TV

Castle
5x01 After the Storm
Thanks to the wonders of Amazon Prime, no more waiting for Channel 5 -- hurrah!

Would I Lie To You?
9x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Contagion (2011)
[#108 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
9x13 (7/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Last Leg
7x05 (24/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Person of Interest
3x17 /
aka The Episode Channel 5 Skipped For No Discernible Reason. It's an arc-heavy one too, so goodness knows what they were thinking. Perhaps they somehow overlooked it thanks to that damn stupid title...

Two Tribes
2x38 (24/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime
1x01 The Secret Adversary Part One
1x02 The Secret Adversary Part Two
1x03 The Secret Adversary Part Three
Didn't necessarily intend to watch the entire serial in one sitting, but it was good fun. I guess it'll be three weeks 'til the next for me now, then...
[Watch The Secret Adversary parts one, two and three (again) on iPlayer.]

Cowboy Bebop
1x14 Bohemian Rhapsody
1x15 My Funny Valentine
Sometimes I'm concerned about my ability to monitor the passing of time: it's well over a year since I last watched Cowboy Bebop, and over two since I started it! Here I go again, but hopefully now I'll finish it off in a reasonable timeframe...

this week on 100 Films

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


Life of Pi (2012)

it concerns, literally, the story of a boy stuck on a lifeboat with a tiger, and, figuratively, the very nature of storytelling itself — not to mention the purpose of religion and the existence of God. Never has “from the director of Hulk” seemed less pertinent.

Read more here.


Red Sonja (1985)

From the sword and sorcery ‘boom’ of the ’80s, Red Sonja concerns a warrioress going after the evil queen who slaughtered her family and has now seized a magical MacGuffin that will destroy the world or somesuch. The first remarkable thing is that I don’t think anyone in it can act.

Read more here.


Space Station 76 (2014)

The film’s visual aesthetic is a loving recreation of classic SF, from the set design to the gorgeous model-like CGI exteriors. I don’t think anything in particular was being referenced — at least, not obviously so — but it’s all reminiscent of the likes of the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Space: 1999, and so on. It’s been created with such care that it borders on the beautiful.

Read more here.


Videodrome (1983)

even though it’s 32 years old and the tech being depicted is similarly dated, its fears about the influence of the media and the changes it brings to society could’ve been shot yesterday. These thought-provoking themes are in part conveyed through Cronenberg’s familiar stomping ground of body horror, with top-drawer prosthetics giving tangible visual life to nightmarish ideas

Read more here.


Whiplash (2014)

Chazelle’s screenplay is admirable in its psychological complexity here, particularly as it’s contained in a straightforward-seeming master/pupil, abuser/abusee drama that also functions as a surface-level dramatic thriller. The extra levels come from these exact characters and their exact relationship.

Read more here.


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


Cut (2009)

When the violence comes, it’s moderately brutal. And here’s the rub — it’s arguably not brutal enough to cover the horrid reality of what some people have to suffer. It’s been made suitable to be shown on TV in a slot where people will see it — which, for its aims as an awareness advert, is completely appropriate.

Read more here.


Enchanted (2007)

it’s the one that starts out as a traditionally animated Disney film, before The Normal Girl Who Will Marry A Prince is thrown into a Magic Portal by The Evil Stepmother and finds herself in present-day New York. It’s one of those concepts so good it just makes you think, “why haven’t they thought of that before?” Thankfully, they pull it off.

Read more here.


Flushed Away (2006)

Aardman Animations, the Bristol-based company most famous for Wallace & Gromit and Creature Comforts, branch out into CGI for the first time with this tale of rats trying to save the sewers of London. CGI rats? Yes, thoughts of Ratatouille are inevitable. Can Aardman beat Pixar at their own game? You might be surprised…

Read more here.


Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)

For those who’ve never heard of MST3K, it’s a bit like a DVD commentary… except instead of people involved with the film recounting anecdotes or academics offering analysis, we have people taking the piss out of it. I say “people” — one person and two robots. Who are obviously voiced by people. Look, that’s not the point.

Read more here.


Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

Kim Stanley’s performance is stunning. Initially just a Hyacinth Bucket-esque overbearing wife, as the film continues we learn more about her almost solely from what Stanley brings to the role. By the final scene, when the truth of her character is laid bare, there’s little doubt that she’s given an extraordinary performance.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Celebrity Fifteen to One
(7/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Ripper Street
3x08 The Peace of Edmund Reid [season finale]
Great finale to a great season. It really feels like a final end, though, so it'll be interesting to see where everyone goes in the next two seasons.
[Watch it now on Amazon Instant Video, or on BBC One (edited) in a few weeks.]

Films

Life of Pi (2012)
[#107 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

Only two titles added this week... but it's also the running time update, and that entire TV series I added a couple of weeks back has made its presence felt.

Number of titles in collection: 1,784 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 576 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,438 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,928 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,634 [up 2]
Number of short films in collection: 448 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
320 days, 10 hours, and 57 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 13 hours, and 50 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
3x18 Allegiance
So, for no apparent reason, Channel 5 chose to skip an entire episode -- and they haven't even tried to hide it by renumbering the episodes on their site. Brazen! Torrents to the rescue it is, then.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Yonderland
2x03 A Vicious Circle

Films

Sherlock Holmes (1922), aka Moriarty
[#106 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
9x12 (31/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Great British Bake Off
6x01 Cake
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Last Leg
7x04 (17/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Mock the Week
14x06 (16/7/15 edition) [mid-season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
3x07 Live Free, Live True
[Watch it now on Amazon Instant Video, or on BBC One (edited) in a few weeks.]

Yonderland
2x02 The Winging Detective

Films

Shallow Grave (1994)
[#105 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

The Last Leg
7x03 (10/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Person of Interest
3x16 RAM
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Two Tribes
2x37 (23/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Thing (2011)
[#104 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Mock the Week
14x05 (9/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
3x06 The Incontrovertible Truth
[Watch it now on Amazon Instant Video, or on BBC One (heavily edited) in a few weeks.]

Films

Inside Man (2006)
[2nd watch]

Space Station 76 (2014)
[#103 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

August started yesterday, so it's time for the 100 Films in a Year monthly update, looking back at July:




Also this week, two brand-new reviews were published. They were...


Gone Girl (2014)

“Horrible people do horrible things to each other” is the Post-it Note summary of this dark drama-thriller from director David Fincher, adapted by screenwriter Gillian Flynn from her own novel, which is short on heroes and overloaded with villains. An alternative brief summation is, “modern society is shit.”

Read more here.


Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

With Bond going “real world” and gadget free in the Daniel Craig era, and the Bourne series having blazed a trail of “we shot it all handheld and shaky and grainy so it must be real” veracity, it seems the task of providing audiences with a contemporary version of the spy action, just-ahead-of-reality gadgets, and larger-than-life spectacle that the Bond movies specialised in during the ’60s and ’70s, has fallen upon the Mission: Impossible franchise. For my money, it’s taken the baton with aplomb.

Read more here.


Finally, three archive reviews were reposted...


1945-1998 (2003)

Is 1945-1998 actually a film? Or is it a piece of video Art? Or just another online video? Its setup is quite simple: it charts every nuclear explosion between the titular years; the total, by-the-way, is 2,053. These explosions play out as flashing dots on a world map; different colours indicate which country was responsible for the explosion, accompanied by running totals.

Read more here.


Easy Virtue (2008)

it’s frequently hilariously funny. You’d expect nothing less from a work taken from Noel Coward, I suppose... There’s a decidedly wicked streak to the humour at times (a subplot about the fate of the family Chihuahua; lots of double entendres), which is welcome. The overall tone is light, largely, but not light in the head.

Read more here.


Fargo (1996)

the latest film to have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry, donchaknow. It’s also 105th on the IMDb Top 250 [it’s now 153rd], and the 21st film from the 1990s. So it’s pretty much a modern classic then.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Episodes
4x09 Episode 9 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
3x15 Last Call
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Would I Lie To You?
9x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week, nothing. Next week, hopefully something.

Number of titles in collection: 1,782 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 574 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,436 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,926 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,632 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 448 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.