This Is Most Likely a Fool's Errand — Announcing the Pan & Scan Film Reviews

We’ve decided  (my wife and I) to make the attempt to watch better movies. (I suppose we need to begin calling them films instead.)  We’ve come to this decision in part because we’re tired of not knowing what to watch and we often feel left out when listening to the podcast Doug Loves Movies.  Every episode there is a reference or two that is beyond our grasp–often because the film is too old for us to have come across it casually even though we’ve generally heard of the film.

We’ll be turning to the greatest movie lists from IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes and AFI to guide our quest.  The process is simple: my wife, Cassandra, asks me for a number.  I offer her one and we check to see if the corresponding film is available on one of the three services we subscribe to: Netflix, HuluPlus and AmazonPrime.  We’ve made only one exception to this practice–we had to nix The Untouchables.  It is available on Netflix, but this is a grading weekend and I can’t be troubled to read subtitles.  (We’ll be revisiting it shortly).  Our first film is the 1957 Witness for the Prosecution, based on an Agatha Christie novel.  At this point I understand the main character, Sir Wilfred, a barrister has just awoken from a coma and is trying to adjust to the rules his doctors have given him–no cigars, no brandy and no criminal cases.  He seems intent on breaking all three.

We’ll be blogging our progress through this fool’s errand, reviewing some of the gems and offering some helpful hints to avoid those that deserve to be skipped.   Since this may be the first post in many or both the first and last within an impossible task I’ll wish myself “Good Luck”.