Civilian 2019 Wrap-Up and Year-End Stats!

Aaaaaaaaand we're back!

Having addressed the horror genre in the previous entry (hey, this is HORROR 101 after all), it’s time to give the Civilian flicks their moment in the sun. As always, all titles listed were encountered for the first time from January 1 to December 31, 2019 (i.e. no repeat viewings were eligible), with top picks denoted with an asterisk. (*)

However, first... A little context:

This was probably the first year in the last 20 years that I didn’t see a single movie at the multiplex and, with the exception of the Music Box of Horrors and Cinepocalypse, it was the first time that I didn’t see more than a single film in the theater with each trip. That’s right, no double, triple, quadruple features, just in and out and off to the proverbial snack bar to discuss. It was a fairly unique experience, but it also meant that my numbers for current releases were WAAAAAAAY down from usual. Also, since my focus tended to err toward chosen “projects” – most of which were of a certain vintage (007, Chuck Norris, various directors) – my home viewings rarely dabbled in the modern shiny stuff. Can’t say I’m really bummed about the results, they’re just not the norm.

Totally gratuitous pic of Denise Richards riding a dinosaur to entice you to click below the fold...

Now, all that said, I tore my way through more than 450 flicks this year, my 5th highest total in the past thirteen years, and that was without a huge October Challenge push or multiple film festivals. (We did still manage to crank out a respectable 47 films for the Scare-A-Thon, raising over $2500 in the process.) So, it wasn’t like I was slacking or slumming – just grooving to a different beat. We’ll see how 2020 plays out!

In closing, I’d like to express my deepest appreciation to everyone for their support and feedback and conversation here on this little virtual neighborhood we’ve called home for THE PAST 10 YEARS. Yep, we’re in the double digits now! In that time, we’ve watched and reviewed just over 4000 films in one form or another – sometimes spilling a thousand words, sometimes only a line (or a haiku). There have been many days where I definitely was ready to throw in the proverbial towel, but then I would receive some random word of encouragement from someone who had read something I’d written and it kept me going. So, thanks for that.

All right, enough of my misty mountain hopping. Let the madness begin!!!

BEST CIVILIAN FILMS OF 2018/2019

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
If Beale Street Could Talk
Climax
Isle of Dogs
The Nightingale
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Randy Writes a Novel (*)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
A Star is Born
Uncut Gems

HONORABLE MENTION

Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The Favourite
The Last to See Them
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mope
Vice

MIXED BAGS

Avengers: Endgame
Bohemian Rhapsody
Captain Marvel
Domino
Green Book
Mary Poppins Returns
Knives and Skin

GAHHHHHHHHH

High Life

TOP 10 CIVILIAN DISCOVERIES (First Time Views released before 2018)

Becoming Bond (2017)
Bodyguard (1948
Dead or Alive (1999)
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958)
Hopscotch (1980)
Incendies (2010)
Juggernaut (1974)
Macbeth (2015)
The Narrow Margin (1952)
Obvious Child (2014)
Rainy Dog (1997)
The Rover (2014)
Shinjuku Triad Society (1995)
Snowflake (2017)
The Square (2017)
Suture (1993)





2019 Totals: 467 films, 222 1st time views, 247 horror, 41 cinema

(2018 Totals 346, 211, 173, 41)
(2017 Totals: 251, 179, 111, 52)
(2016 Totals: 272, 183, 131, 31)
(2015 Totals: 352, 190, 224, 41)
(2014 Totals: 399, 203, 251, 48)
(2013 Totals: 306, 240, 185, 69)
(2012 Totals: 607, 520, 362, 166)
(2011 Totals: 640, 419, 355, 59)
(2010 Totals: 364, 253, 242, 45)
(2009 Totals: 472, 276, 289, 38)
(2008 Totals: 384, 278, 226, 39)
(2007 Totals: 409, 284, 260, 40)

SEEING DOUBLE (so nice we watched ‘em twice)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958)
Hereditary (2018)
Murder Party (2004)
Tammy and the T-Rex (1994)

SO NICE WE WATCHED ‘EM THRICE

Randy Writes a Novel (2018)
The Maze (1953)

HAVEN’T I SEEN THIS BEFORE?

The Omen (1976, 2006)
Escape from Witch Mountain/Race to Witch Mountain
Thunderball/Never Say Never Again

GOING FULL FRANCHISE

James Bond (Sean Connery/George Lazenby/Roger Moore/Timothy Dalton) (17 films)
The Blair Witch Project (6 films)
The Omen (5 films)
Species (4 films)
Missing in Action (3 films)
Dead or Alive (3 films)
Shanghai Triad Trilogy (3 films)

FINISHING THE FRANCHISE

Initiation: Silent Night Deadly Night 4, Silent Night Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker, Silent Night (2012)

THEY COME IN TWOS

Quatermass 2, From Russia with Love, The Vengeance of She, Damien: Omen II, Return from Witch Mountain, Halloween II, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning, Demons 2, The Fly II, The Color of Money, Delta Force 2, Species II, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, Dead or Alive 2: Birds, Urban Legends: Final Cut, Valdemar Legacy II: The Forbidden Shadow, Blade Runner 2049, John Wick: Chapter 2, Happy Death Day 2U

CIVILIAN FLICKS MISMARKETED AS HORROR MOVIES

Knives and Skin
The Last to See Them
The Lighthouse
The Mute
The Swerve

DOCUMENTARIES (15)

In the Shadow of the Stars
Stories Behind the Making of The Blues Brothers
The Omen Legacy
Making of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Beware the Moon: Remembering An American Werewolf in London
De Palma
Hitchcock/Truffaut
Becoming Bond
Life After Flash
Spielberg
All the Colors of Giallo
The Night Creature Features Died
Fascism on a Thread – The Strange Story of Nazisploitation Cinema
Mark of the Beast: The Legacy of the Universal Werewolf
Master of Dark Shadows

WHAT THE $$#@%&$% DID I JUST WATCH??? (CIVILIAN EDITION)

Casino Royale (1967), Slaughter in San Francisco, Turkish Jaws (aka Col), The Bed-Sitting Room, The Coming of Sin, Twentynine Palms, Strange and Unusual Christmas Films, Knives and Skin, Can’t Stop the Music

MOST WATCHED DIRECTORS:

14
Brian De Palma (Obsession, Murder a la Mod, The Wedding Party, Mission to Mars, Get to Know Your Rabbit, Passion, Femme Fatale, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Black Dahlia, The Fury, Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Domino, Casualties of War)


12
Takashi Miike (Audition, Dead or Alive, Dead or Alive 2: Birds, Dead or Alive: Final, Yakuza Apocalypse, Blade of the Immortal, Terra Formars, One Missed Call, Shinjuku Triad Society, Rainy Dog, Ley Lines, Sukyaki Western Django)


11
Richard Fleischer (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Narrow Margin, Compulsion, Barabbas, Mandingo, Bodyguard, The Vikings, Soylent Green, Doctor Dolittle, Crossed Swords, Fantastic Voyage)


9
Richard Lester (Robin and Marian, The Knack… and how to get it, Superman II, Help!, The Ritz, Juggernaut, Finders Keepers, The Bed-Sitting Room, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum)


7
Andrew Davis (Code of Silence, Under Siege, Holes, The Guardian, The Fugitive, Stony Island, The Final Terror)


5
Jeremy Saulnier (Murder Party x 2, Blue Ruin, Green Room, Hold the Dark)
John Glen (For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, License to Kill)


4
Jose Ramon Larraz (Vampyres, Whirlpool, The Coming of Sin, Edge of the Axe)
Terence Young (Red Sun, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Thunderball)
Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun)


3
Joseph Zito (Invasion U.S.A., Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Missing in Action)
Aaron Norris (Top Dog, Braddock: Missing in Action III, Delta Force 2)
John Hough (Escape to Witch Mountain, Return from Witch Mountain, Incubus)
Lewis Gilbert (You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker)
Roy Ward Baker (The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Quatermass and the Pit, Scars of Dracula)
Ari Aster (Hereditary x 2, Midsommar)


2
Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Incendies)
Virgil Vogel (The Mole People, Terror in the Midnight Sun)
Gus Van Sant (Psycho, Good Will Hunting)
J. Lee Thompson (10 to Midnight, Firewalker)
Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Pulp Fiction)
Martin Scorsese (The Color of Money, Silence)
Ben Rock (The Burkittsville 7, Shadow of the Blair Witch)
Ronald Neame (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Hopscotch)
Daniel Myrick / Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project, Curse of the Blair Witch)
Steven C. Miller (Submerged, Silent Night)
Peter Medak (Species II, Zorro the Gay Blade)
Sergio Martino (All the Colors of the Dark, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key)
Lew Landers (The Return of the Vampire, The Raven)
Monte Hellman (The Shooting, Ride in the Whirlwind)
John Gilling (The Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile)
Lucio Fulci (Zombie, The New York Ripper)
Terence Fisher (Frankenstein Created Woman, The Devil Rides Out)
Jack Clayton (Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Innocents)
Steve Carver (Lone Wolf McQuade, An Eye for an Eye)
Lawrie Brewster (Lord of Tears, The Black Gloves)
Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend, Valentine)
Joe Begos (Bliss, The Mind's Eye)
J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls, The Orphanage)
Dario Argento (Inferno, Tenebrae)
Wes Anderson (Isle of Dogs, Fantastic Mr. Fox)
Jose Luis Aleman (The Valdemar Legacy, The Valdemar Legacy II: The Forbidden Shadow)

MOST WATCHED ACTORS:

Chuck Norris: 19
(Slaughter in San Francisco, Breaker! Breaker!, Good Guys Wear Black, A Force of One, The Octagon, An Eye for an Eye, Silent Rage, Forced Vengeance, Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning, Code of Silence, Invasion U.S.A., The Delta Force, Firewalker, Braddock: Missing in Action III, Hero and the Terror, Delta Force 2, Top Dog)


Sean Connery: 7
(Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, Robin and Marian, Never Say Never Again)


Roger Moore: 7
(Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill)


Christopher Lee: 4
(An Eye for an Eye, The Man with the Golden Gun, Scars of Dracula, The Devil Rides Out)




LONGEST STREAK OF SEEING MOVIES FROM EACH YEAR:
(1940-2019) (Personal Best!)




GOING A-Z (WE DID IT AGAIN!!!)
Accion Mutante
Beware! Children at Play
Come Back Little Sheba
Dream No Evil
Edge of the Axe
Funny Games
Get To Know Your Rabbit
Hero and the Terror
The Invisible Ray
John Wick: Chapter 2
Kubo and the Two Strings
The Lighthouse
The Mute
The Narrow Margin
Obvious Child
Pulp Fiction
Quatermass and the Pit
The Razor's Edge
Shrew's Nest
Twentynine Palms
Urban Legend
Verotika
The White Reindeer
X the Unknown
Yakuza Apocalypse
Zorro the Gay Blade

EARLIEST FILM WATCHED

The Man Who Laughs (1928)

FIRST VIEW OF 2019:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

LAST VIEW OF 2019:

The Song of Bernadette (1943)




COUNTRIES OF RECORD: 28
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, USA




VIEWINGS BY MONTH:

January – 33
February – 42
March – 47
April – 35
May – 41
June – 43
July – 29
August – 40
September – 21
October – 47
November – 42
December – 47




VIEWS BREAKDOWN BY DECADE:

For the third consecutive year, the 1970s have lost out to the 1980s. WHAT IS HAPPENING. In other news, the 1940s, 50s, and 60s made stronger showings than ever before, so that’s something.

1910s – 0
1920s – 1
1930s – 3
1940s – 13
1950s – 26
1960s – 45
1970s – 54
1980s – 77
1990s – 50
2000s – 44
2010s – 155



That’s all, folks! Have a great year!!!!


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