Everything I Saw in the First Half of 2014

This year it has been much harder for me to get to the movie and even to watch movies at home than during any other time in my life. Having a three and a half year old child certainly doesn't make movie-going any easier. It's actually gotten harder as he is more demanding about the attention I give him and he goes to bed later than he used to. So during an evening when I'm home, he might go to bed as late as nine o'clock. Often by that time there are no shows left. Even if there were, I've lost the stamina for late movies. That is due mainly to a new job I started in November. Not only do I have a nearly two hour commute in each direction, but a dinner shift in my restaurant means the earliest I get home on a weeknight is just about 1:30. On the weekend I'm often home at about 3:30 am. A lunch shift means I have to be up around 7. So any evening that I'm not working, I've either been up since 7 after sleeping, at best, six hours, but sometimes as little as four, or I have to be up at 7 the next morning and so I don't really want to get home from a movie after midnight.

I watched 80 feature films, but only 77 different ones as two were repeats and one was with DVD commentary. As compared to the same period last year, that's seven films down or only three down if you count only different films within the six months.

Of the 77 different films I saw, 58 were films I had never seen before, which is a huge jump over last year's 46. I spent more time on repeat viewing last year. I saw twenty-two films in the cinema, which is actually only two down from last year. So that's a bit surprising.

Of course there were also the Oscar-nominated short films. So I saw a total of sixteen short films, fifteen of those in the cinema. And as for TV episodes, I got through all ten episodes of "Band of Brothers" again as well as the seven episodes (twice for one of them) of this year's "Mad Men" season.

I also posted 56 new reviews (40 full length) for films seen in the first six months. That's exactly what I managed in the first six months of last year, but this year I was slightly ahead on the full length versus short cut review breakdown.

Wow! After adding up the numbers it appears as if I'm just about on par with last year even though it feels like I've done far less. Interesting observation. Let's see what happens in the next six months (or next five as I'm writing this a month too late).

So here's the list of everything I watched (TV episodes and movies, though not counting an occasional "Seinfeld" episode on late night TV). Included, as I've done the last couple of years, is the date I watched and the format for the viewing.

23.6 The Fault in Our Stars (cinema)

22.6 Airplane! (Netflix streaming)*

16.6 The Immigrant (cinema)

15.6 Lone Survivor (HD online streaming)*

13.6 Black Hawk Down (Netflix streaming)*

11.6 Ida (cinema)

10.6 Everyone Says I Love You (DVD)*

5.6 Much Ado About Nothing (Netflix streaming)*

1.6 "Points" ep. 10 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

1.6 "Why We Fight" ep. 9 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

31.5 Palo Alto (cinema)

31.5 "The Last Patrol" ep. 8 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

31.5 "The Breaking Point" ep. 7 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

30.5 "Bastogne" ep. 6 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

29.5 "Crossroads" ep. 5 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

28.5 "Replacements" ep. 4 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

26.5 "Carentan" ep. 3 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

26.5 "Waterloo" s. 7 ep. 7 of Mad Men (download)

24.5 "Day of Days" ep. 2 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

23.5 "Currahee" ep.1 of Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray)*

22-23.5 Nanook of the North (DVD)*

21.5 "The Strategy" s. 7 ep. 6 of Mad Men* (download)

18.5 "The Strategy" s. 7 ep. 6 of Mad Men (streaming)

17.5 Belle (cinema)

15.5 Wakolda [The German Doctor] (cinema)

13.5 The Thief of Bagdad (cinema with live music accompaniment)

12.5 "The Runaways" s.7 ep. 5 of Mad Men (download)

10-11.5 Woody Allen: A Documentary (Netflix streaming)

10.5 Como agua para chocolate [Like Water for Chocolate] (Netflix streaming)

8.5 Stand Up Guys (Netflix streaming)

7.5 "Monolith" s. 7 ep. 4 of Mad Men (download)

4.5 Duck Soup (Netflix streaming)*

4.5 Brokeback Mountain (DVD)*

2.5 Nanook of the North (DVD)

1.5 Senna (Netflix streaming)

29.4 - 1.5 56 Up (Netflix streaming)

30.4 Only Lovers Left Alive (cinema)

28.4 Häxan (with DVD commentary)*

28.4 "The Field Trip" s. 7 ep. 3 of Mad Men (download)

27.4 The Armstrong Lie (download)

27.4 E.T. (DVD)*

26.4 The Unknown Known (iTunes)

26.4 Häxan (DVD)

24.4 Under the Skin (cinema)

23-24.4 Nymphomaniac volume II (iTunes)

23.4 "A Day's Work" s. 7 ep. 2 of Mad Men (download)

16.4 Bright Star (DVD)*

16.4 "Time Zones" s. 7 ep. 1 of Mad Men (AMC streaming)

10.4 Field of Dreams (Blu-Ray)*

3.4 Nymphomaniac volume 1 (iTunes)

2.4 Noah (cinema)

2.4 Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor (DVD - animated short)

2.4 Life According to Sam (download)

1-2.4 The Act of Killing (Netflix streaming)

28.3 Enemy (cinema)

27.3 Tim's Vermeer (cinema)

21.3 The Grand Budapest Hotel (cinema)

18.3 Rushmore (Blu-Ray)*

13.3 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (HD online streaming)*

11.3 L.A. Confidential (DVD)*

6.3 Captain Phillips (DVD)*

4.3 Rush (DVD)

28.2 The Wind Rises (cinema)

27.2 Omar (cinema)

18-20.2 Prisoners (DVD)*

13.2 The Square (Netflix streaming)

12-13.2 Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (download)

12.2 Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall (Oscar-nominated doc short film - cinema)

12.2 CaveDigger (Oscar-nominated doc short film - cinema)

12.2 Facing Fear (Oscar-nominated doc short film - cinema)

12.2 Karama Has No Walls (Oscar-nominated doc short film - cinema)

12.2 The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Oscar-nominated doc short film - cinema)

11.2 Despicable Me 2 (DVD)

11.2 20 Feet from Stardom (DVD)

11.2 Short Term 12 (Blu-Ray)

7.2 Fruitvale Station (DVD)

6.2 Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? [Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?] (Oscar-nominated live action short film - cinema)

6.2 Aquel No Era Yo [That Wasn't Me] (Oscar-nominated live action short film - cinema)

6.2 Avant Que de Tout Perdre [Just Before Losing Everything] (Oscar-nominated live action short film - cinema)

6.2 The Voorman Problem (Oscar-nominated live action short film - cinema)

6.2 Helium (Oscar-nominated live action short film - cinema)

6.2 Room on the Broom (Oscar-nominated animated short film - cinema)

6.2 Possessions (Oscar-nominated animated short film - cinema)

6.2 Feral (Oscar-nominated animated short film - cinema)

6.2 Mr. Hublot (Oscar-nominated animated short film - cinema)

6.2 Get a Horse! (Oscar-nominated animated short film - cinema)*

4.2 August: Osage County (cinema)

1-4.2 Magnolia (DVD)*

4.2 Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (DVD)

30.1 The Counselor (download)*

26.1 The Invisible Woman (cinema)

25.1 Ernest & Célestine (download)

25.1 The Croods (DVD)

24.1 Two Lives (download - no US commercial release)

23.1 The Lone Ranger (Blu-Ray)

19.1 The Book Thief (download)

17.1 The Broken Circle Breakdown (download)

17.1 The Spectacular Now (DVD)

17.1 Computer Chess (Netflix streaming)

16.1 The Grandmaster (download)

16.1 Despicable Me (DVD)

14.1 Her (cinema)

11.1 Lone Survivor (cinema)

11.1 The Past (cinema)

9.1 The Hunt (DVD)

6-8.1 Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (download)

6.1 The Crash Reel (download)

6.1 Epic (Blu-Ray)

5.1 A Letter to Momo (download)

4.1 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (cinema)

3.1 The Wolf of Wall Street (cinema)

3.1 Cutie & the Boxer (Netflix streaming)

2.1 The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (Netflix streaming)*

1.1 Inside Llewyn Davis (cinema)