Alphabetical Movie Project – The Rules

For archival and linking purposes, this post explains my Alphabetical Movie Project.

What the hell am I doing?

I am watching every movie I own in alphabetical order.

Why the hell am I doing this?

Because there are a bunch of movies that I own on DVD but I’ve never actually watched. Some (very few), I’ve never seen at all. Others I saw once in the movie theatre ten years ago. I figure I ought to get my money’s worth.

What if I’m in the B’s and I really feel like watching The Shawshank Redemption?

Then I will watch The Shawshank Redemption. The project continues basically when I say to myself “I feel like watching a movie.” If I just feel like watching a movie, I’ll watch the next movie in order. If I feel like watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I’ll just watch it.

So is it that simple?

Nah. Nothing like this ever is. I have a few clauses.

Clause #1 – The watched it recently clause

If I watched a movie recently (say within a month) and it comes up as the “next” film to watch, I have the option of skipping it. Or I could watch the commentary track. Whatever. I just watched it so I don’t have to force myself to watch it again.

Clause #2 – The Sequel Clause

In the event I’m watching a number of films in a series that do not automatically follow each other alphabetically (the Lord of the Rings trilogy f’rinstance), I will watch them in the proper order. If the order is not particularly important, I shall honor the Alphabetical list.

So, for instance, I will watch The Two Towers prior to The Return of the King in spite of the fact that ROTK precedes TTT alphabetically. However, I would have no problem watching Aliens prior to Alien as I think both films stand on their own.

That example sucks, of course, because the Alien films are already in alphabetical order.

A better example would be Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom vs. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The stories stand well enough on their own that I don’t really care about watching them in the order they were released.

Clause #3 – The New movies clause

In the event I acquire a movie that I have already passed alphabetically, I will save that movie until I have watched every movie in the currently collection at which point I will start on the Alphabetical Move Project 2.0.

If I acquire a movie that I would not have reached yet, that just gets inserted into the list in the proper order.

Clause #4 – The What I’m watching clause

I’m only watching movies that were released theatrically or were intended to be released theatrically. I’m not watching TV series. I’m not watching documentaries that did not have a theatrical release. If the movie either showed in a theatre or was made with that intent, I’m going to watch it.

How long have I been doing this?

I started the project in October of 2009.

Are you shitting me?

No. I own a crapton of movies.

Why the Hell am I tweeting/posting to Facebook/Blogging while I watch these movies?

Because I want to.

One accepts that social media is never about what someone else wants to read. It is about what the poster wants to write. If you are interested, that is groovy. If you aren’t, you should deal with it and either stop following that person or ignore their posts. Either response is completely valid and should not be viewed as an impeachment on either party.

We all think everything we have to say is really damned interesting. Most of us are wrong.

But where we are correct is in the assumption that it is really interesting to us. I post this crap for me because it interests me.