My Film Watching in 2024
My New Year’s Resolution for 2024 was to watch at least one film per calendar week for the entire week. Here are some statistics on how it went.
Headline
I watched 58 films in 2024. So on average I succeeded at my goal, but that wasn’t the stated goal. I watched at least one film in 44 of the 53 calendar weeks of 2024, a success rate of 83%. I started off pretty strong for most of the year but really fell apart in November and December. I don’t have a great reason for that, there were a few factors (OSRS Leagues V for example).
I watched the most films on a Friday or Saturday, and apparently I never watched any films on a Monday (plus only one on a Wednesday). This distribution surprised me a little, I would have though it was a more even spread on weekdays.
As for my ratings, the distribution came out roughly as I’d expect. There’s a strong bias towards films being a “pretty good” 4 stars as I’m the one picking films I want to watch. Outliers from that fill up 3 and 5 stars, and then an occaisional unexpected stinker + bad movie nigh films fill out 1 and 2 stars.
Hall of Fame and Shame
Here’s a rough list of the 5 best films I watched. This is mostly the ones I gave 5 stars that have stuck with me the most:
- Dune 2 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- The Menu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Full Metal Jacket ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Hell or High Water ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And here are the 5 worst stinkers:
- Immortals ⭐
- X-Men Origins Wolverine ⭐⭐
- Aladdin and the King of Thieves ⭐⭐
- Dude, Where’s My Car? ⭐⭐
- Next ⭐⭐
Movie Venues
Here’s a quick summary of some of the ways I watched movies that weren’t just sitting at home:
Cinema
Not a big cinema year for me, only caught 4 things in the Cinema:
- Wonka ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Argylle ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Dune 2 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A couple of mediocre entries but also 2 of the best.
Bad Movies Night
I caught 4 bad movie nights this year. Surprisingly good movies on average, not just bad ones this year (although this does cover most of the bad ones…)
- Next ⭐⭐
- Source Code ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Super Mario Bros. ⭐⭐
- Immortals ⭐
- Robin Hood: Men in Tights ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Spaceballs ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Weirld: The Al Yankovic Story ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- First Strike ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Film Club
Part way through the year we started doing Film Club. Here are the films and ratings for that:
- The Shining ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- About Time ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- LA Confidential ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Die Hard 2 ⭐⭐⭐
Conclusion
This was a fun Resolution, and it did what I wanted: I watched more films this year than last year.
Actually in 2023 I managed to watch 50 which is more than I remembered, although the distribution of those was a lot more “clumpy” throughout the year since apparently in 2023 I had several film series binge watch sessions (Twilight, Star Wars Prequels, John Wick) and also went to more Bad Move Night sessions. So this year I watched more “good films”/watched more “unironically”.
Need to figure out what silly challenge(s) for Resolutions I’m doing this year quite quickly, but they definitely won’t be a repeat of last year…