I’m glad I’ve decided to eschew collating all these missed posts for halves of years separately – last year I watched two films in total and that’s kind of embarrassing. I’ve also started watching older films again; my boyfriend’s into the early and mid 20th century years too so I’ve someone to watch them with.

The Blues Brothers (US, 1980) – Pretty fun. Loved the cameos and also the fact that Aretha Franklin’s husband goes off to rejoin his band, the band are trying to make a lot of money, and no one suggested the woman who just belted out an effective item number with top-notch vocals join them.

Coraline (US, 2009) – My boyfriend’s a big fan of the film so I watched it but probably wouldn’t have ended up seeing it otherwise as it had never really interested me. I’m glad I saw it; I liked it a lot.

Corpse Bride (US/UK, 2005) – Very good. Nicely humorous and fun in general.

Despicable Me 4 (US, 2024) – Loved it. Can’t go wrong with this series.

Freaky Friday (US, 2003) – I’ve kept meaning to watch this over the course of my life and never got round to it. It was worth the wait; absolutely fantastically funny. I’ve heard the recent second doesn’t measure up but I want to give it a go.

The Hunchback Of Notredame (US, 1996) – Technically this isn’t my first time watching it – I watched as a child – but, having now seen it as an adult, whoa this is a bit too dark for children!

Love Again (US/UK, 2023) – This film should have been a shoo-in for me: I’m a big fan of Priyanka Chopra; I like Outlander; I like Omid Jalili; I grew up on the Celine Dion album the heavily-featured song belongs to; I could continue, you get the picture. It was unfortunately not at all good. Basically everything that wasn’t the actors themselves (there are a lot of famous actors in this) fell short and made this painful to watch.

The Magic Faraway Tree (UK, 2026) – I liked how this was adapted for the modern era and it was fun and the bad guy wasn’t a true bad guy which is still a nice novelty, but it missed the mark a bit. Or, rather, the natural progression was surely for one kid to go to the magic land, the other kids to join her on the return, and then – the bit that wasn’t included – the parents to do so too. If the forthcoming sequels are about the same family, I hope the parents are included in the magic.

Michael (US/UK, 2026) – Let’s be honest, this is an excuse to have a dance party in a cinema but it is a good film nonetheless.

The Pink Panther (US, 1963) – Fantastic. Wish I could see it for the first time again.

The Pink Panther: A Shot In The Dark (US, 1964) – Not quite as good as the first one but then that would’ve been difficult to beat.

The Producers (US, 1967) – No surprise that the woman who appreciates books that mostly remain in one place found a film that is mostly one scene very good indeed.

Rebecca (UK, 2020) – This hasn’t been given that many positive reviews but I thought it was great. Could it have been better? Yes, but we got the original ending and a love marriage that felt real. I also liked this version of Mrs Danvers as there came a point I almost believed she’d changed even when I knew she hadn’t.

Summer Wars (Japan, 2009) – I’d wanted to watch this for years during the time is was difficult to get anime films in the west but one thing I forgot to do was actually find out what it was about. I think I would’ve preferred less gaming (my holy grail is Free Guy and nothing has yet measured up) but it was good over all. Now I’ve just got to watch My Name and My Neighbor Totoro and the list of anime films I’ve wanted to watch for ages will be complete.

Super Mario Bros (US, 2023) – Did not enjoy. I’ll try the Zelda movie.

Wicked (US, 2024) – The hype affected this a bit for me in that I didn’t find it to be amazing but it was very good and I liked the casting.

A Christmas Prince (US, 2017) – Your usual not great but festive kind of film. I watched this for Rose McIver and she and the cast do well with what they’ve been given to work with.

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (US, 2018) – Likewise.

Looking For Her (US, 2022) – This was obviously lower budget than some but the production did a fair job and the relationship worked.

A Very British Christmas (UK, 2019) – This could have maybe been okay but if you’re going to have a character who is a famous singer and the script goes on about the singing to the point they join a choir for an event that is shown, you’ve got to have them singing in the film.

And that’s the last couple of years accounted for.