100 Movie Challenge 2017

If you’re unfamiliar with our yearly 100 movie challenge – I put this in place in 2016. I was fed up of Ben asking to watch what felt like the same 20 films. I created a challenge for us to watch 100 films in a year, they can be films we’ve seen before, but each time we watch a movie it only counts once for that year. So far it’s really diversified what we watch.

I wasn’t sure whether we’d actually make it this year – with the wedding in June, we were very busy before and basically not at home for almost a whole month for the wedding and honeymoon. But we hit 100 films, exactly with just an hour or two to spare.

Last year I set us up some additional challenges to watch 10 films from 5 different categories. These were Movies based on Books, Indie Movies, Musicals, Pre 1990 (excluding Disney) & Thrillers. We pretty much failed miserably at that – the only one we came close to was Movies based on books. in retrospect 10 of each was a bit ambitious 5 would have been more achievable, and once it became clear we weren’t going to achieve it, it became even less of a motivation to try.


Three Standout Films of the Year (For Any Reason)

Me

One
Moana

I think this was the only film we watched more than once this year (at least together). This is my new favourite Disney Film – so it’s taken the top spot from Finding Nemo which has been my favourite since it was released. I love everything about this film, the sentiment, the graphics, the storyline, the songs. If you love Disney and you haven’t seen it, you need to.

Two
Hackshaw Ridge

This was such a standout film for all of us. Over August Bank Holiday we went to my sister & brother in law’s and we watched this. They’d bought it thinking it was the Revenant (which we still haven’t seen), but we all fell in love with the Movie. It’s a true life World War II story about one particular medic, it is incredible. The next day we went to see Dunkirk (more on that later), and my mind the whole time just kept going back to Hackshaw Ridge. Honestly – I’m not big on War movies, but this was an incredible film.

Three
La La Land

We were late to the party on this one after my sister told us ‘ehh, don’t bother, it’s not that good’ so we didn’t go to see it at the cinema, and we waited for it to come on for free on our movies package. I wish I hadn’t listened to her, I loved it – it gave me warm and fuzzy feelings throughout and I loved it’s unexpected ending.

Three Honorable Mentions – Star Wars The Last Jedi, Thor Raknarog & Beauty and the Beast

Ben

One
Star Wars VIII The Last Jedi

I think this is a fantastic second instalment of the new sequel trilogy, and the film picks up perfectly from where the Force Awakens finishes off. Daisy Ridley is fantastic as Rey, as is Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. I also think the film perfectly reintroduces Luke Skywalker to the Star Wars universe.

Two
Thor Raknarog

I think Marvel have gone back to the Guardians of the Galaxy blueprint with this film, and the original GOTG is one of my favourite films ever. The comedy is clever and the soundtrack is fantastic, and I liked the fact that Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk has a bigger role (since he hasn’t got a film of his own). The storyline is great and the ending holds much promise for Infinity War.

Three
Hackshaw Ridge

Hackshaw Ridge received criticism that it was too gory, but I think the film properly portrayed the brutality of war. We watched this Hackshaw Ridge and Dunkirk within 24 hours of each other, and I much preferred this film, which says something in itself. If you have seen the film what the main character Doss does is frankly ridiculous, but the fact it’s a true story makes his feat even more compelling.

Three Honorable Mentions – Beauty and the Beast, Moana, Spiderman: Homecoming


Biggest Disappointment

Me
Dunkirk

After the fascination the day before with Hackshaw Ridge, I was sure that the most hyped up film of the year was going to out beat it. It didn’t come close. Firstly the timeline of this film is confusing – it tells the story of different fleets and soldiers in the final hours of the Dunkirk rescue, what it doesn’t make clear is that these different fleets are running on different timescales – sometimes it was dark, sometimes it was light and no one knew when I asked what am I missing why is it dark and then light. It wasn’t clear until about three quarters of the way through that it was separate timelines.

Secondly this film feels completely anonymous, the soldiers have no real backstory or even post story about them, and when I researched that it turns out that the events and people weren’t entirely true and some of which were just based roughly off real events. So it felt like a semi-fictional retelling of Dunkirk. I’m sure that there are so many incredible stories from Dunkirk that they didn’t need to do this.

Lastly – I hate ticking clocks with a passion, we don’t have any ticking clocks or watches in our house as they drive me completely crazy. This has a ticking clock at various intensities the whole way through. Which put me on edge BIG TIME.

I want to rewatch this again having not seen Hackshaw Ridge less than 24 hours before it and give it another chance, but I still don’t think it will reach the iconic status that all the reviews made out it would have. Positives? Many of the actors – including Harry Styles – were perfect in their roles and entirely convincing.

Ben
Arrival

My opinion of Arrival is inspired by the hype that surrounded the film. Whilst the film wasn’t bad perse, I’m not certain it lived up to the hype and I’m not sure that is helped by the fact we watched the film sometime after it came out. That being said, it is a clever movie.

(Rach butting in here as Ben didn’t add enough about why he didn’t like it haha, if this had been worst film of the year, not biggest disappointment I would of named Arrival, I thought it was garbage. It was too wrapped up in being clever and when it eventually got to the point I found it entirely anti-climatic, I felt like I was constantly waiting for a big reveal that never happened – and then I realised the reveal of the film had simply what had seemed like a low-key plot twist)

What We Watched In Order

  1. Scott Pilgrim vs the World (1st January)
  2. Zoolander 2 (15th January)
  3. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (15th January)
  4. Bad Neighbours (20th January)
  5. The Duff (28th January)
  6. 10 Cloverfield Lane (3rd February)
  7. Castaway (5th February)
  8. Me Before You (5th February)
  9. Beautiful Creatures (11th February)
  10. Pitch Perfect (12th February)
  11. Bridge of Spies (25th February)
  12. The House Bunny (4th March)
  13. Ironman 2 (5th March)
  14. Pan (11th March)
  15. Get a Job  (12th March)
  16. Ghostbusters (2016) (17th March)
  17. Singstreet (18th March)
  18. Imperium (25th March)
  19. The Hobbit Desomation of Smaug (27th March)
  20. Moana (9th April)
  21. The Jungle Book (2016) (15th April)
  22. The Incredibles (16th April)
  23. The Boss (16th April)
  24. Suicide Squad (17th April)
  25. The Shallows (22nd April)
  26. Beauty and The Beast (2017) (22nd April)
  27. Cruel Intentions (22nd April)
  28. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (29th April)
  29. XMen Apocolypse (28th May)
  30. Batman Lego (5th June)
  31. Black Mass (12th June)
  32. iron Man (12th June)
  33. Fist Fight (20th June)
  34. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (20th June)
  35. War Dogs (24th June)
  36. Bridget Jones’ Baby (29th June)
  37. Arrival (1st July)
  38. Big Hero 6 (2nd July)
  39. Mr Right (4th July)
  40. Pixels (5th July
  41. Avengers Civil War (7th July)
  42. Spiderman Homecoming (8th July)
  43. Jack Reacher Never Look Back (8th July)
  44. Year One (14th July)
  45. Dirty 30 (18th July)
  46. Popstar: Never Stop Popping (23rd July)
  47. La La Land (28th July)
  48. Hackshaw Ridge (29th July)
  49. Dunkirk (30th July)
  50. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (30th July)
  51. Frozen (6th August)
  52. Storks (7th August)
  53. Pitch Perfect 2 (12th August)
  54. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (14th August)
  55. Keanu (19th August)
  56. Miss Peregrines Home for Perculiar Children (20th August)
  57. Keeping up with the Joneses (21st August)
  58. Les Miserables (2nd September)
  59. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (3rd September)
  60. Passengers (8th September)
  61. The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies (9th September)
  62. The Hangover (17th September)
  63. Trolls (20th September)
  64. Zodiac (28th September)
  65. Cooties (29th September)
  66. Blade Runner (30th September)
  67. Logan (1st October)
  68. The Accountant (8th October)
  69. Sully (8th October)
  70. Wonder Woman (14th October)
  71. Ocean’s Eleven (15th October)
  72. Sing (21st October)
  73. Winnie the Pooh (22nd October)
  74. Blade Runner 2049 (22nd October)
  75. Dinner for Schmucks (29th October)
  76. Murder on the Orient Express (2017) (5th November)
  77. FIfty Shades Darker (10th November)
  78. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (15th November)
  79. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (18th November)
  80. Thor Raknarok (26th November)
  81. Baby Driver (26th November)
  82. Zootropolis (2nd December)
  83. Shrek (2nd Decemember)
  84. Shrek 2 (3rd December)
  85. Shrek the Third (5th December)
  86. Shrek Forever After (8th December)
  87. Star Wars the Force Awakens (9th December)
  88. The Blues Brothers (9th December)
  89. Love Actually (10th December)
  90. 50 First Dates (10th December)
  91. Coming to America (10th December)
  92. The Emporors New Groove (10h December)
  93. Star Wars the Last Jedi (16th December)
  94. El Camino Christmas (19th December)
  95. A Christmas Prince (23rd December)
  96. Daddy’s Home (24th December)
  97. Bright (24th December)
  98. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (25th December)
  99. National Lampoon’s Animal House (31st December)
  100. Jurassic World (31st December)

So exactly 100 films watched in 2017. We’re already off to a good start with our 2018 challenge, we’ve spent a good chunk of time at home over the past week or so. We’re not setting ourselves any categories this year as I feel like we would likely recycle the same ones from last year (unless you an think of some we could try – it’s not too late!).


Any recommendations for good films from last year you think we should watch this year? (Especially if they’re on Netflix!) and I’m curious about any disappointments you had too!

rachael-signature

FacebookInstagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr

Helpless Whilst Drying

Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com

Follow:
Share:

26 Comments

  1. saradiz
    January 11, 2018 / 7:36 am

    It’s sad you didn’t like Dunkirk. It was one of my fave movie from 2017. But, anyway everyone doesn’t like the same thing. Besides, I love Moana and La La Land too! xx

  2. January 11, 2018 / 7:54 am

    Love this idea! The OH is always asking me to pick a film and I’m useless at it so I might use your list as a reference! I wasn’t a huge fan of Dunkirk, it had some great scenes but overall I found it so slow!

    Sarah 🙂
    Saloca in Wonderland

  3. January 11, 2018 / 12:16 pm

    Wow! Thanks for sharing! I am a movie lover and you give me a lot of “must watch” film I will watch on this 2018.
    What happended with you with La La Land, it happended the same with me with The Miserables. Some of my friends told me it wasn’t good and I didn’t go to the cinema but I regreted it.
    Kisses,
    E.
    http://www.withcapitale.com
    https://www.instagram.com/withcapitale/

  4. January 11, 2018 / 4:07 pm

    I’m so impressed you watched another 100 movies this year, especially together! I did keep track of how many movies I watched, the majority of them on my own because we have different tastes in movies, and didn’t quite make it to 50, lol. Completely agree with your top three movies (not necessarily my top 3 but agree that they were all outstanding movies)

    It’s too bad you didn’t like Arrival, I’ve heard good things about it! Was gonna watch it over the holidays but never got around to it.

    • January 11, 2018 / 4:12 pm

      I think Arrival was too caught up in trying to be clever – I’m not too big on the ‘alieny’ space films but occasionally do like them – but it was just a miss for me. So many people like it so if you do watch it let me know what you think!
      Ben and I have a very his preferred-my preferred and we have some middle ground. I did at the end of the year start tracking shows and films I watched alone too and will probably include them in my first mini chat of 2018.

      I think this year I’ve come to realise because we do very little socialising in the week because of the dogs we don’t tend to go out very often – so we manage most of them Monday-Friday (or atleast watch them over a couple of nights) and then on a Sunday afternoon when we tend to be home and catching up on ironing etc!

      • January 11, 2018 / 4:54 pm

        I’m not into alieny space films either lol. Maybe I’ll give it a try this weekend!

        Yeah, I’d love to see what you watched on your own! Do you watch movies while you’re working on your blog? We don’t go out much on weeknights either, but I’m always working on my blog at night or doing some other project, so we never end up being able to sit down and watch a movie together. With movies I always feel like I need to give it my full attention, whereas I usually binge-watch watch TV shows while blogging lol.

        • January 11, 2018 / 5:36 pm

          Yes – I can’t just sit and watch a film, I have such a short attention span – I have to be doing something at the same time (unless I’m in the cinema and it’s socially unacceptable to take your laptop!). I tend to watch more TV when I’m watching stuff alone as there’s so many series Ben isn’t interested in (or we’d never be able to get through them even if he was!)

  5. January 11, 2018 / 5:57 pm

    Haha, we have a tendency to rewatch the same movies over and over!
    I looked up my tracker for last year and we managed a measly 36 movies!
    I watched Moana on a flight and it was such a great film! The songs are so great and so are the visuals are beautiful.
    Ones I want to watch from your list: Hackshaw Ridge
    Ones I probably won’t watch: La La Land, Dunkirk (my SO saw this and loved it)
    I loved Arrival!
    I think my favourite movie that I watched was Baby Driver (not new). And a new movie released in 2017 that we saw in the theaters… hmm I’ll get back to you. I feel it was a lackluster year.

    • January 11, 2018 / 7:01 pm

      Basically everything we’ve watched so far this year has been a rewatch – I agree though that this yeah has been mostly a doozy for films – the ones which come on our movie package at home at the moment are all terrible films, 2017 wasn’t a year for many blockbusters or even unoffencive comedies!
      How did you like arrival?! It was so dull – I remember saying to Ben this is boring 😂
      I really liked baby driver too!
      I await your favourite new movie! 👀

      • January 11, 2018 / 11:40 pm

        Ok I thought about it. My favourite movie that was released in 2017 was Logan! I see that you watched it – did it leave an impression on you?

        • January 12, 2018 / 7:07 am

          I don’t really like the xmen franchise all that much – especially as time has gone on, there’s too many now! That being said I did enjoy Logsn because it didn’t feel like an xmen film, I really liked Steven Merchant in it and thought the girl was also good. Wouldn’t have placed it in my top 10 though!

  6. January 11, 2018 / 7:34 pm

    100 films? My God how do you do it? We watched 19 in a year and that was us really trying! I love Scott Pilgrim I’ve rewatched it a tonne of times. X

  7. January 11, 2018 / 9:39 pm

    I love this post, such a great idea! so sorry you didn’t like Dunkirk, I loved it sooo much! Thought it was done sooo brilliantly. Stand out film for me this year was Allied with Brad Pitt – absolutly stunning!!
    I haven’t managed to watch hackshaw ridge and since reading this I am sooo excited to watch, especially since its now on sky cinema!!
    x

    • January 11, 2018 / 10:51 pm

      I think it was partially to blame after the high of hackshaw ridge, everyone who I’ve spoken to who has seen both have said they preferred hackshaw ridge so it’s well worth a watch! We haven’t seen allied yet, I’ll keep an eye out for that!

  8. luxblush
    January 11, 2018 / 11:13 pm

    I’m so bad with films! I’ve hardly seen any, so I definitely need to take on this challenge too. I’m so gutted you didn’t like Dunkirk, that’s one film I have just bought on DVD haha! I hope you like it better the second time around, if you rewatch it xx

    Hannah | luxuryblush

  9. January 11, 2018 / 11:23 pm

    I’m extremely picky when it comes to movies. I hate most dramas, I don’t like horror (but I love horror novels & Halloween haunt events… go figure). I used to hate super hero movies but Marvel sucked me in hard several years ago.

    I enjoyed Moana more than I was expecting to. I absolutely HATED Frozen, so I was apprehensive. But I ended up enjoying it. Hei Hei is one of my spirit animals. 😂

  10. January 12, 2018 / 9:06 am

    I love this idea! I was looking at the IMDB top 100 films the other day and realised that I had only actually seen a handful of them. I think I’m going to challenge myself to work through that list and see what I have been missing out on! xx

  11. January 13, 2018 / 4:59 pm

    I’m not much of a movie girl myself but this is a really fun and great idea! Love it.

  12. January 14, 2018 / 5:20 am

    Wow! Your dedication is impressive. I also watch a lot of movies. I make an effort to watch a new movie at least once a week. Most of what I watch is featured on my blog.

  13. January 21, 2018 / 4:49 pm

    This is such a cool idea! My friends are always in disbelief at the amount of films that I *still* haven’t seen (new and old). Never mind 100, I’m not sure that I watch 50 films a year when I really think about it.

    I loved Moana!! I think I watched it a second time a day or two after I watched it the first time. I don’t normally do that but I just enjoyed the film so much, as well as the soundtrack. You have just reminded me that I still need to watch Beauty and the Beast. I also need to watch Finding Dory!

    I want to watch La La Land to understand the hype and critical acclaim but I don’t think I’ll appreciate it enough since it’s generally not the style of film that I like to watch. I finally watched Life of Pi the other weekend and really enjoyed it. I had been meaning to watch it (but it never happened), then one day it was on TV, haha.

  14. J Shot or Not
    January 30, 2018 / 3:58 pm

    What a great post! I found your likes and dislikes interesting, but found your rationale to be logical. I was a big fan of Moana. The idea to watch 100 movies in a year is great all in itself. Being a movie lover, check out some of our posts! Thanks for sharing!

Leave a Reply and Let's Have a Chat