A couple of years ago, a friend of mine set out to watch 52 new-to-him movies in one year. Not to be outdone, last year, i made a goal to watch 366 new-to-me films, one for each day of the year (it was a leap year). It was a lofty goal, but on weekends where i didn’t have a lot going on, i figured i could watch a bunch of movies, to cache up for days where i couldn’t.

My parameters were that the movie had to be one that i had never seen before, it had to be of sufficient length that it could be generously considered “feature length” (i settled on around 75 minutes for that), and documentaries would count so long as they met the length requirement. After each film, i wrote down a few paragraphs of review in a Field Notes notebook, gave the movie a rating, and recorded it in my spreadsheet.

For the first couple months, i did really well; i had ended up banking a good 20 or 30 movies ahead. However, sometime around April, i landed a big project at work that frequently kept me late. When May came around i was able to pick up steam again, but after a few weeks, i found i was getting burnt out on watching movies altogether. It was hard to muster the attention span. Sadly, this was when the whole project fell apart. I started slipping behind, going an entire week without watching anything. Not even an episode of a television show. I It’s sad when your goals die.

But, some stats: The first movie of the year was fun spy romp Burn After Reading, on January first. The last recorded movie of the year was the biopic about Mexican rock singer Gloria Trevi, Gloria, which i watched on September 25th. I know i had seen a few more movies after that point (both a Star Wars movie and a Harry Potter film came out that autumn afterall) but by this point i apparently had given up on notating what i had seen.

The 146 recorded films combined totaled 10 days, 19 hours, and 47 minutes. The average movie i watched was made in 2004. The average rating was 3.28 stars out of 5. There were nine movies that i gave 5 stars: The Enemy Below, Diplomacy, Mad Max: Fury Road, Othello, War of the Buttons, Closer to the Moon, The Conversation, Amadeus, and Look Who’s Back. I only had two 1 star movies: Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning and Bad Ass 3: Bad Asses on the Bayou. I would not recommend either of these two films.

So what did i learn? There were a lot of good movies that i had missed growing up. There were a lot of bad movies that i ended up enjoying despite their badness. And there were a lot of really amazing movies made over the years. I regret not seeing it out, but that’s a lot of movies to watch, and i honestly made it further than i thought i would.

The Movies

Movie Year Released Length Date Watched Rating
Burn After Reading 2008 96m 2016-01-01 2/5
Howard the Duck 1986 111m 2016-01-02 2/5
The Enemy Below 1957 98m 2016-01-03 5/5
In Bruges 2008 107m 2016-01-03 4/5
Blade Runner 1982 117m 2016-01-04 4/5
The Station Agent 2003 89m 2016-01-06 3/5
Star Wreck 2005 103m 2016-01-07 1/5
Diplomacy 2014 88m 2016-01-07 5/5
Stop or My Mom Will Shoot 1992 87m 2016-01-09 2/5
Zero Motivation 2014 100m 2016-01-09 4/5
This Must Be the Place 2011 118m 2016-01-09 3/5
Blade 1998 120m 2016-01-10 3/5
If Looks Could Kill 1991 88m 2016-01-10 2/5
The Propaganda Game 2015 75m 2016-01-10 3/5
Sisters 2015 118m 2016-01-12 3/5
The War Room 1993 96m 2016-01-13 4/5
General Idi Amin Dada 1975 90m 2016-01-13 3/5
Quigley Down Under 1990 119m 2016-01-14 3/5
The Revenant 2015 156m 2016-01-15 4/5
The Special Relationship 2010 93m 2016-01-16 3/5
Demolition Man 1993 115m 2016-01-17 3/5
The Death of Superman Lives 2015 104m 2016-01-17 3/5
Mad Max Fury Road 2015 120m 2016-01-17 5/5
Bad Asses on the Bayou 2015 85m 2016-01-18 1/5
Lost in La Mancha 2002 93m 2016-01-20 3/5
Dune 1984 137m 2016-01-21 3/5
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 2011 137m 2016-01-22 4/5
11:14 2003 85m 2016-01-23 3/5
Bad Words 2014 89m 2016-01-23 4/5
Kelly’s Heroes 1970 144m 2016-01-23 4/5
The Warriors 1979 92m 2016-01-23 4/5
Viva La Libertà 2013 94m 2016-01-24 3/5
Meet the Patels 2015 88m 2016-01-24 3/5
Django Unchained 2012 185m 2016-01-24 3/5
The Numbers Station 2013 89m 2016-01-27 2/5
Jodorowsky’s Dune 2014 88m 2016-01-28 4/5
Wetlands 2013 109m 2016-01-29 3/5
Hyde Park on Hudson 2012 94m 2016-01-30 4/5
House 1977 88m 2016-01-30 2/5
The French Minister 2013 113m 2016-02-02 3/5
The Punisher 2004 123m 2016-02-03 3/5
A Band Called Death 2013 96m 2016-02-04 4/5
Alien 1979 117m 2016-02-05 4/5
Othello 1995 123m 2016-02-06 5/5
Hackers 1995 107m 2016-02-06 3/5
The Dungeon Masters 2008 87m 2016-02-07 3/5
This Ain’t California 2012 100m 2016-02-07 4/5
War of the Buttons 2011 100m 2016-02-09 5/5
The Princess and the Frog 2009 97m 2016-02-10 4/5
Deadpool 2016 106m 2016-02-11 4/5
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2005 103m 2016-02-13 3/5
I Am Yours 2013 100m 2016-02-13 3/5
The Wolf of Wall Street 2013 180m 2016-02-13 4/5
Closer to the Moon 2014 112m 2016-02-14 5/5
The Conversation 1974 113m 2016-02-14 5/5
The Castle 1997 85m 2016-02-15 3/5
Northern Soul 2014 102m 2016-02-16 3/5
Hail Caesar 2016 106m 2016-02-18 4/5
Saving Grace 2000 94m 2016-02-18 3/5
They Live 1988 93m 2016-02-19 4/5
Evolution 2001 101m 2016-02-20 2/5
We Need to Talk About Kevin 2011 112m 2016-02-21 3/5
The Signal 2014 97m 2016-02-22 4/5
Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014 136m 2016-02-24 4/5
Wagon’s East 1994 107m 2016-02-27 2/5
A Picture of You 2014 83m 2016-02-28 4/5
Piku 2015 122m 2016-02-29 3/5
Highlander 1986 116m 2016-03-02 2/5
The Experimenter 2015 98m 2016-03-03 4/5
Everybody’s All-American 1988 127m 2016-03-06 3/5
State and Main 2000 105m 2016-03-06 4/5
Sweet Liberty 1986 106m 2016-03-06 2/5
Spy 2015 119m 2016-03-07 3/5
The World’s End 2013 109m 2016-03-08 4/5
Rescue Dawn 2007 120m 2016-03-10 4/5
He Never Died 2015 99m 2016-03-12 3/5
Quadrophenia 1979 117m 2016-03-12 3/5
Jubilee 1978 103m 2016-03-12 2/5
The Concert 2009 119m 2016-03-12 4/5
Quartet 2013 98m 2016-03-13 3/5
Watchmen 2009 162m 2016-03-18 4/5
Dope 2015 103m 2016-03-19 4/5
Murder of a President 2016 111m 2016-03-19 3/5
Best of Enemies 2015 87m 2016-03-20 4/5
Daddy’s Home 2015 96m 2016-03-27 2/5
The Berkley Marathons 2014 89m 2016-04-05 3/5
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 2002 113m 2016-04-05 3/5
Other People’s Money 1991 103m 2016-04-06 2/5
No Robaras 2013 95m 2016-04-07 3/5
Mr. Kaplan 2014 98m 2016-04-09 4/5
A Hijacking 2012 103m 2016-04-12 4/5
Amadeus 1984 160m 2016-04-16 5/5
Outrage 2010 109m 2016-04-22 3/5
The Young Kieslowski 2014 94m 2016-04-22 3/5
Lars and the Real Girl 2007 106m 2016-04-23 4/5
San Andreas 2015 114m 2016-04-23 2/5
Look Who’s Back 2015 116m 2016-04-24 5/5
Exporting Raymond 2011 86m 2016-04-24 3/5
I Don’t Know Whether to Slit My Wrists or Leave Them Long 2013 103m 2016-04-25 4/5
Volando Bajo 2014 96m 2016-04-27 3/5
Don Verdean 2015 90m 2016-04-28 3/5
The Bank Job 2008 111m 2016-04-29 3/5
Happy-Go-Lucky 2008 118m 2016-04-29 2/5
Spy Game 2001 126m 2016-04-30 3/5
Mystery Team 2009 97m 2016-04-30 3/5
Moonwalkers 2015 107m 2016-04-30 4/5
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2015 122m 2016-05-01 4/5
Get Shorty 1995 105m 2016-05-01 3/5
The Dream Team 1989 113m 2016-05-01 2/5
Revolver Rani 2014 132m 2016-05-01 2/5
Special Correspondents 2016 100m 2016-05-02 2/5
3 Days in Havana 2013 83m 2016-05-02 3/5
Gold 2014 88m 2016-05-04 3/5
The Burbs 1989 101m 2016-05-04 4/5
Fantastic Four 2005 106m 2016-05-04 2/5
The Hoax 2007 116m 2016-05-05 4/5
The Great Gatsby 1974 144m 2016-05-05 4/5
Captain America: Civil War 2016 146m 2016-05-05 4/5
To Catch a Thief 1955 106m 2016-05-06 4/5
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 2015 116m 2016-05-07 2/5
The War of the Buttons 1994 94m 2016-05-07 3/5
The Bonfire of the Vanities 1990 125m 2016-05-07 3/5
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine 2015 128m 2016-05-08 3/5
4th Man Out 2015 86m 2016-05-08 3/5
Twilight 1998 94m 2016-05-10 2/5
The Girl King 2015 106m 2016-05-12 4/5
Trainspotting 1996 94m 2016-05-12 4/5
Reel Injun 2009 86m 2016-05-14 3/5
Cairo Time 2009 90m 2016-05-14 3/5
Constantine 2005 121m 2016-05-14 3/5
The Snapper 1993 91m 2016-05-14 3/5
Lost Heroes 2014 108m 2016-05-15 3/5
Paraíso 2015 105m 2016-05-16 3/5
Fantastic Four 2015 100m 2016-05-17 3/5
St. Vincent 2014 102m 2016-05-19 4/5
Miss Representation 2011 85m 2016-05-21 3/5
Firewall 2006 105m 2016-05-21 2/5
Hellboy 2004 122m 2016-05-21 4/5
Vampire in Brooklyn 1995 102m 2016-05-22 2/5
X-Men: Age of Apocalpyse 2016 144m 2016-05-31 4/5
Ghostbusters 2016 118m 2016-07-15 4/5
The Killing Joke 2016 76m 2016-07-23 3/5
Star Trek Beyond 2016 122m 2016-07-28 3/5
The Big Short 2015 130m 2016-09-25 4/5
Gloria 2015 126m 2016-09-25 4/5