Sunday, January 05, 2014

All the movies: 2013

By my count I watched 167 films in 2013-- 166 features and 1 short substantial enough that I counted it. Three were viewed in a movie theater. The vast majority of them either came from Netflix (discs by mail!) or were recorded to the ol' DVR-- usually from Turner Classic Movies. I watched a few of 'em on my RCA SelectaVision CED player, which is older than I am.

Purely for my own amusement, I list them below, in the order they were viewed. Unless otherwise noted, I watched them for the first time. That's right, before 2013 I had never seen such classics as Mad Max, Chinatown, or Billy the Kid vs. Dracula. 

January:

Funny People
Trouble with the Curve
Doomsday
Ocean's 11 (1960)
Looper
The Bourne Legacy
Your Sister's Sister
Beasts of the Southern Wild
To Rome with Love
Total Recall (2012)
Stolen (2009)
Premium Rush

February:

Seven Psychopaths
Frankenweenie (2012)
Ted
Flight
The Thing (1982) (rewatch)
That Guy... Who Was in That Thing
Taken 2
End of Watch
Holy Motors

March:

Liberal Arts
Robot & Frank
The Master
Wreck-It Ralph
The Intouchables
Sleeping Beauty (2011)
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty
Phil Spector
Les Miserables (2012)
Lincoln

April:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Evil Dead (2013)
The Raid: Redemption (rewatch)
Killing Them Softly
Page Eight
Gremlins (rewatch – but basically new to me)
A Late Quartet
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (rewatch – but again, basically new)
Lifeforce
Hitchcock
Life of Pi
Django Unchained
Sound of My Voice
Repo Man

May:

The Howling
An American Werewolf in London (rewatch)
The Fog (1980)
Juan of the Dead
Silver Linings Playbook
Iron Man 3
John Dies at the End
The Guilt Trip
Hyde Park on Hudson
Drive (rewatch)
Jack Reacher
Stand-Up Guys
The Last Stand
The Killer
Behind the Candelabra
Rise of the Guardians
Murder by Death
Shaft's Big Score!
Shaft in Africa

June:

Gangster Squad
After Fall, Winter
Killer Joe
Warm Bodies
The Silence of the Lambs
Adaptation.
The Searchers
Certified Copy
Head
Dredd
Man of Steel
Rushmore
Night of the Creeps
Promised Land
Mad Dog and Glory
Lola Versus
Oz the Great and Powerful
Bottle Rocket
Side Effects
Superman (1978) (rewatch)
Quartet

July:

V/H/S
Upside Down
Superman II – theatrical cut (rewatch)
A Good Day to Die Hard
Lady in the Lake
Jack the Giant Slayer
Sharknado
Superman III (I must have seen this before... but I don't remember it)
Hunky Dory
Save the Date
The Expendables 2
Smashed

August:

Anna Karenina (2012)
Hopscotch
GI Joe: Retaliation
The Sapphires
Day for Night
The Man with the Iron Fists
Admission
The Fury
42
Trance
Clear History
Mud
California Suite
The Twelve Chairs
Upstream Color
Lawless

September:

Oblivion
Star Trek Into Darkness
The Place Beyond the Pines
Now You See Me
Brazil
Rollerball (1975)
Mad Max
World War Z
The FP
The Great Gatsby (2013)

October:

Unfinished Song
Kon-Tiki (2012)
Billy the Kid vs. Dracula
La Jetee (short)
Much Ado About Nothing (2013)
After Earth
The East
Europa Report
Before Midnight
Only God Forgives

November:

I Give It a Year
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Theatre of Blood
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
White House Down
Olympus Has Fallen
Rope
Chinatown
Frances Ha
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
Rust and Bone
The Heat
The Internship
The Way, Way Back

December:

Skyfall (rewatch)
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
R.I.P.D.
The Wicker Man (1973)
Monsters University
Pacific Rim
Stoker
This Is Spinal Tap
Celeste & Jesse Forever
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
The World's End
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Minority Report
Drinking Buddies
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Die Hard (rewatch)
Ain't Them Bodies Saints
Klute
The Wolverine

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Suggested titles for the next John McClane adventure

Live Fast, Die Hard
Die Hard or Die Trying
Old Habits Die Hard

Twenty-Sided Die Hard
It's Die Hard Out Here for a Pimp
Can You Die Harder than a Fifth Grader?
Die Soft? Die Hard with Cialis ®
Die Hard Die (German for "The Hard, The")

Die Darkman Die Hard (crossover with Liam Neeson)

Friday, February 08, 2013

I wrote a crossword puzzle

Writing a crossword puzzle is something I've wanted to do for a while. I did not realize how difficult it would be. The following is not very good, but at least it's finished. Please feel free to click the following to embiggen and print out, and play along at home:




Thursday, July 12, 2012

Further Comic Book Prequels to Explore

Daredevil: Born the First Time
A the First Man
To Hell
Dredd Passes the Bar Exam
Maus Babies
The Dark Knight Retires
Before Before Watchmen

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Best Movies of 2011

I know, I know, we're like halfway through 2012. But I finally think I have seen enough movies from last year to provide a decent list of the best films of 2011. Your mileage, as always, may vary. But your mileage would be wrong. (These aren't really in order but they're sort of in order. They're in an order.) (I have not seen The Artist yet, but I've seen all the other Best Picture nominees, except Extremely Loud and Incredibly Cloying, which you can't pay me to see. None of the other nominees are on this list, but Midnight in Paris comes the closest, mostly because I have an English degree.)

Drive: I was riveted from the first frame; and each frame could be a poster.

The Guard: The dialogue really sparkles in this. It's funny, violent, a bit sad. It's like a Coen brothers movie from the 90s. It is better than Fargo.

Attack the Block: In the beginning, I did not think this was for me. By the end, I was for it. This movie is leaner than a greyhound and twice as energetic.

The Ides of March: Maybe I just have a man-crush on Ryan Gosling. If George Clooney quit acting and switched to directing, I'd be fine with that. His films are always good.

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop: I have a lot in common with Conan, and I don't just mean we have the same hair.

The Adventures of Tintin: This is the Indiana Jones 4 we didn't get the first time.

Captain America: The First Avenger: I had no complaints. They got everything right.

Honorable mentions:


The worst movie of 2011:


Anything I am missing? Anything I should see? Anything I saw but didn't like that much but you did so you're gonna tell me about it anyway?

Friday, June 08, 2012

Where we're at with the whole DC Comics thing

Remember when I ranked all 52 #1s from DC? Well let's do something like that and check in on what I'm actually still reading.

BUYING:

Batman
Demon Knights
Dial H

BUYING BUT THINKING ABOUT GOING OUT FOR MILK AND NOT COMING BACK:

Animal Man
Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE (let's see what Kindt brings to it)
Swamp Thing

DROPPED:

Blackhawks
Justice League Dark
Stormwatch

 CANCELLED:

Static Shock (I would have dropped it anyway; what a massive dive from a promising debut issue. Bernardin's two issues were an improvement, though)

WAITING FOR THE COLLECTION:

Action Comics (I have gone to hardcovers-only for Grant Morrison comics)
All Star Western
Batman Incorporated
Wonder Woman

SHOULD GET THE COLLECTION BUT WILL PROBABLY CONVENIENTLY FORGET TO DO SO:

Batman and Robin
Batwoman
Birds of Prey
Flash

STRONGLY THINKING ABOUT PICKING UP:

Green Arrow (Ann Nocenti edition)


"WAVE THREE" TITLES I INTEND TO BUY:

...


And just to be fair:

MARVEL TITLES I AM BUYING:

Daredevil (ordered the first trade)
PunisherMAX (one trade left to go)

THE BEST COMIC:

Atomic Robo

Friday, February 10, 2012