When I was in high school, I pretty much saw every film that ever came out. Now while you might think that points to me being a reclusive shut-in (or shut-out, because I guess I was at least sitting in a movie theatre and not my own home), but I have an excuse. See, I was a teen movie critic, which is as oxymoronic a phrase as has ever existed. I wrote for the Kansas City Star‘s now-defunct TeenStar section, which was a great weekly outlet for teen writer’s in the KC metro area to have their work seen by thousands and thousands of readers. While most of the staff focused on actual journalistic pieces, my interests were a bit more shallow…BUT, by focusing on movie reviews over everything else, I managed to get into the paper almost every week. Thanks, Hollywood!
Because of that job, I got passes to screenings, and there was a time during my junior and senior years when I was at a screening almost every night of the week. (I won’t even mention the wonderful street cred of getting a pass to leave school and go see the Lord of the Rings a month before it was released.) (Ed. Note: I decided to mention it.)
Then I went to college, and started seeing fewer films. Don’t get me wrong, I was still seeing a ton by any normal human standards, but I noticed the number dwindling year by year…and since moving to Chicago, that number has reached some dramatic new lows. I’m also a list freak, and so one of my year-end projects tends to be reviewing the list of releases every year and excitedly counting exactly how many of them that I saw. I know. I’m cool. Send me an e-mail about how cool I am and I’ll send you something back that says “re: I know.”
Because my intake in 2008 and 2009 were dramatically lower than the years before, I’ve taken it upon myself to see if I can make up for some lost time. And thus, OPERATION: SEE ALL MOVIES is born. Mission objectives are below.
Operation: See All Movies
Background: There were 136 major releases in 2009, not to mention the multitudes of limited releases that are only released in certain cities.
Mission Objective: I will undertake the mission of seeing at least 125 of the 146 major releases from the 2009 calendar year, as well as my choice of 25 of the limited release films. That’s a total of 150 films. Why only 125 of the major releases? Because, as heroic as I am, there are going to be movies that it would take a village to get me to sit down and watch, even for the sake of a pointless personal blog project. Yes, EVEN FOR THAT.
Mission Completion: /150
BEST OF ALL…
You can play along too! Just print out my handy dandy Operation: See All Movies checklist and mark off the movies as you see them. If anyone else completes the Operation, e-mail me a copy of your checklist and I’ll mail you a special prize. No kidding. It might even be a MOVIE.
Here’s the list. Thanks to Dark Horizons for the release list resource.
(in no particular order)
1. Bride Wars
2. The Unborn
3. Hotel For Dogs
4. My Bloody Valentine 3D
5. Notorious
6. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
7. Inkheart
8. Orphan
9. The Ugly Truth
10. Aliens In the Attic
11. Funny People
12. Janky Promoters
13. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
14. New In Town
15. Taken
16. The Uninvited
17. GI Joe: Rise of Cobra
18. Julie and Julia
19. A Perfect Getaway
20. Coraline
21. He’s Just Not That Into You
22. The Pink Panther 2
23. Push
24. Bandslam
25. District 9
26. The Time Traveler’s Wife
27. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
28. Confessions of a Shopaholic
29. Friday the 13th
30. The International
31. Inglourious Basterds
32. Post Grad
33. Shorts
34. Fired Up
35. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail
36. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
37. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li
38. The Final Destination
39. Halloween 2
40. Taking Woodstock
41. Watchmen
42. All About Steve
43. Extract
44. Gamer
45. 9
46. The Last House on the Left
47. Miss March
48. Race to Witch Mountain
49. Sorority Row
50. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself
51. Whiteout
52. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
53. The Informant!
54. Jennifer’s Body
55. Love Happens
56. Duplicity
57. I Love You, Man
58. Knowing
59. 12 Rounds
60. The Haunting In Conneticut
61. Monsters Vs. Aliens
62. Fame
63. Pandorum
64. Surrogates
65. Adventureland
66. Fast and Furious
67. Paranormal Activity
68. The Invention of Lying
69. Whip It
70. Zombieland
71. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D
72. Couples Retreat
73. Dragonball Evolution
74. Hannah Montana: The Movie
75. Observe and Report
76. 17 Again
77. Crank: High Voltage
78. State of Play
79. Law Abiding Citizen
80. The Stepfather
81. Where The Wild Things Are
82. Fighting
83. Obsessed
84. The Soloist
85. Astro Boy
86. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
87. Saw VI
88. Battle For Terra
89. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
90. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
91. Michael Jackson’s This Is It
92. Next Day Air
93. Star Trek
94. Angels and Demons
95. The Box
96. A Christmas Carol
97. The Fourth Kind
98. The Men Who Stare at Goats
99. Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” By Sapphire
100. Terminator: Savlation
101. Dance Flick
102. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
103. 2012
104. Pirate Radio
105. Fantastic Mr. Fox
106. Drag Me to Hell
107. Up
108. The Blind Side
109. Planet 51
110. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
111. The Hangover
112. Land of the Lost
113. My Life in Ruins
114. Ninja Assassin
115. Old Dogs
116. The Road
117. Imagine That
118. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
119. The Princess and the Frog
120. The Proposal
121. Year One
122. Armored
123. Brothers
124. Everybody’s Fine
125. Up in the Air
126. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
127. A Single Man
128. A Simple Man
129. Invictus
130. The Lovely Bones
131. The Hurt Locker
132. My Sister’s Keeper
133. Crazy Heart
134. Avatar
135. Did you Hear About the Morgans?
136. Nine
137. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
138. Public Enemies
139. Bruno
140. I Love You Beth Cooper
141. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
142. It’s Complicated
143. Sherlock Holmes
144. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
145. 500 Days of Summer
146. G-Force
Limited Releases:
1. The September Issue
2. The Marc Pease Experience
3. Every Little Step
4. I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell
5. The Girlfriend Experience
6. Gentlemen Broncos
7. Moon
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