TV

The 87th Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars, of course. A mixed bag of the predictable and the perhaps-not-worthy, with some fantastic acceptance speeches.

Castle
4x23 Always [season finale]
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 1st April.]

Two Tribes
2x05 (20/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
4x22 Undead Again
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 25th March.]

The Great Comic Relief Bake Off
2x02 Episode 2 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]


And of a similar theme...

Film 2015
Episode 6 (18/2/15 edition)
Discussing the Oscar nominations.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Oscar 2015 Nominations Special
Discussing the Oscar nominations.

Oscar 2015: Red Carpet Live
I'm still watching as this is posted, but I bet they're discussing the Oscar nominations.

this week on 100 Films

A whopping seven brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, including a previous Oscar Best Picture winner, and one of the frontrunners for this year's awards...


12 Angry Men (1957)

the outcome rarely seems certain, each victory hard won, so that the film holds you rapt, desperate for sense and reason to prevail. There are moments of tension which may literally push you to the edge of your seat; moments of exultant success which may elicit an exclamation of approval similar to a point scored in a sports match.

Read more here.


2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

This is the first in an occasional series in which I revisit films that are highly acclaimed but I didn’t enjoy first time round... let me begin with a point of clarification: I don’t remember when I first saw 2001, but I was very young, and most likely looking for SF films in the vein of others I’d enjoyed, like, say, Star Wars. I think we can all agree that 2001 is not like Star Wars.

Read more here.


Argo (Extended Cut) (2012/2013)

Hollywood loves a look at itself, and here it’s both satirical (“So you want to come to Hollywood, act like a big shot, without actually doing anything? You’ll fit right in!”) and congratulatory — after all, the plan goes ahead and so (spoilers) Hollywood saves the day. The film creates just the right balance between taking the mick out of Hollywood and bigging-up its role in saving some lives, while also not spending too long on this section that we forget the perilous situation on the other side of the world.

Read more here.


Boyhood (2014)

writer-director Richard Linklater strives to keep things almost unrelentingly normal. Okay, there are abusive relationships — things get a little extreme with her second husband — but even that doesn’t go as far as it could have. No one gets in a shocking accident or develops a fatal illess or dies suddenly; no one is seriously bullied or mugged; no one is arrested or imprisoned; no one is made homeless; no one gets pregnant… the list could go on. Every time you second guess that — every time you think, “oh now we’re going to have something big” — the film just rolls on with normality. Just like real life does, in fact.

Read more here.


Last Action Hero (1993)

a spoof of action-thrillers, albeit with a real-world framing device instead of just leaping in Airplane-style... the film is most alive in the first and third acts, when the two worlds initially collide and, later, when the fictional characters enter our world only to find that not everything’s the same as in the movies.

Read more here.


The Lego Movie (2014)

Despite looking like a 100-minute toy commercial with an irritating theme song, plus a moral message about nonconformity that seems like it’ll get bungled (but doesn’t), The Lego Movie is so much more — and better — than that.

Read more here.


The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)

For my money, unquestionably the series’ weakest entry so far, though others disagree — some even reckon it their favourite. The charm and banter between Powell and Loy is present and correct, though... and there are some good Asta bits.

Read more here.


The Oscars-related fun continues in all of this week's seven archive repost reviews: every one of them is a Best Picture winner...


Annie Hall (1977)

One might call it a romantic comedy, but it’s very much an indie comedy-drama (for one thing, it utilises the ever-popular tactic of not taking place in chronological order), rather than the mainstream cliché-fest that first springs to mind whenever “rom-com” is mentioned.

Read more here.


The Apartment (1960)

Wilder employs long scenes and long takes, but Lemmon never stops bustling through them, always doing something, keeping the film active and moving even when Wilder declines to follow. It's the latter that makes the former so effective, rendering Lemmon's character the odd one in an otherwise static world

Read more here.


Chicago (2002)

In its favour are a number of memorable songs, all performed with impressive routines. On the downside, they’re all quite stagey in their choreography, though this suits the daydream-fantasy style in which they come about.

Read more here.


Crash: Director's Cut (2004)

I'll take any chance I can get to go on about how this is a much better and more Oscar-deserving piece than a certain overrated film about gay cowboys. In my opinion this is a film that should be seen, not necessarily for its message, but for its quality in terms of performance, direction, etc.

Read more here.


Gone with the Wind (1939)

The direction is brilliant, displaying styles you think weren’t invented for another 20 years; all of the design work is gorgeous; and the story is epic and expertly told, moving across genres (romance, war, melodrama, comedy) with ease.

Read more here.


Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

The acting is what shines in this multiple-Oscar-winning custody drama... I personally didn’t find the later courtroom scenes quite as edge-of-your-seat intense as some have, but you can’t fault the abilities of the actors.

Read more here.


Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Everything that claims it’s a “feel-good film” is being slightly disingenuous. It has a happy ending, but until those closing moments it’s unrelentingly grim. Realistic, I’m certain, and depressingly so, but it seems designed for anything but making you feel good.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x06 Jake and Sophia
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Two Tribes
2x04 (19/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
4x07 The Blind Auditions 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Big Hero 6 (2014)
[#28 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Feast (2014)
[#28a in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Excellent short, which screened before Big Hero 6 in cinemas and is on its Blu-ray release (and DVD too, probably). Also up for an Oscar this weekend.

Collection Count

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

This week, four new additions boost almost every stat (no new DVDs, though one BD has a DVD copy, so, y'know). It's also time for the monthly running time count, so it really is an update-tastic edition.

Number of titles in collection: 1,739 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 531 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 4,341 [up 9]
Number of films in collection: 1,876 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,474 [up 10]
Number of short films in collection: 442 [up 2]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
313 days, 19 hours, and 13 minutes.
(Up 23 hours and 37 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Broadchurch
2x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Castle
4x21 Headhunters
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 18th March.]

Room 101
15x06 Episode 6

Two Tribes
2x03 (18/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Boyhood (2014)
[#27 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Death in Paradise
4x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Two Tribes
2x02 (17/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Toy Story That Time Forgot (2014)
[#26b in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

The latest Toy Story short/TV special, released just before Christmas, is sadly disappointing.

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x07 You Can Face Time or You Can Face This
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Two Tribes
2x01 (16/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wolf Hall
Part 3 Anna Regina
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Arrow
3x10 Left Behind
Olly meets up with everyone exactly five years later, doesn't he? Funny that...

Castle
4x20 The Limey
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 11th March.]

The Last Leg
6x06 (13/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
[#26a in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
[3rd watch]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
8x06 (13/2/15 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Castle
4x19 47 Seconds
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 4th March.]

Broadchurch
2x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Castle
4x18 A Dance with Death
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Wednesday 25th February.]

The Mentalist
7x01 Nothing But Blue Skies
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Time Lapse (2014)
[#25 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

What We Did on Our Holiday (2014)
[#26 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

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


Byzantium (2012)

The most effective part of the movie isn’t so much its plot or its mythology, though, but its atmosphere. Vampire movies take place in castles or drawing rooms, or high schools in more modern iterations. They are grand and sensuous. Any glamour in Byzantium is discarded and decrepit, like the titular hotel that Clara reshapes as a whorehouse; faded and left to ruin.

Read more here.


Knights of Badassdom (2013)

perhaps best known for its behind-the-scenes wrangles, which saw it taken out of director Joe Lynch’s hands and re-edited... by the time it was released Stateside in early 2014, reception was poor. A lot of this was put down to it not being Lynch’s cut, but I disagree for two reasons: one, I thought this version was good fun; and two, based on what I’ve read, I’m not convinced Lynch’s preferred cut would help any of the elements that might need helping.

Read more here.


The Last Days on Mars (2013)

it plays a bit like an R-rated, traditional-zombie-emphasised remake of Doctor Who adventure The Waters of Mars... the award-winning Who episode concerns the first manned mission to Mars battling a previously-undiscovered alien menace that mysteriously turns them into zombie-like creatures and prevents them leaving the planet. And the similarities go further than that

Read more here.


Series 7: The Contenders (2001)

Another entry in the Battle Royale, etc. subgenre, it sees six randomly-selected people forced by law to participate in a kill-or-be-killed reality TV contest. More grounded than most of its genre compatriots thanks to its filler-TV visual aesthetic and middle-America setting

Read more here.


Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)

As incidental as the case may be, it’s a pretty good one — the solution to the jockey’s murder is a particularly neat change of pace, and while the culprit is deducible using the series’ regular “the least-likely person did it for a reason we’ll cook up at the end” formula, if you play by the rules it’s a trickier spot.

Read more here.


Plus seven archive reviews were reposted, including two past Oscar Best Picture winners -- all of the coming week's reposts will be past winners, in honour of next weekend's ceremony.


An American in Paris (1951)

it’s got a Gershwin score, and I always like that; particularly memorable is I Got Rhythm being performed by Gene Kelly and a group of young kids who can’t speak English. It’s a different take on a familiar number that’s thoroughly entertaining.

Read more here.


The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

The most striking thing about the film is that, for about the first 40 minutes, it takes place almost entirely within the head of Jean-Do... From the opening shot we literally see through his his eyes, blurry and limited as that is, and hear his thoughts, which brings us a lot closer to him than any character in the film can be... Jean-Do’s situation is obviously far from everyday, so this device makes for a highly effective — and, indeed, affective — form of identification.

Read more here.


The Met Ball (2010)

Depending on your level of generosity, this could be described facetiously as either “The September Issue 2” or “a deleted scene from The September Issue”. It’s sort of both.

Read more here.


Secretary (2002)

attempts to depict a realistic and sympathetic dominant/submissive relationship. Unfortunately this seems to come a bit unstuck with the feeling that the relationship is initially based in an emotionally (and physically) abusive act against a clearly vulnerable character

Read more here.


The September Issue (2009)

surprisingly enjoyable. Is it illuminating? I’m not sure, though some bits are occasionally fascinating — director R.J. Cutler’s handful of interview snippets with Wintour are well-chosen; brief but potentially revealing, even as she does her best to given nothing away.

Read more here.


Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

often listed as the first Film Noir [yet] so imbued with the recognisable calling cards of noir in its cinematography, characters and plot points that it feels more like an entry in a well-established genre than a formative inclusion.

Read more here.


West Side Story (1961)

underneath the song and dance numbers (some impressive, some embarrassing), the Shakespearian romance story, and the vibrant and beautiful cinematography, beats the heart of a gritty, political, social drama about gangs, racism, immigration, and more

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Great Comic Relief Bake Off
2x01 Episode 1 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
4x06 The Blind Auditions 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Hairspray (2007)
[3rd watch]
This was #53 in 100 Films 2008 and is reviewed here.
It's the 3rd time I've watched it, 3 years and 3 months since the last time, which was 3 years and 3 months after the first time.

Tropic Thunder: Director's Cut (2008)
[#24 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,735 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 527 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,332 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,873 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,464 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 441 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.