in New York (1938)
As the Saint, Louis Hayward makes for an appealing hero. He’s cocksure, a James Bond character, so justifiably confident of his own abilities and plan that he has every right to believe he’ll be OK. (Indeed, this is certainly readable as a proto-Bond movie.) The downside is there’s no sense of jeopardy or danger, which I suppose is a shortcoming; but instead there’s a kind of comic inevitability to the villains believing they could ever beat the Saint.Read more here.
Also new-to-new-blog this week were...
M (1931)
Fritz Lang's proto-noir serial killer thriller. It's an exceptional film and I encourage you to see it wholeheartedly.
Wallander: Before the Frost and other stories
Reviews of the Swedish Wallander movies Before the Frost, Mastermind, The Secret, and The Revenge.
More next Sunday.
TV
London 2012 Olympics
Day One
Day One, and I've already watched more coverage than I expected! Tennis, of course, but also some of the cycling, fencing, swimming and volleyball. Discovering random stuff -- I suppose that's half the point.
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
Starlings
1x03 Episode Three
Day One
Day One, and I've already watched more coverage than I expected! Tennis, of course, but also some of the cycling, fencing, swimming and volleyball. Discovering random stuff -- I suppose that's half the point.
[Watch loads of live coverage from the BBC.]
Starlings
1x03 Episode Three
Saturday, 28 July 2012
Articles
Christopher Nolan’s goodbye letter to the Batman franchise
(from Batman-News.com)
Taken from The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Plus various articles on the Olympics...
Media reaction to London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony
(from BBC News)
A summary of media reaction from at home and abroad. I particularly like the Washington Post's thoughts:
NBC's opening ceremony mess: the top six cringeworthy moments
by Paul Harris (from the Guardian)
Sounds like the US coverage of the Olympics opening ceremony was offensively bad. Here are the low-lights.
Olympics ceremony: 27m UK viewers watched opening
(from BBC News)
Opening ceremony a celebration -- of protest and dissent
by Alex Wolff (from London 2012 at SI.com)
A good piece by a US journalist on what the ceremony really represented.
(from Batman-News.com)
Taken from The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Plus various articles on the Olympics...
Media reaction to London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony
(from BBC News)
A summary of media reaction from at home and abroad. I particularly like the Washington Post's thoughts:
If the opening ceremonies of the London Games sometimes seemed like the world's biggest inside joke, the message from Britain resonated loud and clear: We may not always be your cup of tea, but you know - and so often love - our culture nonetheless.
NBC's opening ceremony mess: the top six cringeworthy moments
by Paul Harris (from the Guardian)
Sounds like the US coverage of the Olympics opening ceremony was offensively bad. Here are the low-lights.
Olympics ceremony: 27m UK viewers watched opening
(from BBC News)
The UK's TV audience for the Olympic opening ceremony peaked at 26.9m... The average viewing figure for Friday's four-hour show was 22.4m, making it the UK's 13th most watched programme ever.
The programme also had an 82% share - almost twice that of the previous high for an Olympic opening ceremony, in Barcelona in 1992.
Opening ceremony a celebration -- of protest and dissent
by Alex Wolff (from London 2012 at SI.com)
A good piece by a US journalist on what the ceremony really represented.
Friday, 27 July 2012
TV
London 2012 Olympics
Opening Ceremony Countdown
Opening Ceremony
[Watch the countdown and ceremony (again) in HD on iPlayer.]
Parents
1x04 Episode Four
Opening Ceremony Countdown
Opening Ceremony
[Watch the countdown and ceremony (again) in HD on iPlayer.]
Parents
1x04 Episode Four
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
This week, I finally got the Doctor Who: Revisitations 3 box set (as it came down in price, briefly). I already had all of the stories in the set, so they disappear as the box set replaces them, which means a couple of numbers are down. New special features disc, and the complete Batman Beyond (cheap thanks to Amazon.com), mean a couple are up too though. Shiny.
Number of titles in collection: 1,506 [down 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,162 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 344 [no change]
Number of discs in collection: 3,734 [up 11]
Number of films in collection: 1,590 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,618 [up 52]
See you next week, faithful reader.
This week, I finally got the Doctor Who: Revisitations 3 box set (as it came down in price, briefly). I already had all of the stories in the set, so they disappear as the box set replaces them, which means a couple of numbers are down. New special features disc, and the complete Batman Beyond (cheap thanks to Amazon.com), mean a couple are up too though. Shiny.
Number of titles in collection: 1,506 [down 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,162 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 344 [no change]
Number of discs in collection: 3,734 [up 11]
Number of films in collection: 1,590 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,618 [up 52]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Thursday, 26 July 2012
TV
Absolutely Fabulous
6x03 Olympics [special]
The last of Ab Fab's three new specials. The first two were surprisingly good, but this one was pretty weak I thought. Shame.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]
The Newsroom
1x03 The 112th Congress
Suburgatory
1x02 The Barbecue
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]
Superstar
1x12 The Final [series finale]
Thank God Rory didn't win! How he made it this far is mystery enough.
Hopefully that's the end of Holden as a presenter too. Tonight's sample of her style: "Well… that's it, that. Is. It. We… have… our… performances, we are all done. All they can do now, they've done everything they can to convince you at home. They should be crowned the king of kings and… only one of them can get that dream role in Jesus Christ Superstar their fate is completely in your hands." Sigh.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]
6x03 Olympics [special]
The last of Ab Fab's three new specials. The first two were surprisingly good, but this one was pretty weak I thought. Shame.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]
The Newsroom
1x03 The 112th Congress
Suburgatory
1x02 The Barbecue
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]
Superstar
1x12 The Final [series finale]
Thank God Rory didn't win! How he made it this far is mystery enough.
Hopefully that's the end of Holden as a presenter too. Tonight's sample of her style: "Well… that's it, that. Is. It. We… have… our… performances, we are all done. All they can do now, they've done everything they can to convince you at home. They should be crowned the king of kings and… only one of them can get that dream role in Jesus Christ Superstar their fate is completely in your hands." Sigh.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
TV
Mock the Week
11x06 (19/7/12 edition) [mid-season finale]
The usual mid-series best-ofs and outtakes. Mock the Week returns in... um... The Future.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]
A Short History of Everything Else
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
Rob Rouse wasn't funny once and Grace Dent is always annoying. Bit of a damp squib for a final episode, then.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]
Superstar
1x11 The Semi-Final
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]
11x06 (19/7/12 edition) [mid-season finale]
The usual mid-series best-ofs and outtakes. Mock the Week returns in... um... The Future.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]
A Short History of Everything Else
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
Rob Rouse wasn't funny once and Grace Dent is always annoying. Bit of a damp squib for a final episode, then.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]
Superstar
1x11 The Semi-Final
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]
Articles
Box Office Curios
(from the ghost of 82)
"Huge hit" Prometheus has made $300m. "Massive flop" John Carter made $283m. Obviously there are issues of budget size in the stories of their relative success (Carter cost nearly twice as much as Prometheus, before marketing), but maybe the press (and fans) should think a little more carefully about their rhetoric.
Fifty spoiler-heavy questions for The Dark Knight Rises
(from Ultra Culture)
I calculate these questions to be precisely 26% answered by the film itself (or with a little bit of your own thought), 28% genuine things worth asking, and 46% deliberately silly. And I allowed the middle one the benefit of the doubt more than once too.
(from the ghost of 82)
"Huge hit" Prometheus has made $300m. "Massive flop" John Carter made $283m. Obviously there are issues of budget size in the stories of their relative success (Carter cost nearly twice as much as Prometheus, before marketing), but maybe the press (and fans) should think a little more carefully about their rhetoric.
Fifty spoiler-heavy questions for The Dark Knight Rises
(from Ultra Culture)
I calculate these questions to be precisely 26% answered by the film itself (or with a little bit of your own thought), 28% genuine things worth asking, and 46% deliberately silly. And I allowed the middle one the benefit of the doubt more than once too.
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
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