Four hundred S movies, and other absurd film nerd observations

I have seen 400 movies whose titles begin with the letter S.

This is the kind of absurd milestone you can mark when you keep the kind of fastidious movie records I keep.

I hit 400 S movies on Saturday when I watched Fisher Stevens' Stand Up Guys, which also happened to be the first movie from this year I've watched on video. (That's a milestone I also notice, if you remember this post last year.) I guess I should place a small clarification on that last claim, because I did watch Upstream Color as an itunes rental two weekends ago. That, however, was available as a rental at the same time it was in the theater, so I think of that differently than the movies that had a theatrical run and then a subsequent DVD/streaming release.

ANYway, yes, it was #400. Here are the other 399:

S. Darko
Safe
Safe House
Safe Men
Safety Not Guaranteed
Saint, The
Saint John of Las Vegas
Salem's Lot: The Movie
Salton Sea, The
Samourai, Le
Samson and Delilah
Santa Claus: The Movie
Santa Clause, The
Santa Clause 2, The
Santa Clause 3, The: The Escape Clause
Santa Sangre
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic

Admit it -- you really thought I was going to list all 399, didn't you?

In case you were wondering, S movies are far and away in the lead. The next closest is, strangely, the letter B, which will hit its own milestone (300) the next time I see a B movie. (So I better throw in an old Roger Corman movie tonight, har dee har har.)

Here are some other milestones/observations about my viewing habits:

May 26th, a great day to watch movies

I have seen a movie each May 26th, dating back to the year 2006.

I know this because I keep a list of movies in which the viewing date is the primary filter (as discussed in another old post, here). Note: This list is of new viewings, not repeat viewings.

When I added Charade to that list this morning, I noticed that I have an unbroken streak dating back to 2006. That's unusual, because that stretch includes a ton of weekdays. (Well, exactly four.) In a typical week, I'm lucky to get in one movie from Monday to Thursday nights. But I got in each of those weeknights (the leap years didn't skip any of them) for the recent May 26ths.

I will list these, because it's a lot shorter:

Friday, May 26, 2006: Who is Cletus Tout?, The Omen (1976)

I was reviewing Cletus Tout (which I actually sort of liked), and watching The Omen later that night with my wife (I believe she'd seen it, but I hadn't). The Omen really held up.

Saturday, May 26, 2007: Away From Her

Went to the theater to see this with another couple. Loved it. However, that's the only movie date we've done with that couple.

Monday, May 26, 2008: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

My wife and I like to save "epic" movies for holidays, so we watched this one at home on video on Memorial Day. This is one of those Potter movies whose details utterly escape me.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009: Surfer, Dude; Water

Ha, funny theme. I was reviewing S,D and watched Water with my wife (sounds like 2006). If you're wondering how I got in two movies on a Tuesday, I seem to remember starting S,D on Monday night and finishing it early Tuesday morning, which made Tuesday the official "viewing day." Then Water would have been an ordinary evening viewing.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010: Easier With Practice

Another movie I ended up reviewing, which my wife received as a screener copy. Didn't really like this one.

Thursday, May 26, 2011: House of 1000 Corpses

Yep, it was more gruesome than Rob Zombie's second film, the sequel (though I didn't know it at the time) The Devil's Rejects. Watched this one late at night, appropriately.

Saturday, May 26, 2012: The Omega Man

My wife and I watched this one for a laugh -- actually, we tried to watch it seriously, and eventually realized that the only way to watch it was for a laugh. I remember trying to see how long it would take her to realize it was the film that inspired I Am Legend.

Sunday, May 26, 2013: Charade

I decided I wanted to make last night's viewing something that came out before 1960. I missed. Charade came out in 1963.

The question now becomes whether I can keep the streak going -- and whether it's legitimate if I do. If May 26, 2014 rolls around and I specifically note the day, then the whole process becomes tainted. If I realize only after the fact that I was keeping a streak going, then we're good. It'll be a Monday, which doesn't naturally land itself to movies ... but then again, it'll also be Memorial Day, which does lend itself to a flick or two.

It'll probably be Tuesday, May 26, 2015 that's the real challenge.

An important blog milestone

My milestones/streaks/bits of trivia don't only relate to watching movies. In an uncharacteristic failure on my part, I neglected to acknowledge my 1,000th post on The Audient.

It was this post, which went up on Thursday the 16th. I must have subliminally known this was the one, because it was a whole nother week before I got the chance to replace it as the top post.

Nothing too special, all told. A post about tearing pages off a movie trivia calendar.

But that's what I've been doing on The Audient for 1,000 posts now -- or, 1,004 posts, including this one. I've been celebrating the Movie Mundane.

Oh, I've tried to get at the big issues from time to time. But throughout the entire four years, four months and 24 days I've been writing this blog, I've been writing it quickly, in brief free moments, mostly without the luxury of heavy research or obsessive restructuring of my writing. It's always been expedient for me to write something fast, something that can flow out of me quickly without a lot of fact checking and other kinds of journalistic thoroughness. You might say it's been a perfect fit, in that sense -- my disdain for journalistic thoroughness was one of the reasons I quit actual journalism.

So yeah, nearly four and a half years of the Movie Mundane. More than 1,000 posts worth of Cinematic Slightness. 

But you're still reading, so I must be doing something right.