Review a movie a week, you say?

That's an ambitious goal, you say?

What's going to make your weekly movie review unique, you ask?

What if I were to tell you that I was going to watch and review the same movie every week for 52 weeks?

Here are a few ideas that I'm going to incorporate into the 1 Man, 1 Movie, 52 Reviews Challenge.

At some point… I should know the chosen movie pretty well. To test this I will attempt to write the screenplay from memory, based on what I've seen. Once I've complete writing the script I will track down the original screenplay, compare the two and see how they size up.

1. Along those lines, using a green screen, my favorite scene, and my horrible acting abilities I'll replace one of the actors for a minute or two.

2. I'll also be trying to find interesting places to watch the movie. The one idea that comes to mind is to watch the movie drugged up during a dental procedure.

Those are a few ideas I've come up with.

The other day I stumbled across the 2010 live-action version of Jack and the Beanstalk starring Gilbert Gottfried. I have a script in mind with a giant character, so I planned to watch this for research. I fired up the video and returned to my computer to do some other writing.

I was too focused on what I was writing to pay attention to the movie. When I looked over I found something about what I saw so fascinating that I had to shut it off. "We have a contender," I thought.

And now for the big announcement.

The movie I will be watching and reviewing for the next 52 weeks is...

Let me start off by sharing my conditions prior to hitting the play button.

The date was Sunday, February 17th. I was waiting until 7.pm to watch the movie so that there wouldn't be a glare on the TV. I was alone and happy. I had cleaned my apartment for the first time in a couple weeks making it nice a cozy. Money from a writing gig that I just completed was transferred into my freelance account, and my first grip and electric job was starting the next day. I wasn't as afraid of the future or how I was going to pay the rent. To celebrate I got slightly medicated, very excited to start this project.

As always I'll start with my conditions leading into the viewing.

The date was Monday, February 25th at 9:30 in the pm.

As I stated last week I think I was a tad too medicated for my first viewing of Southland Tales. It was actually the perfect level for a casual view, but I was definitely too high to be watching this as a responsible movie reviewer.

I also realized that between all the writing I’ve been doing and the downtime in my grip and electric work that I’ve been pretty lazy over the past couple of months.

The date was Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 at 1:13 in the am.

What an amazing day of procrastination!

A couple of years ago I made a deal with myself to let Monday be a guilt-free slacker day. That's not to say that I don't schedule anything for Mondays, but when a Monday rolls in and I have no gigs lined up, the pants free debate between napping and what movie to watch begins.

I rarely actually give in to this deal and usually end up working on something, but this week was the perfect storm of laziness.

In the movie Southland Tales there's a scene where the Rock and Seann William Scott sit at a café and one of them asks, “Do you ever feel like there are a thousand people inside you…?” I can’t remember if that’s the exact quote or which one actually said it because at the time one of the people within me told me to check my phone to see if I received a reply to an email that I sent the night before.

The reason I started this website is that I love to write. I mean I really love it. If I had the finances and knowledge that my writing would be produced I would be perfectly content locking myself in this apartment and write until my fingers fell off. Then I would take a break to learn to type with my feet.

I give you Southland Tales review number six... this week... I decided to cheat with a bit of a joke in place of a full review after watching the French Dubbed version of Southland Tales that I found on the DVD’s special features… looking back… I regret resorting to this technical fulfillment of this challenge… but… I plan to do a full review of Southland Tales in French for next week’s viewing…

At least that’s what the online translator came up with.

Apparently… I didn’t pick up on all the French that I need in the four hours and thirty-eight minutes following my second viewing of Southland Tales in French.

I’m thinking that if I want to actually learn French via this movie I’ll need to watch it in French with English subtitles a couple times, and then watch it in English with French subtitles a couple times.

I don’t know if I’m going to try that and probably doubt that I will learn any French by watching this movie. I did however learn something very interesting during this week’s viewing.

What an interesting week.

First… Richard Kelly… the director of Southland Tails… retweeted a post about last week’s review… then I got some good news about a short film that I wrote and am now producing… and my band played their second gig… when I had zero expectations of ever being in a band in the first place…

When I last left you I was all hopped up on cold medicine and my viewing of the Cannes cut of Southland Tales had me in a very reflective mood.

I spent the rest of the week unsure if I was actually sick, or just depressed. Deep down I knew it was a little of column A and a little of column B. The true question was which one was the main course.

Either way… I got a lot of much-needed sleep after an insomnia induced spell of hyper-productivity. I crash hard from these phases, usually alternating between getting three to four hours of sleep a night to ten to twelve hours, depending on my mood.

What a boring week this turned out to be?

I went to a BBQ midweek and got to hang out with friends. That was fun. I worked a gig this weekend that went pretty smooth, I liked the people I worked with and I earned enough money to pay this month’s rent. I finished off the week with another BBQ with the same friends from the midweek BBQ.

It actually was pretty eventful and rather pleasant.

I can’t believe that I am a quarter of the way done with this project.

It’s been three whole months now.

Last night at 11:30 in the pm I sat down to watch the movie Southland Tales for the twelfth time.

Taking my queue from television, this week’s review is going to be a virtual clip show, recapping the moments in the film that stand out to me every time I watch this movie.

This review is based on the standard theatrical release so it will be easier to play along at home.

Here we go.

Working as a freelancer can really mess with your sleep schedule from time to time.

This weekend I ventured out to the Yakima Valley for the cast a crew screening of Cement Suitcase, a film that I worked on a couple years ago. This led to late nights getting caught up with old friends and early mornings from not being able to sleep well in unfamiliar locations.

I was dropped off at home late Sunday afternoon and fell asleep almost immediately before the sun even thought about going down.

When I awoke on Monday, my usual Southland Tales viewing day, the sun was making its return to the sky. I managed to miss night time altogether.

Today marks my 14th viewing of the movie the Southland Tales. I’ve seen the movie in various forms and in various states of mind.

For those of you playing along, I make it pretty clear that the Cannes Cut is my favorite of the versions that I’ve seen so far, followed by the French version and then Theatrical Release. Granted I’ve only seen the French version twice.

Every week that I switch between the Cannes Cut and the Theatrical Release I seem to spot more differences between the two. Being that I’ve seen the two versions so many times I often find that I zone out and am often surprised when I tune back in to notice yet another difference.

Well, I’m tired of these surprises, so today I’m going to fire up the Cannes Cut on the TV and the Theatrical Release on my computer and pause and play each version until I figure it all out.

Hello everyone!

This week is going to be a little interesting because this week's review is being written on my phone!

Also… I just ate a pot brownie to see if I can finish this review before it kicks in.

Good times!

Where last week felt like there was a perfect storm of shit that has been piling up due to a combination of continuing to live this freelance lifestyle, and poor financial planning after my unemployment ran out, this week felt like it went pretty smooth.

Not only did I get the opportunity to work on the film 7 Minutes for enough days to pay the rent, but I also landed a gig for this coming weekend that will pay for most of next month’s rent, and I also landed a gig in July that will cover another month’s worth of living this lifestyle.