And It Goes Like This...



I like reading movie blogs.

Having read and enjoyed many of them, I thought it was my turn to contribute rather than just snortingly disagree in front of my screen. Yes, I am a list fiend (mainly because that's how I discover movies I have missed out on) and yes, I am opinionated and proudly contrary as often as possible (without being blatantly stupid). I hope I provide as many "he-chose-that?!?" moments, as have been given to me over the years by other critics & aficionados.

Here's what's missing from my blog:
  • no foreign-language films (even if they have been dubbed)
  • no animated features
  • no documentaries
  • no pre-1930 films
  • no made-for-tv movies

Why? I'm trying for something resembling completism here. Throwing in all of those categories / genres would just overwhelm me, and I'm having a hard enough time now tracking down obscurities. So, yes, the content is mainly from the USA, some from Britain, and a sprinkling of Australian, Canadian and South African films. I am not xenophobic; I'm just running out of time (old age has kicked in, you see).

So, as whole years are tackled and become watched-out, I will add them to the page list: as simple as that. My ultimate aim, of course, is to finish this blog before I shrug off this mortal coil. Hey, everybody needs a purpose in life, right? Sure beats borrowing novels from the library and underlining the sexy bits.

Hope you enjoy the info, the opinions and the obvious love I have for movies.



HOW THE GRADES WORK



A+
MASTERWORK







A
EXCELLENT





A-
VERY GOOD





B+
GOOD





B
NICE TRY





B-
TOLERABLE





C
FAIRLY AWFUL






D
REALLY AWFUL






E
LOOKING INTO THE VOID






F
THE VOID






MOVIES I STILL NEED TO SEE

In each year, I have included a collection of films which I haven't yet viewed. My aim for this blog is to be as close to comprehensive as possible: I don't want any worthy contenders to slip through the cracks. As I read other blogs, movie guide books and assorted reviews, any movie which is named by SOMEBODY as being notable in some way, I subsequently add to the yearly collections. I want to see EVERYTHING which is apparently good. This also supplies me with a handy shopping / hunting list as I track down obscurities.


THE ALTERNATE OSCARS (& RAZZIES)

About 20 years ago I was laid up with pneumonia for about a month. Bored shitless, I turned to Danny Peary's terrific book Alternate Oscars for inspiration. Sure enough, it put me on the road to correcting all of the Academy's questionable selections, some of which are blatantly perverse (Ann-Margret for Tommy??)

Using the Olympics' medal structure of Gold / Silver / Bronze, and adding extra Acting categories for ensembles and child actors, I have been refining my choices for years (and you may notice that no year is finished...I change my mind and make alterations regularly). I have tried to avoid just including the usual suspects (these are supposedly ALTERNATE awards after all), but sometimes, the universally-heralded winners fully deserve the accolade.

I have to-ed and fro-ed over not allowing any single actor or director multiple wins, and finally decided that everyone having a turn is unworkable. Consequently, each win is genuinely what I believe to be the BEST of that year in its individual category, regardless of many previous wins that person may have chalked up. (Angela Lansbury...I am still waiting for your "Thank You" letter.)

Regarding my selections for Alternate Razzies...I do not go out of my way to see ALL movies from a given year. I give priority to those films which SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE has praised. Consequently, those movies which are universally panned or make the Worst-of-All-Time lists I tend to avoid (hey...I am not going to go out of my way to track down and watch Howard the Duck, Robot Monster or Battlefield Earth. Life is just too short.) This means that my Alternate Razzies are awarded to those films & performances which someone else thought were good and I jaw-droppingly disagree with. Major disappointments, in other words. 

Release dates for movies is always a contentious issue; I just go with whatever the earliest date is listed in the Internet Movie Database (which is almost always the same on the movie's Wikipedia page anyway). This has meant that some films' usually-regarded years of release have been altered (almost always earlier).

In the end, my criteria is...am I still having fun? While the answer stays in the affirmative, I'll keep tweaking away.