Films

Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969)
[#101 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Game of Thrones
6x06 Blood of My Blood

Have I Got News For You
51x07 (20/5/2016 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Upstart Crow
1x03 The Apparel Proclaims the Man
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Arrow
4x20 Genesis

DC's Legends of Tomorrow
1x11 The Magnificent Eight

Elementary
4x24 A Difference in Kind [season finale]

The Flash
2x21 The Runaway Dinosaur

Gilmore Girls
7x10 Merry Fisticuffs

Films

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
[#100 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2016 #5

Comics

Boys' Night by Max Landis & AP Quach

This comic -- about a middle-aged Mickey Mouse & friends hanging out, getting drunk, like real middle-aged guys -- was recommended somewhere a couple of days ago as an example of why Max Landis is worthwhile, and... well, it's fine... but I don't get what's so great about it. Hey ho.

this week on 100 Films

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


Hamlet (1964)

A black-and-white, two-and-a-half hour Shakespeare adaptation in subtitled Russian? No, wait, come back! Actually, don’t bother, because if you’re turned off by any or all of that description then, yeah, this isn’t for you. If you don’t object, however, then you’ll find a film that the likes of Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, and Sir Kenneth Branagh have hailed as the greatest film adaptation of arguably the Bard’s most revered play.

Read more here.


SuperBob (2015)

begins as a faux-documentary; a film being made about Bob and his life, which makes sense because who wouldn’t be interested in a documentary on the world’s only superhero? For us real-life viewers, though, it’s a form that feels a little tired at this point — I involuntarily groaned out loud when I realised that’s where it was going. Stick with it, though, because the conceit is all but dropped fairly early on, and the film begins to develop in nice directions.

Read more here.


X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

With so many characters to deal with, the film becomes a little overburdened with subplots. It’s trying to be a trilogy-former for the remnants of the First Class cast... but it’s also trying to introduce the new-old gang of X-Men, and establish their characters to head-up future movies; and it also has to deal with establishing its villain and his plans. It’s a big ask, and while director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg do manage to keep all the plates spinning and achieve something with most of them... some plot threads do feel perfunctory

Read more here.


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


GoldenEye (1995)

Pierce Brosnan is Bond, James Bond, for the first time. After the almost-franchise-killing seriousness of Timothy Dalton, Brosnan nails Bond for the nostalgic ’90s: a dash of Sean Connery’s grit, a dash of Roger Moore’s raised-eyebrow humour, a whole lot of suaveness. For a while, the old “Connery or Moore?” question became “Connery, Moore or Brosnan?”

Read more here.


Gone with the Wind (1939)

It’s an epic in the truest sense of the word, with a story spanning many years and many miles, passing by historical events in the process. However, at it’s core it’s the story of a tumultuous romance between two people, who may love each other or may hate each other, but who, with their unique, selfish, manipulative perspectives, are surely perfect for each other.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

The Assassin (2015)
[#99 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Collection Count

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

There's a tasty pile of new additions this week...

Number of titles in collection: 1,868 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,209 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 659 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 4,777 [up 12]
Number of films in collection: 2,050 [up 14]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,214 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine #500

Awesome double-magazine 500th issue, including a very candid interview with Steven Moffat, with snippets like this.

Films

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
[#98 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Preacher
1x01 Pilot
[Watch it (again) on Amazon Prime Instant Video.]

TV

Game of Thrones
6x05 The Door
Hodor.

TV

The Flash
2x20 Rupture

Gilmore Girls
7x09 Knit, People, Knit!

Films

Just Friends (2005)
[#97 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

First up on 100 Films in a Year this week, it's the monthly TV review -- including coverage of David Tennant's Big Finish Doctor Whos...




Back to films: 3 reviews were published this week...


300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

In every respect — from the clunky structure, to the leaden dialogue, to the poor performances, to the cheap visuals, to the fake CGI — this doesn’t feel like the $110 million blockbuster it is, but like a direct-to-Syfy TV movie.

Read more here.


The Fighter (2010)

I don’t normally care for boxing movies (I even gave the sainted Raging Bull just 3 stars), but I rather enjoyed this. Perhaps that’s because it’s about the familial drama as much as it is pugilism, but then the same could be said of Bull, so who knows — maybe I’m just becoming inured to the sport. Heck, I even found myself invested in the outcome during the climactic bout.

Read more here.


Warrior (2011)

It’s a constant surprise to me that Warrior is on the IMDb Top 250 — and in a very secure 146th place, too — for two reasons: firstly because I’m not sure I’d ever heard anyone actually talk about it, except in passing as part of “the rise of Tom Hardy”-type passages; and secondly because, from the outside, it doesn’t look like a very Top 250-y kind of film... Having chosen to watch it in part to assuage that confusion, I still find its placement just as baffling.

Read more here.


And finally, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Gladiator (2000)

Memorable Quote: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.” — Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor Marcus Aurelius; father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife.

Read more here.


The Godfather (1972)

Has it really been almost eight years since the IMDb Top 250’s unshakeable #1 was usurped? The Godfather sat pretty at the top of that user-voted ranking for the best part of nine years, its balance between critically-acclaimed filmmaking finesse and quotable gangster machinations almost perfectly calibrated for that website’s prevailing demographic. (It’s since settled at #2, hardly a failure.)

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

DC's Legends of Tomorrow
1x10 Progeny

Elementary
4x23 The Invisible Hand

Films

Hamlet (1964)
[#96 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]
aka Gamlet, or Гамлет
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Nothing to report this week, but next should see at least four additions.

Number of titles in collection: 1,862 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,209 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 653 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,765 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 2,036 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,214 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 472 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Arrow
4x19 Canary Cry

Gilmore Girls
7x08 Introducing Lorelai Planetarium

Have I Got News For You
51x06 (13/5/2016 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Audio Drama

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures
1x03 Death and the Queen [season finale]
Read my opinion on all three Big Finish 10th Doctor adventures in the 100 Films monthly TV round-up, here.