Fiction

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Chapter 6 [the end; 2nd read]

TV

The Great British Bake Off
6x05 Alternative Ingredients
That's one name for it...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 13 New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia & Latin America
Part 14 New American Independents & the Digital Revolution

TV

The Americans
3x12 I Am Abassin Zadran
3x13 March 8, 1983 [season finale]
As great as The Americans is (and it is), that wasn't much of a finale. A very good episode in and of itself, but it feels like we're right in the middle of a story rather than at the end of one.

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 12 Fight the Power: Protest in Film

TV

Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime
1x04 N or M? Part One
1x05 N or M? Part Two
1x06 N or M? Part Three [season finale]
These two adventures were good fun, and very watchable even in three-hour single sittings. Hope they make more.
[Watch N or M? parts one, two and three (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
[#118 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Celebrity Fifteen to One
(28/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Would I Lie To You?
9x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Stranger by the Lake (2013)
[#117 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

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


The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened? (2015) (2015)

Jon Schnepp’s widely-reviewed documentary about the batshit-crazy Nic Cage-starring Tim Burton-directed Superman movie that almost happened in 1999. If all you’ve seen are the photos of a stoned-looking Cage in a light-up abomination of a Superman costume that leaked onto the internet a few years ago, prepare to be amazed.

Read more here.


Inherent Vice (2014)

Paul Thomas Anderson here turns his hand to adapting reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 opus. It met with notably less success than most of his previous works. The Alliance of Women Film Journalists were one of few organisations to recognise it come awards season, with a gong for “Movie You Wanted to Love, But Just Couldn’t”. Apt.

Read more here.


Now You See Me (2013)

the whole film works on many of the same principles as a magic show: it’s there to dazzle you, confound you, make you guess how the tricks were done. That there’s eventually a reveal and a twist is an end unto itself, regardless of the believability of the plot or the depth of the characters

Read more here.


RED 2 (2013)

The “retired, extremely dangerous” agents return for more of the same. “More of the same” is all the recommendation — or unrecommendation, or disrecommendation, or whatever the antonym of “recommendation” actually is — you really need.

Read more here.


Scanners (1981)

If you’re versed in sci-fi/fantasy cinema, you’ve heard of Scanners even if you haven’t seen it: it’s the one with the (in)famous exploding head. That moment is distinctly less shocking for those of us coming to the film as a new viewer at this point: gore perpetuates genre cinema nowadays, so it’s less striking, and the scene it’s in is quite obvious, so you know it’s coming. Fortunately, Scanners is so much more than one famous moment.

Read more here.


The Theory of Everything (2014)

Felicity Jones gives a first-class performance as Jane, building genuine poignancy by being impeccably understated. Eddie Redmayne contorts himself into the form of Stephen Hawking with uncanny accuracy, a truly remarkable performance of a truly remarkable man.

Read more here.


Plus seven archive posts were reposted on the new blog...


100 Films on a Cover

Empire, not content with conducting a ludicrously huge reader poll to find the 500 greatest films ever made, also roped in 150 (as yet unnamed) "key directors and producers" and "the world's most influential film critics" to have their say. And Empire, not content with conducting a ludicrously huge reader poll and gathering the opinion of key directors, producers and critics to find the 500 greatest films ever made, also created a "magazine milestone" — 100 different covers for the issue featuring the list

Read more here.


Alien vs Predator - Part 1

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, my repostathon is recapping my recaps of the Alien and Predator film series. In Part 1, the beginnings of them both...

Read more here.


Alien vs Predator - Part 2

Aliens and The Other Two Alien Movies...

Read more here.

(Part 3 will be live tomorrow, and so will feature in the next weekly update.)


The BAFTAs 2008

I won’t offer a comprehensive list of winners, or even many thoughts on them — such things are easily found elsewhere — but I will instead offer my thoughts on one of the few ceremonies this year to be presented in full (well, relatively speaking), and the only film awards ceremony that receives a terrestrial television airing in the UK.

Read more here.


An extended musing on falling in love with films

when was the last time I ‘fell in love’ with a film? It’s got me pondering not only that, but also what caused me to ‘fall for’ the films I do like? Was it the critical reaction as much as my personal opinion? The in-built notion of This Is A Good Film making sure I liked it?

Read more here.


My Quantum of Solace Film Season

Back in 2008, I marked the release of the 22nd James Bond film by watching a bunch of unrelated stuff.

Read more here.


Watchmen 2: a couple of suggestions

After finding Total Film's humourous suggestions for a Watchmen sequel a little lacking in the funniness department, I thought I'd jot down a few myself. It doesn't mean they're actually any better, obviously, but it kept me amused for a few minutes.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Americans
3x11 One Day in the Life of Anton Baklanov

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Yonderland
2x07 The Last Fahl

Films

Shivers (1975)
[#116 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Fiction

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Chapter 5 [2nd read]

Collection Count

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

Last week I promised a bumper crop this time, and here it is: five releases, 15 discs, nine films. Exciting times.

Number of titles in collection: 1,791 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,208 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 583 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 4,456 [up 15]
Number of films in collection: 1,939 [up 9]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,634 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 454 [up 6]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Americans
3x10 Stingers

Celebrity Fifteen to One
(21/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Monsters: Dark Continent (2014)
[#115 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
9x15 (21/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Person of Interest
3x22 A House Divided
3x23 Deus Ex Machina [season finale]
[Watch A House Divided and Deus Ex Machina (again) on Demand 5.]

TVT

The Americans
3x09 Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?

The Great British Bake Off
6x04 Desserts
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
Part 11 The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream

Fiction

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Chapter 4 [2nd read]