Tag Archives: Summer

The Unseasonably Hot Monthly Review of June 2025

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“It’s summer, of course it’s hot,” cry certain people. Yeah, but yesterday was 10–12°C hotter than the average for this time of year, so all the “it’s just summer” people can F off. And let’s not start on the “oh we have those kinds of temperatures all the time” foreigners.

Also, I prefer the cold, so even “regular summer” is a pain in the arse.

Anyway, enough about UK weather (it’s due to break tomorrow anyway, hooray) — here’s what I’ve been watching over the past month…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#51 Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) — New Film #6
#52 The Untouchables (1987) — WDYMYHS #6
#53 Shoot First, Die Later (1974) — Genre #4
#54 Hardware (1990) — Failure #6
#55 28 Days Later (2002) — Rewatch #6
#56 28 Weeks Later (2007) — 50 Unseen #5
#57 Saltburn (2023) — Blindspot #6
#58 Paddington in Peru (2024) — 50 Unseen #6


  • I watched 12 feature films I’d never seen before in June.
  • That’s the first time this year I’ve reached above my minimum target of 10.
  • Seven of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • That’s enough to keep me a whole month ahead of target. In fact, I’ve been doing so well at that, I now only need to average seven Challenge films per month for the rest of the year (normally it’s 8.5 for the back half of the year).
  • A fair chunk of my viewing this month was taken up with the favourite films of work colleagues. My team discussed our favourite-ever movies early in the month, and of the 18 picks, I’d not seen five — so I caught up on them all immediately. The only one that qualified for my Challenge was The Untouchables, because it was already on my WDYMYHS list (the team’s other picks didn’t conveniently slot into one of my incomplete categories — how inconsiderate!)
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Emerald Fennell’s kinda-kinky reimagining of Brideshead Revisited, Saltburn.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was Brian De Palma’s stylish but, uh, not exactly historically accurate retelling of the mission to arrest Al Capone, The Untouchables.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Hardware, Paddington in Peru, and Shoot First, Die Later.



The 121st Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I’m not sure if it’s a “great movie” in its entirety, but The Untouchables has style to spare, plus one of the greatest shootouts in cinema history.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I feel mean picking one of my colleagues’ favourite films here… but hey, there’s no way they read this blog, so why not? It’s not that Save the Last Dance is necessarily terrible for what it is, it’s just that what it is isn’t exactly my kind of movie. That said, nearly a quarter of a century on from its release, it does feel rather dated.


Summer, summer, summertime. Whether the “good” weather stays or not, you can feel that summer season hitting the big screen, with the likes of Superman and a new Jurassic World on the horizon. Are either enough to tempt me out to the cinema? I’m currently unsure. (Find out next month!)

November 2014

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Before the 2014 advent calendar kicks off, let’s pause to look back at the month just gone.


What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?

After a little break last month, WDYMYHS returns with one new film: one of the many movies in contention to be crowned Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest, Rear Window. A tense thriller with something more to say about voyeurism and the suspicious mind, it’s a great film. Incredible set, too.

That means I go in to December with two films left to watch — specifically, Requiem for a Dream and the original Oldboy. We’ll see how that goes, but it would be nice if I didn’t repeat last year and end with one film left over.


X-Men Days of Future PastNovember’s films in full

#109 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
#110 Show Boat (1951)
#111 The Woman in Green (1945)
#112 Flirting with Disaster (1996)
#113 X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
#114 Machete (2010)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes#115 Chronicle (Extended Edition) (2012)
#116 The Running Man (1987)
#117 The Green Hornet (2011)
#118 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
#119 Rear Window (1954)
#120 The Thin Man (1934)
#121 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)


Analysis

It’s been a belated summer here at 100 Films (only without downsides like “noisy kids” and “heat”) thanks to the big Hollywood studios’ Blu-ray release windows. Starting with Edge of Tomorrow last month, my delayed viewing of this year’s big-hitters continued with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men: Days of Future Past — only 60% superhero-y! (And Guardians only counts because it’s produced by Marvel — not really a superhero movie, is it?) Noteworthy not-yets from the summer include Godzilla, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers: Age of Extinction, most of which haven’t found a space in my Blu-ray collection thanks to the sheer volume of stuff that’s been coming out. Also because the latter two Michael Bay-related productions look godawful. (And Turtles isn’t out ’til February anyway.) I’m actually quite curious to see the first two, though, so I imagine they’ll turn up before long.

Anyway, how do November’s numbers stack up? The above list totals 13 new films, which is the second best November ever (to 2009’s, which only reached one higher). It far outstrips the November average of 6.5, though — indeed, all by itself November 2014 drags said average up almost a whole point, to 7.4. It’s also slightly above 2014’s monthly average of 11, and ranks as the third largest month of the year, behind August’s 15 and September’s 17.

Having made it to #121 this month is also significant: that’s the second furthest I’ve reached by the end of November, and is only one behind 2010’s final total. If I watch just two films in December, 2014 will become my second-best year ever; to go all the way and top the pile, I only require nine more films. That’s close to the average I should be hitting every month, but I’ve nonetheless fallen short of it in many a month before — including January and February this year.

Predictions? Well, the December average is 10.2, which would have me at #131 — but that’s skewed by abnormally high tallies in 2008 and 2009 (indeed, December 2008 is my best month ever). The past four Decembers give an average of just seven, which is less promising… but also only one shy of sharing the Best Year Ever title, and most months this year have outperformed their averages.

For 2014 itself, the monthly average is (as I said before) precisely 11 — if December conforms, that’s #132. Some lowly early months drag that down, though, and the average for the past six months is 12.8 — if December hews to that pattern, I could see the year end on #134. Either is well clear of 2007’s #129.

Final point: with ‘bonus’ reviews thrown in (director’s cuts that don’t get a number, that kind of thing), 2007 is also an all-time best, with 135. I’ve had just two such extra reviews this year (the first Hobbit extended and The 10th Kingdom), so I would need to reach #134 for 2014 to become unquestionably the blog’s biggest year so far. A goal too far? We’ll see…


This month’s archive reviews

Enough about the future: let’s look to the past, with the 16 archive reviews I’ve reposted this month.


Next month on 100 Films in a Year…

It’ll be all guns blazing here in December: a review a day thanks to the advent calendar, and no doubt some archive reposts buoying that number further; and in my little world of actually watching films, a push to what might be a triumphant best-ever finish.

Or will it? Only the next 31 days can tell…