Movies I watched in the theater in 2017

I am not sure where I saw most theatrically released movies in 2017. This list is put together from memory. One fact I remember is that the only reason I saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi was because The Disaster Artist was sold out when I arrived at the theater. I think this may have been the point where I stopped doing walk-ups and started to regularly buy my seats ahead of time.

Movies I saw in the theater in 2017:

• Lady Bird
• Baby Driver
• Blade Runner 2049
• Thor Ragnarok
• Dunkirk

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
• Logan
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi
• John Wick: Chapter 2
• Wonder Woman

• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
• Happy Death Day
• Justice League
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
• Alien: Covenant

• Kong: Skull Island
• The Disaster Artist
• Annabelle: Creation
• Ghost in the Shell

2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025

Movies I watched at the theater in 2018

2018 was likely the year I really started using my AMC membership. At some point that year I joined the AMC Stubs program and later upgraded to AMC A-List. Before then, I had never used an elevated membership to go to the movies. I think I had the equivalent of the free Insider level since 2016 or 2017, but I was not using it regularly during those years. Since 2018, I have watched most of my movies at AMC, though not all. For example, I saw Mandy at an independent theater.

Here's the list of movies I was in 2018:

• Aquaman
• Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
• Once Upon A Deadpool
• Bumblebee (early access screening)
• Hunter Killer

• First Man
• Venom
• A Simple Favor
• The Meg
• Mission Impossible: Fallout

• Ant-Man And The Wasp
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Deadpool 2
• Avengers: Infinity War
• A Quiet Place

• Game Night
• Mandy

2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025

Movies I watched at the theater in 2021

There were not as many movies to watch in the theaters in 2021, but more than 2020.  Even still, I did get a chance to watch more than one per month.    

• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
• Venom: Let There Be Carnage
• Black Widow
• Eternals
• No Time to Die

• A Quiet Place Part II
• Ghostbusters: Afterlife
• Free Guy
• Dune: Part One
• The Matrix Resurrections

• Godzilla vs. Kong
• The Suicide Squad
• The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
• Last Night in Soho
• Malignant

• Nobody
• Reminiscence
• Wonder Woman 1984

2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025 - 2026

Movies I watched in the theater in 2019

The year was 2019. This was arguably the peak year for going to the theater to see movies. Even still, I saw a surprising 33 movies. That's more than one movie every two weeks!  I was definitely using my AMC A-List membership to its fullest. This was a great year for quality of  movies too. I don't remember trying hard to justify my membership by seeing a bunch of movies just because I could see them for free. There was simply a lot of movies I wanted to see at the theater!

Here is the list of what I watched at the movie theater in 2019:

• Green Book
• Aquaman
• Glass
• Serenity (not the one you might think)
• Alita: Battle Angel

• Happy Death Day 2U
• Captain Marvel
• Apollo 11
• Cold Pursuit
• Us

• Shazam!
• Avengers: Endgame
• Long Shot
• Pokemon Detective Pikachu
• John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

• Godzilla: King of the Monsters
• The Intruder
• Dark Phoenix (special fan event opening night IMAX)
• Anna
• Annabella Comes Home

• Spider-Man: Far From Home
• Yesterday
• Crawl
• Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood
• Ready or Not

• After the Wedding
• Ad Astra
• Joker
• Zombieland: Double Tap
• Doctor Sleep

• Ford v Ferrari
• Jumanji: The Next Level
• Knives Out

2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025 - 2026

Movies I watched at the theater in 2020

It is 2026, but I am going to look back at the movies I actually saw at the theater in 2020. That was a tough year for movies, of course. Even still, I ended up going to the theater a bit more than one might now guess. I really started to use AMC A-List in the prior year, but clearly it did not get much use when everything shut down in 2020 and the program was suspended. I actually watched Tenet at a local drive-in.

• Little Women
• 1917
• Uncut Gems
• The Gentlemen
• Parasite
• Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey
• Tenet

2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025 - 2026

Movies I've seen in 2025 and "why"

Has there been a return to form for movie theaters to pre-pandemic levels? No. However, I found myself going to the cinema more in 2025 than in 2024. The nature of movie-going has fundamentally changed with the dominance of streaming. Patrons now see fewer films in theaters, opting to wait for many of them to arrive at home. This is especially true for movies not designed as a spectacle or an event, creating a fresh challenge for the industry. Still, theaters have faced similar hurdles before, such as when televisions became commonplace in the home.

Eventually, theatrical films improved after over a decade of adjustment throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Even before then, patrons had stopped attending theaters for short serial shows. Additionally, the concept of made-for-TV movies eventually emerged, allowing lower-quality films to be released directly to television without a theatrical run.

Later, both theaters and television were challenged by the introduction of VHS and movie rentals. This led to the straight-to-video concept for lower-budget films, which raised the quality expectations for theatrical releases even higher.

Today, streaming poses yet another challenge. Many high-quality movies do not necessarily require a theater because they do not rely on spectacle to be enjoyed. Even when a large screen might enhance the experience, a story may be perceived as small scale, making it easier to wait for a streaming release.

Despite all of that, I still enjoy seeing various types and scales of movies at the theater. Some films are so massive they demand a theatrical viewing, such as the Avatar franchise. Others are enhanced by the cinema experience even if they have a straightforward story, like Last Breath.

Finally posting my 2025 list

I have been putting off this post for five months for a simple reason: I saw too many movies in 2025 to make this article enjoyable to create while including a poster for every film, such as last year's article. I believe movie posters add value and enhance the post, but including all of them is an immense amount of work. To that end, I am scaling down this year's post to a simple hyperlinked list.

Here is the list of what I watched at the movie theater in 2025:

• Nosferatu
• Captain America: Brave New World
• Last Breath
• Novocaine
• Thunderbolts*

• Ballerina
• 28 Years Later
• F1 The Movie
• Superman (special Amazon Prime Early Screening)
• Jurassic World Rebirth

• The Naked Gun
• Alien Earth (special FX preview of first episode)
• Nobody 2
• Weapons
• Eden

• Caught Stealing
• Good Fortune
• Black Phone 2
• Shelby Oaks
• Predator: Badlands

• Avatar: Fire and Ash

2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025 - 2026

Rock & Rock Hall of Fame

 

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-OFk36vGrk/?img_index=1

Exploring Bicycle Heaven

 

Exploring the Bicycle Heaven Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, including a rare sighting of Captain Kangaroo memorabilia. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-MFG8gskS_/?img_index=1

Aslo see: I'm touching Peewee Herman's Bike from his Big Adventure and Pittsburgh Skylines.

Movies I watched in 2024 (not that many)

In 2023, I had A-List membership at AMC Theaters. I did see a lot of movies at the theaters in 2023.  However, I found myself attending showings of movies that I likely wouldn't have seen at the theater, if it were not for AMC A-List status. But, without seeing these extra movies, it was a struggle to get my money's worth for the cost of the A-List membership.  As such, I dropped A-List for 2024. 

This means I saw significantly fewer movies in 2024 at the theater.  In 2023, it is 32 movies at the theater.  In 2024, the number is 11.  That's less than 2022's number of 16 (after A-List was reïnstated post-Covid).

Please see the list below for the movies I watched at the theater in 2024. If you click on my Amazon affiliate links and you have Honey installed on your browser, please remember to NOT click on the Honey messages, even to dismiss them. Just ignore their messages until your purchase is complete.  

One thing I should note about Furiosa. I don't know if I'm in a minority, but I enjoyed that film more than Mad Max: Fury Road.  Back when media was heaping praise onto Fury Road, I was left wondering. It's a good movie, for sure. But it's not the great movie that people proclaimed it to be.

2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025 - 2026

Haunting version of Losing My Religion

Bellsaint has created a haunting version of Losing My Religion.  I don't think anyone can truly say this version is better than REM's original.  However, Bellsaint has taken a unique spin on this old classic which transcends the concept of "cover" to become its own brilliant song.  For me, I'll listen to the original REM song when I want the gritty and off-beat 1990's feel, and I'll listen to Bellsaints version when I want melodic and haunting experience.  This newer version by Bellsiant is distinct enough to allow one to listen to both versions back to back without any boredom or feeling of repletion.  I don't know much about Bellsaint's other releases, but I love this particular song, which is why I added it to my digital music collection.

Bellsaint's Losing My Religion 

Recent purchase of old games on Steam...and labor required to actually get them running

I recently purchased a game package that consists of Railroad Tycoon II Platinum, Railroad Tycoon 3 and Sid Meier's Railroads! on Steam.  Two of these games needed a human (me) to get into the game files to fix them so the games can be run on Windows 10 (or even on Vista or 8).

Railroad Tycoon 3's issue is that it crashes on startup.  The fix is to turn on an option called "Disable Hardware T&L" in the Settings dialog.  The problem is that you cannot turn this option on in-game if you cannot get the game started.

For this, the solution is to replace the engine.cfg file which is found in the game's Steam folder (example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Railroad Tycoon 3\Data\Configuration).  The source of the replacement engine.cfg file is here: 105_106_RT3_Vista_Fix.zip.  More information about this fix can be found on Hawk & Badger Railroad (backup link).  This video also covers more information about patching RT3:

Sid Meier's Railroads!'s issue is that it crashes constantly, like in minutes.  The fix is to directly edit the game's executable file with a hexeditor to change a specific bit.  You never know when you'll need a hexeditor, so I always install one on every desktop PC I've owned.  Even still, I've literally not used a hexeditor on game files in over 2 decades.  Anyway, the bug fix description is too involve for me to repeat in this article, so I'll just point to the source article on Steam: Fix Crashing/LAA manual fix (backup link). 

The Steam article employs a particular hexeditor, so if you aren't experienced hexediting files, you may wish to use the recommended app.  Despite the lengthy article, the actual fix is very quick once you find the bit you need change. So far, I've not had a crash since implementing this fix.

Epilogue

When Steam gaming platform first came out, I was not a fan.  I tried to avoid it like the plague, but eventually, AAA games that I wished to play were only available on Steam, so I had to commit.  The game that finally snared me was Civilization 5.

One cool thing about Steam is that they have a ton of old games from as far back as the early 90's (maybe even earlier).  The old games are typically ported, dosboxed or patched to run on modern systems.  Although you have to rebuy old games that you wish to play (for rather small prices), it is typically worth the cost to avoid the trouble of working out how to configure a modern PC to run those games.

The problem with Steam is that their updates are often half-hearted efforts.  For example, no efforts are taken to maintain aspect ratios of the original games.  This makes many of the old games appear uglier than the originals.  However, this is typically OK, as you play old games for their game mechanics and functional design more than their outdated graphical design.  A bigger issue is demonstrated earlier in this article.  Some games are so badly adopted by Steam, you, the user, have to manually configure the game files in order for the game to even run (or at least run without a ton of crashes).  

Not all games are fixable.  An example of this is Independence War (a game I loved).  Both Steam editions (original and sequel) appear to have unfixed game-breaking bugs with no community solutions.  These games are only $6, but it's $6 too much for a game that cannot be finished.

Pontiac G8 Wiper Blades, super low-key custom equipment

The Pontiac G8 is a fun and enjoyable car, though a little rough around the edges for some details.  The G8 model never had time to be polished because it and the whole Pontiac brand where cancelled as a result of the GM bankruptcy from the Financial crisis of 2007–2008. So, there are just somethings where the owner needs to consider their options when replacing worn-out parts.  One consideration: the two windshield wiper blades.

The original sizes for the wiper blades didn't do a good job of clearing the window in front of the driver.  The stock wiper blades don't swipe enough of the upper middle area of the windshield to help the driver clearly see through portions of the window.  Another problem with the original blades is/was that some owners (including myself) reported chatter or incomplete clearing of the window during each swipe.  

Funny enough, it's not easy to find the sizes of the original wiper blades.  You can still buy them, supposedly, but the sizes aren't published in their descriptions. I think they were something like 24" length for the driver's side and 14" for the passenger side.  Whatever the sizes, the original blades left rather large of areas of the window unswiped during rain, not just at the top, but also the bottom of the window between swiped areas.

I didn't wait long to replace the original blades. Either late 2009 or 2010, I found some good quality replacement blades of the sizes 26" and 15".  (At the time, it wasn't easy to figure out replacements of alternate sizes.)  Believe it or not, my replacement blades performed well for 10 years.  Sometimes you get lucky.  Unfortunately, when it came time to replace them this year, I lost track of what I purchased before.

That didn't end up mattering, though.  In 2020, the secret has long since been out.  It's actually more common to find 26"/15" sizes than what might've been stock sizes.  On multiple sites, I found that the main size recommendations are 26"/15".  So, it is really down to quality (since price stopped being a factor since I'm no longer looking at stock blades).

After seeing recommendations on multiple websites (including forums) and reading many reviews, I settled on Trico brand blades:  Trico 25-260 Force Beam Wiper Blade 26" and Trico 25-150 Force Beam Wiper Blade 15".

Many modern blades try to support as many car models as possible, so they come with adapters.  I remember my first replacement blades being very simple to install.  This doesn't seem to be the case anymore.  The Trico's aren't hard to install, but it is a ~10 step process which includes removing their default adapter, adding the included secondary adapter, then removing a piece of that adapter to specifically fit the G8.  Again, not hard, but not intuitive either.  

I like the Tricos because they cover even more area of my windshield than my first replacements.  It amazes me just how much of the window they clear with each swipe. So far, the Tricos work well.  We'll see how they perform as the season changes.  

So, I did it...I saw a movie in Covid-time [TENET]

Yup, it's true.  I went to see a first-run movie during covid-time.  Though, I'm not even considering movie theaters right now.  That's not going to happen until COVID-19 vaccination is widely available.  In the meantime, how should someone see a new movie?  Well, there's streaming services.  But, for some reason, paying $30 to watch a movie on my own device at home seems alien.  So, let's go to the movie drive-in!

Yup, it's true.  I went to see a first-run movie at the drive-in.  Social distancing is super easy with two tons of steel and glass (and an additional 10 feet of parking distance) between you and others in outside world.  

I saw TENET.  It's an enjoyable, yet complex film that will take multiple viewings to completely understand.  

So, here's the problem.  Seeing a movie at the drive-in is an inferior experience, particularly for big films designed for modern theater screens.  It's an acceptable experience, but not high quality.  The main problem is that your own car fights against the experience, at least many modern cars do.  Even just turning your car on to ACC for the radio (to hear the movie's sound on the drive-in's FM station) will start up all sorts of interior lights, including the status screen that is present many cars.  Yeah, you can turn them down or cover them up, but that's just annoying.  

Then, condensation forms on the windows in certain conditions. You'll have to open the windows from time to time.  In most cars these days, power windows require the car to be on in the pre-start position. Guess what that does!  Yup, it turns on even more interior lights!

Then, there's the weather.  Fog, rain, and even dust or remnants of ash from fires in the nearby mountains can all detract from your experience.  This weekend, I experienced rain, blown dust and fire ash.

The biggest problem of all?  Most movie drive-ins do not play first-run movies.  I literally had to drive 1 hour to see TENET on opening weekend.  

Even still, seeing a movie on a big screen is better than not.  Drive-in may be inferior, but it is preferable to the alternative: sitting for 3 hours in an enclosed space with a bunch of strangers around breathing the same air and touching the same surfaces, or queueing up to close at the snackbar or just walking too closely when exiting the theater.  

Of Wolves and Rocks (Part 1)

Allie and I travelled to the Colorado Springs area this weekend to explore the area and meet some wildlife at Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center.  Our travel itinerary was made before the current world crisis.  As such, many plans were changed or cancelled.  In Colorado, there are state restrictions, which are being phased out right now.  However, there's little consistency from one region to another since  individual cities have set their own rules.  So, we didn't know for sure if our visit to the Center was even going to happen until a week prior.  We had to change our hotel and cancel all restaurant reservations.  It was also fruitless to try to explore Colorado Springs downtown.

Fortunately, the Center was able to open as of May 1.  So, in addition to some everyday strict clothing requirements, the Center implemented proper face mask and social distancing for guests and staff.  

We had the Ultimate Alpha package.  This includes meeting two pairs of wolves and also foxes, and 50 photos of the interactions.  My only critique of our experience is that the quality of photography was lacking, as you'll see below. If you compare our photos with what is presented on the website, there's a world of difference.  I did touch up the photos to fix as much of the issues as possible.

We first visited the foxes.  The foxes were rambunctious.  They actually kinda reminded me of racoons. While we were in their enclosure, there was no question that Rhett and Scarlett viewed us as the source of their kibble, and nothing more.

Scarlett

Rhett

Rhett and Scarlett

Navi and Tala are the pair of wolves that we next met.  I don't know if the photos truly capture the size of Navi.  When you are face to face with him, looking at him in the eyes, you get a real sense of the power and grace embodied by these awesome canids.  

Being greeted by Tala and Navi

We were able to start a pack howl. 
It wasn't hard.  They live for howling.

Navi and Tala

Finally, we met with Orenda and Isha. 

Orenda posing

  

A wolf only sits when it wants, and the treats only provide passive enticement.  Orenda only half sits for the promise of a kibble.

Orenda kinda sits for kibble.

Tala greeted Allie at first, but was generally aloof.  She knows she's beautiful and has little time for us humans.  (Actually, she did enjoyably interact with us for a time, but none of the photos are well-posed.)

Tala coming back for treats

Orenda posing yet again with us!

Series:

Of Wolves and Rocks (Part 1)

Of Wolves and Rocks (Part 2)

Of Wolves and Rocks (Part 3)

Of Wolves and Rocks (Part 4)