Films

Call Me by Your Name (2017)
[#80 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

this week on 100 Films

Time to look at my past month's TV viewing on 100 Films in a Year this week, including big reviews of A Series of Unfortunate Events season 2 and Westworld season 1...





And in film, there were 5 brand-new reviews published this week...


Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008)

This is the real Spinal Tap: a rockumentary about heavy metal group Anvil, who once headlined alongside Whitensake and Bon Jovi, and are cited as an influence on groups like Megadeth and Metallica, but who haven’t enjoyed the same success as any of them. The film follows the group as they attempt to relaunch with a tour and new album.

Read more here.


The Dark Tower (2017)

I don’t know what people were hating, because I thought it really wasn’t that bad. I can’t comment on its faithfulness or thoroughness as an adaptation, but as an action-fantasy movie in its own right I thought it held together pretty well. It only cost $60 million (a bargain for a blockbuster nowadays), but they got good value for money: it doesn’t look cheap, and it has a respectable lead cast as well.

Read more here.


The Monster Squad (1987)

The film wasn’t a success on its original release, but has gained a cult following since. It feels like that kind of movie, too. It’s also the kind of film I can imagine you’d love if you saw it at the right age, but the “right age” is not, it would seem, the one I am now. [...] That’s not to say it’s without value. There’s great make-up and creature effects, better than you might expect given the overall quality of the film, which is what you get when Stan Winston’s involved.

Read more here.


Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

This is Spinal Rap: comedy trio The Lonely Island star as the Style Boyz, a popular pop-rap boy band who disbanded after their frontman, Conner4Real, decided to go solo. The mockumentary follows Conner as he goes on tour to launch his second album.

Read more here.


Zatoichi's Flashing Sword (1964)

Flashing Sword offers a more straightforward story than some other instalments of the Zatoichi series: the opposing sides and their differences are thoroughly established, and one of the gangs are even clearly the good guys! Makes a change from Ichi having to pick between the lesser of two evils and/or trying to wipe out both sides. Some other reviewers seem to find the story simplistic or lightweight. Conversely, I appreciated the clarity of approach, and thought the film found different ways to add complexity beyond pure plot gymnastics.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Five new Blu-rays this week, all acquired at bargain prices, push my total collection to a nice round number this. Every other number is... not round. Ah well.

Number of titles in collection: 2,100 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,163 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 937 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 5,374 [up 9]
Number of films: 2,341 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes: 8,018 [no change]
Number of short films: 607 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

American Assassin (2017)
[#79 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Have I Got News For You
55x02 (13/4/18 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Travel Man
6x03 48 Hours in Madeira
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

TV

Westworld
1x10 The Bicameral Mind [season finale]

Films

Identity (2003)
[#78 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
[#77 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Archer
5x05 Archer Vice: Southbound and Down

Westworld
1x08 Trace Decay
1x09 The Well-Tempered Clavier

Films

Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (1964)
[#76 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Muppets from Space (1999)
[#75 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Westworld
1x07 Trompe L'Oeil

Films

Princess Mononoke (1997)
[#73 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]
+ all the special features on the UK Blu-ray

Witness (1985)
[#74 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Westworld
1x05 Contrapasso
1x06 The Adversary

Films

The Karate Kid (2010)
[#72 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

this week on 100 Films

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


Candyman (1992)

you don’t know where the story’s going to go or how it’s going to end, which is always an unusual sensation in a genre movie. It contributes to it being an effective piece of horror as well. It’s creepy and atmospheric, as well as containing straight-up jumps and gore. It’s all elevated by a fantastic score from Philip Glass, which helps lend a particular type of mood — kind of religious, almost; mythic.

Read more here.


The Director and the Jedi (2018)

The Director and the Jedi isn’t some cobbled-together EPK featurette, where talking heads tell you how wonderful everyone is and how great the working environment was... For this one Last Jedi’s writer-director Rian Johnson and his producer Ram Bergman contacted documentary-maker Anthony Wonke to follow them around throughout the film’s production and provide a more truthful account of the film’s creation. If that sounds like it would just turn out a video diary, the key would seem to be Wonke, who brings considerably more artistry than that. Most making-ofs are, for want of a better word, educational — “this is how they did it”. There’s some of that here, naturally, but it’s not about that. It’s more often about the psychology and emotion of being the people making a new Star Wars movie.

Read more here.


Shrek (2001)

DreamWorks’ irreverent riff on fairytale animations was a breath of fresh air back in 2001, allowing them to net the first Best Animated Feature Oscar ahead of Disney or Pixar. A decade and a half of imitators have taken the shine off that somewhat, as have advances in technology (old CGI ages worse than old cel animation), but it remains an amusing and quotable film, with a surprisingly strong moral message at its heart.

Read more here.


Shrek 2 (2004)

I think Shrek 2 has fared better. Arguably the first one has more pure originality, giving birth to an irreverent fairytale meta-verse, but Shrek 2 expands on those building blocks and plays with the ideas. There are lots of fun movie spoofs, the climax is a legitimately good action sequence, and there’s even a decent thematic throughline about what you’re prepared to do or give up for the one you love.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Archer
5x04 Archer Vice: House Call

Westworld
1x04 Dissonance Theory

Films

Mission: Impossible II (2000)
[5th watch]

Rewatchathon 2018 #15

It seems incredible this is my fifth watch of this, considering how rarely I rewatch movies, but that's what my records say. I wrote a little more related to this particular rewatch here.

Collection Count

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

A fresh DVD and a DVD-to-BD upgrade this week mean it looks like I just bought that one new BD when actually that was the upgrade -- hilarious!

Number of titles in collection: 2,095 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,163 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 932 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,365 [up 1]
Number of films: 2,336 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,018 [up 1]
Number of short films: 606 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Westworld
1x03 The Stray

Films

Geostorm 3D (2017)
[#70 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
[#71 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Archer
5x03 Archer Vice: A Debt of Honor