The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Or sometimes you can like an average movie, but it can be a reminder of something in your life and you look at it with lots of nostalgia, and you get a warm fuzzy no one else would get.  So you tend to like it a bit more.

Here are some movies that come to mind that fit in the above categories.  Not necessarily the worst, not necessarily the best...but they mean something a little more for me than the average person:

Awakenings - I started working for a video store when I was 15 years old and that's when my love of film really took off.  Awakenings was the first movie I went to see in a theatre by myself.  No one my age would be interested in seeing a feel-good movie with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams that lacked explosions, but I wanted to see what the critics were raving about.  I thought it was terrific.  And of course, I didn't want to be known as the loser who went to see a movie alone, so I didn't tell any of my friends that I saw it.

Chasing Amy - My pal Alex got an invite to see an advanced screening of Kevin Smith's third movie (and in my opinion, his best)  in his hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey.  He invited another mutual video store geek friend, Steve, and we drove to Kingston to pick up a guy known as "Hawk" from the Viewaskew (Kevin Smith's production company)  message boards and headed down.  I remember the car fish-tailing on the way there during a winter storm, but we made it okay.  Smith was extremely talkative and friendly before and after the movie and it was indeed a memorable experience, especially with dreams of being a Hollywood director fresh in my brain.  The movie itself connected with me in many ways:  I related a lot to the character played by Ben Affleck (not because of his looks, mind you!) and it made me reflect quite a bit about all my past relationships I've ever experienced.  It crushes me when someone would tell me they didn't enjoy it.

This Boy's Life - Leonardo Di Caprio's first important starring role opposite Robert De Niro, he did an amazing job playing beside one of the most talented actors in the business at such a young age.  My friends and I enjoyed De Niro's "Dwight" character, with his car salesman charm and his prickish behaviour.  We all thought Di Caprio was going to be a star, and we get some satisfaction "discovering" Leo, if that makes any sense.

Bad Lieutenant - I remember one person telling me "Well that was one big waste of time."  But Harvey Keitel's portrayl of a corrupt cop trying to seek redemption for himself, even while he knows his time is coming to an end, is powerful stuff.  It is one of the best performances I've ever seen.  And this led me on a mini-Keitel following afterwards: Reservoir Dogs, From Dusk Till Dawn and Pulp Fiction were all made around the same time.  Unfortunately he hasn't done anything close to this level since, and I'm not looking forward to the remake with Nicolas Cage.