Some Updates

Some reviews that I've finally finished are up. They're timestamped over the last week-ish so you may need to go Back to the Future.

More on the way.

Out of Practice

I'm going to try to pick this up again. It's been too long, and I'm itching to view and write.

And Hockey season's over.

Don't expect the daily thing, but hopefully you'll see a few reviews a week, and hopefully they'll vary as much as they have in the past.

And maybe a guest writer will drop in.

What (the heck) happened, and maybe some progress...

If you're reading this, you just might care, so here's what's been going on, and why the blog's been pretty much dead over the last 5+ months.

Basically, I fell in love. Again.

Shortly before the hiatus, I made a long trip to a far away city to visit family. The city is the one that I happened to have gone to college in. While I was there, I looked up an old friend, one whom I had loved very deeply and with which I had a beautiful and tragic romance. Fast forward a number of years, actually a great number of years, and here we were again.

There was dinner; and late night drinks and later night coffee. There was staring intently into each others eyes at a Farmer's Market. There was long distance romance, huge phone bills and frequent weekend flights.

Then, just before Christmas, on Dec. 21st, there was a 26' Penske diesel full of my crap driving a thousand plus miles to move in. Some months followed as did another Penske (highly recommended) with the rest of the junk.

And basically I've been busy being in love, adjusting to a new/old city and a new job, and trying to change in a few dozen other ways at the same time.

It occupies my time. I just haven't had the 3 hours a day required to watch and write.

I HAVE seen some film. My new SO, who we'll call Mo, actually convinced our alma mater to construct a BFA film program for her and was it's first graduate. She's all about the film too, and has actually studied it extensively, and so keeps me on my toes.

Hopefully some reviews will follow, though I'm not going to guarantee any particular frequency.

Thanks for your support.

Hiatus, excuses and more

At this point I'm truly well behind in reviews and their quality has been much less than I prefer. I've been on a road trip for a few weeks and have been rushing things trying to keep up. I also have company showing up in several hours for the weekend. It's not looking productive.

So I've decided to call a short break.

I'll pick back up starting September 18th. But I made a commitment to have a review for every day of the year, so I'll be doubling up for a while to keep current as well as backfill the missing reviews. Keep an eye out for the past ones as well as the new ones.

And I also promise to update the Alphabetic list as well.

Until then, thanks for you support.

Cathing up....

I've just caught up and posted several reviews. While these were written at least a week ago, I've been very busy and managed to get several days behind in posting. I'll try to be more diligent. Gotta go now and write about five reviews while the films are still relatively fresh in my head....

Alphabetic List of Reviews

# A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T U V W Z

#
4: The Rise of the Silver Surfer
10 Items or Less
12 and Holding
28 Weeks Later
300
1408

A
A Good Year
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
An American Haunting
Apocalypto
Army of Darkness

B
Babel
Battle Royale (Batoru wowairau)
Birth
Breach
Bridge to Terabithia

C
Catch and Release
Citizen X
Cobb
Curse of the Golden Flower (Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia)

D
D.E.B.S.
Déjà Vu
Deliverance
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
Disturbia
Don't Tell (La Bestia nel cuore)

E
El Dorado
Everyone's Hero

F
Fantastic Voyage
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Five Easy Pieces
Flyboys
Flying Leathernecks
From Here to Eternity
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus

G
Game 6
Ghost Rider
Grindhouse

H
Happily N'Ever After
Happy Feet
Harakiri (Seppuku)
Haven
Heartbreak Ridge
Heaven's Prisoners
Holiday
Hollywoodland
Hot Fuzz

I
Idiocracy
Incubus
Infamous
Infernal Affairs
Invincible

K
Keeping Mum
Knocked Up

L
Lemming
Letters from Iwo Jima
Live Free or Die Hard
Look Both Ways

M
Marie Antoinette
Men at Work
Miami Vice
Millions
Mr. Brooks
Music and Lyrics

N
Nanny McPhee
Next
Night at the Museum
Nine Lives

O
Ocean's Thirteen
One Night with the King
Once
Osama
Out of the Past

P
Paper Moon
Poseidon

R
Ratatouille
Reign of fire
Reign Over Me
Ride the High Country
Rififi (Du rififi chez les hommes)
Rio Bravo
Running With Scissors

S
Saving Face
Saw III
School for Scoundrels
Sherrybaby
Shooter
Sleeping Dogs Lie
Slither
Smokin' Aces
Stranger Than Fiction
Stray Dog (Nora inu)
Stuey

T
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
The Aura (El Aura)
The Battle of the Bulge
The Covenant
The Dead Girl
The Departed
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
The Driver
The Good Shepherd
The Ground Truth
The Hole
The Holiday
The Italian (Italianetz)
The Last King of Scotland
The Last Kiss
The Last Mimzy
The Last of the Mohicans (1920)
The Legend of 1900 (La Leggenda del Pianista Sull'oceano)
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
The Lookout
The Meaning of Life
The Messengers
The Prestige
The Public Enemy
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Queen
The Remains of the Day
The Roaring Twenties
The Science of Sleep (La Science des rêves)
The Thin Blue Line
The Wild Bunch
The Yards
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Thunder Road
Tideland
Transamerica
Transformers
Tristan and Isolde

U
Ultimate Avengers
Ultimate Avengers 2
United 93

V
Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj
Vanishing Point
Volver

W
Waitress
White Lightning
Wild Hogs
Wordplay
World Trade Center

Z
Zodiac

I've Been Bad.....

Forgot to post the Review for yesterday, 5/19. Oops. It was written and queued up, but I spaced it. It's been posted for yesterday and today's is on the way. As penance, I've updated the Alphabetic Review list. I sure that neither of you really care, but I'm trying to be straight about this thing....

Now Taking Requests...

I've actually had someone ask me (in person) to review a particular film. If you've got a request, post a comment here, and I'll see what I can do (though I make no promises).

Over a month in...

So I've been at this a little over a month. I've stuck with it, and overall I'm pretty happy. Here's some observations about the process so far....

I'm actually several days ahead at this point. I've got a buffer of about five review going. I'm hoping I can get this up to about 14 so I can take a few weeks off. Hockey season is coming to a close, which will make this a bit easier.

I'm pretty much planning my viewings at this point. I don't have a set schedule what I see and when, but I've got a general idea what days I'll watch something and whether I'm going to the theater or staying in.

I'm watching films differently. I'm actually thinking about what I'm going to write as I'm watching them. In some ways this is bad this, as I tend to over-analyze as I'm watching,but I am paying more attention. I sometimes make a conscious decision to just watch and enjoy (or hate) what I'm watching, but that's the exception, not the rule.

Reviews that I write right after viewing are generally better, especially if I've seen more than one film before writing reviews. A little distance tends to focus me more towards the themes of the film. This perspective sometimes pays off.

Talking about films is a bit strange now. Since I've generally written about it before I talk about it, my ideas are pretty well formed. I end up giving my opinion and then listening more than talking. Even though I listen, my ideas about the film are pretty ingrained and I don't change my mind too much.

Sometimes its a struggle to watch a film. I've got a schedule to keep up, and it becomes work. This is one reason I'm trying to create a buffer, so I can take a week off to renew my interest.

It's becoming harder to watch films I don't like all the way through. I haven't abandoned one yet, but fast-forward has looked mighty tempting on a few occasions.

FAQ

Why do you moderate your comments?
Simple, really, I'm trying to keep this all profanity free and family friendly. I'm not above using profanity (wow, that was severe understatement), but I've made a conscious decision not to while writing this blog. I'll moderate comments to keep things clean and on point. Simple "you suck" flames will be rejected, but I'll approve comments that disagree with what I've posted, even if not particularaly well written.

What does the label "Recycled" mean?
A post labeled "Recycled" will be a review I wrote somewhere else and have reposted here. There aren't many of these.

What does the label "Recommended" mean?
A post labeled "Recommended" will be a review that I highly recommend you see. These will be generally be rated 8 or higher, though I will sometimes recommend a film that I didn't like for personal reasons. I may not recommend some films that I rate 8 or higher because I feel that they have very selective appeal and/or may be controversial. Brazil comes to mind.

What does the label "Throwback" mean?
A post labeled "Throwback" will be a review that I wrote from memory. I probably saw the film more than 3 or 4 months ago, and may have seen it several times. These reviews will tend to be more "feel" oriented.

Format and Ratings

A word on Format and Ratings.

The title of a Review post will have the following format for a title:

07-03-02 United 93 (2006)

This is the date, (07-03-02 is March 2nd, 2007) ; the film title (United 93) and the year the film was released (2006) .

The top of the review will state when I saw the film, on what format, and the rating.

The when may be specific or general. I fully intend to review films I saw a while ago, there's no way I'll be able to watch and do a decent review of a new one daily.

Format will generally be one of the following: Theater, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, VHS (it happens) or Broadcast (including SD or HD and the Channel).

My ratings are from 1 to 10 and going to tend to be skewed to the high end of the scale. I really like film in general and can usually find something worthwhile in most films. To rate something I usually start in the middle (5). If something is worth my time, if I believe that seeing it was better than not seeing it, it'll score at least a 5. Anything lower than 5, and I consider it a waste of my (not necessarily your) time. Since I don't tend to watch stuff I know I'll dislike, ratings less than a 5 aren't common, but do occur.

Here's a general scale:
1 - A complete waste of money and time; mine and the producers.
2 - Bad. Perhaps painfully so.
3 - Bordering on Bad. May have an interesting premise, but doesn't deliver at all.
4 - Uninteresting. Flat.
5 - Worth watching. OK.
6 - Good. Interesting. Maybe not engaging.
7 - I enjoyed it. Engaging. May recommend it.
8 - I really enjoyed it and will recommend it.
9 - I absolutely loved it, or recognize it as an undisputed classic.
10 - Phenomenal. Not only is it a classic or groundbreaking film, but I it love it as well.

It should be noted that even when a film is treading in the 1-3 range, I almost always watch the entire thing. Also, some films may be intentionally bad or revered for their badness(Plan 9, anyone?). I rate films based both on my personal enjoyment and their merits as a film. I can definitely rate bad films above a 5, but you'll rarely see them go above 7, Army of Darkness being a distinct exception.

Overview and Background

I love movies. A lot.

The idea is to post one movie related article a day, preferably a film review, but I may write about other stuff as well.

I think a little background is in order.

What kinds of flicks do you watch?
Just about everything.

Theater or Rental?
Both, though I admit that my theater attendence has declined dramatically over the past several years. This is for a few reasons. First, most theaters are filled with people who don't really care about watching the movie, and would rather eat, go to the bathroom, talk to their companion, talk or text on their cellphone, etc. I try to go to weekday matinees when possible to avoid most of these folk. I refuse to go to a chain theater on a Friday or Saturday evening. I love seeing a flick that's been out for a while and having the whole theater to myself. Second, I've upgraded my home theater experience lately, and combined w/ Netflix, there's little reason to go to the Theater except to see something that really benefits from the Huge Screen. Pan's Labyrinth comes to mind.

Netflix? Really?
Yup. I've been a subscriber since 2000. With the exception of some postal-related problems that were eventually worked out, it been great.

What's the Home Theater like?
I recently upgrade to Sony's 70" SXRD set. I have an HTPC, HD-DVD and Blu-ray players, and of course a decent 5.1 system. It's not as good as a real theater, but I like it just fine.