My 31 Day Film Challenge

Just like with my 31 day song challenge, there is also a 31 day film challenge.  I thought I would do that one the same way.  This is one I've had in my drafts for a while.  At least since 2021, when I posted my 31 day song challenge.

Day 1: The first film you remember watching - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
I remember seeing Snow White in theaters--there must have been a re-air of it.  I couldn't have been older than 5 or 6.  Anything before that I cannot remember.

Day 2: A film you like that starts with the first letter of your name: Bruce Almighty
Surprisingly, I couldn't think of many films that started with a "B".  But Bruce Almighty came to mind, and I think it's classic Jim Carrey.  I've seen it at least half a dozen times and I enjoy it each time.

Day 3: A film that has more than five words: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Hey, it has six words, so that counts.  This film introduced me to the visual magical world of Harry Potter, and it's still my favorite Harry Potter movie to this date.

Day 4: A film with a number in the title: 17 Again
It wasn't particularly well received, but I enjoyed it.  I actually own it on DVD.  It's my favorite number, and it stars Matthew Perry, most known as Chandler from Friends (one of my favorite shows of all time).  

Day 5: A film where a character has a job you want: Draft Day
Really, anyone in the front office of an NFL team.  Kevin Costner as Sonny Weaver is the lead and would be a great candidate.  Or even being one of the scouts would be cool, too.

Day 6: Your favorite animated film: The Lion King
I grew up with The Lion King.  I played the video game, I had a stuffed Simba, and of course, I've seen the film more times than I can count. 

Day 7: A film that you will never get tired of: National Treasure
I can't explain it, but it's certainly one of my guilty pleasure films.  Whenever I see it playing on TV, I have to watch a bit of it. 

Day 8: A film where you liked the soundtrack more: The Godfather
I wasn't the biggest fan of The Godfather; don't get me wrong, I think it is a magnificently made film.  I just like the soundtrack more than the film itself.

Day 9: A film you hate that everyone else liked: Requiem for a Dream
I do not like this film, mainly because I can't understand it, but also because I've never done drugs.  It just gets high praise for a film that is not entertaining to me whatsoever.

Day 10: Your favorite superhero film: Avengers Endgame
Recency bias perhaps, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a film where so many heroes come together to save the day in such an epic way.

Day 11: A film you like from your least favorite genre: My Neighbor Totoro
I do not like Anime or foreign films, whichever this falls under.  But I like this film, and I watched it a lot at the daycare I went to as a kid.

Day 12: A film that you hate from your favorite genre: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Like many Star Wars fans, I have grown a disdain for the sequel trilogy, most notably the final film in the trilogy.  So many missed opportunities and choices made by the writers that just weren't fulfilling to us as fans. 

Day 13: A film that put you in deep thoughts: Interstellar
I think anyone that's seen this will know why and I don't have to explain here.  I also considered "Inception".  I guess any Christopher Nolan film could be considered.

Day 14: A film that gave you depression: Friday Night Lights
This was the first sports film I remember watching where the main characters lose at the end.  I just remember feeling depressed after watching it--what was the point?  But as I've gotten older, I've come to realize that it's not always about the destination; sometimes it's about the journey (and the friends you make along the way).

Day 15: A film that makes you feel happy: Rat Race
There are many laugh-out-loud moments, plus the ending with Smash Mouth is fun to sing along to.  I never finish this film in a bad mood.

Day 16: A film that is personal to you: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
I saw Episode II in theaters with my dad, and it's one of the few movies I remember seeing in theaters with him.  I just remember bonding with him a lot that day, as we went to Fatburger afterwards.  That's a core memory that'll likely stick with me forever.

Day 17: Favorite film sequel: National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Yes, I'm a fan of the National Treasure films.  And Book of Secrets was just as good as the original NT movie, in my opinion. 

Day 18: A film that stars your favorite actor/actress: Captain Phillips
My favorite actor has changed a lot throughout the years, but I think right now it's Tom Hanks.  And he was tremendous in this.

Day 19:  A film made by your favorite director: Elf
It's hard to say who my favorite director is, because I feel like it changes all the time.  But because of his recent work with Star Wars, and because I like Elf, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 so much, I decided to go with Jon Favreau.  I also enjoy the Jungle Book and the Lion King, both of which had amazing effects.

Day 20: A film that changed your life: Super Size Me
This documentary changed me, because it got me to eat less fast food.  I especially remember in the bonus scenes where they recorded how long it took for McDonald's foods (burger, fries) to decompose.  It was surprisingly long.  

Day 21: A film that you dozed off in: Wonder Woman
It may have been because we were seeing it late at night, but I actually dozed off during the film's climax.  I haven't really found the recent DC Comics films that engaging, to be honest.

Day 22: A film that made you angry: Mother!
I don't know why people would want to watch this a second time.  It is such an infuriating film, especially if you put yourself in the shoes of the main character played by Jennifer Lawrence.  

Day 23: A film made by a director that is dead: 2001: A Space Odyssey
The first deceased director that came to mind was Stanley Kubrick, and my favorite film of his is 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

Day 24: A film you wish you saw in theaters: Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
I never had the chance to when it premiered as I wasn't born yet, but if I could time travel to 1977 and see it in theaters, that would make my life.

Day 25: A film you like that is not set in the current era: Titanic
What can I say, I love this film.  It's extremely well-made and I enjoy it each time.  And, every time I watch it, I pick up on something I never noticed or knew before.

Day 26: A film you like that is adapted from somewhere: Holes
This is one of the closest book-to-film adaptations where I've read the book and seen the movie.  I have to watch Holes every few years just to keep it fresh in my memory.

Day 27: A film that is visually striking to you: Avatar
There's a reason it was the highest-grossing film ever for 10 years.  And I got to watch it in 3D on my dad's tv with special 3D glasses.  It was awesome.

Day 28: A film that made you feel uncomfortable: The Green Inferno
Uncomfortable would be putting it lightly.  It actually made me squirm and a bit nauseous.  In the film, a group of college students on a trip to the Amazon get captured by a native village (one of those with no connection to the outside world) and one of the unlucky students gets every one of his limbs cut off, his eyes gouged out, and his tongue cut off.  And it's incredibly realistic looking.

Day 29: A film that makes you want to fall in love: Love, Actually
There are several love stories in one in this classic.  They're all different types of romances, so it appeals to a wide variety of people.

Day 30: A film with your favorite ending: The Departed
If you happen to avoid spoilers and see the ending, your jaw will without a doubt drop.  I love surprise endings and moments that make you just stop and stare in shock and awe.  This definitely fulfills that.

Top 10 Things We Have Yet to See on Survivor (But May Someday)

 I do a lot of blog posts on one of my favorite TV shows ever, Survivor.  I enjoy how the game has evolved over the years, and new things are happening all the time with its evolution.  We had a fan-favorite player get eliminated by default with Cirie in Game Changers.  We had a tribal in Second Chance where idols negated every vote.  But some instances or occurrences have never happened in Survivor history.  With all the new advantages and the numerous idols put into play by the showrunners, not only are some of these things likely to happen, but I think they (Jeff included) want them to happen.

10. A "No Vote" Tribal Council
One thing I'm not a fan of in recent seasons is how easy it is to lose your vote.  In fact, in Season 44, just going to the summit meant you lost your vote, unless you got lucky and succeeded in that 1/3 shot of getting an advantage.  It's so dumb.  Anyway, with how easy it is to lose your vote, and with shots in the dark, I feel like a "no vote" tribal council may happen someday.  I'm sure they have a plan in place for this, but this "dramatic moment" would feel so contrived, as do a lot of them in recent seasons.  And by a "no vote" tribal council, I do not mean a tribal council where all votes are negated.  That's happened before.  I mean a tribal council where everyone present has lost their vote or chooses to lose their vote.  Very unlikely, but it's theoretically possible.

9. A plurality tie at Final Tribal Council
I have a feeling this could happen in 44 (Spoiler alert: It does not).  But given three finalists, a tie with a plurality vote is certainly possible.  With 8 jurors like 44 has, we could see a 3-3-2 final vote.  Or if they had 9 jurors, a 4-4-1, or do I even say a 3-3-3?  We've seen a tie before in Ghost Island, but in that case, Laurel did not receive a vote and ended up casting the tie-breaking vote.  So if there's a 3-3-2 tie, how is it broken?  Do the 2 people who voted for the 3rd place person and the 3rd place person themself break the tie?  We may get that answer someday.

8. "Everyone's Safe" Tribal Council
This is what I think Jeff and the producers want most.  A tribal council where everyone is safe via immunity, idol, advantage, or shot in the dark.  We were close to it with the Cirie elimination in Game Changers.  But what would happen here?  They just vote out two people next time?  Everyone's safety cancels out and gets removed?  Draw rocks?  They fight for it?

7. Someone puts themselves into final 4 fire making and loses
We've seen it only once before where the player who won final immunity put themselves into fire: Chris in Edge of Extinction.  He won his fire-making duel with Rick Devens and then won the game.  A few others have considered attempting it, some of them regretting not doing so.  I think we will see (and likely soon) someone put themselves into fire, but lose.  It's become a running trend that winning fire-making looks a lot better to the jury.  This would happen when someone needs a boost to their resumé and knows they have no shot at winning without it.

Update: Heidi in 44 put herself into fire making, but won the fire making over Carson.  However, she still did not win the game, the first to put themselves into fire making but lose the game.

6. Multiple fake idols played at one tribal council
Hard as it may seem, we've never seen multiple fake idols be attempted to be played at the same tribal council.  For the first time in 44, producers made and introduced fake idols into the game.  In the past, players always had to make them themselves.  I think we may soon see a tribal council where someone attempts to play an idol but it turns out to be fake, and someone else attempts the same, feeling like there is no way theirs could be fake as well.

5. A player gets all the way to the end without ever having been vulnerable at a tribal council
I'm sure there have been a few players who have been somewhat close.  But this may never happen.  However, it theoretically is possible that a player gets all the way to the end without having been eligible to be voted for.  Their starting tribe would have to win every immunity, and they'd have to win individual immunity or be separated into a group that doesn't go to tribal every vote until the Final 3.  This person would have to be godlike at challenges.  They'd have to be smart with puzzles and athletic for endurance challenges.  I wonder if this ever happened, would this make a jury want to vote for them or not?  

4. A rock draw on a plurality tie
We've seen some rock draws in Survivor history, from Marquesas to Blood vs. Water to Millennials vs. Gen X.  But we've never seen one when there's been a three-way tie (or more).  I believe Survivor has had a three-way tie before, but it's always been resolved on the revote.  You'd think perhaps there'd be a tribe of 6 people with three twosomes, the twosomes all targeting three different people.  But generally, two pairs of twosomes get together to target one of the two odd people out.  Or, if a tribe has three people, each one targeting someone else.  I thought we might've seen that on Tika in 44 when they had just Caroline, Joshua, and Yam-Yam.

3. Someone gives someone their immunity necklace who then in turn plays an idol for them
I just think this would be a cute moment if it ever happened.  Two players close in the game, both of whom would be vulnerable.  One has individual immunity, but they decide to see if they can throw off the opposition and they give their immunity to their ally.  Said ally then plays an idol they happen to have on the first player.  This has never happened before, since the second player could just play their idol, but I'd still love to see it for the drama and fireworks.  Plus, it's something players would have to come up with, not the producers.

2. A player votes out someone with their idol
Let me explain.  In 44, we saw the introduction of the "Control a Vote" where Heidi got to control Lauren's vote.  Also, players loan idols all the time, namely in recent years to avoid the Knowledge is Power advantage.  This could mean someone is forced to vote out someone who has their idol.  That would just be such a kick in the nuts.  

1. A rock draw for $1 million?!
Even with a final three, a deadlock tribal council is possible.  I believe, for this reason, the show tries to avoid a jury size that is a multiple of 3 (namely 9).  I don't believe they've had a jury where the final 3 could've each gotten the same number of votes.  But I could be wrong.  But surely they must have something in place for this in case it happens.  For example, in Winners at War, what if one more person had left the Edge (joining Sandra in doing so), and the 15 jurors split their votes 5-5-5 between Tony, Natalie, and Michele?  Surely they wouldn't do a rock draw for $1 million, right?  I guess they'd have the jury talk it over until they came to a consensus.  Or possibly re-vote until someone gets the majority.  

BONUS (Unlikely): A juror that never casts a vote
We saw in 44 how Matt got to the jury, despite the only time he ever cast a vote being the time he got voted out.  Well, with how much the producers love taking people's votes away in mind (and the Shot in the Dark), we could see a juror on Survivor who never casts a vote, not even for a winner.  This could only happen if they re-introduced the "Remove a Juror" advantage, as seen in Kaoh Rong.  That was only introduced because of the med-evacs and needing an extra challenge, but I feel like we potentially could see it again.  Imagine, you get on the jury, but you don't get to cast a vote all game.  We will probably see a juror at some point that the first time they put pen to paper is for the winner.