Tag Archives: film

December’s Failures

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Welcome to my monthly “Failures” column, where I look back at some of the films I could, would, maybe even should have watched last month… but failed to.

On the big screen, Sony’s latest attempt at making a Spider-Man spin-off, Kraven the Hunter finally arrived almost two years after its first announced release date, and seemed to be received about as well as you’d expect for a Sony Spider-Man spin-off that had a two-year delay (i.e. poorly). In similar desperate franchise moves, animation The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim seemed to generate more column inches because they admitted it was rushed out to secure the ongoing Rings film rights, rather than anyone saying anything about the film itself. I feel like Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, a “live-action” prequel that no one asked for, must fall into a similar bracket.

Conversely, I’ve read Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is good; the crazy idea of making a Robbie Williams biopic starring a CG monkey seems to have actually paid off in Better Man; and I keep hearing how good Daniel Craig is in Queer. Various other films managed theatrical releases of various other sizes, of course, but the one that most intrigues me is Shakespeare / video game mashup documentary Grand Theft Hamlet, which I believe is coming to MUBI sometime early in 2025, so I’ll look out for it then.

Over on streaming, various attempts at creating a Christmas classic seem to have been overshadowed by Carry-On — not a modern revamp of the old British comedy series, but an airport-based thriller starring Taron Egerton. I’d probably have watched it if I had a Netflix subscription (there’s a few things on there I need to catch up on now, so maybe it’s time I signed up again). As for the aforementioned seasonal fare, Netflix had the Richard Curtis written and produced animation That Christmas, plus 15-rated “birth of Jesus” movie Mary starring Anthony Hopkins as Herod (that’s literally all I know about it. I’ve not seen anyone discuss or review it. Is it actually real?); Sky Cinema and their fateful Original brand tried public-domain-IP mashup The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland; and Amazon had the streaming debut of (briefly theatrically released) wannabe-blockbuster Red One — which apparently was a huge hit for them, even after it flopped on the big screen, thus proving once again that the best way to ensure a streaming success is to have a wide theatrical release first.

Meanwhile, Disney+ had… fuck all. You’d’ve expected them to trot out something seasonal, right? But I don’t think they even had a premiere that was, er, non-seasonal. Even Apple TV+ spat out Fly Me to the Moon, the Channing Tatum/Scarlett Johansson Nasa-during-the-space-race romcom with posters that made it look like a fake movie-in-a-movie. But Disney+ never have anything much new anymore in the way of original movies, it seems to me (just their high-profile theatrical releases making relatively-speedy debuts). Has the Mouse already got wise to the false promises of streaming originals? Let’s hope others follow suit.

In the second tier of films making their streaming debuts, basketball anime The First Slam Dunk came to Netflix. Sports movies aren’t normally my bag, but I’ve seen this on various “great films” lists (especially animated ones) for what feels like years, so here’s a chance to… be reminded to watch the other copy I, ahem, got hold of fairly recently. Indeed, Netflix seemed to specialise in things I already own but haven’t watched, which is always irritating. Other titles included Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Scream VI, and Knock at the Cabin, which has already been on NOW so I’m doubly miffed at myself. NOW themselves pulled the same trick with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, plus Abigail, Kung Fu Panda 4, and A Quiet Place: Day One. And at the more… esoteric end of the spectrum, MUBI had a new version of an old film in Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, and a film they self-described as Andrea Arnold’s “long-awaited return to fiction filmmaking”, Bird.

The ever-changing streaming back catalogue is a beast of greater size than even Santa’s bulging sack, but a selection of titles of particular interest included Killer Joe, Mississippi Grind, The Reader, Warm Bodies, and the return of streaming perennial The Notebook (all on Amazon); Bodies Bodies Bodies, I, Tonya, King Richard, and Stan & Ollie, and the original Point Break, which I’ve been meaning to rewatch (all on iPlayer); and Brian and Charles, I’m Your Man, Petite Maman, A Quiet Place Part II, Spencer, and The Worst Person in the World (all on Channel 4). There were also various other Christmas-related movies, like The Holiday (which has somehow transformed into a modern classic in recent years) and various versions of The Grinch, none of which I’m going to watch in January because it’s not Christmas anymore. Maybe next year.

The above paragraph doesn’t even touch on all the films that arrived on streamers this month but I already own on disc and haven’t watched, acting as a reminder of the slight ludicrousness of my physical media collection. A soupçon of particularly daft ones (read: I’ve owned them for so long, why haven’t I watched them?) includes on Howard’s The Missing, Guy Ritchie’s Revolver, and Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También on Netflix (I own all of those on DVD. Why would I watch a DVD when they’re streaming in HD? Besides, for all I know they could have disc rot or something by now); Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, and Ben Affleck’s The Town on Prime; Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm, Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dynamite, and Alex Cox’s Repo Man on NOW; Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, trilogy-completing How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and John Frankenheimer’s The Train on iPlayer; and Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way, Robert Eggers’s The Northman, and M Night Shyamalan’s Old on Channel 4. And that’s without even starting on stuff to rewatch.

In the face of such overwhelming evidence that I don’t watch enough of what I buy, I naturally went ahead and bought even more. Now, of course I’m going to buy something like Alien: Romulus, because I own all the others and I’m a completist. I’m not sure the same logic really applies to Joker: Folie à Deux (I stopped buying all the DC movies a while ago), but there we go, I bought it anyway. And I couldn’t resist a classic like Galaxy Quest making its 4K debut, especially when it comes with all the correct aspect ratios for the first time on home media. As for most of the rest of my purchases…

You know what, they’re not the sort of thing that usually turns up on streaming, so I feel a lot less bad about those. I’m talking the kind of stuff put out by Radiance: their Luis Buñuel box set, Nothing Is Sacred, containing Viridiana, The Exterminating Angels, and Simon of the Desert; Swedish crime thriller The Man from Majorca; and Japanese neo-noir Yokohama BJ Blues. I’m talking various labels’ commitment to getting loads of classic Hong Kong action on disc, which this month was represented by Eureka’s wittily-titled four-film set of historical epics directed by the prolific Chang Cheh, Horrible History, containing Marco Polo, The Pirate, Boxer Rebellion, and Four Riders. I’m talking stuff you can only get if you import it from Australia, like the third volume in Imprint’s After Dark: Neo-Noir Cinema Collection, containing Homicide, White Sands, The Crossing Guard, Heaven’s Prisoners, Under Suspicion, and Dirty Pretty Things; plus a pre-Bond Roger Moore in Swinging Sixties thriller Crossplot, and sci-fi noir The Man in Half Moon Street.

I’m also talking about stuff like Studiocanal’s epic Hitchcock: The Beginning box set. Streamers infamously have very few movies from The Past (often only a small handful from before 1980, if any), so who’s going to offer ten Hitchcocks from the 1920s and ’30s? Especially when almost half of them are silent. (Studiocanal do have their own channel on Amazon Prime, but that doesn’t really count.) The set includes both silent and talkie versions of Blackmail, newly restored in 4K, supplemented by the brand-new feature-length documentary Becoming Hitchcock: The Legacy of Blackmail. The set also contains UK HD debuts for The Ring, The Farmer’s Wife, Champagne, The Manxman, Juno and the Paycock (which was scarcely even available on DVD, if I remember correctly), Murder!, its German-language variant Mary, The Skin Game, Rich and Strange, and Number Seventeen; plus a wealth of special features — and you definitely don’t get those on streamers.

Okay, maybe the line gets a little blurrier elsewhere. Masters of Cinema recently released animation The Secret of NIMH, which is mainstream enough you might expect to find it streaming (though, currently, it’s not); but then they also released the Kinji Fukasaku-directed Japanese answer to Star Wars, Message from Space, and where else are you likely to find that but on disc? (Whether it’s worthy of being a Masters of Cinema release is another matter.) Of course, sometimes streamers will surprise you. Which one out of time-bending actioner Run Lola Run, East-meets-West Western Red Sun, and Ealing Comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets do you think is currently on a streamer? (It’s the Western.) You can rent the other two, but that’s not quite what I’m talking about. And I’ll add this: I got all of those on 4K UHD, and only one of them is streaming in that format. I may spend a disproportionate amount on physical media, but it’s still the best.

2024: The List

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As fun and interesting as they are, my Failures posts always takes a while to write each month (I fail to watch so much stuff, after all), which proves an extra challenge at the start of January, when I have so many other posts I’m working on for my annual review. So, while I continue to write that, here’s something else.

Throughout the year, my monthly reviews keep you up-to-date on my progress with the 100 Films in a Year Challenge; what they no longer record is all my first-time watches. Fortunately, to rectifying that omission we have The List: every film I watched for the first time in 2024, plus a couple of other bits at the end (see the section introduction for more on that).

But first, something else about the Challenge…


Here is a graphical representation of my viewing for the 100 Films in a Year Challenge, month by month, courtesy of the monthly review header images. Each one links to the relevant monthly review, which contain a chronological list of my Challenge viewing, as well as other fun stuff, like my monthly Arbie awards.

Here is an alphabetical list of all my first-time watches during 2024. That’s followed by a list of rewatches that have had (or for which I intend to write) ‘Guide To’ posts, then short films I watched for the first time. On the rare occasion that a title is a link, it goes to my review (no link means no review yet).

  • 12th Fail (2023)
  • Adam and 6 Eves [3D] (1962)
  • The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
  • Alice (1988), aka Něco z Alenky
  • Allelujah (2022)
  • Ambulancen (2005), aka Ambulance
  • American Fiction (2023)
  • And Life Goes On (1992), aka Zendegi va digar hich
  • Argylle (2024)
  • Army of Shadows (1969), aka L’armée des ombres
  • Attempt to Kill (1961)
  • Bad Tidings (2024)
  • Bank of Dave (2023)
  • Barbie (2023)
  • The Batman (2022)
  • The Best of the Martial Arts Films (1990)
  • The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  • Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
  • The Birdcage (1996)
  • Black Tight Killers (1966), aka Ore ni sawaru to abunaize
  • Blitz (2024)
  • The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), aka Satan’s Skin
  • The Bookshop (2017)
  • Bottoms (2023)
  • Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
  • Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
  • A Chorus Line (1985)
  • Clue of the Silver Key (1961)
  • The Cranes Are Flying (1957), aka Letyat zhuravli
  • Desperado (1995)
  • Despicable Me 3 [3D] (2017)
  • Dragons Forever (1988), aka Fei lung mang jeung
  • Dreadnaught (1981), aka Yong zhe wu ju
  • Duel to the Death (1983), aka Xian si jue
  • Dune: Part Two (2024)
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023)
  • Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980), aka Gui da gui
  • Eyeball (1975), aka Gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro
  • The Fall Guy (2024)
  • Fast X (2023)
  • Flashdance (1983)
  • Fletch (1985)
  • Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971), aka 4 mosche di velluto grigio
  • The Fourth Square (1961)
  • The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
  • From Roger Moore with Love (2024)
  • Frozen II [3D] (2019)
  • Goblin Slayer: Goblin’s Crown (2020)
  • Godzilla Minus One (2023), aka Gojira -1.0
  • Golem (1980)
  • The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), aka Joeun nom, napun nom, esanghan nom
  • The Great Escaper (2023)
  • Guys and Dolls (1955)
  • Hellraiser (1987)
  • The Holdovers (2023)
  • Hopscotch (1980)
  • Host (2020)
  • Hotel Rwanda (2004)
  • I Love You Again (1940)
  • I.S.S. (2023)
  • An Ideal Husband (1999)
  • In the Name of the Father (1993)
  • Incendies (2010)
  • The Innocents (1961)
  • Inside Out 2 (2024)
  • The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988), aka Ba wang hua
  • The Inspector Wears Skirts Part II (1989), aka Shen yong fei hu ba wang hua
  • Jackass Forever (2022)
  • The Kitchen (2023)
  • Kung Fu Hustle (2004), aka Kung fu
  • Lee (2023)
  • Lift (2024)
  • Like Stars on Earth (2007), aka Taare Zameen Par
  • Look Back (2024), aka Rukku Bakku
  • Love Wedding Repeat (2020)
  • Lover Come Back (1961)
  • Maestro (2023)
  • Man at the Carlton Tower (1961)
  • Man Detained (1961)
  • Man in the Dark [3D] (1953)
  • Mazes and Monsters (1982)
  • The Menu (2022)
  • The Monuments Men (2014)
  • Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005)
  • The Phantom of the Open (2021)
  • Murder and Cocktails (2024)
  • My Darling Clementine (1946)
  • My Father and My Son (2005), aka Babam ve Oglum
  • My Favorite Brunette (1947)
  • My Son (2021)
  • The Mystery of Chess Boxing (1979), aka Shuang ma lian huan
  • No Hard Feelings (2023)
  • October Moth (1960)
  • The Old Oak (2023)
  • Only Yesterday (1991), aka Omohide poro poro
  • Partie de Campagne (1946), aka A Day in the Country
  • Possession (1981)
  • The Prosecco Murders (2017), aka Finché c’è Prosecco c’è speranza
  • Rio Bravo (1959)
  • Road to Bali (1952)
  • Robot Dreams (2023)
  • Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
  • RRR (2022)
  • Save the Cinema (2022)
  • Scenes from a Marriage (1974), aka Scener ur ett äktenskap
  • Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob (2021)
  • A Separation (2011), aka Jodaeiye Nader az Simin
  • The Seventh Victim (1943)
  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
  • The Steal (1995)
  • Strays (2023)
  • The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
  • The Swordsman of All Swordsmen (1968), aka Yi dai jian wang
  • Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
  • Ticket to Paradise (2022)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
  • Triangle of Sadness (2022)
  • The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)
  • Le Trou (1960)
  • The Wages of Fear (1953), aka Le Salaire de la peur
  • Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)
  • When Eight Bells Toll (1971)
  • Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987), aka Khane-ye doust kodjast?
  • Wicked Little Letters (2023)
  • Wild Tales (2014), aka Relatos salvajes
  • Wolfs (2024)
  • Wonka (2023)
  • Yellow Canary (1943)
  • Yi Yi (2000)
  • Young at Heart (1954)
The 100 Films Guide To…
  • Cutthroat Island (1995)
Shorts
12th Fail

And Life Goes On

The Batman

A Chorus Line

Duel to the Death

Flashdance

Godzilla Minus One

Hellraiser

I Love You Again

Inside Out 2

Out of the Past

Man Detained

My Favorite Brunette

The Prosecco Murders

Robot Dreams

A Separation

Tarzan the Ape Man

When Eight Bells Toll

Wonka

Cutthroat Island

Steamboat Willie

.

My favourite part of the year: breaking all of the above down with statistics!

The Mission: Accomplished Monthly Review of December 2024

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In my introduction to the 2024 edition of my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, I wondered if it would be “third time lucky” — having failed to complete the Challenge in 2022 and 2023, could I manage it in 2024? And the answer is: yes. Hurrah! Although it’s not really “luck”, but a mixture of dedication (sticking at it all year), tweaking (making changes year-on-year to keep the task challenging but make it achievable), and working out the best way to approach it (learning what didn’t work on my first two goes so I could avoid those mistakes).

I’ve felt a greater sense of achievement in completing the Challenge this year than I have for years. Partly that’s because I failed the last two years, so no achievement-feeling there; but also, the previous version of the Challenge had become de rigueur. Some years I completed it as early as May (four times out of fifteen, to be precise, so almost a third of the times I did it). Even if I didn’t manage that, completing it hadn’t been a problem since 2012 (which was the last time I failed — every success since then happened no later than November). It had become a sprint to the finish line, which wasn’t really what I wanted it to be — it was supposed to be a challenge, and it was supposed to take all year. That’s more or less why I decided to mix it up, and the fact I failed the new-style Challenge on my first two attempts shows I’d succeeded in making it trickier for myself. So, to manage it on my third go… I think it’s justified to feel a sense of achievement. Sure, it’s still only “watching films” — arguably one of the easiest, most passive hobbies you can have — but it’s something.

Anyway, there’ll be more reflection on the Challenge in its entirety in the days to come, when I trot out my usual array of year-end retrospectives. For now, let’s zoom in on the final stretch…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#94 Look Back (2024) — Failure #12
#95 Hotel Rwanda (2004) — WDYMYHS #10
#96 The Holdovers (2023) — New Film #12
#97 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) — WDYMYHS #11
#98 Le Trou (1960) — Blindspot #12
#99 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) — WDYMYHS #12
#100 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) — Rewatch #12


  • I watched 14 feature films I’d never seen before in December.
  • That means I’ve achieved at least 10 first-watches in every month of 2024 — the first whole calendar year I’ve managed that since 2020!
  • And 14 equals April for the most first-watches in a single month of 2024.
  • I haven’t been mentioning those kinds of stats much this year, because most months have been unremarkable. December’s done alright, though: it’s beaten the rolling average of the last 12 months (10.9); beaten the average for 2024 to date (previously 10.6, now 10.9 too, natch); and beaten the average for all Decembers (previously 11.6, now 11.8).
  • Back to my 100 Films in a Year Challenge: six of those first-watches counted towards my Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • Normally I’d count the first 2024 film of a month as the New Film, because it’s a ‘higher’ category; and normally I’d be only too happy to keep the Failures slot open a little longer, because there’s always so many of them. But there are so many 2024 releases I’ve missed, it felt more productive to try to force myself to watch another one of them rather than another Failure.
  • This is the first time I’ve completed Blindspot in this new era — I was one shy in 2022 and three short in 2023. (I didn’t complete WDYMYHS in 2022 either, but did in 2023.)
  • I watched all six Wallace & Gromit films this month, but only one of them counted towards my Challenge. It was nearly none at all, but I didn’t get in the other rewatch I had planned, so Curse of the Were-Rabbit snagged that space. Shorts don’t currently count anyway (maybe one day), but Vengeance Most Fowl could’ve been here as a New Film, if there’d been any slots left.
  • This month’s concluding Blindspot film was French prison break thriller Le Trou.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS films represented a whole quarter of the list. They were genocide drama Hotel Rwanda, racism drama To Kill a Mockingbird, and superhero adventure Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Bit of a change of tone at the end there.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched The Holdovers and Look Back.



The 115th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
As I get started on my yearly review posts, I’m endeavouring to give everything a final score (for the stats) and starting to think about my top ten list. There are a few films this month that are in contention for the latter, and I’m still considering giving 5s for the former. One that feels like a lock for the list but maybe not for a 5 (because I enjoyed it a heck of a lot, but is it a 5-star film? Not sure yet) was The Good, the Bad, the Weird — recently released on 4K by Arrow, but I watched my old Blu-ray copy to decide if I wanted to buy that new version. Suffice to say, I did.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I’m beginning to suspect 2024’s average score might be a strong one (but, hey, you never know) because this was another month with no truly bad films (a sentence I feel I’ve written a lot this year). That said, Hotel Rwanda struck me as a somewhat old-fashioned movie-ised treatment of a very real tragedy, which is a less than ideal reaction to something that should really be powerful.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Wordpress seem to have revised their stats presentation, making this harder to work out (they no longer highlight it for me — I have to look up every post one by one), which is a shame and makes me disinclined to continue this next year. But, for now, I can say the most-viewed post during December was the November monthly review — the fifth time the previous month’s review has won this award in 2024. It only beat the Failures by one hit, though.(For what its worth: of the other seven winners, it was the previous month’s failures twice, and a film review the other five times.)



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


It’s 2025 — a quarter of the way through the century! Jesus. Everything just conspires to make you feel old nowadays, doesn’t it?

As ever, before I get into the swing of the new year, I’ll be spending a good few posts looking back at the old one. After another mostly-quiet year here on 100 Films, it’s going to be a busy week (give or take).

100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024: Final Standing

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As the challenge tracker page will soon be replaced with a version keeping tabs on 2025’s effort, here’s an archive of how it looked at the very end of 2024.

The most noteworthy thing: it’s complete! For the first time since I revamped my Challenge in 2022, I’ve actually managed to get all the way to 100.

I’ll write more about that in the days to come. For now, here are the films that got me there…

On this page, I’ll track my progress with The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024. Learn more about the challenge here.

New Films

  1. Lift (2024)
  2. The Kitchen (2023)
  3. Dune: Part Two (2024)
  4. I.S.S. (2023)
  5. Murder and Cocktails (2024)
  6. Argylle (2024)
  7. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
  8. Robot Dreams (2023)
  9. The Fall Guy (2024)
  10. Lee (2023)
  11. Inside Out 2 (2024)
  12. The Holdovers (2023)

Rewatches

  1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse [3D] (2018)
  2. Dune: Part One [3D] (2021)
  3. Spawn: Director’s Cut (1997/1998)
  4. Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
  5. The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
  6. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
  7. Moana [3D] (2016)
  8. Hamilton (2020)
  9. Cutthroat Island (1995)
  10. Erin Brockovich (2000)
  11. First Knight (1995)
  12. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

Blindspot

  1. Only Yesterday (1991)
  2. The Innocents (1961)
  3. My Darling Clementine (1946)
  4. Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987)
  5. Yi Yi (2000)
  6. Army of Shadows (1969)
  7. Scenes from a Marriage (1974)
  8. Rio Bravo (1959)
  9. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
  10. Possession (1981)
  11. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
  12. Le Trou (1960)

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?

  1. In the Name of the Father (1993)
  2. Wild Tales (2014)
  3. My Father and My Son (2005)
  4. 12th Fail (2023)
  5. A Separation (2011)
  6. Like Stars on Earth (2007)
  7. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  8. Incendies (2010)
  9. The Wages of Fear (1953)
  10. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
  11. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
  12. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Failures

  1. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
  2. Ambulancen (2005)
  3. Black Tight Killers (1966)
  4. American Fiction (2023)
  5. Strays (2023)
  6. Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
  7. Alice (1988)
  8. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
  9. Desperado (1995)
  10. Host (2020)
  11. The Seventh Victim (1943)
  12. Look Back (2024)

50 Unseen

  1. Barbie (2023)
  2. Bottoms (2023)
  3. RRR (2022)
  4. Maestro (2023)
  5. The Monuments Men (2014)
  6. No Hard Feelings (2023)
  7. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023)
  8. The Menu (2022)
  9. Fast X (2023)
  10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Genre: Martial Arts

  1. The Best of the Martial Arts Films (1990)
  2. The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988)
  3. The Inspector Wears Skirts Part II (1989)
  4. The Mystery of Chess Boxing (1979)
  5. Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
  6. The Swordsman of All Swordsmen (1968)
  7. Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980)
  8. Dreadnaught (1981)
  9. Duel to the Death (1983)
  10. Dragons Forever (1988)

Series Progression

  1. Jackass Forever (2022)
  2. Despicable Me 3 [3D] (2017)
  3. The Fourth Square (1961)
  4. And Life Goes On (1992)
  5. Song of the Thin Man (1947)
  6. October Moth (1960)
  7. Man at the Carlton Tower (1961)
  8. The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)
  9. Road to Bali (1952)
  10. Clue of the Silver Key (1961)

Wildcards

  1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) — additional Failure from March
  2. Wicked Little Letters (2023) — additional Failure from July
  3. Godzilla Minus One (2023) — additional 50 Unseen
  4. Frozen II (2019) — additional Series Progression
  5. The Batman (2022) — additional 50 Unseen
  6. Golem (1980) — additional Failure from August
  7. Attempt to Kill (1961) — additional Series Progression
  8. Man Detained (1961) — additional Series Progression
  9. The Guest (2014) — additional Rewatch in October
  10. Blitz (2024) — additional New Film in November

It’s almost time…

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A belated Merry Christmas to you, dear readers — I hope you’ve had a good one, whatever you’ve been up to.

Me? I’ve been kept busy most of the month, first with wrapping up the year at the day job, then with family stuff across the holiday. It hasn’t left much time for the ol’ blog — plans to write a review of my year’s TV viewing, or promptly say something about the new Wallace & Gromit film, have fallen by the wayside. Such is life.

But as the new year approaches (2025! A quarter of the way through this century that I, at least, would still refer to as “new”), I’m once again preparing for my barrage of annual review posts. Lists! Rankings! Statistics! It’s all brewing; all on the way soon now. I have a slight suspicion it’s not going to roll out as quickly and smoothly as usual (it doesn’t help that the first weekend of 2025 is so early — the chances of having 2024 finished by January 5th seem slim), but I’ll do my best.

And then it will be on to 2025 proper. Plans are afoot for the fourth year of my new-style Challenge. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, eh?

November’s Failures

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Welcome to my monthly “Failures” column, where I look back at some of the films I could, would, maybe even should have watched last month… but failed to.

Normally I start with what feels like the ‘biggest’ theatrical release of the month — usually (but not always) the one that’s also in my header image — but November has offered up a few of fairly equal standing. Depending on your personal proclivities, you may feel last month’s most noteworthy new release was (in alphabetical order) belated and somewhat unexpected sequel Gladiator II, or TV series turned sequel film Moana 2, or heartwarming threequel Paddington in Peru, or prequel musical adaptation Wicked.

There were also other movies released — ones that weren’t tied to existing properties, even! While none can claim to be as juggernaut-like in their current impact, they may yet be felt come awards season — Sean Baker’s Anora, for example; or maybe even papal thriller Conclave, which seems to have strong buzz. On the other hand, I’ve not heard anyone say a good word about Christmas fantasy-actioner Red One (it has such strong “direct to Netflix” vibes that I was surprised to discover it was a theatrical release). Also filling screens someplace were Hugh Grant horror Heretic (who thought it was a good idea to release that the day after Halloween?!), Clint Eastwood’s courtroom thriller Juror #2, LEGO-based Pharrell Williams biopic Piece by Piece, and documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.

Over on the streamers, we find more premieres with award season buzz, like Netflix’s Emilia Pérez (literally all I’ve heard about it is from Best Picture nominee prediction lists on social media); and more films with strong critical receptions, like Disney+ cerebral palsy drama Out of My Mind (literally hadn’t heard of it until I saw a news article about its 100% Rotten Tomatoes score), or anime Look Back on Amazon Prime (I noticed it when it catapulted into the upper echelons of the Letterboxd Top 250 a little while ago. Whenever anime do that, they’re usually still a ways off from getting a UK release, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it on Amazon so soon). Other films with varying claims of “newness” (by which I mean: I can’t be bothered to look up if they’re streaming originals or actually released somewhere else first with so little noise that their streaming debut is the first I’ve seen of them) included ‘birth of IVF’ drama Joy, animation Spellbound, and generational drama The Piano Lesson (all Netflix); on Prime, sort-of-time-travel comedy My Old Ass, and Jude Law as Henry VIII opposite Alicia Vikander as Katherine Parr in Firebrand (apparently it suffers in comparison to the currently-airing second series of Wolf Hall); Shackleton doc Endurance on Disney+; and the latest in the never-ending run of actioners starring an aged Liam Neeson, Absolution, this one relegated to the lowly status of a Sky Original.

Conversely, it’s Sky Cinema (and, by extension, NOW) that continue to get most of the biggest streaming premieres of films that had a theatrical run. This month, we were finally treated to The Holdovers. It’s somewhat amusing that they’ve made us wait until Christmas for a Christmas film that was originally released here in January. Other additions included Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man (which also featured in this column back in July, when I bought the Blu-ray; and before that in April, when it was in cinemas); John Krasinski-directed Ryan Reynolds-starring children’s fantasy thing IF; quirky comedy Sasquatch Sunset; and also Dune: Part Two, but I’ve seen that so it’s not really a failure. And talking of “films that have had two previous mentions” (as I was four films back), Deadpool & Wolverine is on Disney+ already. I say “two previous mentions”: this is its second mention (after its theatrical release in July), because the disc copy I bought but failed to watch will be coming up later in this column, because that’s how much Disney have shrunk the disc/streaming window now.

Catalogue titles doing the streaming shuffle (i.e. they’ve already streamed somewhere before, but now they’re back, probably somewhere different) are headlined by Midsommar, because it’s not been available to stream for a while, which I’m acutely aware of because it’s the most popular film on Letterboxd that I’ve never seen. Now it’s on Amazon Prime, so I can keep intending to watch it but never actually get round to it until one day it suddenly disappears and I curse my ineptitude once again. Fun times. Others I find worthy of particular note (for whatever reason — and I’m saving us all time by not spelling out all those reasons) included Cold Pursuit, The Hunt, M3GAN, Mary Queen of Scots, and Tár on Netflix; Black Adam, Crazy Stupid Love, A Cure for Wellness, The Gentlemen, The Rover, Samurai Marathon, and Whip It on Prime, along with most of the Pink Panther films (I’ve never seen one and think I probably should); The Edge of Seventeen, Krampus, Stalag 17, and Three Days of the Condor on NOW; Bones and All, Dunkirk (the 1958 one), No Bears, and Women Talking on iPlayer, plus documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, part of a whole season about the Archers (although, of their films that were screened, I either have seen or own them); and C’mon C’mon, Freaky, In the Earth, Lucy in the Sky, The Worst Person in the World, and X on Channel 4.

Not enough? I haven’t even started on stuff I want to rewatch (Get Out, The Kid Detective, Paddington…), or stuff I already own on disc (Alita: Battle Angel, Basic Instinct, Event Horizon…), or stuff I already own on disc and want to rewatch (Collateral, Hero, Ronin…) One particularly worth mentioning that fits the latter camp is It’s a Wonderful Life, which would be a good one for December, obviously. And if we’re doing additional mentions, I’m also gonna chuck in a random discovery called Dragon Crusaders. It looks and sounds like low-budget direct-to-anywhere schlock (“anywhere” in this case being Prime, of course), so normally I’d ignore it, but for some reason I read the plot description: “a group of fugitive Knights Templar attacks a pirate ship… to save the world, they must defeat a wizard-dragon.” You just know it’s going to be disappointing, but it still sounds awesome enough to risk it, right?

Talking of risks, let’s turn to my always “blind buy”-filled list of new purchases from the past month. Case in point: out of 87 films I’m about to mention, I’d only seen eight of them before. Yeah, that’s a lot of films, mainly thanks to it being sale season: between latecomers from Halloween sales, November sales, and Black Friday offers that arrive promptly, I racked up multiple hefty box sets — yes, for the second month in a row. Plus there were some new releases, naturally. I went through them in size order last month, which was kinda fun; and while that won’t get us all the way this month (there’s a lot more regular single-film titles), let’s start off that way.

Biggest by far was Indicator’s Magic, Myth & Mutilation: The Micro-Budget Cinema of Michael J Murphy, 1967–2015, a 26-film (plus some alternate cuts) collection that I’d sat out on originally but caved at sale price. Honestly, I’m not sure how good any of it will be, but I’m intrigued. Next, a brand-new release that maybe I should have waited on — Arrow’s Shawscope: Volume Three — not because I’m concerned about the quality of the 14 martial arts movies it contains, but because both of their previous Shawscope sets have ended up on sale for up to 50% off. I couldn’t risk them having done a shorter print run and accidentally missing out, though. Next, we swing back to Indicator for another catchily-named horror set: The Criminal Acts of Tod Slaughter: Eight Blood-and-Thunder Entertainments, 1935–1940. This eight-film set (clue’s in the subtitle) was one I came close to purchasing on its original release but, with so much coming out all the time nowadays, I had to prioritise my cash elsewhere that month.

Two three-film sets next, so I’ll continue to alternate new releases and sale pickups by first mentioning Eureka’s Super Spies and Secret Lies, a trio of Japanese Bondsploitation efforts; and second, altogether more worthy, Criterion’s Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène, which I’d also had my eye on when it came out, but snagged a 40% saving thanks to waiting for a UK sale (not as reliable as their regular-as-clockwork US ones, nor as lucrative (what with those being 50% off), but better than nothing). The multi-film sets come to an end with another pair of two-film sets, which continue the new release/sale pattern. The former: 88 Film’s 4K UHD The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk Collection, with two Jet Li actioners from 1993. The latter: Radiance’s Bandits of Orgosolo, which comes paired with a programme of ten of the director’s short films collectively titled The Lost World.

Next, let’s go back to some themes I’ve already touched on. Titles I tried to sit out but ended up caving for? Radiance’s Häxan (sort of another multi-film set, because it has four different cuts and multiple score options), which I’m actually very interested in… so much so I’d already imported the Criterion. The new special features swung me. Then there was Second Sight’s The Blair Witch Project, which you’ll notice isn’t in bold. That’s because my copy went missing in the post; and because I’d ordered it late, and had to wait until it was officially deemed lost, it had sold out. No limited edition for me, unless I’m willing to fork out silly money (last check: £175+) to a scalper on eBay. Another theme: Criterion sale pick-ups. I upgraded Le Samouraï to 4K, because I heard such good things about the transfer. The other two I got were also in 4K: Lone Star and The Roaring Twenties. One Criterion 4K I didn’t get was Seven Samurai… because I bought the BFI’s release instead. Keeping my old Criterion Blu-ray means I get all the special features from both labels, which is nice. Other extravagant 4K releases included The Third Man (when you open the box it plays the theme music!) and Godzilla Minus One (no music, just a thick and expensive box).

More regular 4K titles included Deadpool & Wolverine (“callback to earlier this post” klaxon), recent acclaimed HK actioner Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, amateur filmmaking documentary American Movie, Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, M Night Shyamalan’s Trap, and horror anthology Trapped Ashes. The latter four I had to import from the US, and so along with them came more Criterions (Chimes at Midnight and The Tales of Hoffmann (talking of Powell & Pressburger…)), Russian sort-of-Sherlock Holmes adaptation In the Moscow Slums (it’s partially based on The Sign of Four), folk horror The Savage Hunt of King Stakh, and animation Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space (which won me over by being described as “inspired by both Hello Kitty and Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49” — I have no strong feelings on Hello Kitty, but I love The Crying of Lot 49). And talking of imports, I went to buy the Turbine (a German label) release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout in 3D and decided to support their efforts to get 3D on disc by ordering the rest of their bundles too, so I’ve found myself with copies of Jurassic World Dominion (which I would’ve bought in 3D in the first place if it had been an option, but now I also own on 4K), the Robert Downey Jr Dolittle, plus animations The Bad Guys, Migration, and Minions: The Rise of Gru (mixed feelings about those four, to be honest).

Let’s wrap this up with a final little cache of new releases: 88 Films’ Black Cat 2; Radiance’s Japan Organised Crime Boss and Panic in Year Zero; and Eureka’s The Sword, which would’ve been a strong contender for my Genre category… if I had any spaces left. Now, it can just compete with every other thing I’ve mentioned in this 152-film column for the one “Failure” slot. (Crikey…)

The Tough Monthly Review of November 2024

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Some months, I find it easy to know how to title or theme this monthly review. Other times, it’s tough to come up with an idea.

Yeah.

Anyway, on with the regular stuff…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#86 Lee (2023) — New Film #10
#87 Inside Out 2 (2024) — New Film #11
#88 The Seventh Victim (1943) — Failure #11
#89 Duel to the Death (1983) — Genre #9
#90 Blitz (2024) — Wildcard #10
#91 The Cranes Are Flying (1957) — Blindspot #11
#92 Dragons Forever (1988) — Genre #10
#93 First Knight (1995) — Rewatch #11


  • I watched 11 feature films I’d never seen before in November.
  • Seven of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • I’d hoped to get to #95 this month, which is the maximum I could by the end of November (because five categories have a “one per month” limiter in their rules). Still, only having seven left for December feels manageable.
  • Perhaps more importantly: reaching #90 means I’ve already beaten how far I made it in 2022’s Challenge (which I chose to abandon at #89).
  • And reaching #93 means I’ve also beaten 2023 (which I didn’t consciously abandon, although I stood no serious chance of achieving it at this point that year, when I entered December with 17 films still to go).
  • Shockingly, I almost made it all the way through the Martial Arts Genre category without properly including Jackie Chan (although he did feature in the clip-based documentary I watched as the category’s first film). With hundreds of films to choose from to finish off the category, making sure to include Chan properly seemed as good a deciding factor as any; although Letterboxd’s new list-stats feature showed me even that left 40 films to pick from. I chose Dragons Forever because it co-stars fellow big names Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, and was the trio’s final collaboration. That seemed like a fitting end-cap for the year.
  • More importantly: this is the first year I’ve actually completed the Genre category! (Though, as a caveat, I did watch 11 (out of 12) films for it in 2022, which would’ve been enough to meet the reduced count of 10 in 2023 and 2024.)
  • After reading ghostof82’s review, I found I had the passion* to make it happen**, and so watched Flashdance. It didn’t qualify for the Challenge, but I felt like mentioning it.***
    * a vague interest that wasn’t there before
    ** watch a film that was available on a streamer I’m already subscribed to
    *** just so I could repeat this quote/footnotes joke from my Letterboxd.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Russian wartime drama The Cranes Are Flying.
  • No WDYMYHS films this month, even though I should have watched two. I’m at the pointy end of the IMDb Top 250 now, with all the films I’ve not already got round to for one reason or another; usually length or seriousness of subject. Getting through three of those in December — when the vibes are Christmassy joy, and so much time is consumed with family activities — is going to be the most challenging aspect of completing my Challenge.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched The Seventh Victim.



The 114th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
There were several strong contenders this month, and several where the difference between “best” and “favourite” may have come into play. Ultimately, I think the answer is probably the same either way, because I’m going to select Russian World War 2 drama The Cranes Are Flying — not the most fun film I watched this month, nor necessarily the one I’d rewatch soonest, but surely the most accomplished.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I suspect I’m broadly politically aligned with Ken Loach, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed The Old Oak. Sure, its storylines are worthy and its ultimate perspective correct, but it’s still heavy-handed, borderline amateurish, and occasionally a tough watch (as soon as the cute little dog encountered the barely-controlled bully breeds, I knew where that subplot was going).

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Since I’ve brought them back (albeit at the current rate of one a month — maybe I’ll manage to increase that in 2025?), film reviews have consistently outshone monthly reviews; and so it is this month too, with my review of Rosemary’s Baby the clear victor from November’s new posts.



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


Will it be third time lucky? I failed my new-style Challenge in its first two years, but this time I’m closer than ever. We’ll find out sometime in the next 31 days…

October’s Failures

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Welcome to my monthly “Failures” column, where I look back at some of the films I could, would, maybe even should have watched last month… but failed to.

At one point, I had Joker: Folie à Deux marked down as something I should make an effort to see at the cinema — a relatively rare marker, considering recently I don’t even make it to most of the films I mark. With hindsight, I’m not sure why — I wasn’t even a huge fan of the first film, although I didn’t hate it — but the poor reception put paid to that, anyway. I have a needling suspicion I might actually like it (I’ve seen reviews/comments that imply it was made to deliberately piss off fans of the first one, and as fans of the first one are often among The Worst People, I’m optimistic), but I’ll have to wait ’til disc or streaming to find out. Conversely, The Wild Robot was a film I’d paid no mind to whatsoever, until suddenly everyone was calling it one of the best films of the year. I was tempted, but I’m always hesitant to see kids’ films by myself for “having to endure suspicious glares from parents before, during, and after the screening” reasons. (Whether that’s an imaginary fear or something that would actually happen, I don’t know.)

Other blockbuster-expectant films this month included animation Transformers One (it’s great according to fans, but flopped. I guess that’s what you get coming off the back of almost two decades of Michael Bay and Bay-adjacent live-action films) and trilogy-former Venom: The Last Dance (I still haven’t seen the second one, but quite liked the ’90s-throwback charms of the first). Your typical October horror choices included a sequel in Smile 2, a threequel in Terrifier 3, and a remake in Salem’s Lot. Modern cinema, eh? (He says, as if horror hasn’t been a genre famed for long-running franchises since at least the ’80s.) There was some other stuff too, like Trump biopic The Apprentice. I feel like the only one really worth mentioning is Alice Lowe’s new film, Timestalker, which I heard was good and deserving of support (as a small British film up against the usual Hollywood big guns), but I don’t think it screened at my local even if I was the kind of person who got out to the cinema regularly. I’ll happily support it on physical media and/or streaming later.

If you think that’s an unedifying theatrical lineup, just wait ’til we get to the streaming originals! Netflix premiered The Platform 2 to absolutely no fanfare. Remember when everyone made a fuss about the first one? It wasn’t even that good, which is perhaps why no one paid attention to the second. Amazon Prime debuted Kate Beckinsale actioner Canary Black, which I hadn’t heard of before it popped up on my front page while I was looking for something else, and haven’t heard anyone else mention at any point anywhere ever. I’m assuming, therefore, that it’s shit. It’s a similar story for horror Hold Your Breath on Disney+, while at least Sky’s offering — Matt Haig adaptation The Radleys — managed some column inches (at least in the UK press) thanks to stars Damien Lewis and Kelly MacDonald. Review and viewer scores are still low, though. Netflix did also have the new one from Timo Tjahjanto, The Shadow Strays, but as I thought Headshot and The Night Comes for Us were a little overrated, and I’d completely forgotten that I hadn’t got round to his last one in the two years since it came out, I figure this can also go on the slop pile.

There was greater success in the list of theatrical releases making their subscription streaming debut. MUBI arguably scored biggest with much-discussed recent release The Substance, although Amazon had a sizeable one on their books with Challengers. NOW’s best offerings included Drive-Away Dolls and Lisa Frankenstein — more niche titles, perhaps, but ones I’ve been looking forward to. A bigger-name premiere was undoubtedly Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, but I’ve got that on disc (unwatched on a shelf, natch) — I tend to overlook things that appear on streamers when I’ve already got the disc because, y’know, I’ve got it on disc. The same goes for Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron popping up on Netflix already.

Other titles I own physically but haven’t watched yet that (re)materialised on streaming this month (across all the various services) included Babylon, the new (or “new-ish” at this point) Candyman, Enys Men, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the 2018 Halloween, Lips of Blood, The Long Good Friday, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, live-action Resident Evil #4–6, Time Bandits, the aforementioned Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and— oh dear God, so much else. I haven’t even started on stuff I want to rewatch (The Babadook, Byzantium, Drive, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, A Few Good Men… oh, stop, stop, stop! Heck, all 25 James Bond films are in 4K on Amazon, which is theoretically better quality than most are available in on disc. We’re living in the worst timeline.)

Because I’ve got so much unwatched on disc, this month I didn’t buy anything new.

Only kidding! I bought tonnes of stuff! Heck, it’s been box sets a-go-go for the past couple of weeks. Out of 14 new acquisitions in October, just five were single-film sets — and one of those included multiple different cuts. In total, my physical media to-watch pile swelled by 54 films this month. (Early suggestions are next month could get even crazier: yesterday I took delivery of an Indicator sale order that, across just four titles, included 37 feature films. With Arrow’s 14-film Shawscope: Volume Three due before the end of the month, that five-set tally almost tops this month already. I would joke that I have a problem, but maybe I actually do… Aaaanyway…)

Where to begin? As we’re talking size, let’s start with the largest and work our way down in that order. I’ve had my eye on Lars von Trier: A Curzon Collection for a while, and Amazon cut the price significantly as a Prime Day offer, justifying my wait for it. I ought to hold off like that more often, but so much stuff is “limited edition” nowadays, and it can be hard to predict which titles will sell out almost instantly and which will linger until they’re in deep-price-cut sales. It’s a 15-film set — although, as I already owned some of those, it means technically my to-watch pile didn’t actually grow by 54 films. Technically.

Next, Arrow’s Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe, which includes ten films starring Brazil’s cult horror icon, plus a feature-length documentary. Talking of sets selling out unpredictably: this seemed to sell out instantly on its release back in January, only to later pop back up on some retailers (Arrow’s own store; Amazon) but not others (HMV). I’m not sure what went on there, but I’m glad it didn’t come back too quickly because I probably would’ve got FOMO and bought it at near full price. Instead, I picked it up heavily discounted in Arrow’s latest Shocktober sale. (Incidentally, this is why I’ve got so many huge box sets this month and next: big sales discounts on things I was prepared to miss out on at full price.)

Two sets with a coincidentally similar theme tie for third place. The newer one, Indicator’s Columbia Horror, features two ways to watch one of those films (black & white or tinted), so maybe it has the edge. This six-film new release includes the second 1930s film called Behind the Mask in as many months (the other was in the BFI’s Michael Powell: Early Works collection), as well as Fay Wray in Black Moon (that’s the one watchable in two, er, colours), Air Hawks, Peter Lorre in Island of Doomed Men, Cry of the Werewolf, The Soul of a Monster. For the other, I finally picked up Eureka’s Karloff at Columbia, getting a mint-condition second-hand copy of the limited edition for about the same price as the non-limited version currently goes for. Yay. That set includes the “Mad Doctor” cycle, a parody of the “Mad Doctor” cycle, and one other random Karloff-Columbia flick, which I guess necessitated the super-generic set name. Still, an example of something I sat on and then missed out on… although the fact I ultimately got a perfect copy for a reasonable saving suggests that, yeah, I need some self restraint.

Another Arrow sale purchase next, with the third volume in their series of four-film sets of minor Spaghetti Westerns, this one titled Savage Guns. It’s easier to know when it’s safe to wait for a set to be discounted when you’ve seen it happen to previous sets in the range (he says, having ordered Shawscope 3 at new-release price when Arrow have had to discount both previous sets eventually. But I’m always worried that will lead them to cut the edition size for future volumes, so when it’s something I really want, you’ve just got to bite the bullet). Despite all this sales talk, bargain of the month is arguably The Agitator: Three Provocations from the Wild World of Jean-Pierre Mocky, a Radiance set that was only released in July but Amazon and HMV randomly slashed to just £15. Presumably a misprice, but one Amazon honoured even after it went out of stock. Again, a title I’d decided to sit out, but was interested enough at just £5 per film (a price I wouldn’t guarantee it ever hitting again). On the other hand, I went straight in for Radiance’s newest three-film set, Daiei Gothic, featuring a trio of Japanese ghost stories (The Ghost of Yotsuya, The Snow Woman, and The Bride from Hades). If you’re noticing a distinct horror theme to this month’s purchases, well, that’s October sales for you.

And it’s another horror title for this month’s final multi-film release, Criterion’s 4K double-bill of Val Lewton productions, I Walked with a Zombie and The Seventh Victim. I’ve been resisting a lot of Criterion’s recent 4K releases because they’re pretty pricey and there’ll be a sale eventually (indeed, a 40%-off one is currently running at several retailers, and I’ve picked up several titles I’d been looking forward to — expect those to have been failed to be watched next month!), but someone somewhere relatively recently recommended The Seventh Victim (I forget where), and the only other copy I’d found was old and a bit ropey, so I decided to just dive straight in for this one.

Another horror title heads up the single film pile, with Radiance’s release of Italy’s first horror movie, I vampiri — which also includes the UK cut, Lust of the Vampire, and the US cut, The Devil’s Commandment, hence placing it first among equals in this size-based countdown. For the others, I randomly picked up an old Network title (oh, Network…! RIP), ’60s true-story spy thriller Ring of Spies, plus two new martial arts releases from 88 Films, Kid from Kwangtung and The Kung Fu Instructor. Last but not least, the film that would probably have led this roundup under normal circumstances (seeing as it’s a new release in 4K, albeit not a brand-new film), Guy Hamilton’s An Inspector Calls.

Oh, but there was one other box set! Originally announced for the end of September, then delayed until November, but arriving early for those of us who preordered direct, was Eureka’s Louis Feuillade: The Complete Crime Serials (1913–1918) collection. It contains the five-part six-hour Fantômas, ten-part eight-and-a-half-hour Les Vampires, 13-part six-and-a-half-hour Judex, and 12-part six-and-a-half-hour Tih-Minh. That’s over 27 hours of silent serial sensation! But… how many films is it? Four? That seems to undersell it. 40? But a lot of the ‘episodes’ couldn’t be considered features, running under 40 minutes each. So should it be counted as a mix of features and shorts? Now maybe you see why I didn’t mention it sooner in a size-based summary… although there’s a strong chance it’ll actually be the set I watch first, especially as I’m considering making it the focus of 2025’s Blindspot. How does that work when it isn’t easily countable as films? Yes, that’s what I’m struggling with…

The Spooky Monthly Review of October 2024

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I’ve never been one to go in for the whole “watch only horror movies in October” thing. I’m not enough of a fan of the genre to delight in the prospect of immersing myself in it for 31 days straight; and, while I’m sure I have more than enough qualifying titles I want to see to fill that period (probably several times over), there’s so much else to watch too. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone a whole October without watching a single horror movie (I haven’t bothered to go back and check), but the very fact I think it’s possible says all it needs to, I feel.

That said, this year I did make a bit of an effort — while also aiming to hit my remaining Challenge categories, of course. So, for example, I picked out martial arts horror movies to tick off slot(s) in the Genre category; for my Rewatch, I looked to horror movies I’d been meaning to revisit; and for Blindspot, I specifically saved the two horror titles for this month — they weren’t originally included for that purpose (if they had been, I would’ve only picked one), but it’s a fringe benefit.

Well, those were my plans, anyway. Did I meet them all, or did I drift somewhere along the way? Read on to find out…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#76 Attempt to Kill (1961) — Wildcard #7
#77 Man Detained (1961) — Wildcard #8
#78 Host (2020) — Failure #10
#79 Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980) — Genre #7
#80 Erin Brockovich (2000) — Rewatch #10
#81 The Wages of Fear (1953) — WDYMYHS #9
#82 Rosemary’s Baby (1968) — Blindspot #9
#83 Dreadnaught (1981) — Genre #8
#84 Possession (1981) — Blindspot #10
#85 The Guest (2014) — Wildcard #9


  • I watched ten feature films I’d never seen before in October.
  • Eight of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with two rewatches.
  • I only ‘needed’ to get to #83 this month, so I’m currently ahead of schedule. More on why that’s especially beneficial right now in the “next month” section.
  • Outside of the Challenge, Encounter of the Spooky Kind was my 100th new film in 2024. That may not be my ‘official’ goal anymore, but hitting that milestone still feels worthy of note.
  • This month’s Genre films were both chosen because they were also labelled as horror films. Encounter lived up to it; Dreadnaught was a stretch (it’s sort of like a slasher movie, but only in a handful of individual sequences, not across the entire movie).
  • Three more Wildcards down, leaving just one for the final sixth of the year. I should have gone for a New Film on Halloween (I even had several horror options on hand), as I didn’t watch a 2024 release in October in the end, but I really fancied rewatching The Guest (which, if you don’t know, is set around Halloween, including a climax at the venue for a high school Halloween dance).
  • Possibly my most film-snob-y habit / opinion / whatever is that I insist on watching (feature) films on a TV (or at the cinema, obv). I don’t watch them on a computer; nor on a tablet; certainly not on a phone. But I made an exception for Host, because it’s such a ‘Zoom call’ movie that it kinda felt wrong to watch it on my TV when it was just as easy to watch it on my desktop (because it’s streaming on iPlayer).
  • This month’s Blindspot films were a pair of horror flicks I’d been saving especially for October, so I’m glad I got them both in. Specifically, they were Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession. Also, I’ve just realised they were both directed by Polish émigrés and about bad/abusive marriages. Coincidencetastic!
  • I didn’t have any outright horror films to choose for this month’s WDYMYHS viewing, but I went for The Wages of Fear because it has “fear” in the title — as good a reason as any, I guess.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Host.



The 113th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
It was a largely middling month, quality-wise, which would often make this category hard, but in fact made it easy, because one new film I watched was actually great and so stood head and shoulders above the others — that being Rosemary’s Baby. (I just realised the award title doesn’t actually specify “new film”, but it should. If rewatches were eligible, The Guest would’ve walked it.)

Least Favourite Film of the Month
The flip side to (almost) everything being middling is that there was nothing outright terrible. The two I’d single out at the bottom of the barrel are Dreadnaught and Attempt to Kill. The latter takes it because, although it’s not bad, it is thoroughly mediocre from beginning to end; and while I didn’t actually care for a lot of Dreadnaught, at least it has some fantastic sequences.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
There was only one film review to compete with my monthly summary and “failures” this month. Whether or not the fact it was for an acclaimed film by a beloved director had any bearing on the post’s success, I don’t know; but either way, the victory goes to Incendies.



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


Just two months of the year remain, and I feel like I need to be tactically-minded to complete my goals — after all, I failed in my New 100 Films Challenge in both its first and second years, so perhaps a different focus is needed to get it over the line this time.

On the bright side, I’m currently ahead of target pace, which is potentially a big bonus. That should go without saying as a general point, but it’s specifically the case with regard to the end of December. The final weeks of the year are a bad time to be trying to catch up, or even stay on target, as Christmastime family commitments make it trickier to watch films (especially specific films, as opposed to “what can we find to appease everyone?”) If I can get further ahead of target in November, that might enable me to push through the final few Challenge films in early December. According to the rules, December could be left with a minimum of five films (a new film, a rewatch, a ‘failure’ from November, plus the twelfth films from Blindspot and WDYMYHS) — if I can get to #95 by the end of November, that would be super.

All of which said, I don’t want to ‘gamify’ my film viewing too much, because that tick-box mentality is not the right way to approach art. But it’s been my attitude (for almost 18 whole years now) that if having these goals pushes me to watch a film, rather than spending another evening deciding it would be easier to just veg on social media or whatever, that can only be a good thing.

September’s Failures

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Welcome to my monthly “Failures” column, where I look back at some of the films I could, would, maybe even should have watched last month… but failed to.

I’m generally a fan of the work of Tim Burton (even his oft-derided later-career stuff), but I’ve never been particularly fond of Beetlejuice (as I wrote on Letterboxd last time I watched it, “I’d enjoy this a lot more if Betelgeuse wasn’t in it”), so I certainly wasn’t rushing out to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at the cinema, though I’ll inevitably catch it once it’s streaming somewhere. Elsewise, it felt like this month cinemas were mostly full of smaller or more unusual fare — some of it praised, some of it hated, some of it ignored, but none of it huge box office fodder. Of course, there’s Francis Ford Coppola’s new, possibly final, long-awaited work, Megalopolis, which certainly sounds like… an experience; and column inches have also been generated by The Substance. Speaking of horror, there was also Starve Acre, and Speak No Evil, and Strange Darling, and Never Let Go, and the latest attempt at Mike Mignola’s comic book creation, Hellboy: The Crooked Man. Apparently Saoirse Ronan is very good in The Outrun; and, talking of star names, The Critic boasts Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai, and Lesley Manville in a 1930s-set thriller, which sounds great, although the reviews seem to have been muted. Anyway, most of that will end up on future to-see lists, with varying degrees of importance.

The streamers also proffered more than their usual share of high-profile-ish originals — it must be that time of year. Leading the pack was Jeremy Saulnier’s Rambo-esque Rebel Ridge on Netflix, who also deployed Will Ferrell in road trip documentary Will & Harper, and seem to have sunk young adult dystopia adaptation Uglies before it even began by casting a bunch of pretty people. Plus ça change. Apple TV+ probably wins for star names thanks to George Clooney and Brad Pitt teaming up for Wolfs, though Prime Video also had plenty of recognisable faces to show off, albeit in films that seem to have mostly met with scorn: Samuel L Jackson and Vincent Cassel in Scotland-set serial killer thriller Damaged; tepid neo-noir Killer Heat with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Richard Madden, and Shailene Woodley; and what looks to be some kind of sci-fi actioner, Breathe (I’m going off the poster and logline here, because I’ve not seen anybody talk about it), which stars Jennifer Hudson and Milla Jovovich, along with Sam Worthington and Quvenzhané Wallis (remember her? The nine-year-old from Beasts of the Southern Wild, which I still haven’t quite got round to watching. She’s 21 now).

Talking of the surprising passage of time, I’ve got the Blu-ray of The Fall sat on a shelf somewhere waiting to be watched, and I think before I upgraded to that I owned the DVD, but MUBI have released a shiny new 4K restoration. For a film renowned for its visual splendour, I’m now divided about which way to watch it first… at least until someone releases it on UHD Blu-ray, I buy that, and leave it on my shelf for ‘sometime’. Meanwhile, the nearest thing Disney+ could muster to a premiere was the streaming debut of theatrical hit Inside Out 2. For a service that wants to compete with Netflix, they don’t seem to release a whole lot of content. Maybe they’ve realised their real value lies in permanent access to their extensive back catalogue (especially for kids who just want to watch their favourites on loop), so why invest too much in new stuff? Or maybe they’re just going through a fallow period, who knows.

Sky Cinema / NOW remain the go-to for most post-theatrical streaming debuts, although their slate this month possibly reflects the thinness of the big-screen docket in recent times. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was their only new blockbuster offering, alongside swashbuckling second part The Three Musketeers: Milady, Holocaust drama One Life, and a couple of comedies: Paint (with Owen Wilson as a Bob Ross-inspired TV artist) and I Used to Be Funny (with Rachel Sennott of Shiva Baby and Bottoms, both of which I loved; though the key to their success may be writer-director Emma Seligman). They had an original or two too, but Sky Originals tend to be of even lower worth than Netflix’s, so are rarely worth mentioning. That said, Frank Grillo-starring actioner Hounds of War is the kind of thing I’d’ve surely bunged on once upon a time… but I’ve got too much I really want to catch up on to spend time on stuff like that nowadays.

Talking of which, catching my eye among back catalogue additions this month were Watcher on Netflix, which Mike Flanagan describes as “the closest a modern film has come to earning the word ‘Hitchcockian’ […] Highly recommended for fans of razor sharp thrillers”. Other reviews and scores are distinctly lower, but hey, people en masse can definitely be wrong. Also of note on Netflix is a film added back in April, Laapataa Ladies, but which has now entered the IMDb Top 250 — albeit hovering around #249 and #250, so it likely won’t last. Plus another one of those Liam Neeson old-man actioners, Memory, which (ironically) I don’t remember ever hearing of before, but it’s directed by Martin Campbell and co-stars Guy Peace and Monica Bellucci, so maybe it’s worth a look. Further catalogue additions worthy of bunging on my watchlists were ten-a-penny, as usual, but ones I’m going to specifically mention just so they’re an option for my Challenge in October included The Purge: Election Year (the whole series seems to be available on multiple platforms right now); 8 Mile, Hope and Glory, Magic Mike, and, to rewatch, the original Point Break (all Amazon Prime); on Disney+, Macross Plus (either in movie or series form, and considerably cheaper than Anime Ltd’s £150 version); Host and The Outfit on iPlayer; Morbius and Pig on Channel 4, plus a bunch of stuff I own on 4K disc and really should have got round to, like Event Horizon, The Northman, Old, Sleepy Hollow, and Three Thousand Years of Longing.

Stuff on disc I haven’t got round to watching, you say? Oh yes, there’s plenty of new stuff in that category, too. Quite a few headline-worthy 4Ks this past month, but top of the bunch is probably Second Sight’s long-awaited release of The Hitcher. Regular readers may recall I included the film in my 2022 WDYMYHS selection, on the assumption Second Sight’s release would be out before the end of that year. Well, seems it took a whole two years longer than expected. Is it worth the wait? I dunno, I haven’t watched it, have I! In fairness, it turned up right at the end of the month. A top contender for October viewing, then. As is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, purely because I’ve been looking forward to it (the trilogy that precedes it having been so good) and have been holding off since its appearance on Disney+ landed it in August’s failures. Also brand-new on 4K was Hayao Miyazaki’s latest last film, The Boy and the Heron, while catalogue titles included Arrow’s edition of The Chronicles of Riddick (I’d intended to hold off on that, but then it seemed to be selling out already) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le Flambeur from Kino.

The single label taking most of my dough this month was probably 88 Films, starting with more 4K martial acts action starring Jet Li in The Bodyguard from Beijing and The Tai-Chi Master, and Jackie Chan in Project A and Project A: Part II (a US-only collection that they, shh, helpfully sold on their UK site). Then, in regular ol’ 1080p, they also put out Island of Fire and “rediscovered classic” (we’ll see) To Kill a Mastermind; plus a New York-set drama starring Chow Yun-Fat, An Autumn’s Tale, and another addition to their Tigon horror range, The Sorcerers (I can’t say I’m picking up every title they’re putting out in that collection, but some appeal). Another label who always try to hoover up the contents of my bank account are Radiance, this month with a trio of gangster-related flicks: A Man on His Knees, Tattooed Life, and We Still Kill the Old Way (a ’70s Italian thriller, not that trashy-looking Brit flick of the same title from the mid 2010s). More crime drama courtesy of Arrow in early Kinji Fukasaku effort The Threat, while some welcome variety comes courtesy of the BFI’s genre-hopping five-film collection of Michael Powell’s early works, titled Michael Powell: Early Works.

I should certainly get started on all of that, right? Except I’m away from home this week, so I definitely won’t be watching any of it imminently. And then there’s bound to be something new coming out…