TV

Designated Survivor
1x01 Pilot
1x02 The First Day

TV

The Musketeers
3x04 The Queen's Diamonds

The Persuaders!
1x19 A Home of One's Own

TV

The Bletchley Circle
2x03 Uncustomed Goods Part 1
2x04 Uncustomed Goods Part 2 [series finale]

TV

The Bletchley Circle
2x01 Blood on Their Hands Part 1
2x02 Blood on Their Hands Part 2

TV

Game of Thrones
7x05 Eastwatch

Twin Peaks
3x14 The Return Part 14

Films

The Girl on the Train (2016)
[#113 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]

Films

Death Note 2: The Last Name (2006)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]
aka Desu nôto: The last name

My plan to watch loads of films this weekend has, uh, not gone to plan.

this week on 100 Films

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


Arrival (2016)

An intelligent sci-fi movie released by a major studio? What madness is this? A good kind of madness, because Arrival is one of the best — and, importantly, most humane — science fiction movies for years.

Read more here.


Free Fire (2016)

If an hour-long gunfight doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, maybe Free Fire isn’t the movie for you. Conversely, this isn’t a Jason Statham flick: instead of an hour of highly-choreographed gunplay, most of the participants get injured early on and end up seeking cover around the rubble-strewn floor of an abandoned factory, occasionally taking potshots at each other. Most action movies are defined by their characters sprinting about — in this one, they crawl.

Read more here.


The Fugitive (1993)

Once upon a time this was a blockbuster; nowadays it’d be a mid-budget thriller… and probably wouldn’t get made because Hollywood doesn’t do those anymore. It’s a pleasingly ’90s manhunt movie — they can’t just track his mobile phone or zoom in with a satellite or what have you — but, aside from the nostalgia kick, the quality is a bit wobbly at times. It has strong performances, a breakneck pace (at least early on), and some stunning sequences, but the behind-the-scenes story of many, many drafts and a rushed schedule occasionally leave their mark on the screen

Read more here.


Shin Godzilla (2016)

Written and directed by Hideaki Anno of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame, Shin Godzilla is not just a film about a giant beastie stomping on things. Most obviously, it pitches itself as a kind of political thriller, as an intrepid gang of semi-outsiders battle establishment red tape to get anything done. In this respect it’s something of a satire, though not an overtly comedic one. It also seems to be taking on Japanese society, with the in-built deference to age or rank being an obstacle to problem-solving when it's the young who have the outside-the-box ideas

Read more here.


Suicide Squad (2016)

That there were editing tussles becomes evident almost immediately: the way it introduces Deadshot and Harley before cutting to Waller pitching her plan is a little clunky, surely a re-ordering to get the big-name characters on screen ASAP... However, it really goes awry when Waller’s pitch and introduction of the Enchantress is immediately followed by another meeting where Waller makes her pitch and introduces the Enchantress. Maybe the screenplay was that clunkingly constructed to begin with, or maybe they just made a ham-fisted job of the restructuring.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

Jaws (1975)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2017 #28

Nashville (1975)
[#111 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]
Blindspot 2017 #8

Collection Count

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

Not a great deal to report this week. Well, four new additions, which would be a lot to most people, but things get crazy around here sometimes, and they arrived in two batches almost a whole week apart so it didn't feel like so many.

Anyway...

Number of titles in collection: 2,014 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,174 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 840 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 5,176 [up 6]
Number of films: 2,242 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes: 7,910 [no change]
Number of short films: 583 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Arrival (2016)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2017 #27
+ all the UK Blu-ray's special features, and the Eternal Recurrence: The Score featurette the left off it.

Death Note (2006)
[#110 in 100 Films in a Year 2017]
aka Desu nôto

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
9x03 (19/8/16 edition)

I used to watch this regularly, back when it started, because it's silly and funny but sometimes kinda clever. Then it took off and they started making far too much of it, so I stopped. That was almost two years ago. But I was at a loose end this evening and caught this one on 4seven.

[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

TV

The Bletchley Circle
1x02 Cracking a Killer's Code Part 2
1x03 Cracking a Killer's Code Part 3 [season finale]

Films

Ghost in the Shell 3D (2017)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2017 #26

My full review from when I watched this at the cinema is here, and I left a short comment on Letterboxd about this rewatch.

TV

The Bletchley Circle
1x01 Cracking a Killer's Code Part 1

The Persuaders!
1x18 The Long Goodbye

Twin Peaks
3x13 The Return Part 13

TV

Game of Thrones
7x04 The Spoils of War

The Musketeers
3x03 Brothers in Arms

Peaky Blinders
2x06 Episode 6 [season finale]

TV

Peaky Blinders
2x05 Episode 5

Films

The Fugitive (1993)
[2nd or so watch]

Rewatchathon 2017 #25

+ the Blu-ray's special features (bar the commentary)

this week on 100 Films

It was a brand-new month back on Tuesday, meaning it's time for 100 Films in a Year to look back at the month before...





There was also just 1 brand-new reviews published this week...


22 Jump Street (2014)

they’ve taken one of the most memorable and likeable bits of the first movie — the meta-jokes at the expense of the film itself — and ramped them up to 11. And it works. Or, at least, it did for me. Is this the most meta comedy ever? I dunno, but I can’t think of another that so relentlessly riffs off both the expected tropes of its genre and its own status as a sequel.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Peaky Blinders
2x03 Episode 3
2x04 Episode 4