Future Poltergeist

Yet another great movie (what a year!). This movie chronicles the life of a very sweet man with a room temperture IQ who happens to be present at the largest events of history. From meeting Elvis to repeated trips to the White House he sees it all. This movie fits the boomer lifespan to a tee and most of been like a greatest hits album for that generation. But what makes it great is the central theme of the movie. Love denied. Worse than that, love acknowledged but rejected. Forrest has fallen in love with his gradeschool friend, Jenny. She's suffered abuse while young and subsequently turned to a path of destruction. The yin of Forrest's purity and the yang of Jenny's darkness is quite striking. And heartbreaking. The soundtrack of this movie is outstanding. Kind of a popular soundtrack of life from the late 50's to the late 70's. Paired with very good cinema the effect is striking. Seen this movie about a half dozen times and was struck for the first time by the V...

I've struggled with putting a review of this movie together. It's not impossible, but just hasn't come together. In it's place, let me just say a few things and then some notes. This is a great comedy. One of the best of the 90's. Long thought that the Oscars should seperate out dramas and comedies when handing out awards. They could make it a three movie nomination like they do with animated films. The comparison between a top shelf comedy and a top shelf drama are just too difficult. In the end, the seriousness of the drama almost always outweighs the lightness of the comedy. A perfect comedy would place second to a great drama. (Expect more on this with 'Private Ryan' vs 'Shakespeare in Love'.) First film I saw Hugh Grant in and you can count me as a fan. The dialouge is witty and fun. The delivery is utterly charming. I'll leave his general attractivness to women in general but he seems to score well there. Andie Mcdowell is real...

Watched the special on TV last night in which AFI released their top 100 movie quotes of all time. Well, watched parts of it. A trip to target wiped out the middle. Here's the list . I'm tempted to go through it and critique but time and not having seen all of the films will stop that. But a few things: Often thought they got the second best line from a movie. 78) "Open the pod bay doors, HAL" from 2001. Isn't "Hello Dave" more memorable? and 88) "Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armor. Don't you forget it. You're going to get back on that horse, and I'm going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we're gonna go, go, go!" from On Golden Pond. More memorable line: "Norman, you old poop." (If you just said it in your mind, your head wobbled didn't it?) And some very good quotes were missing. How about "As you wish." Or "Luke, I'm your father." St...

This film hit the movie scene in '94 like a bomb. The dialouge was brilliant. The action was compelling. The shocking moments were shocking. A truly great movie. (And one of the films I was most wondering if it would live up to it's reputation over the years.) The first inovation that Pulp Fiction popularized was in telling the story out of order. One of the final scenes is shown first and then the movie wanders in time until it comes back to complete the opening. Along with that is a first rate soundtrack. And this from someone who wishes the 70's would dry up and blow away. Throw in some acting and some of the most interesting scripts of the entire decade and there you have it. Two notable acting bits in this movie: Samuel L Jackson is at the very top of his game here. This will be the role that he's remembered for and with good reason. The other top notch job here is done by Bruce Willis. I'm constantly surprised at how a good of an actor he r...

A good movie, but short of great. Very well acted and thematically it would have fit better in the 1993 grouping than in the 1994 one. The story involves a game show in the early 60's that's become rigged. In an attempt to increase ratings, certain players are given the answers to the questions so that they can keep winning. The movie shows the plight of Herb Stempel (John Turturro) who is given the answers, fame and money, only to have the rug pulled out from under him. The next player given this treatment is Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) a teacher at Columbia who is overshadowed by his father. He is seduced into the scheme and the lure proves too big for him to resist. In the end, he can't live with himself getting away with it and he admits his wrongdoing before a congressional committee. The acting in this film is very good throughout with the notable exception of Martin Scorsece. (Why do we think that directors should be as good as actors in front of ...

We've just completed a big weekend. My sister was in town for her wedding reception. She got married back in February and this was the first time we got to see her. Along with a large amount of the rest of the family. That was Saturday and and it was a wonderful day (as long as you don't mind dodging tornadoes !) Sunday morning we had invited both of our families over for brunch starting at 10a. We left at 745a for grocieries, leaving my dad, brother, sister-in-law and the cutest nephew ever at the house. And didn't return. At 10a my friend Jodi arrived and gathered everyone together. She handed them envelopes containing...our wedding invitations. Date set for June 12th, 2005. Today! The got into cars to head down to a park we had selected and watched us be wed. Surprise! We had taken advantage of my family being in town to tie the knot. We couldn't be happier. It would have been great to have everyone we know and love be there but this really made for a ...

Surprise! 

And a kiss! 

found here . I scored 70.5, the FP Fiance scored 89. What can I say, she's better at this than I am.

Apologies for that. I blame this . And a trip to Iowa where I saw this . But I'm still here and I still have things to say: One of the reasons for starting this blog was to talk baseball and I haven't really done much of it. The reason is simple: superstition. The last couple of times I've written about my Sox they've gone on losing streaks and that was worrisome. For some reason sports brings out that out in people. Spoke to a friend of mine who happened upon the 1998 NFC Championship game while she was living down in Texas. Extremely casual football fan, she kept watching and got drawn in. As the game progressed, she had to keep changing clothes while trying to find the right ones to keep the Vikings lucky. She's a normally sane person. Really. And this isn't uncommon amongst sports fan. But I've decided to overcome that write anyway. Expect more baseball related stuff. And football as that gets closer. The FP Fiance has decreed that I can...

Was it a big truck that hit you???