Star Trek: Picard
1x08 Broken Pieces
[Watch it (again) on Prime Video.]
Sunday, 17 May 2020
this week on 100 Films
The schedule for my "monthly" TV column at 100 Films in a Year is all over the place these days, but I published one this week...
There was also 1 new film review...
The Head Hunter (2018)
More next Sunday.
There was also 1 new film review...
The Head Hunter (2018)
a low-budget independent fantasy/horror movie. Such a description might conjure up images of fancy-dress-like costumes, plastic props, locations that venture no further than a mate’s back garden and a nearby bit of forest, cinematography with all the hallmarks of digital video, and some embarrassingly basic and boxy CGI. None of this is true of The Head Hunter, which marries some impressive production design to an understanding of its limits — its low budget shows only in its small scale, rather than uncomfortably forcing its reach to exceed its grasp.Read more here.
More next Sunday.
Saturday, 16 May 2020
TV
Doctor Who
2x39 Checkmate [season finale]
aka The Time Meddler Part 4. This is a great episode, and almost single-handedly explains why the serial is so well-regarded. Indeed, there's a great two- or even three-parter in here, it just takes a while to get to the point.
+ listened to the audio commentary on the full story, which was entertaining and informative in places, but understandably suffers at times from the participants trying to remember something they made over 40 years earlier.
Eurovision: Come Together
The full contest was cancelled this year, so instead the BBC aired this special show of iconic performances...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]
Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light
...and this official replacement broadcast, which had its moments.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]
2x39 Checkmate [season finale]
aka The Time Meddler Part 4. This is a great episode, and almost single-handedly explains why the serial is so well-regarded. Indeed, there's a great two- or even three-parter in here, it just takes a while to get to the point.
+ listened to the audio commentary on the full story, which was entertaining and informative in places, but understandably suffers at times from the participants trying to remember something they made over 40 years earlier.
Eurovision: Come Together
The full contest was cancelled this year, so instead the BBC aired this special show of iconic performances...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]
Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light
...and this official replacement broadcast, which had its moments.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
Another eight new additions this week (one day I'll slow down again). But in addition to that, I'm currently adding my collection to a list on Letterboxd, a process which has led me to notice some more alternate cuts and short films that I hadn't counted before. Makes me wonder how many more are hiding in there... It's probably not that many in the grand scheme of things, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are a handful more still lurking.
Number of titles in collection: 2,370 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,103 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,267 [up 8]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 58 [up 3]
Number of discs in collection: 6,133 [up 11]
Number of films: 2,654 [up 9]
Number of additional cuts: 172 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,887 [no change]
Number of short films: 733 [up 11]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Another eight new additions this week (one day I'll slow down again). But in addition to that, I'm currently adding my collection to a list on Letterboxd, a process which has led me to notice some more alternate cuts and short films that I hadn't counted before. Makes me wonder how many more are hiding in there... It's probably not that many in the grand scheme of things, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are a handful more still lurking.
Number of titles in collection: 2,370 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,103 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,267 [up 8]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 58 [up 3]
Number of discs in collection: 6,133 [up 11]
Number of films: 2,654 [up 9]
Number of additional cuts: 172 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,887 [no change]
Number of short films: 733 [up 11]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 15 May 2020
TV
Doctor Who
2x38 A Battle of Wits
aka The Time Meddler Part 3. Surely one of the series' greatest-ever cliffhangers. Less impactful today, of course, especially as most people watching will know the Monk's secret, but at the time it must've been huge. (Well, let's be honest, Doctor Who didn't have the same obsessive following then that it does now, nor were there ways to communicate like the internet; but I bet regular viewers had plenty to say about it in the school playground on Monday morning.)
2x38 A Battle of Wits
aka The Time Meddler Part 3. Surely one of the series' greatest-ever cliffhangers. Less impactful today, of course, especially as most people watching will know the Monk's secret, but at the time it must've been huge. (Well, let's be honest, Doctor Who didn't have the same obsessive following then that it does now, nor were there ways to communicate like the internet; but I bet regular viewers had plenty to say about it in the school playground on Monday morning.)
Films
127 Hours (2010)
[#116 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
A Bug's Life (1998)
[#115 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
A fun either-side-of-midnight double-bill with Phase IV. (If you don't know what they're about... look it up.)
[#116 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
A Bug's Life (1998)
[#115 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
A fun either-side-of-midnight double-bill with Phase IV. (If you don't know what they're about... look it up.)
Thursday, 14 May 2020
Films
Misbehaviour FilmBath Live Q&A
with the film's director, editor, and screenwriter. I believe you can still watch it at the above link.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
[5th watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #21. Doesn't feel like it can be my 5th watch of this, but if that's what my records say... This time it was on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and it looked fantastic.
Phase IV (1974)
[#114 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ director Saul Bass's original ending, which adds a couple of lines of dialogue and an abstract psychedelic nightmare to the finale
with the film's director, editor, and screenwriter. I believe you can still watch it at the above link.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
[5th watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #21. Doesn't feel like it can be my 5th watch of this, but if that's what my records say... This time it was on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and it looked fantastic.
Phase IV (1974)
[#114 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ director Saul Bass's original ending, which adds a couple of lines of dialogue and an abstract psychedelic nightmare to the finale
Wednesday, 13 May 2020
TV
Doctor Who
2x36 The Watcher
aka The Time Meddler Part 1. Taking a break from watching animated missing episodes to check out the story that recently came a surprising (to me) second place in Doctor Who Magazine’s “First Doctor World Cup” Twitter poll.
2x36 The Watcher
aka The Time Meddler Part 1. Taking a break from watching animated missing episodes to check out the story that recently came a surprising (to me) second place in Doctor Who Magazine’s “First Doctor World Cup” Twitter poll.
Films
Misbehaviour (2020)
[#113 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Ready to watch the FilmBath Q&A tomorrow evening.
Stuber (2019)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
[#111 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
[#113 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Ready to watch the FilmBath Q&A tomorrow evening.
Stuber (2019)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
[#111 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Tuesday, 12 May 2020
Films
Marriage Story (2019)
[#110 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the 2 three-minute featurettes Netflix offer, Directing with Noah Baumbach and An Ensemble Story. Obviously they’re really EPK promo pieces, but not wholly without insight.
[#110 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the 2 three-minute featurettes Netflix offer, Directing with Noah Baumbach and An Ensemble Story. Obviously they’re really EPK promo pieces, but not wholly without insight.
Monday, 11 May 2020
Sunday, 10 May 2020
Films
American Animals (2018)
[#107 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
[#108 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
[#107 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
[#108 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
this week on 100 Films
6 new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)
The 100-Week Roundup III
More next Sunday.
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)
I haven’t reviewed this until now because I didn’t have much to say about it... Even after reflecting on it, and reading other’s critical reactions, then reflecting on it some more (for over eight months at this point), I didn’t have much to contribute. Why was that? And I’ve kind of realised it’s because the film didn’t make me feel very much... I do consider Once Upon a Time to be a very good film. But at the same time, I didn’t leave the cinema feeling moved or wowed.Read more here.
The 100-Week Roundup III
including...Read more here.
Power Rangers
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Warriors
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage
More next Sunday.
Saturday, 9 May 2020
Films
Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2018)
[#105 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Top Secret! (1984)
[#106 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
[#105 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Top Secret! (1984)
[#106 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
Last week I mentioned that I was going to start counting "films" and "cuts" separately, to finally settle a matter of uncertainty that's been bothering me for years (i.e. when a release includes multiple cuts of the same film, do those count as multiple films or just one film?) As I have over 2,300 titles to go through working it out (some I knew off the top of my head, some I had to check), I thought it would take a while -- weeks, maybe months -- but I've actually finished it this week! Once I started I spent altogether too much time on it (even though I've finished it between updates, it's taken multiple sessions across every day this week). I've done a lot of it from memory rather than double-checking every single title, so hopefully I've not overlooked anything in my speed. If I have, well, it'll get corrected someday.
As you can see, I found well over 100 alternate cuts ‘hiding’ among my film tally, but also quite a few that hadn’t been counted. Also, for the cuts tally I decided to only count additional cuts -- i.e. if a film only has one version it'll be listed as 1 film + 0 cuts, but if there are two versions it'll count as 1 film + 1 cut, and so on. Still haven't worked out how to square this with the running time total, nor what to do about alternative cuts of TV episodes (there are enough that I want to record them, but few enough that having a whole column for it seems daft). For now, they carry on as they were before.
And while all that is the big news this week, there were also some new additions, prime among them an upgrade of the 1989-1997 Batman movie series to UHD.
Number of titles in collection: 2,364 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,259 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 55 [up 4]
Number of discs in collection: 6,122 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,645 [down 119]
Number of additional cuts: 168
Number of TV episodes: 8,887 [no change]
Number of short films: 722 [up 2]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Last week I mentioned that I was going to start counting "films" and "cuts" separately, to finally settle a matter of uncertainty that's been bothering me for years (i.e. when a release includes multiple cuts of the same film, do those count as multiple films or just one film?) As I have over 2,300 titles to go through working it out (some I knew off the top of my head, some I had to check), I thought it would take a while -- weeks, maybe months -- but I've actually finished it this week! Once I started I spent altogether too much time on it (even though I've finished it between updates, it's taken multiple sessions across every day this week). I've done a lot of it from memory rather than double-checking every single title, so hopefully I've not overlooked anything in my speed. If I have, well, it'll get corrected someday.
As you can see, I found well over 100 alternate cuts ‘hiding’ among my film tally, but also quite a few that hadn’t been counted. Also, for the cuts tally I decided to only count additional cuts -- i.e. if a film only has one version it'll be listed as 1 film + 0 cuts, but if there are two versions it'll count as 1 film + 1 cut, and so on. Still haven't worked out how to square this with the running time total, nor what to do about alternative cuts of TV episodes (there are enough that I want to record them, but few enough that having a whole column for it seems daft). For now, they carry on as they were before.
And while all that is the big news this week, there were also some new additions, prime among them an upgrade of the 1989-1997 Batman movie series to UHD.
Number of titles in collection: 2,364 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,105 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,259 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 55 [up 4]
Number of discs in collection: 6,122 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,645 [down 119]
Number of additional cuts: 168
Number of TV episodes: 8,887 [no change]
Number of short films: 722 [up 2]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 8 May 2020
Films
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
[#103 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
[#104 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #5
[#103 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
[#104 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #5
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