Wednesday, December 08, 2021

Pookon's Ill Cinema - January 2021

I think I forgot to lay out the ground rules in the first article that I posted. Well I'm not going to go back and edit that one to include them, so I'll just post them here. Movie and documentaries (for the most part) count. TV shows do not, even if the formula is more like a movie (examples of this would be things like The Mandalorian or WandaVision). A documentary counts if it is a stand alone feature length narrative, whereas a multi-episodic formula would not. So keep that in mind for days when I don't watch anything or just watch one movie. Just because it doesn't look like I wasn't watching anything doesn't mean that I wasn't, it just did not qualify for this list. 

Everything during the pandemic is all starting to gel together, but I know at some point I watched every episode of Lost, Seinfeld, Scrubs, Mike Tyson Mysteries, half of Cheers and anything Star Wars and Marvel put out like The Clone Wars cartoon, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If? and Mighty Ducks Game Changers. I'm sure there are some other TV series in there that occupied my time that at this point I cannot remember. Oh, and lest we forget daily viewings of Let's Make a Deal, The Price is Right, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Can't live without my game shows. Once you also start to factor in 162+ (including playoff) baseball games once the Milwaukee Brewers season started, it's a wonder I'm able to watch any movies at all and then sometimes have enough time to watch multiple movies in a day. 

The last time that I checked, there are only 24 hours in a day and one third of that is spent getting ready for sleep, actually sleeping and then getting your shit together after sleep. Which comes to another rule - the movie really just needs to be on in order for me to consider it something I watched. If it is one I am seeing for the first time, I like to devote my full attention to it so I am usually actively paying attention and keep my eyes on the screen (with exceptions of course like checking my phone, looking up casts and trivia on IMDB or fucking around on the internet). But for the movies I have seen many times before, those are usually on in the background as I am working, doing chores and housework or whatever else I do around this joint. So not every movie has me on the couch for the entire run time paying attention to each and every detail. Sometimes it's just on and I'm really doing something else. But since I know the plot, the lines, the characters, etc., I can "watch" it without actually watching it. Does that make sense?

So now that you know the rules, let's get down to the movie watch list. But one last thing in how I am reporting these. I have broken it out by date and listed the movies that I watched. Once of the things I wanted to keep track of is when I watched a new (at least to me) movie, which I have indicated with a * symbol and highlighted in red text. When I feel like it, I'll provide a little commentary or some information about that day or the movies watched on that day. And at the end of the month, I will provide a tally of few noteworthy statistics such as number of movies watched, most watched movie, number of new movies, best new movie and worst movie watched. And I plan on doing this for both the month and the year, which will get pretty interesting as the months roll by. So I guess there is nothing left to do but get into it, so grab some snacks and beverages, settle into your seat, dim the lights and let's watch some movies!

1/01 - Friday
  • Back to the Future
  • Back to the Future Part II
  • Back to the Future Part III
Watching the Back to the Future Trilogy is one of my New Year's traditions. There's something about looking back on your past and trying to fix it so that you have a better future that goes hand in hand with making resolutions. But I don't make New Year's resolutions and instead I just watch my favorite all-time movie trilogy instead. Hell of a way to get the year started.

1/02 - Saturday
  • The Final Destination *
  • Final Destination 5 *
  • Batman Begins
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2 *
The Final Destination holds the distinct honor of being my first new movie of 2021. Aside from that, I can't say I remember much about it. 

1/03 - Sunday
  • The Dark Knight
  • The Dark Knight Returns
  • Finding Nemo
1/04 - Monday
  • The Avengers
  • The Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
1/05 - Tuesday
  • Twister
  • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
  • Flatliners (1990) *
I'm not sure how often this will come up, but every now and then I finally get around to watching a movie for the first time that I should have seen a long time ago. Flatliners isn't a great movie, but with the star power behind it (Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts and director Joel Schumacher) I am surprised it took me 31 years to finally see it.

1/06 - Wednesday
  • Speed
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Avengers: Endgame
1/07 - Thursday
  • Solo: A Star Wars Story
  • Speed 2: Cruise Control *
I love Speed. I love Keanu Reeves. Knowing that he didn't come back for the sequel is what probably (pun intended) steered me away from this movie for so long. But it really wasn't that bad. It just wasn't that good. And I can see why he passed on this movie. Maybe I should have too. Keanu 1, Scott 0. 

1/08 - Friday
  • Bad Boys
  • Bad Boys 2
  • Bad Boys for Life *
  • I Am Chris Farley
1/09 - Saturday
  • How to Train your Dragon: the Hidden World *
  • Poseidon (2006) *
  • Live Free or Die Hard (unrated)
1/10 - Sunday
  • A Good Day to Die Hard *
I was expecting to hate this movie. And I kind of do if you consider this to be a Die Hard movie. But this isn't a Die Hard movie, this is a Bruce Willis movie. Any connection to Die Hard is on name alone (John and Jack McClane) and some minor references to previous films. If I wasn't such a completionist with movie series, I would totally never watch this again. But if I start a series, I usually end the series. Gross.

1/11 - Monday

It's actually kind of difficult to watch a movie every day, and most days I was watching 3 or 4. I never thought about how many days it would take me to have one where I didn't watch a movie, but I guess today I got my answer.

1/12 - Tuesday
  • The Muppets (2011)
1/13 - Wednesday
  • Armageddon
  • The Rock
There aren't a lot of movies I could watch every day. But if they suddenly made it mandatory and I was forced to pick an action movie, Armageddon or The Rock would be my choice.

1/14 - Thursday
  • The Muppets Most Wanted
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • Transformers
1/15 - Friday
  • Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon
1/16 - Saturday
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction *
I watched the Transformers cartoon as a kid and absolutely loved the toys. I gave the live action movies a shot when they first came out and then kind of bailed after the 3rd one. I guess I used this as an excuse to finally catch up on the rest of the series. They aren't terrible. I've seen worse.

1/17 - Sunday
  • Life (1999) *
1/18 - Monday
  • Snowpiercer *
1/19 - Tuesday
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • Krampus *
1/20 - Wednesday
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  • Transformers: The Last Knight *
1/21 - Thursday
  • Happy Death Day *
Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 U were the first true surprise first watches of my movie year. I think these ended up on my radar from the boys at Binge Media (a movie podcast site I've been listening to for years) and I find that their tastes align with mine, so I usually check out anything they recommend. If you're a fan of time loop movies (think Groundhog Day) and time parallel movies (think Back to the Future II), then you might end up liking these ones.

1/22 - Friday
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
1/23 - Saturday
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
1/24 - Sunday
  • Happy Death Day 2 U *
If you are going to watch Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 U, I would recommend doing so in the same day or as close to each other as possible. Without spoiling anything, the events of the movies tie into each other very well and best to view the 2nd one while the 1st one is freshly on your mind. 

1/25 - Monday
  • Josie and the Pussycats
I don't really believe in "guilty pleasures" as most people would describe it. You shouldn't feel bad for liking something. Who cares? I fucking love Josie and the Pussycats and especially my girl Rachael Leigh Cook. One thing about getting older is that I gives less and less fucks about what people think about me and the things I like. If someone is going to judge me based off of a silly movie with a good looking girls and killer soundtrack, then let them. That's not my problem. That's theirs.

1/26 - Tuesday
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  • Kingsman: The Secret Service
1/27 - Wednesday
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
1/28 - Thursday
  • First Kid
  • Freaky Friday (2003) *
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
When I talked about A Good Day to Die Hard, I mentioned being a completionist. You didn't see Die Hard, Die Hard 2 or Die Hard with a Vengeance on this list because I watched them in December 2020 (for Christmas), so they don't qualify for this list. I only mention that because on January 19 I started watching the Harry Potter series, which means that eventually I would watch the remaining movies. Pay attention to that fact because it will come back again throughout the year.

1/29 - Friday
  • Bumblebee *
1/30 - Saturday
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
1/31 - Sunday
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
  • Yesterday

Number of Movies Watched this Month: 62
Most Watched Movie this Month: N/A
Number of New Movies Watched this Month: 18
Best New Movie Watched this Month: Happy Death Day/Happy Death Day 2 U (Tie)
Worst Movie Watched this Month: Freaky Friday (2003)

Number of Movies Watched this Year: 62
Most Watched Movie this Year: N/A
Number of New Movies Watched this Year: 18
Best New Movie Watched this Year: Happy Death Day/Happy Death Day 2 U (Tie)
Worst Movie Watched this Year: Freaky Friday (2003)

 - Scott Reck -

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