I watched 47 movies in August, 38 of which were new to me. Thirty of those were made before I was born. There was no real theme this month, although I did periodically try to watch a new to me movie made in my lifetime and I watched those in chronological order.

I spent a week at my in-laws and so I mostly watched movies I knew they would enjoy, which means movies that I’ve seen before and loved, or films I knew wouldn’t offend anybody.

I watched a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film The Lodger. It starred Laird Cregar as the Jack the Ripper-esque killer and George Sanders as the inspector. It was pretty good.

I also watched two adaptations of Daniel Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon that did not star Humphrey Bogart. They were both pretty good too, but not nearly as good as the Bogart version.

I watched an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s incredible novel The Handmaid’s Tale that was recently adapted into a very good TV series (at least the first season is great, I haven’t seen the others). The movie is from 1990 and it is weird.

All in all a very good month.

My favorite films were Red River, The Warriors, Roadhouse (yes the one with Patrick Swayze – it’s terrifically fun 1980s cheese), and The Wonderful Country.

Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Allred entered my top five actors of the year list with six films both to their names. All of their films are from classic Doctor Who episodes. Apparently, I’ve been watching a lot of their era stories. Peter Foster punched his way into my director’s list with four films watched. All of those were from the Mr. Motto series with Peter Lorre.

Here’s the full list.

An Inspector Calls (1954)
Lady of Burlesque (1943)
The Warriors (1979)
The Man with Two Faces (1934)
Night Key (1937)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947
The Clouded Yellow (1950)
Maggie Moore(s) 2023
Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938)
The Third Secret (1964)
The Raven 1963
Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric (1989)
The Scorpion with Two Tails 1982
The Stuff (1985)
Satan Met a Lady (1936)
Whirlpool 1950
The Maltese Falcon (1931)
The Handmaid’s Tale 1990
Cobra Woman (1944)
Bitter Moon (1992)
The Breakfast Club 1985
Jungle Fever (1991)
Blue Steel 1990
Road House 1989
Slaxx (2020)
Grabbers (2012)
The Doll of Satan (1969)
The Lodger 1944
Strangers in the House 1942
A Study in Scarlet (1933)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The Birds (1963)
The Guns of Navarone 1961
Two Rode Together 1961
The Wonderful Country (1959)
The Lusty Men (1952)
Bigger Than Life (1956)
Born to Be Bad (1950)
Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Ocean’s Eleven (1960)
Appointment with Death (1988)
House of Usher (1960)
Doctor Who: Ghost Light (1989)
Popcorn (1989)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Red River (1948)
Jamaica Inn (1939)

I watched 26 films in the month of May. Twenty-one of those films were new to me. Thirteen of them were made before I was born.

I had originally intended the theme of this month to either be Pre-Code films or erotic thrillers. Neither of those became a reality. The theme this month became that there was no theme this month. And that’s ok.

My brother-in-law died early in May. Naturally, that threw everything out of whack. We spent a week in Nashville and I didn’t watch anything. In the weeks that have followed, I’ve remained a bit out of sorts. I’m still trying to get back into the groove of things here on the blog. As you’ve probably noticed I haven’t been writing any movie reviews, or anything else really. I will make a better effort in June.

I hate how callous that sounds. Of course, a death in the family has impacted my movie-watching and blog writing. These things are completely secondary to the well-being of my wife and mourning with her family. I’m not complaining about not being able to watch as many movies this month as I usually do. Not at all.

But this is a post about the movies I did watch and so I mentioned it as a way of explaining why I didn’t watch as many movies.

I did watch the new Scream movie. Actually, before I watched the new one I went back and rewatched the six movies that came before it. I had really planned on doing a whole write-up on them, maybe even doing one of those dumb Ranked posts you see all over the Internet. But I just couldn’t get it done.

The Scream franchise did do a number on my most-watched actors of the year list. Four of those actors (Courteny Cox, Roger Jackson, David Arquette, and Neve Campbell) are now in the top five. James Coburn is the only non-Scream actor on that list.

The Director’s List remains mostly the same except for Wes Craven taking a spot due to him directing several of the Scream films.

Here’s the complete list:

Spy Hunt (1950)
Appointment with a Shadow (1957)
One Way Street (1950)
Undercover Girl (1950)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Undertow (1949)
The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)
Fear in the Night (1972)
Outside the Wall (1950)
Hold Back Tomorrow (1955)
Doctor Who: Silver Nemesis (1988)
Sister, Sister (1987)
Bullet Train (2022)
Winchester ’73 (1950)
Eight Hours of Terror (1957)
The Babysitter (2017)
Psycho III (1986)
Safe in Hell (1931)
Scream VI (2023)
Scream (2022)
Scream 4 (2011)
Scream 3 (2000)
Scream 2 (1997)
Honor Among Lovers (1931)
Scream (1996)
The Comfort of Strangers (1990)

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)

I watched 40 movies in February. Seven of which I had seen previously. 19 of them were made before I was born. As it was Foreign Film February 13 of them were not made in the United States and were not in English.

Stats for the year to date include:

Number of movies watched: 90
Number of previously not watched by me: 74
Top Five Actors: Henry Silva (4 films), Giulio Baraghini (4 films), Vittorio Caprioli (3 films), Val Avery (3 films), and James Coburn (3 films).
Top Five Directors: Fernando Di Leo (5 films), Howard Hawks (3 films), Quentin Tarantino (3 films), Martin Scorsese (3 films), Sam Peckinpah (3 films).

My favorite films watched this month (that were new to me) were: She Dies Tomorrow, Possessor, I Was A Male War Bride, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Titane, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Pig, Nostalghia, and The Bicycle Thieves.

Here’s the full list:

Welcome to the Sticks (2008)
El Dorado (1966)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Brimstone (2016)
Black Rain (1989)
She Dies Tomorrow (2020)
The Night (2020)
Possessor (2020)
I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (1936)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
Roughshod (1949)
Five Shaolin Masters (1974)
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)
Capricorn One (1977)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Titane (2021)
Crimes of the Future (2022)
The Brasher Doubloon (1947)
One on Top of the Other (1969)
The Osterman Weekend (1983)
A Study in Scarlet (1933)
Dark Alibi (1946)
Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)
Cujo (1983)
Fist of Fury (1972)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)
Hellraiser (2022)
Tampopo (1985)
Pig (2021)
Nostalgia (1983)
Ride Lonesome (1959)
The Tall T (1957)
Biutiful (2010)
Micmacs (2009)
Run (2020)
C.H.U.D. (1984)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)