Category: Thank You

Thank You for 2021

2021 is over and for the film world, I feel we had a great year for quality, enjoyable films. The film released gave me a chance to write about them and Movie Reviews 101 gave me a place to share the thoughts and feelings about them. I would like to thank everyone who stopped by to read, like or comment on the movies through the year, and look forward to seeing what 2022 will bring.

It isn’t only the fans of films that I want to thank, it is the amazing PR people that offered me a chance to talk about movies that not everyone would have heard off, giving me a chance to find hidden gems in the world, one I could share with everyone else too.

As for 2022, not much is going to change, I do want to continue improving my writing skills, something I have been trying to do for years. I want to continue bringing a range of movies from across the globe to be spotlighted on Movie Reviews 101 too.

As for the ABC Film Challenge, that is returning with the following subjects and as always, if you want to join in, feel free to spread the word.

January – Catch Up 2021 (A chance to watch anything I or you missed in 2021)

February – Oscar Nomination (Any film that has ever been nominated for a Oscar)

March – Personal Favourites

April – Action April

May – World Cinema

June – Sci-Fi

July – Animation

August – Romance

September – Movies from 2000s

October – Horror

November – Thriller

December – Looking Forward to in 2023

This feature has proven to be fun through the years and I hope even more people will join in, going forward.

The final dream I would like to target in 2022, is to branch out and write for other sites or even in print. This has been a long term dream of mine, despite knowing it will take a lot of work, I want to keep pushing to make it a reality.

A final thank you to everyone who makes this a possibility.

Darren

I feel it is time to tell the story of how Movie Reviews 101 came about and it is a story that is nearly twenty years in the making.

Before we get into the main ideas behind the site, we must go into my passion for film, which saw me raised on the original Star Wars, Indiana Jones and James Bond movies, mainly everything that BBC or ITV showed back in the days when they only used to be four television channels.

Once Sky got released, it opened up a brand-new selection of films for me, with one of my newest loves being horror, with Horror Channel, which turned into Zone Horror, before returning to the Horror Channel being a new home for watching films all night. I would stay up and watch movies, but never have anyone in my life that wanted to chat about these movies and the forums were full of aggressive people.

As my look to chat about the movies I watched grew, I was offered a chance to write with an old school friend who had created a movie blog, something I had never imagined doing, as I was never the strongest writer. I went ahead and tried, which gave me the ideas to try and start my own site, starting with ‘Newguy87’s Movie Reviews’. This was early 2010, when my first attempt of a review was just a couple of paragraphs with no construction to how it was written, only on the movies I enjoyed watching.

The years went past and I started getting into a rhythm with the daily posts before I got offered my first ever screener, a movie called ‘Dry Spell’. This opened up a door I never imagined, the micro budget movies that show us talented directors and actors who don’t get the praise they deserve. While I did take a while before I got asked to watch anymore movies for new releases, it was ‘Pernicious’ which was one of the first from a PR company, a horror movie, feeding my love for horror and most importantly indie horror.

I am now into a routine where I can mix up what I watch, be it movies I missed from years before, brand new streaming movies, or a host of different movies with upcoming releases. Being able to write about the movies I see has always been rewarding and being able to meet new people who will be open to conversations about these movies has been amazing.

I would always be open to give advice to anyone who wants to get into writing about movies, I will always be thankful for any opportunities I have had to watch movies early.

I have dreams of a bigger picture, bigger projects, I want to be able to have more people join the site to write about movies, I want to be able to bring more people together to chat about movies, create a network of people that will show the passion that can only be explained as something people love to do.

These might well be a pipe dream, but the dream will always be here and if the chance comes to make this a reality, we could build something amazing together. Lets talk, enjoy and love the movies we get to see.