TV

Doctor Who
6x18 The Invasion Episode Eight
Hm. Not sure I liked this as much as the consensus would have it. The Cybermen are barely used, there's some weird writing/editing (it just skips over stuff), some terrible music (a jaunty tune that's both irritating and bizarrely played during exciting/tense moments)... There were good bits, including the unintentionally slightly-camp pair of human villains, but still, it's no Tomb.

Gotham
1x05 Viper
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
3x10 Episode 10
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Machete (2010)
[#114 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Doctor Who
6x17 The Invasion Episode Seven

Gareth Malone's All Star Choir
Part 2 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Not Going Out
7x04 Anna
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Only Connect
Children in Need: Noggins v Curiosities
Last time I watched Only Connect, I also watched the animated X-Men's version of Days of Future Past, and today... well. That's one freaky coincidence.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
[#113 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Arrow
3x02 Sara

Doctor Who
6x16 The Invasion Episode Six

Forever
1x06 The Frustrating Thing About Psychopaths

TV

Doctor Who
6x15 The Invasion Episode Five

The Missing
Part 2 Pray for Me
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pioneers of Television
3x04 Miniseries

TV

Grantchester
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

this week on 100 Films

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


The 10th Kingdom (2000)

Said story takes place in both present-day (well, turn-of-the-millennium) New York and the fantasy world of the Nine Kingdoms... the place all our fairytales come from — the part of the narrative set there takes places “almost 200 years” after the “Golden Age”, when the events we know from stories actually happened.

Read more here.


John Dies at the End (2012)

Based on the cult novel by Cracked.com editor David Wong, John Dies at the End is a bizarre horror-fantasy that defies easy explanation or summary.

Read more here.


A Late Quartet (2012)

Set in the rarefied world of classical music performance, A Late Quartet charts the fallout among the members of a highly-acclaimed New York string quartet when their leader (Christopher Walken) announces his impending retirement.

Read more here.


Space Battleship Yamato (2010)

A live-action adaptation of the popular, influential and long-lasting anime franchise... Set in a future where Earth has been ravaged by alien assault, a nearly-defeated humanity... set off on a last-ditch mission to save mankind.

Read more here.


Plus three were new to the new blog...


Inception (2010)

about people who can get into dreams and steal ideas. Now they’re employed to get into a dream and plant an idea. This is either impossible or extremely hard, depending on which character you listen to. And that’s the setup — it’s really not as complicated as some would have you imagine.

Read more here.


The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

At times it feels like a collection of subplots linked only by the monthly book group meetings, with whichever plot thread is the focus of a scene becoming the de facto main story… until the next scene begins, of course. A working knowledge of Austen’s novels is helpful too.

Read more here.


March of the Penguins (2005)

I think March of the Penguins gained such popularity in America because they don’t have the rich history of wildlife documentaries that the BBC has bestowed upon us Brits. This is a solid documentary, but it has a narrow focus and isn’t a patch on something narrated by David Attenborough.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Detectorists
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
Lovely. More please.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
34x12 Death in Heaven [season finale]
Hm. Kind of mixed, hard to know quite what to make of it. Some properly great stuff, some very weak bits, some that might be one or might be the other. Odd indeed. Loved the ending and the mid-credits tease, though.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Monty Python's Best Bits (Mostly)
Episode 5 (of 5)

Pointless Celebrities
6x23 Writers
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

As is the way of the world, the two titles that didn't arrive last week turned up on Monday. Add a Monday new-release that arrived on Tuesday, and we have...

Number of titles in collection: 1,704 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,203 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 501 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 4,250 [up 12]
Number of films in collection: 1,841 [up 7]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,254 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 438 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Detectorists
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Extra
1x11 Dark Water
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
48x05 (31/10/2014 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Monty Python's Best Bits (Mostly)
Episode 2 (of 5)
Episode 3 (of 5)
Episode 4 (of 5)

TV

Doctor Who
6x14 The Invasion Episode Four
And the Cybermen finally turn up just in time for a cliffhanger-until-next-week. Which is kind of appropriate, really.

The Flash
1x02 Fastest Man Alive
This has some particularly brilliant examples of "we better recap episode one seamlessly in dialogue" dialogue. And by "brilliant" I mean "hilarious", and by "seamless" I mean "glaringly obvious".

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
3x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Detectorists
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
6x13 The Invasion Episode Three

Gareth Malone's All Star Choir
Part 1 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Monty Python's Best Bits (Mostly)
Episode 1 (of 5)

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
28x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Detectorists
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
6x12 The Invasion Episode Two

Gotham
1x04 Arkham
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Flirting with Disaster (1996)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Doctor Who
6x11 The Invasion Episode One
This is possibly the most blatant connection to Saturday's episode that I've done in this run of tie-in viewings, so if you don't know I'll leave you to look it up.
Also of note is that this is the first animated reconstruction of a missing episode that the DVD range ever did. I bought it on release back in 2006, to help support the notion of animating missing episodes, but this is the first time I've got round to watching it. Typical me. The animation is a little Flash-y, true, but a heckuva lot better than the mess that was The Reign of Terror.


Gilmore Girls
2x16 There's the Rub [2nd watch]


The Missing
Part 1 Eden
This was excellent. British drama often focuses on character at the expense of plot, so I was kind of expecting an hour of people moping around being miserable, but instead there was a good chunk of story, and plenty of mysteries set in motion -- which is good, because it's got to fuel another seven hours yet. If it can keep it up, it could be a future TV classic.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Woman in Green (1945)
[#111 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

TV

Arrow
3x01 The Calm

Grantchester
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
[#109 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Show Boat (1951)
[#110 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

this week on 100 Films

First up this week on 100 Films in a Year, it's a new month, meaning it's time to summarise the old one.

October's update (linked below) includes not only a list of what I watched last month, but also sections on reaching #100, reaching 900 reviews, a ponder on the best fairytale-inspired films, and more!




Before that, five brand-new reviews were published this week:


Inseparable (2011)

I’m a great advocate of tonally-mismatched films. When others are moaning that there’s too much darkness mixed in with their light fluffy film, I’m the one saying, “um, guys, have you ever lived in, y’know, real life?” Which probably explains why most of the internet reacts with anything between ambivalence and hatred towards Inseparable, whereas I really enjoyed it.

Read more here.


Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King (2014)

Set sometime after the end of Iron Man 3, we catch up with ‘villain’ Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley) to see how his prison life is going. As you might imagine from the chosen lead character, it’s primarily a comedy.

Read more here.


Spanking the Monkey (1994)

Spottily entertaining, history has rendered Spanking the Monkey merely an early curio from a now-famous director.

Read more here.


The Sweeney (2012)

Despite a mediocre pedigree and TV-scale budget, this re-imagining of the iconic ’70s cop show is a solid thriller.

Read more here.


Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)

Riffing on the “evil hillbillies” horror sub-genre, a pair of simple country folk on a fishin’ holiday encounter a gang of college kids who, through a series of unfortunate coincidences, mistake them for murderous psychos — and decide to fight back.

Read more here.


Finally, six reviews were new to the new blog...


Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

You can’t help but wonder if there’s a more faithful remake to be done, but how would that sit with those who idolise Hepburn’s take on Holly Golightly? Not well, I suspect. But faithfulness aside, in the hands of director Blake Edwards any grittiness disappears in a wave of pastel-coloured humour and frivolity.

Read more here.


Brief Encounter (1945)

a very British affair — all awkwardly repressed emotions, discussion of the weather, fear of society’s opinions, stolen passionate kisses, guilt, indecision, true love and endless cups of tea.

Read more here.


Grindhouse (2007)

a double-bill of exploitation movies, more-or-less with a horror bent, with grainy, dirty, decrepit prints that are missing shots, scenes, and even whole reels, and complete with trailers for similar films and ads for local restaurants.

Read more here.


Piglet's Big Movie (2003)

Mildly amusing at times and with a positive (if predictable) message about friendship and self-worth, this would undoubtedly entertain young children — which, to be fair, is its intended audience.

Read more here.


Traffic in Souls (1913)

Silent movie about white slavery in America. You don’t expect that from a 1913 film, eh? Of course, the issue is handled in a suitable way for the period: why the women are kidnapped is never alluded to (in reality it was for prostitution) and all the Bad Men are brought to justice.

Read more here.


Witchfinder General (1968)

what’s truly horrific is how real it is. I have no idea if the torture and execution methods are historically accurate, but the opening hanging is nasty due to the woman’s distress, the later burning tortuous because we know that, at some point in history, for whatever reason, this kind of death penalty was dolled out… If it’s horrific or scary it’s down to the threat of violence, or the cynical sadism with which people are tortured, rather than gory special effects

Read more here.


More next Sunday.