Happy 20th Anniversary 1994!!

Has this ever happened to you?   You are at home scrolling through movies and you think, I really wish (Insert Title Here) movie was on, I haven't seen it in a long time...and then BAM, like a gift from above it suddenly appears?!  Well that recently happened to me with the 1994 movie Reality Bites.  I LOVE this movie! Winona Ryder at her peak, Ethan Hawke in his greasy, grungy, hotness, and a first introduction to Ben Stiller!  So on this wintry now snow day when I had nothing more to do and I finished Reality Bites and looked for another movie and saw Speed was on starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, also from released in 1994.  And that's when it hit me, could 1994 have been a Golden Year in Film?  You are darn right it was, seriously...google it! Films like Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, Lion King, Dumb & Dumber, Four Weddings and a Funeral, True Lies...the list goes on and on.  So Happy 20th Anniversary 1994 and please maybe some of these trailers will make you watch something you've never seen before!


It Could Happen to You

A cop, a waitress, and New York City as a backdrop...I'm in.  Nicholas Cage plays a cop and Bridget Fonda (remember her?) plays the waitress.  When Cage' s character realizes he doesn't have enough money for a tip, he offers Fonda' s character a deal, split his lottery ticket 50/50 if he wins.  The waitress thinks, why not?  In true romantic comedy fashion, the cop and his wife (played by Rosie Perez) win 4 million dollars and now the honest abe and his wife have to split their winnings with the waitress.  The media takes a hold of the story, Cage and Fonda continue to get thrown together in unplanned circumstances, and their love story develops....if it were only that easy!  But a cute light hearted film for you ladies looking for a romance injection.

Airheads

Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler in a movie together?  And they are in a rock band?  This movie is a satirical play on rock metal going out of fashion being taken over by pop and this band, The Lone Rangers, have something to say about it.  So they devise a plan to hold a radio station hostage using fake guns armed with hot sauce until their song is played on the radio.  While I don't think this topic would be as easy to make fun of in our modern era of unspeakable violent tragedies, for me it reminds me of a simpler time when we didn't take ourselves so seriously.  It's as 90's as you get, from the hair, to the clothes, and I'll watch it anytime it's on.

The Crow

Starring Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, this film is a cult classic.  Definitely need to be in a "dark" mood for this one.  There is also an added sense of creepy since this was Brandon's last film as he accidentally died making this movie.  It's about a man resurrected from the dead, brought back to avenge the death of himself and his fiance, who were brutally murdered in a society that discards people at whim.  The crow, in this film, is used as a telepathic connection between Lee's character Eric and seeking out those that did him wrong.  I am always uneasy watching this movie because it is so far removed from my sense of reality, but I guess that's why we watch then, right?  I also find my self in a little bit of deja vu as Brendan looks a lot like Heath Ledger in Batman, though one fights for good but the other fights for evil, maybe it's just the make up, decide for yourself...

PCU

College 90's style...I think this movie resonates with me because my brother graduated from High School in 1994 and was heading off to Penn State University.  As a teenager myself, I wanted to live vicariously through this movie and imagine parties with George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic playing at his fraternity!  This film is told through the eyes of a "pre-freshman" getting his first taste of the quintessential college experience. Full of drinking, drugs, and partying with maybe a little school on the side and ultimately deciding to pick this school.  Starring a young Jeremy Piven and Jon Favreau enjoy this Lampoon-esque college comedy.

SFW

Another cult classic starring Stephen Dorff (Remember him and when he was actually considered a hunk!) and Reese Witherspoon (when she use to do artsy low budget movies) as Cliff and Wendy. They are the only survivors from a long hostage situation in a convenience store that was filmed for the whole world to see.  Cliff and Wendy become instant celebrities but have trouble relating to life outside the tragedy and continue to gravitate towards each other.  This movie is accompanied by a great 90's soundtrack featuring bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden.  It also shows what life was like back then, on the West Coast, in California and has a twist ending.  Enjoy this grungy drama-romance.

Do you have favorites from this year?  I didn't even mention other movies like Muriel's Wedding (or how I became obsessed with ABBA after watching this movie), Camp Nowhere, White Fang...so take a trip back in time and enjoy this nineties stories from a video store.

How Varisty Blues helped me get a husband

My employed years at West Coast Video provided me with a few dating opportunities, while not always ideal prospects, I did get a first boyfriend out of the deal!  But little did I know that one football movie would change my life forever.  No one would argue that Varsity Blues starring James Van Der Beek, the late Paul Walker, and Oscar Nominee Jon Voight made you want to re-invent yourself or discover the meaning of life.  But for me this movie held the key to my future.  This was a movie that 4 young men from England, coaching soccer in America, decided they wanted to rent from their local video store.  What one of these men didn't know, was that after watching Varsity Blues and going to bed, his roommate decided to watch a porno.  So that when said young man wakes up the next morning, presses eject, then closes the box that he thinks he has put Varsity Blues in, he in fact has returned a porn entitled Horny Hispanic Honey's.

Fast forward 2 weeks later and I am behind the counter returning movies customers had just dropped off, restocking shelves, generally making myself busy when in walks a very cute guy.  I watch as he browses through the racks of videos eventually deciding on something.  I eyeball him as my co-worker is assisting him with his rental when up pops a late fee notice.  He questions it, swearing, in one of the cutest accents I have ever heard, that Varsity Blues was returned weeks ago.  "Not according to our computers." says my co-worker.  At this point my assistant manager takes over and in her hand is the bright yellow box labeled Varsity Blues however inside the box is the now infamous Horny Hispanic Honey's, which she proceeds to say a little too loudly, was returned in it's place.  My inner dialogue says, "You have got to be kidding me!  The cutest guy I have ever seen, and pretty sure is checking me out too, is the porno guy!"  Just my luck....

Cut to a week or two later and porno guy has returned.  He is still very cute and comes up to my counter to rent a movie.  I proceed with the transaction gaining enough courage to ask where is accent is from.  I say, "Are you from Australia?", in which he replies, "No, I'm from England."  (I know, really smooth, we've said one sentence to each other and I'm pretty sure I've offended him)  He walks around the counter, through the detectors, and leaves.  I turn around, to frankly check him out, and I notice that he left his movie on the counter.  So I chase him outside, both of us a little red-faced, and hand him his rental.

Maybe a few weeks later a friend and I are in our local diner.  It's Friday and midnight, I have just ended my shift at work.  As we walk in I notice, in a booth 2 rows down, is my movie guy.  I say to my friend, "Oh my god, it's the guy from the video store."  He and his friend are talking to some other girls we know and here comes the moment that my life is forever changed.  He looks up, we make eye contact, he says something to his friend, they get up and occupy the booth next to us.  We chat for a little while, they walk us out to our car, and the movie guys asks me out.  My future husband, who to this day swears he did not watch the porn and was an innocent bystander, just trying to return Varsity Blues.  So thank you James Van Der Beek for helping me meet the love of my life.  And my favorite story from a video store.
 

14 Years Later!

Wedding Day 2000