TV

Castle
6x07 Like Father, Like Daughter

The Great British Bake Off
7x04 Batter Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
6x06 Get a Clue

The Musketeers
2x05 The Return

Films

Tale of Tales (2015)
[#148 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

One of Us
Part 3 Glenarvon Loch
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
[#147 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

One of Us
Part 2 Beneath the Surface
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
10x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

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


Barely Lethal (2015)

if its establishing concept sounds like something you might enjoy, and you go in with suitably lowered expectations, then I think there’s a fair chance you’d find it to be a frequently amusing, occasionally very funny, and sometimes quite sweet high school comedy — with added doses of action comedy for good measure.

Read more here.


Ben-Hur (1959)

the other subtext I alluded to earlier: the possibility that Judah and Messala were once lovers. The claim originates with screenwriter Gore Vidal, who may or may not have written some or all of the screenplay that was used for shooting. According to Vidal, he and Stephen Boyd discussed the idea before shooting began, and then Boyd played the scenes with it in mind. [...] the content of the film makes it easy to believe — the scenes between Messala and Judah, especially when they’re first reunited, absolutely play like there’s a romantic history between them.

Read more here.


Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969)

With ten varied adversaries to defeat, Return puts greater emphasis on the action than did its more dramatic forebear. The fighting is solid, with the enemies’ different skills adding some occasional freshness, but the plot underneath is thin.

Read more here.


Steve Jobs (2015)

Sorkin’s writing is awe-inducing, especially to anyone who’s ever dabbled in or dreamed of being a writer. The construction of it all, at every level — from line to line, from scene to scene, from act to act, across the whole piece… And this is a particularly magnificent construction, so precisely structured, rife with mirroring and repetition, and yet done so well that it doesn’t feel locked in to or constrained by an unwavering structure.

Read more here.


Ten Little Indians (1974)

The third English-language screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s famed mystery, one of the best-selling novels of all time, relocates the action to the middle of a desert but is otherwise a word-for-word remake of the 1965 version [...] It’s interesting, therefore, that this lacks the atmosphere or tension of that version.

Read more here.


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


Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

an exciting, humorous, creepy, fun movie. That the sequels haven’t lived up to it is disappointing, but the first still stands as a near-perfect example of big-budget swashbuckling entertainment — it’s basically the dictionary definition of a summer blockbuster.

Read more here.


Pulp Fiction (1994)

Most films can be divvied up into heroes and villains one way or another — I’ve certainly managed it for the previous 70 films in this list. Pulp Fiction muddies its waters considerably, with criminals for heroes at the best of times, and the “short story collection” style meaning there’s an abundance of characters anyway, some of whom arguably change sides from one tale to the next. Nonetheless, you’d have to point to hitmen Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield, and their ever-so-Tarantino rambling conversations about nothing and everything, as the film’s primary duo.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
5x02 Episode 2

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
5x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Films

Rushmore (1998)
[#146 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,885 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 683 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,863 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 2,076 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,421 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Are You Being Served?
You Can't Teach a New Dog Old Tricks [2016 special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Castle
6x05 Time Will Tell

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

One of Us
Part 1 The Storm
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
6x04 Number One Fan

The Great British Bake Off
7x03 Bread Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Midnight Special (2016)
[#145 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
5x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Films

Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[2nd watch]

This was #18 in 100 Films 2010.

TV

Doctor Foster
1x05 Episode 5 [season finale]

John Bishop: In Conversation With...
1x01 James Corden

Films

Spotlight (2015)
[#144 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

2016 entered yet another new month this past week, meaning it was time to look back at August on 100 Films in a Year...




As well as that, only 2 brand-new reviews were published this week... but one of them was an epic...


The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)

100 Films in a Year #1000 — Written, directed, and narrated by film journalist/historian/fan Mark Cousins, The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an epic 15-hour account of innovation throughout the history of moviemaking, which began its premiere broadcast five years ago today. It’s an acclaimed work, to be sure, but one that also attracts its fair share of controversy — about films and filmmakers that Cousins chose to leave out, in some cases about those he chose to include, and about how the documentary itself was made: the oddly framed interviews, the artistic shots of baubles, Cousins’ accent and vocal inflections.

Read more here.


Zoolander (2001)

The story of an almost-past-it model who’s brainwashed into being an assassin, it’s essentially a one joke film (“aren’t models dumb?”), but gets surprisingly good mileage out of that. Not relentlessly amusing, nor the best thing on anyone’s CV, but some bits are very funny.

Read more here.


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


One Hour Photo (2002)

“Family photos depict smiling faces… births, weddings, holidays, children’s birthday parties. People take pictures of the happy moments in their lives. Someone looking through our photo album would conclude that we had led a joyous, leisurely existence free of tragedy. No one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget.”

Read more here.


Phone Booth (2002)

Regular readers will know of my fondness for the single-location thriller, and this is one of the films that helped define that love. And events occur in real-time, which is just a bonus. Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland are both on excellent form as the hostage who maybe has it coming and the hostage taker who maybe has a point.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
6x03 Need to Know

Doctor Foster
1x04 Episode 4

Collection Count

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

One new title this week, and a couple of tweaks on numbers that I must've got wrong somewhere. Hey-ho.

On the bright side: running time update! Yay!

Number of titles in collection: 1,884 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,202 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 682 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,862 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 2,075 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,421 [down 1]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
357 days, 19 hours, and 22 minutes.
(Up 4 days, 4 hours, and 53 minutes from last month.)

That's the biggest running time increase in six months, which was also caused by adding a complete TV series -- a slightly longer once, hence being slightly bigger!

See you next week, faithful reader.