• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

50 Movies. 50 Books. 1 year. - 2013 Edition

Somnia

Member
Somnia - 3/50 Books | 4/50 Movies

Books

The Perfect Game
The Secret of Ella and Micha
Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End

Movies

Haywire
Total Recall (2012)
Tomorrow, When the War Began
Super 8
 

Mr. F

Banned
Mr. F - 0/50 books 2/50 movies

Books

  • Coming Soon

Movies

  • Django Unchained
  • Raising Arizona

Had been meaning to see Raising Arizona for a while, and it did not disappoint. I love the way the Coens write their characters, and somehow making Nicolas Cage not painfully annoying to watch is a feat unto itself.
 

Korosenai

Member
Update - 3/4/13

Nub - 1/50 Books | 8/50 Movies

Books
  • John Dies at the End
Movies
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  • The Shining
  • The Departed
  • Dredd
  • Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone
  • Indie Game: The Movie
  • John Dies at the End
  • Shrek the Third
 

Cartman86

Banned
UPDATE

Cartman86 - 0/50 Books | 6/50 Movies

Books
  • Coming Soon

Movies
  • Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (A-)
  • Les Misérables (B)
  • Bernie (B+)
  • ParaNorman (B+)
  • Rec (B+)
  • Killer Joe (A)

I'm gonna finish the movies by the end of February at this rate.
 

Chuck

Still without luck
Chuck - 0/50 Books | 3/50 Movies​

Books

  • Coming Soon

Movies

  • Lincoln
  • Drive
  • Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs is a great movie. Definitely looking forward to other Tarantino movies a lot more now.
 

-Stranger-

Junior Member
Update:

-Stranger- - 0/50 Books | 5/50 Movies


Movies:

Punch Drunk Love
The Bourne Legacy
Senna
The Expendables
Avatar
 

Atrophis

Member
Atrophis - 1/50 Books | 7/50 Movies

Movies

1. Up (3/5, watched 01/01)
2. We Need To Talk About Kevin (4/5, watched 02/01)
3. Deadgirl (2/5, watched 03/01)
4. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (4/5, watched 03/01)
5. Stake Land (4/5, watched 04/01)
6. Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (3/5, watched 04/01)
7. The Grey (3/5, watched 04/01)

Books

1. Haunted - James Herbert (2/5, started 04/01 - finished 06/01)
2. Perdido Street Station - China Mieville (started 06/01)

Bonus Round

1/?? TV

1. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 - series 3
 

Ovid

Member
UPDATE

Tarius1210 - 0/50 Books | 2/50 Movies

Books

Still reading Game of Thrones


Movies

1. After Porn Ends
2. The Flaw (excellent documentary about the cause and aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse)
 

Ephidel

Member
First Update :)

Ephidel - 1/50 Books, 2/50 Movies​

Books
1. First Channel (Sime~Gen Book 3)​

I don't know how familiar people are with this series, but it's set in a science fiction universe where the human race mutated into Simes and Gens. Some time around puberty a child will either establish as a Gen and start producing life energy, or changeover into a Sime who survives by stealing life energy using the tentacle like extrusions that grow from their arms. They usually do this by Killing a Gen once a month, so they're sort of like science fiction vampires. Sort of.
For added drama and angst, about a third of the kids born by parents of one 'type' will become the other type once changeover/establishing age hits, and the kids and their communities have to rationalise and live with that in whatever way they may.
It's a really interesting universe, and the authors frame their stories in various places in the universes overall timeline (the second book took place far later than the first, and this third book takes place far before either).

Channels are one of the ways Simes can avoid Killing Gens, and this book focuses on one of the first Simes who realised that this alternative existed and how he handles this realisation.

This book was a vast improvement on the second book, probably because the leads this time around were actually likeable (whereas I found Book 2's lead, a guy called Digen, incredibly irritating most of the time). Rimon and Kadi were great characters to follow - strong, opinionated, and resilient. Rimon had a tendency towards 'why me' lamentations, but they didn't hold back the story. I also enjoyed what we saw of Rimon's friend Del, and while the religious rationalisations of the Fort Freedom folk were wearisome at times, I can't deny they fitted the characters. Their desperation came across well too.

There were still a few of the pacing problems that affected the previous books, but they were nowhere near as bad. This book flowed a lot better, held my interest throughout, and the end section with the two kids (and from there Rimon's 'other' realisation) was note perfect :)


Films
1. Blue Streak
2. Knowing​

Far shorter analysis of the films.

Blue Streak was a comedy about a jewel thief infiltrating the world's dumbest police department that was almost entirely lacking in laughs. It wasn't really my kind of film, and if not for the fact there was nothing else on, and we were watching it with family, I'd probably have turned it off.

Knowing was actually pretty good, although I didn't really buy the
"Oh wait, kids write things backwards all the time. 33 is obviously EE"
thing because it was stupid, even if I did like the realisation of what that meant. I had a few other niggles, but all in all I enjoyed the film and its disasters, and the ending had some great special effects.
Unfortunately, I'm just not sure how I feel about
Alien angel child kidnappers (and rabbit smugglers)
:|
 

Kud Dukan

Member
Kud Dukan - 2/50 Books | 3/50 Movies​

Books:
  • The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From the Front Lines by Michael E. Mann
  • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Movies:
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower
  • Django Unchained
  • Contact
 

wilsham

Neo Member
Wilsham 0/50 Books 2/50 Movies

I've so far watched 2 new movies this year : The best exotic marigold hotel (which was not great, but a cosy, easy watch) and Searching for Sugar Man (which is a fantastic music documentary which I advise everyone to watch, preferably without prior knowledge of the subject matter as I knew nothing about the film and it blew me away, I think reading up on it before hand would have spoiled it slightly).

I'm currently reading The Glass books of the dream eaters by GW Dahlquist as my first book. Its a great adventure story but I realise I will need to read faster if I want to fit in all the books I want to read this year.
 

Aggrotek

Member
Saw this yesterday and decided I am in.

Aggrotek- 0/50 Books | 1/50 Movies

Books:

Coming soon.

Movies:

  • Rurouni Kenshin
 

Larsa

Member
Update:

Larsa- 2/50 Books | 6/50 Movies

Books
  • The Catcher in the Rye
  • Snow Country

Movies
  • Groundhog Day
  • Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
  • A Simple Life
  • The Princess Bride
  • John Dies at the End
  • Kikujiro

Kikujiro was amazing. Takeshi Kitano is amazing. Joe Hisaishi is amazing. The whole movie reminded me of my favourite part of Sonatine (yakuza playing on the beach). The main theme is lovely.
 
Is it too late or may I still join, please?

Vincent Alexander - 1/50 Books | 2/50 Movies

Books

  • The Maid and The Queen: The Secret History of the Joan of Arc

Movies
  • Django Unchained
  • Les Miserables
 
I'm ready for this.

SourCinnamon - 0/50 Books | 5/50 Movies

Books
  • Coming Soon

Movies
  • Indie Game: The Movie
  • Rise of the Guardians
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • They live
  • Casino Royale
 

kinoki

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
kinoki - 0/50 Books | 3/50 Movies | 1/24 TV Seasons | 0/24 Video Games

Books
  • Coming Soon

Movies
  • Moonrise Kingdom (2012, dir. Wes Anderson) - ★★★★
  • Carnage (2011, dir. Roman Polanski) - ★★★★ - A cruel and wonderful comedy that fits perfectly with other such movies as Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?. Tense, acting is top notch and the pacing is sublime.
  • Secretary (2002, dir. Stephen Shainberg) - ★★★ - Fun little movie about the quirky people we share this planet with. Not as kinky as I'd expected but the first spanking scene did deliver.

TV Seasons
  • True Blood (Season 5) - ★★½

Video Games
  • Coming Soon
 

guest1321

Member
I'll give this a shot. Don't know how well I'll do on the books side though.

guest1321 - 0/50 Books | 4/50 Movies

Books
  • Coming Soon

Movies
  • The Usual Suspects (5/5)
  • Unknown (4/5)
  • Blade Runner (3/5)
  • Batman: Year One (4/5)
 
BrokenEchelon - 2/50 Books | 9/50 Movies​

Books
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles
  • Dead Souls

Movies
  • Ip Man
  • Nosferatu
  • Rosemary's Baby
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  • Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior
  • Mary and Max
  • Trainspotting
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • V/H/S
 

Maximilian E.

AKA MS-Evangelist
UPDATE: with yet another movie (im going through the classics)

Maximilian E. - 0/50 Books | 4/50 Movies

Books
Coming Soon

Movies
Vertigo
Samsara
North by Northwest
To Catch a thief
 

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
Plywood - 1/50 Books | 0/50 Movies

Books
  • Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century

Movies
  • Coming Soon
 
Baconsaurus - 1/50 Books | 5/50 Movies​

Books
  1. World of the Incredible but True by Charles Berlitz

Movies
  1. Contact
  2. Minority Report
  3. Eden of the East I: The King of Eden
  4. The Cabin in the Woods
  5. Le Scaphandre et la Papillon
 

Kaladin

Member
Update!

Mr. Sandman - 1/50 Books | 3/50 Movies

Books:

Justin Cronin - The Passage (2010)

Movies:

Les Miserables (2012)
This Is 40 (2012)
The Thing (1982)




Next book is Outlaws: Revolution in Country Music by Michael Bane......who knows about the next movie.
 

Somnia

Member
Update!

Mr. Sandman - 1/50 Books | 3/50 Movies

Books:

Justin Cronin - The Passage (2010)

Movies:

Les Miserables (2012)
This Is 40 (2012)
The Thing (1982)




Next book is Outlaws: Revolution in Country Music by Michael Bane......who knows about the next movie.

What'd you think? Such a classic
 
SlowRevolution - 2/50 books | 5/50 movies

Books
  • The Price of Politics
  • Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Movies
  • Looper
  • John Dies At The End
  • Arbitrage
  • Zero Dark Thirty
  • What To Expect When You're Expecting

I didn't want to watch it. Oh god it was so bad.
 

smiggyRT

Member
smiggyRT - 0/50 books 7/50 movies

Books
  • Coming Soon

Movies
  • Cloud Atlas (1st Jan)
  • Dredd (1st Jan)
  • Killing Them Softly (2nd Jan)
  • Indie Game The Movie (3rd Jan)
  • Lincoln (4th Jan)
  • Killer Joe (4th Jan)
  • Django Unchained (6th Jan)
  • Zero Dark Thirty(7th Jan)

Django was pretty awesome. Saw half of Zero Dark Thirty as well but not had the chance to finish it, time will be limited for movies/books over the next couple weeks which sucks :(
 

Jhriad

Member
Jhriad - 0/50 Books | 1/50 Movies| 1/50 Games | 1/15 TV Seasons/Series

Books:

Movies:
  1. Skyfall ★★★½
    james-bond-skyfall-promo1-1.png


    Good fun but I've never been a big Bond guy so it didn't click with me as it might with someone that is really into the previous movies. Felt like they were trying to reestablish a new launching point for future Bond movies throughout the film by giving Bond something of an origin, or should we say
    resurrection
    , story. Unlike some of the previous films which I generally only watched when they hit television or dvd I think this film might have been able to interest me in seeing what comes next for the Bond series. Overall it was enjoyable and I'm glad I saw it.

Games:

Television:
  1. Hell on Wheels - Season 1 ★★★½
    Hell-on-Wheels-1920x1080-wide-wallpapersnet.jpg

    Having grown up in the exact area the series is supposed to take place I had a tendency to get a little nitpicky with the series ("luls those trees" & "where the fuck are the sandhills?") but it's a nice slow burn of a show. 'The Swede' is pretty great and I hope that they can build on some of the characters they've built with this season. Probably a series that will either get better with more seasons or quickly tank so I'm looking forward to which of the two describes it as I prepare to watch Season 2.
 
SaltyDoughnut - 2/50 Books | 1/50 Movies | 0/24 TV Seasons | 0/24 Games​

Books:
Now reading: Game of Thrones
-Crime and Punishment [551 pages] - 1/6/13

Movies:

-Les Misérables - 1/2/13

TV Seasons:

Now watching: Samurai Champloo, Girls season 1

Games:
Now playing: Hotline Miami, Sound Shapes, Forza Horizon
 

Cartman86

Banned
UPDATE

Cartman86 - 0/50 Books | 8/50 Movies

Books
  • Coming Soon

Movies
  • Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (A-)
  • Les Misérables (B)
  • Bernie (B+)
  • ParaNorman (B+)
  • Rec (B+)
  • Killer Joe (A)
  • Magic Mike (B)
  • The Sound of My Voice (B)

Problem with Sound of My Voice is that it's not my kind of movie. Movies with questions about if psychics are real and similar topics drive me crazy while watching them. I just can't help but yell at the screen. "Why not ask this question!!?!?!" "This is the same trick a magician would use!" "Of course they would know this thing about you! It's a movie and in a movie someone can do extensive research!" "Occam's razor!" Because of this it wasn't entirely pleasurable to watch, but I think it redeems itself by the end when you see what the filmmakers are trying to say about people. Which ultimately is more important.

Feels good to just have good movies to watch.
 

RobotHaus

Unconfirmed Member
I want to join!

RobotHaus - 0/50 Books | 4/50 Movies | 2/50 Games

Books
  • Reading Hobbit and American Gods

Movies
  • True Grit (Ok, not as entertaining as I'd thought)
  • Iron Sky (Avoid like the Plague)
  • 27 Dresses (Surprisingly decent)
  • Immortals (Terrible! Just a CGI gore showcase)

Games
  • Saints Row the Third (Lots of fun)
  • ARES (Could do without)
 
BrokenEchelon - 2/50 Books | 11/50 Movies​

Books
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles
  • Dead Souls

Movies
  • Ip Man
  • Nosferatu
  • Rosemary's Baby
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  • Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior
  • Mary and Max
  • Trainspotting
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • V/H/S
  • Chinatown
  • The Grapes of Wrath

This momentum is going to come a crashing halt in a few days when the girlfriend gets back.
 
UPDATE

TestMonkey - 1/50 Books | 1/50 Movies​

Books
  • The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green

Movies
  • Wing Chun (Solid kung fu flick with unexpected Michelle Yeoh side boob action thrown in.)
 

Kud Dukan

Member
Kud Dukan - 3/50 Books | 3/50 Movies​

Books:
  • The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From the Front Lines by Michael E. Mann
  • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

Movies:
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower
  • Django Unchained
  • Contact
 

Ovid

Member
UPDATE

Tarius1210 - 0/50 Books | 3/50 Movies

Books

  • Still reading Game of Thrones


Movies
  • After Porn Ends
  • The Flaw
  • Think Like A Man
 

.GqueB.

Banned
GqueB 12/50 Books | 23/50 Movies

Books
  • Not Tace Bell Material by Adam Carolla | ★★★★☆ Pretty good book overall I'd say. Though I don't much like his general personality or his comic stylings so I was constantly trying to stop myself from reading the book in his voice but it proved impossible. But the stories were fun and so were the insights. Surprised I liked this one.
  • Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift | ★★☆☆☆ This was a very challenging read for me overall and it was pretty uninteresting for the most part.
  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini | ★★★★★ Amazing. I haven't cried like that in a decade. Book got me good.
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell | ★★★★☆ Really solid book. I was a little put off by it at first because the premise sounded a little silly. But the story was really well told.
  • How we decide by Jonah Lehrer | ★★★★☆ Very good read. I feel like this was almost a book for improv actors.
  • Zone A by Colson Whitehead | ★★☆☆☆ This book was nothing more than the author trying to prove throughout the book that he owned a thesaurus. Really frustrating read. It was about zombies too which got me excited but it was just terrible overall. Every time the book was getting somewhere, he'd stop it dead in it's tracks and bombard the reader with some needlessly wordy description. Also, I couldn't really get into the characters because everyone seemed to have the same inner monologue so no one really stood out.
  • The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris | ★★★☆☆ This was good for the first 2/3 until it lost the human element. I was more interested in Tim's interaction with the world around him and how he dealt with his situation rather than reading page after page describing his walks. I didn't care about that.
  • You Lost Me There by Rosencrans Baldwin | ★★★☆☆ I give out a lot of 3 stars. Book was ok. Kind of had a "things happened until things stopped happening kind of feel". Didn't really care about the situation as a whole.
  • Mindfulness in plain English by Bhante Gunaratana | ★★★★☆ Pretty good book. Really easy ro understand a rather complicated bit of subject matter.
  • 1984 by George Orwell | ★★★★☆ Really solid read. Been wanting to read this for a while. Really interesting ending. Kind of tragic really.
  • This is where I leave you by Johnathan Tropper | ★★★★★ REALLY great read. Had me sucked in from the very beginning. After about 20 pages I was already looking up other books by him.
  • The Social Animal by David Brooks | ★★★★☆ Great books that really succeeded in humanizing all the other social science books I've been reading.
Movies

  • Glengary Glen Ross | ★★★★★ Amazing film. Can't believe it took me so long to actually watch it. It's been on my queue since forever.
  • The Hobbit | ★★☆☆☆ Didn't love it. Too long, too much filler and nothing ever had any real weight. Still slightly better than I expected though.
  • Dear Zachary: A Letter to a son about his father | ★★★★☆ Great film. Tragic story. I'm knocking off one star because the actual "filmmaking" was often horrid.
  • Apocalypse Now Redux | ★★★☆☆ Kind of torn about how I felt about this one. I think I liked the idea of the movie more than the movie itself. It was often boring, slow, and poorly paced but still pretty well done in most other areas. I wish it was a bit more clear in certain things. Like why the surfer suddenly started going crazy. Nothing particularly bad happened to him. Yea I don't know.
  • Zero Dark Thirty | ★★★☆☆ I didn't start liking this movie until I realized I wasn't suppose to give a shit about the characters but Maya nearly ruined the movie for me. It was like the actress didn't know who she wanted to be. The second half of the movie pretty much saved it since the first half was so uninteresting overall.
  • Paranormal activity 2 | ★★☆☆☆ I'm kind of a sucker for these movies. This was a bit boring. Terrible family, really slow build up. Overall lacking
  • Paranormal activity 3 | ★★★☆☆ Much better movie overall. Would've gotten a four if not for the somewhat annoying lead.
  • Think like a man | ★☆☆☆☆ Not a single genuine moment or character in this entire film. Cheesy as fuck. Minus one star for containing Wendy Williams.
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | ★★★☆☆ It was ok. I personally prefer mystery films where you can follow along with the character and discover things right along side them or even before them. There were a lot of points in this movie where the discovery was just done too quickly and it was hard to follow along with their investigation. Really hurt the movie in my eyes.
  • Flight | ★★★☆☆ Not a bad flick. Dragged like hell in the middle but it told it's story well enough.
  • Argo | ★★★☆☆ Decent. Easily Affleck's worst though.
  • Seven Psychopaths | ★★☆☆☆ Didn't really follow what was going on so well. Admittedly I wasn't paying much attention. It still felt a little all over the place.
  • Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden | ★★☆☆☆ A dramatized Zero Dark Thirty pretty much. It did a lot of things better but overall it was kind of a miss. It cut through the bullshit and got straight to the point which I enjoyed better but I'm not sure if it was because I preferred that approach or didn't mind it because I saw all that bullshit in Zero Dark Thirty and knew how they found the courier in the first place. I appreciated the focus on the actual team throughout though at times they felt a little over done. They established this rivalry at some point in the middle and there was no payoff. It was just kind of a "thing".
  • Dredd | ★★★★★ To be honest, I'd be forcing myself to say anything bad about this movie. No character development I guess? I don't know. Shame this was passed over by the general public.
  • Skyfall | ★★★★☆ Pretty fun ride overall. A little contrived at times as I found myself rolling my eyes constantly. The "villain who talks too much" thing happened a good 4 or 5 times. It was just insulting. And fuck why was it so long?!
  • The Raid | ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
  • The Master | ★☆☆☆☆ Boring. Really boring. Great performances but very boring. Didn't care about much of anything.
  • Cowboys and Aliens | ★★☆☆☆ I was more interested in the story they were telling before the aliens arrived
  • This is 40 | ☆☆☆☆☆ ugh...
  • Ted | ★★★☆☆ Decent. Not the "Lol" movie I was expecting. I was snickering throughout though.
  • Blue Valentine | ★★★☆☆ One of those "this is life" movies. Did the same thing This is 40 did but better.
  • Paranormal Activity 4 | ★★☆☆☆ I don't even remember what happened. Not as engaging as the other movies could be at times. The use of the Kinect was pretty great though.
  • Expendables 2 | ★★☆☆☆ This movie was better when it focused on small situations. The bigger it got the more boredom took over me.
 

kingslunk

Member
Kingslunk - 1/50 Books | 2/50 Movies

Books:
  • A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2)

Movies:
  • Zero Dark Thirty
  • The Impossible
 
Tragicomedy - 2/50 Books | 3/50 Movies​

Books
  • The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. ★★★★ -- Vast improvement over the first Discworld novel. I'm officially hooked on the series now. On to book #3.
  • The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. ★★★½

Movies
  • Looper. ★★★½
  • Indie Game: The Movie. ★★★★
  • The Queen of Versailles. ★★★
 
Schattenjäger;46137844 said:
Schattenjäger - 0/50 books | 1/50 movies

Movie:
The Hobbit

Ugh started reading A Storm of Swords - such a long book

Yeah GRRM ruined this challenge for my wife last year. They count as two each, but it's really like reading 3-4 normal length novels.
 

d_escudero

Neo Member
d_escudero - 1/50 Books | 1/50 Movies


Books

1.- The Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury

Movies

1.- Ace Attorney (2012)

I watched with my brother, we are fans of PW, he set the bar too high and didn't like it. I found it good, except for some characters (Maya for example... she lacks the fun of the game), and some confusing if you didn't play the game, i suppose is a movie for gamers only.
 
Top Bottom