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This week: How watching a lot of movies on a daily basis may be a young man's game. Attempting to define family entertainment. Unlikely directors, unlikely "kid's films." Crying (still) over lost directors and being moved to tears (again) by the second film starring a little pig that once upon a time went a long way.

Back in the late '90s, when I supplemented my movie-going habits by working a second job at a downtown Portland branch of the Act III chain - which allowed me to pick up some extra cash and see pretty much everything around town for free either opening weekend or within two to three weeks from start date - I made it my mission to see at least 75% of all mainstream films and 75% of all art-house films playing at any given time. Random numbers, perhaps, but I figured three-quarters was worth aiming for. Granted, this means I must cop to having been the only person in the theater on a weeknight for films like the Chris Klein-Josh Hartnett-Leelee Sobieski deathless weepie Here on Earth; the Kate Hudson-Joshua Jackson thrill-less thriller Gossip; the Luke Wilson-Natasha Henstridge mirthless laffer Dog Park, and the ill-advised big-screen adaptation of The Mod Squad. But there were plusses as well.

My theater, the Broadway Metroplex, was going to have an exclusive engagement of Boogie Nights for the first month it was in town. We got the film cans in a day earlier than we employees were expecting and since the associate manager was busy with administrative duties that night, I got the "task" of screening it - all by myself at just past midnight - to make sure that there were no serious defects with the print. Having caught Hard Eight only six months prior during the two weeks it was in town, I was pumped to see Paul Thomas Anderson's take on the porn industry. Viewing Boogie Nights in an empty theater remains one of the single greatest movie viewing moments of my lifetime. On the flip side, I loved to walk into the packed auditorium during the first weekends we had it, at just about the time the doughnut shop sequence starts, to watch people's reactions as those five minutes of unexpected violence and dark humor played out.

For the last weekend of November 1998, I was doing well at keeping up to my percentage ideal. Among the films in the top 20 at that time, I had seen (or would shortly see): A Bug's Life, The Rugrats Movie, Enemy of the State, Meet Joe Black, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Home Fries, Elizabeth, The Siege, Very Bad Things, Jerry Springer: Ringmaster, Pleasantville, Celebrity, American History X, Antz, Life is Beautiful, Waking Ned Devine, and this week's subject - Babe: Pig in the City. I did not catch The Waterboy until its video release - intentionally - and still have never seen I'll Be Home For Christmas (also quite, quite on purpose.)

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