Category Archives: progress reports

How am I doing? Including monthly updates.

September 2011

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By the end of September 2010 I’d made it to my goal of 100 films.

This year?


Not a chance.

Of course I haven’t. I ended last month on 77 — even at my best, 23 films in a month is madness. (Actually, I did manage it once: August 2007, when I watched between 24 and 29 films. (I wish I’d kept more thorough records of exactly when I watched things back then.) But my next highest is 18, and next 17, so…)

In January’s summary I noted that, if I could keep my viewing rate the same, I’d reach 100 in early September (and 144 by the end of the year). In May things were clearly going to that plan, as I passed #50 and noted that I should reach #100 on September 9th (and 145 by the end of the year). As you can see, that rate didn’t continue.

But hey-ho, the first part of the year always seems to go better than the back bit, and I’m not behind my schedule to reach exactly 100 by the end of the year — indeed, even if I hadn’t watched a single new film this month I’d still be three ahead. But I watched four, so that’s… well, it’s better than nothing, eh…


#78 Bringing Up Baby (1938)
#79 Holiday (1938)
#80 How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
#81 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)


Revamp

Attentive readers may note that I’ve made some changes to the ‘info line’ that starts each of my reviews. I’ve been pondering this for a while now and have finally just taken the plunge. Any suggestions for additions (or removals) from the new set of info are welcome. Changes thus far are as follows:

  • I’ve lost the year. It’s in the post title; there was never any need for it to be repeated. Never.
  • Added the aspect ratio. This one probably won’t always be available or precise, but I’ll have a go. For DVDs and Blu-rays it’s copied from the packaging (unless that’s obviously wrong), for formats where I don’t have such ‘precise’ information it’ll be my best guess from the standard sizes.
  • Added the country-of-production and primary language of the film. I don’t want these to be epic lists of funders and every language spoken on screen, so I intend to limit this to the main country/ies and one language, as far as I possibly can. So, for example, the language for Inglourious Basterds would be “English”, even though a tonne of (subtitled) French and German is spoken throughout. Probably. I may end up changing my mind on this one…

Other than that it’s all stuff that was there before. I’m not going to change all the old reviews to match the new format, though — there’s well over 500 reviews now, I’m not mad.

As I said, feel free to berate me for either including something needless/inaccurate or for leaving out something essential. I’ve tried to keep the list focused on facts that are accepted to be important (e.g. the director) or stuff that can vary depending on the viewing source (length, aspect ratio, language), which obviously might impact my experience and therefore opinion.


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

With just three months to go it’s getting close to the final countdown.

Will I make it to 100 next month? Doubt it. 90? You never know…

August 2011

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Dear fans of Firefly and Serenity,

[The following was all irrelevant soon after I posted it, never mind now in 2015. But hey-ho, the repostathon rolls on…]

In case you’ve not heard of it, I just want to quickly draw your attention to Browncoats: Redemption, a fan film about a bunch of original characters in the ‘verse that takes place in the wake of the events of Serenity. What makes this one notable is that it’s been officially sanctioned by creator Joss Whedon and the appropriate Firefly/Serenity rightsholders to be sold on DVD and Blu-ray in aid of charity. But only until September 1st, which (as the handy countdown on the website tells us) means it will only ever be available for order for another 29 hours*.

I’d meant to review the film sooner to give it a proper push, but me being me I only just watched it. I’ll still aim to get a review up sometime, obviously, but for what it’s worth I’ll be giving it 2 out of 5. Hardly a glowing promotion I know, but I’m scoring this next to all the other films I’ve watched and, honestly, it’s a fan film and it plays like one. That said, as examples go it’s a pretty well-made one. Though the acting, screenplay and direction would be kindly described as “well-meaning”, some of the production values are surprisingly good: there’s a decent spaceship set, well-realised location work, solid costumes, decent fight choreography, professional music, some good-quality CGI, and so on. It’s no Serenity 2, and considering the “proper movie” quality of some zero-budget films (like, say, Primer or El Mariachi (both of which cost less)) it’s obviously a labour of love rather than of emerging talent. But for die-hard, sympathetic fans of Whedon’s series, it’s a passable little trip back to the ‘verse. Full marks for effort, at least.

Plus, if you’re interested in this kind of thing, the DVD & Blu-ray versions come with a host of extras: an audio commentary by the writer/director/producer, the best part of an hour on the making of Redemption, over an hour and a half of interviews with cast and crew from Firefly and Serenity, and a full soundtrack CD.

More importantly than all of that, and why I’m mentioning it despite my rating, is that all profits go to five charities supported by Firefly/Serenity cast & crew: Equality Now, Kids Need to Read, the Dyslexia Foundation, the Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center, and the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation. With just 29 hours left to be able to own the film (unless you’re attending Dragon*Con, anyway), I thought that was worth a mention.


* at the time of posting, hence why this round-up is about 24 hours earlier than normal.


Now back to your regularly scheduled monthly round-up…

After that, I’ll just get on with it. Should I watch anything else in the next 24 hours I’ll sneak it on the end later.

#72 Sucker Punch: Extended Cut (2011)
#73 Source Code (2011)
#74 Glorious 39 (2009)
#75 Nirvana (1997)
#76 The House on 92nd Street (1945)
#77 Browncoats: Redemption (2010)


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

September marks the final third of the year. With under a quarter of films to go, that’s not too shabby… even if I’m still not getting very far with posting reviews.

But hey, tomorrow is another day…

25 Films I Own That I Really Should Have Seen

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This was originally published almost exactly a year ago (as the date above will show). Below, I’ve added an update.

Also new, I feel like I’ve been Quite Clever with the featured image above. It would’ve been even cleverer to get all the DVDs/BDs out and line them up and take a photo, but that’s an amount of effort too far.

Anyway. The original post:

As I reach the three-quarter mark of this year’s 100 films, I’ve decided to take a little look at what’s become a sort of recurring theme this year: films I own but have never got round to watching. And, because I have 25 films left to go this year, there’ll be 25 of them (if I was doing all of the eligible titles we’d be here forever).

And these aren’t necessarily the 25 most significant films or anything — I’m sure if everyone was able to peruse my list of owned-but-never-seen films we’d all come out with different shortlists — but they’re 25 that, for one reason or another (often recommendations by other filmjournal-ists*), I should have seen by now.

Note, mind, that this is no guarantee that these will now be my next 25 films. Indeed, I think I can guarantee they won’t be — my viewing is too beholden to the vagaries of TV scheduling and what LOVEFiLM choose to send me, as well as random fluctuations of whim and fancy. But I really should put a great deal more effort into getting round to these ones.

So, in strictly alphabetical order, we have…

1) The 39 Steps and dozens of other Hitchcocks.
2) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
3) Brazil
4) City of God
5) Comrades
6) Day Watch
7) Die Hard with a Vengeance
8) Fantômas parts 3-5
9) Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
10) Heroes of the East
11) Lawrence of Arabia
12) A Matter of Life and Death or any other Powell & Pressburger film.
13) Moon, and District 9, and other recent acclaimed SF/F films.
14) Night of the Living Dead and the five other Romero zombie films.
15) Oldboy
16) Once Upon a Time in America
17) Princess Mononoke and several other anime films.
18) Rififi
19) Seven Samurai
20) Solomon Kane
21) The Spider Woman and the seven other Rathbone Holmeses I haven’t yet covered.
22) Touch of Evil, not to mention dozens of other film noirs.
23) Up, and also A Bug’s Life and Cars.
24) Waterloo
25) Zatoichi

OK, yes, you might argue some of those “and also”s are cheating, but it’s my list, so ner.

I was going to write little blurbs for each too, as there are all sorts of reasons for each inclusion… but there’s 25 for chrissake, does anyone care that much? I mean, if you’re curious, I’ll happily fill in any or all gaps, but this post is beginning to feel a bit self indulgent and faintly masochistic as it is. Some of the links offer an explanation or a hint at one; others are just IMDb, sorry.


UPDATE (29/8/2012)

In the past year I’ve seen four of the 42 films specifically mentioned in that list: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, The Spider Woman, The Scarlet Claw and Cars.

I am a terrible person.


* Highlighting all of these makes me feel terribly rude, actually. And I didn’t even include all of them. It’s nothing personal chaps. ^

July 2011

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Another month over, and what have you done…

Wait, isn’t that how I begin Christmas posts?*


Failings

Every year of 100 Films seems to see at least one shockingly weak month for my film viewing. Last year it was April (three films); the year before February (two) and July (none); and so on. This year I’d done pretty well — my monthly totals so far run at 12, 13, 13, 9, 11 and 9 — but I have finally crumbled: July 2011 scores a lowly four.

Hey, at least I held the bad month off much longer than usual!

My reviews have also dropped to a trickle, as you may (or may not) have noticed — they stand at a pathetic total of two for the entire month. This isn’t a personal blog (well, it kinda is, but not in that way) so I won’t go on about it too much, but it’s not been a great year and film viewing & reviewing is just one thing to be struggling.

That said, it’s only recently my viewing’s suffered — I’m only slightly behind this point last year, which leaves me ahead of every other previous year. Maybe it’s silly, and it’s certainly counterproductive, but I find my review backlog gets in the way: having 20+ films stacked up waiting to be written about lessens my enthusiasm to watch new stuff. And it’s not as if there aren’t other distractions — there seems to be a tonne of TV worth watching these days… not that I’ve been getting on with as much of that as I’d like…


Anyway — here’s this month’s measly foursome… none of which I’ve posted reviews of yet. [Except I have now, by 2015, of course.]

#68 The Locket (1946)
#69 Tangled (2010)
#70 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
#71 Super (2010)


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

It’s August! Summer! Hot, sunny weather! The perfect time for staying inside trying to stay cool!

That’s what I always aim to do, anyway. And what better way to fill that time than watch movies?

Or TV.

Or read books.

But I’ll try for those movies.


* No, it’s (sort of) how I begin new year posts, apparently. ^

June 2011

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What’s that? We’re halfway through the year, you say?

No, you’re having me on.


We’re halfway through the year

Dammit.

Anyway — It’s no news that being halfway through the calendar year sees me more than halfway through my annual goal (because that happened last month), but it’s always a good time to stop and take stock.

As you’ll see shortly, this point finds me at 67 films. A bit of easy maths suggests this route would lead me to 134 films by years’ end, which would be a new record. Experience tells me it looks this way every year — last year, for instance, numbers suggested I’d make 128 by December 31st, but I actually reached 122. I’m sure the other years tell the same story: for whatever reason, the back six months don’t see as much film-watching activity on my part as the first six. Partly because once I pass 100 I’m not quite as motivated (it becomes a good time to catch up on TV, or films I’ve already seen and would like to re-watch).

Still, whether I do make it to 134 or not, I’m well on track to make it past 100. And that’s the aim after all.


This month’s 9

#59 Jonah Hex (2010)
#60 X-Men: First Class (2011)
#61 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D) (2011)
#62 Ip Man (2008)
#63 Law Abiding Citizen: Director’s Cut (2009)
#64 Valley of Fear (1983)
#65 Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance., aka Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha (2009/2010)
#66 A Study in Terror (1965)
#67 Saw 3D (2D) (2010)


No Scott Pilgrim

In my look ahead to ‘vengeance week’, I mentioned having a review of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World posted for tonight. Obviously, that hasn’t happened and isn’t happening. Maybe soon; maybe in a few years — who knows! (I didn’t get round to watching it either, y’see.)

And I’m not even going to mention Once Upon a Time in America.

…oops


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

Making promises is getting me nowhere. So, next month, I will probably watch some films, and I may review some of them, and in 31 days I’ll tell you how I got on. That last point I can guarantee.

Unless I have an unfortunate accident or something. Dammit.

May 2011

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Ah, May.

In which I reach:


Two milestones

Much of watching 100 films is the long, sometimes slow, slog of getting through so many films. Oh I know some people watch far more than that in a year, especially if we started counting films seen before, but I think most would agree getting to such a number is a marathon rather than a sprint. If you watched one a day, it would still take over three months.

Assault on Precinct 13Sometimes, though, the slog (I say “slog” — obviously it’s good really!) is broken up by my arrival at key points. And this month, I reached not one but two milestones. Yay!

Firstly, I’ve passed the halfway point for 2011 — this year’s 50th film was the original Assault on Precinct 13. Hitting halfway on May 6th means I should, theoretically, reach 100 by September 9th (to be precise), and make it to 145 films by the end of the year. As ever, we’ll see how that pans out.

Secondly, an even bigger milestone: I’ve now reached 500 films in five years! And that 500th film was the remake of Assault on Precinct 13. Neat, eh? Now, I know: according to the title of this blog this milestone ‘should’ be at the end of this year, but overruns in 2007 and 2010 (tempered by 2009’s shortfall) are what make #55 the 500th never-before-seen feature film to arrive on this blog. So hurrah!


Not only, but also

They weren’t the only two films I watched this month, of course…

An Education#48 Funny Face (1957)
#49 Catfish (2010)
#50 Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
#51 An Education (2009)
The King's Speech#52 (500) Days of Summer (2009)
#53 Salt: Director’s Cut (2010)
#54 The Princess and the Frog (2009)
#55 Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
#56 Iron Man 2 (2010)
#57 The King’s Speech (2010)
#58 The Thief (1952)


Reviewtastic!

Things have been going well in the reviews department too. Though I’m still horribly backed up, I’ve finally posted all the reviews of films watched in January, making it the first month to get all its reviews up this year. Not exactly great news, but it’s something.

Plus, as I noted at the time, (500) Days of Summer is the 500th review of feature-length film to be posted on the blog (coming slightly earlier than the 500th review of a counted film thanks to the 25 uncounted features I’ve reviewed over the years).


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

Halfway! Always exciting.

Apart from the moment when you wonder where half the year’s gone.

April 2011

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Spring has sprung, but the number of films watched isn’t looking so lively…


The Nine

This month I watched nine feature films I’d never seen before (plus one short). That looks a bit weak compared to previous months this year, which averaged out at (just under) 13 each.

I blame TV — lots on this month; doubly so as I decided to rush through the last series of Doctor Who before the new one started. That’s about 10 hours of viewing, or an average of five films — which, if I had watched films, would bring me more in line with previous months. There’s always a reason, eh.

To put this month’s number in further perspective: I need to watch (just over) 8 films a month to reach 100 in December — I’ve beaten that. By this point last year I’d reached #41 — I’ve beaten that. And my ‘official target’ for April (any and every April) is #33 — I’ve well beaten that. So things aren’t so bad after all.


Monsters#39 The Girl Who Played with Fire, aka Flickan som lekte med elden (2009)
#40 Monsters (2010)
#41 My Neighbour Totoro, aka Tonari no Totoro (1988)
#42 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, aka Luftslottet som sprängdes (2009)
Dog Day Afternoon#43 Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
#43a Lumet: Film Maker (1975)
#44 La Règle du jeu, aka The Rules of the Game (1939)
#45 Cameraman: The Life & Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)
#46 A Bunch of Amateurs (2008)
#47 Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)


Reviews

I was going to say that there weren’t many reviews this month either, but as you can see I’ve posted them for half of the above list — percentage-wise that’s better than the first three months of this year (at their individual ends, not to date).

That said, I’m still quite far behind overall — 22, is it? Crikey. I aim to get considerably more posted in May. We’ll see.


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

These monthly updates finally reach one year old (the first, obviously, was May 2010).

More importantly, I’ll hopefully watch enough new films to reach #55 — which will be the 500th counted film for this blog!

Exciting times.

March 2011

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A quarter of the year down! Christ, where does the time go…


500 films in 5 years! …sort of

March saw me reach the 500th feature film to be reviewed on this blog. Not #500, mind you (that’ll be later this year), because I’ve also reviewed a variety of films that don’t count — hardly-different alternate cuts, a couple I’d just seen before, that kind of thing. About 25 of those, as it turns out. But still, 500 reviews — that’s a lot!

Though there’s still 13 to post before there’s actually 500 available to read…


March’s films

#26 Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
#27 Cloak and Dagger (1946)
#28 Unthinkable (2010)
#29 Let the Right One In, aka Låt den rätte komma in (2008)
#30 Let Me In (2010)
#31 The Damned (1963)
#32 Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
#33 Death Race (2008)
#34 Night of the Demon (1957)
#35 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, aka Män som hatar kvinnor (2009)
#36 High Plains Drifter (1973)
#37 Young Guns (1988)
#38 The Day of the Locust (1975)


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

So far this year I’m keeping exact pace with 2010: reaching 12 in January, 25 in February, and 38 in March. Coincidencetastic!

But April is where I stand a real chance to take a lead. Last year, for various reasons, I only managed to see three films in April, making it to a measly 41. So even four would put me ahead, but if I manage to keep up my current rate (of 12.7 films per month, to be precise) I’ll reach 51 (to round it up). Not only would I be well ahead of last year, but ahead of 2007 too — which, lest we forget, is still my best-ever final total.

Exciting times.

February 2011

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Apparently February’s ending. Where’d that go, eh?


Big numbers

Another month down sees the year reach ½ of ⅓ complete (or, to put it another way, “one sixth” — but they don’t do a little symbol for that).

Last month I watched 12 films and talked about continuing at that rate; this month I’ve watched 13, so that’s grand — and sees me quarterway toward my goal already. If I could keep this up I’d reach 150 by year’s end.

And, in fact, I watched more films than even that this month thanks to my David Fincher Week. Five of those didn’t count thanks to having seen them before, but if they had that would’ve been 18 films this month for a total of 30 — and at that kind of rate I’d be making it to over 180 by December 31st!

Not gonna happen.


#13 Harry Brown (2009)
#14 Alien³: Special Edition (1992/2003)
#14a Se7en (1995)
#15 Monkey Business (1952)
#15a The Game (1997)
#16 True Grit (1969)
#16a Fight Club (1999)
#16b Panic Room (2002)
#16c Zodiac: Director’s Cut (2007/2008)
#17 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
#18 The Social Network (2010)
#19 Easy Virtue (2008)
#20 Once (2006)
#21 Roman Holiday (1953)
#22 Sabrina (1954)
#23 Clash of the Titans (2010)
#24 Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang, aka Nanny McPhee Returns (2010)
#25 Up in the Air (2009)


Reviewless

So viewing’s going very well. Reviews, not so much — I’m currently 20 behind, which is the most I’ve been for a long time. I shall have to try harder.


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

The prescribed goal for the end of March is 25 films — done that!

Can I reach 37? Or even 43? And will I post some damn reviews?

All will be revealed… maybe with fewer clichés…

January 2011

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It’s live! (Well, I wrote it ‘live’.)

It’s Monday night! (Well, I posted it Monday night.)

It’s the January 2011 round-up! (At least that’s always true.)


Here we go again…

Following the success of 2010, 2011’s off to a good start. For one thing I’ve got every review from last year posted — I didn’t manage that until August (August!) last year.

More pertinently, though, the film-watching is off and running. Though I started later than ever this year (the first three years I managed to watch #1 on New Year’s Day; last year it was 8th January; this year 10th January), I’m suitably far ahead as January closes. The target for this month is to reach #8; last year I made it to #12; this year, I’ve made it to #12 again. Neat.

If I continue at this rate (which never happens), I’d reach #100 in early September and have a total of 144 by the end of the year. I shan’t be getting my hopes up.


This month’s films, then:

#1 Saw VI (2009)
#2 Exam (2009)
#3 Genevieve (1953)
#4 Synecdoche, New York (2008)
#5 Melinda and Melinda (2004)
#6 The Invention of Lying (2009)
#7 Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
#8 The Big Heat (1953)
#9 The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
#10 The Three Musketeers (1973)
#11 Bolt (2008)
#12 The Four Musketeers (1974)


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

February. I’m sure you knew that.