Weekly Updates

Week 31 of 2019 (7/29 – 8/4)

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DateTitleReleased
7/2920,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Hallmark)1997
7/30Omoo-Omoo the Shark God1949
7/31The Squeeze1987
8/1Central Intelligence2016
8/2The Wraith1986
8/3Stone of Destiny2008
8/4The Philadelphia Experiment2012

This was an interesting week, to be sure. I think I’m hitting that point in this challenge where it’s becoming a bit of a chore every day to find a movie and especially to set aside time to watch. I talked about this a little on my podcast yesterday, too. I think it’s not dissimilar to what marathon runners experience when they’re far into the run and kind of hit a wall. I’d like to think I will get past it and finish the year strong… but we’ll see.

This past week also marked an interesting anniversary for me. Ten years ago this past Tuesday, I arrived in L.A. to push forward on my acting career. I was I could say that everything went my way and I’m on the road to massive success… but I can’t. I mean, it could still be true, but it seriously is a road of hardship, pain and sometimes unchecked depression. But I’ve also had a few fun times along the way as well, and that’s life, isn’t it?

Week 29 of 2019 (7/15 – 7/21)

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COMIC-CON WEEK!!!

DateTitleReleased
7/15Batman and Harley Quinn2017
7/16Heroes Manufactured2016
7/17Comic Book Kingdom2018
7/18Future Shock!: The Story of 2000AD2014
7/19Backyard Blockbusters2012
7/20Cosplay Culture2017
7/21Supercon2018

This was an interesting week! Granted, I’d rather have been in San Diego for the con itself (someday!!), it was cool to learn some new things that aren’t all related to mass media itself. San Diego Comic-Con has been around for 50 years, and the giant media event it is now often overshadows the comics and their artists that got it started.

Anyway, I also wanted to share a couple of other shows that are similar to “Supercon”. I didn’t pick them for the Challenge because a) they’re not movies, and b) I’ve seen them. But they are terrific and a great laugh at the behind-the-scenes happenings at conventions. So be sure to check out:

  • Con Man (available for sale on a number of the major VOD platforms)
  • Kings of Con (available to watch over on the CW Seed website or app) and for sale on the same VOD platforms as Con Man

Week 27 of 2019 (7/1 – 7/7)

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America Week!!

DateTitleReleased
7/1Baywatch2017
7/2Navy Seals1990
7/3The Alamo1960
7/41776
The 4th		1972
2016
7/5Day Zero2007
7/6Green Dragon2001
7/7Brothers on the Line2012

This was an interesting week for sure. Most of the films I picked this week are either less known are not singled out for being super-patriotic. But to me, they collectively represent different parts of the American story. I mean come on, I even included a… musical.

I also had one film that stood out, if for no other reason than the response I got to picking it. And mainly because of this:

I may have been a little excited by this…

My natural reaction…

You know, there are days where it just feels like I’m posting this stuff just to do something… and, by and large, I obviously am. I’ve not been making money on this project. I’m just seeing if I can do a thing. So it’s nice when people like a thing you’re doing… especially when that thing happens to be liking the thing that they did!

Week 26 of 2019 (6/24 – 6/30)

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DateTitleReleased
6/24A Man Called Sarge1990
6/25Seat 252017
6/26The Next Three Days2010
6/27Cold Souls2009
6/28Eight Men Out1988
6/29Deathstalker1983
6/30Three Days of the Condor1975

Wow! We’ve kind of hit the halfway point for this challenge. I mean, I know the official halfway point is sometime on Tuesday. But ending this week and the month on the same day, with 26 weeks and 6 months down, feels more like the halfway point. Kind of like how the year 2000 was considered the turn of the millennium, although it was truly on 1/1/2001 (when the century changed). Not important to harp on, just worth sharing.

I have a feeling the back half of this challenge is going to get more interesting. Primarily for financial reasons, I’ve had to cut back on a lot of streaming subscriptions, and let’s face it folks, that stuff is NOT going to get easier soon as studios and networks each release their own subscription streaming service and take their content off of sites like Amazon or Netflix. (Disney will have at least two, now that it will wholly own Hulu as well). So finding opportunities to watch stuff has me going to backup plans. I still have Hoopla through the Atlanta public library system (yay!), which has some really interesting choices, and I’ve also got the old Netflix DVD subscription, so I can watch a wider array of more current films coming up in the year. I’m debating whether to hold on to my Amazon Prime account, since I mainly just use it for Prime Video these days. I rarely order anything anymore because I just don’t have the money. When that turns around, I’ll probably bring it back. Plus, it will get me off of bingeing TV shows when I should be working on stuff that will make me money!

Anyway, I’ll keep plugging away at this Movie Challenge, undaunted! (At least, until Dragon Con at the end of August… that could get interesting.)

I had planned a bit for this next week (covering the 4th of July holiday) to be filled with patriotic movies. Trouble is, I’ve seen almost all of the really good ones at this point. I did find enough movies to fit a good theme for the week, but you may find some of the choices interesting… But enjoy as we head into the back half of the year!

Week 25 of 2019 (6/17 – 6/23)

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It’s Hollywood Week for the Movie Challenge!
DateTitleReleased
6/17How to Make It in Hollywood2017
6/18The Hollywood Complex2011
6/19Strictly Background2007
6/20Actors of Sound2016
6/21Game Changers2018
6/22Life After Flash2017
6/23Chaos on the Bridge
Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s
“The Fantastic Four”		2014
2015

So this was an interesting week of films to watch. It started out tough for me, as it stirred up some internal stuff, but as the week went on I started feeling more upbeat with the movies I chose. They definitely helped to start breaking me out of a bit of a funk I’ve been in for quite some time. I thin a lot of it for me was just a rut that I fell into. I had hoped that this challenge, along with some cost-cutting measures, would break me of out if, but no joy so far.

But this weekend was interesting. I had a long power outage last night, followed by a long local Internet outage today. The former made me feel just miserable, behind I had no way to cool off enough to go to sleep until very early in the morning. But the latter provoked a surprisingly productive day. If nothing else, it reminded me that the Internet is an incredibly powerful distraction, especially for someone like me with major FOMO and a really bad perfectionist streak when it comes to consuming TV and film. If I start watching a show, I am often compelled to binge watch the whole damn thing, even to the detriment of other essential tasks that need to get done. Yes, there are apps and programs and the like to block off access to the Internet for periods of time, but that never helps me because I can usually circumvent them pretty quickly to get back to the sweet, sweet oblivion of TV…

Right! Yes… as I was saying, I’m going to start revving back up into the more productive ways I used to have just a few years ago. As long as I can make enough money to pay the bills and have a little left over to build the future, that’s just keen. Beyond that, who knows? Maybe something good will come out of all this.