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Sunday, December 31, 2017

End of Year Eight

I set a movie goal for myself every year of watching 400 different movies. Last year, I averaged a movie per day. This year, I got a little closer, but fell just short, even with a huge push in the last couple of weeks to try to hit 400. Yesterday, I was at 392, meaning I needed another eight movies in two days. I made an effort, but I’m pretty much done at 398. Close, but no set of steak knives for yours truly. You can see what I watched this year here: Everything I've Watched in 2017. Of the 398 movies I watched this year, only 65 were rewatches, so 333 of them were new to me.

In many of my year-end posts, I have an announcement or two. I suppose I kind of do this year as well. The reality of my Oscar lists is that I have a mere 112 movies left not including 20 or so that will be added in a couple of weeks for the next round of Oscars. Since there are probably a good dozen and a half that I can’t locate no matter how much I try, it puts me at needing to review only 9 or 10 per month to finish. So, I guess that means that I’ll be completing those lists as far as I can in 2018.

Where do we go from there? Unknown, although the They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They? list has been calling me. And with several hundred more Oscar Got It Wrong! posts to go, I think we’ll be here for some time yet.

Let’s hope for a better 2018 than we had a 2017. Peace, prosperity, and good cinema to all.

16 comments:

  1. In December, I managed to fit in 21 movies from the List that I'd not seen before, thus putting me at a total of 995, only six away from the magical number of 1001! (And reaching that number, I'll still have 198 movies left to see everything that's been on the List.)

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    1. On that pace, you'll finish roughly about when I expect to finish the Oscars lists, at least as much as I can finish them.

      The good news for me is that both Women in Love and Bright Victory are showing on TCM in the next two months, so that's two I couldn't find that I'll be able to get.

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  2. The year is ending on a very positive movie note for me as I saw my two favorite films of the last several years within the last couple of days of 2017. I can't recommend Batman & Bill and Becoming Bond enough. The fact that they are from Hulu really boggles my mind while enriching it beyond measure for this Batman and James Bond fan at the same time.

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    1. Documentaries are a large blindspot for me. I'll look into them.

      For me, the best thing I've seen lately is Train to Busan, which I posted on Wednesday.

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    2. I saw "Train to Busan" some time ago. I enjoyed the grand spectacle of most of it, but it seemed as if the writer, or director, has seen most of the best TV episodes of both "The Walking Dead" and "Fear the Walking Dead" and borrowed quite a lot from them. Of course, neither used a train, but "Walking's" car/rv convoy out of Atlanta to D.C. is very similar as is "Fear's" trek south out of L.A. and subsequent luxury hotel/class episodes.

      Anyway, I just hope the English remake and the sequel with Gong Yoo (who turned at the end of the film) aren't total rubbish.

      Dang, now I'm in the mood for a re-watch of either South Korea's The Man From Nowhere or Oldboy after remembering "Train to Busan" as there have been quite a few really good films to come out of the southern half of the peninsula in the last couple of decades.

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    3. Having never watched either The Walking Dead (well, I watched the first episode some time ago) or its sister show, I wouldn't know about the borrowing. As a piece of action/horror cinema, though, Train to Busan is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. Tense, exciting, lots of action, and what there is of gore is never gratuitous. I can't say I'm that interested in a sequel or a remake, although of the two, I think the sequel is more likely to be interesting.

      South Korea has one of the more interesting national cinemas going--I tend to like most of what I see from South Korea, although I was not at all a fan of Snowpiercer.

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  3. I still think that is a solid achivement, steak knifes or not.
    I am very curious to see what you will throw your attention on when the Oscar movies are done.
    How about the lesser categories? Best Editing? Best Sound? There is also the negative awards for worst movies to consider...

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    1. The three most obvious categories if I decide to stick with Oscar films are Best Foreign Feature, and the two Supporting categories. Best Documentary Feature is another possibility.

      We'll see. I've got time to decide.

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  4. Wow! 392 is mighty impressive. Looking forward to what you have in store for this year. Happy New Year!

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  5. Happy New Year, man, and happy viewing in 2018. I look forward to more reviews and insights.

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    1. Reviews, yes. Insights? I'm not sure I've got many of those...

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  6. I think I recall you saying you don't do torrents at all; I do, only if there's no other option or availability for a film I'm looking for. To that end, are there any of the ones you're having trouble finding that you want me to see if I can locate for you?

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    1. I have to be very careful with torrents and the like since the computer I use for much of this isn't technically mine. That tends to be the reason I don't do torrenting.

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  7. Happy New Year.

    I really enjoy your thoughtful and well-written reviews. And 398 films watched in one year is incredible.

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    1. People say that to me all the time. It's honestly not that much. Aside from The Great British Baking Show and Game of Thrones, I don't watch any television and I don't watch sports at all. If the average movie is 120 minutes, 400 movies works out to like 2:12/day, which is a hell of a lot less than most people watch television.

      Happy New Year to you as well.

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