Opera

Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)
at Glyndebourne

this week on 100 Films

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


Cinderella (2015)

Disney’s animated classic is re-imagined in live-action, losing the songs but expanding the story. The latter serves to find a little more realism in the setup (how Cinders became a servant to her stepmother, etc), as well as in the characters’ motivations and actions.

Read more here.


Crimson Peak (2015)

If you’ve not at least heard of The Castle of Otranto then there’s a chance your expectations of Crimson Peak may be misaligned. Which is not to say you won’t like it, especially if you’re of an open-minded disposition, but if having heard it’s “Gothic” and a “horror movie” has conjured up something Hammer-esque in your mind, then you are indeed off base. [It's] a Gothic Romance, which is as distinct from “horror” as it is from “romance”.

Read more here.


Spy (Extended Cut) (2015)

Apparently [writer-director Paul] Feig is a fan of James Bond and developed, wrote, produced, and directed Spy because he knew no one would ever let him do a real Bond movie. I guess that explains why some of it does work passably well as a genuine action/thriller.

Read more here.


Superman Returns (2006)

Sitting down to Superman Returns cold, it feels like you’re watching a sequel — and in many respects, that’s what it is. Singer loves the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, quite rightly, and when offered the chance to make a new movie with the character essentially set out to make Superman III... What was daft was making a sequel to a 26-year-old movie and assuming that the audience would be instantly familiar with the whole setup.

Read more here.


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


The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Although he’s covered by CGI in the final film, it’s Andy Serkis that really brings Gollum — and his alter ego, Sméagol — to life. It may have led to Serkis becoming the go-to expert in performance capture, but it’s also a great acting performance, full of light and shade, and creating sympathy for an ultimately villainous character.

Read more here.


The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

made infinitely better by its extended cut, which does clock in at a whopping four and a half hours. It’s a wonderful end to one of the most epic tales in all of fiction (and if I hear anything about the “five million endings” I’ll reach through your screen and slap you unless you can tell me how you would have ended an 11 hour film better).

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,870 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 668 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,810 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 2,059 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,306 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Gilmore Girls
7x18 Hay Bale Maze

Person of Interest
5x03 Truth Be Told

Poldark
1x08 Episode 8 [season finale]

Films

American Ultra (2015)
[#119 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Cowboy Bebop
1x17 Mushroom Samba
1x18 Speak Like a Child
Right, let's try this again (again).

Gilmore Girls
7x17 Gilmore Girls Only

Person of Interest
5x02 Snafu

Poldark
1x07 Episode 7

Preacher
1x05 South Will Rise Again
[Watch it (again) on Amazon Prime Instant Video.]

TV

Gilmore Girls
7x16 Will You Be My Lorelai Gilmore?
One of the few genuinely good episodes in the otherwise fairly dismal seventh season.

Person of Interest
5x01 B.S.O.D.
I think this final season has already ended in the US. Goodness knows when Channel 5 will show it here, so we're just getting on with it by... other means.

Poldark
1x06 Episode 6

Films

Cold in July (2014)
[#118 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Gilmore Girls
7x15 I'm a Kayak, Hear Me Roar

Poldark
1x05 Episode 5
The new series seems to be imminent, so finally getting on with finishing the first (only 1¼ years since I left off!)

Films

Superman Returns (2006)
[#117 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

The South Bank Show [Sky Arts]
5x03 Russell T Davies

this week on 100 Films

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


Ghosts of Mars (2001)

There are a good number of well-regarded John Carpenter films I’ve not seen that I could spend my time on, but I chose to expend it on this critically-mauled sci-fi-horror-Western from the first year of the current millennium. But sometimes watching poorly-regarded films pays off, because while Ghosts of Mars is no classic, it is actually pretty entertaining.

Read more here.


Grand Piano (2013)

Running under 80 minutes before the credits roll, Grand Piano is a brisk thriller that barely has time to be anything less than engrossing. It relies on keeping you entertained with its series of quick reveals, twists, and sequences of tension

Read more here.


Pillow Talk (1959)

The “they hate each other, will they get together?” storyline is, of course, obvious, but that’s beside the point. The leads spark off each other wonderfully, director Michael Gordon finds enjoyably inventive uses for split-screen and voiceover, and the Eastmancolor cinematography looks gorgeous in HD.

Read more here.


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


The Lion King (1994)

Big romantic number Can You Feel the Love Tonight won the Oscar, and there were nominations for epic opener Circle of Life and quotable comedy hit Hakuna Matata, and you shouldn’t overlook the fun and impressive choreography of I Just Can’t Wait to Be King, but for me the best number is Scar’s Be Prepared. I do love a good villain’s song.

Read more here.


The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Now that it’s fêted as one of the greatest film trilogies ever made, it’s easy to forget what a gamble a three-film, $300 million adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s unfilmable novel seemed back when production started in the late ’90s; especially as it was to be made by a director whose track record was low-budget horror films, with a cast mostly without star names, filmed on the other side of the planet, where little news leaked out to the wider world, and with all three films shot at once... [But] the quality of the work is unquestionable: this is exciting, funny, emotional, transportive, epic filmmaking of the highest order.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

Zootropolis (2016)
[#116 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

aka Zootopia

Collection Count

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

Just one addition this week... but it's a 23-disc, 92-episode TV box set. Big boosts for those updates, then -- and it comes just in time for the monthly running time update, too.

Number of titles in collection: 1,869 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 667 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,809 [up 23]
Number of films in collection: 2,058 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,306 [up 92]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
353 days and 37 minutes.
(Up 3 days, 6 hours, and 12 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Preacher
1x04 Monster Swamp
[Watch it (again) on Amazon Prime Instant Video.]

Articles

Warcraft Wasn't Made For You: Alienated Viewers and Disengaged Critics
by Richard Newby (from Audiences Everywhere)

Great piece on the abundance of poorly-reviewed films this year being more to do with bad criticism than bad movies.

this week on 100 Films

It's a new month, which means this update begins with a look back at June on 100 Films in a Year...




Also this week, my 100 Favourites project passed the halfway mark. Here's a post marking that occasion:




With those goings on, just 1 brand-new review was published this week...


Adam (2009)

Star Hugh Dancy worked with with writer-director Max Mayer for a month before filming began to develop the character, and spoke with individuals affected by Aspergers to learn about their feelings, sensory issues, and interests. It clearly paid off: I imagine it must be tricky to pull off a character like that without taking it too far, but Dancy is great in the role.

Read more here.


Finally, there were 2 new regular 100 Favourites posts...


Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

it’s a clever, witty, gothic adventure… for kids! Jim Carrey is on fine form as the evil Count Olaf, there’s quality support from some recognisable thesps in guest-star-level roles, the kids are a likeable bunch, and baby Sunny’s subtitled observations are frequently the highlight. Some reviews describe it as “superficial” or a “pantomime”, but even if it is, it’s devilishly entertaining.

Read more here.


Léon (1994)

Besson brews the grittily realistic with something far more fantastical to create a film that is, perhaps, a little too unique for some to get a handle on... For the majority, however, Léon is a gripping, characterful, rewatchable masterpiece.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

This week, I picked up the Tarantino XX Blu-ray box set in a sale. It replaces 6 DVDs and 1 Blu-ray (and there's one other film in the set which I'm keeping my individual copy of, just for the packaging). So, that's how I've gone down 6 titles but only down 1 disc and yet somehow up 1 film.

Number of titles in collection: 1,868 [down 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [down 6]
Of which Blu-rays: 666 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,786 [down 1]
Number of films in collection: 2,058 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,214 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Pan (2015)
[#115 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Game of Thrones
6x10 The Winds of Winter [season finale]