I watched 41 movies in January. 34 of them were new to me. 18 of them were made before I was born. I completely failed at my new theme – New Year, New You. I watched a few films that could be categorized as that, but I only wrote about three of them. I really am going to have to just stick to genres or decades for my themes.
It is always exciting to me to come into a new year with my movie journals. Every January I reset everything. I start fresh with my most-watched actor and director lists. It feels like I can just watch whatever I want.
I always enjoy watching those lists slowly solidify as the months roll on.
For my most-watched actors category, James Stewart has taken the lead. I got a four-film boxed set of his films to review this past month, putting him in first place. Paul Walter Hauser is a guy I’d never heard of until a few months ago when I watched him in a TV series called Blackbird. Now I keep finding him in all sorts of things.
I’ve apparently not watched any director for more than a single film, so that list doesn’t even exist yet.
Favorite new to me films I watched in January include Send Help, The Shop Around the Corner, The Vast of Night, Sleeping Car to Trieste, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and Barry Lyndon.
Here’s the ful list.
The Naked Spur (1953) ****1/2
Fackham Hall (2025) ****
Send Help (2026) ****
How the West Was Won (1962) ***1/2
The Mortal Storm (1940) ****
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) ****
Black Phone 2 (2025) ***
Manpower (1941) ***
The Verdict (1946) ***1/2
Relay (2024) ***1/2
The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025) ***
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) ****1/2 Catherine Called Birdy (2022) ***1/2
The Vast of Night (2019) ****
Operation Amsterdam (1959) ***
Death Is a Caress (1949) ***
Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948) ****
The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949) ****
Wrong Turn (2003) *
Good Boy (2025) ***
Death on the Nile (1978) ****
Americana (2023) ***
Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks (1966) ***1/2
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) ****
Deadline at Dawn (1946) ***
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) ****
The Sign of Four (1983) ***
Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973) ***1/2
Blood for Dust (2023) ***1/2
Murder on the Blackpool Express (2017) **1/2
Barry Lyndon (1975) ****1/2
Illustrious Corpses (1976) ****
Evil Under the Sun (1982) ****
What’s Up, Doc? (1972) ****
Cronos (1992) ****
Girl with Hyacinths (1950) ****1/2
The Naked Gun (2025) ***1/2
Boogie Nights (1997) ****
Lost in America (1985) ****
Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) ***1/2
Catch Me If You Can (2002) ****
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