TV

Great News
2x03 Honeypot!
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Would I Lie To You?
12x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Dad's Army (2016)
[#245 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Crisis on Earth-X
Supergirl 3x08 Part 1
Arrow 6x08 Part 2
The Flash 4x08 Part 3
Legends of Tomorrow 3x08 Part 4

I gave up on Arrow and The Flash almost a whole year ago, just before this big four-show crossover arrived (I stopped with episode 6 and the crossover was, as you can see, in episode 8). I'd aimed to at least make it through this event before maybe stopping, but my interest just petered out before that. Anyway, I've been intending to watch the crossover anyway for the best part of a year now (even though I didn't think much of the last one), and with a new one imminent it was about bloody time I got round to it.

On the whole, it was a lot better than the last one -- this actually felt like it was conceived as one long story, rather than three separate-but-connected episodes with a rushed conclusion -- but I'd forgotten how soapy these shows can be. I'm not going to be starting to watch them again regularly.

Films

Boy (2010)
[#244 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Films

Danger: Diabolik (1968)
[#243 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Doctor Who
37x08 The Witchfinders
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Creed (2015)
[#242 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]
+ the Blu-ray's short selection of special features (a commentary would've been nice)

this week on 100 Films

It was already time for another TV roundup at 100 Films in a Year this week...





Plus, there were 2 brand-new film reviews...


Rocky Balboa (2006)

Writer-director-star Sylvester Stallone returns to his boxing saga to give it the ending he fluffed 16 years earlier. Even as someone who didn’t dislike Rocky V, I don’t think it’s a great send-off for the character. Stallone felt the same, which is why he conceived this as a proper capstone for the series.

Read more here.


Zatoichi's Pilgrimage (1966)

the ‘lost’ Zatoichi movie: at some point the Weinsteins bought the rights to it because Quentin Tarantino was considering a remake, with the side effect of making it unavailable legally for years. Clearly it was felt to be worth the wait, because it’s a highly-regarded instalment in the series... As Bill Hunt and Todd Doogan of The Digital Bits put it, Zatoichi’s Pilgrimage is “one of the crown jewels of the series.” It’s little wonder Tarantino was considering a remake.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Absolutely nothing to report this week. Various things on their way for next time, though.

Number of titles in collection: 2,165 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,149 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,016 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 5 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,551 [no change]
Number of films: 2,424 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,294 [no change]
Number of short films: 641 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
24x08 (23/11/18 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Great News
2x02 Squad Feud
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

TV

Great News
2x01 Boardroom Bitch
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Redline (2009)
[#240 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Zatoichi's Cane Sword (1967)
[#241 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Films

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
[#239 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

Thor: Ragnarok 3D (2017)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #44. Looks fantastic in 3D, doubly so with the frequent shifts into an IMAX ratio.

TV

Live at the Apollo
14x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Music

Simulation Theory by Muse
[2nd listen]

A more attentive second listen, though I can't say it changed my opinion. Still, listening to it twice within a week is better than I managed with The 2nd Law, which I recently realised I'd listened to once when it came out in 2012 and then never again!

Films

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
[#238 in 100 Films in a Year 2018]

TV

Doctor Who
37x07 Kerblam!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
[4th watch]
Rewatchathon 2018 #43
+ the audio commentary. As it went on, I began to realise I'd listened to it before -- and I hardly ever listen to audio commentaries, so that was weird; and this is a weird one to have listened to twice! It's a comedy one, though, y'see, and doesn't even last the whole length of the film, so that's a bit different to re-listening to a regular commentary, I think.

this week on 100 Films

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


Bao (2018)

This short film from Pixar played before Incredibles 2 in cinemas, so naturally it accompanies it on Blu-ray too. In it, a Chinese-Canadian woman is steaming dumplings (the titular bao) when one comes to life and grows into a little dough boy, who she begins to raise as a son.

Read more here.


The Hunt (2012)

one of the film’s great strengths is how plausibly the matter is handled. There are no screaming histrionics and no raging against the world from Mikkelsen, as slowly the entire town turns against him based on a few misguided and poorly-understood words from a confused child. Instead, he mainly conveys a lot of quiet desperation — a man who knows he’s innocent but can’t work out how to prove it, and is increasingly hurt as people he called friends almost all turn against him.

Read more here.


Incredibles 2 (2018)

At its most basic, Incredibles 2 is a gender-reversed do-over of the first movie… to a fault, in fact. The closing moments of the first film suggest a “family of superheroes” future for the Parrs, with them battling crime together. The sequel immediately works to put everything back in its place: the kids aren’t allowed to use their powers (until they must for the climax, natch); one of the parents gets to go off and be a superhero, while the other has to stay at home. The difference is it’s the man staying at home, and where Helen was consummate at looking after the kids, Bob finds it a challenge — because Men, amirite?

Read more here.


They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

Commissioned by 14-18 NOW (the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary) and the Imperial War Museum to see what he could do to make their old World War One footage more engaging for a modern audience, director Peter “Lord of the Rings” Jackson’s initial tests at restoring the footage were so successful that the project was eventually worked up into this feature-length documentary. It tells the story of the Western Front from the point of view of ordinary Tommies living and fighting on the frontline, using only footage from the period (plus photos, posters, artwork, maps, and so on) and narration taken from interviews with men who were really there — no historians to provide context or analysis here.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Another funny one this week: three new single-disc titles and a box set that replaces some old sets, but... well, this happened...

Number of titles in collection: 2,165 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,149 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,016 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 5 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,551 [up 6]
Number of films: 2,424 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,294 [no change]
Number of short films: 641 [no change]

It's also time for a running time update, which goes like this...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
409 days, 21 hours, and 14 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 7 hours, and 6 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.