With 2010 coming to an end, and our goal of watching 169 movies ending 19 movies shy, it is time to set up my entertainment goals for 2011.  This year, I am hoping to focus more on quality than quantity in terms of writing, and also allow myself to watch more movies instead of just researching them.  There is an embarrassing amount of “classic” films that I have not seen, so that is what this year will try to remedy.  This list will probably be updated throughout the first couple weeks of January, but only to add in more specifics, not take things away.  Below are all 6 of my entertainment goals, including any secondary goals that may go with them, and explanations of all. Without further ado…

Entertainment Goals for 2011

-Write one (1) non-IP Movies review each week, totaling 52 reviews for 2011.
This is pretty self-explanatory.  I am setting this goal so that I can push myself to write one original piece for this site a week, but not get bogged down by feeling the need to write a full review on every movie I watch.  This will allow me to be productive in writing movie reviews, and watch more films.  I hope to post a recap post each week (or more) covering the titles and my star rating for the films I choose not to write a full review on.

-Watch all of AFI’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list in 2011.
I will be following the American Film Institutes list of the top 100 movies of all-time, which was created in 2007.  I hope to be able to watch every movie on the list, even if I have seen it before (which, honestly, will only be about 15 or so movies).  Roger Ebert said in an article, “if you were to see all 100 films on the AFI list, by the end of that experience, you would no longer desire to see a Dead Teenager Movie”.  Well, Mr. Ebert, I accept your challenge.  The full list can be viewed here, and downloaded here (along with all the other AFI lists).

-Watch 51 other movies in 2011.
Within these 51 movies, I intend to fulfill these secondary goals:
[ ]Watch Ebert’s Top Movies Not on AFI Top 100
—[ ]Aguirre, Wrath of God
—[ ]Dekalog
—[ ]La dolce vita
—[ ]The General
—[ ]Tokyo Story
These are from Roger Ebert’s top 10 films, in alphabetical order. The other five films can be found at the link above, but are already included in the AFI Top 100 list, so I will not be re-watching those. I wanted to include these because Ebert is one of the most respected critics out there, and I have been reading more and more that he writes and want to see where his inspirations lie (which is also why I have started reading Pauline Kael’s work). Hopefully I will able to find all of these as I haven’t tried yet.

[ ]Watch (at least) Three (3) Films from the Following Directors
—[ ]Carpenter, John
——[ ]Film One
——[ ]Film Two
——[ ]Film Three
—[ ]Fulci, Lucio
——[ ]Film One
——[ ]Film Two
——[ ]Film Three
—[ ]Hitchcock, Alfred
——[ ]Film One
——[ ]Film Two
——[ ]Film Three
—[ ]Kubrick, Stanley
——[ ]Film One
——[ ]Film Two
——[ ]Film Three
—[ ]Scorsese, Martin
——[ ]Film One
——[ ]Film Two
——[ ]Film Three
—[ ]Welles, Orson
——[ ]Film One
——[ ]Film Two
——[ ]Film Three
These are the some of the masters of their genres, and I have not watched nearly enough of their work. John Carpenter is a favorite of mine and I just put him on there so I had an excuse to watch more of his work that I haven’t yet watched. The one that might stand out in this list to non-horror fans is Lucio Fulci. Fulci is an Italian horror filmmaker known for his gore films, and is well-respected in the genre. The rest have obvious reason to be here, and this is an effort to watch more of the greats.

[ ]Lower Unwatched Percentages of Owned BD/DVDs
—[ ]End 2011 with Movie % below 20.0% (currently 48.2% unwatched).
—[ ]End 2011 with TV Series % below 40.0% (currently 73.9% unwatched).
—[ ]End 2011 with Blu-ray % below 10.0% (currently 50.5% unwatched).
—[ ]End 2011 with DVD % below 30.0% (currently 54.0% unwatched).
Taking a queue from the video game Backloggery website that I am a part of, I found the unwatched percentages of my owned movies. The purpose is to keep my percentages lower is so I will buy less and watch more of what I already own. Will this work? Probably not, but it is at least worth the effort. This is the only one that I will not be able to fail or succeed until 365 days from today.

-Read five (5) full books in 2011.
—[ ]Book One by Author
—[ ]Book Two by Author
—[ ]Book Three by Author
—[ ]Book Four by Author
—[ ]Book Five by Author
This is a pretty weak goal, but one I want to make sure I complete. I only finished three books in 2010 (not including plays, which would easily take the number to 30 or 40), and I want to start earlier and finish more in 2011. If I can get to this number by the end of the summer, I will probably bump it up to 10, but that is highly unlikely. Again, this will not include plays, but all other types of books.

-Beat fifteen (15) video games in 2011.
In reality, as low as this number will sound to some, this will probably be the most difficult goal to complete in the coming year. I only beat 10 video games last year, and that was while I was still partially writing for DHGF. This year, as my video game reviewing will be (most likely) non-existent, I will have less motivation to beat games. This is really my wild card pick that can go either way.

-Win the virtual World Title in all six (6) major sports.
—[ ]Baseball – Game
—[ ]Basketball – Game
—[ ]Football – Game
—[ ]Hockey – Game
—[ ]NCAA Football – Game
—[ ]Soccer – Game
I love sports video games more than any other genre on the planet. This is a goal I try for every year, but will make a stronger effort to complete this goal this year. I consider a sports game beaten if I win the world title in that sport, so these will be count towards “beat 15 games in 2011” goal. There is no rule on which game I have to use, meaning I could win the Super Bowl in Tecmo Super Bowl, Madden 2005, or Madden NFL 12, and so on; the year the game released doesn’t matter. This will be a fun one, and one that I am capable of completing if I find the time to do so.

———

There we have it. It is going to be a busy, and fun, year. This is the first year where I have set down a list of goals to accomplish (aside from 2010s “Watch 169 Movies” goal, of course), and the first year that I intend to focus in on my writing. Hopefully next year I can feel confident enough to add “get paid for something I write” to my list of goals. This year is all about improving, though, which I hope to do through watching more classic films, getting to know important directors, and reading more from those that came before me (Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, Leonard Maltin, and so on). Hopefully I can continue to get readers to visit the site throughout the year, and even top my best hit day from this year (the 120 hits on December 29, 2010 blew my mind, and I hope to find some repeat viewers in there, even if most of the hits were thanks to the Nikkatsu Roman Porno Trailer Collection post).

Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank all of you that have visited my site throughout the year. Without your readership, I would not have found the inspiration to write in the first place, and more importantly, to continue writing into the future, trying to become better and better with every review. Know that your support has inspired someone in 2010, and what better reason to be alive than to inspire? Again, thank you.

In the coming days I will be posting two separate articles: the first will cover my top 5 films released in 2010, and the other will be my top 5 films that I watched in 2010. I am sure there will be some duplicates, but thus is life. I intend to watch The Town and Inception (hopefully even Black Swan) before I write those up, however, so it may not be posted until next weekend.

I hope everyone has the greatest new year, and I look forward to discussing movies with you in 2011!

Thanks for reading.

Branden Chowen

Branden has been a film fan since he was young, roaming the halls of Blockbuster Video, trying to find the grossest, scariest looking VHS covers to rent and watch alone in the basement. It wasn’t until recently, though, that Branden started seeking out the classics of cinema, and began to develop his true passion for the art form. Branden approaches each film with the unique perspective of having studied the art from the inside, having both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in acting. He has been a film critic since 2010, and has previously written for Inside Pulse Movies, We Love Cult, and Diehard Gamefan. His biggest achievement as a film critic, to date, has been founding Cinefessions and turning it from a personal blog to a true film website, housing hundreds of film and television reviews, and dozens of podcasts.