Thursday, 4/6

As always, there are times when I’m not really a “man”. But, as always, I’m fine with that.

I just finished reading a book called “I’ll Have What She’s Having”, which contains the stories of 15 of the greatest romantic comedies of all time. I mentioned this to a male acquaintance of mine, and he, being a “typical” man, started to make fun of me for not only reading about romantic comedies but for liking them, as well. And what can I say? He was right. But if he considers it a character flaw, it’s a character flaw I’m more than happy to have.

Anyway, reading the book was a fascinating experience. Not only did it contain behind-the-scenes movie stories I’d not yet heard, but the stories were about some of my favorite movies ever. Yes, some of my favorite movies ever are rom-coms. What’s your point? I also love “Star Wars” and the original “King Kong”, and have one of the world's most bizarre guilty pleasures in “Smokey & the Bandit”.

No, it doesn’t make any sense to me, either.

So after reading the book I sat down and started to see if I could come up with a list of MY favorite 15 romantic comedy movies of all time. Many of them were in the book; a couple, I’m sure, are movies that would never appear on a REAL list of romantic comedies but are movies I consider rom-coms nonetheless.

Here we go...Jim’s 15 greatest romantic comedy movies of all time, in no particular order--

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and BRINGING UP BABY--two classic screwball comedies, starring the incomparable duo of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. You know how I like hyper-verbal writing? These two movies are some of the first (and finest) examples of it in Hollywood history.

ANNIE HALL--For pretty much the same reason as above, just 40 years later and courtesy of Woody Allen

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT--Okay, also for pretty much the same reason as above, except 20 years after “Annie Hall” and courtesy of Aaron Sorkin.

LETHAL WEAPON--Sure, this is more a bromantic comedy than a romantic comedy, but it still kinda fits into the category, doesn’t it?

SPLASH and BIG--I couldn’t decide which of these Tom Hanks movies to include in the list, so Loraine, who acted as my consultant, said to stick ‘em both in. So I did.

GROSSE POINTE BLANK--because, as you know, even professional killers deserve to fall in love, at least in the movies and at least if they’re John Cusack.

GREGORY’S GIRL--An obscure 1981 Scottish movie by one of my favorite weird filmmakers of all time (Bill Forsythe), it’s the story of a dorky (male) high school student who falls in love with a talented (female) soccer player, and the lengths he goes to try & impress her. Because of the accents you might wanna watch it with closed captioning on, but it’s well worth watching.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING--It has Sandra Bullock at her ultimate cuteness, plus it was shot in Chicago. Need I say any more?

URBAN COWBOY--I know it’s not supposed to be a comedy, but the dialogue is so bad that it qualifies as one, at least in my book. Plus it has Debra Winger at her ultimate cuteness, even if she is wearing a cowboy hat.

THE TALL GUY & BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY--Hard to believe, but these were both written by the same guy (Richard Curtis). The first is the story of an American actor (Jeff Goldblum) in London who ends up starring in a musical version of “The Elephant Man” (called “Elephant!”). I think you know what the latter film is about; the fight scene between Colin Firth and Hugh Grant is hilarious.

And my favorite romantic comedy of all time, a movie that’s one of my two or three favorite movies ever of any genre?

LOVE, ACTUALLY--another Richard Curtis movie. Loraine said to pick out my favorite sub-plot in the flick, but you know what? I can’t. They’re all good, although the plots involving Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, and Emma Thompson really do stand out. If you’re one of the few who's never seen the movie, you really need to check it out!

That’s my list. What’s on yours?

(jim@wmqt.com)

(ps—don't forget to vote on which picture I should have on my travel laptop for the coming year. For the pictures from which you can choose and the rationale behind this scroll down and check out Tuesday's entry).

(pps—when I wrote yesterday's entry about my Mom I totally forgot to mention her website! As some of you know, she's an amazing watercolorist, and I was planning on sharing her website address. But, me being me, I got so tied up in writing about the projectile vomiting of bananas that I forgot all about it.

So if you wanna check out some of her work click HERE!)