TV

Comedy World Cup
1x07 Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Cuckoo
1x05 Connie Sings
I love how all of Cuckoo's episode titles sound like they're just the two- or three-word pitch the writer gave for the episode.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Monroe
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Suburgatory
1x21 The Great Compromise

Articles

Secrets of the Olympic Opening Ceremony revealed
by James Gill (from Radio Times)

Children’s author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce was the writer of the Olympic Opening Ceremony – a key collaborator with director Danny Boyle in a madcap spectacle that captured the imagination of the world. He talks us through just how they managed it.

TV

Downton Abbey
3x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Dragons' Den
10x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Birth (2004)
[#87 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Articles

The films that time forgot
by David Thomson (from the Guardian)

"Somewhere out there is an alternative history of film – David Thomson unearths 10 lost works of genius." Including Birth, which is how I came across this list. I also happen to own two other titles from the list on DVD (well, one on BD; and the other is actually available on BD now too) -- perhaps they have become less under-appreciated in the last two years. And having read this, several others are now on my "want" list too. Sadly, despite the numerous links claiming the films are "available from Amazon", most are ridiculously-priced imports.

this week on 100 Films

First off this week, I went to see the new James Bond film, Skyfall. It's brilliant. Full spoiler-y review at a later date, but for now here are my spoiler-free initial thoughts.

Besides that, just one new review was published to 100 Films in a Year this week:


Stepping Out (1991)

Lewis Gilbert is the director of You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker... Here, he tells the tale of a small amateur dance glass, mostly populated by middle-aged women, trained by former big-stage wannabe Liza Minnelli... eclectic is an understatement!

Read more here.


There was a huge pile of reviews new to the new blog though, including the first few Saw films. I'm re-posting my reviews of all of them in the run up to Halloween, so expect the rest next week.

Note that, of the below reviews, Eragon is on Film4 at 1pm, The Simpsons Movie is on Film4 at 3pm, and Scenes of a Sexual Nature is available on BBC iPlayer until late tonight.


Choke (2008)

Choke feels like it exists in Fight Club's shadow; a low-budget adaptation of another of an author’s works after one has been a high-profile success. This is a little unfair — despite the surface similarities, the meat of the film is not an attempt at Fight Club 2 — but the similar feeling and tone it exudes can leave that impression.

Read more here.


Eragon (2006)

Eragon wants to be the next Lord of the Rings / Harry Potter / Narnia, especially with its utter lack of resolution at the end, but it just isn’t. It has its entertaining moments, but it’s also lumbered with huge lumps of bad dialogue, bad acting and fantasy clichés abound.

Read more here.


Inkheart (2008)

the biggest flaw is that it doesn’t bother to set out the rules, a major oversight in a fantasy movie. The central conceit is that when Brendan Fraser’s character reads a novel aloud, what he’s reading about enters our world — and, in exchange, something is sucked in. But how is it decided what comes out and what goes in? What can and can’t be read? Why not just write your own story to get you out of trouble?

Read more here.


Magicians (2007)

It’s biggest mistake is in casting Mitchell and Webb as two people who’ve fallen out, meaning they spend most of the film apart. They’re funny individually, and they’re each paired off with a more than capable comedy sidekick, but as this is kind of pitched as The Mitchell & Webb Movie, it doesn’t make the most of their talents.

Read more here.


Saw (2004)

Between October 2009 and October 2011, I reviewed every film in the Saw franchise. As Halloween approaches again, it seems a good time to re-post them all to my new blog -- one per day, because I've timed it cleverly. Think of it as a kind of personal last hurrah for the '00s horror staple.

So we begin with undoubtedly the best of the series -- the original.

Read more here.


Saw II (2005)

The games-playing slaughterfest returns in what I’m told is many fans’ favourite entry in the series. Maybe they’ve never seen Cube...

Read more here.


Saw III (2006)

the point at which the franchise finally tips over into the justly reviled “torture porn” category. That’s not to say it’s solely focused on its gruesome deaths — as with the previous two films, there’s a thriller-ish plot to work through as well — but Jigsaw’s traps this time round are shown in excruciating detail.

Read more here.


Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006)

a half-accurate and half-misleading title for this low-budget British comedy drama. The first half is spot on — the film’s made up of seven unconnected scenes — while the second implies it’s ruder than it is. Effectively, Scenes is seven short two-hand plays stuck together, occasionally intercut for no good reason

Read more here.


The Simpsons Movie (2007)

I’m not a big Simpsons fan, unlike many film critics it would seem — I like the show, undoubtedly, but I’ve never watched it regularly. This might explain why the movie didn’t feel tired to me, as some have described it.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Derren Brown: Apocalypse
Part One (of 2)
In which Derren takes a bit of a git and tries to make him a better person by having him live through a zombie apocalypse. A bit like that infamous, excellent bit from one of his earlier series where he made someone believe they were in a computer game, except for a whole weekend. Fun times.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Merlin
5x04 Another's Sorrow
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Suburgatory
1x20 Hear No Evil

Collection Count

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

This week's additions include a 20-film Woody Allen box set, replacing three titles I already had -- so down go the top totals, while the bottom ones jump up.

Then there's the complete Shrek series on Blu-ray, which sadly isn't quite complete -- it's missing the 3D short (thats included in the Shrek Trilogy DVD set I have) and the two TV specials, as well as several special features from previous releases. But I don't really want two Shrek box sets that are mostly duplicates, so out goes my old DVD set.

Finally, a free 3D BD copy of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I don't have a 3D BD player (or a 3D TV), but I'm banking on this working in 2D. I thought that was always the case -- releases like Hugo, for instance, are only one disc for both 3D and 2D -- but I recently got the Prometheus BD and the 3D disc just comes up with an error message. That's partly because there's a separate 2D disc... but this is specifically the 3D disc of Cloudy..., so I'm slightly concerned it will do the same. We'll see.

And the end result of all that is... higgledy-piggeldy.

Number of titles in collection: 1,496 [down 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [down 3]
Of which Blu-rays: 354 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,732 [up 16]
Number of films in collection: 1,534 [up 19]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,686 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 370 [up 3]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Elementary
1x01 Pilot
The US answer to Sherlock is, unsurprisingly, not as good. It's not a very good version of Sherlock Holmes fullstop, to be honest, as Sherlockology detailed the other day. As a US cop show it's not too bad, so there's that at least, and Jonny Lee Miller's performance is quite good. Lucy Liu seems to have all the expression Botox can buy though.

Friday Night Dinner
2x03 The Loft
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Great British Bake Off
3x11 Masterclass 1
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x02 (19/10/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Red Dwarf
10x04 Entangled

Films

Skyfall (2012)
[#86 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Read my initial thoughts on the latest James Bond movie here.

TV

Hebburn
1x01 Welcome to Hebburn, Pet
This seems to fall into some weird space between very funny and dully predictable. Perhaps it will level out over time. I also thought it felt a bit like a BBC Three Gavin & Stacey, which, considering which show started on which channel, is a bit ironic.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Hunted
1x03 Hourglass
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
1x07 Episode Seven [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Grand Designs
12x05 The Derelict Water Tower
I think I read somewhere that this was the 100th house Grand Designs has covered (in the Radio Times, in fact), which is pretty incredible really. But they didn't mention that in the programme itself, so I thought maybe it was another episode. Either way, this was a particularly stunning build/renovation, so if it was the 100th it was a very worthy one.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

3 Men and a Little Lady (1990)
[2nd watch]

Goldfinger (1964)
[5th or so watch]
I'll be reviewing this as #85a in 100 Films 2012, alongside the other '60s Bond films, at a later date. I've covered it on here before, back in November 2008.

TV

Comedy World Cup
1x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Person of Interest
1x13 Root Cause

Apparently Channel 5 stopped showing this a few episodes back, for no good reason (to reduce the gap between season one and already-started-in-the-US season two I read somewhere, but why take a break mid-season as opposed to end of season?! Bloody stupid). I accidentally switched to downloading it a little while back though, so on I plough.

As for the episode itself... having started with no on-going plot threads, here they bring an apparently-one-off guest star back and kick off a new mystery -- how many do they need now?! Which ones are season-long, which series-long, which just an episode or three? Or are they playing the Downton game of never giving the audience a clue just how long a thread will take to unfurl? Though uncommon, that does have its advantages.

Articles

Sherlockology reviews Elementary
by Sherlockology (from Site)

"Scathing" would be an understatement for this review by the Holmes fansite. I haven't watched the show yet myself (I'd've told you if I had, wouldn't I?), but these seem very well-reasoned and plausible arguments. I can certainly believe it's just any-old US crime drama with Holmesian names tacked on, because that's just what it's always looked like.

Anyway, I'll still start it soon and see what I think for myself.


Skyfall - 10 things you probably didn't know about the new James Bond movie
by David Brown (from Radio Times)

Some interesting snippets of trivia about the latest Bond adventure. Exactly half of them are about just the pre-titles sequence, mind.

TV

Cuckoo
1x04 Ken on E
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Starlings
1x05 Episode Five

Articles

The Best James Bond Novels: Ranking the Fleming Originals
by Jeff O'Neal (from Book Riot)

Quite a good overview of Fleming's 12 Bond novels (skipping the two short story collections or any of the 30 continuation novels & film novelisations), but written from a faintly annoying America perspective. If that sounds jingoistic, skip to #9 ("Bond is so attuned to European sensibilities... seeing [him] in Japan and dealing with a radically different worldview is refreshing, as he is as clueless about the custom of the country as we are in the rest of the novels") or #5 ("Strengths: Felix Leiter, Bond’s friend and opposite number in the CIA, makes the most of his biggest part in any of the novels").

I've not actually read all the novels myself so can't comment fully, but coincidentally I've read the top three and that's not the order I'd put them in.


Top 10 James Bond Opening Credit Sequences
by Rodney Twelftree (from Top 10 Films)

It's complete coincidence that these two Bond top lists have come up on the same evening. Much like the last one, I don't disagree (much, if at all) with the selection, but I would tweak the order.

TV

Dragons' Den
10x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
10x06 Joints (XL edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

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


Knight and Day (2010)

advertised as spy-action-movie spoofery, it should come as no surprise that that’s the kind of film it is... Plenty of reviews and online commenters have expressed disappointment with the film, perhaps expecting something else — sometimes it pays to listen to the advertising, eh?

Read more here.


War Horse (2011)

It might be best to define the film as an epic. It’s a relatively intimate one, focusing in on a handful of characters at a time rather than cutting back and forth between various groups, but the way it does move along several sets of characters, across varied locations, and through a lengthy stretch of time, all command a feeling of a grand story.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


The Golden Compass (2007)

[it] received quite the critical drubbing on its cinematic release, and wasn’t a huge success at the US box office either, which has cast doubt on the prospects of the following two instalments ever being produced. Which is a shame, because this is actually a fine family fantasy film.

Read more here.


Heaven Knows, Mr. Alison (1957)

The title may sound like a ’40s rom-com or a ’70s TV sitcom, but it's nothing of the sort. It’s set in the south Pacific in 1944, at the height of World War II, and begins with titular US Marine Allison (Robert Mitchum) washing up on an island that’s occupied only by a novice nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr). With no hope of rescue they must plot their own escape.

Read more here.


The King of Comedy (1983)

Underrated black comedy from the prolific partnership of director Martin Scorsese and star Robert De Niro. De Niro gives an excellent performance as an obsessive wannabe comedian, stalking the host of a popular talk show in his desperation for a guest spot. The depth of his delusion is both hilariously funny and deeply unsettling

Read more here.


Pale Rider (1985)

The mysterious stranger isn’t a gunslinger, or a do-gooder, or the new sheriff, or anything else. He is, on the one hand, a preacher — “surely a man of God is opposed to violence?”, etc. — and on the other, is he even human? Either way, it’s a bit different.

Read more here.


Snakes on a Plane (2006)

It certainly captured the imagination of online geekdom, who knew everything they wanted just from those four words and famously launched a viral marketing campaign for a film they’d not seen. Ultimately, it’s for that reason it will be remembered, because without the evocative title and the reaction it provoked this would be forgotten quicker than Samuel L. Jackson can utter his Oedipal expletive-laden catchphrase.

Read more here.


That Touch of Mink (1962)

It’s also briskly paced and constantly amusing, including some real laugh-out-loud moments. In particular, a punchline delivered by two ladies from a centre for unwed mothers was one of my favourite comedy lines for a good while. (Built as it is on a series of events, it doesn’t bear repeating in print.)

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
12x01 (19/10/12 edition)
I will finish watching the last series at some point, but it seemed to make sense to try to get back into the habit by watching the new ones.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Merlin
5x03 The Death Song of Uther Pendragon
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
9x10 (30/9/10 edition) [2nd watch]
Ah, late night Dave. See also: Not Going Out.

Not Going Out
2x06 Dating [2nd watch]
Ah, late night Dave. See also: Mock the Week.

Suburgatory
1x19 Entering Eden