TV

Two Tribes
2x16 (9/3/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
4x09 The Battles 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x08 USPIS
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Elementary
3x11 The Illustrious Client
3x12 The One That Got Away

Two Tribes
2x15 (6/3/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x10 The Land of Happy Donkeys
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

The Last Leg
6x08 (27/2/15 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Mentalist
7x04 Black Market
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

TV

Critical
1x02 Episode 2

The Flash
1x13 The Nuclear Man

The Great Comic Relief Bake Off
2x04 Episode 4 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Two Tribes
2x14 (5/3/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wolf Hall
Part 6 Masters of Phantoms [finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wolf Hall: The Inside Story
Illuminating half-hour interview with star Mark Rylance and director Peter Kosminsky.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
[#32 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

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


Godzilla (2014)

after over an hour and a half of teasing us, there’s an almighty brawl, and Godzilla is shown off in all his glory. Edwards isn’t trying to hide the monster, he’s saving it. He’s denying us shots of it not to punish the viewer or to trick us, but literally to tease us, to build excitement and suspense and desire for the final battle. Too many people aren’t used to this — modern blockbusters have trained them for non-stop show-us-all-you’ve-got action from start to finish — and that’s a shame, and their loss, because Edwards’ method is superior

Read more here.


Show Boat (1951)

the boat sets sail to the strains of Ol’ Man River, a downright fantastic song. “I get weary and sick of trying / I’m tired of living and scared of dying” — a bit fatalistic for a bright little musical about two people falling in love on a show boat? No, it’s just an indication of where things are going — into darkness, as modern parlance would have it

Read more here.


Not the best week for archive reviews, either, with a mere four being reposted to the new blog...


Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

George Clooney’s directorial debut is part biopic, part comedy, and part spy thriller. It’s the last part that works best, but perhaps that’s just because I have a predilection for spy thrillers

Read more here.


Dragonslayer (1981)

the realisation of the dragon is definitely one of the film's high points. It's an impressive creation, brought to the screen in those wonderful pre-CGI days through a total of 16 puppets, which included a 40-foot hydraulic model... Of course it has that veneer of '80s effects work, which is either nostalgic or amateurish depending on your point of view (and, most likely, age).

Read more here.


Rage (2009)

I really didn’t expect to like this: a series of straight-to-camera monologues, performed in front of just plain-coloured backgrounds, about the fashion industry... despite the concept’s innate pretentiousness, it’s an intriguing one. Once Rage settled into its stride (or, perhaps, I settled into its stride), however, I loved it.

Read more here.


What About Bob? (1991)

a comedy about mental health. As such, it feels primed for misunderstanding and inappropriateness. And it is indeed a little worrying early on: Bill Murray’s performance is, from the off, superbly believable, but it’s undercut by bad ‘this is a comedy’ music that suggests we’re meant to laugh at his impairments rather than feel sympathy.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Two Tribes
2x13 (4/3/15 edition)
Episode 12 has "been permanently revoked as it was subject to a factual inaccuracy." Oo-er.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Six additions this week, thanks to a good offer from Eureka/Masters of Cinema. They're technically six individual films, but thanks to one of them actually being three-flms-in-one and another having two additional features (that were edited from the main feature), plus all the discs to account for that (and that MoC often do dual format titles where two DVDs contain the material from one Blu-ray), and the numbers below look like there's been at least one many-film boxset.

But there hasn't.

Well, not really.


Number of titles in collection: 1,745 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 537 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 4,354 [up 13]
Number of films in collection: 1,886 [up 10]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,474 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 443 [up 1]


See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Room 101
15x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Godzilla (2014)
[#31 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
2x09 Hello, Can I Have a Bath?
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Death in Paradise
4x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
7x03 Orange Blossom Ice Cream
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Two Tribes
2x11 (2/3/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Arrow
3x12 Uprising

Elementary
3x10 Seed Money

Two Tribes
2x10 (27/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Alois Nebel (2011)
[#30 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

The Flash
1x12 Crazy for You

Two Tribes
2x09 (26/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wolf Hall
Part 5 Crows
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x07 Lockdown
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Critical
1x01 Episode 1

Two Tribes
2x08 (25/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The General (1926)
[#29 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2015 #2

this week on 100 Films

This week has just dipped into a new month, meaning it's time to look back at February on 100 Films in a Year:




Plus, three brand-new reviews were published this week...


Big Hero 6 (2014)

This year’s Best Animated Film Oscar winner is not this year’s best animated film. Not by a long stroke. What it is is one great character, one great emotional plot/subplot, and a lot of stuff that feels like every other big-budget action-orientated CGI animation of the past few years. Most succinctly, this is little more than “How to Train Your Baymax”.

Read more here.


Oldboy (2003)

It’s hard to summarise the effect of Oldboy without just watching it... It’s a film predicated on mysteries, but one that doesn’t rely on remaining mysterious — there are answers for every question, you just have to follow the strange path it leads you on and wait for the answers. Try not to get spoilered.

Read more here.


Song of the Thin Man (1947)

After the small-town detour of the previous film, Song sees the Charleses back in the more glamorous environs we associate with the series, all swanky apartments and floating casinos. That’s a big plus point for me, at least. The mystery is a particularly solid one, with a nice denouement that plays out slightly differently to the series’ regular formula.

Read more here.


And finally, there were three archive reviews reposted too...


Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)

German silent movie depicting a day in the 'life' of Berlin, part of the 'city symphony' genre that was popular around the 1920s. This makes it one of those films that is in some way Important, but sadly it's still a bit, well, boring.

Read more here.


Hard Boiled (1992)

Chow Yun-Fat single handedly slaughtering a warehouse full of heavily armed gangsters? Well, of course! Or directly hitting a small object wedged in an electrical pipe with a shaky shooting arm? Naturally! ... It’s a cliché, but there’s something about Woo’s action that makes you want to use the word “balletic”. Not that I’ve ever really watched ballet. I expect it involves fewer guns.

Read more here.


Saturday Night Fever (1977)

couldn't be more '70s if it were made today as a period piece. From the posters on Tony's walls, to the fashions, to how it's shot, it seems to have been designed specifically to exude seventies-ness in a way few other things seem to.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Film 2015
Episode 7 (25/2/15 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Two Tribes
2x07 (24/2/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
4x08 The Battles 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

No changes this week. I have half-a-dozen things slated to arrive next month, though, so that should all be a bit busier.

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

Number of discs in collection: 4,341 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,876 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,474 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 442 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.