TV

Arrow
4x10 Blood Debts

Gilmore Girls
4x16 The Reigning Lorelai [2nd watch]
4x17 Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist [2nd watch]

The X Files
10x06 My Struggle II [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

TV

Elementary
4x13 A Study in Charlotte

Gilmore Girls
4x15 Scene in a Mall [2nd watch]

Grantchester
2x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Elementary
4x12 A View with a Room

Gilmore Girls
4x14 The Incredible Sinking Lorelais [2nd watch]

this week on 100 Films

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


Daybreakers (2009)

offers an original and imaginative world (how would mankind cope if we couldn’t go out in daylight? Maybe like this). It’s somewhat let down by a few campy performances and a sensibility that reverts to action sequences, but originality counts for a lot

Read more here.


Kill List (2011)

mixes in its genre elements — and they’re elements from a couple of different genres at that — so gradually that it’s hard to discuss them without spoiling the film... It’s kind of a compilation of traditional British movie genres: we begin with kitchen sink, then discover we’re actually watching a crime film, before the final act swerves (though not without foreshadowing) into folk horror.

Read more here.


Macbeth (2015)

The text is heavily cut (a copy & paste & delete-bits job that somehow took three screenwriters), to the displeasure of some critics, though this is primarily because Kurzel chose to supplant some of the dialogue with Filmmaking. In a film?! How very dare he! What I mean, more specifically, is that he’s visualised parts of the text; applied the old rule of “show don’t tell”.

Read more here.


The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Guy Ritchie is a self-confessed non-fan of the classic ’60s spy-fi series, so he seems a somewhat odd choice to helm this long-gestating big-screen reboot... Unsurprisingly, he gives it a bit of the Sherlock Holmeses (namely, a semi-comedic tone and appropriately swish, ’60s-ish direction)

Read more here.


Also, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Casino Royale (2006)

Bourne happened, shifting the playing field of the spy-action genre... What Casino Royale does skilfully is acknowledge the changes brought by Bourne, but adapt them to Bond’s slightly more classical style (something Quantum of Solace fumbled). At the same time, it acknowledges and frequently subverts that Bond formula

Read more here.


Children of Men (2006)

Cuarón mixes intelligent near-future sci-fi with exciting, and excitingly-realised, action sequences to create an action-thriller of a movie that stimulates both the mind and the adrenal glands. A fantastic film in every respect.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The X Files
10x05 Babylon
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Collection Count

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

As predicted, nothing this week. Next week: something.

Number of titles in collection: 1,844 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,210 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 634 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,726 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 2,017 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,187 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 465 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Office Space (1999)
[#54 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Elementary
4x11 Down Where the Dead Delight

Gilmore Girls
4x13 Nag Hammadi is Where They Found the Gnostic Gospels [2nd watch]

Penn & Teller: Fool Us
2x01 Phone-y Business
Remember this ITV series from nearly six years ago? Well, it aired in the US in 2014 and was a hit for the network, so they commissioned a new run (now in Las Vegas with US magicians) which Channel 5 have bought over here. There's going to be a third season, too.
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Films

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x11 In the Clamor and the Clangor [2nd watch]
4x12 A Family Matter [2nd watch]

Person of Interest
4x03 Wingman
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Films

Fast & Furious 7 (2015)
[#52 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]
aka Furious Seven

TV

Dickensian
1x20 Episode 20 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Flash
2x10 Potential Energy

Gilmore Girls
4x09 Ted Koppel's Big Night Out [2nd watch]
4x10 The Nanny and the Professor [2nd watch]

Films

Kill List (2011)
[#51 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x08 Die, Jerk [2nd watch]

Person of Interest
4x02 Nautilus
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Shetland
3x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The X Files
10x04 Home Again
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

Films

The Book of Life (2014)
[#50 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x07 The Festival of Living Art [2nd watch]

Shetland
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Barely Lethal (2015)
[#49 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
[#48 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

A new month (nearly a week ago, I know) means it's time for a look back at the past month over at 100 Films in a Year, and February was a good'un:




Around that, three brand-new reviews were published to this week...


12 Years a Slave (2013)

[Chiwetel Ejiofor gives] an incredible lead performance — restrained most of the time, evoking Solomon’s internal life subtly rather than showily, but with carefully executed break-outs of emotion.

Read more here.


Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. (2012/2013)

I’ve read more than one review bemoaning the confusion at the opening of the film [...] for me this was the most engaging and exciting segment of the movie. As well as a couple of thrilling action scenes, it juggles character relationships in interesting ways, establishing a new status quo unlike that we’ve seen before in the franchise. It culminates in a fantastic stand-off between former allies — indeed, former friends.

Read more here.


Snatch. (2000)

Guy Ritchie’s second feature met with relative indifference 16 years ago, consensus deeming it Lock Stock Mk.2 and finding Ritchie needed to branch out if he was to meet his debut’s promise... The consensus is very different today: taking IMDb’s Top 250 as a bellwether, Snatch is #94 and Lock Stock is #138.

Read more here.


Finally, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Technical Wizardry: The cinematography and editing, according to some.
Letting the Side Down: The cinematography and editing, according to some.

Read more here.


Casablanca (1942)

remembered now as much for its selection of ever-quotable lines as for anything else — you don’t have to have seen the film to know that if you go walking into all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world and someone’s looking at you, kid, then maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon you should round up all the usual suspects again, Sam, for the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Or something.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x06 An Affair to Remember [2nd watch]

The Voice UK
5x09 The Battles 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
[#47 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]