I spent a grand total of three hours this past weekend looking at a computer screen (two of which were whilst podcasting) so please forgive the lack of content lately. I had what I call a gown-up day yesterday, in that it was mostly spent gardening. It would seem that despite my best efforts an ever-growing Lego collection, I am on an unstoppable route to become an adult, hence why the lawn-mowing mission somehow evolved into a 7-hour weeding session, resulting in sore bones, aching joints, calloused fingers, numerous bug bites and an unintentional sunburn. Yes, adulthood has it all.

Seeing as we’ve now entered June and 2015’s halfway point is only three weekly posts away, I’m going to make it a mission to be caught up on not just most, but ALL of my goals by the time My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 26 rolls around. The second half of the year will be harder anyway, due to how I weighted the scheduling of the 2015 New Releases, so if I’ve got any hope of completing it all I need to have a line of six green marks by mid-year. So what does that entail? Well, I’m already more than caught up on the TiVo movies, so none of those need to be seen, but I need to watch five 2015 Movies (which will include: Burying the Ex [screener for Blueprint: Review], The Voices [screener for my own site], Coherence [dispatched from LoveFilm today] and Jurassic World [DINOSAURS!], and watch-and-review one Kate Winslet movie (I’ll be submitting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for July’s Lambcast Movie of the Month, and even if it doesn’t win I’ll be making a bee-line for it anyway, with Little Children as part of my French Toast Sunday Road Trip later in the year), one “Bad” movie (haven’t decided yet, maybe Tetsuo), seven Nominated Movies (Including the already-seen-but-not-yet reviewed La Grande Illusion, The Tree of Life and Picnic at Hanging Rock, as well as the to-see-because-it’s-Terry-Gilliam-month-over-at-FTS Brazil) and four 1001 Movies, which will be easy if I do all the other missions because that’ll be more than covered then. Maybe I should stop writing this post and go review some more movies! Here’s what I watched this week:

The Sixth Sense (1999)

At the end of June we’ll be holding a Lambcast episode devoted to the films of 1999, so I’m trying to catch up on a few iconic ones that I’m not overly familiar with as part of my Road Trip series for FTS.
Lists: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Empire’s Top 500, USA Road Trip
Read my full review here.

The Skeleton Twins (2014)

Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader play estranged twins who both, for various reasons, decide to commit suicide on the same day, but thankfully fail and found their lives brought back together again in their home town. Wiig’s Maggie is in a relationship with a good man (Luke Wilson) who just isn’t right for her. He wants kids, she finds herself sleeping around far more than she intended. Hader’s Milo is a gay, single, failed actor, who reconnects with the teacher (Ty Burrell) who quit his job after he and Milo had a dalliance whilst Milo was a child. It may not sound like a barrel of laughs, but this is actually a pretty effective comedy that succeeds on the incomparable chemistry between the two leads, who give far more solid, dramatic performances than they’ve done in the past. Understandably, the much-discussed lip-syncing scene is a delight.
Lists: None
Choose Film 7/10

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

An impromptu viewing caused by Aisha needing some inspiration for a Breakfast at Tiffany’s project. I’ve had Moon River stuck in my head since.
Lists: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Empire’s Top 500, TiVo Movies
Full review coming soon.

The Tree of Life (2011)

Nominated for me to watch by Mette from the Across the Universe podcast and French Toast Sunday. Dinosaurs!
Lists: Nominated Movies, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Empire’s Top 301
Full review coming soon.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Nominated for me to watch by Lackey of Forced Viewing and The Nightmare Gallery.
Lists: Nominated Movies, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Full review coming soon.

Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)

I love Aardman. I’ve loved everything they’ve put out other than Flushed Away (when you make plasticine CG, it just doesn’t work), so I’m glad they’re back to their thumb-printed roots with this big screen outing of Shaun the Sheep, based on a TV series I’ve never seen but am now considering looking into. What’s it about? Well, sheep. Specifically a small bunch on a farm in the country. One day Shaun and the gang get bored of the daily grind, so try to trick their farmer into sleeping all day and letting them have some fun for a bit. Instead, they accidentally ship him off to the big city, and when he loses his memory they have to go and fetch him back. This leads to hijinks involving sheep in people-clothing, getting caught by demonic animal catchers and, of course, a bout of sheep singing acapella (or bleat-boxing, as I called it). It didn’t rock my world, but I enjoyed a great deal of it. There’s a smattering of adult jokes in there, enough to keep me entertained, so if you’re kid wants to watch it, don’t be too disappointed. Also, there’s not a single word of dialogue in the whole thing. Seriously. There’s some occasional unintelligible murmuring, but the only concise message conveyed at any point is a two-word prescription written by a doctor.
Lists: 2015 Movies
Choose Film 7/10

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

This month’s Movie of the Month over at the LAMB. Expect a review and a podcast episode devoted to the film dropping soon. It didn’t get any shorter since I saw it in the cinema. Shame.
Lists: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Empire’s Top 301
Full review coming soon.

Posts you may have missed:
The Phenix City Story
USA Road Trip: Pennsylvania: The Sixth Sense
FTS in the Movies: Round 22: There’s still 5 points up for grabs if you can name the movie behind the Difficult images. You have until Wednesday.
Lambcast #272 Bring Your Own Discussion Topic: I wasn’t on this episode, but my regular co-host Robert was joined by Will, Nick and Lackey to discuss many movie-related issues, from the lack of innovative marketing these days, to Star Wars expectations, life-impacting movies and behind the scenes upsets.

Goals Update
Aim: Watch all 61 saved TiVo films
Watched: 37
To go: 27
Should be on: 27
On Track: Yes!

Aim: Watch 59 movies released in the UK in 2015
Watched: 13
To go: 46
Should be on: 15
On Track: No!

Aim: Review Kate Winslet’s remaining films
Reviewed: 1
To go: 2
Should be on: 1
On Track: Yes!

Aim: Watch 12 “bad” films from the 1001 List
Reviewed: 5
To go: 7
Should be on: 5
On Track: Yes!

Aim: Watch 1 nominated film a week from the 1001 List
Reviewed: 19
To go: 33
Should be on: 23
On Track: No!

Aim: Cross off 75 films from the 1001 List
Reviewed: 34
To go: 43
Should be on: 33
On Track: Yes!