Sunday, 10 January 2021

this week on 100 Films

My look back at last year on 100 Films in a Year continued this week. First up, one of my highlights of every year: the statistics!





In a different arrangement to normal, I dedicated a whole post to my "worst of" list...





But I still rounded things off with my list of the top 10% of movies I watched last year, plus some honourable mentions, and my usual list of 50 noteworthy titles that I missed...





Aside from all of that, there was also time for my annual look back at Christmas TV...





And that's all for now. Hopefully I'll get in some actual film reviews before next Sunday.

Saturday, 9 January 2021

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of Everything 2021
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Wheel
1x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
14x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Just two purchases to kick off the new year. If I can keep things at that kind of level, I'll have a much more sensible end-of-year total than I did for 2020...

Number of titles in collection: 2,512 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,431 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 95 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 6,451 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,903 [up 2]
Number of additional cuts: 203 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change]
Number of short films: 811 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Thursday, 7 January 2021

Films

Ernest & Celestine (2012)
[#3 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]

Happy Death Day (2017)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2021 #1
+ all of the Blu-ray's special features, because there aren't many: 12 minutes of deleted/alternate scenes and 8 minutes of featurettes

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
[#4 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]
+ the Blu-ray's special features, which are even worse than the first film's. The pathetic little “featurettes” were clearly designed for social media promo. Shame they couldn’t have even just recut the same interviews into a decent featurette or two. I'm sure it still would be EPK-ish stuff, but it could have been a little more detailed — at least the first film's manage to squeeze in some interesting info. But no, 2U’s are even shorter and even more vapid. I mean, the third one just explains the plot of the movie in 2 minutes. Whhhhhy?

Tuesday, 5 January 2021

Monday, 4 January 2021

Films

Bill (2015)
[#1 in 100 Films in a Year 2021]
My 15th year of this (yes, really, 15th) begins!

Sunday, 3 January 2021

TV

Mock the Week
19x08 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Lots going on at 100 Films in a Year this week, with a final flurry of reviews before the new year; and then, from January 1st, the start of my "review of the year" posts.

First up, then, 10 new reviews were published at the tail end of last month...


Death to 2020 (2020)
It turns out the film's biggest problem isn’t unoriginality or too broad a target audience, but rather that 2020 was such a shitshow that it’s just no fun to be reminded of it, even in an intentionally comedic context.
Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XVI
Featuring...
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
- Redline
Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XVII
Featuring...
- Danger: Diabolik
- Boy
- Dad's Army (2016)
Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XVIII
Featuring...
- Torment
- Music in Darkness
- Hachi: A Dog's Tale
Read more here.


And then my look back of 2020 got underway, first with my regular monthly review of December...





Followed by an overview of my most-read new posts of last year...





And finally (for now) my full list of 2020 viewing...





More next Sunday.

Saturday, 2 January 2021

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games Night
1x06 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
14x00 At Christmas
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week, it's the monthly running time update — which really should've been last week, but I've pushed it on one because, as you may've noticed, it's a new year (hopefully better than the last one), so I can include all the 2020 increases too.

Aside from that, just one new addition this week; though I also vetted the numbers in prep for the annual increases and noticed a couple of minor discrepancies. No idea how they came about, but everything should be on track now.

Number of titles in collection: 2,510 [up 1 this week; up 234 in 2020]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [no change this week; down 43 in 2020]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,429 [up 1 this week; up 277 in 2020]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 93 [no change this week; up 56 in 2020]

Wait... 234 titles in one year? What the fuck?! I had to double-check the maths because that's mad. I mean, I knew I'd gotten carried away sometimes this year (there were several "biggest months ever"), but I didn't realise it had been that bad! My previous high (since I've been recording it here) is 154 in 2017, and the average of the previous seven years is 108 — so this year alone I've acquired more than double my average. And if we just look at Blu-rays, they're almost 2.5 times my average of 111. Jesus.

And, remember, that isn't even all my purchases, because any upgrades didn't increase the titles total. For example, DVDs are down by 43, and all of those would've been upgrades (though some may be accounted for by box sets, etc). That's also higher than my norm, which has been decreasing by an average of 22 a year for the past four years. Meanwhile, my UHD collection is icnreasing exponentially: I acquired 9 in 2018, tripled that to 28 in 2019, and doubled that to 56 this year. I'd wager 2021 will see a further increase.

Okay, so, let's move on to what will surely be some more scary numbers...

Number of discs in collection: 6,446 [up 8 this week; up 514 in 2020]
Number of films: 2,901 [up 15 this week; up 234 in 2020]
Number of additional cuts: 203 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change this week; up 289 in 2020]
Number of short films: 811 [up 4 this week; up 135 in 2020]

Somehow, those numbers aren't as scary... though maybe that's just because I've got used to these barmy increases now. I mean, over 500 discs in a year is still insane. My average is 300, so it's still a 71% increase. Meanwhile, the film number is slightly compromised by this year's addition of an "additional cut" count — but even allowing for that, 234 is 54% above my average. On the other hand, 289 episodes of TV is actually well below my average of 428; in fact, it's the lowest its ever been (the previous smallest was 323 in 2018). This perhaps says something about less TV getting released on disc nowadays; or my reluctance to buy something I'm less likely to rewatch (due to length). As for shorts, 135 is over 3 times my average increase; and the previous high was 91 in 2017. I've not been buying any shorts collections, so I think this speaks to the increasing prevalence of shorts being included as special features.

And so, finally, the big one...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
466 days, 14 hours, and 32 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 19 hours, and 28 minutes from last month.)
(Up 32 days, 7 hours, and 29 minutes from last year.)

Unsurprisingly, that's also the most ever — although the previous high, just under 29¼ days in 2015, is relatively close — but it's still 44% above the average of 22 days, 10 hours, and 35 minutes. That reverses a trend, as it's been dropping the past couple of years. I do hope I manage to calm it down again next year...

And next year begins next week — in which I can already promise a couple of new additions. I'm hopeless.

Friday, 1 January 2021

TV

Doctor Who
39x00 Revolution of the Daleks [New Year's Day special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Happy New Year Live!
A pre-filmed stand-in for the usual fireworks. It was alright. I'm certainly not going to moan about the inclusion of some broadly political topics, unlike those right-wing snowflakes on social media this morning.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Hogmanay 2020
Meanwhile, in Scotland, they still had actual fireworks. Also music and interviews and stuff.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Only Connect
Doctors: Medics v Gallifreyans [Series 16 Specials 3/4]
Music: Festival Fans v Choristers [Series 16 Specials 4/4]
Two episodes from the "Series 16 Specials", which thus challenge my episode numbering methodology. Maybe it's for the best I don't watch Only Connect on a regular basis...
[Watch Doctors and Music (again) on iPlayer.]

Talking Pictures
Dames
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2020 ep10 Grand Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Videos

Fare Well - Edinburgh's Hogmanay 2020

A prerecorded New Year's celebration from Edinburgh — you may have seen part of it on the news (like I did) but then been unsure where to find it (like I was), so here it is in full, because it's very good. (Click through above or below to watch it bigger.)

Thursday, 31 December 2020

TV

The Graham Norton Show
28x12 New Year's Eve Show
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Last Leg
20x09 The Last Leg of the Year [2020]
Apparently the last time I watched The Last Leg was over five years ago. It doesn't seem to have changed much.
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2020 ep6 Durham v Downing, Cambridge
Christmas 2020 ep7 New College Oxford v Reading
Christmas 2020 ep8 Semi-Final 1
Christmas 2020 ep9 Semi-Final 2
[Watch this series (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Yesterday, I set a record for the highest number of new films I've watched in a year. But today, I'm just trying to make sure December 2020 doesn't fall short of my goal of 10 new films per month...

Death to 2020 (2020)
[#264 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Does this count as a film or a "TV special"? Netflix have well and truly blurred the line at this point — so I'm going with "Film", because I need it to reach my target.

Minions 3D (2015)
[#263 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Wednesday, 30 December 2020

Tuesday, 29 December 2020

Films

Tenet (2020)
[#260 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ several featurettes from the film’s special features (8 out of 13, to be precise); mainly ones about how they achieved depictions of time running simultaneously forwards and backwards

Sunday, 27 December 2020

Films

Presto (2008)
[2nd watch]
Saw this in the cinema before WALL-E with my mum, but she couldn’t remember it so we pulled it up on Disney+. She still didn’t remember it, but it is bloody good.

Soul (2020)
[#259 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

There was just my final pre-Christmas monthly TV column over at 100 Films in a Year this week...





More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

This would've been a running time update, but I've pushed it to next week to cover the yearly totals. I'm not currently expecting anything between now and next week, but you never know (especially with my procilivity for caving to sales).

Number of titles in collection: 2,509 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,428 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 93 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 6,438 [up 10]
Number of films: 2,886 [up 8]
Number of additional cuts: 203 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change]
Number of short films: 807 [up 4]

See you next week, faithful reader.