The halfway point of the year has now arrived and my bid to see 365 films during 2011 that I’ve never seen before is well on track. As of June 31^st, which is day number 181 of the calendar, my count stands at 180 films seen so far but as ever, it was a month of highs and lows.

Typically, there were entries on my list for June that were clearly in a certain category, but there were a few that were a little bit more random. A good example of this might be Milos Forman’s 1984 piece Amadeus, a biopic of sorts that lacked the vibrant, comic edge that I’d been hoping for and at 180 minutes (the runtime of the director’s cut) proved only to be ridiculously over-long and tragically overrated. Similarly, Primer turned out to be something of a disappointment too, focusing way too much on convincing me how clever it was and seemingly forgetting that its job was to entertain.

Luckily, there were a few others randoms that crept up that were considerably more enjoyable. First off, Lord of War offered the infinitely watchable Nic Cage as an international arms dealer struggling to come to terms with what he does for a living. It’s one of Cages more understated performances and reminds you that when he isn’t chewing everything in sight, he can actually act too. Also playing it more subtle than he has done recently is Mickey Rourke in 1987s Barfly €“ a film that seemed incredibly familiar until I realised a day or so later the reason why. Based on the same Bukowski novel as Factotum (which I watched earlier this year) it’s a grimy little love story of sorts, brilliantly performed by Rourke and Faye Dunaway.

Perhaps the most fun I’ve had this month though was with the 1966 Sergio Corbucci western, Django. The story of a lone and tortured gunman who wanders into a small town overrun with gang activity, it’s a beautifully shot and scored little piece of Italian cinema that combines gun slinging action with a dash of gore. An absolute anti-hero in every sense of the word, if I had one major action-based recommendation from this month’s viewing, it would have to be this.

Of the comedies I saw this month I’m not sure if there was one I didn’t have some sort of issue with which seems to be a common problem for me. Bridesmaids, possibly one of the biggest of the year, failed to live up to its reputation as a roaring good laugh. Instead of making use of the good will and interesting characters it built up in the first third, it relied on the usual dramatic romance stuff, stopping only occasionally to run a joke or two into the ground. Cedar Rapids was pretty much the spiritual follow up top something like Dan in Real Life, walking the fine line between comedy and indie, while offending no-one in the process and wasting some serious talent €“ as did Morning Glory. Full Of It, Definitely Maybe and Take Me Home Tonight were occasionally chucklesome, but if there were any belly laughs going on in June, it was during Jackass 3.5, obviously.

The British contingent did me proud this month, with some quite brilliant dramas. The Disappearance of Alice Creed was excellently shot and had some really nice moments, while Kidulthood was equally solid, with great direction and an excellent soundtrack. Mike Leigh entertained the hell out of me and my missus with the fantastic slice of life ensemble piece Another Year and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner took me back to a tougher, harder time to teach me about what it was to be a man. Exceptional pieces of work came in the form of director Ben Wheatley’s Down Terrace, a gripping and dark tale that kept me guessing throughout and delivered a very unexpected climax. But even that was topped by perhaps the most touching thing I’ve seen all year, Lance Daly’s 2008 piece, Kisses. An Irish tale of young love in the scary city, it uses a couple of nice tricks to balance its double helping of warmth and drama, ending with the simplest and most powerful scene I think I’ve seen all year. Please see it immediately.

On very different territory, I indulged myself in plenty of horror too over the month, with a handful of Giallo and a smattering of goo. In terms of Italian cinema, Lucio Fulci impressed me with The Beyond, mainly because of its incredibly dark, gloomy ending. But Fulcis combination of great music, thrilling deaths and good old genre fun made New York Ripper perhaps my favourite of his so far I loved it. Elsewhere in Giallotown, I took in Strip Nude For Your Killer and Torso. The former was pretty painful, but the latter made up for it with some real suspense and lots of naked lady parts. But if its titillation you’re after, you’d be better off staying away from The Woman. Very dark, with some innovative sound design, it’s certainly worth seeing, but looking beneath the violence it’s pretty difficult to see what they were trying to say with the narrative. Beyond Reanimator and Stake Land were decent, Street Trash was absolutely awful and Vault of Horror was an unexpected gem that charmed the pants of me very late one night in front of the TV.

The summer of comic book heroes continued with X-Men: First Class which was occasionally impressive, but would have made me much happier if it had focused on the relationship between its two leads. Unfortunately, in a bid to show and tell us about its new characters, as well as rushing us right up to Bryan Singers 2000 sequel, it just felt occasionally cluttered. Green Lantern was a bit of a mess overall and had real problems, but as a multimillion dollar Saturday morning cartoon I felt it did its job, whereas its actual animated sibling, Green Lantern – Emerald Knights, continued to do the great work of First Flight and looked amazing in high definition.

The Adjustment Bureau was a slice of action/drama that I’d missed at the cinema but was able to catch on Blu-ray and I have to say is fully deserving of the praise it seemed to receive on its release. The same too can be said of The Troll Hunter, which was a lovely little found footage piece that gave us some interesting mythology and solid effects. I have to say I was a little disappointed by The Last Starfighter, though I can see why it holds a special place in many people’s hearts. And finally, there was A Boy and his Dog, which I covered for this month’s Eat Sleep Live Film Staff Miscellany piece.

Just three documentaries made it into my life in June, the first of which was Tyson. Perhaps it was because I ended May with Senna, which I’m sure will be in at least my top 10 of the year, but it unfortunately just didn’t engage me as much as I’d hoped. MacHeads was an interesting look at the cult of Apple products, but didn’t seem to know whether it was for or against what it was talking about. Yes, I know a good documentary should be neither, but the praise, attack, repeat approach didn’t quite work for me. Finally, there was Dungeon Masters, which opened my eyes to a whole new world of awkward geekery that frankly scares me, but elevated itself by focusing on the lives and troubles of those who like to indulge in a bit of, well, whatever the fuck it is they do.

So anyway, that was June, now I move onwards to July safe in the knowledge that I’m on target and the veritable all-you-can-eat cinematic buffet that Frightfest is only seven weeks away! Here are my tweet reviews for the month.

#144 Amadeus: A little straighter than I was hoping for. Interesting rivalry, but the director’s cut is about a week too long.

#145 Tyson: Too reliant on the central interview it messes with so much. Interesting at points but disappointing after #Senna

#146 Barfly: Stylish, funny and all round surprisingly good little grimy tale that makes being an alcoholic look fun.

#147 Full Of It: Simple but stylish high concept teem dram-com. A bit TV-esque, but actually pretty funny in parts.

#148 Lord of War: Very solid Nic Cage thriller with some darkly comic moments. A definite recommendation.

#149 #X-Men #FirstClass: Not perfect, but a simple origin story well told and superb performances elevate it to above average.

#150 The Woman: Bizarre, seedy and entertainingly dark. Interesting use of sound in parts but ultimately fails to achieve much.

#151 Cedar Rapids: Watchable, charming enough, but not very funny. Should be better, but it isn’t all bad. Seen worse recently.

#152 Morning Glory: Overly cheerful and painfully familiar. McAdams does ditzy, Ford does curmudgeon…Keaton and Wilson watch.

#153 The Beyond. Low on story but big on gory kills with a nut-crusher of an ending. Looks and sounds the business on Blu-ray.

#154 New York Ripper: Loses its way a bit but the first hour is the best Fulci I’ve seen (of 5!). Brutal, good tunes and fun.

#155 Beyond Reanimator: Starts with promise, but suffers from a lack of both budget and imagination. Has its average moments.

#156 Strip Nude For Your Killer: Feels like it’s made by aliens that have never met humans before. Oddly watchable, but awful.

#157 Definitely Maybe: Solid romance flick that works a bit like a condensed HIMYM and benefits from charming performances.

#158 The Disappearance of Alice Creed: Decent, stylishly shot Brit kidnap thriller. Not 100% original, but well worth a watch.

#159 Django: Completely badass spaghetti western with fist pump moments and loads of bloodshed. Absolutely loved it.

#160 Primer: Has moments, but difficult to follow and gets uninteresting as a result. Smart, but boring and overrated for me.

#161 Jackass 3.5: Hilarious, obviously. That said, it’s the lesser of the whole series of the films so far.

#162 Kidulthood: Solid Brit thriller with a great ‘grime capsule’ soundtrack, acting turns and all-round good work from Clarke.

#163 Green Lantern: Its flawed, but like Hulk and Daredevil this is a comic movie I’ll have to defend. I’m sorry, I enjoyed it.

#164 Stake Land: Good enough to impress at a horror festival, but not above average enough to get too excited over.

#165 MacHeads: Doc about Apple, interesting at points but veers between advertorial and overzealous attempting to be balanced.

#166 Vault of Horror: Creepy, tongue in cheek anthology film. Thoroughly engrossing with a great comic turn from Terry Thomas.

#167 The Adjustment Bureau: Slick direction and great chemistry from the two leads make this a definite recommendation.

#168 Torso: Blood and boobs (mainly boobs) giallo. Goes through the motions, but has moments of suspense. Entertaining enough.

#169 Another Year: Fascinating year-in-the-life ensemble drama from Mike Leigh. Incredible performances, insanely watchable.

#170 The Last Starfighter: Interesting study of early CG, but only valuable to those who already have nostalgic memories of it.

#171 Street Trash: Apparently a cult classic but insane, colourful effects do little to help the terrible script. No Evil Dead.

#172 Green Lantern – Emerald Knights: I liked the actual film but this and First Flight together in HD would make a better one.

#173 Bridesmaids: Starts well but quickly runs out of steam. Characters are underused and unfortunately it gets a bit typical.

#174 The Troll Hunter: Another fine example of how good found footage films can be. Original, thrilling, I absolutely loved it.

#175 Dungeon Masters: Pretty fascinating look at the lives of a group of D&D gamers, funny, interesting and occasionally moving

#176 Take Me Home Tonight: Enjoyable. Gets the Hughes-esque tone pretty close. One question, what’s up with Anna Faris’ face??

#177 The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner: Tense, gritty, yet oddly warm. Frustrating at times. Great lead performance.

#178 Down Terrace: Gripping dark Brit crim-dram with more layers than an Eskimos nutsack. Kept me guessing right till the end.

#179 Kisses: Charming, subtle, sad, sweet Irish love story with two great child performances. Looks and sounds awesome too.

#180 A Boy and his Dog: Post-apocalyptic oddity that’s occasionally pretty charming. Not great, just strange and likeable.