Tomorrow morning I get to depart on my first family vacation in 2 years! The destination? The island of Kauai in our most tropical U.S. state!

My kids and I are super excited and I thought it would be cool to highlight one of my very favorite movies set in Hawaii – 50 First Dates.

This is probably on my top 20 list of fave flicks, which is unusual because I normally am lukewarm towards Adam Sandler, but this one makes me laugh and tear up every time I watch it.

The story follows Sandler as Henry Roth, the ultimate bachelor spending every night with a different tourist in need of an island fling. No strings attached and he can be whoever they need him to be…..for one night.  Then he goes to great lengths to ensure the lovely ladies never call him again.

Then he meets Lucy (Drew Barrymore). A beautiful girl sitting in an island cafe, making houses with her waffles.  Henry joins her and they have a wonderful time and agree to have a 2nd date – a major first for Henry. The next day he arrives to find that Lucy has no memory of meeting him. Or any new memories after a near fatal car accident the year before.  She just lives the same day over and over.

What follows is an amazingly adorable story of a man who must make the woman of his dreams fall in love with him every single day and convince her that they can make a life together….even if she can’t remember it.

This movie is filled with a hilarious supporting cast. Rob Schneider, Lusia Strus, Dan Akroyd, Blake Clark and others  provide non-stop giggles. So do a few choice marine animals. Henry works at an aquarium and his walrus sidekicks are awesome.

My favorite supporting character has to be Sean Astin as Lucy’s brother Doug, a steroid-injecting, mesh shirt-wearing hothead with a wicked lisp. I barely recognized him the first time I saw it and his jokes always make me laugh the most.

This film has it all – great cast, great jokes, the ability to see Adam Sandler in some kind of romantic light (at least they point out that his head is shaped like an egg), a beautiful island setting and an amazing soundtrack that will put you into a laid back mood.

If you haven’t seen this movie, come on down to Moviecycle and we will set you up with a copy for $6.99 or less ( I am pretty sure I saw a copy on our sale table…). You won’t be sorry.

Aloha!

The film stars Ellen Page (“Juno”) as Bliss Cavendar, a 17 year old girl living in the nowhere town of Bodean, Texas. Her mother, played by Marcia Gay Harden, is pushing her into a pageant filled life that does not seem suited to Bilss’ alternative style. On a shopping excursion to nearby Austin, Bliss finds a flier for roller derby tryouts and becomes intrigued. She tries out and lands a spot on the underdog team, The Hurl Scouts, and discovers her true…uh..Bliss.

Yeah. I said it. Cheesy I know.

The misfit derby chicks that Bliss finds herself thrown in with become her second family and show her what it means to be a tough cookie (coincidentally the name of the L.A. derby team the Hurl Scouts was based on is called The Tough Cookies). Bliss gets taught how to perfect her alter ego as “Babe Ruthless”  by her teammates (Barrymore, Kristin Wiig, Eve), her opponents (an awesomely villainous Juliette Lewis) and her under appreciated coach, Razor  (Andrew Wilson, one of the lesser known Wilson brothers).

The highlights of this picture for me were the supporting characters. Kristin Wiig is so on my heart list for her role as Maggie Mayhem. Her scenes in the car with the boy who plays her son reminded me very much of how I see derby moms interact with their kids. And Jimmy Fallon nailed the dorky and slightly creepy emcee, ‘Hot Tub’ Johnny Rocket.

The downside? Unnecessary underwater scene. I will say no more.

If you have not been to a real derby bout yet, then check out who your local team is and get some tickets. They kick as much butt in real life that they do on the silver screen.  It is a great sport that encourages girls of any age/shape/size to skate fast and hit hard. On the track and off.

Bottom line, this is kind of your standard sports movie (underdogs, teen romance, lessons learned, etc), but it has the bonus of depicting a sport that has not really been spotlighted by Hollywood before and  has been steadily growing in popularity for years now. Derby can only benefit from the publicity of this touching little story.

P.S.

Another great derby flick to check out? “Blood on the Flat Track”, a film featuring Seattle’s Rat City Rollergirls.

Like Geoff, I doubt that I might feel “guilty” over these choices, but I do recognize that they may not be movies many people would admit to liking. My tastes are my own, and I’m okay with that. My primary expectation from any movie is that I’ll be entertained and I have to admit I’m easily amused. But hey, enough of my yakkin’. Whaddaya say? Let’s boogie!

1. Spice World. In the mid-90s I wouldn’t have given the Spice Girls a passing glance, let alone let that movie come into my house (I actually tried–and failed–to forbid my then-wife from bringing home, but I wouldn’t watch it).  Just a few short years later, while working in one of our rental stores, one of my coworkers picked it out to play in the store. It was her turn and I declined to overrule her choice. Quite by surprise I discovered that the songs were catchy, danceable pop numbers, the girls were actually pretty engaging, the humor self-deprecating, and the cast contained at least two actors I really enjoy: Alan Cumming as a filmmaker doing a documentary about the Spice Girls and Richard E. Grant as their increasingly agitated manager, not to mention Meatloaf (with a hilarious self-referential piece of dialog) as their driver, George Wendt and Mark McKinney (Kids In The Hall) as a hack movie producer/writer team who are apparently pitching the movie we are watching, Richard O’Brien (Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Roger Moore (spoofing the Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld) and a host of cameos from the likes of Elvis Costello, Elton John, Jools Holland, Bob Geldof, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Bob Hoskins and Jennifer Saunders.  The story, such as it is, follows the Girls through a series of comical mishaps in the days leading up to their big performance at the Royal Albert Hall. At its heart, it’s really just A Hard Day’s Night but with a different hugely popular British band (sorry about that, Beatles fans).

2. Joise And The Pussycats. Is there a trend here? Maybe. I like movies with lots of music and I like girls. Movies about girl bands pretty much seems like a given. This one (also one of my rental store favorites) gets kind of a bum rap, either because people remember the cartoon, or because people see that Tara Reid is in it. Or maybe it’s something else. In any event, I really think this one deserves a better reputation. One of the things I hear a lot when people complain about Josie… is “there’s product placement all over the place. It’s like overkill!” My response tot he that is “Well, yeah. Were you not paying attention?”  The entire premise of the movie is that the record company has a secret plot (in league with the government no less) to control the minds of our youth with subliminal advertising in the music. Like that could moviecycle.com really happen, right? I find it interesting that the complaint is so often about how much product placement there is in the movie, when people seemingly miss the commentary on our consumerist society. But enough of that. Not only are the songs real, actual songs written and performed by real, actual musicians: Kay Hanley of Letters To Cleo is the voice of Josie, with songwriters including Jane Weidlin (The Go-Gos), Adam Duritz (Counting Crows), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne), Babyface (who also produced the songs) and Matthew Sweet. The soundtrack actually sold more than half a million copies, so there. And if that’s not enough, there’s Parker Posey and Alan Cumming (again). See it. You really want to see it.

3. Hudson Hawk. This is actually one of my all time favorite movies, and I’m bummed that it wasn’t on my tropical island list. Good thing I’m smuggling in a whole bunch of extra stuff. I’ve never understood what people don’t like about Hudson Hawk. What’s not to like? Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Richard E. Grant (there’s a pattern here with the actors I like…), Sandra Bernhard, James freakin’ Coburn! and David Caruso in a completely non-speaking role (he uses cards to “speak” and he always seems to have just the right one at hand). Hawk (Willis), fresh out of prison, is a master cat-burglar. Tommy (Aiello), his best pal, convinces him to pull off “just one more job” for some very powerful people. Of course it’s not that simple. The plot thickens with rich wackjobs who want to be richer, the CIA and the Vatican all getting into the act. Heists, cartoonish characters and situations (and sound effects!), action, song-and-dance… what more could you want?

4. Gigli. Yep. I went there. I never really understood why this one got such a bad reception. Yeah, some of the performances are weak, but come on: Christopher Walken. Justin Bartha (who really, for me, just made this movie completely awesome).  Actually, I can’t think of anyone else that made this stand out.  I agree that Ben and J-Lo could have been better, but there is a lot of (admittedly weird) chemistry on screen there. Mainly I think the huge critical and public backlash against this movie has less to do with how “bad” it is and far more to do with how the Bennifer saga was completely overblown. I personally don’t pay a lot of attention to the gossip rags, so I really couldn’t have cared less if they were or weren’t a couple. Gigli did the thing I wanted it to do: it entertained me.

5. Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. I chose both of these (I’d choose the third one, too, if someone would hurry up and make one) because I couldn’t pick between them. Over-over-the-top action abounds as ridiculous situations exist for no other reason than to set up the next fight, explosion or chase. All featuring the beautiful, talented and funny Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore and, well, I can tolerate Cameron Diaz in these movies (not a big fan, generally), plus Bill Murray (in the first) and, inexplicably, Bernie Mac (in the second) as Bosley–not the same character, and yes they do explain the relationship, but it’s a pretty clear indication of the tongue-in-cheekness of these movies. Other notable actors include Crispin Glover, Sam Rockwell, Tim Curry, Kelly Lynch, LL Cool J, Tom Green, Shia LaBeouf, Robert Patrick, Demi Moore, Luke Wilson Matt LeBlanc, John Cleese and, of course, John Forsythe as Charlie. Not to mention kick-ass soundtracks featuring a crazy mix of  Mötley Crüe, Wham!, The Flying Lizards, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Apollo 440, Deee-Lite, The Prodigy, Aerosmith, Heart, Spandau Ballet, Pink, Nickelback, The Breeders, The Chemical Brothers and a whoooole lot more.

That’s gonna just about wrap it up then. I’m sure that I’ve startled some of you, but rest assured that I really do like “good” movies, too.