Last year I didn’t start writing posts about my monthly movie themes until April so I didn’t get to talk about Science Fiction Month. Science Fiction is one of my favorite genres of film. Since I didn’t get to talk about my 2022 selections, I will cover those first and then cover my 2023 selections.
Category: Monthly Movie Theme Page 2 of 3
Happy New Year! This list is going to be slightly different because I actually began watching Christmas movies in November. The day after Thanksgiving, while visiting family, we put on a couple of Christmas movies, including one I hadn’t seen yet.
Actually, I watched three movies between Thanksgiving and December 1st. I’m including them in this list because from (the day after) Thanksgiving to December 26th is the Christmas season.
Instead of picking another genre theme for the month of November, I decided to make it kind of a “catch-all”. Therefore November’s movie theme is Random. This could mean a random genre not represented in the other months—perhaps more minor or niche genres. Examples are sports movies, musicals, crime, biopics, etc. I may also make it themed based on a particular actor or franchise. For example, James Bond, which is the theme for this month (if you couldn’t tell from the title 🙂 ).
October is Halloween Month. This should be no surprise. Therefore the theme is essentially scary/thriller movies. My approach this month is a little different. Usually, I have a predefined list of movies I plan to watch for each themed month. However, during Halloween Month there are at least 2-3 movies we/I watch every year; The Nightmare Before Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Hocus Pocus.
Oddly enough The Nightmare Before Christmas is the only one that we did watch. Perhaps the month went by so quickly that we didn’t get around to the other two. Below are the other movies that I also watched this month.
September (2022) is Martial Arts month. I really enjoy watching martial arts films so I really wanted a month for them. It doesn’t matter if its English, dubbed or subtitled. Jackie Chan is probably my favorite martial arts actor but I have a lot of respect for Bruce Lee. Jet Li and Chow Yun-Fat are also some of my favorite martial artists. Below you will find that I have covered all of them in my selections this month.
The Legend of Drunken Master is, hands down, my favorite Jackie Chan movie. It’s terribly dubbed but at least Jackie Chan always dubs using his own voice. Enter the Dragon is the Bruce Lee movie. If you only watch one Bruce Lee movie, it should be Enter the Dragon. These two movies are the quintessential martial arts films (IMO).
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a wonderful movie starring Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang. I watch most of these movies as background while I am working (since I’ve seen every movie on my Plex server at least once). The lesson I learned with this movie, it’s hard to watch a movie with subtitles and work. A note for next time. I also learned, this movie has a sequel which I will have to check out sometime.
I’m not going to say much about the live-action Mulan, I’ve covered quite a bit when I wrote a review. It’s easily my favorite animation to live-action adaptation.
Bonus/Special Event Movies
There isn’t a special event movie in September, that I could find. If you know of some date reference in September that warrants watching the associated movie, let me know in the comments. However, I did get in a bonus movie. As I am trying to stay caught up in Phase 4 of the MCU, we watched Thor: Love and Thunder. I did enjoy it, with just a few minor criticisms.
(Click here to see last months theme selections)
“The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.”
– Stanley Kubrick
August (2022) is mystery movie month, again, for no particular reason. I do enjoy a good mystery whether it’s satirical, serious or comedic. The kinds of mystery movies I really like are ones that have subtle clues throughout the film and, if you follow them, you can figure it out before the end. Of course these kinds of movies are great the first time you watch them. Obviously you can’t experience that again when you re-watch the movie. However, if acting is good and the story is entertaining, then you can enjoy watching it again despite knowing “who dun it”.
Here are the mystery movies I chose to watch for August:
- Clue
- Knives Out
- The Bone Collector
- Gone Girl
- Mystic River
I feel like Clue and Knives Out are practically default choices for this genre. Clue is such a classic with a great cast. It’s probably the most entertaining movie that’s based off of a board game. Watching Knives Out was timely given that Rian Johnson recently released a trailer for the sequel. It’s looks so good.
Bonus/Special Event Movies
The special event movie for August is the 29th which is Judgement Day from the Terminator franchise. It is the day Skynet became self aware. I think, for this day, you could watch either the first one or the second one (although the second one is more relevant to the date). I chose to watch the first film this year; perhaps I will watch T2 next August 29th.
The bonus movie (i.e. a movie that I had time to watch and doesn’t necessarily pertain to the theme or a special event) is Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. It stars Zac Efron and it is about Ted Bundy. Portions of this movie were filmed just across the river from where I live. If you don’t mind how creepy Ted Bundy is, this film is quite interesting. It’s available to watch on Netflix.
/cheers