I watched 40 movies in April. Thirty-Five of them were new to me. Only four of them were made before I was born. That’s because my theme for this month was the Awesome ’80s in April. I watched 31 movies from that decade and reviewed most of them.
That’s really good for me. It turns out that watching movies from one particular decade (especially a popular one) is rather easy. I mostly didn’t get bored either (as I often do when I’ve chosen a genre for the month’s theme) because the 1980s hold all kinds of different movies. I watched action films, and horror films, comedies, thrillers, and dramas.
I will say here towards the end I got a little tired of it. I missed watching classic movies, and modern ones too. The month didn’t turn out quite as I expected. I really thought I’d wind up watching a bunch of movies from Spielberg or starring Schwarzenneger and the like. I thought I’d watch more of the big blockbusters that I grew up watching as a kid.
But I wasn’t really in the mood for those. Or rather what I really wanted to watch were films from the 1980s that I’d never seen before. And that’s mostly what I did. They weren’t all great, but I’m really glad I got to fill in some gaps.
I haven’t quite decided yet what my theme for May is going to be. I was originally going to go with Erotic Thrillers but that would keep me in the 1980s and 1990s and I suspect I’ll really get to itching for some classic movies if I go with a relatively modern set of films again. Right now I’m thinking about Pre-Code movies (films made from about 1927 to 1934) but I also suspect I’ll get a little bored with those after a bit.
Maybe I’ll split the month up and do both.
Stats for 2023:
Number of Movies Watched: 171
Number of New To Me Watched: 143
Star of the Year: James Coburn, 6 films watched
Director of the Year: Sam Peckinpah, 6 films watched.
Here’s the complete list.
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
Color of Night (1994)
The Sunday Woman (1975)
Hôtel du Nord (1938)
Bound (1996)
A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987)
Tag (2018)
The Suspect (1944)
The Big Red One (1980)
The King of Comedy (1982)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Life is Cheap… But Toilet Paper is Expensive (1989)
Tightrope (1984)
Stage Fright (1987)
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Street Smart (1987)
The Final Countdown (1980)
Night Game (1989)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Pale Rider (1985)
Yes, Madam! (1985)
The Bedroom Window (1987)
Call Me (1988)
Silver Bullet (1985)
Evils of the Night (1985)
Dune (1984)
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Purple Rain (1984)
Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987)
2010 (1984)
Chopping Mall (1986)
Monkey Shines (1988)
The Presidio (1988)
Flash Gordon (1980)
Mad Max 2 (1981)
The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Dead Calm (1989)
Tales from Earthsea (2006)
Firestarter (1984)
themidnightcafe.org 
Nice! I am not really a movie fan which is why I’m not a commenter on most of these posts – but if you’ve never done it before Mat, I’d LOVE an occasional series on your Top 10 movies ever.
Just a list would be fun, but more so, could be fun if you did a write-up on each and counted down from #10 to #1 in individual posts.
Look at me, creating even more work for you, lol! Just an idea of course. (As Michael Keaton says in “Night Shift,” “I’m an idea man…”)
And yes I know how hard it is to narrow it down to 10, and I can imagine it’s easier to do by genre, etc. But all of us can think of our 10 fave of anything if forced, lol!!!
I keep thinking of doing something like this. I love lists and I used to do a thing where I wrote about my Top 5…whatever. The internet loves lists of the best and worst things so that seems like a fun thing to do.
I don’t know how I’d ever come up with my Top 10 Movies of all time, but it would be fun to try. But I could also do Top 10 Nicolas Cage movies, or favorite horror movies in which someone gets poked in the eye…
So thanks for encouraging me in this direction.
Ha ha! I’ve found it to be a useful exercise to ask anyone who’s gone in fully in any category to name their favorites in it. It always gives me a lot of food for thought, because it’s coming from a highly curated place.