The Films That I Saw: October 2014

2015 is two months away and already, I’m getting started on planning on what to do for the new year as well as starting the Most Anticipated Films list. It will be an important year as it would mark the 15th anniversary of my writing career that started on July 5, 2000 for a now-defunct website that was run by Lycos and then became part of Shopping.com which I was a part of for 10 years. I was just writing about music and a few other things which then lead to film. Yet, I’m more concerned with looking ahead as I’m still working on finalizing a few things such as my Blind Spot Series for 2015 as well as the Auteurs series for 2015 where I will reach #50 by late next year.

While I’m already planning ahead for the new year, there’s one aspect of my life that has been a part of me for more than 20 years that is starting to come to an end. That is with World Wrestling Entertainment. I haven’t watched Monday Night RAW for nearly 12 weeks and it’s likely to continue as reading the post-show reports has me feeling very disillusioned with the product. It’s bad enough to see John Cena win over and over again. Yet, it’s these segments devoted to bickering twin sisters who can’t act worth a shit, two midgets in a gator and bull suit wrestling, Hulk Hogan being a cocksucker, Kathy Lee Gifford in a segment where she’s breaking champagne bottles with her ass to support breast cancer research for some bullshit charity, and dickwads like Michael Cole and John Bradshaw Layfield acting like a bunch of fucking idiots with their inane commentary as they make everything look and sound fucking stupid.

While I have found an alternative in Ring of Honor TV despite its production values, it’s not enough to really get me excited. I’m nearly to the point of giving it all up completely. I’ll still watch the older stuff but it’s kind of pathetic since I know that all of the things during the Monday Night Wars of the late 1990s and all of the wrestling that was around before my time will never happen again. I think it is a very bad time to be a pro wrestling fan as one major company in the U.S. has watered itself down with the same old shit while another company that was unable to compete with the WWE is in limbo. These frustrations I’m having is now having me close another blog that I have for good which sucks as I had a good thing with it and it just ended with a whimper.

In the month of October, I saw a total of 42 films in 32 first-timers and 10 re-watches. Surprising as some of it were some short films relating to a few things for my Auteurs piece on Terry Gilliam as well as the fact that there weren’t a lot of re-watches this month. One of the highlights of the month is my Blind Spot assignment in El Topo as here are the Top 10 First-Timers that I saw for October 2014:

1. Possession

2. Gone Girl

3. Jodorowsky's Dune

4. Strangers on a Train

5. The Holy Mountain

6. Sorcerer

7. Prince of Darkness

8. Marnie

9. The Fog

10. Only Lovers Left Alive

Monthly Mini-Review

The Hangover Pt. III

I’m not a fan of The Hangover nor its sequel as I often felt that it’s one of the most overrated comedies ever made. This film however, is a whole lot worse than that. It’s one thing to have the film center around its most annoying character in Chow but to also have it be about Alan whose man-child persona was already getting old just makes it worse. There are no redeeming qualities in the film nor is it funny as it’s a franchise that just needed to die while Ken Jeong is now in my death list for butchering Hurt along with the following who had also ruined NIN songs: Maroon 5, Linkin Park, and Sheryl Crow.

Top 10 Re-Watches:

1. Alien

2. Ed Wood

3. The Devil's Backbone

4. White Men Can’t Jump

5. Girl, Interrupted

6. Lethal Weapon 2

7. The Emperor’s Club

8. The Long Kiss Goodnight

9. Tora! Tora! Tora!

10. Tank Girl

Well, that is it for October as I hope everyone has a good Halloween. In November, I will be working on my plans for 2015 as well as unveil the final list for next year’s Blind Spot series. Aside from Auteurs related-reviews on Steven Soderbegh and Francois Truffaut where the former will be the profile for November. There will be reviews of new films like Birdman, Interstellar, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1 as well as films by David Cronenberg, Bong Joon-Ho, Jeff Nichols, and other filmmakers. Some of which will relate to possible names for next year’s Auteurs series. There will also be a special 30th birthday celebration to two of cinema’s best actresses working today where one of them will have that tribute in the form of a list. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off…

© thevoid99 2014