25 days, 25 films (and two tv shows). And man, am I burned out.

This month, I have managed to watch a film or TV show starring someone from the cast of The Old Guard, because why not, I love this film. I had days where I watched films while dealing with headaches. I watched in the mornings and late at night. I changed my plans about ten times, especially for the last five days. It’s been a trip.

To recap, I’ve done two check in posts, where I talked about the following films in order: Tutti i santi giorni (Luca Marinelli), The Italian Job (Charlize Theorn), Murder on the Orient Express (Marwan Kenzari), They Call Me Jeeg (Luca), Far From the Madding Crowd (Matthias Schoenaerts), The Martian (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Aladdin (Marwan), The Bigger Splash (Matthias), Fabrizio De Andre: Principe libero (Luca), If Beale Street Could Talk (KiKi Layne), Æon Flux (Charlize), Racer and the Jailbird (Matthias), Ricordi (Luca), and Doctor Strange (Chiwetel). That was up to December 14th.

For the rest of the month:

On December 15th, I wasn’t feeling good, but I watched What Happened to Monday, with Marwan Kenzari. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really impressed with the film. I felt that most of the characters were just one note, and it’s something that’s been done before. Marwan didn’t have much to work with, but he did alright with what he had. It was better than The Mummy… which isn’t saying much. Why was he being screwed by English-language films pre-TOG?

On December 16th, I still felt like death, so I rewatched A Little Chaos, with the always adorable Matthias Schoenaerts. Look, I’ve seen it before, and I loved it. He has this way of making every scene so damn perfect, even when he’s not the focus of the shot. The film is honestly one of my favorite films of 2020.

December 17th was when I watched Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron. I was finally feeling better, and this film blew me out of the park. I though the story was strong, including the twists that came in a justifiable manner. The fight scenes were tight and choreographed well. The cameramen deserve raises, because the cinematography was on point. It deserves the sequel that is coming, hands down.

On December 18th, I sat down and watched Una questione privata (Raibow: A Private Affair) with Luca Marinelli. And honestly… I just wasn’t impressed. Luca is fine, the storyline is fine, the Italian countryside is picturesque as always… but it feels like the film ends about ten minutes too early. The main plotline doesn’t get solved in any way. It just… stops. It doesn’t really work for me, unfortunately.

December 19th was reserved for Marwan Kenzari’s Wolf. Which destroyed me. 100%. I cried. A LOT. This was a powerful film, and I thank one of the amazing people on Tumblr for sending me a copy with subtitles, because the English dub was terrible. My tweet regarding this film basically says it all: “Mr. Marwan Kenzari, how dare you destroy me twice in one day. How the hell am I supposed to sleep at night knowing that you exist and can make me sob with just one word or look? (Wolf was fantastic. Like, damn near perfect. Holy hell.)” Worth it.

On December 20th, I was starting to feel burned out, so I watched KiKi Layne’s first short film, Veracity. It was only 20 minutes long, but I really enjoyed it. It’s a tale as old as time: girl meets girl, girl kisses girl, girl gets outed by someone opening the damn door during the make out scene, girl gets ostracized by the entire student population, girl gets shut down by girl, girl and girl decided to be friends, because that’s what is important. And KiKi nails it. I really enjoyed this one, and it revitalized me to finish this little challenge.

On December 21st, I wasn’t really up to watching a film. So, while wrapping my Christmas presents, I watched episodes 3-10 of Fx’s Trust. Luca Marinelli plays an Italian mobster and kidnapper… and it’s such a problem that he’s so damn hot. No seriously, it’s a problem. The camera loves his ass, and especially his ass in tight pants. Or when he’s smoking. It’s an issue. One that I love. (Also, I love it. One of my favorite mini-series I watched this year.)

On December 22nd, I decided to watch a trash film called Collide with Marwan Kenzari. And yes, it’s a trash film. It felt like it was aiming for the “so bad it’s good” title, but missed, by a damn mile. The cast was horrifically miscast (why are Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley in is mess???), the script was dull, repetitive, and unimaginative, and honestly, it’s been done before, and done better. Marwan is completely wasted and written out of the back half of the film. It’s a mess.

But we did get this gif, so it’s not all bad.

December 23rd is when everything started hitting me, and wow was I tired. So, I ended up watching half of the The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, with Harry Melling playing a good character! Now, I haven’t finished the series, I have three episodes left, but I’m waiting for Mom so that we can watch it together. But was I saw made it absolutely clear why this mini-series is considered one of the best released projects on Netflix. Because wow. And Harry knocked it out of the park. I knew he took his craft seriously (I mean, look at his post-Harry Potter career, it’s awesome), but this show proved he has a lot still left up his sleeve.

On Christmas Eve, December 24th, I picked my last movie to watch, mostly because I had to save a bunch for next week because Mom. I decided to watch another Disney remake, The Lion King, with Chiweter Ejiofor as Scar. And, well. That was a war crime. And assault on my childhood. Just, how. There was no reason to consider making a live action remake of this Disney classic. None at all. And yet they did. And it’s terrible. It didn’t have the magic of the original film. It just… exists. Also, they put Beauty and the Beast‘s “Be Our Guest” in place of the hula scene. Just. No. Please. Never. (Marwan, I need that gif down here.)

As for today, it still counts. And there’s really only one movie that I can watch today that really encompasses what I’ve seen for the past 24 days. So, after this post goes live, with our 25 pound turkey in the oven (named Kaysanova, because reasons), I’m watching The Old Guard. Don’t judge me. I’m in the mood for some wonderful fun. And damnit, I didn’t get my Christmas miracle (a.k.a. sequel conformation) for Christmas, so I need happiness.

And if you’re curious, Kaysanova is the ship name for Yusuf “Joe” Al-Kaysani and Nicolo “Nicky” di Genova from TOG. We’re not that creative. (Nile and Booker’s ship name is Book of Nile, so at least this one is fun. But I like Book of Nile. No judgement.)

With that, I call this little idea done. I was going to continue on to the New Year, but I’m just getting burned out. Besides watching TOG today, I think I’m just gonna go play a good game or something and relax for a couple days. I have a couple more films I want to watch (Martin Eden with Luca and Rust and Bone with Matthias to name two), but I’m gonna take my time on those. I’m just… exhausted.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and happy holiday season! I’ll be resuming my previous posting schedule starting next week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday) as this is the end of Blogmas. I hope everyone enjoyed the daily posts, because I am TIRED.

Until next time! _{(I need sleep)}

I’m a stereotype. Deal with it.

I’ve been in such a reading slump for months, and I’m completely burned out on video games. Thus, I decided that I would watch a lot of movies for the holidays. Why? Because spending two hours of my life watching films with actors that I like will be worth it. Or at least I can finally catch up on what most of The Old Guard fandom has been doing since July.

So. Every day, or really evening, I am watching a different film that has a cast member from The Old Guard cast in it. They don’t have to be the main character, or even have a major role. Just a recognizable role.

I made a list on my phone of a bunch of movies, and made a calendar so that I wouldn’t double up an actor, but I did kinda mess up the back end of the month. Whoops?

As of today (December 6th), I have watched five of the twenty five films. I have twenty more to go, though the final one may be moved to Boxing Day depending on how I feel that evening. I won’t go into spoiler territory of the first five films, but I will give a quick impression.

December 1st, I watched Tutti i santi giorni, or Every Blessed Day, which is one of Luca Marinelli’s earliest movies. I really enjoyed this one, much more than I figured. Guido (Luca’s character) reminded me of a more-well adjusted Spencer Reid of Criminal Minds. But he was soft and loving and cared so much for his girlfriend. It was actually really well done.

December 2nd was The Italian Job, the first film I ever saw Charlize Theron in. This was a Walmart bargain bin find back in 2010, and I used to turn it on when I was studying for background noise. Unfortunately, the movie is just fine. It hasn’t really aged well. There’s nothing that really stand out, except for Edward Norton’s mustache. It just didn’t click that well with me this go around.

December 3rd was reserved for Murder on the Orient Express, which had the lovely Marwan Kenzari in it. I’d never watched an adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel before, and I wasn’t really impressed with this one. It had a stellar cast, but it just didn’t really click with me. I figured out the plot (it’s a who-done-it) by the midpoint in the film. Marwan was great, but his role was really minor (thanks fandom for not telling me that beforehand). But he can smile at me like that any day.

December 4th was another Luca Marinelli film, Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot or They Call Me Jeeg. It’s a tribute film to the anime and manga series Steel Jeeg from Japan. Luca stars as the villain, and he steals all of his scenes. Actually, he managed to make me like his character more than the main character Enzo, who is actually supposed to be the reluctant hero. But Enzo has a scene with his love interest that really turned my stomach, and I just couldn’t care for him anymore. (Also, must characters suffer from Stormtrooper Syndrome in this film, it’s hilarious).

December 5th was my first Matthias Schoenaerts film of this lovely marathon, which is also a rewatch. Far From the Madding Crowd. I’ve talked about it before enough to bore everyone into sleep, but I just love how Matthias steals the show, and yet doesn’t speak much. It’s all in action. Such love.

As for the rest of the month, I have a quick list, broken up by actor. I’ll be totally honest, I’m not watching many by Charlize Theron or KiKi Layne. It has nothing to do with them, it’s just I wasn’t very interested in most of their filmography.

For KiKi, I’ll be watching If Beale Street Could Talk. For Charlize, I’ll be giving Atomic Blonde a try, and rewatching Æon Flux for the first time in years. Of Luca’s films, I’ll be watching Il mondo fino in fondo (if I can find subtitles for it), Una questione privata / Rainbow: A Private Affair, Fabrizio De Andre: Prinipe libero, Ricordi?, and Martin Eden. As for Marwan, I’ll be rewatching Aladdin, and for the first time watching What Happened to Monday, Instinct, and Hartenstraat. Of Matthias’ films, I’ll be watching Disorder, Le Fidèle / Racer and the Jailbird and Rust and Bone, and rewatching The Bigger Splash (Bullhead as well, depending on how I feel). As for Chiwetel, I’ll be watching Doctor Strange and The Martian.

… I think I missed one in there. Oh well, I’ll figure it out another day.

On Christmas, the predictable me will be watching The Old Guard. Because why not. I have so many feelings for this movie it isn’t even funny. I’m privately hoping that we shall soon hear of sequel news, or news of part three of the comics, or just anything really. The fans are ravenous.

Anyway, this is what I’m watching for the next twenty days, provided that I don’t forget and skip a day, which is totally possible, knowing me. I’ve got a Google Doc holding me accountable, so fingers crossed.

Until next time!