Films

The Incredibles (2004)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #27

TV

2018 World Cup
Semi-Final Croatia v England
Turns out it's not coming home after all.
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

2018 World Cup
Semi-Final France v Belgium
When I said I was watching The Football now, I didn't expect it to be all the football. Well, I actually only watched most of the second half, so...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Attack on Skull Island
by Max Marshall (from GQ)

The mad, true story of how Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts was attacked by gang members in a Vietnam nightclub, and how he tracked them down despite warnings not to go after them.

Films

Never Say Never Again (1983)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #26

this week on 100 Films

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


Dudes & Dragons (2015)

the gag rate is alarmingly low. The exposition scenes are balanced on a knife edge where you can’t tell if the actors are playing it tongue-in-cheek because it’s supposed to be humorous, or if it’s because they’re reaching for a florid style that they think is correct for a serious High Fantasy movie. Put another way: take those joke-less scenes out of context and you might think they were just am-dram Fantasy.

Read more here.


Manchester by the Sea (2016)

This is not a plot-driven movie. There’s still a story, obviously, but it’s more of a character study about people coping with grief — not in the wailing, all-consuming way you might typically associate with grief being depicted on screen, but in a more subdued, naturalistic manner. In harmony with that, there’s an element to it which is, not irreverent, but certainly mundane — like making calls to funeral directors over breakfast, for instance — and scattered with darkly comic realities.

Read more here.


Passengers (2016)

Sometime in the future, shortly after mankind has begun to colonise other worlds, the spaceship Avalon is on a 120-year journey to a new planet with thousands of colonist-to-be in hibernation onboard. Just 30 years into the trip, the Avalon strikes an asteroid field, causing a malfunction that wakes up just two passengers: Jim (Chris Pratt), a mechanical engineer, and Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence), a journalist. Faced with the prospect of never reaching the destination they’d set out for, the pair begin to develop a relationship. Or so the trailer would have you believe (and this is where the spoilers come)

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

2018 World Cup
Quarter-Final Sweden v England
Guess I'm watching The Football now...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This was going to be a relatively large update, but then most stuff didn't turn up as soon as I expected, meaning it'll be counted next week instead, spreading things out a bit. So that's nice.

Number of titles in collection: 2,123 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,157 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 966 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 5,422 [up 4]
Number of films: 2,371 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,082 [no change]
Number of short films: 618 [up 4]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Non-Fiction

Space Helmet for a Cow: The Mad, True Story of Doctor Who - Volume 2: 1990-2013 by Paul Kirkley
Chapter 9 (pages 47-54)

Films

Galaxy Quest (1999)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #25

TV

Lupin the 3rd: Part IV
1x01 The Wedding of Lupin the Third

Films

Blade of the Immortal (2017)
[#148 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Red Sparrow (2018)
[#149 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Non-Fiction

Space Helmet for a Cow: The Mad, True Story of Doctor Who - Volume 2: 1990-2013 by Paul Kirkley
Chapter 9 (pages 40-46)

Films

Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
[#147 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Articles

10 secrets about movie trailers – from the people who make them
by Thomas Ling (from Radio Times)

An interesting "behind the scenes" type piece about the reality of how movie trailers are made, and why they are the way they are.

Films

Batman Ninja (2018)
[#146 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Films

Dudes & Dragons (2015)
[#145 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]
aka Dragon Warriors

Non-Fiction

Space Helmet for a Cow: The Mad, True Story of Doctor Who - Volume 2: 1990-2013 by Paul Kirkley
Chapter 8 (pages 27-39)

this week on 100 Films

Pinch, punch, it's the first of the month, meaning it's time for 100 Films in a Year to look back at June...





Also this past week, a TV review covering Luke Cage season two and the Westworld finale...





And in normal business, there were 5 brand-new reviews...


Call Me by My Name (2017)

It’s an effective and truthful depiction of young love — falteringly, unassured, but driven by powerful emotions and burning lust. Although Oliver initially seems hyper-confident, as he opens up to Elio it becomes clear that this is new for him too, and of course Elio’s only young, inexperienced even with girls at the film’s start, so of course love is a new thing to him. So, in some respects it doesn’t matter that the film’s about a gay relationship — the feeling it conjures of young love is universal. Of course, there are many reasons why it matters immensely that it’s about a gay relationship, but those concerns are largely external to the film itself.

Read more here.


Game Night (2018)

It’s the kind of film where I don’t want to say much more than I already have, because obviously the joy lies in the jokes (and jokes are a lot less funny if you spoil them) and the plot developments. At the risk of just reeling off a list of superlatives, I’ll say that what unfolds is fast, inventive, clever, and, above all, hilariously funny. There are more laughs in its opening montage than many modern comedies manage in a whole film.

Read more here.


Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D (2008)

The key to my enjoyment was watching it in 3D, in which it plays more like a theme park attraction than a movie: from the very beginning it has loads of those “sticking stuff out into the audience” hijinks that no one bothers with anymore (indeed, after watching a dozen other 3D movies on my TV, I don’t think I’ve seen anything poke out before). Gimmicky and in your face (literally) though it may be, the effect works, it’s uncomplicatedly fun, and it makes the movie better just because it’s trying.

Read more here.


Perfect Sense (2011)

there’s more emotional power in the montages about senses and what was being lost — the ideas-y stuff — than there is in the character- and relationship-based bits. Those are actually surprisingly clunky at first, with even McGregor and Green — both actors I like a good deal — struggling to make them work. Things do smooth out in that regard, but the romance plot proceeds to conform to a pretty standard shape. Was the sci-fi crisis meant to reflect the relationship, or is the relationship a down-to-earth framework on which to hang a big sci-fi story? I suspect the latter, because it’s the end-of-the-world theatrics that prove more interesting.

Read more here.


The Snowman (2017)

It’s like the whole thing has been almost-correctly-but-not-quite translated from another language. I’m not just talking about the dialogue (though that’s sometimes that way too), but the very essence of the movie — the character arcs, the storylines, even the construction of individual scenes. Like many a Google Translate offering, you can kinda tell what it’s meant to be, but it doesn’t actually make sense in itself.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

Becoming Bond (2017)
[#144 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]
More fun than a docudrama should be. And it made me really want to rewatch On Her Majesty's Secret Service, too... so...

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
[4th or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #24