Thursday, August 04, 2005

Blast From the Past (hollywood style)

Hey kiddies. With my abundance of free time I have decided to perform a public service. I am going to recommend my top 5 movies of my childhood. Now, let's get the disclaimer out of the way. I am making no statements promising these movies are "good." I found them entertaining, watched them over and over (and over and over), memorized them, and was just in general fixated. So if you are looking for a good flick to take you back to the glory days, here's a list!

Mannequin: Ok, so bear with me on this one. Kim Catrell (who hasn't aged a day...well, maybe a month) is a mannequin who magically comes to life and falls in love with a department store window dresser, Andrew McCarthy. We've also got Estelle Getty, James Spader, that dude from the Police Academy movies, and one of the funniest gay performances from the black guy on Designing Women. Plug in a few awesome musical montages, some costume changes, a few kinky situations, and a fab soundtrack and you've got cinema gold. Some people might say this is bad movie but I will always think of it fondly. PS: do not under any circumstances watch the sequel. I am serious. DO NOT WATCH IT. But the first one is awesome.

Adventures in Babysitting: This one is classic. In Chris Columbus' directorial debut, Elizabeth Shue has one hell of a night babysitting for the neighbors kids (inlcuding that cute guy from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead--which is NOT on this list). In random trivia news, Anthony Rapp who plays the smartass Daryl went on to play Mark in the original broadway cast of Rent. Kind of cool, don't you think? So anyway this movie is great, has some classic comedy lines, and watch for Bradley Whitford of West Wing fame getting kicked in the ass. Priceless.

Princess Bride: Do I really need to spell this one out for you?

Ghostbusters 2: Don't hate me because I have bad taste in movies. So many great character actors, so little time. Especially Peter McNichol. And oceans of pink slime. And dancing toasters. And Egon. Gotta love me some Egon. Does anybody remember the cartoon of these movies? I loved that cartoon. There was this one really scary episode where this Freddy Krueger-esque guy would go into kid's dreams...oops sorry I was talking about the movie. So it turns out there is a painting of this Eastern Eurpean madman which is haunted and tries to possess Sigourney Weaver's baby. It's better than it sounds. Although not that much better. But, come on, it's the ghostbusters!

And the last movie to make the Maggie Cats cut is...Candyman. This movie fucked me up. Like seriously. Fucked. Me. Up. I rented it with my friend Sarah and we watched it one night at a sleepover. There was no sleeping and there was no over. Big creepy black man with a hook and a major 'tude. And Virginia Madsen loooong before Sideways made her legit. And watch for the super creepy Ted Raimi cameo. I love him. Anyways, this movie is all about urban legends. I dare anyone to go in their bathroom with the lights turned out and say "Candyman" three times. Just do it when I am not around. And watch this one with other people. For the love of God! Think of the children!

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