In Honor (Honour) of our Bicenntenial Blog Entry - - WHICH BEA HAS NEVER ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE WAY

To honor our 201st blog entry, I've decided to post an entry to let all our gentle readers know a little bit more about me. I'd offer for the Lady Bea to do the same, yet seeing as the proverbial ball of our FITA challenge is still in her court, and seeing as she has yet to acknowledge our 200th blog, she probably won't. Now I shall lay that guilt trip aside, and move on to the challenge at hand.

Here's how it works: You are supposed to write a note with 10 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you, so here it goes: 10 random things about Auntie Mame.

1. I have an obsession with John Travolta. I own his shoes, a scrapbook of pictures that I collected as a kid, all kinds of stuff. When other little girls were swooning over Leonardo DiCaprio in Tiger Beat, I was clipping out pictures from Reader's Digest of John.
2. My favorite movie of all time is Saturday Night Fever. Possibly because of my previously mentioned love of John Travolta, but in all seriousness I can relate to a lot of the movie and the main characters.
3. Whenever I get lonely for the "good old days" I listen to the soundtrack of Empire Records, Counting Crows August and Everything After, Gin Blossoms New Miserable Experience and Alanis Morresette's Jagged Little Pill. Each of those CDs, in entirety, remind me of very special days in my teenage years.
4. I could eat bake at home pizza or Mexican food every day of the week and be perfectly happy for the rest of my life.
5. The movie 40 Year Old Virgin rescued me from post-pardum depression. I watched it every day for weeks. I owe my sanity to Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell.
6. I represent my three oldest, and best friends in my mind by three bands: Journey, Air Supply, and Chicago. They know which is which.
7. The best job I have ever had was as a music manager at Borders. If I were to chose retail as a career, I could have stayed there forever. We had a great time.
8. I have an obsession with stand up comedy. I can identify a comedian by a line from their bit, their physical description, or on of their appearances.
9. I'm a fairly good artist. Mostly cartoonish stuff, but it's good! I make "movie posters" for all the stories that my students read.
10. In junior high/high school I created a collage on my closet doors of favorite magazine clippings, quotes, pictures, etc. It was amazing! One night in a fit of rage after some boyfriend problems, I'm sure, I ripped it down. It took years to create. It's a big regret.

Five People Who Annoy the Crap Out of Me…or, How I am trying to overcome this Twilight-induced sweetness.

5. The “Don’t Take My Picture” Ugly Guy

These people used to be the bane of my existence in high school. You know these guys, the not-so-great-looking guy that your friend met at the skating rink and then asked to the big Homecoming Dance. He’s not part of your “crowd” but you have to act like you like him because your friend is now dating him. This guy inevitably turns his head or ducks away quickly whenever a picture is taken. Like he’s fucking Amish and is afraid that the flash will take his soul. Fuck him. It’s a PICTURE, you are a person, and you are going to get your picture taken, idiot.

In ten years when you’re going through your photo albums and you want to remember that dick that Jane brought to the ’96 dance and all you have to remember him by is a picture of Jane in a cocktail dress and her up-do hair with baby’s breath woven in, and the blur of color that is that guy ducking away.


4. The “Man I Got Wasted” Guy

We’re thirty. I got wasted when I was nineteen with my sorority sister’s fake ID and stole a bottle of tequila and drank it with the pour spout still one. That was cool. That was a story*. Now, talking about how you were at Applebee’s watching the “Stillers” (AKA StEElers) game last night and had one too many nine dollar beers, and ended up falling off the stool and getting escorted out by John the bartender who's “a cool guy though” is not a story. It’s one of the five signs of an alcoholic.

3. The Let Me Ask You the Same Question Over and Over Relative

Everyone has a relative like this, usually a cousin or older relative. For me, honestly? This person for me is my father. Every year on my birthday, he asks, “So how old are you now? Let me see…24?” And every year (except my twenty fourth) he’s wrong. He also asks me the name of the company I work for over and over. Sometimes he asks me to spell it. At first it’s endearing because at least he’s trying, but after about the seventh time, I try to laugh it off as I answer it again. On the tenth time, I’m sorry – I’m only human, I’m going to roll my eyes and sigh dramatically when I answer it.

2. The One Year of Therapy Reciter

This person is interchangeable with “I took Psychology 101 Reciter.” I can’t stand when someone I barely know, or even someone I do know decides that he or she can fix whatever ailment I happen to be bitching about by reciting something they heard from one of their own therapy sessions. Now, don’t get me wrong, every now and then this is fine. I should also mention that I’ve been in therapy for like twelve years, I’ve heard whatever it is you are about to say. Thank you for your advice, but stop. Therapists are very intelligent and have great insight; however, you don’t, and spouting off what your doctor said every time I mention that I had a bad day, makes me want to have a better day by killing you.

1. The “I Know More Than the Expert” Dude

O.M.G. No matter what’s on TV: it could be the news, Law & Order, or Superman, this person is going to point out every minute aspect they can find a fault with. And, they are going to talk over the climatic ending to explain why THEY are correct and the seventeen writers and two experts who wrote the show are completely wrong. Then they are going to smirk and shake their head every time the character or even news anchor speaks again. I can’t stand this person, and usually want to rip their arms off and punch them in the groin with it. Beau does it sometimes; I think just to annoy me. It works.

*and a hell of a story it is, too!

My Mosaic

I totally stole this idea from a friend of mine. It's a mosaic of "me."
Enjoy!

My favorite color- purple

Dream vacation- Winter Cabin (with TONS of great reading material)

What makes me happy- Laughing with my friends

What I am- a teacher

My name- Auntie Mame
My favorite food- pizza

Favorite flower- Hydrengea

Where I am from- New Jersey
My favorite dessert- Oreo's and Milk

Kick-Ass Women In Fiction For $200, Alex!

Ok, so, there's a thing going on today about posting about your favorite female fictional character. Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! I wanna play! So, here is a list, in no particular order, of some of my favorites and why they are so awesome.

1. President Laura Roslin from Battlestar Galactica. I love her so much. She went from being the Secretary of Education to being PRESIDENT OF EVERYTHING. (Because everyone else in the succession was um, dead.) Also, she has cancer. But she's so smart and generous and makes the hard decisions without being a giant freak about it. She takes everything to heart but doesn't wallow in self-pity. And she is a HARD ASS when she needs to be. I love her kind of a lot.

1. C.J. Cregg from The West Wing. I really only like the first two seasons, so I can only speak about them. But she's so great; intelligent and kind and funny and competent. One of my favorite lines of hers, which I say in my head to people nearly EVERY day, "WOW, are YOU stupid!"
   

1. Brenda Chenowith from Six Feet Under. Oh my GOD, is Brenda not perfect. Or even an admirable person a lot of the time. She's a sex addict, wildly selfish and self-absorbed, unforgiving and kind of mean. Why do I love her? She's so fully realized and whole. She could be very understanding of other people's weaknesses and DAMN, could she bite off a nasty retort. "What is this? Some kind of Quaker thing? You fuck someone's husband to death and then bring her a quiche?" HA.

1. Sarah Connor from the Terminators 1 & 2. She started out as a regular girl, with a crappy job and a roommate. I think she's supposed to be 19 years old in the first movie? And then her life just GOES NUTS. And she's thrust into this crazy situation with KILLER ROBOTS and TIME TRAVEL and NUCLEAR WAR and sure, she freaks out at first. But then she steps up and KICKS ASS. She's so strong and determined and the look on her face when she figures out, "Um, ooook, we're making explosives!" is hilarious. And then she blows shit up. Gotta love that.

1. Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing. Part of where I got my blog name! I just adore her. I think Much Ado is Shakespeare's funniest play. She is, of course, smart and witty, but she's also tough and loyal. Check out her passionate defense of her maligned cousin. She doesn't sit around and wait for one of the boys to fix the situation, she tries to fix it herself. Ok, she tries to get her boyfriend to kill the offending party, but hey. It's the thought that counts. Also? HILARIOUS.
   

1. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series. Smarter than the boys, has more common sense than the boys and grows up to be a woman of heart and courage. A great character for little girls to grow up with and a great character for me.
   

1. Chani from the Dune series. (Oh my GOD, could I be a bigger geek? SORRY.) It would take me forever to explain the background for why Chani is so awesome and who she is. Short version: She's the main character Paul's concubine (I know, the gender/power issues there are creepy. Really.) and she's sort of...a desert warrior? Kind of? But she's tiny and fierce and Paul walks into his throne room one day to find a dead guy on the floor. Chani is just kind of nonchalantly sheathing her knife because she killed him for challenging her boyfriend and not being worthy. Paul is rather alarmed. It's pretty fun.

1. Shade Evans from Gas, Food, Lodging. This was Mame's and my favorite movie for years. (If you haven't seen it and like low-key, sweet character studies, you should check it out.) Shade is a teenage girl trying to find her identity, as one does at that age. She's kind of ridiculous, but she has a good heart. I love the little tantrums she throws, especially the one at the boy at the movie theater. She's a sweet, bright girl who begins to find wisdom by the end of the movie.
   

Man, you guys. I'm leaving out SO many others: Veronica Mars, Nancy McNally from TWW, Buffy Summers, Zoey and Kaylee from Firefly, Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, Rose Tyler and Donna Noble from Doctor Who, Harper Pitt from Angels in America, Kima Greggs from The Wire and just to piss off EGT, Jane Eyre.

Ok, I'm stopping now.

Tell us about your favorite female characters! Mame, wanna play?

*I fully blame my current state of feminism on my mother and the fact that my childhood movies tended toward things like The Legend of Billie Jean, Mary Poppins, The Journe of Natty Gann and The Terminator. So, thanks for that!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

And now, stolen from my friend EGT, Ten Things That Are Making Me Happy Currently:

1. That I just got back from an awesome visit with Andie, Sid and baby Mothra. Of course, now I miss them even more, but it was worth it. Mothra has surpassed all previously recorded levels of adorableness. It's quite shocking.
2. That during this visit, Sid made me watch Talladega Nights and Galaxy Quest. How we laaaaughed and laughed. And we also watched bits of Legend and laughed even harder. Man, Tom Cruise in that elf outfit NEVER gets old. And Tim Curry with his long, shapely, glow-in-the-dark nails. Heh, Satan totally gets a manicure.
3. ALSO, during my visit, we went to two used books stores and I finished off my Little House collection by purchasing The Long Winter and The First Four Years. I also bought two Dennis Lehanes, two Judy Blumes, a Madeleine L'Engle and The Sweet Hereafter (ACTUAL LITERATURE!!!). (*Mame! There was also an ORIGINAL COVER copy of Heaven! But I didn't have room in my carry-on or life to be buying books I already own. DAMN IT.) Used book stores make me swoon.
   
4. Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock. Especially his hair after Ken's party in the last episode. HA.
5. Sam and Dean from Supernatural in tuxedos in last week's episode. In tuxedos stealing shit and being snarky. Sigh.
6. My new pink grapefruit body butter. I smell like pink grapefruit! I got it from the Body Shop at the airport! I didn't even know that store was still around!
   
7. AUTUMN IS FINALLY HERE. I'VE BEEN WEARING SWEATERS!
   
8. That I plan to see No Country for Old Men very, very shortly. Like, this weekend.
9. Oscar season! Time to drag myself to as many worthy movies as possible!
   
10. This conversation:

Bea: That hat makes Mothra look like Woodstock from "Charlie Brown."
Sid: It does NOT! How can you say that about my child! Your godson! You're an asshole!
Bea: True, but he still looks like Woodstock.
Sid: Andie! How can you let your "friend" talk about our SON that way?
Andie: [not looking up from her copy of "Better Homes and Gardens] Because it's true. He does look like Woodstock in that hat.
Bea: [glee]

*Mame and I have a small hobby in collecting original cover copies of V.C. Andrews novels. You know, the cut-out covers with the creepy pictures behind them? Used book stores ALWAYS have them. Hey, whatever keeps us off the streets, right?

Church Giggles...or why Bea and I can't together at funerals

Bea and I have what we prefer to call the "Church Giggles." It's an epidemic that we have yet to find a cure for. Whenever there is a very serious situation that we are both a party to, there is going to be laughter that we try to hide with coughs. It's rather amusing to watch, except when it's your serious situation we are laughing at.

For our newest top ten, we have come up with "Top Ten Movies We Laugh at But Really Shouldn't." Please to enjoy:

1. Titanic To be fair, even I cried at certain scenes during the Titanic's submerging (like the mother reading to her two children and putting them to bed because she knows there is no hope, or the old couple holding each other and him telling her not to be afraid). But for the majority of this movie, I was cracking up. I couldn't stop. The scenes of people falling and smacking into the rudders looked like a pin-ball machine on tilt.


2. The Way We Were Being a Carol Channing fan, I was sworn to hate anything that Barbara Streisand has ever made; it's true, we had to sign off on it in blood. But she's so damn annoying in this movie that in the end when he tells her that he won't be 'looking her up' I crack up. OK, there were some sad scenes, but the movie as a whole is awkward and silly.


3. Oh, Bea is so going to hate me for this one A Walk to Remember. Admit it, it's funny. How Bea didn't know she was going to die, I'll never know, but I got the giggles when he went back to her father's house and gave him the poetry book. Like, "Sorry you lost your wife and your daughter, but here is a book." For some reason it was too funny for words.


4. A Love Story Get over it. "Love means never having to say you're sorry..." bull shit. Love means having to say you're sorry over and over again, half the time just for your breathing habits. This movie is nothing more than a trite story line that is made to make you cry. Ergo, I refuse to let it.


5. Snakes on a Plane
Oh Beau, this one is for you. He was watching this 'horror' movie and laughing so hard that I had to peek in. You know this entire movie was started because of a BAD SNL skit, right? I'm serious; look it up.


6. Kramer vs. Kramer
   Even with the birth of Glow Bug I can't get into this movie. Your kid fell down and cracked his head because you were flirting, yeah you deserve a little guilt over it. The kid didn't die, he's fine. The mother walked out, the idea that she would get custody of him because he fell and hurt his head is not even applicable.


7. The Godfather
   Bea and I laugh so hard at this movie that I can't even watch stereotypes of Italians without loosing it. The scene where Sonny bites his fist after seeing Connie all beat up is hilarious. The scene where Connie gets beat up is hilarious. The scene where Marlon Brando dies is hilarious. Oh man, I'm laughing again.


8. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Oh come on!! He doesn't even try to have a fake accent. And you know what, that's not even his real butt in the lake scene. And you know what else, they didn't use the word fuck as a verb back then (as in "Fuck me, he cleared it") and you know what else...ah, forget it...


9. Last of the Mohicans
I hate this movie with every sliver in my being. Last of the Mohicans the book, was the reason I became an English major. I love the entire Leather Stocking tales and this movie butchers it TO PIECES!! TO PIECES I TELL YOU! If they had just made a movie and called it something else, I might have liked it; it was an enjoyable storyline. But it WAS NOT the story line from Last of the Mohicans. Not at all.


10. Sliver
    Oh THIS movie. This was the first soft-core porn I had ever seen and I was like, 14 when I saw it. Billy Baldwin has a nice ass, that's about all I can say about it. Even at 14 I laughed at why our dear heroine Sharon Stone didn't realize that guy was a stalker or that good old boy was a killer I'll never know. It's hilarious.

Top Ten Movies That Make Me Cry or MAN, Am I Sappy

Yeah, so I cry big time at movie and tv shows. Practically every episode of Friday Night Lights and Grey's Anatomy (before it started sucking) makes me cry. Half the reason I stopped watching E.R. was that I couldn't handle the emotional roller coaster that every episode put me on. (The other reason was that the entire original cast left and it got really repetitive.) My brother used to be too embarrassed to go to movies with me because I would cry. A lot. And he would hiss at me to shut up. Now, he just rolls his eyes.

Here's my list of movies (and one television episode) that make me cry:

1. Whale Rider; If you haven't seen this beautiful, lyrical film, dude. Get on that, would you? Keisha Castle-Hughes is SO great as Paikea, a young Maori intensely drawn to her people's traditions, but pushed away by her Chief grandfather because she's a girl. Near the end of the movie, she wins a contest at her school with a speech about leadership and tradition (that she wrote for her grandfather) and is delivering it in front of the whole town and her grandfather isn't there. She goes ahead anyway and she's so heart-broken and crushed and her little voice is just trembling and seriously? That scene could make like, mannequins weep.
   
2. The Return of the King; I am a huge Lord of the Rings geek. So, when the third movie FINALLY came out? I was totally hyped up for it. My brother, BW and I went to see it on Christmas day and the theater was so packed that we couldn't find seats together. Which is good, since I was in tears for most of the movie. But I broke out in actual SOBS at the scene where Frodo collapses at the top of Mt. Doom and Sam picks him up, slings him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and says, "I can't carry the ring, but I CAN CARRY YOU!" and hauls ass for the volcano.
   
3. Little Women; The Winona Ryder/Claire Danes version. When Beth dies. And sometimes, when Well-Manicured Man (X-Files geek!) gives her the piano. When Claire Danes cries, I cry.
   
4. Brokeback Mountain; I was crying for the entire last twenty minutes of this movie. Ridiculously sad. Especially the part where Ennis is hugging his shirt that he finds in Jack's closet.
   
5. Finding Nemo and Lilo and Stitch; Yeah, yeah, I know. But I cry EVERY TIME when Dory is telling Marlin that she wants so stay with him because "when I look at you, I'm home." And Ellen DeGeneres's voice breaks on "home." DUDE. And the end of Lilo and Stitch when Stitch says that he wants to stay with his new family because even though it's "little and broken," it's "still good." Hilariously, I was working in a video store when both of these movies came out and since they were kid-friendly movies that didn't suck (and those are few and far between, lemme tell you) we used to watch them in the store a lot. And ALL of my coworkers knew that I would Cry. Every. Time. and would watch me when those scenes came up. Bitches.
   
6. A Christmas Story; My family and I watch the TNT 24-hour marathon every Christmas. We all know it by heart, we all love it to pieces, we've all seen it a million times. But the scene where Ralphie gets his BB gun? And his dad is coaching him on how to load it? And doing these little hand motions and looking at him with such love and pride and nostalgia? Gets me every time. It was made especially poignant by Darren McGavin's death last year.
   
7. A Walk to Remember; This was completely unexpected! I only watched this movie to mock it. I thought it was going to suck. And it kind of does. But if you only watch the Jamie/Landon scenes, it doesn't. Mandy Moore and Shane West have really good chemistry and are totally cute and you really buy them as a couple. And they get married because she's always wanted to get married in her mother's church and she's got cancer or something and why not? Surely, their love will cure her, right? NO. She totally DIES. I was NOT expecting that. Mame's comment on this story? "Bea. ANYTIME you watch a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book, someone is going to die." Lesson learned, Mame.
   
8. The Joy Luck Club; Gah, the scene where Jing-Mei's mother tells her that she has the "best-quality heart?" Embarrassingly, the last time I watched this movie, I was watching it for a class in college. I wept. My classmates and professor pretended not to notice. Thanks, guys!
   
9. The Last of the Mohicans -- KIDDING. I only put this in to piss off Mame. It doesn't really make me cry, but I do like it! Despite what she says, the literary snob!
   
10. Sense and Sensibility; I am such a sucker for movie/books/plays/tv shows where Character A loves Character B but doesn't think that B loves him/her back. They angst and cry about it and then it turns out that B DOES love them! YAYS! I think this movie is why. I imprinted on it early. The scene where Edward comes and tells Elinor that he loves her and his "heart is -- and always will be -- yours." And then she freaks the fuck out, laughing and crying and hiding her face in her apron. I think this was the first time I ever cried with happiness at a movie.
    
11. Joan of Arcadia, episode 1.12, "Jump;" Man, do I love this show. Remember? The one with Amber Tamblyn (Tibby from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) where she talks to God? Yeah, that one. Most of the episodes were brilliant, but "Jump" is absolute GOLD. In this episode, Joan's friend, almost-boyfriend Adam (Christopher Marquette) is really depressed for a lot of reasons, some having to do with Joan, mostly having to do with his mom's suicide a few years ago. Joan confronts him and Adam tells her that his mom had left him a note and he's never read it because he's afraid that she will say that her suicide was his fault. Joan tells him that not knowing is probably worse and leaves. Adam shows up at her house first thing the next morning; with the note, not having slept. He tells her that he needs her to read it first and warn him of it's contents. Joan looks at the note and overwhelmed, passes it to Helen, her own mother. As Fiona Apple's cover of "Across the Universe" plays, Helen (Mary Steenburgen) reads the note aloud. In it, Adam's mother talks of her love for him and closes saying that, "In a world of pain, you were -- and always will be -- my joy." The look on Adam's face during this entire scene: fear, hope, love, joy...KILLS me. I've probably seen this episode a dozen times, I cry every time.
    

So, there's my list. I'm sure I now don't have a shred of credibility left. Heheh.

Top Ten Tear Jerkers...or why Auntie Mame watches so many frat boy comedies...

Lady Bea and I decided that we needed a new “point/counterpoint” because they are so much fun to write. Then we couldn’t think of anything else that we really disagree on. Therefore this is the first in a new series of “Top Ten” lists. This is the top ten movies that make us cry.

Let me preface this entry by first saying that in real life Lady Bea is a hard ass, no nonsense, straightforward, kind of gal. In one word I would describe her as ‘grounded.’ In our younger days of my over dramatic relationships and breakups, it was to Lady Bea I would run and she would tell me to “get over it.” I am the emotional one who cries over anything; I am the person that other people come to because they know they will not cry alone. I can’t help it - in real life I am an emotional wreck. However, when it comes to Lady Bea and my preferred world, i.e. that of the TV show and movie, Lady Bea is a crier. Like a severe, embarrassing her brother, type crier. It kind of cracks me up because I am not. I don’t like to cry at movies, probably because I can do it in the real world just all too easily.

When we decided on this first Top Ten list, it took Bea about four seconds to come up with her top ten (which by the way, started as a top five until Bea couldn’t figure out which ones to cut). I, however, am still coming up with the final four even as I write these words. What made it more difficult for me, was we decided not to include movies that if you don’t get a little choked up when watching then obviously you’ve probably had your tear ducts removed (i.e. Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda, and the like). Oh well, here goes:

1. Beaches duh. I am a woman. I have a best friend. I have a best friend, who, if I have a daughter born in April will have her middle name – just like CeCe and Hillary (by the way, in the book Hillary’s name is Roberta and CeCe calls her Bertie).
2. Steel Magnolias double duh. I am a mother, I am a daughter; therefore it is the saddest movie if you are one or both. Funny note: Beau cries very hard at this movie. We aren’t allowed to watch it in the house. I think it would be a lot worse for him now that Glow Bug is around. I might have to try it out.
3. The Notebook. Oh man, this is the saddest damn movie I have ever seen. It’s a tear-jerker in both a sad way and in a happy way; you just cannot not cry at this movie. If you’re a man: watch it with someone you love. At the end of the movie, you will pick yourself up, wipe away the tears, change your now-wet tee-shirt, go to the john and start to cry again. You won’t be able to help it. You’ll go to bed, blow your nose, start your fall asleep routine and when your loved one climbs into bed with you, you’ll both start to cry again. It’s that kind of a movie.
4. Driving Miss Daisy makes me cry a lot, I think perhaps more with the older I get. I should do some sort of experiment and watch it on the same day year after year, because I get more and more respect for this movie the older I become. It’s a tremendous work of both main characters: Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman. Tandy won best actress for this role and I consider this Freeman’s best.
5. Terms of Endearment This movie reminds me in A LOT of ways of Joan (my mother) and me. However, this is not why this movie made my list. The scene where Emma is telling her boys that she is not coming home, nor is she getting better breaks my damn heart. The littlest boy is crying so hard and is so angry at his unemotional older brother that I am amazed that such a young actor could pull off such a real scene.
6. Forrest Gump Oh man. I cannot take it when someone less fortunate than the average kid gets picked on; ergo I cannot take the first half an hour of Forrest. Wait, then I can’t take the Vietnam scenes. Literally, Joan took me to see this movie around 1 PM after it had been out for like a month and there was no one in the theater, so I could cry loudly and get it over with. To this day, I own the movie but can’t watch it with untrusted people in the room.
7. Rent (but only if you watch the deleted scenes!)
   I prefer the play (doesn’t that sound snobby?!), but the movie is an excellent adaptation. Except for one small scene where Roger and Mark really get into it and Mark realizes that Roger has lost all hope. It kills me every time.
8. My Life This little-known movie with Nicole Kidman and Michael Keaton is a terrific “What would you do with the last year of your life?” movie. It’s the same basic sad plot line for some reason, is done in a much more brilliant way.
9. Armageddon SHUT UP BEA. When Liv Tyler is saying good bye to her father, Bruce Willis, and she starts to cry and reaches out for the TV screen. OMG!!
10. She’s Having a Baby One of Kevin Bacon’s first movies; this story about a man who suffers a ‘quarter life crisis’ really hit home when I first got married, and even more so when I found out I was pregnant. Elizabeth Shue does a great job as his wife – putting up his bullshit even when I wouldn’t. Grab some handfuls of Kleenex at the end when you see her balancing her checkbook.
    
    Ok, I have to go now. I’m getting all vehklempt.