TV

Castle
7x18 At Close Range

Junior Bake Off
4x03 Heat Three
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Deer Hunter (1978)
[#181 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2016 #11

this week on 100 Films

Once again, it's time for 100 Films in a Year to look back at the past month on TV...




Also this week, I published just 2 brand-new reviews...


Enemy (2013)

There’s no denying that Enemy is atmospheric, but the actual story was a bit too elliptical for my taste. It was all going fairly swimmingly until it suddenly stopped just before it appeared to be going to offer answers. That naturally suggests you need to go back and reconsider / deconstruct what you’ve already seen, but it nonetheless makes it feel a bit frustrating, at least initially, and makes reading theories online a virtual necessity

Read more here.


A Knight's Tale (2001)

Renowned for its anachronistic use of rock music, there’s actually not much of that, but there’s plenty of comedy and adventure — too much: it’s a little long... An able cast keep it ticking: Heath Ledger hefts the derring-do and romance, with comic support from Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk, and Paul Bettany; but love interest Shannyn Sossamon is clearly miscast.

Read more here.


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


Three Kings (1999)

Writer-director David O. Russell may have become increasingly acclaimed this decade with Oscar-nominated movies like The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and American Hustle, but for me this is still his best work. It mixes laugh-out-loud comedy with serious points about war and an ultimately emotional storyline, created with a filmmaking verve that is frequently exciting and inventive

Read more here.


Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Memorable Scene: Remote control car, James Bond style. Bond lies in the backseat of his BMW, driving it around a multi-storey car park with his mobile phone, deploying its weapons against a gang of attackers. It was a fun concept back in ’97, but I imagine you could do it yourself with an app now. Apart from the weapons. And the legal implications. So maybe not.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
7x17 Hong Kong Hustle

Class
1x06 Detained
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
[#180 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Collection Count

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

I thought there'd be a few more things to report this week, but they didn't materialise in the end, so there's just this:

Number of titles in collection: 1,908 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,196 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 714 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,907 [up 5]
Number of films in collection: 2,108 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,477 [up 10]
Number of short films in collection: 500 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Grand Tour
1x01 The Holy Trinity

"Not At All Like Top Gear, Honest" begins... and is very entertaining, too.

And just in case you forgot that Amazon also own IMDb...

[Watch it (again) on Amazon Prime Video.]

TV

Castle
7x16 The Wrong Stuff

TV

The Musketeers
2x10 Trial and Punishment [season finale]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
9x04 (12/11/16 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Arrival (2016)
[#179 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Suicide Squad (2016)
[#178 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Castle
7x14 Resurrection
7x15 Reckoning

Junior Bake Off
4x02 Heat Two
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Swiss Army Man (2016)
[#177 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Arrow
5x02 The Recruits

Live at the Apollo
12x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Class
1x05 Brave-ish Heart
Including a short educational interlude about Sikhism, apparently.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Junior Bake Off
4x01 Heat One
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Red Dwarf
11x01 Twentica

Films

Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
[#176 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

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


Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016)

Holy nostalgia hit, Batman! This animated movie reunites the surviving stars of the enduringly popular ’60s Batman TV series (and spin-off movie) for a new adventure in the style of their classic ones — that is to say it’s funny and colourful, a world away from the Dark Knight version of Batman we’re so accustomed to these days.

Read more here.


Fantastic Four (2015)

What could have been a comfortable 3-star movie, maybe even 4 if it followed through well enough, is dragged down to 2 by studio meddling. Will they never learn? Nonetheless, I actually enjoyed enough of Fantastic Four that, while it won’t be going on the long-list of contenders for the best movies I’ve seen this year, I won’t be putting it on the list for the worst either.

Read more here.


Moneyball (2011)

it’s like turning on a real game of any sport you know nothing about: you can discern some stuff, but the coverage is not being produced for you. At one point it cuts to a match and a caption informs us it’s the “bottom of the 9th”. I’m sure that means something to baseball fans, but I can tell you the rest of us haven’t got the foggiest. Is the “bottom” at the beginning or the end? The 9th what? And is it the 9th of 9 or the 9th of 10? Or is it the fact it’s the 9th that’s significant here? For Moneyball as a movie in its own right, rather than some niche special interest thing, this attitude is a drawback.

Read more here.


The Survivalist (2015)

’70s self-sufficiency sitcom The Good Life meets bleak post-apocalypse drama The Road in this technically-science-fiction dramatic thriller, the BAFTA-nominated debut of writer-director Stephen Fingleton.

Read more here.


The Visit (2015)

Although Shyamalan has always moved in supernatural circles in his movies, he’s not really directed a proper Horror movie before now. Nonetheless, it’s not surprising that his skill set lends itself to the genre. Although the found-footage format is a little forced at times (isn’t it always?), it’s also used effectively to create some nailbiting sequences, putting you alongside the kids as they fear just what the hell is going in. And some of it is pretty darn freaky.

Read more here.


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


Star Wars (1977)

Lucas almost instantly conjures up a universe that feels wholly-imagined and genuinely lived-in... Throw in an array of likeable and entertaining characters, plus groundbreaking special effects, and you’re on to a winner. The plot may just be a classical hero narrative, but it’s in space and has laser swords — that counts for a lot.

Read more here.


Team America: World Police (2004)

“Matt Damon.”

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
7x13 I, Witness

Class
1x04 Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Young Adam (2003)
[2nd watch]

Collection Count

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

Even more stuff! And there'll be more next week. And the week after. And...

Number of titles in collection: 1,907 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,196 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 713 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 4,902 [up 5]
Number of films in collection: 2,108 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,467 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 500 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Castle
7x12 Private Eye Caramba!

The Musketeers
2x09 The Accused

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
5x05 Episode 5