I watched 43 movies in the month of June. 35 of them had never been seen by me before. 20 of them were made before I was born. Eight of them were made in the last two years, which is an unusually high number for me.

There was no theme this month which is nice sometimes. I just watched what I wanted to watch. Although it did mean I hardly did any reviewing this month as I really need that theme to push me into it.

As we are six months into the year I’ll talk a little bit about how my year is going. I’ve watched 238 movies this year. That’s an average of 34 per month or 9.1 per week. Unsurprisingly, I watch most of my movies on the weekend.

Drama is my most watched genre with 97 films watched in that category. This is followed by Thriller (97 films), Crime (71 films), Horror (60 films), and Mystery (57 films).

English is my most watched language with 202 films being in that language. This is followed by Italian (11), Japanese (10), French (5), and Silent Films (3).

187 of the films I’ve watched were new to me, leaving 51 of them as rewatches. I try to keep my new watch-to-rewatch ratio at 75% and I’m at 78.6%.

As you can see the actors field has stayed more or less the same. The Doctor Who cast bumped up one (save for Carole Ann Ford who left the series at this point) and Barbara Stanwyck made the list with four films watched.

Terence Fisher joined the directorial ranks with two films (two Hammer Horrors) and Lucio Fulci jumped in as well with two.

Several months ago I posted one of these things to my Facebook account and a friend of mine noted how these fields are full of white dudes, with hardly a female or person of color to be found.

That hit hard as I know it to be true. There are excuses I could make like how Hollywood is run by white dudes. But I have been making an effort to watch films directed by women and people of color and to seek out actors in that same way. But I’m afraid my top draws continue to be white dudes.

Some favorite new watches from the last six months include The Great Train Robbery (1903), Battleship Potemkin (1925), Love Lies Bleeding (2024), Edge of the City (1957), and Sherlock, Jr (1924).

Anyway, here’s the June list.

Cemetery Man (1994) ****
Scotland, PA (2001) ****
Beware, My Lovely (1952) ***1/2
No Man of Her Own (1950) ***
Dark City (1950) ***1/2
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) ***1/2
Dream Demon (1988) ***1/2
Macbeth (1948) ****
Act of Violence (1948) ****
Top Gun: Maverick (2022) ****
Barbary Coast (1935) ***
Klute (1971) ****
Risky Business (1983) ***1/2
Top Gun (1986) ***
The Devil Rides Out (1968) ****
Demonia (1990) **
The First Omen (2024) ***
Doctor Who: The Rescue (1965) ***1/2
Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) ***1/2
Godzilla Minus One (2023) ****
The Deep (1977) **1/2
Drive (2011) ****
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) ***
The Fall Guy (2024) ****
No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948) ***
Love Lies Bleeding (2024) ****1/2
Late Night with the Devil (2023) ***1/2
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) ***
Candyman (1992) ***
Edge of the City (1957) ****1/2
Saigon (1947) **1/2
Corridors of Blood (1958) ***1/2
Comrade X (1940) ****
Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023) ***1/2
The Burglars (1971) ***1/2
Flatliners (1990) **1/2
Wicked Little Letters (2023) ***1/2
The Good Die Young (1954) ***1/2
Sylvia Scarlett (1935) ***
Night Terrors (1993) **
Immaculate (2024) ***1/2
The Wrath of Becky (2023) **
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) ***

I watched 36 films in May of 2024. 29 of them were new to me. 21 of them were made before I was born. The theme of the month was murder mysteries and I watched 24 of them. I did a pretty good job of reviewing them, but I got behind and then the storm came so some I wanted to talk about got missed. But overall I feel like this theme was a huge success.

I watched 195 films in 2024.

The director’s field is still wide open. I still don’t know why I haven’t been paying much attention to directors this year. I usually do.

The actors look mostly the same from last month. Except a bunch of Doctor Who actors are showing up. We’ve been slowly watching the classic series from the very beginning.

I think I’ve decided to not have a theme for June. I’ll just watch whatever I feel like watching and go down whatever rabbit hole suits me. Here’s the complete list.

The Cat Returns (2002) ****
The 39 Steps (1935) ****
Talk Radio (1988) **1/2
Friendly Persuasion (1956) ***1/2
The Heiress (1949) ****
Ordeal by Innocence (1984) ***1/2
The 4th Floor (1999) ***
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) *****
Algiers (1938) **1/2
Lake Placid (1999) ***
The Girl from Rio (1969) ***
The Late Show (1977) ****
Nazi Agent (1942) ****
Doctor Who: Planet of Giants (1964) ***1/2
Time to Kill (1942) ***
La Jetée (1962) ****
Agatha and the Truth of Murder (2018) ***1/2
Arabella: Black Angel (1989) **
Knife of Ice (1972) ***
The Terminal Man (1974) **
Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) ***
Blood Simple (1984) ****1/2
In the Deep Woods (1992) **
Doctor Who: The Sensorites (1964) **
Murder Most Foul (1964) ***1/2
Guilty of Romance (2011) ***1/2
The Alphabet Murders (1965) ***
Devil’s Doorway (1950) ***
P.J. (1968) ****
Cover Up (1949) ***1/2
Star Wars (1977) ****1/2
The Glass Key (1935) ***
Marlowe (1969) ***1/2
The Falcon Takes Over (1942) ***1/2
The Kennel Murder Case (1933) **1/2
Malignant (2021) *

I watched 38 movies in April 2024. 30 of them were new to me. 11 of them were made before I was born. It was the Awesome ’80s in April and I watched 21 movies from that decade.

It was a fairly typical month for me. I’d watch a movie or two during the week and then watch several over the weekend. One day I’ll get a life and I’ll only watch 25 movies in a month!

I do love watching movies from the 1980s, especially ones that I’ve not heard of before, or that I’ve never seen because I was too young to be interested in them before. I got to watch films like Breathless, The Killer, and 8 Million Ways To Die – films I probably would have landed on sooner or later, but this month spurned me to watch them sooner and I’m happy about that.

As much as I do enjoy movies from the 1980s it amuses me to look at this month’s list and notice that I alternate the 1980s with films from the 1930s and 1940s.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that my family and I watch Doctor Who on Friday nights. As my daughter gets older that is happening less and less. She often sleeps over at a friend’s or has her friends over at our house, or we all just get busy and don’t get to The Doctor. To make up for this my wife and I have been watching movies based on Agatha Christie stories. This month we watched several starring Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot and that’s been a lot of fun.

Clark Gable remains my top-watched actor this year with seven movies seen by me. But following close behind are Lee Van Cleef and Humphrey Bogart each with six films watched. All of those Poirot films bumped Peter Ustinov up to third place with four films watched.

And here’s the complete list:

Murder by Decree (1979) – ***1/2
Murder in Three Acts (1986) – ***1/2
Hard Boiled (1992) – ****
Dark Journey (1937) – ***1/2
Dancing Lady (1933) ****
Hospital Massacre (1981) – ***1/2
The Ninth Configuration (1980) – *
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) – ****
Starman (1984) – ***
High Noon (1952) – ****
Now, Voyager (1942) – ****1/2
The Witches of Eastwick (1987) – ***1/2
Three on a Match (1932) – **1/2
Sahara (1943) – ****
The Big Shot (1942) – ***
Death on the Nile (1978) – ***1/2
Child’s Play (1988) – ***
The Bounty (1984) – ***1/2
Working Girls (1986) – ****
The Killer (1989) – ****
A Perfect World (1993) – ****
Doctor Who: The Aztecs (1964) – **
Sherlock, Jr. (1924) – ****1/2
Destry Rides Again (1939) – ****1/2
Conquest (1983)- ***1/2
Dead Man’s Folly (1986) – ***
8 Million Ways to Die (1986) – ****
The Entity (1982) – ***
Another Fine Mess (1930) – ***
The Octagon (1980) – *
The Star Chamber (1983) – ***1/2
Breathless (1983) – ****
Streets of Fire (1984) – ****
Into the Night (1985) – ***1/2
Nighthawks (1981) – ***1/2
From Beyond (1986) – ***1/2
Maximum Overdrive (1986) – *
They Drive by Night (1940) – ****

I watched 46 movies in January. 36 of them were new to me. 24 of them were made before I was born. 12 movies fit my theme of the month, Frozen In January.

As I mentioned in other posts I got Covid early in the month which pretty much killed that theme. From then on I mostly just watched whatever suited me at the moment, which mostly meant a lot of old movies, and quite a bit of comfort viewings.

One of the things I enjoy about starting the new year is that all of my stats reset. I get to start fresh. I get to think about the types of genres I want to watch, about the directors and stars I want to seek out. Later in the year, those things will start to solidify, but in January it’s all new. This month my top three genres were drama (25 films), thriller (20 films), and of course horror (14 films). 

Clark Gable is my top star with an astonishing six films of his watched this month. That was almost by accident. I watched a couple of his films randomly early on and then caught a third. I liked that one quite a bit (A Man of Her Own) and then realized it was my third Gable film of the month and that I was really starting to like him as an actor (I’ve only seen 13 of his films in total so this month doubled my viewings) and decided to catch a few more. 

Surprisingly the only director I watched more than one movie from was Umberto Lenzi, an Italian specializing in genre films – he helped Gang War in Milan and Nightmare City.

Overall it was a pretty good month. February is Foreign Film Month so look forward to me talking about subtitles.

He Walked by Night (1948) – ***1/2
Red Sparrow (2018) – ***1/2
Gang War in Milan (1973) – ***
China Seas (1935) – ***1/2
Mogambo (1953) – ***
Red Dust (1932) – ****
The Furies (1950) – ****1/2
Them! (1954) – ****
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) – ****
Nightmare City (1980) – ***1/2
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972) – ***
No Man of Her Own (1932) – ***1/2
Man in the Shadow (1957) – ***1/2
Iron Man (1951) – ***
The Favourite (2018) – ****
Chicago Deadline (1949) – ***1/2
The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942) – ***
Intimidation (1960) – ****
Till Death (2021) – **
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) – ****
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes (1948) – ***
Sleepwalkers (1992) – ***
Airport ’77 (1977) – ***
Somebody I Used to Know (2023) – *1/2
The Swimmer (1968) – ****
The Living Dead Girl (1982) – ***1/2
The Shining (1980) – ****1/2
Wind Chill (2007) – **
Night Nurse (1931) – ***1/2
Rancho Notorious (1952) – ***1/2
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) – ****1/2
The Cat Creeps (1946) – ***
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) – ****
The Lady Vanishes (2013) – ***1/2
The Martian (2015) – ****1/2
The Lodge (2019) – ***
The Thing (1982) – *****
Insomnia (2002) – ****
The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015) – ***1/2
Phantoms (1998) – **
The Revenant (2015) – ****
A Bullet for Sandoval (1969) – ***
Death Hunt (1981) – *
Whiteout (2009) – *1/2
Jeremiah Johnson (1972) – ****
Miller’s Crossing (1990) – *****

I watched 45 movies in November. 36 of them were new to me. 32 were made before I was born. It was Noirvember and I watched 22 film noirs. That’s pretty good considering I spent the first week or so of the month watching and reviewing a bunch of movies for Cinema Sentries including two large Shaw Brothers martial arts films.

Those Shaw Brothers films had a huge impact on my most watched actors and directors lists.

For the actors, Ku Feng now leads the pack with 11 films of his being watched. He’s followed by Sammy Hunt, Cheng Pei-Pei, Vincent Price, and Boris Karloff with eight films each.

Sam Peckinpah still leads the directors list with six films. Chang Chey enters the list with five films and Ho Meng-Hua and Lo Wei both come in this month with four films each. Martin Scorsese, William Nigh, and Fernando Di Leo are still tied for second place with five films each.

Next month isn’t going to have a theme, but I am going to try and catch up on all the films that came out this year and that I missed.

Obviously, I tend to watch old movies. That wasn’t always the case. I used to go to the theater just about every weekend and I would watch everything that looked interesting to me (and plenty that didn’t). I’ve mostly lived in smallish towns and cities so I’ve never been able to see smaller, independent films or the type that often wind up on critics’ best-of lists.

These days I rarely make it to the cinema, and I don’t really keep up all that well with new films. I still watch the Oscars every year, because I like the ceremony, but it is rare anymore that I’ve seen more than a couple of nominated films.

So, I’d like to spend December making an effort to see some of the best films that came out this year. I’ll probably review a few of them, but mostly I’ll just try and enjoy.

My favorite new watches this month included Brighton Rock, Man on the Run, The Devil’s Mirror, and Night and the City.

Carrie (1976) – ****
Johnny O’Clock (1947) – ****
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) – ****
Touch of Evil (1958) – *****
Doctor Who: The Daleks (1964) – ****
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) – ****
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) – ***
Brighton Rock (1948) – ****1/2
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) – *****
Man on the Run (1949) – ****1/2
The Killer is Loose (1956) – ****
Private Hell 36 (1954) – ***
I, the Jury (1982) – ***1/2
I, the Jury (1953) – ***1/2
Road House (1948) – ****
The Shanghai Gesture (1941) – **1/2
The Racket (1951) – ***1/2
Blackhat (2015) – **1/2
The Frightened City (1961) – ****
Cast a Dark Shadow (1955) – ****
Deep Red (1975) – ****1/2
Backdraft (1991) – **1/2
Carlito’s Way (1993) – ****
Beware, My Lovely (1952) – ***1/2
Human Desire (1954) – ****
The Killer (2023) – ****
The Tattered Dress (1957) – ***
The Girl in the Kremlin (1957) – ***1/2
Pitfall (1948) – ***1/2
A Haunting in Venice (2023) – ***1/2
Man Afraid (1957) – ***
The Dragon Missile (1976) – ***
Gator (1976) – ***
White Lightning (1973) – ***1/2
The Water Margin (1972) – **
The Devil’s Mirror (1972) – ****1/2
Force of Evil (1948) – ****
The Shadow Whip (1971) – ***1/2
The Crimson Charm (1971) – ***1/2
Black Angel (1946) – ***1/2
The First Power (1990) – ***
Brothers Five (1970) – ****
Night and the City (1950) – ****1/2
Lady of Steel (1970) – ****
The Flying Guillotine (1975) – ***1/2

I watched 44 movies in the month of October. Thirty-four of them could be considered horror movies. Twenty-three of them were made before I was born. Only five of them had been previously viewed by me.

Obviously, this was spooky season for me. I do love a good horror movie. I even love a bad horror movie once in a while. Although, ever October I start out watching horror with a fevered passion by by the end of the month, by the time actual Halloween rolls around, I’m kind of tired of them. I’m always ready for Noirvember when it comes.

As you can see from the links I reviewed quite a few of the films I watched. I’m pretty proud of that. Although, as you can tell, I got worse at that as the month wore on. I received a couple of big boxed sets of Shaw Brothers kung fu films a week ago and I’ve been plowing my way through them. Expect a review over at Cinema Sentries soon.

Surprisingly, my wife who doesn’t like horror movies watched a lot of them with me this year. I intentionally watched a lot of Pre-Code horror and Hammer horror just for her.

Unusual for me I watched three films that actually came out in 2023. Two were silly streaming horror films but I did manage to catch Killers of the Flower Moon in the Theater. Of course I did, I’ve been looking forward to seeing that film for a few years now. It is excellent by the way.

Vincent Price jumped all the way to number one on my actors most watched this year list. I’ve watched eight of his films this year. That makes sense as he’s in a lot of horror movies. Brad Dourif also moved into the second-place spot. He’s one of my favorites, and he played in both the Rob Zombie Halloween movies which gave him the bump.

The director’s list stayed the same except for Chang Cheh, who entered the list tied for third with four films watched. He directed a lot of those Shaw Brothers films I was talking about.

Anyways, here’s the list

Halloween II (2009)
Dragon Swamp (1969)
Halloween (2007)
The Flying Dagger (1969)
The Jade Raksha (1968)
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)
The Thundering Sword (1967)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Golden Swallow (1968)
The Assassin (1967)
Saw (2004)
Constantine (2005)
Coogan’s Bluff (1968)
Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child (1963)
The Hitcher (1986)
Theatre of Blood (1973)
The Mummy’s Shroud (1967)
House of Wax (1953)
Lorna, the Exorcist (1974)
Waxwork (1988)
The Iron-Fisted Monk (1977)
Haunted Mansion (2023)
Count Dracula (1970)
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Castle of Blood (1964)
Nothing Underneath (1985)
Murders in the Zoo (1933)
Murder-Rock: Dancing Death (1984)
Marebito (2004)
Retribution (2006)
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
Black Christmas (2006)
Thirteen Women (1932)
The Final Girls (2015)
The Invasion (2007)
Totally Killer (2023)
Body Snatchers (1993)
The Night Stalker (1972)
Talk to Me (2022)
Doctor X (1932)
Secret of the Blue Room (1933)