The 250 film challenge is a charity challenge where I aim to watch 250 films in 2016. An average of 21 films a month, or 5 films a week or a film every 1.48 days. Below is the latest update covering the first six months of the year. You can support the challenge by donating on the challenge Just Giving page and all the money goes direct to the housing and homeless charity, Shelter.
The full list of films watched is also provided at the bottom of this page. But before all that, here are the simple rules…
- The films must be watched in full, part watched films do not count
- The films can be new or old and from any genre (including documentary and non-fiction), but feature length TV episodes do not count
- Watching films that have been seen before is fine, but repeat watches of the same film do not count (this is 250 films, not 250 views)
Stats
- 151 films (60%) watched
- 25 films per month
- 5.8 films per week
- 0.8 films per day (or 1 film every 1.2 days)
- 4 films (3%) films rated as Bad (<2 stars)
- 38 films (25%) rated as OK (2 – 2.5 stars)
- 62 films (41%) rated as Good (3 – 3.5 stars)
- 46 films (30%) rated as Excellent (4 – 4.5 stars)
- 1 film (1%) rated as Unmissable (5 stars)
- The highest score is 5 stars (The 7th Seal)
- The lowest score is 1.3 stars (Hardcore Henry)
Q2 Highlights
Three films scored highly in the second quarter and they are all very different. First up there is the Coen Brothers comedy about the golden days of the Hollywood studios, Hail, Caesar! that scored 4.5 stars. Gaining the same score was Child 44 which sees Tom Hardy playing a Russian captain in the Ministry of State Service. The book it is based on is part of a trilogy and I really hope we one day see the sequels.
However, the highest score of the quarter and of the full half year was reserved for a 1957 Swedish film. Ingmar Bergman’s classic about the travels of a disillusioned knight during the crusades sounds that an exercise in tedium, but The 7th Seal‘s combination of humour, existentialism and some stunning cinematography make it an all time classic and the first film to get a full 5 stars.
Q2 Low Blows
Similarly, we have three films battling it out at the other end of the leaderboard. the 1982 film Joysticks took the video game explosion and turned it into an offensive and unfunny ‘geekspoitation’ movie. Friday 13th Part VIII (yes, eight!) was subtitled ‘Jason Takes Manhattan‘ and was not only unscary and unfunny, it wasn’t even in Manhattan!
The worst however and scoring the lowest rating on this website is the first-person action film Hardcore Henry. Whilst not quite proving that this kind of film is impossible, it did prove that it is harder than just sticking a Go-Pro on a stunt man and getting Sharlito Copley to play up a bit.
Q1 Highlights
With the awards season falling in the first quarter of the year, most of the top rated films were from the nominations list.
Stop-motion animation Anomalisa lost out in the Oscars Best Animated film category, whilst The Big Short and Room were both losers for the Best Film Oscar. Star Wars The Force Awakens was also an Oscar loser in the technical categories. The other two films receiving 4.5 stars were Ridley Scott’s Sci-Fi classic Bladerunner and little known Scottish drama Red Road which tells the tale of a CCTV operator and her obsession with following the movements of an ex-convict.
Q1 Low Blows
By far the worst film of the 83 watched was the Gerrard Butler/Aarron Eckhart action sequel London Has Fallen. Trying to cover up a dreadful script and horrible acting with gunshots and explosions, the film loses everything that made Olympus Has Fallen so much fun and makes an odious case that the life of POTUS is more important than the whole of London.
The other film of note to be on the wrong end of the list is the film that got Jennifer Lawrence an Oscar nomination, the rather joyless Joy. A trite tale of America and the land of the free, where an oppressed single mother can go from social security handouts to millionaire by selling mops.
250 Film Challenge
Film | Rating (Stars) | Comments | Watched |
---|---|---|---|
10 Cloverfield Lane | 3.5 | March | |
45 Years | 3.5 | A tale of keeping a secret for a very long time. there is far less to the film than the premise suggests. Saved by fine performances by the leads. | January |
A Christmas Carol (1984) | 3.5 | December | |
A Field in England | 4 | September | |
A History of Violence | 3 | Feels low budget and has some poor choreography, but it is still a good enough examination of the monster amongst us. | June |
A United Kingdom | 4 | October | |
Absolutely Fabulous | 2 | November | |
Adulthood | 4 | August | |
Algorithm | 2 | March | |
Alien 3 | 3 | July | |
Alien Resurrection | 2.5 | July | |
Aliens | 4 | July | |
America 3000 | 3 | November | |
American History X | 4 | June | |
American Ultra | 2 | November | |
Amy | 2.5 | Poorly made and avoiding any level of detail. | January |
Anomalisa | 4.5 | You've never seen a more real and touching sex scene that the one between two puppets in this film! | January |
Ant Man | 3 | An amazing model city scene and some great humour, but not quite the all round super film. Ant Man 2 could be great though. | January |
Anthrapoid | 2.5 | December | |
Army of One | 3 | December | |
Arrival | 4 | December | |
Arthur Christmas | 3.5 | December | |
Assassin's Creed | 2.5 | December | |
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) | 4 | October | |
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) | 2.5 | November | |
Attack the Block | 4 | November | |
Avengers Assemble | 4 | March | |
Avengers: Age of Ultron | 3 | March | |
Basic | 2.5 | November | |
Bastille Day | 3 | August | |
Batman vs Superman | 2.5 | March | |
Beasts of No Nation | 4 | The young lead is brilliant but many of the accents are hard to understand and this can detract from excellent portrayal of the brutality and futility of war. | January |
Black Mass | 3 | February | |
Bladerunner | 4.5 | February | |
Bone Tomahawk | 4 | March | |
Bottle Rocket | 3 | September | |
Boy and World | 2.5 | February | |
Breach | 3 | July | |
Bridge of Spies | 3.5 | A little too 'Speilburgy' for my liking, but a great performance from Rylance and an interesting and unusual spy story. | January |
Brighton Rock (1947) | 4 | September | |
Brooklyn | 4 | A nice and gentle tale that is beautifully shot and features great supporting performances from Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent. | January |
Brotherhood | 3.5 | December | |
Bullet to the Head | 3 | March | |
Cactus Jack | 2 | March | |
Cafe Society | 3 | September | |
Capone | 2.5 | September | |
Captain America: The First Avenger | 4 | March | |
Captain America: The Winter Soldier | 3.5 | March | |
Captain Fantastic | 3.5 | November | |
Carol | 3.5 | Not really about Carol at all, the film is nicely shot but far too predictable. | January |
Casablanca | 4 | April | |
Catch Me Daddy | 4 | June | |
Central Intelligence | 3.5 | Tries its best to ruin things for itself with some shockingly bad jokes, but is still the best Hollywood buddy-comedy for some time. | June |
Changing Lanes | 4 | August | |
Chi-Raq | 4 | December | |
Child 44 | 4.5 | A great story brilliantly told. I hope to see more of the books translated to film. | June |
Cinderella | 2 | February | |
Cliffhanger | 3.5 | January | |
Clown Town | 1.5 | September | |
Cobra | 3 | April | |
Convenience | 3 | August | |
Cop Car | 4 | Displays an amazing sense of innocence from the two kids and a wonderfully desperate performance from Kevin Bacon. | January |
Couple in a Hole | 4 | November | |
Creed | 4 | December | |
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of Destiny | 2.5 | March | |
Cyrus | 2.5 | July | |
D-Tox | 3.5 | March | |
D.O.A. (Dead or Alive) | 3.5 | April | |
Dads Army | 2 | June | |
David Brent: Life on the Road | 1.5 | December | |
Deadpool | 4 | February | |
Dear White People | 3 | July | |
Deepwater Horizon | 4 | September | |
Demolition | 3.5 | December | |
Doctor Strange | 3.5 | November | |
Dog Eat Dog | 2 | November | |
Don't Breathe | 4 | November | |
Doom | 2.5 | April | |
Double Dragon | 2 | April | |
Down Terrace | 3.5 | September | |
Dr. No | 3 | August | |
Drinking Buddies | 3.5 | July | |
Eddie the Eagle | 4 | March | |
Eden | 3 | October | |
Edge of Tommorow | 3.5 | Some stupidly large plot holes and a terrible end, but otherwise it is a lot of fun watching Tom Cruise die over and over again. | June |
Elle | 4 | November | |
Equity | 3 | December | |
Everybody Wants Some | 4 | December | |
Evidence of Blood | 2.5 | July | |
Exam | 3 | October | |
Exposed | 2.5 | May | |
Eye in the Sky | 3.5 | September | |
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | 3.5 | November | |
Frank and Lola | 3.5 | December | |
Friday 13th Part VIII | 1.5 | May | |
Gone Baby Gone | 3.5 | March | |
Green Room | 4 | A crocodile of a movie. Long periods of calm punctuated with violent bursts of energy. Beautifully shot and sickeningly gruesome. | June |
Grimsby | 2 | May | |
Grudge match | 4 | April | |
Hail, Caesar! | 4.5 | April | |
Hard Tide | 3 | May | |
Hardcore Henry | 1.3 | April | |
Hateful Eight | 3.5 | The first part is too short,the second too long and it would probably have been more interesting as the Hateful Five. But overall Tarantino keeps up his usual high standard of old fashioned violent story telling. | January |
Hell or High Water | 4 | November | |
Hello My Name is Doris | 3 | July | |
High Fidelity | 3 | April | |
High Rise | 2.5 | May | |
Hollywoodland | 3.5 | March | |
Homefront | 3.5 | April | |
Hunt for the Wilderpeople | 4.5 | November | |
Hush | 3 | May | |
I am Not a Serial Killer | 2.5 | September | |
I Robot | 3.5 | February | |
I, Daniel Blake | 4.5 | October | |
If Cats Disappeared from the World | 4 | November | |
Imperium | 3 | August | |
In a Valley of Violence | 3 | November | |
Independence Day Resurgence | 1.5 | July | |
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade | 4 | February | |
Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Crystal Skull | 2.5 | February | |
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | 2.5 | February | |
Inferno | 1.5 | December | |
Infiltrator | 2.5 | October | |
Inside Llewyn Davis | 4 | December | |
Inside Man | 3.5 | November | |
Inside Out | 3 | Reinforces too many of the stereotypes that it is claiming to smash with the fat miserable girl and beautiful happy girl. | January |
Into the Wild | 3 | February | |
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back | 2.5 | October | |
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | 2.5 | Generic spy-action thriller set in the US and Russia but with an almost entirely British cast?? | January |
Jackie Chan's Project A | 3 | June | |
Japan Sinks | 2.5 | Focuses a little too much on the people and not the action, making for a stilly dull affair. | June |
Jason Bourne | 3 | August | |
Jewel of the Nile | 2.5 | February | |
Jimmy Vestvood | 3 | September | |
Joy | 2 | February | |
Joysticks | 1.5 | April | |
Judge Dread | 3 | March | |
K-Shop | 4 | August | |
Keanu | 4 | July | |
Key Largo | 4 | November | |
Kicking Off | 3.5 | May | |
Kidulthood | 3.5 | August | |
Kill List | 3.5 | September | |
Kill Your Friends | 2.5 | August | |
Kindergarten Cop 2 | 2 | May | |
Kitchen Stories | 4 | February | |
Kubo and the Two Strings | 4 | December | |
Le Diner de Cons (The Dinner Game) | 3 | April | |
Let's Be Evil | 2 | November | |
Level Up | 2 | September | |
Lo and Behold | 3 | December | |
London Has Fallen | 1.5 | March | |
London Town | 1.5 | November | |
Long Kiss Goodnight | 2.5 | July | |
Look Who's Back | 4 | June | |
Mad Max: Fury Road | 4 | Basically just a single car chase, a testament to this film is that Tom Hardy is the worst thing in it. The stars of the film are not actors, rather the production designer and cinematographer. | January |
Made | 3.5 | March | |
Maggie | 4 | April | |
Magnificent 7 (2016) | 2.5 | October | |
Marauders | 2.5 | July | |
Marvellous | 4 | July | |
Mascots | 3.5 | November | |
Mean Girls | 2 | April | |
Midnight Cowboy | 4 | March | |
Midnight Special | 3 | May | |
Miller's Crossing | 3.5 | December | |
Minority Report | 4 | September | |
Mississippi Grind | 4.5 | December | |
Moana | 3 | December | |
Money Monster | 3.5 | June | |
Moonwalkers | 2 | April | |
Morgan | 3.5 | December | |
Mortal Kombat | 2.5 | April | |
Myra Breckinridge | 1.5 | November | |
Neon Demon | 4 | September | |
Nina | 2 | April | |
No Country for Old Men | 3.5 | July | |
No Escape | 4 | June | |
No Way Out | 3 | If it wasn't for the twist the film would be no more than a generic thriller. | January |
Nocturnal Animals | 4 | December | |
Noobz | 1 | November | |
November Man | 3.5 | Action, suspense and a great performance from Pierce Brosnan, but nothing new. | January |
Once | 4 | Gloriously beautiful tale told with completely believable characters. | June |
One Hundred Streets | 3 | November | |
Our Kind of Traitor | 3 | September | |
Over the Top | 3.5 | April | |
Paper Man | 4 | A lovely tale of loneliness with fantastic performances from all 4 of its stars. | January |
Party Party | 2 | September | |
Pete's Dragon (2016) | 2.5 | December | |
Presumed Innocent | 4 | April | |
Primer | 3.5 | June | |
Raiders of the Lost Ark | 4 | February | |
Ratchet & Clank | 2.5 | August | |
Re-Animator | 3 | February | |
Reach Me | 2 | April | |
Red Road | 4.5 | March | |
Rocky 3 | 4.5 | December | |
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | 4.5 | December | |
Romancing the Stone | 3 | February | |
Ronin | 3 | May | |
Room | 4.5 | A simply stunning film that switches from claustrophobic to agoraphobic with effortless ease. | January |
Rubber | 4 | December | |
Sabotage | 2.5 | March | |
Sausage Party | 2 | August | |
Sex Lives of the Potato Men | 2 | May | |
Shade | 2.5 | March | |
Shenmue The Movie | 2 | May | |
Shooter | 3 | January | |
Sicario | 3 | A great first half descends into hysterical girl fights bad good-guys for doing bad things for good reasons. | January |
Sightseers | 4 | September | |
Silent Running | 3 | An engaging tale despite terrible acting, shoddy effects and a bizarre soundtrack. | June |
Sing Street | 3 | December | |
Slash | 2 | December | |
Sleeper | 3 | At some points a masterpiece and others a bore. Half Keystone Cops and half 1984, it doesn't do enough with either to fully excel. | June |
Snowden | 3 | December | |
Son of Saul | 4.5 | December | |
Special Correspondents | 2.5 | May | |
Spotlight | 3.5 | Interesting and hard hitting, but certainly not entertaining. If a film is going to bring so much reality to the pursuit of justice then they may as well have made a documentary. | January |
Star Trek Beyond | 2 | October | |
Star Trek Generations | 3.5 | May | |
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones | 2.5 | The worst of all the Star Wars films by a long way due to its inclusion of an awful love story and some dreadful set pieces. But on returning to the film this year I found it much less offensive than I had remembered. | January |
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith | 3 | Sith does much to redeem the trilogy after the disastrous Clones, but it is still burdened with the same millstones (namely Christensen and Lucas). | January |
Star Wars: The Force Awakens | 4 | Not exactly breaking new ground story-wise, but the film hit virtually every branch of the fandom tree as it fell to earth. | January |
Stay Alive | 2 | April | |
Straight Outta Compton | 3.5 | Skips too much of the real story to ensure that Dre and Cube come off as angels and the manager as the devil. | January |
Street Kings | 2.5 | A Forrest Whittaker action scene, who saw that coming?? | January |
Suddenly | 3.5 | July | |
Suicide Squad | 3 | August | |
Sully | 3 | December | |
Super | 4 | February | |
Swallows and Amazons (2016) | 2 | December | |
Swimming with Sharks | 4 | February | |
Swiss Army Man | 4 | September | |
Tango and Cash | 3 | March | |
Tank 432 | 3 | October | |
The 7th Seal | 5 | April | |
The Accountant | 2.5 | December | |
The ARQ | 2.5 | September | |
The Big Short | 4.5 | The funniest 'factual' film you will ever see. "The truth is like poetry ... and most people fucking hate poetry". | January |
The Bourne Legacy | 3.5 | Whilst Damon's Bournes are personal and about how he deals with the system, this takes the opposite route and looks at the system and how the subjects fit into it. Unfairly marked down by comparison, it is a good film in its own right. | June |
The Brand New Testament | 4.5 | November | |
The Danish Grl | 3.5 | Vikander is superb in this engaging story, but it is hard to get past Redmayne's annoying hand acting. | January |
The Double | 4 | July | |
The Double | 3 | November | |
The Drop | 3.5 | December | |
The Firm | 3 | August | |
The Fog | 2.5 | October | |
The Good Guys | 4 | August | |
The Greasy Strangler | 4 | October | |
The Gunman | 2 | Starts as you run of the mill black-ops for hire flick and gets progressively worse as the film drags on. | June |
The Intern | 2.5 | March | |
The Jungle Book (2016) | 4 | April | |
The Lady in the Van | 4 | March | |
The Legend of Barney Thompson | 3.5 | June | |
The Legend of Tarzan | 3 | July | |
The Lobster | 3 | An interesting premise turned into an unlikable film due to some apparently deliberate bad acting. Somehow left me wanting to watch it again though?? | January |
The Long Good Friday | 3 | December | |
The Lords of Flatbush | 3 | March | |
The Martian | 3.5 | At its best when it is just Damon and the camera, so the start and end are a bit flat. Some odd secondary casting too. | January |
The Ones Below | 3.5 | May | |
The Program | 2.5 | March | |
The Puffy Chair | 3.5 | July | |
The Purge | 4 | March | |
The Purge: Anarchy | 3 | March | |
The Purge: Election Year | 3 | July | |
The Reluctant Fundamentalist | 3.5 | September | |
The Revenant | 4 | A rare beauty and a vicious beast. This year at least, the Oscar hype surrounding Alejandro G. Iñárritu's latest film is fully justified. | January |
The Shallows | 4.5 | November | |
The Shrimp and the Whale | 4 | July | |
The Train to Busan | 4 | November | |
The Trust | 4 | April | |
The Survivalist | 4 | May | |
The Warriors | 4 | May | |
The Witch | 4 | December | |
Them | 3 | November | |
They Live | 4 | October | |
Tiger Bunny: The Beginning | 2.5 | Superb concept that fails to translate into a good movie. Hopes are high for the rumoured live action remake though. | January |
Time After Time | 3 | December | |
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy | 3.5 | April | |
Together in Electric Dreams | 4 | May | |
Tomb Raider | 2 | May | |
Traders | 3.5 | July | |
Traitor | 4 | May | |
Trespass Against Us | 4 | December | |
Triple 9 | 3 | April | |
Trumbo | 4 | An excellent story that needed to be told. Has scary parallels to Donald Trump's distorted view of the world. | January |
Victoria | 4.5 | July | |
War Dogs | 3.5 | August | |
Way of the Gun | 3 | March | |
Weiner Dog | 3 | August | |
Westworld | 3.5 | May | |
When Marnie was There | 3.5 | February | |
Wings of Desire | 4 | February | |
X+Y | 4 | July | |
X-Men Apocalypse | 3 | Shoddy effects and a pretty pathetic story, but a great start and some nice set pieces stop it being a failure. | June |
You're Next | 4 | October | |
You, Me and Everyone we Know | 4 | July | |
Zoom | 3.5 | September | |
Zootopia (Zootropolis) | 4 | December |
0 comments for “The 250 Film Challenge:
Halftime Update”