TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
3x05 Episode 5

The Great British Bake Off
6x11 The Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Wrestler (2008)
[#143 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Castle
5x09 Secret Santa

Films

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
[#142 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Castle
5x08 After Hours

Mock the Week
14x10 (1/10/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
5x07 Swan Song

Doctor Who
35x03 Under the Lake
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
3x04 Episode 4

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
2x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

First up from 100 Films in a Year this week, it's a new month, so here's a look back at the last one -- which was rather special...




Elsewise, two brand-new reviews were published this week...


Filmed in Supermarionation (2014)

This documentary about the behind-the-scenes story of those iconic shows is an absolute nostalgia-fest, then; but it’s also more than that: a story of British endeavour, ambition and inventiveness, which perfected an art form and, in the process, revolutionised television and film. And all by a bunch of young Brits working out of a poky little industrial unit in Slough to make children’s TV programmes using puppets.

Read more here.


Foxcatcher (2014)

In a rare dramatic role, and lumbered with a hefty prosthetic noise, Carrell’s John Du Pont almost feels like a caricature rather than a plausible human being… but apparently the film has actually toned down how odd the man was, so what are you gonna do? It’s a memorable performance none the less.

Read more here.


And finally, ten archive posts were reposted too...


2007 | Weeks 43-45

It’s goodbye to October and hello to November, as the year moves into its final sixth. It’ll be over before you know it — and with it, my final total of new films this year. How exciting!

Read more here.


2007 | Weeks 46-48

being the dedicated student that I am, I’ve watched all the suggested viewing for a seminar in which my group had to pose the questions. The seminar was on “Urban Rhythms”… but in film-viewing terms that translates to four Scorseses, four Woody Allens, and an anthology featuring shorts by both of them and Francis Ford Coppola

Read more here.


2007 | Weeks 49-50 (2008 Preview)

in the past two weeks I’ve only watched… well, NO films! Yet there is still an entry. Why? Well, I resolved that, regardless of how many films I watched, I’d post double-week entries for both this one and the next. And I haven’t watched any films, so there’s none here. A silly resolution, obviously... So instead of film reviews, but in light of the fact I’m posting this anyway, I’ve decided to share with you some of the changes I have planned for 2008. I’m sure there’s nothing mind-blowingly exciting here, but maybe it’ll be of vague interest.

Read more here.


2007 | Weeks 50-52

After the emptiness of my last entry, I have actually watched some films this time. Three of them, in fact — my final three films of the year! And one short too.

Read more here.


Here we go again…

With 2007 finally finished, it’s time to begin all over again for 2008.

Read more here.


A dismal January

This new year of film watching has hardly got off to an auspicious start, with only five new films seen in January. For those who haven’t already done the maths, that rate sees me just reaching 60 by the end of the year — a tad short of 100!

Read more here.


100 Days

the 100th day of 2008! As it’s just over a quarter of the way through the year, and also a nice round number in its own right, and as I did a similar thing at roughly this point last year, it seems an appropriate time for a statisticstastic look at how things are going so far.

Read more here.


What May has been

Ah May! The start of summer! Not that I like summer, personally, as I’m rather adverse to all that heat. But it’s been miserable weather for the most part so far, so I’m all the happier. As is my film viewing, it must be said. Happier, that is, not miserable.

Read more here.


Two-thirds done

With August now behind us, 2008 is two-thirds complete. And so, as I missed halfway, now seems like a moderately appropriate time to reflect on how well my aim of watching 100 new films is going in 2008.

Read more here.


Eternal laziness of the dreamless blogger

11 months down, 1 to go… 81 films down — it should’ve been at least 92. It’s fair to say 100 Films hasn’t gone quite as smoothly this year as it did last

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Only one new title this week... but it's also the monthly running time update -- and, as promised, it's a big'un. Biggest increase ever? To be honest, I can't remember (and I've been doing this for years now, so I'm not going to go check), but surely it's up there.

Number of titles in collection: 1,799 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,209 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 590 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,522 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,947 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,801 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 455 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
327 days, 7 hours, and 51 minutes.
(Up 6 days and 5 hours (precisely) from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

A Fine Romance
3x02 The Hotel
Episode guides for this series are remarkably inconsistent, but this is the episode number the Radio Times said was on (even if their plot description doesn't match), so...

TV

The Great British Bake Off
6x09 Chocolate
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
14x09 (24/9/15 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Falling (2014)
[#141 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Castle
5x05 Probable Cause
5x06 The Final Frontier

Films

Terror by Night (1946)
[#140 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

The 13th, and penultimate, film starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. After years of 'work', I've very nearly finished the series!

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]