I recently bought a MoviePass, and I love it. MoviePass permits members to watch one movie in theaters per day for a flat monthly rate. I pay ten bucks per month. It was on sale for seven bucks a month ago. I won’t actually go to one movie every day, but it’s nice to have the option.I’ve never gone to a movie by myself, but that day is coming very soon. There are always movies I want to see at the theater. Some of them are good, some of them aren’t, but I can appreciate a bad movie, so I don’t mind.In the past I’ve literally gone years without seeing a film in a theater. It’s difficult to get to theaters with young kids, but even as they grew older I used expense as an excuse for not going. But now that I’m paying ten dollars per month, I should go to the movies more often so I get my money’s worth. The financial part of the equation has shifted.The other reason that I haven’t gone to see movies at the theater as often as I like is time. I’ve written many times before about how I’m obsessed with time. Taking two-and-a-half hours to go watch a film has always been a time cost I haven’t been willing to pay.Instead, I think of all of the other things I could do with that time. I could write, or sleep, or spend time with my kids, or any of the thousand other things that I always wish I had more time to do. Going to the movies just seemed like the sort of luxury that I didn’t want to afford myself, timewise.But then, as so often happens in writing, two separate ideas came together to form a solution.I want to see more movies. I want to write more blog posts. Why not combine the two?If I commit to writing film reviews as blog posts, then all of a sudden seeing two films a week becomes research for my blog rather than mindless, escapist entertainment. Most of the time I don’t have trouble coming up with topics to write about. If I don’t write anything for a while it’s not because I don’t have ideas, it’s because I haven’t made writing a priority.My hope is that if I spend a couple of hours at a movie theater I won’t want to further waste that time by failing to write about what I watched. So instead of trips to the theater taking away time from writing, I hope that it actually adds to the amount of time I’m writing. And since writing leads to writing, trips to theater should have a domino effect.So look for film reviews to become part of this blog.It won’t be a stretch for me.For the past seven years I’ve kept a list of every film I’ve watched. I haven’t checked how many are on the list, but I know it’s well over 300. And for many of those (100? 150?) I’ve already written reviews. No one has read them, and I haven’t gathered them all into one place, but they exist. So on top of reviews of new films, I’ll throw in reviews from older movies that I’ve watched and previously written about.I’ve mentioned particular movies in previous posts. Remember Murder By Phone? Or A League of Their Own? Or even Bull Durham?Of course none of those are strictly film reviews, and I can’t guarantee that each film-related blog post will read like a film review, but it’s a starting point.One of the things that I enjoy most about writing film reviews is comparing my thoughts about a film to Roger Ebert’s thoughts about a film. He’s no longer writing movie reviews, of course, but he left behind so many that I have plenty of room for comparison.I get so excited when I make a point about a movie in my review, and then read Ebert’s review only to find out that he made the same point, or had the same reaction, or drew the same conclusion.Look for the first film review soon. I hope you’ll give it a Thumbs Up! Read my first review, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, here.Wasn't that well-written and fun to read? You should subscribe to my blog and we'll send you an e-mail every time I write a new one. Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.
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