2008 was my year of 52 movies. It began with Juno (great) and ended with The Spirit (terrible). There were highs (Dark Knight at LA’s Arclight) and lows (The Wackness). It wasn’t easy, but it was fun and I ended up seeing a lot of movies that I definitely would not ever have seen otherwise.

But it was exhausting. So exhausting that after seeing 52 movies in the theater in 2008, I saw a grand total of 6 movies in the theater in 2009. And one of them was New Moon. When Twilight was 1 of 52, it was easy to bury in the pack, but when you tell someone that you went out to see 6 movies over the course of a whole year and one of them was New Moon, they start looking at you like they’re trying to figure out if you’re wearing Team Edward boxer shorts. Which I’m not; I’m Team Jacob all the way.

But Twilight is not the reason I’m starting up my 52 movies in a year project again. I miss going to the movies. I miss being able to recommend small, overlooked but great movies to friends. I miss the “small” 64 oz soda. I miss the group experience of seeing a blockbuster at midnight on opening night as much as I miss being one of three people in a theater for a small indie film. Movie theaters are fun. I should spend more time at them in 2010.

Since I’ve already done the 52 movies in a theater thing, I decided to up the ante this year by watching an additional 52 movies at home. It’s time to get my money’s worth out of my Netflix subscription. Not only will it give me the opportunity to play catch up on all the movies I missed this past year, but I’ll also be able to fill some holes in my movie viewing experience so that I can avoid hearing “You’ve never seen Rudy/Braveheart/Sunset Boulevard?!?” anymore. Judging solely on peoples’ reactions, I am the last man on earth to not yet see these films.

I set only two rules for myself. Rule #1 is that each movie has to be one I’ve never seen before. So while I would immensely enjoy watching Star Wars for the 1,000,001 time, it won’t make it onto this blog as 1 of the 52×2. Rule #2 is that I will have my review of each movie up within 24 hours of seeing it. Because no one likes a lazy blogger.