Sunday, March 18, 2012

And Then My Brain Went For A Walk...

I'm not sure how many people's minds work like mine, but I think mine is rather unique--even if it isn't.  (I like to think of myself as special--it helps my low self esteem.  ;))  Most of the time when I have a quiet moment, my brain will go off on its own and lead me to places I wouldn't dream of going by myself.  I kind of have a game of 'six degrees of separation' going on all of the time and it is quite interesting.  Most of the time when I'm in the shower, my mind takes a break--that is why I'll get out of the shower and not remember whether I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair or not.  And that will lead me to get back IN the shower and re-rinse, just to be sure.  But I digress...

The other night, I was thinking about how most people have a favorite movie, favorite song, favorite actor, etc, etc.  I tried coming up with ONE favorite to fit each category and it just didn't happen.  I tend to have a lot of 'favorites.'  There are a number of movies I will watch over and over again, but not one of them is my absolute 'favorite.'  I could tell you my top 10*--or any random number--movies that I love, but couldn't narrow it down to just one.  So this got my brain to working and I came up with a DIFFERENT way of telling you all of some of my favorites.  So, here goes:

--The first movie I remember sobbing about until I was sick is:

        Brian's Song

I know this was a made-for-TV movie, but it is categorized as a movie, nonetheless.  While other movies have made me cry, this one just did me in--and it continued to make me sob every time I saw it for the next several years.  I watched it again a few years ago and it didn't have the same emotional edge that it had years ago, but it WAS a good crying-time movie.

--The first movie to make me LITERALLY jump when I watched it:


This was the first of the Alien movies with Sigourney Weaver and by far the best of the lot.  While Psycho was OMG! frightening--and kept me from showering while alone in the house for YEARS (I STILL have a hard time showering when I'm alone)--Aliens just made me jump right out of my seat.

--The movie that made me fall in love with Al Pacino was:


He was so drop-dead gorgeous in this movie!  I had already seen him in 'Panic in Needle Park,' but this movie was why I have the biggest crush on him.

--The first movie I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants AND that I quoted for weeks after:


To this day, I'm not sure I ever laughed as hard at another movie.  And I still haven't found another one with  as many funny quotes as this one had.

And that concludes my very short list.  My brain had to stop its wandering because I was done with my shower--AND I remembered to rinse the conditioner out, so I didn't need to reenter.  This brings a couple of questions for you:  Do you have a favorite movie, or several?  Does your mind take off and invite you along for the ride?  And are you ever afraid your mind WON'T come back when it's done walking around?  ;D


*The movies I will watch over and over again:
Slap Shot
Miracle
Mystery, Alaska
Jeremiah Johnson
Blues Brothers
Animal House
Arsenic and Old Lace
Secondhand Lions
Anatomy of a Murder
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House

And that is only a partial list.  ;D

2 comments:

  1. Oh my. Aside from Animal House & Slap Shot [as per your recommendation] I don't think I've seen ANY of the other movies you listed!

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  2. Miracle is just SUCH a feel-good, glad-to-be-an-American MIRACLE of a story--AND it's about hockey. How could it NOT be good? ;)

    Mystery, Alaska: Russell Crowe playing hockey. 'Nough said.

    Jeremiah Johnson is a VERY liberal interpretation of a real mountain man. Robert Redford is very good in a very good story.

    John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, John Candy and lots and lots and lots of car crashes. Just a good time.

    Arsenic and Old Lace is an old movie--in black and white. Cary Grant stars as a man who finds out his little old lady aunts are actually homicidal maniacs--and his uncle thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt. A really good screw-ball comedy.

    Secondhand Lions has Haley Joel Osment in his first(?) roll as an older character. Michael Caine and Robert Duvall are the uncles who he is left to live with by his mother (Kyra Sedgwick.) It is funny and touching all at once. Well worth watching.

    Anatomy of a Murder is another old, black-and-white. It was filmed here and many of the places I can still point out and know where they are--despite the fact that this was filmed so long ago. James Stewart, Lee Remick, and Ben Gazzara star in this adaptation of a local writer's book. It is considered a classic, directed by Otto Preminger.

    Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House is another Cary Grant screw-ball comedy. It is all about a man and family who decide to move out of the city and buy a house in the country--and all of the 'joys' of home building and ownership that comes with it. Considering this came out in 1948, part of the enjoyment of watching it is to hear them complain about how much everything cost when it came to building the house. If I could get things done for what they paid, I'd have sixteen new houses and STILL not come close to what it would cost to build one house in today's dollars. ;)

    All of these are enjoyable in their own way and worth the trouble it may be to find them.

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