This blog started as my movie marathon — watching a movie a day for a whole year — and has continued as a place for me to write reviews about movies, TV, and various other items.
This is still a work in progress as I migrate from my old platform at Tumblr. For now, you can still access the whole backlog of posts there at http://reelmatt.tumblr.com
By some miracle, I’m still here as the New Year begins chugging along with the back half of this movie marathon which I started six long months ago when I wrote my rules and introduction.
Over the past six months I’ve thought long and hard about why I’m still doing this and whether or not I’ll continue come July when the year is up. The short version: I’m very much enjoying this experience and will probably continue after the year is up. The long version: this marathon is an incredible amount of work and at times can be a significant strain. While I’ve been accomplishing my goal of watching a bunch of old, new, and classic films I’ve never seen before, there are definitely times where it feels like more of a burden than enjoyment. It isn’t often though and that’s why I’m continuing with the marathon - on the whole it’s a great thing. What I’m trying to say here is that while I’ll probably continue the marathon after the year is up, I’ll probably amend my goal of watching 365 films a year and go for something less demanding (e.g. “x” films per week as opposed to a set 1 film per day).
But that’s a long ways away and my thoughts could be different six months from now just as my thoughts about this are different from six months ago. For now, the show must go on and boy do I have a show planned. For about a month and a half now, I’ve been planning a few big major chains of films. If you’re an avid reader of my site you’ll know that from time to time I try to create themes of films based either around actors, directors, or genres for example instead of just having a hodgepodge of random films. You may also know that these chains aren’t very lengthy and I have a tendency to break them up because I thought of a film I really want to watch at that moment or there’s an advanced screening I can go to. So it’s with this in mind that while I’ve put a lot of planning into these chains, I’m aware that they may change as time passes.
I did call this a preview so now the time has come to tell you what my big plans are. Well, there are three big chains: (1) Oscar films; (2) Romantic Comedies; and (3) Animated films. The entire month of January will be devoted to Oscar films, specifically Best Picture winners and nominees. Some of the low-hanging fruit I’ll be crossing off my list are Lawrence of Arabia, Chinatown, Gladiator, Taxi Driver, and a much anticipated film for me, Casablanca. Then, the month of February will be divided in half by two chains. In the first half ending on Valentine’s Day there will be romantic comedies including, but not limited to, When Hary Met Sally…, Blue Valentine, and The Notebook. For the back half of February there will be animated films including Disney classics like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast in addition to modern computer-animated films like Rango, Ratatouille, and How to Train Your Dragon.
So there you have it, a preview of the next few months of the movie marathon. Now to relax a bit and watch the ball drop before I watch my next film.