Category Archives: progress reports

How am I doing? Including monthly updates.

The Strange Monthly Update for October 2016

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TV dominated my viewing this month, with whole seasons of Luke Cage, Red Dwarf, and Ripper Street released, plus sundry other shows, new and old — so many I’m not even going to list them. And I’m currently most of the way through Stranger Things too (more on that in next month’s TV round-up).

Despite that, I still found the time to watch a decent number of films — in fact, October isn’t even the lowest-totalling month this year.

And those films were…


#158 The Russia House (1990)
#159 The Quay Brothers in 35mm (2015)
—#159a In Absentia (2000)
—#159b Quay (2015)
—#159c The Comb (From the Museums of Sleep) (1990)
—#159d Street of Crocodiles (1986)
#160 A Knight’s Tale (2001)
#161 The Big Short (2015)
#162 Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2016)
#163 Moneyball (2011)
#164 Raising Arizona (1987)
#165 The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again (2016)
#166 The Transporter Refuelled (2015)
#167 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
#168 Cover Girl (1944)
#169 Doctor Strange (2016)
#170 The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
#171 The Witch (2015), aka The VVitch: A New-England Folktale
The Russia House

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Doctor Strange

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  • I watched 14 new films this month, for the 29th consecutive month with 10+ films.
  • No WDYMYHS film this month, the first time I’ve faltered this year. Concerted effort at a double-bill in November, then.
  • 2016 slips behind 2015 for the first time this month: by the end of October last year I’d reached #172, whereas this year it’s only #171. Not a huge difference, but how much more will that gap widen over the next two months? Well, November 2015 was unexceptional, but I’m away for most of this December (more on that this time next month). Time will tell.
  • Two Le Carré adaptations this month, The Russia House and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Later in November, Our Kind of Traitor is coming to Amazon Prime Video; and of course we had The Night Manager earlier this year. I would say I’ll be Le Carré’d out, but his stuff is so darn good.
  • I can’t spend a whole month watching horror movies like some people do — if I spend a week watching one kind of thing I’ll usually get fed up of it. Nonetheless, I had a whole load of horror movies lined up for the last weekend or so of October… but then Stranger Things happened. Well, it happened in July, but I finally got round to it. Anyway, that’s why the extent of my horror viewing became New Moon and The VVitch.



The 17th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
Quite a few films I liked this month, but only a couple that stand out as worthy of a “favourite” award. The biggest pleasant surprise was Cold War spy thriller The Russia House, an underrated Le Carré adaptation.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
Oh, but this one’s hard! A couple of weaker films are spared this award by a pair of horrors: Fox’s Rocky Horror remake and the second Twilight movie, New Moon. Which was worse? Rocky Horror was insultingly poor, but it did have a couple of enjoyable parts, whereas New Moon was just dull.

Best Worst Fake Action Movie Title Ever
Face Punch! Whatever else it does or doesn’t offer, I will always be grateful to the Twilight saga for giving us the scene where they decide to go and see Face Punch.

The “Oh, Look Who It Is! This Must’ve Been Before He Was Famous” Award
goes to The Russia House, for featuring an abundance of recognisable British faces in smaller roles, from Martin Clunes as an aide who doesn’t have a single line of dialogue, to David “grandad from Outnumbered” Ryall as Sean Connery’s chum whose face we don’t even see properly because he’s filmed half from behind.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Whether or not people wanted to do the Time Warp again I don’t know, but it certainly seems they wanted to read about it: my review of Fox’s dire The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again isn’t just my most-viewed new post of October, it’s already my most-viewed new post of 2016.



More of the most popular movies of all time in this month’s selection, starring big damn actors, made by big damn directors, and featuring big damn heroes.


As my 10th year of 100 Films heads into the home straight, I’m not only thinking about what the final tally for 2016 will be, but also my total for the past decade of doing this blog. Exciting times.

The Slimline Monthly Update for September 2016

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Keeping things to the point, this month.


#143 Ben-Hur (1959)
#144 Spotlight (2015)
#145 Midnight Special (2016)
#146 Rushmore (1998)
#147 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
#148 Tale of Tales (2015), aka Il racconto dei racconti
#149 Tokyo Tribe (2014)
#150 The Survivalist (2015)
#151 Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
#152 The Magnificent Seven (1960)
#153 Mr. Turner (2014)
#154 The Saint’s Return (1953), aka The Saint’s Girl Friday
#155 Westworld (1973)
#156 The Nice Guys (2016)
#157 Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Tokyo Tribe

The Nice Guys

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  • 15 new films this month, which is exactly the same as in August, and the 28th consecutive month with 10+ films.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was right at the start, for a change. One of the definitive historical epics of classic Hollywood, it was the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur.



The 16th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I watched a couple of Best Picture winners in September, and a couple more that were nominated for the prize, but by far the most entertaining movie I saw this month was also the newest: Shane Black’s latest buddy action/thriller/comedy, The Nice Guys.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
No really bad films this month, but a few middling ones. A couple of those I didn’t expect all that much from and so wasn’t greatly surprised, but, after a tonne of hype in certain circles, I was a bit let down by Midnight Special.

The Dick Van Dyke Award for Performing with a Cockney Accent
Someone in Witness for the Prosecution, but I shan’t tell you who because if you’ve not seen it it might spoil it.

Least-Likely Catchiest Musical Refrain of the Month
Tokyo Tribe, never ever die! Tokyo Tribe, never ever die!

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Although a raft of challengers came close to deposing it, an early lead was set and maintained for this award by my review of Ben-Hur (1959 variety, of course).



This month: pirates, hitmen, Jedi, archaeologists, and sweet transvestites star in some of the most popular films of all time.


There’s an awful lot of TV on the way — will my film viewing suffer? (Cliffhanger!)

The ⅔ Monthly Update for August 2016

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2016 is 66.67% over — here’s how my film viewing went for the last 12.5% of that, i.e. the most recent 8.3% of the year.


#128 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Ultimate Edition (2016)
#129 Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)
#130 The Good Dinosaur (2015)
#131 Pride (2014)
#132 Road Games (1981), aka Roadgames
#133 Armageddon (1998)
#134 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
#135 Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
#136 Enemy (2013)
#137 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
#138 Deep Blue Sea (1999)
#139 Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
#140 Duel (1971)
#141 The Salvation (2014)
#142 The Maltese Falcon (1941)

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  • With 15 new films watched, August is my best month since April. It’s also my 27th month in a row with 10+ films.
  • With two-thirds of the year still to go, 2016 is already my second highest year ever, having sailed passed 2014’s final tally of 136 in the middle of the month.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS viewing was the progenitor of much of what we know as film noir, the 1941 adaptation of The Maltese Falcon.



The 15th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
There are a few quality films up there this month, in my opinion, both the expected (Duel, The Maltese Falcon) and the less-so (BvS Ultimate Edition, The Good Dinosaur), but probably my favourite of the lot was the Ozploitation flick you could call “Duel Down Under”, or “Rear Windscreen” — Road Games.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
For all the faults of Armageddon, the recently released Honest Trailer has just served to clarify/remind me of the disappointment of Batman: The Killing Joke.

Best Song I’d Never Heard Of Until I Saw It in a Trailer This Month
After I watched something or other on Amazon this month, one of the recommended films was Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal. (It wasn’t after Enemy, because I watched that on Now TV; it was probably Dallas Buyers Club. Anyway.) I knew nothing about the film but have seen it come up a few times, so I watched the trailer, and the best part of that was the music: Heart’s Crazy On You. This has been a real “how have I never heard this before?!” moment. It also made me really want to see the film, so, y’know, trailers work.

Best Bit of Audio Commentary Ever
I am going to review Armageddon eventually, but really, all you need to do is watch these 2 minutes of Ben Affleck’s commentary:

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
I tend to find reviews of alternate cuts do particularly well, hit-wise (I figure that’s why the first two Harry Potters are far and away my most-read posts ever, and still usually top the list for each day, while the other Harry Potters just see average-to-good figures). The post that topped this month’s tally doesn’t surprise me greatly, then. The winner, by a country mile (it’s already my second most-read new post of the entire year), is my review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Ultimate Edition.



It’s a heady genre cornucopia this month, with nine movies spanning Action, Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance, Sci-fi, Thriller, and Western — usually more than one at once.


The 8.3% of the year known as September.

The Perfectly Adequate Monthly Update for July 2016

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Another month over, another list of movies I watched during it…


#116 Zootropolis (2016), aka Zootopia
#117 Superman Returns (2006)
#118 Cold in July (2014)
#119 American Ultra (2015)
#120 Ten Little Indians (1974), aka And Then There Were None
#121 Zoolander (2001)
#122 Pride and Prejudice (1940)
#123 High-Rise (2015)
#124 The Visit (2015)
#125 The Imitation Game (2014)
#126 Sicario (2015)
#127 The Sting (1973)

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  • A total of 12 new films this month means I maintain my ten-per-month minimum for the 26th month.
  • It also easily passes my July average (6.5, by far the lowest of any month), and is equal-best July ever (with last year).
  • It’s the ‘worst’ month of 2016 to date, though.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS viewing was classic con caper The Sting, which is still enjoyable but somewhat overshadowed by the fact it’s been so influential in the four decades since its release.
  • Zootastic: watched both Zoolander and Zootropolis, aka Zootopia, this month. That signifies absolutely nothing, it’s just there aren’t that many films with titles beginning “Zoo”.

(I’ve decided to put a moratorium on the Analysis section until at least December’s update — as I wrote in June, it’s a bit pointless at the minute. That’s why relevant stats & stuff are now included in this part.)



The 14th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
Although it has the shortest list of any month so far this year, it was a pretty strong one quality-wise — a ‘problem’ that afflicts both these first two categories, of course. Despite there being several strong contenders, I’m going to come down in favour of twisty, surprising neo-noir Cold in July.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
There were films this month that weren’t as great as I was hoping, to one degree or another (High-Rise, The Sting), and others that lived up to my moderate-to-low expectations just fine (American Ultra, Zoolander), but none that were outright bad. So the unlucky winner is Ten Little Indians, for being a word-for-word remake (of the ’60s version) that isn’t quite as good as its predecessor.

Most Blatant Author Surrogate of the Month
Jesse Eisenberg’s lead character in American Ultra feels like it’s just screenwriter Max Landis going, “hey, what if it turned out I was Jason Bourne…”

Film Most Deserving of a TV Spin-off Series of the Month
I know I already mentioned this in my review, but I really would devote some of my precious TV-viewing time to a Zootropolis Zootopia Zootropolis spin-off… if it was one of those kids’ shows that’s so well written it works for an adult viewer too, of course. I guess the detailed animation required to realise that world is cost-prohibitive to this ever happening, though.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
A first, here: the most-viewed new post last month was the review of the month before that; i.e. The Independent Monthly Update for June 2016. Maybe it was my Brexit joke; maybe it was Deadpool; who can say?



This month: child hitmen, magical nannies, Shakespeare with big cats, and a really long walk to return some unwanted jewellery.


Summer! I hate summer. On the bright side, it means winter is coming… eventually…

100 Films’ 100 Favourites: The Story So Far…

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For a transcript of the video, see here.

To recap, the first 50 are…

  1. Aladdin
  2. Alien
  3. Apocalypse Now Redux
  4. Apollo 13
  5. Back to the Future
  6. Back to the Future Part II
  7. Back to the Future Part III
  8. Batman Begins
  9. Batman Returns
  10. Beauty and the Beast
  11. The Big Sleep
  12. Blade
  13. Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut
  14. Bloody Sunday
  15. The Bourne Identity
  16. The Bourne Supremacy
  17. Casablanca
  18. Casino Royale
  19. Children of Men
  20. Conspiracy
  21. Cube
  22. Daredevil
  23. Die Hard
  24. Dogma
  25. Dogville
  26. Donnie Darko
  27. The Empire Strikes Back
  28. Face/Off
  29. Fight Club
  30. Flash Gordon
  31. For a Few Dollars More
  32. From Russia with Love
  33. Galaxy Quest
  34. The Game
  35. Gangs of New York
  36. Ghost in the Shell
  37. Ghostbusters
  38. Gladiator
  39. The Godfather
  40. GoldenEye
  41. Gone with the Wind
  42. Groundhog Day
  43. Highlander
  44. The Incredibles
  45. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  46. Josie and the Pussycats
  47. Jurassic Park
  48. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
  49. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
  50. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

During my selection process for this list, my almost-final long-list stalled at a little over 150 films. As I’m posting these in alphabetical order, I can now list some of the also-rans that almost made it but, for one reason or another, didn’t.

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Battle Royale
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Closer
Collateral
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Cruel Intentions
eXistenZ
The Fugitive
The Godfather Part II
Goldfinger
Hilary and Jackie
A History of Violence
Independence Day
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Inside Man
Interview with the Vampire
Jaws
JFK
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
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That’s only 21, with another 34 to be revealed next time — which does make me wonder if I just got harsher as I moved through an alphabetical list!

Tomorrow, the second half begins…

The Independent Monthly Update for June 2016

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In? Out? Pretty sure “shake it all about” won the referendum.

(It was a toss up between a Brexit joke and a Game of Thrones one, and only one of those wouldn’t constitute spoilers. Well, depending on your definition of “spoiled”.)


#102 Cop Car (2015)
#102a Independence Day (Special Edition) (1996/1998)
#103 The Revenant (2015)
#104 Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010)
#105 Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
#106 Spy (Extended Cut) (2015)
#107 Deadpool (2016)
#107a Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)
#108 Ip Man 3 (2015), aka Yip Man 3
#109 Steve Jobs (2015)
#110 Fantastic Four (2015)
#111 Barry Lyndon (1975)
#112 Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (1973), aka Иван Васильевич меняет профессию
#113 The Bank Job (2008)
#113a The Present (2014)
#114 The Lobster (2015)
#115 Pan (2015)

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  • WDYMYHS continues apace with Stanley Kubrick’s 7th film on the IMDb Top 250, Barry Lyndon. It’s getting a 40th anniversary theatrical re-release towards the end of July, so expect a review nearer the time.
  • #1 thing I didn’t quite get round to this month: Zootropolis, aka Zootopia. It’s not out on UK DVD/Blu-ray until the end of July, but I imported it from the US (before 37.4% of the electorate went and knackered the value of the pound).
  • The Bank Job finally carries the number of films I’ve seen from my 2008 ‘50 Unseen’ list past the 20 mark. Ridiculously, last year’s list also passed that marker this month.
  • Independence Day is the first non-main-list film I’ve watched for review this year, and Bambi Meets Godzilla is the first short film.


It’s funny: having passed 100 last month, the whole statistics / how far I’ve got / predictions for the future shebang has been much less on my mind of late (which has been more occupied with writing 100 Favourites posts, because I’m no longer far ahead on them). Nonetheless, here are a couple of observations.

With 14 new feature films watched, June bests last month’s 13 (just), but sits behind all other months of 2016. It’s also not quite as good as last June, which scored 16, but it well surpasses June’s average of 8.25. It’s the 25th consecutive month with over 10 films, too, so that’s nice — still on track for that to hold until this December messes it up, at least.

As ever, the end of June marks the year’s halfway point. With my year-to-date monthly average at 19.2, the obvious forecast places me at 232 by the end of the year, which — in almost the opposite of last year, when these predictions kept proving undervalued — I don’t expect to reach. Taking the average of the last two months as a better guide, that gets me to 196, which seems more plausible. Really, I’m only in the habit of making these predictions from the years when it took me ’til December to reach #100, and so trying to guess if I was going to do it ‘mattered’ — these days, what does it matter? I’ll get where I get.

And on that downbeat note…



The halfway point of the year also means the halfway point of my 100 Favourites. The (alphabetical) first 50 is completed by:



The 13th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
A couple of 2015 Oscar contenders caught my attention this month, and The Revenant or Steve Jobs would certainly be a worthier pick… but I called this category “favourite” rather than “best” for a reason, and dammit if I didn’t enjoy Deadpool more than a man of my age (i.e. older than teenage) reasonably should.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I didn’t love every film I watched this month, but I did at least like the vast majority. Some may think last year’s much maligned Fantastic Four reboot would be a shoo-in here, but no, I quite liked it. So the only bad film this month — and therefore an easy ‘victor’ in this category — was unnecessary sequel Beverly Hills Cop III.

Best Moulin Rouge Rip-Off of the Month
Smells Like Teen Spirit in Pan. (Sorry if I’ve now spoiled that surprise for you.)

Most Unexpected Appearance by a Eurovision Song Contest Entrant… Ever
The word “most” feels a bit redundant here — how many Eurovision entrants have ever turned up in movies? Well, aside from Abba. Anyway, I’d never seen a Paul Feig film before, but he earns a shed-ton of bonus points (enough to wipe out Ghostbusters? We’ll see) for not only featuring Ukraine’s 2007 submission by Verka Serdyuchka in Spy, but for setting an action sequence to it too.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
A close one this time, but it ended with victory for a 100 Favourites entry, for the second month in a row: my generation’s Star Wars, the enduringly popular Jurassic Park.


Historically, July is my lowest-totalling month, and the only month where I’ve ever failed to watch a single new film (in 2009). 2016’s iteration should do better than that, at least.

The Suspenseful Monthly Update for May 2016

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The number of films I watched this May dipped well below the monthly average for 2016, but was that still enough to get to #100 this month?

I know, the suspense must be killing you. Read on…


#89 The Hateful Eight (2015)
#90 The Raid 2 (2014), aka The Raid 2: Berandal
#91 Calvary (2014)
#92 Captain America: Civil War (2016)
#93 Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD (2014)
#94 Ted 2 (Extended Edition) (2015)
#95 Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
#96 Hamlet (1964), aka Гамлет
#97 Just Friends (2005)
#98 X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
#99 The Assassin (2015), aka Cìkè Niè Yǐnniáng
#100 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
#101 Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969), aka Du bei dao wang

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  • This month’s WDYMYHS pick coincides with #100, so it seemed only natural to pick the most acclaimed film I’d never seen (at least according to IMDb users), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.


Last year I reached #100 by the earliest date I’ve ever done it, July 27th. It finally beat a personal record that had stood since 2007. At the time, I wrote that 2015 had “been rather good by my standards, so it’s [a record] I don’t foresee breaking again. I mean, if I had five consecutive best-ever months (i.e. better than I’ve ever done, x5) then I could squeeze it in by the end of May.” Hahaha, what a ridiculous notion that would be!

That was before October 2015’s ludicrous 31-film tally, so in the end I didn’t need five “better than I’ve ever done” months, just four really good ones and one fairly average one to reach #100 on May 28th.

“Fairly average” there is a relative term: May 2016’s total of 13 films may rank =17th out of the last 24 months, but it’s above the all-time average for every month (the nearest is October’s 12.63), so it ain’t bad really. And although it breaks the 20-films-per-month run I’d been having in 2016, it does maintain my 10-per-month streak for the 24th month — i.e. two straight years.

Looking ahead, May may be a better indicator of what’s to come for the rest of the year — as I keep mentioning in these monthly posts, I’ve been intending to watch fewer film this year (to make room for other stuff), and I only pushed to #100 so quickly after I ‘accidentally’ had a really good couple of months at the start. My goal is to maintain that 10-per-month minimum, which now sees 2016 looking at #171+ (up from last month’s 160-ish). If the rest of the year does look like May (i.e. about 13 films a month), I’d end up around #192. If I ‘slip’ back into watching a lot of films, the average for the year so far (20.2) places me in the 240s.



It’s 100 Favourites’ G-spot! Experience ghosts, gladiators, and gangsters, in a month that’s all about films beginning with the letter G.



The 12th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I was quite down on its predecessor for all sorts of reasons, but my unquestioned favourite film this month is The Raid 2. I won’t be surprised if it turns up again on my year-end top ten, too.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I’ll talk about what in hell led me to watch it when I get round to reviewing it, but, while I actually wound up not minding Just Friends (for what it is, anyway), it’s definitely the lowest-quality movie I watched this month.

Winner of Marvel’s Civil War
Tom Holland, aka Spider-Man.

Loser of Marvel’s Civil War
Zack Snyder and his plans for DC’s movie universe.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Was it massively popular new-release Captain America: Civil War? No, that came third. Was it one of the widely-acknowledged greatest movies of all time, The Godfather? No, that came second. This month’s most popular post was a 21-year-old James Bond movie, GoldenEye.


2016 starts looking towards its place on the all-time ranking of 100 Films years: with 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012 already passed, sights are set on beating 2013’s 110, and maybe 2010’s 122…

The Delayed Monthly Update for April 2016

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I was away this weekend and didn’t have much time for blogging, and most of what I did have was spent finishing 1999 Week, so that’s why this post is later than normal (and also why I have plenty of your posts & comments still to catch up on!)

(Also-also, if you were wondering where the “top films of 1999” post I promised had got to, I wrote about three-quarters of it before I decided it was rubbish, so I abandoned it. I’m sure I’ve published lots of rubbish on this blog over the years, but never deliberately.)

Anyway, on with what I watched in April…


#68 Of Human Bondage (1934)
#69 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
#70 Cool World (1992)
#71 Warrior (2011)
#72 The Limey (1999)
#73 The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
#74 Election (1999)
#75 The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984), aka Wu Lang ba gua gun
#76 Ghosts of Mars (2001)
#77 Caesar Must Die (2012), aka Cesare deve morire
#78 300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
#79 Lost River (2014)
#80 The Fighter (2010)
#81 Wuthering Heights (2011)
#82 A Royal Night Out (2015)
#83 Locke (2013)
#84 Maleficent (2014)
#85 Christine (1983)
#86 The Iron Giant (1999)
#87 Badlands (1973)
#88 Pixels (2015)

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  • This is the earliest I’ve ever reached #75 — the previous best was 1st June, last year.
  • Coincidentally, I reached #75 this year on the date that I reached #50 last year (8th April) — which at the time was a record.
  • “What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen” continues at pace with Brad Bird’s popular animated B-movie homage The Iron Giant. I’ve already reviewed it here.
  • Four films from 1999 this month. We know what that led to.


For the fourth month in a row, I’ve crossed the 20 film boundary. Out of 112 months I’ve been doing this, it’s only the 7th time that’s happened. Expressed another way, it only happens 6.25% of the time; before 2016, it only happened 2.78% of the time (and before 2015, it only happened 1.04% of the time!)

The final number of films this month was actually 21, which is slightly behind the 2016 average — but only slightly, because that was 22.3. It’s now adjusted to a round 22. Conversely, being five films better than April’s previous best, it raises the April average from 8.25 to 9.67.

Predictions are typically futile, though it’s beginning to look like I’ll be away for most of December, which throws an interesting variable in the mix. (I say “interesting” in a relative sense.) Of course, “most” is not “all”, so it likely won’t count for 0 — but will it reach the 10-per-month minimum I’ve been holding steady on for nearly two years now? Well, that’s a discussion for December itself. In the meantime, even if December doesn’t reach 10, my final tally should be in excess of 160 — easily enough to score the second best year ever. If I hew closer to that 22 average, 2016 could wind up passing 250…



Foreign deconstructions of American values, genre revisionism, high camp, one of the greatest Bond films, and paternal revelations — it’s all go in this month’s eight favourites!



The 11th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
Quite an easy choice this month. Films that are made ‘artily’ (for want of a better word) sit on a fine line, for me: too far one way and they tip off into pretentious dullardom, but get it right and they can be utterly fantastic. A couple of films erred on the right side of that line this month, thankfully, but only one really nailed it, and that was The Limey.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
Even in a month that includes multiple critically-reviled films (Cool World, Ghosts of Mars, Lost River, Pixels), my pick for this category was really easy — and it’s none of those. This winner’s predecessor wasn’t exactly high art (far from it), but it had something to it — some innovation; some merit in its extremeness. This sequel doesn’t have that. For being almost entirely vacuous and looking cheap as chips, this month’s travesty of cinema is 300: Rise of an Empire.

Most Inexplicably Popular Film of the Month
I’m going to steal a bit from the draft of my forthcoming review to explain this one: “The weirdest thing is, this is the kind of movie I regularly give 4-stars to, while loads of other people give it 3 and I think they’re being a bit harsh but I can see where they’re coming from. Yet somehow Warrior transcends such criticism from people who usually have too much ‘taste’ — they acknowledge it’s terribly clichéd, but then give it a pass on that. Why? Why don’t you give the same leniency to the tonnes of other movies you cruelly rip to shreds for their clichés?” (For more on this theme, see table9mutant’s review.)

Most Critically-Reviled Film of the Month That I Actually Really Enjoyed
As I alluded to above, there are several contenders for this trophy (not Cool World, though — that is rubbish). Leaving aside a couple of sci-fi blockbusters that, while not as bad as many critics made out, are still not really more than “entertaining while they’re on”, the winner here is Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut Lost River. Heavily influenced by other filmmakers, certainly, and almost self-consciously elliptical with its pace and storytelling, I nonetheless thought there was a lot to like if you’re open to ‘that kind of film’ (think Lynch).

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Thanks to a retweet by Film4, views for Starman went through the roof (relative to my normal posts, anyway). It wasn’t enough to challenge Harry Potter 1&2 for the most-viewed post of the month overall, but then nothing ever is.


Once upon a time, I made a comment that can be summarised as, “Perhaps one day I could reach #100 in May — ha ha ha ha ha, like that could ever happen!”

Well…

100 Films v 2016: Month of March

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Tell me — do you watch films?

You will.


Barely Lethal#45 Chappie (2015)
#46 Blackhat (2015)
#47 The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
#48 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
#49 Barely Lethal (2015)
#50 The Book of Life (2014)
#51 Kill List (2011)
#52 Fast & Furious 7 (2015), aka Furious Seven
Lincoln#53 Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
#54 Office Space (1999)
#55 Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
#56 The Boxer from Shantung (1972), aka Ma Yong Zhen
#57 The Descendants (2011)
#58 One-Armed Swordsman (1967), aka Du bei dao
#59 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015)
Batman v Superman#60 Bridge of Spies (2015)
#61 Scotland, Pa. (2001)
#62 Lincoln (2012)
#63 Brooklyn (2015)
#64 Turbo Kid (2015)
#65 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
#66 The Color Purple (1985)
#67 Grave of the Fireflies (1988), aka Hotaru no haka


  • After sitting out last month, I got back to WDYMYHS in March with IMDb voters’ 7th favourite war movie, 5th favourite ’80s movie, and 3rd favourite animated movie: Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies.
  • With Bridge of Spies coming out on Blu-ray, Lincoln premiering on TV, and The Color Purple being removed from Amazon Prime Instant Video, the last week of March turned into a bit of a Spielberg-athon for yours truly. I’m now just 3¼ films away from finally having seen all his features…
  • Value For Money Assessment, Part 4: adding 10 more films from Now TV to the 10 (plus the Oscars) from last month gives a final cost of £0.48 per film. I’d say that’s good value.


With 23 new films watched this month, March 2016 joins the elite pantheon of months to reach 20 films — it’s only the sixth ever, and the third this year. In the process, it became the 22nd consecutive month with a 10+ total; it leapt spryly over March’s previous best tally (2013’s 17); and it handed 2016 the record for earliest #50, on the 6th (besting last year’s 8th April). It raises the March average from 11 to 12.3, and nudges the 2016 average up a smidgen from 22 to 22.3.

And there I was thinking that 13 hours of Daredevil would knacker my film viewing. (As it is, I’m actually only 10 hours through Daredevil. It’s really good, though.)

I normally end this with a prediction for the rest of the year, but they feel increasingly meaningless. I mean, they’ve always been meaningless — they’re based on averages, which only hold true until they don’t — but I’m still intending to cut back on film viewing this year (at some point), so they’ll definitely go awry. That said, I’m also intending to maintain my 10-film-minimum for a second calendar year, meaning 2016’s final tally should be at least 157 films. And, frankly, I’m intending April and May to continue in a similar vein to these first three months; at least until I reach #100, anyway. Assuming I do get there in May (which will be a whole Thing that I’ll discuss at the time), 2016 will be looking towards 170+ films.

2015 has really recalibrated my notion of “a lighter year”…



This month: Bourne, Bond, and Ben Affleck twice.



The 10th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
Although a couple of fun action movies turned my head this month, none of them were fun enough to detract from the sheer class of Steven Spielberg’s collaboration with Abraham-Lincoln-pretending-to-be-Daniel-Day-Lewis-pretending-to-be-Abraham-Lincoln (last time I make that joke, promise) in Lincoln.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
My memories of it have softened a little in the four weeks since I watched it, but as it remains the only film this month that I’ve got down for a 2-star rating, the loser is Michael Mann’s disappointing cyber thriller Blackhat.

Winner of Batman v Superman
Wonder Woman.

Loser of Batman v Superman
Film critics, apparently. Or not.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
This almost went to everyone’s favourite movie about a blind superhero*, but it was edged out by everyone’s second favourite filmed production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play starring an actor who’s also played Magneto** — Macbeth.

* It’s true! If you can find another one, I’ll retract that statement.
** OK, I’m certain some people prefer the Fassbender one to the old McKellen-and-Dench one, but acknowledging that fact would’ve ruined the mirroring structure of my sentence.


¾.

The Value-for-Money Monthly Update for February 2016

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It’s only words, and words are all I have to introduce this post.

So let’s get on with it.


The Martian#21 Predestination (2014)
#22 Prisoners (2013)
#23 Macbeth (2015)
#24 Daybreakers (2009)
#25 The Martian (2015)
#26 Ex Machina (2015)
#27 Quigley Down Under (1990)
#28 Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)Ex Machina
#29 SuperBob (2015)
#30 The East (2013)
#31 Pillow Talk (1959)
#32 Home on the Range (2004)
#33 Crimson Peak (2015)
#34 Grand Piano (2013)
#35 Home (2015)
Crimson Peak#36 Noah (2014)
#37 The Equalizer (2014)
#38 The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)
#39 Big Eyes (2014)
#40 The Hangover (2009)
#41 Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
#42 Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. (2012/2013)
#43 Cinderella (2015)
#44 Lucy (2014)


  • Value For Money Assessment, Part 1: before I cancelled Netflix last month, I watched 10 films on there. That’s £0.79 per film.
  • Value For Money Assessment, Part 2: after joining Now TV this month, I snuffled out 230+ films that interested me. Of those, I watched 10, plus the Oscars. That’s £0.91 per film/awards ceremony. (That subscription’s not over, so I’ll get more value out of it next month.)
  • Value For Money Assessment, Part 3: I bought and instantly watched four new-release Blu-rays this month. That was £11.87 per film. Picture quality and special features were lovely, though.
  • No WDYMYHS film this month, for reasons I’ll come to in a minute. I did watch two last month, though, so it’s OK.


This month, I watched 24 new films. Yeah, that whole “watch fewer films so I can do other stuff” thing isn’t going so well. (“Moan when you’re not watching enough films, moan when you are watching plenty of films — what’s wrong with you?!” Yes, I do feel a bit Shinji-ish.)

The reason? The Oscars. Not watching the nominated films, but paying £9.99 for a month of Now TV so I can watch them. Are the Oscars worth £9.99? No, of course they’re not — hence catching up on lots of other films while I have it. That’ll continue until the middle of next month… when I’ll get Netflix so I can watch Daredevil season two, and also attempt to extract maximum value for money by watching a load more films. So in the middle of April I may finally stop watching so many movies…

Of course, watching so many films brings with it a number of personal ‘achievements’: it easily surpasses the February average (9.63) and crushes the February record (13, jointly held by four previous Februarys); it’s the 21st month in a row where I’ve watched over 10 films; it’s only the fifth month ever with over 20 films; oh, and it’s a new third best month ever. (“Best” in this sense just meaning “most prolific”, of course. Volume does not equal quality. Unless you’re Mad Max: Fury Road, in which case winning the most Oscars means you are the Academy’s best film of the year. Yes it does. Yes it does.)

Quick inaccurate future predictions: following the relatively-huge January and February, and as I intend to maintain my ten-per-month minimum, this year’s looking at a final tally of at least 144 films. That would make it easily my second most prolific year ever. Which is nice. If by some failure of purpose I continued to achieve my current 2016 average of 22 films per month, I’d be looking at ending around #264. Sounds utterly ridiculous, but in January 2015 I laughed at the statistics suggesting I might make it to #192, and I ended up reaching #200.


This month, I’ve all but finished posting my 2015 reviews. Just The Story of Film remains, joining Veronica Mars in the eternally-unreviewed club. Maybe I’ll fix them both next month. Plus, the debut of my monthly TV review.


Superheroes, Disney, history, and noir — both classic and futuristic. Alphabetisation leaves the structure of this series to the whims of fate, but I think it’s a nicely varied month.



The 9th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
Any month with 24 films is likely to have more than its fair share of highs and lows, and so it was with February. Shortlisting contenders for both this and the next award showed more of the former than the latter (nine vs. three), thankfully, but I think this one boils down to a three-way five-star sci-fi stand-off. Of those, I think the best marriage of idea and execution may have come from Predestination.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
Two animations with “home” in the title are the frontrunners (rear-runners?) here. However, I expected Home on the Range to be terrible (and only watched it in aid of seeing all the Disney Animated Classics), whereas I only watched Home because I thought the trailer looked entertaining, so was thoroughly disappointed.

Best Apocalypse of the Month
Plenty of movies have shown us the end of the world now, but very few have done it in a story set millennia ago. For doing it so convincingly (if not plausibly), congratulations to Noah.

Most Disappointing Shakespeare Cut of the Month
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” Why did they excise one of the best lines from Macbeth?!

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Maybe it was the broad range of series covered, maybe it was just because it was something new and different, but my most-viewed new post in February was The Past Month on TV #1. (For the sake of keeping things on topic, I’ll add that the most-viewed film-related review was my Oscars-centric take on Star Wars: The Force Awakens.)


Halfway.