Flashback Friday: The Outsiders

I remember the exact moment my girlish hormones went from "I'm too shy to say I'm crushing on this guy, because I'm still not sure what this is all about" to "Hello cutest guy on the planet! Please become my boyfriend!!!!!!" (had to add all those explanation points, because pre-teen girls say everything excitedly). That moment was 1983 when the movie The Outsiders (based upon the novel by S.E. Hinton) came sauntering into my life. Literally that movie was a living, breathing, Teen Beat magazine, but it had a certain grown-up feel to it because Francis Ford Coppola directed it and there was no cheezy '80s music montage moment (which BTW there is nothing wrong with those '80s music montage moments - The Karate Kid wouldn't be what it is without them).  

Check out this cast:  Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise. All of them in their youthful beauty back then. My particular crushes were on C. Thomas Howell (Ponyboy Curtis) and Rob Lowe (Sodapop Curtis). And when I say "crushes," I mean like your typical over-obsessive teen crushes: plastering my bedroom walls with their posters, buying every possible Teen Beat, Bop, etal magazines, watching subsequent movies made by them...the list goes on and on.  And to be honest, even though my teen crush on C. Thomas has faded, I still find Rob Lowe (who is almost 50 years old) smoking hot. Need proof:

But I digress. The movie does not feel dated either (maybe because the movie was set in the 1960s, but filmed in the 1980s and therefore is hard to pinpoint the look of this movie) and it's score was done by The Godfather's Carmine Coppola and Stevie Wonder did the title track "Stay Gold" (inspired by Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay"). There is too much cool attached to this film. Those that were disappointed the original film did not include additional scenes based upon the book, Coppola did release his "director's cut" with 22 additional minutes in 2005. 

Want tidbits?

• This was Rob Lowe's first major film role.  He was 17 years old
• The majority of the main cast were under 20 years old, except Patrick Swayze who was in his 30s and Ralph Macchio who was in his 40s (I kid! He was 20, but looked the youngest)
• Director/writer (and Francis Ford Coppola's daughter) Sofia Coppola had a cameo as the girl who kept pestering Matt Dillon for a dime
• The author of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton, had a cameo as a nurse in one of the hospital scenes
• For those who probably have GIFS or Tumblrs of Tom Cruise running in his movies, he does have a very brief running scene before they fight the Socs in the big rumble scene (also Cruise has the least amount of screen time than the other main cast members)
• Blooper fans? When Matt Dillon (Dally) falls off the chair in the drive-in theatre it was really an accident, but they kept the scene in the movie
• Blush moments for a pre-teen girl: (1) Rob Lowe (Sodapop) coming out of the shower; and (2) Matt Dillon (Dally) in his tightie whities

Yeah, I still love The Outsiders. *Sigh*

Love week: Favorite Romantic Movie

I'm dedicating this week's blog posts to love. For those out there bitter about Valentine's Day being a Hallmark driven thang, I say poo on you! There is nothing wrong with a day dedicated to love and you don't have to be coupled to express your love to those you care about. 

Monday's post is about my favorite romantic movie:

There are those who may find this movie sickly sweet or blame it for derivative movies like Valentine's Day or New Year's Eve, but I honestly love it. Screenwriter/Director Richard Curtis has a way with british romantic comedies like Notting Hill, Bridget Jones Diary and Four Weddings and Funeral that keeps it this short of sugar by infusing it with just the right amount of wit.  

This movie weaves together multiple story arcs of people moving in and out of love around Christmas time. You don't have to be in a relationship to enjoy this movie. You have your stories involving bromance, unrequited love, young love, troubled love, sibling love, prime minister-household staff love and Colin Firth. 

For us geeks, it's fun watching this movie now and seeing a young Andrew Lincoln using his real english accent before he became southern zombie ass-kicker sheriff Rick in Walking Dead. Martin Freeman, pre-Bilbo Baggins, playing a body-double in sex scenes. Little cutie, Thomas Sangster, as the boy in love with his schoolmate before he became the voice of Ferb in Phineas and Ferb.  

Of course, there is also my pretend, British boyfriend, Hugh Grant. There is no one, NO ONE, who does british romantic comedies better than him.  That great hair and that dashing wit can only be exhibited by Mr. Grant. I miss him on the silver screen...come back Hugh Grant!

But I digress...enjoy this movie with your loved ones and remember what it is all about: Love, actually. 

Top 5 Guilty Pleasures - Movies

You know we all have them right? Those movies that you inexplicably enjoy but you have a little twinge of embarrassment if someone found out. Those movies that you will not buy a DVD of (and if you bought it, you may not put it out for all to see), but you would gladly spend two hours of your life re-watching when it pops up on your TV. Those movies that you will not pretentiously dissect in detail, but in secret know the majority of the dialogue.

Well hide no more I say!  I will reveal my top five guilty pleasure movies to all five of my loyal followers starting now (in no particular order since I'm too embarrassed to say which one gives me the most pleasure in watching)...

Guilty Movie:  Overboard (1987)

(MGM)

Real quick synopsis: Rich, bitchy woman who treats her widowed carpenter poorly gets amnesia. Widowed carpenter convinces rich, bitchy, amnesiac woman that she is his wife and mother to his four boys. The rest as they say is classic Hollywood happy ending.  
Best casting: Goldie Hawn as rich, bitchy, amnesiac woman and Kurt Russell as widowed carpenter.
Line that makes me laugh for no explicable reason:  "You're that sweaty carpenter"
Line that makes me cry for no explicable reason:  "You said moms don't leave!"


Guilty Movie:  Dirty Dancing (1987)

(Vestron)

Real quick synopsis:  Rich girl goes to catskills and falls for the 'dirty' dance instructor.
Best casting: Patrick Swayze as the 'dirty' dance instructor.
Line that will forever be iconic: "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"
Scene that I can watch over and over: The climactic final dance scene to "Time of your Life" (especially the Swayze's solo dancing scene)


Guilty Movie:  Three Amigos (1986)

(Orion Pictures)

Real quick synopsis:  Three unemployed actors thinking they accepted an offer to recreate their bandit fighter roles are actually hired to save a village for real.  
Best casting:  Martin Short as Ned Nederlander
Best line not said by the Three Amigos: El Guapo - "Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?"
Best scene: The Three Amigos sitting around the fire singing "Blue Shadows on the Trail" (the turtle at the end gives this scene the extra oomph to guilty pleasure territory)

Guilty Movie:  Steel Magnolias (1989)

(TriStar Pictures)

Real quick synopsis:  Chick flick set in a southern town - hair, weddings, romance and death!

Best casting:  Shirley MacLaine as Quiser and Olympia Dukakis as Clairee

Best line:  "Quiser could never stay mad at me; she worships the quicksand I walk on."

Best scene of scenery chewing I ever did see:  The graveyard scene (Sally Field is the queen of scenery chewing, but she does it so well)

Guilty movie:  Red Dawn (1984)

(MGM/UA)

Best casting:  Patrick Swayze (as usual)

Best line:  "Wolverines!"

Clue that I've seen this movie too many times:  Noticing that during Patrick Swayze's crying scene a 'snot bubble' comes out of the Swayze's nose and goes back in! Proof that Patrick Swayze was the most authentic cryer on the silver screen. 

Best scene that is so bad, it makes the movie that good:  C. Thomas Howell's Robert going all Rambo in his final scene and dying in a hail of gunfire. 

I just noticed all my guilty movies were in the 1980s and two of them starred Patrick Swayze. Which makes me conclude that the 1980s were an awesome time in guilty pleasure movies and Patrick Swayze rocks!

Do you have any guilty pleasure movies?  Don't be ashamed to share it here-all are welcomed.