Thursday, May 21, 2015

My 2015 So Far

by Melissa Uhrin
How many hours spent watching movies a year is considered a waste of time?

As some of you know, last year I attempted to watch a movie a day for the entire year. While I was unable to stick to the movie a day concept, I did manage to squeeze in 428 in 365 days. Not to be outdone by my 2014 self, I set the same goal for this year and I am, for the most part, on par comparatively. With our annual Junesploitation just around the corner (aside from Scary Movie Month, it's the best time of the year to watch as many movies as is possible), I figured I would give a quick update of some movie misses and random surprises.

Total movies as of May 19th: 162
New to me movies: 125

I always like to have a plan set out when I have an evening of movies planned. However, more often than I care to admit, I find myself flipping through Netflix and other instant streaming avenues and wasting time by “searching” when I should be following out a pre-plotted evening of entertainment. This has led to some interesting choices, several wasted hours and alternatively some wonderful surprises!
First up, the worst on my list of sad results from not planning ahead.

Jupiter Ascending (2015) – Why oh why did I not just accept Adam Riske's review and avoid this?

The Cobbler (2014) – I am so over all things Adam Sandler, I will be avoiding anything with his name on it until I get the go-ahead from Patrick. If that ever happens again.

Snitch (2013) – Fact: I have a thing for Dwayne Johnson. So much so that I sat through this from start to finish.

Devil's Backbone Texas (2015) – Ugh.

In addition to these, I revisited The Neverending Story for a piece on movies from my childhood that had left a bad taste in my mouth. I still can't believe it's a children's movie, as it is scarier than most horror films I have seen. While it doesn't quite fit with the theme of random selection, it most definitely falls into one of the worst films I have seen this year.

In stark contrast, some of the best movies I have watched this year were by random selection on instant streaming. The happy result of not planning ahead!

Night Watch (2004) – I quite enjoyed this and have Day Watch on my “To Watch” list. Watch.

The One I Love (2014) – Another reason I am happy I did not read anything about this prior to watching it. I suggest you do the same.
What Maisie Knew (2012) – This affected me so strongly, it still crosses my mind quite often.

100 Bloody Acres (2012) – Even just looking at the promotional posters for this gets me laughing. LOVED this movie!

Emperor (2012) – I am a huge fan of historical films, especially if they are stories from WWI and WWII. I randomly came across this movie and afterwards spent some time researching more about an event I had only known bits and pieces about.

What We Do In The Shadows (2014) – We watched this a few months ago and I have been singing its praises ever since. Hearing wonderful things about it from the guys on the podcast has me wanting to give it a re-watch.

The Voices (2014) – I still cannot believe how much fun this movie was! Almost my favourite movie I have watched this year.

Lake Placid (1999) – I had been wanting to watch this for years and years, but have never really heard much about it one way or the other. I randomly popped it on and was surprised by how beautiful this horror movie was.
Knights Of Badassdom (2013) – Now I want to dress like a wood sprite and get my medieval battle on.

Our random movie selections have also sparked some interesting conversations with my husband Daryl, as more and more I am noticing the differences between our movie tastes. In the past, I have wound up in arguments over differing opinions (Me? Passionate about my opinion? Naaahhhhh), but I am now learning to embrace them and accept that what I find to love about something might just drive someone else crazy. After each movie, Daryl and I spend some time comparing our thoughts and give it a rating from 1-10. What I perceive to be a wonderful work of art that gets an eight or nine from me is sometimes met with a four or five from him, and vice versa. With a movie's ability to be interpreted different ways and illicit differing emotional responses from each viewer, most are able to find their audience, even if it is by happenstance. Because then I get to tell the world about how terrific The Voices was. And how I want to take Adam Sandler to court to get my two hours back that I wasted on another of his films.

Either way, it's been a terrific year so far for me. I've spent almost 300 hours absorbed in my favourite hobby: other people's art. All I want to do is top 428 movie from last year. Provided my televisions do not explode, I should be able to accomplish this. I mean, sleep is overrated anyways.

13 comments:

  1. I just want to point out that this is our 2,000th post on F This Movie!. Great job, everyone. And Melissa did not sanction the use of a Wetlands image in her piece.

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    1. 2000th post, 5 years, Average of 400 per year, that's some great work, well done and congratulations

      I Agree about Lake Placid, the Scream factory bluray of the movie looks Gorgeous and I love Bridget's perfectly prickly performance, She makes the movie for me

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  2. Wow, that's some impressive movie-watching Melissa - want to keep it up? DON'T have a kid! I've watched a paltry 50 movies this year! Sometimes a single one taking up to 3 nights to finish! That being said, if you want to experience a love that you never knew was possible and witness new miracles every single day (yadda, yadda, yadda) DO have a kid!

    Chance has kept me away from the movies you did not like - I will continue to not watch those - and I'll try to check out your highlights. I've only seen The One I Love (the one I really liked) and What We Do in the Shadows (the one I loved!).

    On a related, unrelated note I have not gathered up the courage to watch Wetlands.

    Congrats on being Post No. 2,000! And congrats to F This Movie for all dem posts!

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    1. I feel your pain with limited time for movie watching. I have two girls (5 and 3). So, to get around it I go with Melissa's theory that sleep is overrated. I stay up until midnight or later watching movies after everyone is asleep and then get up for work at 6. I've miraculously fit in around 110 movies so far, but boy am I tired. :)

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    2. You said it Sol. I did make a point to give my wife a heads when Ffest was coming up. Our 2 month old mostly cooperated.
      Congrats on the 2000th post guys!

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  3. WOW! 2000 posts! That's incredible! I'm happy that I got to be a part of F This Movie history!!

    I had a little blurb written about Wetlands that somehow managed to escape my final draft! It is the only movie that I couldn't categorize. It was most definitely a surprise, but I am still on the fence about whether or not I liked it. HAHA. It has not left my mind though... So maybe go with a like? I'm not sure if I'm ready to commit to that though. I would watch it though Sol! Even if it does take three days to get through it! Or not. I'm not sure if my heart allows me to recommend it HAHA!

    Kids cut into movie watching time?? Looks like movies might take priority for the time being. HAHA!!!

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  4. ^^^ Actually kids are an excuse to watch movies when parents reach a point they can't take it anymore and just pop them on so the kid(s) be hypnotized by the movie while it plays and give the parent a couple of hours of piece and quiet. And when the baby grows up movies will be watched, it'll just be the same movie over and over again. Would watching "Frozen" 25 times in a month count as one movie watched in a year, Melissa, or would it be 25 entries? Because when kids between 2-5 want to watch a movie they'll watch the same thing over and over 'till they you puke. As the uncle of a five year old with a serious case of Pixar's "Brave" addiction (along with Patrick and every parent of a small child ever), trust me, kids make you watch movies... just not the ones you want to watch but the ones that calm, entertain and distract them.

    When I read Melissa's piece about all the movies she watched in 2014 I decided I'd keep track of every movie I'd see in 2015 to see if my track record matched, surpassed or was humbled by Melissa's. Unfortunately earlier this year some armed punks jumped me at gunpoint and stole my backpack, where I had my tablet (where I kept a movie viewing journal) and a notebook with all the movie info of everything I've seen since 2011. Between that and some unemployment months I was down on movies for a while. Now I'm back on the saddle, employed and watching movies as before but unable to quantify what I've seen so far. Oh well, better luck next time in my fruitless attempt to match Melissa's psychopathic movie viewing pace (wink, wink). :-P

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    1. And "The One I Love" was also one of my most pleasant out-of-nowhere surprises of 2014 as well. I absolutely second everything Melissa said. If you even remotely plan to see it (it's still streaming on Netflix Instant) don't even read the Netflix summary or anything about what the movie is even about. The least one knows going in the more pleasantly surprised and entertained you'll be by the better Duplass brother's great flick. ;-)

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    2. I think a lot of kids repeat because it's familiar and it's the stuff their parents let them watch. Introduce them to new things, you might be surprised in their tastes. My 3 year old daughter loves Doctor Who, superhero movies (went on a Sam Raimi Spider-Man kick for a while), and horror movies (actually sat all the way through Arachnophobia with me). My oldest daughter's favorite movie is the classic Wizard of Oz. Do they go on repeat kicks....yeah, it's what kids do. But, even then it doesn't always have to be kiddie movies that make you want to kill yourself on repeat viewings if you broaden their horizons early. :)

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    3. Totally agree on The One I Love. It was a great movie, but it's really hard to recommend to anybody because it gets into spoilers like 20 minutes into the film, so I can't even really tell them what it's about. Still a big recommendation!

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  5. You're not the first person to tell me how great What Maise Knew is. I'm totally going to check it out. Thanks for the reminder!

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  6. Wow, that's watching a lot of movies, Melissa! Searching for the right one can be quite a hassle indeed. But also fun, in a self-loathing way: "Tonight I will sort my unwatched movies by rating, and filter by genre Drama. And I have to watch the first one that comes up....Nooo, not thát one. Well, okay, I'll use the random-button tonight. And the first one...ah, damn. Well okay, I'l go watch an episode of Justified, because I lost too much time already..."Et cetera.

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