The return of my annual long December vacation helped push up a weak first eleven months of the year, giving me my lowest total since last year. I managed to watch 55 movies last year, my fifth consecutive year under 100, despite being home all day and not needing to bother with pesky things like a commute. Or exercise. Reading 66 books and watching game shows all day probably didn’t help either.
Here’s a look back at the first 50 movies I watched last year and what recollection, if any, I have of them. The films are listed in the order I saw them.
Queenpins (2021)
A pair of housewives create a $40 million coupon scam.
Blackwater Lane (2024)
A woman believes she will be the next victim of a serial killer.
MaXXXine (2024)
Mia Goth returns in this prequel to X.
Mothers’ Instinct (2024)
The friendship between two women is tested when one loses her son.
Blitz (2024)
A group of Londoners tries to survive during the German bombing during World War II.
Poor Things (2023)
Emma Stone plays a woman who has the brain of a baby transplanted into her head.
The Idea of You (2024)
A 40-year-old single mom begins an unexpected romance with the lead singer of the hottest boy band on the planet.
Back in Action (2025)
Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz star as retired CIA agents forced to come out of retirement to save their family.
Kinds of Kindness (2024)
Emma Stone reteams with writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos.
Y2K (2024)
Machines go nuts as the clock strikes midnight and the world enters the year 2000.

Things look pretty decent here. Auburn’s loss to Yale knocked me for a bit of a loop, but, aside from that, things are fairly clean, with three of the four teams heading into this weekend still alive.
Things are slightly worse on this side of the bracket, with just two of the four teams I picked playing this weekend. While Nebraska did me dirty, I correctly picked that Wisconsin had peaked after beating Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament two weeks ago.
My selections here are mostly chalk, with a couple early upsets but with the top four seeds heading to the Sweet Sixteen. Iowa State is my pick to advance to the Final Four.
Gonzaga is the overall #1 and my pick to come out of this region and moving on to the Final Four. I did throw the occasional upset in the earlier rounds, so we’ll see how those pay off.
A bit of an upset here, as I have #3 Tennessee advancing. 
