Welcome to The Movie Bucket List

I love movies. I can't remember a time when I didn't. As a child, I would sit and absorb the movie pages of The Kansas City Star the way "normal" kids would pour over statistics and box scores from the Sports pages. I was the teen who actually went to a midnight movie on a Friday or Saturday instead of just using them as a excuse for a few extra hours to party. As an adult, I go to late shows after the wife and kids go to sleep. When I travel, I seek out those special movie theatres that every city has before visiting the typical tourist spots. I belonged to NetFlix before anyone knew what NetFlix was.

During my lifetime I have seen thousands of movies. Since 1987 I have seen over 2,000 films in movie theatres alone. I know this because I keep track of when and where I see movies at the theatre. (I realize that this is not the behavior of a normal, functioning adult, but I have accepted this and thankfully so has my wife and daughters.) On top of the hours logged in theatres, I have watched countless thousands of hours of movies on cable and video through the years.

And although I go to movie theatres regularly, have a college degree that required me to watch hundreds of movies, served as the film critic for a local alternative magazine, worked for one of the largest theatre chains in the world, and have access to thousands and thousands of movies via DVD and streaming video, as well as seeing Howard the Duck twice in theatres, I have a huge blind spot of movies - important movies - that I shockingly, ashamedly have never seen.

To help address this gap in my moviegoing experience, I have decided to make a list of the movies that I need to see - my Movie Bucket List -- and then attempt to watch at least two of these films every month. (My original intent was to go for one movie a week, but with a wife, two daughters, work, and all the other responsibilities that life brings, I want to keep this goal realistic.)

As I watch a movie, I will remove it from the list. I will also add to the list as new movies are released, as movies are identified as need to see from friends, articles, podcasts, etc., or as I realize that movies are missing from the list. I will also include those movies that I have never seen that may not be important, but that I have always wanted to see.

Also, since I love to talk about movies but don't have the chance to do this as much as I would like, I have decided to start this blog. Not only will it serve as the home of the list, it will also provide me an avenue to write a few words about each movie as I watch them. I may also include posts about current movies that I see, as well as other movie related topics.

As with every other blog that I have attempted to keep, I am not sure if there will a post beyond this one or if anyone will ever read anything that I write. However, if you are reading this, thanks for stopping by and please let me know what movies are on your bucket list.