TV

University Challenge
Christmas 2015 UCL v Birmingham
Christmas 2015 Oriel, Oxford v Trinity, Cambridge
Christmas 2015 Manchester v UEA
[Watch these episodes on iPlayer.]

TV

The Making of The Sound of Music Live
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
[#191 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

The Sound of Music Live
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

this week on 100 Films

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


Building Empire (2006)

Building Empire is an unofficial commentary to The Empire Strikes Back. It contains video clips, audio from cast and crew, alternate angles, reconstructed scenes, text facts and insights into the development and creation of the film.

Read more here.


Ed Wood (1994)

Before he descended into self-parody, Tim Burton made movies like this: a biopic of the eponymous ’50s filmmaker, renowned for his so-bad-they’re-good productions. Burton still contributes his trademark dark quirkiness, but it conjures a subject-appropriate tone rather than aimless Burtonesqueness.

Read more here.


Escape from Tomorrow (2013)

Disney meets David Lynch in this arthouse-y psychological thriller, best known for being shot on the QT (i.e. illegally) in DisneyWorld.

Read more here.


The Informant! (2009)

Matt Damon turns whistleblower (or does he?) in this amusing romp based on a true story of complicated corporate fraud.

Read more here.


Le Mépris (1963)

the centrepiece is a 34-minute quiet, passive-aggressive argument between the playwright and Bardot in the aforementioned flat. They go round in circles about staying together or being apart. The point? Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps it’s the unknowableness of the other gender (whichever gender you are). Perhaps it’s just the unknowableness of other people fullstop. Perhaps it’s the unknowableness of our own emotions

Read more here.


Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

the best James Bond movie released in 2015... For all the effort Spectre made to bring classical Bond elements back into the fold, Rogue Nation arguably feels more like a classically-styled Bond movie. It’s not a faultless like-for-like comparison... but the almost-indefinable sensation of this experience is Bondian.

Read more here.


Mr. Holmes (2015)

The story is slight and the pace sedate, the latter seemingly to stretch the former to feature length. I’m not saying it needs the quick-cut whizziness of Sherlock or the Downey Jr movies — doubly so as this is a movie about an older, slower Holmes — but there are times when it could do with a bit of a kick up the backside.

Read more here.


Returning to Jedi (2007)

Returning to Jedi is an unofficial commentary. It contains video, audio and information from over one hundred sources taking you deep into the making of Return of the Jedi.

Read more here.


Star Wars Begins (2011)

Star Wars Begins is an unofficial commentary on Star Wars. It contains video clips, audio from the cast and crew, alternate angles, bloopers, text facts and insights into the development and creation of the film.

Read more here.


Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015)

The characters and performances are likeable, with Raffey Cassidy standing out as a marvellous young find... There are some suitably entertaining action scenes, some moments of visual splendour thanks to the future city, and one long take that is exquisite.

Read more here.


Willow (1988)

A fantasy adventure with a tone and pace reminiscent of Indiana Jones — no surprise it was conceived by George Lucas — Willow somehow passed me by during my prime “watching ’80s genre movies” phase. It’s just a fun romp

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Nowt this week. Next is Christmas, so we shall see...

Number of titles in collection: 1,823 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,211 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 612 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,660 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,992 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,051 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 465 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Live at the Apollo
11x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Outnumbered
1x02 The Special Bowl [4th watch]

TV

Elementary
4x02 Evidence of Things Not Seen

Have I Got News For You
50x09 (4/12/2015 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
4x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Le Mépris (1963)
[#190 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]
aka Contempt

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2015 #9

TV

Castle
5x24 Watershed [season finale]

Detectorists
2x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Escape from Tomorrow (2013)
[#189 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

TV

Arrow
4x08 Legends of Yesterday
Part 2 of 2

The Flash
2x08 Legends of Today
Part 1 of 2

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
4x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Begin Again (2013)
[#188 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015)
[#187 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

this week on 100 Films

As the 100 Films in a Year advent calendar continues, brand-new reviews of 14 films were published this week. They were...


The Babadook (2014)

Perhaps it’s best to not say too much about what’s going on, because the film does a fantastic job blurring the lines between reality and dreams, facts and imaginings, whether it’s all happening or is all in Amelia’s head. For the majority of the film you’ll wonder: is this real? Is she being pranked? By who? A stalker? Her kid? Is she going insane and imagining it all?

Read more here.


Blue Ruin (2013)

Its guiding principle is neat: a semi-comedic version of what would actually happen if an Ordinary Joe tried to enact violent vengeance on murderous criminals.

Read more here.


Circle (2015)

The way the characters interact and the decisions they make are rooted in human nature, and the film keeps you engrossed by exposing their prejudices and how that affects their decision making... This is more of a “what would I do?” kind of film, though; a high-concept thriller, rather than a true character exposé.

Read more here.


A Clockwork Orange (1971)

writer-director Stanley Kubrick adapts Anthony Burgess’ novel into a film so controversially violent the director himself eventually banned it from release in the UK for decades. Almost 45 years on, it’s testament to the film’s power that it is still in parts shocking.

Read more here.


Coherence (2013)

It’s a more gentle kind of sci-fi, though; more domestic. It’s about how these particular people react to the strange situation, rather than being about the situation itself

Read more here.


The Dark Crystal (1982)

there’s fantastic puppetry and strong design… but the story and the manner of its telling — the dialogue, structure, and characters — alternate between boring, annoying, and laughable.

Read more here.


The Decoy Bride (2011)

it’s a standard rom-com, of the form we’ve seen dozens of times, but it’s no worse than most and better than plenty.

Read more here.


The Grandmaster (2013)

As a Western viewer, if you know anything about Ip Man beyond “he’s the chap who trained Bruce Lee”, it’s probably thanks to the pair of eponymous biopics starring Donnie Yen. Heck, if you know that much there’s a fair chance it’s due to those films. This take on the man, directed and co-written by Wong Kar Wai and starring Tony Leung as Ip, is tonally very different

Read more here.


Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

This melancholic apocalyptic comedy wasn’t too well received, which is a shame because I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

Read more here.


sex, lies, and videotape (1989)

Four acquaintances partake in duplicitous relationships and candid sexual discourse in writer-director Steven Soderbergh’s debut drama.

Read more here.


Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)

Aardman’s stop-motion silent comedy will certainly lose to Inside Out across the board come awards season (apart from at the BAFTAs, perhaps), but it’s the more inventive, amusing, innovative, accomplished, and impressive achievement. Delightful.

Read more here.


Stranger by the Lake (2013)

It’s the arthouse gay sex thriller! I’m just going to mention that before it comes the elephant in the room: this movie features lots of ultra-explicit gay sex... it’s worth getting past the initial titillation, because pornography isn’t the point. Rather, it’s an intriguing dramatic thriller about what we’re prepared to accept, risk, or ignore in the name of attraction

Read more here.


They Live (1988)

the meat is satire. Thirty years on, it remains thematically relevant; perhaps even more so. That no one’s actively considering a remake suggests how Hollywood has lost its political teeth.

Read more here.


You're Next (2011)

a horror-thriller that’s really a dark comedy. Murderous home invaders get a surprise when one of their targets is a secret badass.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

A Most Wanted Man (2014)
[#186 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Terminator Genisys (2015)
[#185 in 100 Films in a Year 2015]

Collection Count

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

Not the final pre-Christmas update, but the final one that's likely to have anything to report. Probably. I also suspect it'll be a small Christmas for this Collection Count -- possibly even nonexistent, in fact. But we'll see in a fortnight. For now:

Number of titles in collection: 1,823 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,211 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 612 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,660 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 1,992 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,051 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 465 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Castle
5x23 The Human Factor

Detectorists
2x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Jessica Jones
1x12 AKA Take a Bloody Number
1x13 AKA Smile [season finale]

TV

Elementary
4x01 The Past is Parent

TV

Castle
5x22 Still

Live at the Apollo
11x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Arrow
4x07 Brotherhood