2016: The 58 Movies I Watched

Every year, NeoGAF has a 50 books and 50 movies challenge, in which you have to read 50 new books and watch 50 new movies before the start of the next year. There is also a game equivalent, in which you have to beat 52 new video games. These challenges provide that extra motivation to do/finish the things you already wanted to anyway and can lead you to checking out stuff you otherwise may not have (this is especially true with books).

The movie challenge was the only one I completed, watching a total of 58 throughout the year of 2016.

My ratings are done on a 5-star scale (no halfsies).

★ - Hated it
★★ - Disliked it
★★★ - Liked/enjoyed/didn't actively dislike it
★★★★ - Really liked it
★★★★★ - Loved it

Here are the 58 movies I watched in 2016:

The Good Dinosaur - ★★★★★
World of Tomorrow - ★★★★★
The Revenant - ★★★★★
Triumph: The Primary Election Special 2016 - ★★★★★
Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie - ★★★★
Mortdecai - ★★★
The Martian - ★★★★★
Deadpool - ★★★★★ - February 27
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) - ★★★
RoboCop (2014) - ★★★
Project Almanac - ★★★
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - ★★★★ - March 26
Lemonade (Beyoncé) - ★★★★★ - April 24
Kingsman: The Secret Service - ★★★★★ - April 28
Lucy - ★★★ - April 29
Ant-Man - ★★★★ - May 6
Captain America: Civil War - ★★★★★ - May 6
Room - ★★★★★ - May 11
Zoolander 2 - ★★★ - May 26
X-Men: Apocalypse - ★★★ - June 7
Finding Dory - ★★★★★ - June 16
The BFG - ★★ - July 2
10 Cloverfield Lane - ★★★★★ - July 8
The Secret Life of Pets - ★★★ - July 9
Big Hero 6 - ★★★★★ - July 10
Keanu - ★★★ - July 22
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot - ★★★★★ - July 23
Green Room - ★★★★★ - July 23
Paper Towns - ★★★★★ - July 23
Batman: The Killing Joke - ★★ - July 24
Triple 9 - ★★★★ - July 24
Hardcore Henry - ★★★ - July 26
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition - ★★★★★ - July 28
Star Trek Beyond - ★★★ - August 1
Suicide Squad - ★★ - August 4
Sicario - ★★★★★ - August 10
John Wick - ★★★★ - August 10
Black Mass - ★★★★ - August 11
Pete's Dragon - ★★★★ - August 17
Karolyi - ★★★★ - August 18
Whiplash - ★★★★★ - August 25
The Fundamentals of Caring - ★★★★ - August 26
Enemy - ★★★ - August 27
The Nice Guys - ★★★★★ - August 28
Triumph: Summer Election Special 2016 - ★★★★★ - August 30
Don't Think Twice - ★★★★ - September 9
Zootopia - ★★★★★ - September 10
Shin Godzilla - ★★★★ - October 12
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back - ★★ - October 26
The Wicker Man - ★★ - November 1st
Doctor Strange - ★★★★★ - November 3rd
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV - ★★★ - November 14
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - ★★★★ - November 20
Me Before You - ★★★ - November 22
Sausage Party - ★★★ - December 13
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call - ★★★ - December 16
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - ★★★★ - December 21
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates - ★★★ - December 31

And though it isn't part of the challenge, I decided to also keep track of the television I watched:

Marvel's Jessica Jones (Season 1)
iZombie (Season 2)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Seasons 2 and 3)
Saturday Night Live (Season 41)
Broad City (Seasons 1-3)
You're the Worst (Seasons 1 and 2)
Seinfeld (Whole Series)
The Walking Dead (Seasons 4-6)
Stranger Things (Season 1)
Futurama (Season 10)
Love (Season 1)
The Get Down (Part 1)
Daredevil (Season 2)
Black Mirror (Season 3)
Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV (Whole Series)
Comedy Bang! Bang! (Season 3)
South Park (Season 20)
Westworld (Season 1)
Baskets (Season 1)

I should be able to complete the movie challenge again this year, though I will give more time to reading books in 2017.

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2015

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PlayStation VR, Luke Cage, and the Apple Watch | Vlog #6

PlayStation VR, Luke Cage, and my new Apple Watch are just a few of the topics I discuss on my walk to check the mail on this unusually warm autumn day.

Boogie2988's Skyrim Helmet on Adult Swim

I was watching Adult Swim on October 15th, 2014 when I saw this bumper played before an episode of American Dad. I thought the helmet looked familiar. It's boogie2988's foil Skyrim helmet he wore for his Excited about Skyrim video that he uploaded on November 10th, 2011.

Oculus Rift DK2: A Night at the Roculus

Let's snort powdered sugar and play A Night at the Roculus for the Oculus Rift DK2. Nod your head in rhythm to Haddaway's "What Is Love" and get the highest score possible without straining your neck. No Chris Kattans were harmed in the making of this video.

Download the demo.

Check out the official website.

A Night at the Roculus is made by Holden Link and Nic Vasconcellos.

2014: Upcoming Projects

I made a video showcasing snippets of various projects I am working on, from big to small. The song used is "What This Could Be" by The Hamster Alliance. I have a lot on my plate!

Acting

On August 8th I made the following tweet:

There wasn't any particular reason for me to feel that way; it was just a feeling.

Three days later, on the 11th, I was looking up behind-the-scenes videos of The Dark Knight Rises. The first one I came across took place during the football scene as someone in the crowd was filming the explosions set off by Bane. Through that, I found a YouTube channel where a guy in Pittsburgh had recorded over 50 videos of various TDKR sets along with a few scenes being filmed there. What stood out to me the most was just how close people that weren't working on the film were able to get to the cast and crew during production, or even to vehicles and props used. It seemed odd, so I looked into it, and came across a site called Before the Trailer. It was there that I saw We're the Millers, a comedy starring Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston, was filming in Wilmington, North Carolina, which is only a couple of hours away from me. The website is always looking for photos of sets and actors, and I toyed with the idea of driving to Wilmington to watch them film. I decided not to as I would feel weird standing off set like that staring at people as they're trying to work. Afterward, I saw that Before the Trailer also posts casting information, including that for background actors (extras). I soon learned that Wilmington is, apparently, a popular place for filming movies and television shows, a fact my brother has known for a year now but never told me. If only I knew sooner, I could have been in Iron Man 3! Perhaps I'll be able to do Captain America 2...

After a little more research, I found Facebook pages for various casting agencies in the North Carolina area, which seems to be their main way of posting job info. I created a Facebook account - after a year of not having one - to follow the pages more closely and researched how to apply for roles properly. Four days later, on the 15th, I had gotten a role as an extra on Revolution, and then, on the 20th, I got a role on We're the Millers. I'll be writing and releasing separate posts for these and any more of my acting experiences as the movies/shows come out.

My only prior experience with acting is doing three musicals during my time in middle school and taking a drama class in high school. The first two musicals were at the Junction City Little Theater in Kansas, while the final (and worst) one was at Fort Riley Middle School. Only the first play I did, Kilroy Was Here, was any good. I'll write more about these sometime in the future. Of course, acting in a musical and doing background acting are completely different things, and I'll soon be going into more detail on just what a day as an extra can be like.

While this isn't something I'm currently interested in making a career out of (not that I could in North Carolina), I will be taking as many opportunities for background acting as I can. It's a fun diversion that pays well and gives a cool story to tell. Plus, the food is always free and delicious!

A couple of the Google+ posts I made that day.

Master Shake Graffiti

I was going through some old, unorganized pictures on my computer and found these two I took on April 29th, 2011 on our move from Texas to North Carolina. It's graffiti of Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force:

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Seinfeld Lectures BioWare on Artistic Integrity

This is a video I made a few hours ago. Seinfeld isn't happy about BioWare's "artistic integrity" defense regarding the ending to Mass Effect 3.

Breaking Bad: Netflix Replaced Extended Pilot with Edited Version

Hello! I figured I would let everyone know this since I just found out yesterday. I recently finished up all three seasons of Breaking Bad on Netflix and, like with most good shows, just started watching it again with my brother. I was seriously confused for the first half of the pilot, as scenes that I vividly remembered watching before were no longer there. Figuring that I wasn't some creative genius that imagined scenes that fit so perfectly into the show, I told my brother to wait a few minutes so I could look something up on the Internet. While I couldn't find anything specifically about this situation, I did learn that there were two versions of the pilot: a 58-minute version, and a 48-minute version that aired later. Netflix originally had the 58-minute pilot, but, for some reason, replaced it with the edited one fairly recently.

I feel that the full pilot is the one to watch, as cutting out nearly 1/6th of a TV episode results in a lot of missing scenes, some of which I consider to be important and make Walt's decision to start cooking meth make more sense. We went to Amazon's streaming service and bought the episode, which is the full version, and went back to Netflix for the rest.

Just something to think about for those of you that would care.

Here are some of the scenes that were cut out (minor spoilers ahead!): 

• The ambulance scene where you learn Walt's never smoked.
• The part where the car he is wiping down belongs to his asshole student, who proceeds to take a picture of him.
• The handjob scene where you learn Skyler sells stuff on eBay.
• The broken glove compartment scene. 

There might have been more scenes that were cut, too. We stopped the episode about 25 minutes in, so I'm not 100% sure on what was left out.