One thing I talked about with Kristin from Fordham the other day is the idea of scheduled blogging...having different types of posts appear of specific days to get a blogging routine going. I got the idea from Fred, who has a VC Cliche of the Week post and a running Top 50 Albums thing going.
Well, I like music, but I'm not much of an album guy. Most of the music I have is sliced up into individual songs. For me, its movies. I love going to the movies. I especially love the previews. In fact, if someone came out with just an hour and a half of previews of all made up movies with real celebrities, I think I'd go see that. When I see a movie, I usually have a pretty good idea that I'll like it, and I haven't seen a lot of movies that "everyone" goes to see. I never saw Titanic or My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I like movies with style--ones that have a little hint of surrealism to them. I like certain actors--Kevin Klein, John Cusack, Sean Connery, Bill Murray... and I don't mind a good car chase or explosion. I don't mind stupidity either. That being said, for the next 50 weeks, I am going to post, every Monday, a new addition to My Top 50 Movies List.
Its not the best 50, so I'm not soliciting feedback as to what should be on the list. Its my list. There are a lot of movies that you would figure a guy my age would be putting on here, like maybe Goonies or the Princess Bride, that won't show up. They're fine, but they're not my favorite. There are lots of people out there who can recite those movies by heart, just not me.
That being said, here's the first one. Its kind of a bridge between the inspiration for this list, which is Fred's album list, and my movie list, because it has a fantastic soundtrack and that really adds to the movie. My first movie is Grosse Pointe Blank, with John Cusack and Minnie Driver.
In short, its about a professional killer who goes back to a Detroit suburb to attend his 10 year high school reunion. That right there makes for a unique situation, but throw on top of it that he left is high school sweetheart at her front door on prom night... never picked her up and dropped off the face of the earth for ten years.
For me, the movie is about being nostalgic and never forgetting the connections you had when you were coming of age. There are a few people in my life that I wish I could go back and talk to--people who probably think I'm broken but could be convinced I'm just "mildly sprained".
The soundtrack is one of the best things about the movie. Not a lot of people at the time realized that it came out in two volumes, and you didn't get all the music you wanted on the first. The soundtrack features the Violent Femmes, David Bowie, The Clash, A-Ha and The Specials. Great songs... great supporting performances from Dan Aykroyd, Alan Arkin and Joan Cusack, and a little high school romance revisited. Feel free to pick up a copy at Amazon (they're selling the movie cheaper than a single volume of the two volume soundtrack), because "You can never go home again, but at least you can shop there."