The Movie Journal: 2025

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I watched 25 films in December. 18 of them were new to me. 8 of them were made before I was born. There wasn’t so much a theme this month as I tried to watch some movies from 2025 in order to make a best-of list. I watched 8 films from that year, though three of them I had previously seen before. Due to the holidays, it was a bit of a slow month for me. We were gone for several days visiting my wife’s family, and then my sister came to town from South Korea, so I didn’t have as much time to sit around watching movies.

Since 2025 is now over, I can do a full year-end review. I watched 461 movies this year. That’s down a bit from 2024, when I watched 471 movies. It calculates out to 38.4 movies per month, or 8.8 per week. 326 of the films I watched this year were new to me, and 135 were rewatches which puts my percentage of new films watched compared to rewatches at 70.7%, which is a bit under my goal of 75%. I mostly blame that on the fact that a lot of the review material I got this year was films I’d previously seen.

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The most watched actors category stays pretty much the same as last month. I think Josh Brolin jumped into a tie for third place with six films watched (I watched three films with him in it in December). It is fun to look at this list and realize why some of these actors are in my top watched. There is Colin Baker, who starred as Doctor Who, and I watched a bunch of those. Robert Englund is there because I watched and reviewed all the Nightmare on Elm Street films. And then Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing exist because I love Hammer Horror films.

It is also fun to look at previous year-end lists and see similar names. There always seems to be a Doctor Who star and Hammer Horror folks. Humphrey Bogart has been a staple since I’ve been doing this list.

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My most watched directors also remain mostly the same from last month. Renny Harlin is new, and I’ll be honest, I had to look him up. Unlike the actors list, my most watched directors tend to change from year to year. For the last few years I’ve not spent a lot of time watching certain directors. I used to do that a lot, but now I seem to dig into lots of different films from lots of different directors. I don’t know why.

So yea, it was a good year all around. I suspect my trend of watching less film will continue into 2026. I’ve got some ideas on what I want to do with this blog which will involve more writing and less watching. I’ll have more on that later. But who knows what will actually happen?

Letterboxd, has a fun little year end wrap up for me.

And finally, here’s the list of films I watched in December.

Twentieth Century (1934) ***1/2
The Princess Bride (1987) *****
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) ***1/2
One Battle After Another (2025) ****1/2
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) ****
The Running Man (2025) ****
Young, Violent, Dangerous (1976) ***1/2
Inside Out 2 (2024) ****
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) ***1/2
Blood Rites: Inside Scars of Dracula (2019) ***1/2
Scars of Dracula (1970) ***1/2
Doctor Who: The War Machines (1966) ***
Weapons (2025) ****
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025) ***1/2
Roofman (2025) ***1/2
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) ****
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) *1/2
I Know Where I’m Going! (1945) ****
Ninja III: The Domination (1984) ***1/2
Doctor Who: The Gunfighters (1966) ***
Sinners (2025) ****1/2
Revenge of the Ninja (1983) ***1/2
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2025) **
Enter the Ninja (1981) **
Train Dreams (2025) ****1/2

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