Sunday, August 9, 2009

Don't you forget...



RO: John Hughes died a few days ago. Ordinarily I don't pay too much attention when someone famous dies other than the occasional "who cares" or "wow, too bad." I confess I did watch the Diana funeral and when I caught a few minutes of the Michael Jackson tribute, I stuck around and watched the rest,blubbering a few times. And there's a spot in my garden that always reminds me of JFK Jr., because that's where I was pulling weeds when I learned that his plane was missing and presumed crashed. I didn't cry when I found out about John Hughes and there will be no memorial flower bed since I was not in the garden, I was on the computer..where I am most of the time these days.
What I did do was click on a number of links to clips from his movies. What an incredible collection. I wouldn't have called myself a John Hughes fan, but seeing the filmography (is that a word?)reminded me of all of those films..which I seem to quote more often than I realize. Bueller? Bueller?, Flintstones..meet the Flintstones (from Planes, Trains..)..those aren't pillows!

Now, none of his films is on my all-time ten best list (The Godfather, Godfather2, Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, Out of Africa, It's a Wonderful Life, and four that change frequently but this week I'd answer...High Noon, Double Indemnity, Pride and Prejudice and Walkabout) but they were so fun and so evocative of the 80's. That hair, that make-up...those shoulder pads!
I wasn't even a teenager (and that particular form of angst was over) but they still spoke to me. I'm sure they'd be seen as terribly naive by young people today but I remember them very fondly. They were funny and smart..Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, Mr. Mom and I'm sure I've forgotten a bunch. They're not exactly guilty pleasures (e.g., Legally Blonde, Miss Congeniality or Kingpin which I can watch once a month and still find funny.) They're something else..a piece of my history I guess.


So which movies fit that bill for you? And which are your guilty pleasures? Top ten?


HALLIE: I loved Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller. Couldn't stand Home Alone.







Here's my Top Ten guilty pleasures -- movies I cannot resist:



1. Earth Girls Are Easy - Geena Davis as the EG, Jeff Goldblum and Jim Carey soooo young as two of the three aliens. Set in the Valley, where else? Here we sing along with "'Cause I'm a blond...yay yay yeah!"
2. Arsenic and Old Lace - Cary Grant and slapstick at its finest. Hold the elderberry wine.
3. The Philadelphia Story - Grant and Hepburn! Eat your heart out, Brangelina.
4. Some Like It Hot - "Nobody's perfect!"
5. Ninotchka - Garbo smiles

6. Bull Durham - Toenail painting was never the same
7. Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Jessica Rabbit: "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."
8. Witness for the Prosecution - One of the all time best mysteries ever filmed, and was Marlene Dietrich extraordinary? Did you know it was from an Agatha Christie short story?

9. Tootsie - "I have a name it's Dorothy. It's not Tootsie or Toots or Sweetie or Honey or Doll." 10. When Harry Met Sally - I wanted what she was eating.
RO: LOVE Witness for the Prosecution..wanna kiss me, duckie??...I never faint, because I'm not sure I'll fall gracefully and I don't use smelling salts because they puff up the eyes. I'm Christine Vole! And Bull Durham..dancing to Sixty Minute Man? Oh, my. But Earth Girls are Easy? Hallie, this is a side of you I've never witnessed before.

ROBERTA: I did enjoy Home Alone! That's an amazing list of films...here are some of my faves, lots of romances
1. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

2. YOU'VE GOT MAIL

3. WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
4. SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE
5. I'm blocking the name of the one starring Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson in which she's a waitress and he's a rich and crazy author (RO: As Good As it Gets)

6. NOTTING HILL

7. FUNNY GIRL

8. THE BIG CHILL
9. HOPSCOTCH
10. TOOTSIE and yes I agree with this one Hallie. I still remember tons of great lines from this one--when Dustin Hoffman comes down the stairs dressed as a woman on the soap--how explains who he really is. hysterical!
JAN: Roberta and Hallie, I share some of your list, as you'll see. I also don't think there should be any guilt whatsoever in the pleasure of Tootsie. In studying screenplay writing, it's used as an example of excellent structure, character development and reversals.
1. TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU
2. LONESOME DOVE (the original television mini series but none of the sequels)

3. SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE
4. YOU'VE GOT MAIL

5. REBECCA
6. GONE WITH THE WIND
7. Not so Surprisingly, THE WOMEN
8. HIGH FIDELITY
9. SPACE BALLS (Mel Brooks)
10. GYPSY (with Natalie Wood)
I will watch any version of any Jane Austen novel, and especially Pride and Prejudice, even if I've just watched it the night before, but don't feel guilty about it.

HANK: I'm typing my top ten guilty pleasures without looking at yours, just to see. Not in order, though..
1. HIGH SOCIETY
2. PHILADEPHIA STORY ( I could watch this a million times..)
3. SULLIVANS TRAVELS
4. BRING IT ON

5.WORKING GIRL (love love love this..cry every time!)
6. YOU'VE GOT MAIL
7. HARVEY
8. DESK SET (endlessly clever)
9. THE WOMEN
10. THE THIN MAN (all of them..)Oh, must add --what's the one that has time travel, and Sean Connery as Agamemmnon? You know... oh! Time Bandits. And Lars and the Real Girl. Love it!
Okay--checking yours now....Oh, of course! When Harry Met Sally. And Sleepless. And Annie Hall. And Tootsie. But I don't feel guilty about those.

RO: Some of these are legitimate classics...but Bring It On?Is that the cheerleading movie with Kirsten Dunst? Earth Girls? Spaceballs? I love that you gals are secure enough to admit to loving some pretty goofy movies!
Now I don't feel so bad about Kingpin, the totally tasteless movie with Bill Murray, Woody Harrelson (one-handed bowler) and Randy Quaid as an Amish bowling wiz (I've been Munsoned!!)
And don't forget to come back on Wednesday for our guest blogger, RJ Ellory!

12 comments:

  1. Oh, I forgot Beetlejuice! Got to love it...

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  2. Some of these are pretty worthy films. Others just worth something to me. :) No particular order.

    1. Love, Actually
    2. Galaxy Quest
    3. The Empire Strikes Back
    4. Road to Perdition (actually, pretty much everything Sam Mendes directs)
    5. Dangerous Liaisons
    6. Young Frankenstein
    7. Shakespeare in Love
    8. Chariots of Fire
    9. Rear Window
    10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

    Funny that just typing this list makes me want to have a marathon movie-fest. I think I have all of these on DVD.

    What a fun thread!

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  3. so I was too late to get in on this list, but I share several with you:

    Sleepless in Seattle (which I own)
    Roman Holiday
    Hopscotch
    Charade
    Foul Play
    Four Weddings and a Funeral
    All the Harry Potters
    I.Q (the Meg Ryan one about Einstein)
    The Devil Wears Prada
    The Princess Bride

    and I was interested to note that everyone else chose Hallie's sisters movies! Has anyone seen Julie and Julia yet?

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  4. Oh, And I forgot LIFE OF BRIAN, clearly the best of all the great Monty Python movies. I think its hysterical and find something new every time I watch it.

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  5. This was my guilty pleasures list as opposed to my serious list that I would probably spout during an interview: deep meaningful movies that make me sound intellectual like
    The Fisher King,
    Passage to India
    Out of Africa (also so romantic that i cry every time I see it--probably because I can't have Robert Redford_
    Casablanca,
    The Truman Story
    Chocolat
    Babette's Feast

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  6. I WAS a teenager in the 80's (graduated 1985). Those movies by John Hughes spoke to and of my generation. No, I was never trendy enough to wear the hair or clothes of the times but Hughes had a purity of heart in all his films. He didn't make many movies in the past few years (he did write) because I think the world he depicted left him. And now he's left us.

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  7. OH,well, Love Actually. That's not a guilty pleasure, though, right? That's just...a treasure.

    Closer to the holidays, we should do a whole blog about it. Pick our favorite lines..

    xoxo

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  8. Yes,I saw Julie and Julia and loved it...more about it next week!

    And ladies, the original THE WOMEN or the remake?

    Rushing over to Netflix to refresh my queue.

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  9. Saw Julie & Julia yesterday afternoon. Thoroughly enjoyed it over a cafe au lait and iced lemon cupcake (it was that kind of theatre, and where better, really?). My advice: don't go hungry. Or take really good eats into the theatre with you.

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  10. I am a big fan of Philadelphia Story, I have to admit, because it somehow reminds me (though I am definitely not a mainline type) of growing up in a Philly suburb

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  11. Of course, the original The Women!


    Bibliochef, we'll have to chat.

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