Hello reader.

The headline of this article may seems somewhat ‘doomy and gloomy’ but it’s not really, though the implication that the volume of output may be reduced is true.

I have been writing movie reviews for about 15 years, for several websites: Digital Retribution (where I started in 2005, and did over 300 reviews: the 300th being ‘300’ and was one of the forum administrators), DVD Resurrections (where I did reviews for about 3 years) and here, The To Watch Pile, where I have done at least one weekly review for almost 4 years.

… and I’m tired of writing movie reviews.

I loved doing reviews, really, but after 15 years of slogging away at it, I’m tired, and I’ve found that I’ve stopped enjoying watching movies because of it. I think at some point I thought I was going to be able to make a job of this, but I don’t think I’m tenacious enough to get work in a magazine (though I almost did, but the magazine never got off the ground) and I’m certainly not pretty enough to do reviews on YouTube; I need to lose about 30 kilos and 25 years to make that a viable option. Podcasting is a great space for a face like mine.

Last week I took the week off work. I work in retail and Christmas is always hectic and taking a week off as it slows down is mandatory to maintain ones sanity.

I didn’t know what to do with the week off. Amongst my avocations, other than this website, I have a podcast, a Twitch stream and I have been trying to developer a card game… and I make ZERO money for these things: I do them all because I enjoy them.

Anyway, I decided to NOT do any of these things for my week off, and take a holiday from EVERYTHING, which was going to be good for my sanity, and I watched some movies with no intention of reviewing them… and I enjoyed them.

I have forgotten why I like movies and they have become a chore, something I never wanted to happen, so I’ve decided to take a rest, and ENJOY moves for a little while.

Normally this website runs at about 10 weeks in advance, but I’m all caught up now and have NO reviews left in the bank… there’s a couple I was working on but I’m going to put them to rest, unless I get the inclination to do them again.

I’d like to thank all of you who do actually visit with any regularity, and I hope that my reviews have been informative, fun and maybe a little of my experience has made you smile. This site isn’t closing down, so the 200 odd reviews will stay live and will be here for you to enjoy, and maybe a sneaky new review will appear whenever I feel inclined to do so.

So, this isn’t a ‘goodbye’, but instead a ‘see you soon’.