Farewell September, we hardly knew ye, and hello to the frankly awful weather of October. September was a bumper month blog-wise, as I set myself the challenge of posting every god damn day, and I’m pleased to say I achieved this goal, even if four of the posts were written during August, which I’m allowing because I had two busy weekends away this month. As you may be aware, the four aforementioned pre-written posts were for the LAMB’s So You Think You Can Review tournament, in which I came second, and I promise that’s the last time I mention it until I post my North By Northwest review, when I get to that stage in my Alfred Hitchcock run through.

Speaking of which, September’s Film-Makers films were Hitchcock’s surprisingly funny The Farmer’s Wife and sadly annoying Champagne. George Clooney remains in some awful stuff like Combat Academy and Return of the Killer Tomatoes, whilst Steve McQueen is staying in consistently average fare; The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery and Never So Few. Kate Winslet’s films are ones I wouldn’t recommend for very different reasons: Jude is so very depressing, whilst A Kid in King Arthur’s Court is just terrible. I’m slowing down my advancing through the Coens’ films, just seeing Raising Arizona this month, as I’m aware there’s a few Clooney films coming up and I want to hit them coming from two directions simultaneously.

List-wise, 1001 sees the loss of Clueless, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (before it was officially included), Vagabond, Broken Blossoms, Winchester ’73, Silver Lode, Mother and Son and Amelie. The Empire 5 Star 500 lost Battle Royale, Departures, Yojimbo, Raising Arizona and Amelie, whilst the Empire Top 500 is missing #262 The Virgin Suicides, #222 Mother and Son, #196 Amelie, #101 Raising Arizona and #95 Yojimbo. Nothing got crossed off the Total Film Top 100, but then that’s their fault for not including Amelie or Raising Arizona.

Off-list I also reviewed Brave, Napoleon Dynamite and Man on Wire (those last two for the tournament), and had a look ahead at Looper, which would have been reviewed and posted yesterday, but sadly when I went to the cinema I passed out 30 minutes in (I didn’t fall asleep, I literally fainted and apparently had some kind of fit). I’m pretty sure it was sugar-induced, but don’t worry I’ve seen a doctor and I’ll be fine. As for Looper, it was going pretty well in my opinion, though was far more graphic than I was expecting. Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to have nailed his young Bruce Willis impression, but how it matches up onscreen I don’t yet know, as the point at which I woke up from fainting and decided I should probably leave the cinema was before Willis appeared in the film.

This month sees some new films being added to the List with the release of the latest edition of the book (I don’t know what they are yet, but they’ll be added to the 1001 page once I do). I had a guess on my Top 5 Movies That Should Be In 1001 (2012 Edition), and prepared for a cruise trip by looking at the best boating disaster films. I mourned the sad passing of Michael Clarke Duncan with his best five roles, and celebrated the birthday of one of my favourite funnymen Bill Murray.

 And finally, my Top 100 has seen the loss of Cowboys and Aliens, Tranformers, A.I., Sweeney Todd, Collateral, The Queen, Nosferatu and Badlands, and the addition of Silver Lode, Brave, Man On Wire, Yojimbo, Departures, Raising Arizona and Amelie. 

This month I intend to go back to the cinema to watch all of Looper this time. Film-Maker-wise next up I’ve got Clooney in Red Surf, the Coen’s brilliant Barton Fink, Hitchcock’s The Manxman, Winslet’s 4-hour epic version of Hamlet as Steve McQueen in this month’s most-anticipated watch, The Magnificent Seven.

August was a pivotal month for the blog, so I’ve decided to start doing a regular update, to let you know my progress through my menagerie of film lists, and the state of my mental well-being because of them.

So why was this month so important? Well not only did I return from a brief hiatus spawned by film-exhaustion (a term I’m tempted to coin, meaning the period of blase nonchalance one feels after having seen far too many films in a short space of time), but August was also the month in which I passed the 1,000 films to go mark on my combined list of 1300+ films to get through. Granted, I’ve still got an awful lot of films to watch, and many that have been seen still haven’t been reviewed, but I’m no longer battling against a four-digit number, which pleases me no end. I’ve also just surpassed the 500 comments mark, so I’d like to give a quick thanks to everyone who’s visited and commented on my posts, even if over 40% of those were just on my Prometheus Plot Holes post. Also, thanks for mostly being complimentary, and only a couple being insulting. I don’t mind the negative ones, sometimes they’re funny, but often they’re a little disheartening too. I know I’m not the greatest reviewer in the world, but I like films and don’t have too many people to discuss them with, hence why I’m here.

List-wise, my attentions have been largely elsewhere in the past month, so I didn’t actually review that many from the List (though I saw a few that should be appearing soon). Feel free to go back and check out my posts on Rabbit Proof Fence, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Transformers if you like, as well as some more recent, unlisted film in the likes of The Descendants and The Dark Knight Rises, and my first Guaranteed Happiness film, Wall-E.

Last month I also began my journey through the cinematic careers of some of my favourite film-makers. So far, I’ve caught one of Hitchcock’s early silents, The Ring, re-watched the Coens’ Blood Simple, discovered George Clooney dying in the first 10 minutes of the abominable Return to Horror High, seen Steve McQueen play a bit-part in Somebody Up There Likes Me and Kate Winslet being a mentally unstable child in Heavenly Creatures. Next up are Hitchcock’s Champagne and The Farmer’s Wife, the Coens’ Raising Arizona, Clooney in Combat Academy, McQueen in The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery and Winslet in A Kid in King Arthur’s Court.

The eagle-eyes amongst you may have noticed a new tab at the top, entitles My Top 100. This is a list of the best films, in my opinion, that I’ve reviewed so far. Or at least, the ones that I’ve reviewed to what I consider a good enough standard, hence why the likes of 12 Angry Men and Sideways aren’t on there, as both of those great films have been dealt the cruel hand of being reviewed, and I use the term loosely, very early on in my blogging career, and will I assure you be re-visited at a later date.

Outside of the world of films, I turned 25 last month, prompting the individual rebel grey hairs dotting my head to finally get themselves organised and form factions around my ears, where I can hear them plotting a pincer movement to slowly take over my entire body. And so begins the slow descent into middle age.