Today I am writing about something that nobody but me can possibly care about. My favorite movies.

"The Right Stuff"
My favorite movie of all time. It's about America's first astronauts. Just about everyone in the cast does a great job, but Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager and Ed Harris as John Glenn are outstanding. I could have done without Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer as the comic relief government guys.

The rest of these are in no particular order...

"The Legend of 1900"
Tim Roth plays a man who born on and spends his entire life aboard a luxury liner. Along the way he becomes a piano playing genius. Pruitt Taylor Vince plays a trumpet player who befriends him. Both men turn in great perfomances. My favorite scene in the "piano duel" between 1900 (the name he goes by, hence the movie's title) and Jelly Roll Morton (played by Clarence Williams III). Good acting, good story, good music.

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
Funniest movie ever.

"Forbidden Planet"
A science fiction re-working of Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Not that it matters. The film that introduced the world to Robby the robot. Supposedly this is the movie that inspired Gene Roddenberry to create "Star Trek". A bit dated, but still watchable. The wierd eletronic music can be a bit irritating.

"Plan 9 From Outer Space"
Considered by many to be the worst movie ever made. Not even close. I own dozens of movies that are worse than this. Don't get me wrong This movie is a stinker. I like to call it the best bad movie ever made. Flying saucers with clearly visible strings. Plywood tombstones and crypts. Scenes that switch from daytime to nighttime and back again at random. And a lead actor that actually died BEFORE production began on the movie. All the scenes featuring Bela Lugosi were basically just home movies inserted at random. Another non-look-alike actor replaced him. Directed by Ed Wood. Speaking of which...

"Ed Wood"
Tim Burton's biography of the cross dressing director of "Plan 9". Johnny Depp is FANTASTIC as the title character. Martin Landau is so good at playing Lugosi that you forget its not really him. The fact that this is a true story makes the over the top performances by just about all the actors involved makes this movie all the better.

"The Commitments"
A bunch of poor Irish people get together and form a soul band. Good movie. Great soundtrack.

"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"
I don't know what is more fake looking...William Shatner's fake hair or Ricardo Molteban's fake chest. It's a tie. Spock's ears are more realistic. Anyway, this is far and away the best "Star Trek" movie because it plays like an extra long episode of the original series. And Kirstie Alley makes one hot Vulcan babe.

"Murder by Death"
A dead on parody of 40's detective movies. Peter Falk rises above the rest of the talented cast as a Bogie-like detective. Peter Sellers is his usual funny self as a Charlie Chan type. Even Truman Capote manages to hold his own among a group of great actors. As far as I know, this is the only Neil Simon movie that was not based on one of his plays.

"The Princess Bride"
The closest thing to a chick flick that you'll find on this list. Andre the Giant turns in a poignant performance as Fedick the Giant. A real stretch for him. Seriously, though, a pretty good "popcorn" movie. It has something for everyone. The humor is great. Pretty cool sword fight too.

"The Big Red One"
I like WWII movies. This is my favorite. A small group of soldiers manages to stay alive while everyone around them keeps getting killed. Lee Marvin plays the sergeant, Mark Hamill plays a gun-shy soldier and Robert Carridine plays a writer and the movie's narrator. Spielberg must have come up with the idea for "Saving Private Ryan" while he was watching this one...there are a LOT of rip-offs, I mean similarities.

"Waiting for Guffman"/"Best in Show"/"A Mighty Wind"
The Christopher Guest improve trilogy. I will probably add "For Your Consideration" when I get around to seeing it. These mostly unscripted comedies are extremely funny. The same group of actors appear in all of them but they never play the same character twice. Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara and Guest himself are consistently hilarious. All the movies are done in the "Spinal Tap" fake documetary style.

"Big Trouble in Little China"
John Carpenter's best movie. Hard to explain what it's about with a few short sentences. Just watch it when you get a chance. You will not be disappointed.

"Slap Shot"
A movie about a hockey team.

"The Other"
Not to be confused with "The Others". This movie was actually scary. A young boy is being guided to do evil things by his dead twin brother. Or is he? The only movie that ever actually scared me.

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind"
This movie really hit home with me, having been abducted by aliens myself on several occasions. It's a bit longer than it has to be, but that's Speilberg's style. Even in the newer digitally enhanced versions the FX are a bit dated. Still, I enjoy watching it when I can.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie"
I loved the TV show so I had to include the movie on this list. Mike and the robots pick apart "This Island Earth" in this one. I wish they would have used a worse movie. But it is still watchable.

"Excalibur"
The best treatment of the King Arthur legend ever put on film. Except for "Holy Grail" of course.

"Any Japanese Movie Featuring Godzilla or Any Other Giant Monster"
I'm a fan of bad movies, and these are some of the worst. Maybe it's the English traslations that make them so bad. For all I know, in the original Japanese, these movies are pure genius. Can't get past those rubber costumes, though. Fun to watch.

"Hammer Studios Horror Films of the 60's and 70's"
You can have Bela Lugosi. Christopher Lee will always be the best Dracula as far as I'm concerned. Hammer films had a good mixture of horror, humor and sensuality.

"Auntie Mame"
The story af a boy being raised by his VERY excentric aunt. It always seemed to be on TV at Christmas time when I was a kid. It was filmed in such a way that the audience feels as though they are watching a stage play. Which makes sense, since it was a play before it was a movie. Funny, well acted and well produced. A good family movie.

"Big Fish"
Another Tim Burton movie (see "Ed Wood"). The story of a man who likes to tell stories. Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney play younger and older versions of the story teller. Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange play younger and older versions of his wife. A good movie with a good story, a good cast and a very moving ending.

I will be adding to this list and re-posting when I get a chance.

Thank you for your time"

What makes "Jingle Bells" a Christmas song? Or "Winter Wonderland"? Or "Sleigh Ride"? None of those songs mention Christmas or Santa or Jesus. They just mention snow and cold and hot cocoa and such. I hear songs like "Summertime" and "Summer in the City" and "In the Summertime" all year 'round. Maybe those songs make sense in San Diego and Miami all year 'round, but here in the north east they just make us bitter and angry. How would you Miamians (Miamiites?)like to hear "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in July? As a Pennsylvanian, I can tell you, I wouldn't mind. I don't think that just because a song mentions snow, ice, cold cocoa, or long underwear, that it should be relegated to the few short cold, snowy, dismal weeks between Halloween and New Year's. Give us something cool to daydream about during the dog days of summer. If you can play the Beach Boys in January, then why not play Perry Como in July?
I warned you not to read this.
Thank you for your time.