Hey look! I was so busy bustin’ out that CZ12 review and getting everything ready for this week that I totally forgot to recognize the blog’s 3rd anniversary! It was Friday, the 12th, and I can’t believe I’ve lasted this long. I love writing reviews for this place and I’m feeling stronger than ever. So hopefully you’re not sick of my rants against digital grading and the inequality of modern film amidst fun criticism of blockbusters and B-movies alike, because there’s much more to come!

I’ve made it something of a tradition to look forward to what I might do in the coming year, but this year I’d like to start by looking back on the year that’s passed. 2012 was a huge year for me personally. I moved away from the town where I spent most of my childhood (and all of my adult life up to that point) after living there for 26 years. This was an emotional, backbreaking experience, but somehow I was still able to keep a slow trickle of reviews appearing on the site. 2012 also brought along Stephen, who’s been doing anime reviews for the site for over a year now! I’m very happy to have him on-board. We also collaborated on the very fun Futures Passed event, Stephen’s excellent idea that I very gleefully ran with. And because this is really more about the blogging year as defined by birth date (April — April), “last” year also brought along Syreeta’s wonderful contributions over the two-week Valentine’s Day event! I must say that I often dread doing these events, but they always turn out much better than I could have ever hoped, and the Valentine’s Event was one of my favorite ever. And now I can call to the mind the image of Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta gyrating like the sexual turbines they are (or were), and that will always make me laugh/cringe/smile.

Looking back at last year’s birthday post, I’ve actually started the Jackie Chan series I alluded to in the post (thanks to the prodding of Uncle Jasper), and my prophecy that I’d only watch a few Sam Fuller movies during that year was mostly true.

So for this year, here’s the current state of the blog:

• I was very much wrong when I supposed that I was “fairly close to finishing” the Empire International/Full Moon series. I’ve done the math and unless I speed it up or change how I’m doing it (which isn’t likely), I’m realistically still going to be talking about it in next year’s birthday post. But in that one I will actually be able to say — and honestly mean it — that I’m “fairly close to finishing” it. Looking forward to that, as fun as many of these movies are.
• The Shaw Brothers series continues to roll along and this year will be a rather fun one. I’m now deep into 1971 and by next April I should be at least to 1973 or so (he says without looking at anything, taking a complete and total guess). In any case, I’ll soon be reviewing many legitimate Shaw Brothers classics that more people have seen, so hopefully those reviews will bring more attention to the series. I’ll also be hitting The Big Boss, the first Bruce Lee film, in May! That’s just a couple of weeks away! Oh yeah! Can’t wait to see that one in context of the Shaw output.
• I will finish the Sam Fuller project before next April. If I don’t, I promise to drop everything else and blast through them all in one or two weeks in early 2014 (whatever it takes to finish it out). But that totally won’t happen because I’m going to get it done right. I am, really. I promise.
• Against my better judgement, I’ve also heaped on three more series: Jackie Chan, Arnold, and the Blind Spot series. Blind Spot is no real issue as it’s only one film a month, but the other two regularly cause me mental quandaries as I try to figure out how to get the movies watched and reviewed while also keeping the rest of the plates spinning. I’ve remedied these concerns pretty well by scheduling them in an alternating, bi-weekly pattern, but I don’t know if that is really ideal from a reader’s point of view. Thoughts? I do have to say, though, starting the Jackie series was a perfect way to kick-start 2013, and despite any issues it’s been a great joy so far. The Arnold series is equally joyful, and once I finish working my way through so many of the 2012 releases I missed in 2012, I’ll probably be able to make this one weekly, thus blasting through his filmography relatively quickly. When it comes down to it, he doesn’t have all that many movies (although I do plan to hit a number of under-the-radar films and his short-lived stint as a director). Eventually there will be a page for the series to show what the plan is, but for now I’m still working on it.
• There’s also the really fragmented and frequently pushed aside series of Peter Jackson reviews that I still hope to finish in time for the release of The Hobbit 2: The Quickening. Again, once those pesky 2012 movies are out of the way my preferred scheduling will resume again and allow for this series to flourish.
• Last year, I closed with a look at all the things I wanted to do in terms of series (because I’m pretty obsessed with review series if you hadn’t noticed), but this year I’m just going to say that hopefully I’ll have the strength necessary to resist the urge and not start any more series. Although, I do have to say that with the new American Godzilla movie dropping Summer 2014, I don’t think there’s going to be a better time to work my way through all of those films. We’ll see, but I don’t promise anything.
  • That being said, starting in a couple of weeks will be a new series! I’m gonna bust through all the Superman movies! I’ve also got a few more obscure films on the list that should make it a little different from all the other Superman series that are likely to spring up in anticipation of the latest film, Man of Steel. This will start the first week of May Sunday April 21st, and I’m looking at one or two films a week!

I also welcome your suggestions, words of wisdom, encouragement, thanks, negative comments, spoiled food hurled towards my general direction… anything really. If you’ve read some of my stuff and you enjoyed it enough to come back a few times, I humbly thank you and hope you’ll continue to make Silver Emulsion a stop on your movie blog train. Choo choo!