The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

I just re-watched a movie that I haven't seen since I was a young tyke in the 90s and before I knew that some people were considered good actors and others were considered lousy.  All I wanted from a movie was a star I liked and a good laugh...and maybe some music.  Keep in mind though, that I was only 8 at the time and so my tastes were pretty much as you'd expect them to be.  I think the most challenging thing I had seen at this point was Who Framed Roger Rabbit? so its no surprise that I loved Straight Talk with Dolly Parton.  It was cute, had a pretty personality in it, and even had a fun soundtrack full of music Parton sang for the film.  However, I'd only seen it once in the theater (and maybe on video, I honestly can't remember) so I couldn't judge my memory of it last night when I saw it available on Netflix instant watch.  I didn't have anything better to do so I figured..."What the hell, I'll turn Dolly on."  I mean, I still love 9 to 5...

...to the sea....the sea of looooovee....Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii want to tell you, hoooooooww much I love you....! I was singing just then, the Phil Phillips hit "Sea of Love." Some of you might have heard this song featured in films like Juno and Look Who's Talking Too , but only one film used it as its focus, the 1989 Al Pacino thriller Sea of Love.  I used to really like this song, but now I don't think it will ever be the same, as the song was used in order to show when a particular serial killer had been in someone's apartment.  Never heard of this film?  Well let me illuminate it for you. The film opens with a naked man humping a pillow, face down on his bed.  It sounds as though he is enjoying it, but then he pitifully mutters 'please' to an unseen person.  Then someone from off-screen shoots him in the back of the head, leaving Sea of Love playing in the background.  This then allows the writer to introduce our flawed, but clever hero...Detective F...

Ok, I'll admit it.  I love Goldie Hawn.  I always have, she's just so cute in some roles, so evil in others, and so funny always.  I don't usually watch her for high drama, mainly comedies for yesteryear, but she's versatile enough to play it straight if she needs to (the mediocre thriller Deceived is a good example).  Why all this focus on Hawn?  Well, because I discovered one of her best reviewed films on Netflix streaming the other night.  It is the story of a self-absorbed woman who has no identity of her own and who goes through a grueling physical experience in order to do some much needed soul searching.  It seems like I'm talking about a drama, but in reality its a comedy who's template we have seen before in other things...that film is Private Benjamin. No doubt you have seen the familiar cover staring at you across the aisle as you look through the comedies in the local video store...(it features Goldie as Judy Benjamin, wearing an army he...

1.You have your first full weeks of school since before Feburary started. 2.You find yourself accused of fixing the school musical's casting, even though auditions aren't for two more weeks. 3. You have to spend every waking moment planning out the senior class play. 4. You spend any free moments you have left at rehearsals for said play. 5. You spend any spare time you have after that in meetings planning for the musical and with parents. 6. You create a twenty-fifth hour of the day by sheer willpower in which to do your grading. 7. You ignore the fact that you haven't been held by a man in a long time. 8. You tell yourself that even if you had said fantasy man, you wouldn't have time for him to hold you anyway. 9. You try to think if there is any time for you to have a birthday party this year. 10. You get home and are so exhausted that the last thing you want to do is write. Ok, so that wasn't all that clever but it was a slice of why I've...