TV

The Americans
3x03 Open House

The Great British Bake Off
6x03 Bread
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Two Tribes
2x34 (29/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 5 Post-War Cinema

TV

The Americans
3x02 Baggage

Person of Interest
3x21 Beta
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Two Tribes
2x33 (28/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 3 The Golden Age of World Cinema
Part 4 The Arrival of Sound

TV

The Americans
3x01 EST Men
This returns to the UK on ITV Encore this Wednesday, but I don't get that, so we've got it through... other means. As usual. Also as usual, intending to watch it over the next two or three weeks. You should also watch it, because it's awesome.

Two Tribes
2x32 (27/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 1 Birth of the Cinema
Part 2 The Hollywood Dream

1,000! I could say more about why this counts & that, but you can just read such information here. In case you don't know, however, it's 15 hours long, so I'll be watching it over the coming few days/week(s).

TV

Would I Lie To You?
9x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

End of Watch (2012)
[#111 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...


Behind the Candelabra (2013)

Leading us into the uniquely bizarre world of the outrageous musician, Soderbergh keeps a sure grasp on the resultant drama/humour balance. If anything, the entertaining and well-received trailer makes the film look more outrageous than it is, distilling most of the best laughs into a two-minute burst. Indeed, some of the jokes play better in that form

Read more here.


Sherlock Holmes (1922), aka Moriarty

The story diverges from the canon so much it’s liable to give any particularly canon-focused Sherlockians a conniption. It begins in Cambridge... There, a student, Prince Alexis, third in line to the throne of somewhere-or-other-in-Europe, has been accused of stealing from the university, but he claims innocence. His friend John Watson recommends he seeks the assistance of a chap in his year, one Sherlock Holmes. Yes, shades of 1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes. I’m sure you’ll be surprised to learn there are fewer CGI stained glass window knights here, though.

Read more here.


The Thing (1982)

At its heart, John Carpenter’s film is a psychological thriller: an alien is in the group’s midst; it has taken on the form of one or more of them; who can you trust? How can you tell? It’s both a dilemma in an abstract “sci-fi concept” sense, and no doubt a parallel from an era when spying and the threat of ‘the other’ infiltrating society were still major issues.

Read more here.


The Thing (2011)

The Thing 2011-variety is not a remake of The Thing 1982-variety because, primarily, it takes place before The Thing ’82, and also because of drastic changes like making the lead character female and having some of the cast speak Norwegian sometimes. Other than that, what unfolds is just a variation on a theme.

Read more here.


The archive review reposts are getting near the end now. This week, multiple shorts and one all-time classic. But first, a literary remake...


Brideshead Revisited (2008)

It’s entertainingly written and performed, firmly in the tradition of the ‘heritage’ films and TV series that Britain churned out through the ’80s and ’90s — it’s the natural successor to the work of Merchant-Ivory, who of course produced the tonally-similar (at least at first) A Room With a View

Read more here.


Gasman (1997)

“Gritty”, “realist” and “indie” are just some of the stock terms that immediately jump to mind when watching this short, which directly enabled director Lynne Ramsay to make her first feature, Ratcatcher. [It] succeeds in using the associated techniques to tell a simple story of complex emotions and meaning for the characters involved.

Read more here.


How Long is a Minute? (2001)

Pummell’s film succeeds by not over-reaching itself. He has a single philosophical thought, conveyed succinctly with a mixture of image and sound. That’s worth 60 seconds, surely.

Read more here.


The Lunch Date (1990)

Short films are paid minimal attention by most people, but a good one can launch a career. Take this, for example, which won the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1990 and the Oscar for Best Live Action Short in 1991. Writer/director Davidson may not have had a significant film career since, but he has directed episodes of Dexter, Deadwood, Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order, Lie to Me, Lost, Rome, Shark, Six Feet Under, True Blood, and more.

Read more here.


Rashomon (1950)

Justifiably, much has been written about Rashomon, both critically and analytically. As such I’m not going to dig too deeply here, but instead just highlight a couple of reasons why it’s so acclaimed.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Celebrity Fifteen to One
(14/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Yonderland
2x05 Nanny La Roo

Films

Interstellar (2014)
[#110 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

There should've been a lovely box set bolstering the numbers this week. Unfortunately, it arrived damaged and has had to go back for a replacement. Next time, then.

As it stands, however, no changes.

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

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

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
3x20 Death Benefit
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Superman: Red Son
Part 1 News of Superman
The first of a 25-part 'motion comic' adaptation of Mark Millar's acclaimed Elseworlds tale. (It’s commonly bundled into 12 instalments, with each one containing multiple parts.) It has some plus points over previous motion comics (like the Watchmen one) -- namely, that there are multiple voices, so there's not some bloke putting on a squeaky tone to play the female characters. It's still not a proper animation, though, so it feels a bit pointless. I shan't be bothering with the rest of it.
[Watch Part 1 on YouTube (legally, I think).]

Films

Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
[#109 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

The Last Leg
7x06 (31/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Two Tribes
2x39 (26/7/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Great British Bake Off
6x02 Biscuits
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Last Man on Earth
1x01 Alive in Tucson
1x02 The Elephant in the Room
[Watch Alive in Tucson and The Elephant in the Room (again) on UKTV Play.]

Person of Interest
3x19 Most Likely To...
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Yonderland
2x04 Up the Workers

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.]