Top 10 of 2015

As an avid movie watcher it is important to reflect on the year. What I've seen. What I liked and disliked. Keeping a running tally of what I'm watching as the year moves on week by week and month by month brings me pleasure. Logging not only what I've seen, but what stood out to me. By the end of the year I generally have a substantial list of standout films that will be narrowed down into a Top 20. This is a process I've done annually since before starting my site in 2008. It is a practice that I intend to continue until the day I die. Not because ranking movies is important, but more so because it allows me a chance to reflect on what called to me over a year. Trends that were noticed. A chance to think about why a particular film spoke to me. What's the value I found in it? These lists are an easy conversation starter along with being a gauge on my taste(s) as an omnivorous movie watcher.

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Thoughts on The Force Awakens

There's a new Star Wars movie out if you hadn't noticed. This started simply as me keeping a running stream of my thoughts on the new Star Wars movie "The Force Awakens" but then I started thinking it would be fun to share it with others who also want to discuss and talk about the latest chapter in Star Wars and its ramification on the saga. Everything below includes massive spoilers, so if you haven't seen the film you may want to steer clear from this post, This is something to read and enjoy following your own viewing(s). Something for us fans to geek out about. Dissecting the story and supposing what may come. This conversation will continue in my own draft but this is how I feel after having seen The Force Awakens twice.

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In Defense of, Intense Violence

Today's mainstream movies are plagued by bloodless violence. Violence missing the kind of intensity that stays with you after the fact. How many PG13 movies where alien lifeforms, mutants, heroes and villains alike die without spilling one drop of blood have we seen? While studios are trying to increase their profit margin with ratings that allow kids into theaters without adult supervision this trend, fad or whatever you want to call it is bad for the youth. Audiences need to see death with real impact not death with no impact. They need to see violence that hurts. In defense of intense violence...

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