Wednesday, January 3, 2007

BACKGROUND: A Girl With Goals

I am a girl with goals. Well, I am at least a girl with a yearly goal. It all started three years ago in 2004, when I set a goal for myself to read 25 books within one year. This goal was prompted by a friend of mine who claimed he read 50 books every year. I thought "I don't know about 50, but I bet I could read half of that!" And thus, my yearly goals began. By the end of 2004, I had read 25 books.

As 2005 began, I decided I needed a new challenge. Anyone can read 25 books. But, how many people can say they have watched 25 seasons of television on DVD in one year?! To my delight and my mother's shame, my second yearly goal was also accomplished well within the "one year" time span! 25 seasons of television on DVD.... done!

Feeling a bit over-TVed, I decided to return to books for 2006. I cut it pretty close, but around 8 am on December 31st, I finished book #25!

Besides being a girl with goals, I am also a girl who believes that variety is the spice of life. So, to switch things up, I decided that this year, I would watch every movie that has won the Academy Award for Best Picture. If my adding is correct, the grand total is 80 movies to date, 81 when you add 2007's Best Picture. My plan is watch them in order from oldest to newest and to blog 'reviews' of each of the films. This may sound like a large goal, but in comparison to past years, I feel like this will be easy! (Think about it, one film runs approximately 2 hours, where one season of television can easily run 18 hours. And I'm not the world's fastest reader, so books could take even longer! )

My sister is the one who suggested that I blog my thoughts and 'reviews' of these movies and I agree that this will be a fun way to keep track of what I watched, which movies are my favorites, which ones I can recommend, etc. I hope that whoever reads this will find it interesting and somewhat informative. ***DISCLAIMER: Although I call myself Critic Fix, in no way do I consider myself to be a film critic. My 'reviews' will most likely resemble my feelings on the films and not too much more. So, if you care how I feel about movies, then read on!***

Quick math says that I will need to watch 1.5 movies per week to stay on schedule. I predict that my pace may be a bit slower at the beginning of the year when I am renting most of the movies from the only place that they are available - Netflix. Then, as the movies become more and more recent, I will be able to pick them up at Blockbuster or the library and watch a couple a week.

I welcome comments and feedback on the movies others have seen, if you feel my review was good, fair, stupid, or dead wrong, whatever. Feel free to let me know what you think.

I'll write more soon -- as soon as I can rent Wings from the library and watch it!

Best Wishes for this new year of BEST PICTURES! -- Critic Fix

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Great idea. Thanks for sending the link.

Unknown said...

Dear Critic Fix,
My goal it to read all your reviews for all the Academy Award "Best Picture" movies this year. So far, so good. I have read 1.
Since the reviews are so good--at least all that I have read to date [{:-)>]--I will be able to have a vicarious experience at a fraction of the time. This is just like high school and reading classic comic books. Thanks!
Great start! Good job! Keep the reviews coming.

Singed,*
An Uncritical Reader of a Great Film Critic

*Can be seen as 1) a transposition of letters; 2) someone who has been burned; 3) someone who doesn't know the past tense of sing.

Fix said...

Looks good so far. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the films.

Brian Cochran said...

Critic fix,
It looks good so far. Have you ever heard of the book "Hollywood Worldviews" by Brian Godawa? It is a good book written by a reformed christian film writer. He is the guy who wrote "To End All Wars." The book really helped me watch movies and be a better critic. I can loan it to you if you like. Otherwise, good luck on your goal.

Brian

P.S. My blog is here.