Of the 476 movies I saw, I watched 281 of them for the first time. Here are my rules. As far as the count goes, only feature films count, no matter whether I saw them in a theater, DVD, VHS or on TV.

• TV shows don't count, unless they were presented in a format resembling a feature film (for instance, the two pilot episodes of HARRY O, which aired as full-length made-for-TV movies)
• Made-for-TV movies count
• Documentaries count
• I didn't count short subjects or feature-length making-of documentaries included as DVD extras (for instance, all of the incredible extras on the James Bond Ultimate Collection DVD sets)
• Movie serials count as one long feature
• Multiple viewings each count as a separate movie

These are my rules. Your mileage may vary.

Just for fun, a few stats:
First film of 2007: A BULLET FOR PRETTY BOY (Fabian is Pretty Boy Floyd)
Last film of 2007: BLOOD, BOOBS & BEAST (documentary about Baltimore filmmaker Don Dohler)

From the 1930's: 0
1940's: 8 (including 1 Tarzan, 4 Michael Shaynes and THE DEVIL BAT)
1950's: 32
1960's: 48
1970's: 106
1980's: 146
1990's: 61 (oddly, I saw nothing from 1999 and just 1 1998 film)
2000-2006: 46
2006: 29

I’m still not going to theaters very much. Outside of January’s annual B-Fest at Northwestern University, I saw a theatrical film only fourteen times this year, which is a slight increase over 2006 and 2005. Three of them I saw in one day (THE TRIPPER, FRACTURE, PERFECT STRANGER), BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS showed at Roger Ebert’s annual Overlooked Film Festival, and I caught HELVETICA at a Parkland College screening, so I actually visited a real theater a mere eight times.

Most in one month:
January & May: 52
Least in one month:
April: 25

The most films in any one 24-hour period:
14, when I attended Northwestern University's annual B-Fest January 26-27

My Top Ten of 2007:
3:10 TO YUMA
GRINDHOUSE
HOT FUZZ
KNOCKED UP
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
OCEAN’S THIRTEEN
SICKO
SUPERBAD
UNTIL DEATH
ZODIAC

My Bottom Five of 2007:
28 WEEKS LATER
CROOKED
PERFECT STRANGER
RISE: BLOOD HUNTER
TRANSMORPHERS

That's funny...

I didn't see all that many films this year (on an average, one a week), but 28 Weeks Later... is the only one that really delivered the goods for me. The opening sequence whipsawed me about so much that (while what followed didn't exactly maintain the experience) I was still drained by the end of the movie. I'm sort of hesitant to watch it again on DVD, because it might not hold up. What it did to me in the theater was such a rare experience that I want to sort of hold on to it.

I'd class it as the best horror film I've seen since Carpenter's The Thing.

But I loathed Knocked Up. Way too many reasons to go into, but overall it just seemed to me like six episodes of a weak sitcom stitched together, raunched up and thrown on a movie screen...

... although I saw it on DVD. I suspect it's one of those things you have to watch in a crowded theater.

Haven't seen No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood yet, so those might make me think that this was a good year.

About the only other flicks I saw that I sort of enjoyed were The Mist (aside for the horrible coda) and Shoot 'Em Up (even though the joke started to get old halfway through).

Well, when logging movies, I only count movies I'm seeing for the first first time, so all I know is that I watched a minimum of 367 movies. The stats that follow only cover movies I saw for the first time in 2007

First Film of 2007: MYSTERIOUS SKIN
Last Film: THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY

10s - 2 (ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE & THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE)
20s - 9
30s - 11
40s - 22
50s - 44
60s - 42
70s - 41
80s - 20
90s - 32
00s - 144

Most Movie-Crammed Month: October, with 64 movies.
Least Movie-Crammed Month: January, with 14 movies

Most in a day: 8 on October 27th (weekend horror movie marathon for Halloween)

Best movies I saw for the first time in 2007:
CHILDREN OF MEN
PAN'S LABYRINTH
IRMA VEP
MUTUAL APPRECIATION
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
DEATH OF MR LAZERESCU
INLAND EMPIRE
LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL
COCKFIGHTER
IT'S TRAD, DAD
THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD
BLOCK PARTY
BAD COMPANY (1972)
GRINDHOUSE
WATTSTAX
SPIES
DESTINY
THE INDIAN TOMB
MONSIEUR VERDOUX
LIMELIGHT
ONLY TWO CAN PLAY
IF...
THE SILENT PARTNER
ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
THE CONFORMIST
CRIME UNLIMITED
SPITE MARRIAGE
A MOMENT OF INNOCENCE
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
SESSION 9
ONIBABA
RAW MEAT
POINT BLANK
THE LINE UP
PLAY DIRTY
OFFSIDE
TOKYO TWILIGHT
I'M NOT THERE
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Worst movies seen for the first time in 2007:
TEMPTATION OF A MONK
GRAVESEND
VENOMOUS
LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE
THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED
AKEELAH AND THE BEE
VIRGIN REPORT
RENT
PARADISE NOW
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
13 TZAMETI
ILLUMINATA
BILLY JACK
THE HOWARDS OF VIRGINIA
BLACKWATER VALLEY EXORCISM
CRYPT OF DARK SECRETS
EASY TO WED
ELEKTRA
GODSPELL
BIG JAKE
TOMBSTONE
MURDER SET PIECES
SPRING REUNION
AIRPORT
KISSIN COUSINS
SWEET HOME ALABAMA
WOLF CREEK
SICKO
HOSTEL
SAW 3
CREEPSHOW 3
THE HISTORY BOYS
CHILDREN OF THE LIVING DEAD
PRIME

Marty McKee has had an influence on my life. [cue strings] This is the first year I ever actually noted down how many movies I saw and what they were.

I saw 106 movies this past year, which for me is a lot. Most all of them in a movie theater.

The first one was the ridiculously-awful-yet-strangely-praised-in-some-corners PERFUME. The last one was THE ENEMY BELOW (1957), a sturdy submarine war flick with Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens that was pretty good, even though I saw a bad pan-and-scan version of it.

I'll save my best of list for when y'all do it this year. But a couple of other lists:

MOVIES I MISSED WHICH I'D LIKE TO SEE SOMETIME

BLACK SNAKE MOAN
REIGN OVER ME
THE LOOKOUT
DIRTY SNOW
HOT FUZZ (particularly regret missing that)
VACANCY
BLACK SHEEP
PATHFINDER
BLACK BOOK
THE TEN
BALLS OF FURY
LUST, CAUTION

SOME REALLY BAD PICTURES I DID SEE

PERFUME
THE MESSENGERS
SHOOTER
28 WEEKS LATER
THE BRAVE ONE (my pick for worst of the year, although 28 gave it a run for it's money)
DAYWATCH

THEY WEREN'T AWFUL, BUT DEFINITELY OVERRATED

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA - big budget war movie is fine but utterly routine, why changing the protagonists made certain circles fall all over themselves loving it is beyond me

PAN'S LABRYINTH - I may be the only lonely soul out there who didn't like this, but I didn't like it. The effects I'd seen before, the dramatic setup was as cartoony as anything in the little girl's fantasy world, and the ending is either a cheat or unfocused, depending on how much slack you want to cut the director.

THE LIVES OF OTHERS - Routine melodrama, predictable and uninterestingly told. Actually I'd have preferred to see PAN'S win the Oscar, at least that's a genuine stab at art, however IMHO badly done.

SUNSHINE - Dude! Don't take the brown acid!

THEM (ILS) - I love the French, I really do, but not everything they touch turns to gold. Why this utterly routine horror flick got the notices it did is beyond me.

EASTERN PROMISES - Cronenberg should stay away from crime films, he doesn't really have the sensibility for them.

I was thinking about doing an "underrated" list, too, but this post is too long as it is. I just urge the adventurous among you to check out both SEVERANCE and DEATH SENTENCE: apparently nobody saw SEVERANCE but it's a genuinely witty picture, and DEATH SENTENCE I think will look better as an effective exploitation flick as time goes on -- hell, compare it to THE BRAVE ONE, it looks better already.

doug

I think I usually average about one a day over the course of the year, thanks largely to spending all my holidays at film festivals - according to my IMDb history, I've seen 328 this year, but then there will be a few that I either didn't vote on (if I'd already seen them recently) or that just didn't feature on IMDb (festival screenings especially).

Let the random stats begin:

First of 2007 - Apocalypto (what a great start to the year)
Last of 2007 - American Gangster (very good, but not quite great)

Best of 2007 - Once and Please Vote For Me
Worst of 2007 - Honor of the Knights, The Last Dining Table, Lions For Lambs, Hostel II, S&Man

Best pre-2007 film I saw for the first time - House of Usher, The Godfather and When We Were Kings
Worst pre-2007 film I saw for the first time - Lady in the Water, closely followed by Jaws: The Revenge

Number of festivals I attended: 9
Most films I saw at one festival - 44 (Edinburgh)
Furthest I went to see a movie - about 3000 miles (HotDocs festival in Toronto)
Most films watched in one day - 6

How do you guys keep track of your movies? Some kind of spreadsheet/database?

Obviously some folks here put a bit more effort into it than I do, but I tend to just vote on the IMDb for every film I watch, then I have it all recorded there in the voting history. It's fairly elementary but it works for my purposes - you'll probably want a spreadsheet or something like that though if you want to keep a record of other things (dates you saw them, etc.).

One feature I do like about the IMDb voting history is that you can make them public, so if you have any friends who also do it, then it's easy for you to see what they've seen recently and disagree with their vote as necessary.

I primarily use an old fashioned composition notebook. I note down title, date I saw the film, and personal rating (A+ to F). I place an asterisk next to films seen in theaters. I have a strong enough to memory that I can usually instantly conjure up extra info like year of production, stars, and director.

I use an Excel sheet and list the title, date, year of release, and whether I saw it theatrically, DVD or VHS. I also add a number if I've seen the film for the first time. Using Excel comes in handy at the end of the year when I want to sort by various categories. I've been doing this since 2003.

That's the only film I walked out of this year! Sir, you are not alone.

My record keeping (I used to Excel but I am using a text file at the moment) got really lazy so I'm not sure; all I know is that it's probably a record low for me for the last ten years, due to a large number of busy patches, travel, etc. I'll try to conjure up a more meaningful wrapup soon, but the four biggest discoveries of the year for me were L'ECLISSE, THE FACE OF ANOTHER, ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE, and EXORCIST 3: LEGION.

I thought we had refrained from doing a top ten in the past until we voted in the (un)official mhvf poll. Is Erik Nelson going to do one this year? I'll be happy to help out.

I watched 411 films last year, which is way up from 272 from 2006, though I saw 480 in 2004 and 448 in 2005.

My low month was May ,26 films, while December, 47, was my high.

Christmas in July was my first film and Rebel without a Cause closed out the year for me.

I saw Pan's Labyrinth twice. Likewise, The Darjeeling Limited, Paprika and Blind Woman's Curse.

I saw 29 films in a theatre. I watched 14 films on VHS tape. I watch Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street on my PC via a Netflix download. Everything else was either on DVD (many from Netflix) or recorded off my DVR, primarily TCM, Encore Western, IFC, Sundance or Fox Movie Channel.

I watched: 111 Film noirs from the 40s and 50s; 92 foreign films with subtitles; 76 horror and Sci-fi films; 39 Police Procedurals, mostly British (Prime Suspect, Inspector Lynley and Rebus) and a few Native American Tony Hillerman PBS Mysteries; 32 Westerns; 29 EuroCult films (Gialli, Spaghetti Westerns, softcore, etc.); 27 Asian films, mostly Japanese; 10 documentaries and 4 feature-length animated films.

Biggest surprises were that I didn't see more EuroCult, Asian, documentary and Animated films and that I saw as many Police Procedurals as I did.

I also read 40 novels last year, 19 of which were made into 20 films, which I also saw.

The Invention of Morel – Adolpho Bioy Casares
The Piano tuner of Earthquakes - Brothers Quay

The Bride wore Black – Cornell Woolrich
The Bride wore Black –Francois Truffaut

Cutter and Bone – Newton Thornburg
Cutter's Way - Ivan Passer

D’entre les morts – Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac
Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock

Black Alibi – Cornell Woolrich
The Leopard Man - Jacques Tourneur

Night has a Thousand Eyes – Cornell Woolrich
Night has a Thousand Eyes - John Farrow

Red Harvest – Dashiell Hammett
Yojimbo - Akira Kurosawa
A Fistful of Dollars - Sergio Leone

The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M. Cain
The Postman Always Rings Twice - Tay Garnett

The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
The Big Sleep - Howard Hawkes

Brighton Rock – Graham Greene
Brighton Rock – John Boulting

The Man Who Fell to Earth – Walter Tevis
The Man Who Fell to Earth – Nic Roeg

A Gun for Sale – Graham Greene
This Gun for Hire - Frank Tuttle

Ministry of Fear – Graham Greene
Ministry of Fear - Fritz Lang

Ride the Pink Horse – Dorothy B. Hughes
Ride the Pink Horse - Robert Montgomery

A Coffin for Dimitrios – Eric Ambler
The Mask of Dimitrios - Jean Negulesco

Valerie and her Week of Wonders – Vitezslav Nezval
Valerie and her Week of Wonders - Jaromil Jires

The 10th Victim – Robert Shekley
The 10th Victim - Elio Petri

Red Lights – Georges Simenon
Red Lights - Cedric Kahn

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
Blade Runner - Ridley Scott

Great reading list, Michael. Those books and films would make for a great course on book-to-film adaptation.

You remind me that I did a scaled-down version of that myself this year. I had THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965), THE GIRL HUNTERS (1963) and THE QUIET AMERICAN (1958) all on one tape, so I read each book and then watched the movie version.

Man, you guys are the true Mobian Gods. For some odd reason, I stopped tracking my movies cold in the middle of August. Perhaps I knew that I would pale in comparison to Marty's list? Up to August 18th, I had seen 122 films in 2007. So I probably ended the year around 220 or so. I'll do better this year (2 flicks in already!).

First of 2007 - DEVIATION
Last of 2007 - CONTROL

Best films I saw for the first time in 2007:
OUT OF THE BLUE
THE HOST
CHILDREN OF MEN
CHILDREN OF GOD
SUMMER IN THE CAGE
THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY
BREACH
BEOWULF
JESUS CAMP
36
LETTERS FRO IWO JIMA
DRESS GREY
THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO
COCAINE COWBOYS
SICKO
ZODIAC
MULHOLLAND DR.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
MAC & ME

Worst films I saw for the first time in 2007:
MAC & ME (yes, it makes both lists)
UNDER THE RAINBOW
NOTHING BUT TROUBLE
TWIN SITTERS
BEASTIES
NIGHT SKIES
24 HOURS TO MIDNIGHT
INVASION (the Albert Pyun one; this is the champ)

Brian, I'd really been remiss in reading novels the last few years - like many of us concentrating more on film criticism, director bios, genre studies, etc. - and decided I needed to start reading more fiction again.

Once I started keeping track of my novels read, I realized there were some great movies based on the writers I was reading (Greene, Simenon, Woolrich, Ambler and others), and I started keeping track of both.

I'm at three already!

I actually understand this.

. . . OK, I am finally wondering how may films I plow through in a year - let's see, so far in 2008 I have seen three, the first one being KONGA (1961) - it would appear I have room for growth in a couple of ways . . .

Okay, all this talk of spreadsheets and notebooks and so on, here's a coincidence. Whenever I go to the cinema (which is a lot - I probably watch at least as many films in the cinema as I do at home) I keep the ticket and then whenever I get round to emptying my pocket of them I'll use that as a reminder to go and vote on the IMDb and then I just have a habit of chucking the tickets in a drawer. Seems like a bin would be better, but no...

Anyway, I'm moving house currently and clearing out loads of stuff and what do you know, I opened that drawer and... I swear, I think I've got almost every single ticket for the films I've seen in cinemas for close to the last decade.

Maybe I should have just kept a spreadsheet after all...

PS Doug, thank you for confirming I am not alone. Honor of the Knights felt like watching someone's home movie. A really bad home movie.
PPS First of 2008 - Michael Clayton. Very good, not excellent though.

I counted up 123 movies seen this year, with almost half of them (58) being Shaw Bros. DVDs/VCDs, all chronicled in a continuing Shaw Bros. thread over on the Asian Cinema board. I really plunged into those in the second half of the year.

I saw only 17 movies in theaters in 2007, probably the lowest amount of movies I’ve seen in a theater in one year since 1961. (Although 2006 may have been about the same or lower—I can’t find last year’s post on the subject.) Seven of those 17 were Asian and five of those were festival screenings.

I saw 12 other non-Shaw Bros. Asian movies on DVD, not counting anime.
I saw 29 non-Asian movies (mostly Hollywood, some Italian) on TV, tape or disc.
I saw seven anime movies on tape or disc, but dozens of anime TV eps., at least 75 by rough count, not counting the ones I had to watch to find clips for the four public presentations on anime I gave at different places in NYC in the course of the year.

I watched over two dozen Japanese live-action dramatic TV show episodes (Space Sheriff Gavan, Sukeban Deka, Shadow Warriors, some sentai shows, etc.).

And, finally, lots of J-pop stuff—over two dozen full-length concerts (at least ten different artists/groups represented), lots of music videos, a stage musical or two, and dozens of episodes of Morning Musume’s regular TV show, “Hello Morning,” esp. after my collection of same expanded after one of my internet fans gave me a stack of 41 computer disks with 54(!) older episodes on them. What a treasure. :D

I'm saving my "Best of" list for when we do that thread.

In 2008, I have to make a point of catching up on current/more recent anime, i.e. watch the ones I’ve already acquired. And not buy any more DVDs for a while until I get through the stacks that have been building up over the last few years. (Although 58 Shaw Bros. viewings helped reduce that pile, I’ve still got a long way to go.)

Oh, and I keep a hand-written journal of stuff I've watched in traditional composition books (no spirals). Hey, I'm old-school.

Okay what the hell are y’all eating for breakfast!? Thanks to a load of new commitments my film going is down a bit. I saw 86 in theaters (the only way for me to fly) and 16 on DVD. 7 of the 102 were repeat viewings.

First: PAN’S LABYRINTH
Last: CHILDREN OF MEN

20s - 2
40s - 2
50s - 4
60s - 2
70s - 3
80s - 3
90s - 3
00-05 - 16
06 - 27
07 - 40

3 – Germany
8 – Hong Kong
27 – India
16 – Japan
1 – Mexico/Spain
1 – Norway
1 – Russia
8 – South Korea
1 – Sweden
1 – Taiwan
2 – Thailand
5 – UK
28 – US

Best seen for the first time:
28 WEEKS LATER
99 RIVER STREET
BLACK FRIDAY
CASINO ROYALE
CHAK DE INDIA
CHILDREN OF MEN
CRY DANGER
DARK MATTER
DAY WATCH
DAYS OF HEAVEN
A DIRTY CARNIVAL
EKLAVYA
EXILED
FRAILTY
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
GRINDHOUSE
HANA
HOLLYWOOD CHINESE
IT'S ONLY TALK
JOHNNY GADDAAR
THE KING AND THE CLOWN
KWAIDAN
MEMORIES OF TOMORROW
THE MIST
NISHABD
THE OLD GARDEN
OWL AND THE SPARROW
PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY
PINJAR
PYAASA
SPIDER LILIES
SWING GIRLS
TRAFFIC SIGNAL
TRIAD ELECTION

Worst:
CASH
FULL N FINAL
PIRATES of the CARIBBEAN: AT WORLDS END
RAM GOPAL VARMA KI AAG
SICK NURSES
TA RA RUM PUM

I too did not understand the love given to PAN’S LABYRINTH. I managed to squeeze in the clever novel PERFUME but missed catching Tykwer’s film the single week it played here. Even with poor reviews and drives-me-nuts actor Hoffman I’m still looking forward to renting it.

I used to keep my records in notebooks then I moved onto Word docs and for past few years have been using Excel spreadsheets. I log the date I see the film along with title, year, country, theater, and rating (A+ thru F). The spreadsheets make it easier to compile lists like these and rearrange information quickly but because it’s more of a true list I no longer jot down notes like I did when I used Word.

PS – Don’t shorten your posts on our account – I love reading your lists!

PSS – What happened to Brian Camp in 1961? (RE: “…lowest amount of movies I’ve seen in a theater in one year since 1961.”)

I think that was the year his tastes ossified. :ph43r:

I usually only keep a list of the films I've seen that have actually been released that year. Since I never get to see all those "Oscar" movies until Jan or Feb of the next year, the movie year, for me, starts and ends with the date of the Academy Awards....

So far I'm at 89 released in 2007 (in theatres or direct to home video).
25 of those were actually seen in theatres, which is pretty high for me (lots of double features this year).
First (March 2nd): ZODIAC
an hour ago: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's RETRIBUTION (SAKEBI)

Here's a preliminary list of stand-outs (if I had to make one of those dang top ten lists right now):
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
VHS KAHLOUCHA
GONE BABY GONE

THE ISLAND (OSTROV)
THE LOOKOUT
BLACK BOOK

EASTERN PROMISES
MICHAEL CLAYTON
BUG

and special thanks to this board for pointing out Scorsese's
LA CLAVE RESERVA (THE KEY TO RESERVA). It may be the best Hitchcock imitation I've ever seen (Brian DePalma eat your heart out), especially for being framed in a joke...

I'll ignore Jeffrey's remark and point out that 1962 was the first year my siblings and I began going to the movies regularly without parental accompaniment and, thus, the first year we got to see a lot of movies. The theater that was closest to us stopped running Italian-language films that spring and began running triple bills of older Hollywood films and English-dubbed foreign films (e.g. lots of Italian sword-and-sandal movies), so we went there a lot. That was a great moviegoing summer.

Did anyone ever figure out if there was a Hitchcock cameo in the mix, or if Scorsese filled in?

That's probably for the best! But really - I'm just needling ya on a mindset I really am flummoxed by. It's just a low-level, amused frustration of sorts.

Please don't keep my baseball or nuthin', Mister. ;)

Paging Richard Harland Smith...

Aw, he'll just call somebody a midget for being under 6 foot. :P

I saw 349 films in 2007, not counting shorts. The vast majority of them were seen theatrically. Most of my DVD viewing consisted either of films I had to review but couldn't see in the theater or DVDs I had to review. I saw 195 new releases, and 154 older films.

Must admit that the majority of posters on this thread have me beat in terms of movies viewed in 2007. (For the record, my total of movies viewed for the first time -- I don't count repeat viewings -- came to 122.) Still, if you're interested in other numbers with regards to my 2007 movie viewing year, please go over to:-
http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.com/2...2007-movie.html