Weeks 24-26 July 4, 2007
Posted by badblokebob in : Editorials, progress reports, 2007 , add a commentIn case you’ve forgotten, and can’t work it out from the title, I’m trying to see at least 100 films that I’ve never seen before by the end of 2007. That’s an average of eight per month, donchaknow; or two per week. I’m well on target.
And, I’m halfway through! For anyone who can’t remember how many weeks there are in a year… well, there’s 52; and half of 52 is 26; and the week of June 25th is week 26 of 2007, meaning that July 1st is just about halfway through the year (though, to be precise, there’s actually 52 weeks and one day in a year… well, actually, 52 weeks, one day and a quarter day… anyway…)
I passed the numerical halfway point (i.e. 50 films) way back in week 19 — clearly I’ve not been doing as well in the past 7 weeks! At all. Oh dear oh dear… Exams may be long over and holidays may be on, but combine the odd bits of good TV filling days and evenings with a commitment to completing Script Frenzy and you wind up seeing less films than you might expect. A lot less, as it turns out — just three in three whole weeks! Still, I’m currently well on track to pass 100 by the end of the year anyway. Shiny.
And as has become standard practice, I’ll handily remind you that this entry is covering films seen between 11th June and 1st July.
Weeks 21-23 June 11, 2007
Posted by badblokebob in : Editorials, progress reports, 2007 , add a commentThis time I do see Spider-Man 3! But not Zodiac, mainly because I can’t be bothered and I’m quite happy to catch it on DVD. Plus, Pirates 3 is long out now, and if you think I’m going to be foolish enough to brave the cinema to see a film of that popularity in its opening week when that week is also half term then you’ve got another thing coming! This period is also affected by exams and the beginning of Script Frenzy.
Talking of exams, I had my film exam on May 30th, which should in theory have meant a glut of films from the course or related to the course just before that. Well, there’s Chinatown… and there would’ve been Only You but the sound wouldn’t play… on my Mac anyway… and how about Die Hard and Once Upon a Time in the West (seen them before)… or connected films such as The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, Easy Rider, The French Connection, The Godfather, Jurassic Park, Predator, Dirty Dancing, The Fifth Element, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Star Wars or Once Upon a Time in America? Well, I can tell you for nothing that I’ve seen some of them before. As for the others… you’ll just have to see… or not…
Actually, this section has wound up covering a longer period than I initially thought (though not as long as it nearly did). Mainly cos it turned out I didn’t (and haven’t) watched many films since those pesky exams finished. I’m not sure why, to be honest. Still, I’m slowly making my way past the halfway mark in numbers, and slowly heading towards the target in time.
This period covers the three weeks from May 21st to June 10th.
Weeks 15-18 May 8, 2007
Posted by badblokebob in : Editorials, progress reports, 2007 , add a commentAfter a glut of movies during the middle of the holiday things have slowed down a tad again. I say “a tad” — you can see how much by the sheer volume of weeks included in this entry and the relatively sparse number of films! (To be technical, the average-films-per-week in this entry is 1.75, compared to 2.72 overall and 6 (yes, 6!) last time.)
Nonetheless, things are progressing, and overall I’m still on track to make it well past the 100 mark. That’s from the overall average mind, not from the one for this period. From that I’ll make it to about 90. Maybe I should worry… except that summer movie season is on the way! Plenty of new films there. Plus all the ones I’ve recently missed out on DVD.
Well, that sure is shiny.
This week (these weeks?) I break my self-imposed rule about the length of reviews to witter on about Hidden for double the time. I also didn’t watch a single new film in week sixteen (Three Colours Red fell right at the end of week fifteen, Hidden a little way into week seventeen). And I’ve nearly hit the halfway point, a third of the way through the year. Oh my!
For anyone who may be trying to keep track, this period covers nearly all of April — from the 9th to the 30th, in fact — plus pretty much the first week of May (up to the 6th). That’s basically a month. Well well well…
Week 14 April 9, 2007
Posted by badblokebob in : Editorials, progress reports, 2007 , add a commentMy quest to watch 100 films I’ve never seen before by the end of 2007 continues toward the halfway point. However, this week I’ve hit an exact average of three films per week — if that were to continue I’d easily pass 150 films by the end of the year! It’s really beginning to seem that 100 is a rather easy mark to cross, while 150 would be more realistic… though only if I kept this rate up, and if I slipped I would fail. That’s never fun.
So, my indecisiveness shall continue. Probably until I actually reach 100 and decide if there’s enough time to see another 50 films. Oh well, they say gambling’s bad anyway.
As noted last week, week fourteen means we’re now over a quarter of the way through the year, and so on the path to the halfway point (which, by-the-way, would be about July 1st, which is the Sunday at the end of week twenty-six). I’m also still on holiday, so once again I’ve seen a fair few films this week, and six of them new to me. Here they are…
Weeks 12-13 (Statistics) April 2, 2007
Posted by badblokebob in : Editorials, progress reports, 2007, statistics , add a commentThe end of week 13 marks the exact quarter-way point of my filmic quest (in time terms anyway) and so it seems an appropriate point to reflect a little on my quest so far. So here are some numbers, all totalled up to the end of week thirteen:
I have seen a total of 36 films.
Of those, 1 was released in the 1910s, 2 in the 1920s, 1 in the 1940s, 2 in the 1950s, 4 in the 1980s, 3 in the 1990s, and 23 in the 2000s. That means there’s nothing from the 1930s, 1960s or 1970s.
I have seen 27 on DVD, 6 at the cinema, 2 on VHS, and just 1 on TV.
The only directors to turn up multiple times are John Glen (twice) and F.W. Murnau (twice). As it turns out, a fair few actors turn up at least twice, mainly thanks to films like Hot Fuzz, Boogie Nights and Crash. It was only Roger Moore who managed several appearances when I first started putting these stats together!
I have awarded 4 films 5/5, 17 films 4/5, 10 films 3/5, 4 films 2/5, and 1 film 1/5. This makes the average score 3.5/5. Either I see lots of pretty good films or I need to adjust my scoring downward slightly. For anyone interested, the five-star films were Hot Fuzz, United 93, Crash and Trainspotting, whilst the one-star was Flight 93.
My weekly average is now 2.8 per week, which means I’m on course to see about 145 films this year. Maybe I should adjust that aim…
Weeks 9-11 March 21, 2007
Posted by badblokebob in : Editorials, progress reports, 2007 , add a commentWeek 8 seems to have been a high point so far, in terms of film viewing. I mean, I saw six films that week! Compared to an average of just over two films per week at the start and barely two per week now. So much for weekly entries, eh. But I’m not doing too badly — not yet a quarter of the way through the year and I’ve passed the quarter point in my total. There is hope yet!
For anyone keeping track, this period covers February 26th to March 18th. I didn’t see many films in week nine (the first, and only, was on Friday!), or week ten (the first, and only new one, was on Wednesday!), so I decided to put these three together. And here is what I saw…
Week 8 March 3, 2007
Posted by badblokebob in : Editorials, progress reports, 2007 , add a commentMy quest: to watch 100 films that I have never seen before, by 31st December 2007!
Number of films per week required to achieve this: 1.93
Current average number of films seen per week: 2.63
More than on target. Excellent.
With that information relayed, on to the films that I watched between February 19th and February 25th 2007. They’re now firmly in chronological order.