TV

Daredevil
1x03 Rabbit in a Snowstorm
This seems to be one of the season's lowest-rated episodes on many a site (IMDb, for example), but I thought it was possibly the best yet. Still very much in the setting up phase though, with major new characters being introduced each episode.

Vera
5x02 Old Wounds
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

eXistenZ (1999)
[2nd watch]

First saw this many, many years ago, so my memories of it were rather vague, but also positive. Glad to see a re-viewing has only reasserted that. Also, that in the intervening decade-and-a-half the icky special effects haven't gotten significantly less icky.

this week on 100 Films

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


The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Peter Jackson’s epic Tolkien adaptation blunders its way to a conclusion with an instalment some have declared the trilogy’s best, presumably because they really enjoy watching someone else play video games. That’s what about half of this sextet-completing movie feels like, as it concludes the three-part Hobbit narrative with a CGI-riddled rendering of the titular battle.

Read more here.


A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

The second feature from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, after the justly popular Ted, A Million Ways to Die in the West is a disappointing mixed bag, half pretty-decent character- and situation-based comedy, half cringingly infantile toilet-humour tomfoolery.

Read more here.


Plus five archive reviews were reposted on the new blog...


Browncoats: Redemption (2010)

Undoubtedly the greatest thing about this project -- fans coming together to celebrate and recreate something they love in aid of charity -- is down to producer Michael C. Dougherty's thought and organisation. Sadly, the worst things about it -- the writing and direction -- are also his responsibility. We must be forgiving -- it is made by amateurs, and for charity -- but it's a shame someone(s) more proficient weren't found for the important creative roles.

Read more here.


Done the Impossible: The Fans' Tale of Firefly and Serenity (2006)

investigates the cult sparked by the prematurely-cancelled TV series Firefly and its continuation movie, Serenity — a movie that only exists thanks to the fans’ dedication. The activism, and success, of Firefly’s fans makes for a key difference from other fan docs: these aren’t just people who queue for obscene amounts of time to see something they like; these are people who helped turn a cancelled TV show into a successful movie.

Read more here.


Ray (2004)

It’s easy to see why Walk the Line has been described as “Ray with white people”; but Ray has also been described as being an outstanding performance in an average film, and I’d pretty much agree with this too.

Read more here.


Ringers: Lord of the Fans (2005)

you'd expect this documentary to focus itself on Lord of the Rings fandom. To a degree it does, but it also encompasses a history of the books and their popularity, as well as various thematic issues contained within them

Read more here.


Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Despite its unpronounceable title, Synecdoche, New York starts out like a relatively normal comedy/drama… but then weird touches begin to crop in. A house that's on fire when a character buys it and continues to be on fire for the next several decades, for instance. No one in the film bats an eyelid. Then the really weird bit arrives; the bit you all probably know; what the film's about (except, of course, not what it's About), as Philip Seymour Hoffman's theatre director begins to construct a life-size New York within a warehouse.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Batman: The Brave and the Bold
1x25 Mayhem of the Music Meister! [2nd watch]
Yeah, I watched it again already. It really is that much fun. Also, only 22 minutes long.

Daredevil
1x02 Cut Man
Had to take a break as soon as I started! Back into it now though, hopefully solidly for the next couple of weeks-ish. Anyway, this is the episode with the single-take hallway fight you may have read about it. And yes, it is a good'un.

Mad Men
7x09 New Business

Pointless Celebrities
7x01 Mixed Bag
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

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

Collection Count

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

Here's all the stuff that should've been here last week -- and more! As I said, so much for a quiet month... and it's all arrived in time for the running time update.

Number of titles in collection: 1,761 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 553 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 4,377 [up 8]
Number of films in collection: 1,902 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,482 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 448 [up 4]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
315 days, 19 hours, and 27 minutes.
(Up 1 day and 48 minutes from last month.)

Next month will be quieter.

Probably.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x14 Defense Rests
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Critical
1x08 Episode 8

Have I Got News For You
49x01 (10/4/2015 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Batman: The Brave and the Bold
1x25 Mayhem of the Music Meister!
2x11 Chill of the Night!

I watched the first eight episodes of this bright-n-cheerful animated series back in August/September 2012, after which I gave up on it for not being particularly good. However, I recently discovered it's all on Amazon Prime Instant Video, so I decided to watch the first of these episodes, which got a lot of coverage on its premiere back in 2009 for being a musical guest starring Neil Patrick Harris. And it was actually really good fun.

"Maybe the series deserves a second shot?", I thought. Googling to find the best episodes, it seems to actually have a lot of fans, although consensus on which episodes are the best only extends to a handful. The second of the ones I watched seems to be one of only two that gains universal acclaim -- and as the other is the series finale, I thought I might leave it for a bit. Aside from its tacky pre-titles, Chill of the Night is excellent -- much more like a Batman: The Animated Series episode than a Brave and the Bold one, which is no bad thing.

So looks like I may give some more of this a go after all.

TV

Daredevil
1x01 Into the Ring
The first of five connected TV series from Marvel and Netflix. As is the latter's way, the entire season was released last Friday. I shall be pacing myself, so as not to end up like all those people on Twitter currently wishing they hadn't rushed through it.

Game of Thrones
5x01 The Wars to Come
Hurrah for the return of Thrones! Between this, Daredevil, Mad Men, The Americans (which has been back in the US for a while and I've been saving up)... so much good telly at the moment!

Films

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
[#55 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Arrow
3x18 Public Enemy

Forever
1x15 The King of Columbus Circle

Outnumbered
4x02 The Girls' Day Out [2nd watch]

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
2x13 Payback
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Vera
5x01 Changing Tides
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Bernie (2011)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

The Philadelphia Story (1940)
[#54 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

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


Persona (1966)

I can’t promise gravity or insight. In fact, practically the opposite, because I think that Persona is almost wilfully obtuse. That’s not because the film is stupid, but because it’s “slow to understand” — people have been debating its meaning for almost 50 years now, and it seems that still no one really knows what it’s about... Obviously that’s some people’s bag, but it leaves me slightly baffled

Read more here.


Rear Window (1954)

a heady mix of suspicion, tension, voyeurism, and a light romantic subplot — Hitchcock through and through. It’s one of his best-regarded films, too: Vertigo may gain the Sight & Sound plaudits, but Rear Window is second only to Psycho on the IMDb Top 250; and, as I write, they sit precisely side by side, which on a list that long is tantamount to equality.

Read more here.


Runner Runner (2013)

Sometimes, films are so maligned that you feel you just have to see for yourself. Or I do, anyway. Crime thriller Runner Runner, with its 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is one of those occasions... It’s fatally marred by flabby storytelling, which substitutes voiceover and aimless montages for plot, with a pace that’s shot to hell

Read more here.


Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

I very nearly spent a little over two and a half of my precious hours watching the fourth Transformers movie... And then I remembered that the last two Transformers films were rubbish, and that Age of Extinction had met with an even worse reception upon its theatrical debut last July, so why would I want to waste so much of my time on something I was sure to think was dross? ... Lest you came here hoping for some thoughts on Transformers 4 from someone who had actually endured it, here are some choice quotes from (and links to) other pieces that I have appreciated

Read more here.


Plus eight archive reviews were reposted on the new blog...


Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

The story is intensely procedural: we meet the lead character, defence attorney Paul Biegler, moments before he first learns of the case; leave the story almost immediately after the verdict; and in between, every single scene is bent to Biegler’s research and the trial itself. It’s so thorough, accurate and real that it is (reportedly) still used as a working example in law education.

Read more here.


Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

It’s easy to see how Gentlemen Prefer Blondes helped launch Marilyn Monroe as a sex-symbol superstar — her ditzy, breathy blonde, who may just be cleverer than she looks, is clearly the star of the film.

Read more here.


South Pacific (1958)

Honestly, I think this must be one of the most uninformative 'reviews' I ever wrote...

Read more here.


Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (DVD Edition) (1977/2004)

Much criticism has been made of Lucas deciding to modify the original trilogy for the 1997 re-release, and then further for the 2004 DVD release. It’s not necessarily unjustified, but it is sometimes picky. If Han shooting first bothered you, you may be a little pleased to know they now shoot at the same time.

Read more here.


Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (DVD Edition) (1980/2004)

Little here is visually different from the ’97 Special Edition. Cloud City benefits from the CGI windows and lighting it was given back then, though the views look as fake as ever. The big change comes in dubbing both Boba Fett and the Emperor with appropriate actors from the prequel trilogy

Read more here.


Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (DVD Edition) (1983/2004)

here seem to be only minor differences or effects improvements here — it does make you wonder what the fans were kicking up such a fuss about! ... The main addition for the DVD is Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. It doesn’t work at all; in fact, it manages to make it look as if there was never anyone there at all.

Read more here.


Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2010)

can boast an awful lot of firsts within the Star Wars franchise: the first animated Star Wars in cinemas, the first not to feature Frank Oz as Yoda, the first not to open in May, the first not to have a text-crawl intro… It’s also the first not to open at number one at the box office. None of these facts are likely to endear itself to die-hard Star Wars fans. I’m not one, but it did little to endear itself to me either.

Read more here.


Starwoids (2001)

A fan documentary, Starwoids tells the tale of two groups of Star Wars fans who queued for six weeks to be the first to see The Phantom Menace. Alongside this, the film takes a couple of diversions into general Star Wars fandom.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gotham
1x15 The Scarecrow
In which Bruce Wayne goes for a walk! Drama!
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Person of Interest
3x03 Lady Killer
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
[#52 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Articles

The 100 best films of the decade (so far)
#51-100, #21-50, #1-20
by Mike D'Angelo, A.A. Dowd, Jesse Hassenger, Alex McCown, Benjamin Mercer, Josh Modell, Kiva Reardon, Vadim Rizov, Nick Schager, Cameron Scheetz and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (from A.V. Club)

Does what it says on the tin. An interesting set, of which I've only seen 21. Loads more sound worthwhile, though.

Collection Count

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

Should've been more this week, but damn post... More next time.

Number of titles in collection: 1,755 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,207 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 548 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,369 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,896 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,482 [up 8]
Number of short films in collection: 444 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Flash
1x17 Tricksters

The Mentalist
7x09 Copper Bullet
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

White House Down (2013)
[#51 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

2013's other "White House is taken by terrorists" movie, Olympus Has Fallen, has its UK TV premiere on Channel 5 this Sunday at 9pm. I shall compare them.

TV

Critical
1x07 Episode 7

Elementary
3x16 For All You Know