At the beginning of the year, my wife and I decided that we'd like to watch more movies. There are 52 weeks in a year, 2 of us, and 26 letters in the alphabet. What better way to choose some movies than to go alphabetically? The only rule: Where possible, it should be a movie that one or more of us had never seen before. Oh, and ideally it should be part of one of the copious online streaming services we're already subscribed to, because why bother paying for a rental when we're not short of options?
Incidentally, if anyone from the big online streaming service providers is reading this (your Notfluxes or your Prims, for example), please make it easier to search for/sort movies alphabetically. Thanks.
Also, fair warning: There may well be movies that appear on this list that you'll find hard to believe I haven't seen before. It happens.
Previous letters are here: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
THE QUICK AND THE DEAD Director: Sam Raimi Stars: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe
Synopsis via IMDB: A female gunfighter returns to a frontier town where a dueling tournament is being held, which she enters in an effort to avenge her father's death.
I don't know that my eyebrows have ever raised more than the introduction to this movie, as the cast was appearing on the screen. What an absolute all-star cast this movie has! In addition to the cracking leads listed above, this movie has Leonardo DiCaprio, Keith David, Tobin Bell *and* Lance Henriksen just to name a few! When a movie boasts star power of this magnitude, it's hard to go wrong! I mean, Childs from The Thing, Bishop from Aliens and *Jigsaw*?! I do not understand how you can go wrong.
Happily, in case you thought I was setting this one up for a fall, this movie does not go wrong for me at all! I was enthralled from minute one, and the film kept me entertained the whole way through. I really can't fault it. The cast do their job exceptionally, with standout performances including Leonardo as a young brash gunslinger just trying to prove himself. The movie was stylish, the music was top-notch and didn't suffer from any pacing issues. In fact I was surprised at one point to pause the film to find that we were left with only twenty minutes to go, as the movie had flown by in the best possible way.
I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being my favourite movie when this is all said and done. Loved it.
Though Q only allowed for one movie, this one will 100% end up in the upper echelons of the movies I've seen. Absolutely excellent.
I've found myself reflecting a lot recently on the fact that I'm not currently on course to hit the 52 movies I was hoping for. Assuming I manage 2 per letter for the remainder (not by any means guaranteed as the world opens up and plans become more numerous), I'm currently looking at 49 out of 52 (I'm currently at 31 out of a possible 34). I'm not sure what I want to do about that (if anything), and I'd be interested for your thoughts via the usual channels. Ideas I've considered so far include:
- Slot some additional films into the gaps (any letter)
- Slot films from the missed letters (currently N, P and Q) over the remainder of the year
- Slot one additional film in and aim for an even 50
- Stop overthinking it and just enjoy some bloody films - let the numbers be what they are (I might not hit 2 per letter again anyway, so who knows whether any of these ideas will even matter?)
Anyway, did you enjoy the roundup? Let me know! If you have thoughts on the movies chosen and their respective writeups above, you know where to find me. Maybe you don't, but there are buttons everywhere to make that happen. Comments, Twitter, you name it. Moreover, if you want to make use of this movie night format, bearing in mind you're a few weeks in and might have to double up to get up to speed, feel free to do the same - I'd love to know what you chose too!
Rob Wade
Rob Wade blogs about stuff he likes. Whether it's video games or geek media for Emotionally14 or writing about speculative theories for future films on Talk Star Wars, the focus has always been on the stuff that brings the most pleasure to his life within media.
Rob is the editor of Emotionally14, and showrunner of the E14 podcasts "The Crazy Train", "The E14 Gamecast" and "Talk Star Wars", as well as the host and guest of a number of pieces on E14's Youtube channel over the years.
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