TV

Would I Lie To You?
9x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

L'Atalante (1934)
[#138 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2015 #7


Spooks: The Greater Good (2015)
[#139 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Castle
5x04 Murder He Wrote

Mock the Week
14x08 (17/9/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Boyz n the Hood (1991)
[#137 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...


American Sniper (2014)

an adequately-made film. Eastwood’s direction is at best workmanlike, at worst laughably clichéd. Jason Hall’s screenplay rehashes better movies’ insights into the mental effects of war on combatants. Neither elicit much excitement from a half-arsed sniper-vs-sniper storyline.

Read more here.


High Noon (1952)

No one will stand with Will. Interpreted by the American left as an analogy for people being afraid to stand up to McCarthy’s HUAC witch-hunt, some on the right were less impressed: John Wayne and Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo as a direct riposte. Both are regarded as classic Westerns, so in that respect there’s no ‘winner’ there.

Read more here.


Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

the end result feels a bit like two different movies stuck together: the very Mad Max-y first part in Bartertown awkwardly transitions into the society-of-kids segment, before the two clash for a Mad Max 2-emulating chase-through-the-desert climax. It might not make for the smoothest through line... but at least it exposes us to a different facet of the series’ post-apocalyptic Australia.

Read more here.


Raging Bull (1980)

the boxing scenes were some of the bits I liked the most — they’re very well done; immensely effective. Unfortunately, they make up barely ten minutes of the running time, and it was the rest I didn’t care for.

Read more here.


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


Week 31

This is the first single-week entry since week 14. As well as a concerted effort (such as three films on the Friday), it’s helped by a lessening in the amount of TV I’ve been watching — last entry’s list of 19 on-going programmes has shrunk to 13 by the end of this week. Some might say I watch too much TV…

Read more here.


Week 32

Some might say I’ve been generous with the five-star ratings of late — four in the last two weeks, compared to a total of six in the 29 weeks before it. Maybe I have. There aren’t any to be seen this week, though that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen any good films. In fact, some only fall slightly short.

Read more here.


Week 33

The biggest news this week: I've passed 90. 90! Only ten films to go 'til I hit the final aim -- I think I can manage that in 19 weeks, to be honest.

Read more here.


Week 34

several over-long reviews this week — I appear to be losing my self control on that front. They’ll have multiple paragraphs before long, you mark my words!

Read more here.


Week 35

the four I have watched leave me only two short of the long awaited number 100! But that’s for next week. So, here are those four films, each from a different decade, across almost 60 years no less.

Read more here.


Week 36

This week is an unusually short one. Normally I’d just carry it over into the next entry, but one very important thing stops me…

I’ve reached 100!

Read more here.


Weeks 37-40

It’s an all-action extravaganza this entry, with no less than four films with a distinctly violent centre. But don’t think it’s all the same, oh no no — between them they cover several continents, even more countries, and spread out from the ancient past to the distant (or, at least, alternate) future, via the present day of course. There are spears, swords, guns and fists causing pain left, right and centre… and a few more unusual objects too. If you thought “action movie” meant endless bullets and slow motion… well, it does tend to involve at least one of those… but still, have a look and see that there is room for some variety.

Read more here.


Weeks 41-42

I do feel a tad arty this week, actually. Of the six films listed below, two are French, one German, one Japanese, two are shorts, and five are between 77 and 94 years old. That’s two weeks at the start of a University film module for you!

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
35x02 The Witch's Familiar
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Foxcatcher (2014)
[#136 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

After last week, which had increases across the board -- and some of them huge -- this week there's nothing to report. There's a pre-order in the post for next week, though; and it's also the running time update, which should be a big'un.

Number of titles in collection: 1,798 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,209 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 589 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,521 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,946 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,801 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 455 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Filmed in Supermarionation (2014)
[#135 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

The Great British Bake Off
6x08 Patisserie
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Ed Wood (1994)
[#134 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Films

The Informant! (2009)
[#133 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
3x03 Episode 3

Mock the Week
14x07 (10/9/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Yonderland
2x08 Careful What You Wish For [season finale]

Films

Willow (1988)
[#132 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...


How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

Part of its success stems from being bold with the concept. Rather than just rehashing the first film’s story, or taking it in only a slightly different direction, returning writer-director Dean DeBlois jumps the story forward five years, in the process changing the status quo of the film’s world enough to keep it fresh.

Read more here.


The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

If you’re not au fait with the first two Hunger Games movies, there’s nothing for you here... Even for those of us who are, Mockingjay Part 1 throws us in at the deep end, starting a little while after the end of the last film and challenging us to keep up. It’s a little frustrating at times — if you’ve not watched the previous movies into the ground, there are points where you wonder if you’ve forgotten something or just not been told it yet — but ultimately helps make for an engrossing, mature movie.

Read more here.


John Wick (2014)

John Wick is an action movie. I know you know that, but what I mean is, that’s kind of all it is. There’s no transcendent deeper meaning here; no attempt to explore the real life of a hired killer. If anything, this is an ultra-heightened universe, where the criminal underworld has an entire society and set of rules unto itself, including a raft of familiar faces in cameo-sized roles.

Read more here.


North West Frontier (1959)

I caught a few seconds and thought it looked fabulously shot — I confess, that’s the only reason I’d got hold of a copy. I’m so glad I did though, because it’s excellent stuff — a rollicking, action-packed, old-fashioned (in the good sense) adventure, full of peril, derring-do, chases and shoot-outs.

Read more here.


Plus 11 archive reposts begin the story of 2007, the blog's first year...


Weeks 1-7

The aim of the original idea from which this blog is adapted is to read 50 books this year and list them here. There’s no way I’d manage that, to be honest. Yes, I’m an English Lit student — that doesn’t mean I read! So my version is to try to watch 100 films this year... we begin here, covering weeks one to seven of this year.

Read more here.


Week 8

Number of films per week required to achieve 100: 1.93. Current average number of films seen per week: 2.63. More than on target. Excellent.

Read more here.


Weeks 9-11

I’m not doing too badly — not yet a quarter of the way through the year and I’ve passed the quarter point in my total. There is hope yet!

Read more here.


Weeks 12-13 (Statistics)

The end of the second week here marks the exact quarter-way point of my filmic quest (in time terms anyway) and so it seems an appropriate point to reflect a little on my quest so far. So here are some numbers, all totalled up to the end of week thirteen

Read more here.


Week 14

this week I’ve hit an exact average of three films per week — if that were to continue I’d easily pass 150 films by the end of the year! It’s really beginning to seem that 100 is a rather easy mark to cross, while 150 would be more realistic… though only if I kept this rate up, and if I slipped I would fail. That’s never fun.

Read more here.


Weeks 15-18

After a glut of movies during the middle of the holiday things have slowed down a tad again. I say “a tad” — you can see how much by the sheer volume of weeks included in this entry and the relatively sparse number of films! (To be technical, the average-films-per-week in this entry is 1.75, compared to 2.72 overall and 6 (yes, 6!) last time.)

Read more here.


Weeks 19-20

In which I don’t see Spider-Man 3, because I don’t care enough to brave the huge opening weekend crowds (and it’s not meant to be very good anyway).

Read more here.


Weeks 21-23

This time I do see Spider-Man 3!

Read more here.


Weeks 24-26

I’m halfway through! For anyone who can’t remember how many weeks there are in a year… well, there’s 52; and half of 52 is 26; and the week of June 25th is week 26 of 2007, meaning that July 1st is just about halfway through the year (though, to be precise, there’s actually 52 weeks and one day in a year… well, actually, 52 weeks, one day and a quarter day… anyway…)

Read more here.


Weeks 27-28

I've done really pathetically in the last couple of months -- my average number of films per week has dropped from 2.7 for weeks 1 to 18 to just 1.5 for weeks 19 to 26! I ain't gonna get to the end that way... Actually, I'd hit exactly 100 by the end of the year if I carried on that way. But still, reaching 'only' 100 when I was more on track to hit 150 does seem like a slight disappointment.

Read more here.


Weeks 29-30

Another two week stretch on my quest to see 100 new films by the end of the year. I'm just not seeing enough films per week to warrant entries that often, it would seem. This time round I blame TV -- so many new things have started, as well as continuing shows, that I spend most of my time keeping up! During these two weeks I've been watching...

Read the list here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
35x00b Prologue
35x00c The Doctor's Meditation
35x01 The Magician's Apprentice
Two short 'prequels' (viewable at the above links, and via various services like Amazon Instant Video) and the season premiere proper. I enjoyed it on the whole, though as with all two-parters, you can't judge it properly until next week's conclusion.
[Watch The Magician's Apprentice (again) on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

American Sniper (2014)
[#131 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

Last week I mentioned that a complete TV series box set would provide a numbers boost this week. It did... and then I bought another one (both were thanks to great offer prices), and so the number of TV episodes gets a massive boost. As does the number of discs, of course.

The running time update in a couple of weeks should be pretty hefty 'n' all...

Number of titles in collection: 1,798 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,209 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 589 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,521 [up 58]
Number of films in collection: 1,946 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,801 [up 167]
Number of short films in collection: 455 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Top Coppers
1x03 The Venom of Dr Schafer
1x04 The Twist of the French Nicker
[Watch The Venom of Dr Schafer and The Twist of the French Nicker (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
3x02 Episode 2

The Last Leg
7x09 (21/8/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]