Friday, January 9, 2015

Announcing: Steve’s Selections

In 2015 I will have a new kind of post.  Oh, it will still be a movie review, but the origin of it will be different.  Instead of just doing reviews for a set of films all having something in common, I will be also be reviewing films suggested to me by Steve Honeywell at 1001plus.  In return he will be reviewing films that I have suggested to him.

Last year I noticed Steve doing this with another blogger and I liked the concept.  Hell, the biggest reason I started and have continued this site is to recommend films, books, hikes, etc. to others.  Unless someone comes back afterwards to leave a comment telling you what they thought of the film, though, you never really know what people’s reactions were.  This way you can read a review of the film from a person whose opinion you respect.

Steve and I will be doing one review a month - posting them on the second Monday.  The first one up will be my next post in three days’ time.

Steve and I each selected films we liked and genuinely hoped the other would like, too.  There is a chance, though, that I might get done watching one of the films Steve selected and I find that it’s not one I would recommend to others.  (“Recommended” means a rating of three stars or higher.)  To date I have only written full reviews for movies I would recommend.  On the chance that I have a selection from Steve that I would not recommend I will still be writing a full review.  This is a change in concept for this site.  (That’s why I only have Labels for 3, 4, and 5 star films.)

Each of us tried to pick a wide range of genres, rather than concentrating on only one or two that we particularly liked.  The only real criteria are that these had to be films that the other had not yet seen.  (Both of us were going to assign 1989’s Dead Again to the other, but each of us had already watched it.) 

Steve additionally asked me to pick films not on one of his Oscar lists since he was going to see those at some point anyway, so he therefore was looking to see great movies he might not otherwise have ever watched.

Without further ado, here are the 12 films Steve has selected for me:


And here are the ones I chose for Steve and his reviews of them:

6 comments:

  1. Looking forward to it. I'm really curious to hear your reactions on a couple of those. A few of my selections are...risky.

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  2. Those are some good films Steve picked out for you. "I'm a Cyborg, but that's Ok" is really unique and funny. I'm looking forward to reading these reviews (and Steve's on his 1001 page too)

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    1. Thanks. I'm hoping Steve and I will have fun with it.

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  3. Pardon me, but allow me to drool over Assassination of Jesse James for a few seconds. Sure, I can understand the opinions against the film, how it's rather slow-paced and meandering and not concise in the least, but my. freaking. god, the cinematography. I might be mistaken, but that film probably single-handedly made me a fan of Roger Deakins. I will definitely be looking forward to your review of that one the most.

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    1. One of the things that will be good about this is Steve picked some films that I had heard of and figured I'd see, but for whatever reason had never gotten around to watching. The Assassination of Jesse James is one of them.

      However, if I'm noticing the cinematography then the film probably isn't having the biggest impact on me. If I get caught up in a movie I don't notice anything about the art of the making of it; I just experience it as a whole. If the cinematography is the thing I'm noticing the most then it may not end up being a good movie for me. An example just from the last month is Songs from the Second Floor. I came away from it thinking "lots of great images in search of a plot." We'll see how I react to this one.

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