March Summary

March Summary

03/10 - Mad Dog Morgan
02/10 - Clerks.
07/10 - The Exorcist
05/10 - Friday the 13th
04/10 - Friday the 13th Part 2
01/10 - The Mansion of Madness (Edgar Allan Poe: Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon)
05/10 - A Nightmare on Elm Street
03/10 - Green Zone
06/10 - Shutter Island
08/10 - Adventureland
07/10 - Halloween

Quick Facts:
Movies seen in March: 11
Time spent watching movies in March: 1128 minutes (18 hours, 48 minutes)

Best Movie Seen (Overall):
Adventureland
Adventureland stood up much better than expected on a second viewing. It really captured an amazing feel and crafted great characters. I bumped up the rating from a 7/10 to an 8/10 and it ends up resulting in it being the best watch this month. The Exorcist was disappointing in some regards but it's still a very solid film. It barely edges out Halloween for second here.
Runner-up: The Exorcist
[Adventureland was a repeated viewing; The Exorcist was a first time viewing.]
[Note: These two films will not be included in the next two rankings.]

Best Movie Seen (First Viewing):
Halloween
As alluded to above, Halloween just barely lost out to The Exorcist for the above category so it places first here. I liked a lot of the tension Halloween created and was overall pretty surprised by how good it was. Shutter Island, though not great by any means, somewhat gets runner-up here by default.
Runner-up: Shutter Island

Best Movie Seen (Repeated Viewing):
None.

Worst Film Seen:
The Mansion of Madness (Edgar Allan Poe: Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon)
No surprise here. I rarely give out a 1/10 but this film earned one. It was pathetic with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Clerks. comes in second here. Though praised by many I didn't think it did much of anything right.
Runner-up: Clerks.

Most Surprising Film Seen:
Halloween
This film was a lot better than I expected. Also, having recently watched some slashers for the first time I was perhaps coming in with lower expectations. Instead, John Carpenter wrote and directed a really good film.

First runner-up: Adventureland
Second runner-up: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Adventureland surprised me mainly for how well it held up on my second watch. Everything about it was just as good (if not better) this time. A Nightmare on Elm Street backs into this spot with only a 5/10 but it was better done on the whole than I thought it would be so I guess it somewhat deserves it.

Most Disappointing Film Seen:
The Exorcist
This might not be fair to The Exorcist but I was somewhat expecting an 8/10 or a 9/10 from it. I think blatant rip-offs and overplaying of the popular scenes left me unsurprised compared to a "true" first time viewer. It was still pretty good, just not as great as I was expecting.

First runner-up: Green Zone
Second runner-up: Friday the 13th
Green Zone was disappointing even with my low expectations. It really had nothing going for it except how well Matt Damon was acting and how he tried to sell me on how good it was. Friday the 13th similarly disappointed with low expectations. I ended up giving it a 5/10 because some parts were really well done but it still wasn't the slasher I was hoping for from this series.

Most Enjoyable Film Seen:
Adventureland
Without a doubt Adventureland takes this spot. I loved the atmosphere and it's own little quirks. It forces me to experience a wide range of emotions as I watch it as I enjoy all the characters so much.

First runner-up: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Second runner-up: Shutter Island
It's hard to pick for this category as not much really deserves the spots. I picked A Nightmare on Elm Street because it's pretty fun to watch for the most part. It's cheesy and over-the-top but for the right reasons. Shutter Island was picked mainly because even if I wasn't a big fan of how everything was done, it's still a joy to watch amazing talent under an amazing director. DiCaprio and Scorsese are great, it's just that this one was more "miss" than "hit" for me.

The Film More People Need to See:
Adventureland
Not much competition here as Adventureland claims another category. Adventureland won this category back when I first watched it in August and it's no surprise it wins it again (especially with this competition). Terribly marketed both in the theater and when it came to DVD, Adventureland needs to be watched by more people.

First runner-up: Halloween
Second runner-up: The Exorcist
These two take the spots by default pretty much. They're the only two films left I can honestly say I'd recommend to other people. Since Halloween has probably been seen by less people my age group than The Exorcist, it's gets first runner-up.

Best Scene Seen:
The Exorcist - the arrival of Father Merrin
This scene is iconic and it's iconic for a reason. It's amazingly framed with amazing color contrast created by the whirling smoke and the static streetlamps (and with some great music to boot). Even with it being part of the poster for the movie, I was impressed by how it was included in the film.

First runner-up: A Nightmare on Elm Street - the death of Tina Gray
Second runner-up: Adventureland - the scene on the hill near the end
The Tina Gray death was chosen because of how brutal and over-the-top it is to a character that we are first introduced to with the intention that she will be the main character. So not only is it disturbing, it's also surprising. The hill scene from Adventureland is picked because it's a perfect "summing up" scene as James, Joel, and Frigo (my three favorite characters from the film) all get together to reflect on everything.

Voting Update:
08/10 --> 09/10 - Taxi Driver
The more I think about Taxi Driver the more I think about how well done some of the scenes are and how many themes the film actually manages to mix into the story. One of Scorsese's best.
06/10 --> 07/10 - (500) Days of Summer
This one gets bumped up because I find myself falling in love with the soundtrack and how well every song was placed. I don't think this completely hit me on my first view. Plus, there's about three or so just perfectly done scenes that I've rewatched a couple times.

Two changes this month. Perhaps surprisingly I bumped two movies up instead of going down which I feel I most often do in these.

March Comments:
Overall, March was just an average month. I watched 11 films with an average rating of 4.6 which has to be an all time monthly low. This is naturally attributed to the large sampling of horror which mostly turned out to be mediocre. I didn't fill the month with some of the movies I would normally check out because of good recommendations and the like. So how did I like horror? Well, I'm still not swayed to its excellence. If the first couple films of the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street series are supposed to be the best I'm partially afraid to watch the rest of them. I will try and do this though as I do want to become at least somewhat knowledgeable on this sometimes forgotten genre.

April Outlook:
I hope to continue checkout out horror films this coming month. Though school is picking up quite a bit and I don't know how much free time I'll actually have. I want to get around to watching some of those Hitchcock thrillers and James Stewart performances I've been wanting to see for a long time now as well. I want to do a sampling of some other horror franchises before I finish (or maybe even continue) on the franchises already started.

Interesting Note:
With this post, I complete one year of blogging my movie comments. Though I'm pretty confident no one reads this, I'm glad I've done this for my own enjoyment.