In brainstorming for the best blog post idea ever, I came across the radically mind-banteringly fascinating  gun-dungaree  skip hoppin’ idea of picking 5 notable movies we’ve received in the store this week. 5 flavors for 5 days, Monday through Friday or Sunday through Thursday (whatever you like, french fry).

First film. Say Anything. That’s right. Anything you want. This pretty picture features John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, an average day teen, chillin’ in Seattle, graduating and all that. College is surely on everyone’s minds, sept for Lloyd, whose main concern regards asking out the super smart and popular Diane Court. Featuring that one scene and directed by Cameron Crowe, this movie helped set the 80s as the decade for teenage tomfoolery. Fun fact: when Lloyd drives down 45th, he passes the Guild 45th theater which happens to be playing another Cusack flick, Tapeheads. Reality just got pretty crazy in this mud!

Second film. 12 Monkeys. Originally not conceived as a TV biopic based around the casting dilemmas behind a fictionalized 1960s pop group, 12 Monkeys was eventually adapted by Terry Gilliam as a futuristic sci-fi thriller where a virus has killed millions and survivors such as Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt must live underground. A bunch of stuff happens. Fun fact: Director Gilliam gave Bruce Willis a list of “Willis acting clichés” that he was refused to use during filming (such as the “steely blue eyes look”).

Third film. Memento. Directed by one of my favorites, Christopher Nolan, this film is a crazy ride where Guy Pearce repeatedly loses his short-term memory, relying on sticky notes to remember just what the hell he’s been up to. Throw in some mystery and murder and you’ve got yourself a fascinating driller (drama-thriller… insanely clever, i know). Fun fact: Christopher Nolan originally wanted Alec Baldwin for Guy Pearce’s roll. Let me tell you, it’s a good thing they didn’t have any costumes fitted for the character beforehand… Because Alec Baldwin is pretty large and Guy Pearce isn’t. Okay, not funny. Moving on.

Fourth Film. White Chicks. Directed by Kenan Ivory Wayans, this film features his brothers Shawn and Marlon as two kind of crappy FBI agents who are told to go undercover in an abduction case by disguising themselves as the daughters of a tycoon (hence, “white chicks”). What could possibly go wrong? Fun Fact: The original title of the movie was called the Miltons, in attempts to showcase a more direct spoof of the Hilton family.

Fifth Film. No. Fifth TV Show. No. First TV Show. The Kids in the Hall: Season 1. A wonderous sketch comedy show anyone my age should recognize from reruns on Comedy Central, this Canadian sketch comedy show originally aired in 1988 under the guise of Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Most of the sketch comedy is wild and out there, reminiscent of Shakespeare, with most female roles being commandeered by the all-male cast. Great late 80s/early 90s comedy. Fun fact: The name of the troupe comes from comic personality Sid Caesar, who, when telling a joke that didn’t go over well, attributed it to “the kids in the hall”.

It’s been an interesting week for me, to say the least.  Last Monday I had a flat tire on I5 on my way to work. The wonderful Washington State DOT came and changed my tire for me so I didn’t have to fear for my life doing so on the side of a very busy freeway. New tires and many hundreds of dollars later, I get a partial day off from work to recharge a bit. The following day was to be “less exciting” according to my wife, so just before I came home from work I did a faceplant into a heavy metal barricade (and a little bit of pavement), cutting a rather large gash into my finger. A trip to the ER at Swedish and two hours, three x-rays and four stitches later I was on my way home. Oh yes, very uneventful.

Thanks to my lovely staff (who apparently took some foreign language courses in my absence), I was able to get five whole days off in a row to recuperate. You may not know this, but after you crash into something with your face, many other body parts hurt like… a LOT! And while you’re sitting there on the couch, there’s not much to do but watch movies.  Here’s a sampling* of how I spent most of the last week:

Traffic:  In this unique drama which follows the lives of a drug dealer, a judge appointed to a prominent role in the war on drugs, his cocaine-addicted daughter and a man who drives the Department Of Transportation truck that connects their stories together, we are taken on a harrowing ride from which we may never return.

M*A*S*H: One of my all-time favorite movies of all time, Robert Altman’s masterwork of an anti-war war movie set in Korea, but obviously a statement about the Vietnam war. When a young soldier (played by an even younger Ron Howard) falls on the front lines, he’s sent to the 4077th MASH to get patched up and finds the irreverent doctors and nurses just the thing to distract him from the splint on his finger and the dull ache in his bones.

Falling Down:  Michael Douglas is having a bad day. He just wants to get home to see his daughter on her birthday. Unfortunately, nothing seems to be going right for him. First there’s the traffic jam, then the unhelpful Korean shopkeeper who “doesn’t give change” and then he takes a nosedive onto the sidewalk in front of a busy restaurant. It’s pretty much downhill from there.

Legends Of The Fall:  A man and his three sons (Anthony Hopkins, Henry Thomas, Brad Pitt and Aidan Quinn) live in the Rocky Mountains of Montana at the beginning of the 20th century. When Henry brings with him his fiancé (Julia Ormand), the fellowship of the three brothers is about to shatter. The eldest son falls in love with the girl, she falls in love with the third son and the father falls and cuts his hand badly. Things get worse when the three brothers decide to join the first World War in Europe in 1914, leaving their father to recover on his own.

There were others, but these really stuck with me for some reason. Here’s hoping you all had a much better week than I did!

*Note: this is a completely fabricated list. I actually did watch a bunch of stuff, like The Rock, Rescue Dawn, Zodiac, Codename: The Cleaner, Dungeons & Dragons, a whole bunch of Daria and a bunch of other stuff that all seems to run together.