It’s here, the 200th edition of the “What I Watched” column and thanks to the July 4 holiday, my week was light with theater trips limited to one — The Way, Way Back. Happily, it’s one of the better movies I’ve seen this year and a possible top ten of the year contender, though I suspect it will end the year as an honorable mention.
At home I watched Woody Allen‘s Stardust Memories, Andrei Tarkovsky‘s Stalker and four-and-a-half-hours of Criterion’s Blu-ray presentation of Claude Lanzmann‘s Shoah, which is to say I still have another four-and-a-half-hours to go, not to mention the more than three hours that make up the three additional films in the set before I can review it. I’m on it though.
I also caught the final two episodes of the third season of “Game of Thrones” and enjoyed it quite a bit. I’m particularly fascinated by Arya’s storyline and having not read the books, it feels like the entire series is centered on her and her rise as a young warrior that will soon become queen. I would love to see something like that take place. We’ll see.
Oh, I also watched the first episode of “The Sopranos“, which just so happens to be the first episode of “The Sopranos” I’ve ever seen. HBO sent out a press release saying the first season would be available On Demand in July followed by the second season in August and so on. I don’t know about you, but all I have are about six episodes from the first season and it skips from episode one to episode five. Guess I will have to resort to watching on HBO Go. Oh well.
As for this being the 200th edition of the “What I Watched” column I was trying to think of something special to do and nothing really stuck out in my mind. The column began September 22, 2008 as a way for me to share what I had been watching as I began making my way through a massive list of films I’ve compiled as “must watch” movies. I’ve always intended on featuring the list here on the site and that time is close to arriving as I have a new feature in the works that will take advantage of it.
I guess, if I had one question on this 200th edition I’m curious to hear from you: What does the “What I Watched” column mean to you? I’d love to read your answers.
Other than that I open the floor to you. What did you watch this week and, if you’re looking for another conversation starter, this past week saw the coming and going of Tom Cruises 51st birthday… What are you favorite Cruise movies?
On another note, Barnes and Noble’s 50% off Criterion sale starts July 9th. Plan on picking anything up?
