I know you've been waiting anxiously for this post ever since I hinted it would happen a couple of days ago. You've been asking youself over and over, "What movies did Matt see this year?" Well, today is your lucky day. I saw the following movies, either in theaters, on video, on TV, or on airplanes, from start to finish, during the course of 2005 (the asterisks, as before, indicate movies I'd seen before):

1. Miracle
2. An Ideal Husband
3. The Accidental Tourist
4. The Hours
5. Big Fish
6. Winged Migration
7. 13 Going on 30*
8. Mean Girls
9. The Terminal
10. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
11. Ben-Hur
12. Alex & Emma
13. Emma*
14. K-PAX
15. Citizen Kane
16. Cheaper By the Dozen (1950)
17. The Prince and Me
18. Sweet Home Alabama*
19. Ella Enchanted (5/3/05)
20. Mouse Hunt (5/9/05)
21. Girl with a Pearl Earring (5/17/05)
22. Two Weeks[’] Notice (5/23/05)
23. Way Out West (5/24/05)
24. Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith (5/28/05)
25. The Great Muppet Caper* (6/17/05)
26. Down With Love (6/22/05)
27. Serendipity (6/25/05)
28. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban* (6/29/05)
29. Spider-Man 2 (8/4/05)
30. Operation Petticoat (8/13/05)
31. His Girl Friday (8/13/05)
32. Father of the Bride (1991)* (8/17/05)
33. Ocean’s Twelve (9/17/05)
34. Just Like Heaven (9/30/05)
35. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (10/21/05)
36. Kicking and Screaming (11/7/05)
37. Napoleon Dynamite* (12/8/05)
38. Cinderella Man (12/19/05)
39. In Good Company (12/20/05)
40. The Best Two Years (12/28/05)
41. Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (12/29/05)
42. You’ve Got Mail* (12/31/05)

I think it's interesting that of these 42 movies, only 7 of them are 2005 releases. And Star Wars and Just Like Heaven were the only movies I saw in a theater all year. I guess that shows that I am a cheapskate more than anything else. I just can't bring myself to pay full price for a movie when I can wait an increasingly short period of time to see it on video. And now that stupid Blockbuster has decided to charge the New Release-level price for all movies, I don't even have to wait for it to get off the New Release rack.

One of the things I miss the most about Cambridge is the Cambridge Public Library's stock of popular movie DVDs that you can check out for a week, just like Blockbuster, except for free. In fact, I kind of liked the Cambridge Public Library more than Blockbuster, because there was always a random and limited selection. You walk in, see the names of two or three movies you recognize, one of which you kind of wanted to see (or, even odder, a movie that you definitely wouldn't have chosen in Blockbuster, but heck it's free, so why not?--that way you're exposed to movies you otherwise wouldn't watch), and your choice is easily made. Fully 18 of these movies (and mind you, I moved away from Cambridge on June 30, at which point I had only seen 28 movies) came from the Cambridge Public Library.

Throughout the year, I had an ongoing goal of having more books on my list than movies. It seems that even with my year-end movie-watching push, I was able to do that, and that makes me happy, though I'm not sure why. But I also wanted this to be an ongoing thing, where at any point during the course of the year, I had read more books than I'd watched movies. And I did that too, though in about June or so, I was dangerously close. I think there was a point where the two lists were tied, and I read some fast, silly book in order to allow myself to watch another movie. Silly goal, I know, but it makes me feel more intellectual or something.

I don't really want to break down these movies by genre. You can do that yourself. It's probably a little too heavy on romantic comedies, but that's what Shelly agrees to watch with me. At least I've got Laurel and Hardy in there (Way Out West) (Shelly didn't watch that one).

Maybe tomorrow or the next day I'll tell you which of these movies I loved and hated. It'll be unlike any Best and Worst Movies of 2005 list you've ever seen--these are all old movies!