After discussion earlier this year by fellow Mobians about their viewing habits the previous year I decided to track mine for 2004. Here is a quick rundown:

Highest rated of the 100

BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
THE DREAMERS (seen twice)
IN AMERICA (also seen twice)
THE LAST SAMURAI (I had lower expectations, but was quite pleased)
REBECCA (seen many times before)
APOCALYPSE NOW: REDUX (APOCALYPSE NOW has always been a favorite, but this was the first I'd seen REDUX. Interesting, but I don't think it's an improvement over the original)

and the lowest...

LE DIVORCE
QUEEN OF BLOOD
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS
THE COMPANY
TROY

Others of significance:

First QUEEN OF BLOOD
Last PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
Farthest from home in MD A FEW GOOD DYKES at the Austin Cinema Drafthouse
Big disappointments WINGED MIGRATION, IN THE CUT, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS
Surprises THE IRON GIANT, THE LAST SAMURAI, GARDEN STATE
And the most significant: The movie my wife and I went to on the day that what will be our first child was conceived (not in the theater mind you, sorry if this is too much info for you) SIDEWAYS

I also started taking note of my viewing a year ago but I don't have a rating system, I just jot down some facts and opinions on a card and file them alphabetically. At last count there were 152 cards. I guess that's not too shabby but I'd really have liked to watch a few more of my DVD backlog this year! I keep buying them faster than I can watch them...

I almost wish you hadn't asked.

588. This includes films I saw more than once, as well as theatrical releases, cable viewings, VHS and DVDs and movies I saw aired on TV. It begins with the documentary HELL'S HIGHWAY on January 1, and goes through MARTIAL OUTLAW.

Four of them are from 1939, the earliest year on the list (ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION, CODE OF THE SECRET SERVICE, SMASHING THE MONEY RING and MR. MOTO'S LAST WARNING).
Nine from the 1940s.
17 from the '50s.
43 from the '60s.
142 from the '70s.
135 from the '80s.
113 from the '90s.
103 from the '00s. 48 of those were 2004 releases.

Most in one month:
July: 63
Least in one month:
October: 34

A few rules I set for myself:
Serials count as one movie
TV shows don't count at all
Watching a film with the audio commentary track does not count
Multiple viewings each count as one

Films I saw more than once include (but are not limited to...I'll leave out the horror titles):
ANGEL OF DESTRUCTION
ANGELFIST
BAMBOO HOUSE OF DOLLS
BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS
BLOOD DEBTS
THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS
BRIDGE OF DRAGONS
CANNONBALL!
CAPRICORN ONE
THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN (3 times)
DRIVE: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT (3 times)
ELIMINATORS
EUROTRIP (4 times)
FAHRENHEIT 9/11
H.O.T.S.
KILL SQUAD (3 times)
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
NINJA DESTROYER
RAGE (1995)
ROBOT JOX
ROLLER BOOGIE
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
SHARK ZONE
SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE
THE SUPER INFRA-MAN
SWITCHBLADE SISTERS
TIME SERVED
This can partially be explained in that I host regular Bad Movie Nights at my home, and the menu usually consists of movies that I have already seen and know will live up to my friends' expectations.

Same title, but two different movies:
WALKING TALL
THE PUNISHER
THE INTRUDER
STARSKY AND HUTCH
RIOT

Similar titles, but two different movies:
THE SWEEPER/SWEEPERS
THE WRONG GUY/THE WRONG GUYS
SEARCH AND DESTROY/SEARCH AND RESCUE
ONE MAN ARMY/THE ONE MAN JURY

Film I saw the most times:
EUROTRIP: 4

The most films in any one 24-hour period:
15, when I attended Northwestern University's annual B-Fest January 30/31

Numbers in the title, but not a sequel:
EQUALIZER 2000
THE DEVIL'S 8
AIRPORT 1975
AIRPORT '77
THE CONCORDE: AIRPORT '79
50 FIRST DATES
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
AMERICA 3000
FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE
1,000 CONVICTS AND A WOMAN
FAHRENHEIT 9/11
CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE
MURDER ON FLIGHT 502
TWO-MINUTE WARNING

I can't say I'm particularly proud that I watched 588 movies this year, especially after seeing a measly 436 (!) in 2003. But there it is.

With one day left before 2005 begins for me...and without counting movies I've viewed for the first time in previous years as well as TV shows, concerts, etc., etc.: It's 197 movies (i.e., 3.7 a week) for me.

All things considered, it's not too unexpected a number (since I've estimated for a time now that I tend to view about 4 films a week)! Perhaps more surprising though is the fact that this is the first year in quite a while that I've viewed more non-Hong Kong than Hong Kong movies.

Continuing on an international note, 2004 has seen me taking in my first ever viewings of movies from the following territories :):-
Austria -- THE HOTEL
The Czech Republic -- DIVIDED WE FALL
Palestine -- RANA'S WEDDING
Sri Lanka -- SUDU SEVANELI (AKA SHADOWS OF WHITE)
Turkey -- OKUL (AKA SCHOOL)
Vietnam -- HEAVEN'S NET

As an addendum: Figure I might take the opportunity provided by this post to name ten movies I got a lot out of viewing for the first time this year (but which would be/are ineligible for the Annual Mobius Top Ten Poll):-

From Hong Kong (I tend to keep a separate list for movies I view from this territory):-
EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER (1984)
PEDICAB DRIVER (1988)
The A CHINESE ODYSSEY movies (especially PART II: CINDERELLA) (1995)
CITY ON FIRE (1987) -- yes, I really only finally checked it out this year!
TO BE NUMBER ONE (1991)

And from elsewhere in the world:-
TWILIGHT SAMURAI (Japan, 2002)
POSTMEN IN THE MOUNTAINS (Mainland China, 1998)
GLOOMY SUNDAY (Germany & Hungary, 1999)
EARLY SPRING (Japan, 1956)
SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY (Japan, 1998)

It's a measley 76 new ones for me, due to unforseen circumstances -- I broke my foot and had to spend about two months in my apartment. It was a big disappointment -- I'd wanted to see 2046 in a theater, but all I saw was the promotional float (?!?) for it in the Shanghai Tourism Festival parade, as I rode home from the hospital with a big cast on my leg.

One thing I've really missed since being in Asia is seeing films in the theater. The only ones I saw in a cinema were: RETURN OF THE KING, THE TULSE LUPER SUITCASES, AstigMATISM, GAGAMBOY, IMITATIONS OF LIFE, IRON PUSSY, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, FAHRENHEIT 911, THE FOLIAGE, and A WORLD WITHOUT THIEVES.

My favorites of this year included a lot of Japanese films: CASSHERN, VIBRATOR, YOKGAI MONSTERS: SPOOK WARFARE, WILD ZERO, and LAUNDRY. I also really enjoyed the cartoon TEACHER'S PET, Guy Maddin's short SOMBRA DOLOROSA, LOVERS' CONCERTO and ONG BAK.

Either ROMANCE X, or THE BEAST would have to be the nadir of the year. ILSA, HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS, which I only watched because somebody gave it to me against my will, was better than either of them.

I'm going to challenge myself on the first, I think, and go see KUNG FU HUSTLE at my local cinema, despite the absence of English subtitles.

I wish I'd actually counted all the movies I saw this year. Without any figures to rely on, I would guess somewhere in the region of 120, including films I bought on DVD, saw at the cinema and on TV (not counting films I'd already seen prior to 2004). One of my New Year's resolutions will be to keep a comprehensive catalogue of everything I see. :D

I'm not the iron men and women most of you are when it comes to this, but I made a conscious choice this year to review everything I saw on the imdb. So, counting the last two I haven't put up there yet, I"ve seen 61 -- starting with David Mamet's SPARTAN and ending I guess with DARKNESS.

Almost all of them were in the movie theater. I watch very few dvds -- for all sorts of reasons. Revival screenings I particularly liked were Joe Gervasi's excellent double feature of HARD BOILED and BULLET IN THE HEAD; THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (first time I ever saw it on the big screen) and three crime movies starring Alain Delon: PURPLE NOON, UN FLIC, and ANY NUMBER CAN WIN.

doug

Haven't kept count or good records of what I've seen, and one thing or another has caused some fairly lengthy interruptions to my viewing... so I'd guess I only managed in the 250-300 film bracket this year :P I guess 50+ of those were Shaw Brothers films, the vast majority of which I enjoyed to a greater or lesser degree :)

I went through my journals and counted up 284 films viewed in the year 2004. Most were seen on video or DVD. Only 41 in theaters. Most were kung fu films, Shaw Bros. discs and Japanese animation, with a few Hollywood oldies thrown in. The number is puffed up by all the anime OAV (straight-to-video) releases like the Peacock King and Black Jack OAV series or short anime movies like SILENT MOBIUS 1 & 2 and the KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD movie. I left TV series off the count even though I watched a couple of dozen DVDs of anime TV series like "Initial D," "Paranoia Agent," and "Master Keaton," plus a box set of "Sailor Moon Super S" (39 episodes!) as a review assignment. Maybe I should have just counted each DVD as a separate entry.

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow... you all put me to shame with your tracking abilities. I started keeping a film diary in 2004, but when I got laid off from my job in March and consequently had more time, I virtually stopped keeping track. I started keeping track again belatedly towards the end of the year and tried to at least list movies I'd seen if I didn't write about them, but I'm sure I left a lot out. And it didn't occur to me to number them so I really have no idea how many movies I saw. I like the index card approach though, maybe I'll try that in 2005.

Last movie seen in 2004 (so far): THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940) with a great scenery chewing performance by Ida Lupino. I started to watch HIGH SIERRA which came on after, but I fell asleep an hour in. Might check out ABBA: the movie tonight on TCM, if my New Year's Eve party friends can stomach it.

p.s. Speaking of TCM, I left it on in the background for several hours hoping to catch their annual "in memoriam" tribute which I hear is particularly well done this year. But I haven't seen it yet. Did they retire this already? I wish the Oscar telecast tribute clip was half as well done as the one on TCM.

well wellwell I hate to 'blow my own trumpet' in this dept but thus far in the 'numbers stakes' , I thin the mobius gang have had rings run round them by an 'ol timer' like me!!! Since Jan0104 I have enjoyed watching 1162 films!! Now before I'm accused of being a 'liar', let me explain a few facts about me. I was in a hospice for the earlier part of the year, flat out on my back in bed, with drips in my arms and on all manner of pills...at times it seemed that the nurses were my only friends!!-(this is also the reason why i was on wohat seemed like a'extended vqaction' from the mobius bords0. So i had a good friend of my partner bring me in a portable dvd player-a panasonic i recall. This little device was a godsend and i would spend my days watching at least 5 films per day minimum (dont forget that minus 7 hrs sleep thats still 17 hrs (or 10x90min movies!!!)of the day to fill up with movies!!! So...now my partner's friend also runs a dvd hire store..sotitles was 'not a problem!!'
After being sent 'home' i sppose i 'caught the bug' of watching so many ...and i was still not '100% fightingfit!" and when the surgeon ordered me to take as much 'R&R" as i could well...there you go.
and his is 'peanuts' compared to my years as a cinemaprojectionist 'back in the day!'

SORRY MARTY, I MAY HAVE MADE GOOF!
sorry marty if i seemed to be 'lording it' like a 'big man' with my numbers game.

A frined of mine just read m y 'post' and comment ted that my sentence...

"'"and his is 'peanuts' compared to my years as a cinemaprojectionist 'back in the day!'
Lisa Larkin"


...came across as a poopoo of your figures. NOT TRUE! sorry, marty if this was impiled...the sentence should have read

"and this is 'peanuts' compared to my years as a cinemaprojectionist 'back in the day!'"and his is 'peanuts' compared to my years as a cinemaprojectionist 'back in the day!'
"

I meant THIS not HIS...i was referring to MY numbers ...NOT yrs!!
sorry all, I'm still 'finding my way' arounsd this internet thing!!
all the best to all!! and...HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2005 TO ALL
jp

No offense at all, John. After all, this isn't a competition. :)

I hope you're feeling better. Happy New Year!

I am going to korea rather soon, i need to save money and since im a member of one of those unlimited rental passes at facets here in chicago i decided to stop going out and try to watch 100 movies between december 10th and 31st.
i failed miserably... i ended at 73 movies.
i tend to watch close to 25-30 movies a month, i don't keep a movie diary, but i just bought a nice little hardbound sketch book to write about each movie i view...
best of the 73 movies i saw since the 10th:
Dasies
The Celebration
Le Trou
Get Carter (60's)
Bad Education
Scenes from a Marriage
The Lower Depths (renoir)
Pennies From Heaven (steve martin tap dancing!!! BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!!!!)
Switchblade Sisters (hell YES!)
and
Turkish Starwars.

not so good/ overrated
Sideways
A day W/O a Mexican
Wake Up Ron Burgendy
Passion of the christ
Finding neverland

most frustrating: Fat Girl

Movie i love to hate and hate to love: Life Aquatic.

My movie watching became extremely fractured this year.

I kept a list through the end of April (28 in cinemas, 62 total), then personal circumstances wrecked havoc, and I never returned to the list.

From May through August I was a film festival screener, and watched all or part of 288 films (of which 20 ended up in the festival). During September and October I watched another 50 on tape and perhaps 10 in cinemas. During the festival itself I saw three (!) and since then I've mostly been watching television movie channels.

My tendency is just to watch bits and pieces of movies nowadays. Some I'll watch straight through if it catches me in the right mood (Friday I sat through most of THE BIG SLEEP and all of DARK PASSAGE), but then I tend to change channels if I grow bored. The only DVDs I've watched lately are the Asian films NEW POLICE STORY and 2046.

Don't know why my remote control finger has grown so itchy this year -- maybe it's watching all those screener tapes for too many movies that were poorly made or just plain boring.

I think I should read more books, or something...

Courtesy of Time Warner Digital Cable's DVR service here in Manhattan, I watched dozens of films that in years past I would have taped, then forgotten about (and have, as I dump said tapes to free up space elsewhere). Some, I admit, I "watched" with one eye on them and another on whatever else I was doing at the time. It's disconcerting how little you miss this way, when plowing through average to below-average bits of nonsense like AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA and the like.

I was a Netflix member right when it started but gave it up after only a few months. I reactivated it last year and it's been smooth sailing; their selection is better (still not the best, but they're less cumbersome to use than Nicheflix, which I also tried) and with more shipping centers it takes only about a day or two to get a new DVD in the mail (plus, they relented on a midyear price increase when Amazon announced plans for a similar service). Its impact on my wallet, strained from $10+ movie prices and B-list DVD purchases I should have avoided, has been salubrious; I've put current, marginal moviegoing items like THE SEA INSIDE, THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON, and DARKNESS in my queue, to be retrieved at my leisure once they turn up in the format. [And I am sometimes pleasantly surprised by something that's in there. I never would have thought that a collaboration between Antoine Fuqua and Jerry Bruckheimer could have yielded anything of real value, so I popped KING ARTHUR into Netflix, yet lo and behold I found the new Director's Cut of the film to be riveting, a little secondhand in its borrowings from Eisenstein, BRAVEHEART, and the LOTR films but a sturdy rental overall, with a muscular Hans Zimmer score and credible acting and scripting--and, yes, direction and producing, too.]

So I probably saw well over 300 films, but less of them in theaters than ever before.

I started keeping track (religiously) of what I watch 3 years ago. I was excited to have seen 364 in 2002, a little bit nervous that I'd seen 421 in 2003 and now I'm pretty much alarmed to have seen 537 in 2004. Similar to other rules posted above, if I watch a movie twice (it might have happened 5x) I count it twice, but I dont' count tv or anything but features that I watch in full, and I don't count audio commentaries or that stuff (there are a few exceptions -- I counted the 4+ hours of material on the By Brakhage Criterion release as one entry, even though it's really a collection of short films, for example). The most interesting thing to me was watching the number of movies I watch in theaters plummet -- only 21. And of those, most were special screenings at Subway Cinema type fests (only about 10 movies that normal people might see, and only 6 American movies). I may have seen 10 American movies from 2004. That's a big change from last year and a sea-change from three years ago. What I did watch was primarily Asian, including all the action/martial arts/horror Shaws that came out this year, and a ton of Japanese movies (lotsa Zatoichi etc.).

It's an interesting tension between loving to watch movies and having stacks of them (142 at the moment) that you are excited to watch, and on the other hand knowing you really ought to watch less and do other stuff. I'm more focused on watching less now, so,I fully expect I'll watch under 400 movies in 2005. But then I've already watched 10 this year, and it's only been four days, so who knows. If I have some time later in the week, I might break down the statistics the way some have above, that's really interesting. And in any case, it's nice knowing I'm not the only lunatic out there (1) watching this many movies, and (2) keeping track of it.

charlie
ps, I've resolved to make this the year of the Western

Not counting TV shows, specials, etc., I watched the following in 2004 (some multiple times/multiple formats). It might be worth noting that one of my hobbies is writing rambling, amateurish DVD reviews, hence titles like "My Baby's Daddy".

21 Grams
Adaptation
Alien vs. Predator
Alien: Resurrection (Special Edition)
American Splendor
Apple, The
Auto Focus
Badder Santa (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (Unedited)
Battle of Shaker Heights, The
Beautiful Girls
Below
Big Empty, The
Blazing Saddles (30th Anniversary Special Edition)
Blood Sisters of Lesbian Sin
Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
Bookies
Bring It on Again
Bubba Ho-Tep (Limited Collector's Edition)
Cabin Fever - Special Edition
Carpool
Catwoman
Chasing Liberty (Widescreen Edition)
Chopping Mall
Christine (Special Edition)
Clerks (10th Anniversary Edition)
Club Dread
Corndog Man, The
Dawn of the Dead (1978; Theatrical)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Dawn of the Dead (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut)
Dazed and Confused
Dead Ringers
Deadly Spawn
Deathdream
Decoys
Devil's Backbone (Special Edition), The
Dog Day Afternoon
Duel
Ed Wood
Ella Enchanted (Widescreen Edition)
Eurotrip (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Exorcist: 25th Anniversary Edition, The
Explorers
F/X
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fat Albert
Final Countdown (2-Disc Limited Special Edition), The
Final Destination 2 (Infinifilm Edition)
Fire in the Sky
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
Flight of the Navigator
Freddy Vs. Jason
Friday the 13th
Gamera vs. Monster X
Garfield - The Movie
Gene Krupa Story, The
Ginger Snaps (Canadian Collectors' Edition)
Ginger Snaps 2 - Unleashed
Ginger Snaps Back - The Beginning
Girl Next Door (Unrated Version), The
Godfather, The
Godfather: Part II, The
Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla 1974
Goodfellas (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Grifters, The
Grind
Groundhog Day
Hacks
Happy Birthday to Me
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakhban
He Knows You're Alone
Hell's Angels 69
Hellboy
Hellboy (Director's Cut)
Highwaymen
Hole, The
House of 1,000 Corpses
House of Sand and Fog
Hunger, The
Idle Hands
Impossibles, The
In The Year 2889
Iron Giant (Special Edition), The
It's Alive! (1969)
It's Alive! (1974)
Juice
Killer Buzz
Kim Possible - The Villain Files
Lemora - A Child's Tale of the Supernatural
Leprechaun 4: In Space
Life and Death of Peter Sellers, The
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Extended Edition)
Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Extended Edition)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition)
Lost In Translation (Widescreen Edition)
Loveless, The
Mac
Man Who Would Be King, The
Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)
Martin and Orloff
Masque of the Red Death
Monster Club, The
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet
My Baby's Daddy
My Bloody Valentine
My Fair Lady
Napoleon Dynamite
National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze (Unrated Edition)
National Lampoon's Senior Trip
Network
Night of the Demons
Night of the Living Dead
Night Train Murders
Nine Lives
Orca - The Killer Whale
Overnight Delivery
Perfect Score, The
Phone Booth
Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl
Planet of the Apes (Widescreen 35th Anniversary Edition)
Predator (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
Princess Diaries - Special Edition, The
Princess Diaries 2 - Royal Engagement (Widescreen Edition), The
Problem With Fear, A
Reefer Madness
Reservoir Dogs: Special Edition (Mr. Brown Cover)
Return of the Jedi
Return of the Living Dead 2
Return of the Living Dead, The
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
School of Rock (Widescreen Edition)
Shaun of the Dead
Simple Men
Slasher
Smithereens
Soul Man
Soul Plane (Unrated Mile High Edition)
Spider-Man (Widescreen)
Spider-Man 2 (Superbit Collection)
Squirm
Star Wars
Starsky & Hutch (Widescreen Edition)
Stateside
Stir of Echoes (Special Edition)
Stranded
Summer School
Tapeheads
Teacher's Pet
Team America: World Police
Tempo
Tenement
Terror Train
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003; Special Edition), The
That Little Monster
Thing (Collector's Edition), The
Troll 2
Uncle Sam
Uncovered
Used Cars
Vice Versa
Welcome To Mooseport (Widescreen Edition)
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! (Widescreen Edition)
X2 - X-Men United
Zombie