Numbing my brain 2022
I had a sh***y 2021. Now I'm numbing my brain, watching movies.
I have been updating this list throughout 2022, as I watched more. It turned into a challenge to watch 365 movies during 2022, which I reached on Dec 21. I ended up watching a total of 369 productions during the year!
I used this extremely blunt scale:
1/4 - A bit painful.
2/4 - It has ... something.
3/4 - Good, but didn't blow me away.
4/4 - This is something special.
Some statistics to add now in the last few hours of 2022:
* Average IMDB rating: 7.02
* Average runtime: 105 minutes
* Top keywords: murder (136), death (133), blood (121), violence (120), husband wife relationship (90). What can I say? :)
* Top genres: drama (183), action (94), crime (75), mystery (45), war (41)
* Top decades: 2000's (95), 2010's (88), 2020's (44), 1980's (37), 1990's (31)
* Top directors: Rainer Hartleb (6), Roman Polanski (4), Alfred Hitchcock (4), John Huston (4)
* Top stars: Matt Damon (5), Arnold Schwarzenegger (4), Jackie Chan (4), Mark Wahlberg (4), Philip Seymour Hoffman (4)
For 2023 I have a new challenge: to watch productions from as many different countries as possible :)
I have been updating this list throughout 2022, as I watched more. It turned into a challenge to watch 365 movies during 2022, which I reached on Dec 21. I ended up watching a total of 369 productions during the year!
I used this extremely blunt scale:
1/4 - A bit painful.
2/4 - It has ... something.
3/4 - Good, but didn't blow me away.
4/4 - This is something special.
Some statistics to add now in the last few hours of 2022:
* Average IMDB rating: 7.02
* Average runtime: 105 minutes
* Top keywords: murder (136), death (133), blood (121), violence (120), husband wife relationship (90). What can I say? :)
* Top genres: drama (183), action (94), crime (75), mystery (45), war (41)
* Top decades: 2000's (95), 2010's (88), 2020's (44), 1980's (37), 1990's (31)
* Top directors: Rainer Hartleb (6), Roman Polanski (4), Alfred Hitchcock (4), John Huston (4)
* Top stars: Matt Damon (5), Arnold Schwarzenegger (4), Jackie Chan (4), Mark Wahlberg (4), Philip Seymour Hoffman (4)
For 2023 I have a new challenge: to watch productions from as many different countries as possible :)
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- DirectorGeorge ClooneyStarsGeorge ClooneyMatt DamonBill MurrayAn unlikely World War II platoon is tasked to rescue art masterpieces from German thieves and return them to their owners.2/4. Not very funny, still kind of okay.
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorWes AndersonStarsJared GilmanKara HaywardBruce WillisTwo 12-year-olds, who live on an island, fall in love with each other and elope into the wilderness. While people set out on a search mission, a violent storm approaching them catches their attention.3/4. Quirky, of course. Only 2nd Wes Andersson movie I've managed to watch from start to end.
(8 Jan, 2022) - StarsHarry HamlinPatrick BauchauKabir BediPaul Hood is the newly appointed director of the OP Center, a special agency gathering a wide variety of experts monitoring international crisis. On his first day on the job, nuclear missiles are stolen from the former Soviet Union by terrorists. The team must find out who did it, why, and most importantly, where they are heading so they can retrieve them.1/4. Holy crap, the cheesy 90's and 4:3 format because apparently produced as TV show but now sold as a movie on DVD.
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorAdam McKayStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJennifer LawrenceMeryl StreepTwo low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn humankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.4/4. Very much needed punch in the face. And I went in blind, thought it was a drama at first (and that made me especially intrigued in the first scene I think, and perhaps the concept also could work as a pure, serious, very cynical drama).
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorKathryn BigelowStarsHarrison FordSam SpruellPeter StebbingsWhen Russia's first nuclear submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the crew must race to save the ship and prevent a nuclear disaster.2/4. Didn't really resonate with me.
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsMichael KeatonZach GalifianakisEdward NortonA washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.3/4. Intense, creative.
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorMarc ForsterStarsBrad PittMireille EnosDaniella KerteszFormer United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop a zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatens to destroy humanity itself.3/4. And I hate zombie movies.
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsJoseph Gordon-LevittCharlotte Le BonBen KingsleyIn 1974, high-wire artist Philippe Petit recruits a team of people to help him realize his dream: to walk the immense void between the World Trade Center towers.4/4. Zemeckis knows what he's doing.
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorWerner HerzogStarsChristian BaleSteve ZahnJeremy DaviesA U.S. fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.3/4. The real thing; better than a random Chuck Norris M.I.A. movie.
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorPercy AdlonStarsMarianne SägebrechtCCH PounderJack PalanceA lonely German woman ends up in the most desolate motel on Earth and decides to make it brighter.2/4. I don't like people screaming. But in the end feelgood.
(8 Jan, 2022) - DirectorMauro BorrelliStarsSevy Di CioneAdam GreenMark HengstThe Indian descendent Sean comes to a forest with his friends Josh and Flipp trying to find the track to a mysterious cursed tree and a secret burial ground. His grandfather wrote a journal about the love of the Indian Satinka and the son of the medicine man of their tribe one hundred and twenty years ago, and how Satinka was trapped in a tree by an evil spirit. Meanwhile, the girlfriends Jennifer and Kiyomi are searching for flowers in the same woods. When Flipp and Kiyomi vanish, their friends meet each other and stay together while a deranged hunter chases new victims for the vengeful spirit of the tree.1/4. Let's shoot in the woods because it doesn't require a permit, desaturated brown tone ugly look and some shots out of focus, but still better than average B-movie. But, unfortunately not so bad it's good.
(9 Jan, 2022) - DirectorAmanda KernellStarsMaj-Doris RimpiOlle SarriÁnne Biret SombyA reindeer-breeding Sámi girl who is exposed to the racism of the 1930's at her boarding school, starts dreaming of another life. But to achieve it, she has to become someone else and break all ties with her family and culture.3/4. Beautiful and sad.
(9 Jan, 2022) - DirectorLee DanielsStarsGabourey SidibeMo'NiquePaula PattonIn New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that she can re-route her life in a better direction.3/4. Horrifying, sad and touching.
(10 Jan, 2022) - DirectorBob RafelsonStarsJack NicholsonKaren BlackBilly Green BushA dropout from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.2/4. Many bad decisions. A lot of talking. Nothing really excited me.
(10 Jan, 2022) - DirectorTony GilroyStarsJulia RobertsClive OwenTom WilkinsonTwo corporate spies become embroiled in a clandestine love affair.2/4. Clive Owen is good. I don't like Julia Roberts though. Too much of "four years later", "two years earlier" etc.
(12 Jan, 2022) - DirectorBilly WilderStarsWilliam HoldenDon TaylorOtto PremingerAfter two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.3/4. Nice surprise. Only Billy Wilder movie I've watched. Quite theatrical, but still okay, and apparently it's also based on a stage play. Fun to see Peter Graves in an early role.
(12 Jan, 2022) - DirectorTony ScottStarsChristian SlaterPatricia ArquetteDennis HopperIn Detroit, a pop-culture enthusiast steals cocaine from his new wife's pimp and tries to sell it in Hollywood, prompting the mobsters who own the drugs to pursue the couple.3/4. Tarantino is having fun. I guess I would've enjoyed this much more 25 years ago though; it's too puerile now.
(13 Jan, 2022) - DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsHugh JackmanRachel WeiszSean Patrick ThomasAs a modern-day scientist, Tommy is struggling with mortality, desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi.2/4. Beautiful music. For some reason they made this movie look ugly; this brown and yellow color grading, I don't get it.
(14 Jan, 2022) - DirectorAntti-Jussi AnnilaStarsTommi KorpelaSidse Babett KnudsenHannu-Pekka BjörkmanOne night of 1930, nationalist thugs violently abduct Ketola from his home in Finland. Beaten and forced to walk the Eternal Road towards a foreign Soviet Russia, his only dream is to return to his family cost it what it may.2/4. Horrifying, sad, beautiful, well made, creative even, but just didn't deliver perhaps partly because I found it a bit confusing. But based on true events, a part of history which I did not know about.
(15 Jan, 2022) - DirectorPaul McGuiganStarsJosh HartnettBen KingsleyMorgan FreemanA case of mistaken identity lands Slevin into the middle of a war being plotted by two of the city's rival crime bosses. Under constant surveillance by Detective Brikowski and assassin Goodkat, he must get them before they get him.3/4. Witty dialogue. One of those movies explaining it all at the end, which doesn't always work out well, but I think this was alright. Quite ugly looking movie though. Why?
(15 Jan, 2022) - DirectorDario ArgentoStarsDavid HemmingsDaria NicolodiGabriele LaviaA jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after the former witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic.3/4. Odd piece of art this. (For the record, since there are several version out there, I watched the 127 minute director's cut released by Arrow.)
(17 Jan, 2022) - DirectorsJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsGabriel ByrneAlbert FinneyJohn TurturroTom Reagan, an advisor to a Prohibition-era crime boss, tries to keep the peace between warring mobs but gets caught in divided loyalties.3/4. Gabriel Byrne is excellent.
(19 Jan, 2022) - DirectorDanny BoyleStarsEwan McGregorEwen BremnerJonny Lee MillerRenton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.3/4. Fun and disturbing.
(19 Jan, 2022) - DirectorJohn 'Bud' CardosStarsErnest BorgnineRobert VaughnOliver ReedDuring the Angola Civil War, CIA agent Michael Smith is captured by the Communists, prompting a rescue mission organized by his father aided by hired mercenaries.2/4. Partly B-movie fun nonsense action. Other than that, not so bad it's good.
(20 Jan, 2022) - DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.2/4. 100 years old this year. Anyway, it was okay, and I especially liked the music. And apparently I have a 71 minute version DVD, with English intertitles (from late 1920s I believe) and the names changed "back" to the English novel's original names (as the German movie had German names); bummer, I was hoping for the original as much as possible.
(21 Jan, 2022)
