Eighth Annual Movie Ratings Recap

When I awoke on the morning of January 31, my first thought was that this was the last day of the twelve month period I use for blogging purposes when putting together my annual Movie Ratings Recap.  After making a pot of coffee -- one of the few things within my culinary skill set -- I refreshed my memory as to how many movies I had seen in theaters the previous year, then quickly compared that total against my running list for this year's total.  It turned out I needed to see one more movie that day in order to avoid having a lower total than last year's twenty-five.  A blogger's dedication knows no bounds.  Thus, Momma Cuan and I scooted over to the Park Mann to see The Big Short.  Even though I did not end up posting my review until February 8 (A-), it makes the list for this Eighth Annual MRR since I saw it before the February 1 deadline.  (An aside: One of the posts I'm thinking about drafting in the future has to do with self-imposed rules, such as the one just described.)

In the eight years during which I've been reviewing movies, this is the first year I did not rank any movie below a B-.  Thus, even though the quantity of films seen wasn't as high as what I'd hoped for, the quality was generally there.  If you're keeping score at home, I have attended 225 movies at the theater during that eight year span, and the breakdown of my grades for those pictures is as follows:

A   7 (3%)

A-  37 (16%)

B+ 66 (29%)

B   50 (22%)

B-  41 (18%)

C+ 11 (5%)

C   9 (4%)

C-  2 (1%)

D   1
D-  1

In case you're wondering, I never change a rating once I have published the review.  On a rare occasion I might subsequently admit a rating error -- I probably should have given Tangerines, reviewed here last May, an A- instead of a B+ -- but once a rating is posted it's written in stone. Another self-imposed rule!  And, for those movies which, in retrospect, I wish I'd graded differently, it is never more than one notch up or down, e.g., from a B+ to a B, or vice versa.

Of the eight films recently nominated for Best Film by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, I have seen six of them.  I still plan to see Brooklyn and Room, especially if one of them is awarded the Oscar.  My single "A" film of the past twelve month period, The Imitation Game, was nominated for Best Picture of 2014, but since I did not see it until after February 1, 2015, it is on the present MRR.

Here are the twenty five films I've seen in the most recent twelve month period, together with the respective dates of my review.  Within each grade, the films are listed in my order of preference.

A:

The Imitation Game (February 11, 2015)

A-:

About Elly (July 28, 2015)
Red Army (March 6, 2015)
The Wrecking Crew (April 28, 2015)
Bridge Of Spies (November 5, 2015)
The Big Short (February 8, 2016)

B+:

Tangerines (May 15, 2015)
The Martian (January 15, 2016)
Everest (December 17, 2015)
Ricki And The Flash (August 25, 2015)
Spotlight (December 5, 2015)
Steve Jobs (November 12, 2015)

B:

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl (July 23, 2015)
Carol (January 20, 2016)
The Revenant (January 25, 2016)
The Longest Ride (April 20, 2015)
Macbeth (December 21, 2015)
Love & Mercy (June 20, 2015)
Still Alice (February 26, 2015)
Mad Max: The Fury Road (August 8, 2015)
Testament Of Youth (June 30, 2015)

B-:

The Theory Of Everything (February 15, 2015)
Welcome To Leith (November 18, 2015)
Far From The Madding Crowd (May 20, 2015)
Aloha (May 30, 2015)