My 2018 Blind Spot Selections and Blog Plans

First, I have something to say directly to each and every one of you reading this, and even those who aren't but managed to stop by this site at least once in the last 12 months. With over 343,000 pageviews, you've made 2017 the most trafficked year in this blog's history. You've also put me in position to finally reach 1 million views all-time well before the end of 2018. You guys are awesome!

A few years back, Ryan at The Matinee came up with The Blind Spot Challenge. He challenges us film buffs to watch one film each month that we deem significant, and that we've never seen before. Lots of bloggers play along. 2018 will be my fourth year participating. While not perfect, I am going to declare my 2017 Blind Spot Series a success. I managed to watch 11 of my 19 choices. Yes, 19 and not 12. That's because I've been trying to fit in a rather prominent franchise into one month and I just haven't done it. I'll talk more about this a little later in this post. I will also deduct a point from myself because I watched four of them in December. That was tough. I need to do better.

For 2018, I'm digging deep into my own collection. All but one of this year's selections (October) are currently sitting on a shelf collecting dust about fifteen feet from where I'm typing this entry. Some are pretty recent purchases, while others have been sitting there for years. Let's find out what I'll be watching this year.

January

Bad Education

February

Bird

March

Reefer Madness

April

Dirty Dancing

May

Ronin

June

Rebel Without a Cause

July

The Towering Inferno

August

Trouble Man

September

The Lady Vanishes

October

Eyes Without a Face

November

Fist of the North Star

December

Spaceballs

Bonus Pick

The Harry Potter Franchise

Let's talk about that bonus pick. It's not "officially" one of my selections this year. However, after trying and failing to watch this series for two consecutive years, I'm hoping the third time is a charm. If I don't get to it, no worries, I'll try again in 2019. If I do, that's icing on my Blind Spot cake.

Now, let's talk about why I might actually get to it this year.

One of the things I plan on doing this year is visiting or revisiting a number of franchises in full. Of course, The Harry Potter movies are included in those plans. Other series I plan on tackling in 2018 include, but are not limited to, the Ocean's movies, Star Wars, Mad Max, Alien, some Marvel properties that include movies prior to the MCU, and at least one other major horror franchise. I hope to do at least one per month, but I'm not holding my breath counting on that.

Blogathon wise, the usual suspects will be back. Therefore, be on the lookout for exact dates for Against the Crowd 2018 (sometime in August) and Girl Week 2018 (late November). I MAY have one in February for Black History Month and I MAY have one in October during my annual 31 Days of Horror, which will certainly be back.

Awards and lists will also continue to be a big part of things around here. I will have the 2016 Dellies up during the first quarter of the year. The question there is whether I'll be able to do the 2017 Dellies before 2018 runs out. Wish me luck on that one. The big list project is the ongoing "The 100 Project." The end-goal of this is my list of my top 100 movies of all-time. Along the way, I'm making lists for decades, and eventually, individual years. Next up is the 1970s, which I hope to have up fairly soon. To help you, and me, keep track of it all, I'll be creating a page dedicated to this endeavor.

As far as reviews go, expect more Quick & Dirties and fewer full-length reviews. This is partially due to this being my preferred method to cover the franchises I plan on covering. It's also because I'm watching more movies than I care to write longer reviews about. Don't get me wrong, there will be plenty of full-length reviews. They'll just probably fall into one of three categories: really good, really bad, or really current (things I see in theaters).

Speaking of watching more movies, I do have plans to actually count what I'm watching this year. I've had a Letterboxd account for years, but really only started using it about six months ago. I've cataloged lots of things there including every movie I can actually remember watching in full. By that measure, there is a good chance I'll go over 4,000 movies watched in my life. Sounds like a lot to some, a little to others, and I'm okay with both. The counting I'm more interested in, however, is just how many movies I watch or rewatch in a given year. Letterboxd gives me an easy way to keep track of that. It's not to impress any of you guys, but to fulfill my own curiosity. Just to have something down on record, I'm guessing the number will end up somewhere around 200, if I maintain what I believe to be my normal pace of 3 to 5 movies a week. I may write about this, I may not. Whatever.

The hard part of this is that everything I told kinda contradicts my other plan. My post total has gone down for several years in a row and I plan on that number either stays the same as 2017 (140) or drops a bit once again. Real life, ya know.

Now let's see how this goes. 


Oh, I almost forgot about Kevin of Speaks in Movie Lines. He won Spot the Movie Titles Contest No. 5, earning him a link on my first seven posts of the year. It's his own Quick & Dirties style post...

Kevin's Most Wonderful Time of the Year...(Part 1)