TV

Westworld
2x06 Phase Space

Films

Superman II (1980)
[#128 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

I can't be 100% certain I've not seen this before (I liked the first Superman when I saw it as a kid, so I don't know why I wouldn't've watched the sequel), but I didn't actually remember any of it, so I'm going with a new number.

this week on 100 Films

For the second month in a row, it was a new "best month ever" at 100 Films in a Year. Read all about that here...





Also this week, 6 brand-new reviews...


Deadpool 2 (2018)

I enjoyed it less than I enjoyed the first one the first time I saw it, but I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed the first one the second time I saw it. To clarify: when I first watched Deadpool, I loved it... When I rewatched it two years later in preparation for the sequel, I was less bowled over. I think a lot of its initial effectiveness was due to the freshness of its whole schtick, which has naturally gone away on a rewatch... In particular, I was surprised how sparse I found the humour to be. Maybe that prepared me for this one: the gags aren’t literally non-stop — it sometimes pauses to attempt emotion or to convey plot — but when they do come they’re thick and fast

Read more here.


Rocky (1976)

you might assume it’s broadly similar to the films Stallone would mostly go on to star in, but it isn’t, really. It’s the story of a smalltime coulda-been boxer left slumming it, when, through sheer luck, he gets a shot at the big leagues. Yes, it’s an underdog sports film, but it’s staged with a level of realism that such fantasies don’t normally reach for. And it’s certainly nothing like the indestructible super-action-hero of sundry later Stallone vehicles.

Read more here.


Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

It’s a decent space adventure flick, but I was sadly a bit underwhelmed by it. Frankly, I wish I liked it more than I did. Not just because I want to like every movie, but because I feel like this should’ve been a movie I really enjoyed — a fun sci-fi/heist/Western adventure kinda deal — but I didn’t love it. I thought it was mostly kinda fine.

Read more here.


Review Roundup

Featuring quick reviews of:
The Girl on the Train
Lions for Lambs
Tea For Two

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

Power Rangers (2017)
[#126 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
[#127 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Collection Count

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

A bunch of titles popped through my door right at the end of the week, just in time to make the monthly running time update.

Number of titles in collection: 2,116 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,159 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 957 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 5,397 [up 4]
Number of films: 2,358 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,020 [no change]
Number of short films: 614 [up 3]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
396 days, 23 hours, and 58 minutes.
(Up 14 hours and 8 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

American Made (2017)
[#124 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

The Post (2017)
[#125 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Music

Mouth Silence
Mouth Sounds
Mouth Moods
by Neil Cicierega

I discovered Neil Cicierega's mashup albums by accident about 48 hours ago, listened to a bunch of individual tracks on YouTube, and then today played through all three albums in full. Now I'm addicted. You can listen to them free here, here, and here.

Articles

Solo Theater Projection Problems Leave Fans In The Dark, Enrage Industry Veterans
by Chris O'Falt (from IndieWire)

In my review of Solo I commented on it looking too dark, and it seems I was far from alone in having this issue. This interesting piece explores how that came to be, and why it's a more widespread problem than just one film.

TV

The Americans
6x10 START [series finale]

Films

Finding Dory 3D (2016)
[#122 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

The Warriors (1979)
[#123 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

The Americans
6x09 Jennings, Elizabeth

Films

All the Money in the World (2017)
[#121 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

The Americans
6x08 The Summit

Films

Deadpool 2 (2018)
[#120 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
[#119 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

The Americans
6x07 Harvest

Archer
5x12 Archer Vice: Filibuster
5x13 Archer Vice: Arrival/Departure [season finale]
Further to my thoughts on episode titles last time, I can kind of see what they were getting at -- there's a three-week time jump, so these aren't exactly Parts 3 and 4 of the exact same story that was being told before. Equally, if the previous two episodes were a two-parter, this pair definitely is as well. I mean, it doesn't really matter -- it's just a title, and not one they even show on screen -- but that's almost why it bothers me more...

Car Share
3x02 The Finale [series finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Americans
6x06 Rififi

Westworld
2x05 Akane no Mai

Films

It (2017)
[#118 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

this week on 100 Films

9 brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, including...


Coco (2017)

Pixar’s 19th feature is an American-produced animated fantasy movie that co-opts a foreign culture to tell a story about a guitar-playing kid remembering his dead family — wait, doesn’t that sound familiar? Yes, in broad strokes, Coco is Kubo and the Two Strings Pixar-style. But, instead of Japan, this is Mexico, based around the famed Day of the Dead festival — which has also already been the subject of an American animated movie, The Book of Life. But that didn’t get the best notices, and Kubo didn’t get the respect it deserves, and this is Pixar in non-sequel mode, and so Coco has been praised to the high heavens. And it is good. But I didn’t think it was that good.

Read more here.


Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (1964)

It’s a bit ironic that whoever chose the English-language titles for the Zatoichi films decided to emphasise fighting in the name of this eighth instalment, because it’s perhaps the least concerned with Ichi’s sword skills so far. That’s not to say there aren’t a couple of nifty sequences of blade-clashing fun, but they’re not the film’s focus. You might think that’s antithetical to the series’ purpose, and yet Fight, Zatoichi, Fight is widely regarded as one of the series’ finest instalments, perhaps even the best of all.

Read more here.


Muppets from Space (1999)

there’s almost a good thematic thing about belonging, and who your real family is or can be, but it’s only loosely nodded at early on before sort of popping up right at the end, without enough building blocks in between to really make it work as a payoff. But we don’t come to the Muppets for the themes, we come for the gags, and in that respect From Space is… fine. Well, I mean, it’s not really all that funny… or interesting… It just kind of toddles along until an underwhelming ending

Read more here.


The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

this one seems to miss the mark. There’s some occasional funny stuff, the odd good skit, but mostly Take Manhattan just kinda plods along. Personally I thought Caper was a bit of a poor sequel, but this is less good again. It straight up lacks some of the things that make the Muppets so memorable — there isn’t a single fourth wall break, for instance.

Read more here.


The Pixar Story (2007)

Made to celebrate the first 20 years of Pixar, Leslie Iwerks’ documentary charts not only the genesis, founding, and rise to industry-changing prominence of the beloved computer animation company, but also the birth of computer animation itself.

Read more here.


Shrek the Third (2007)

Thematically, Shrek’s disinterest in being royalty was covered in the last film, though at least this time it’s bolstered with a fatherhood angle. The choice of villain, however, straight up takes the last film’s secondary antagonist and recycles him as a primary antagonist — if there’s a more literal example of sequels representing diminishing returns, I can’t think of it.

Read more here.


Trekkies (1997)

Trekkies begins with the proclamation that “Trekkies are the only fans listed by name in the Oxford English Dictionary.” That’s not true anymore (“Whovian”, at least, is in there), and that speaks to an interesting truth about this entire documentary. When it was released 21 years ago, Trekkies was exposing a niche thing to wider awareness, and these fans were seen as weirdos, fundamentally. Watching it today, though, you see that it’s mostly just cons and cosplay — stuff that’s been virtually mainstream for a few years at this point.

Read more here.


Trekkies 2 (2004)

Such is the strangeness of Time that, just 24 hours after I watched Trekkies, I jumped forward seven years to catch up with some of that film’s featured fans in this lesser-seen follow-up. It’s not just repeat visits to old friends, though — if you thought America had a monopoly on crazies, well, Trekkies 2’s got news for you!

Read more here.


Vintage Tomorrows (2015)

Heard the term “steampunk” but don’t really know what it is? Or have an idea, but you’d like a fuller picture of the whole subculture? Then this is the film for you, my friend, because Vintage Tomorrows is basically Steampunk 101.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Americans
6x05 The Great Patriotic War

Archer
5x10 Archer Vice: Palace Intrigue Part I
5x11 Archer Vice: Palace Intrigue Part II
TV series do funny things sometimes. Like, I've no idea why this is labelled as a two-parter when it ends mid-plot to continue next time, which isn't called "Part 3". I mean, what makes this a two-parter if it isn't an entire story?

Films

Allied (2016)
[#116 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Colossal (2016)
[#117 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]