While I love people to view me as erudite and discerning, the truth is I am not above pulp fiction and popular movies (as opposed to the flicks at the smart people's movie theater, ART films, I think they are called). Some are right up there in my all time favorites lists. Like Thomas Harris's Red Dragon, an all-time fantastic read, that came way before his mainstream Silence of the Lambs, and sparked a really fine cult film, Manhunter, with a callow William Petersen. The later big budget film with that deadpan Edward Norton was a bust, but this little gem is worth a gander. And Stephen King, well, I think it is terribly snotty to pass him by because he writes in such an offbeat genre, yet is so very gifted as a writer. His book, The Shining, was unforgettable, and led me into the morass of his fecund mind, until I burned out. Yet, The Stand will be in my top 10 always. And I just caught the end of True Lies when I sat down to my seafood lunch, a truly gratuitously violent, subtly funny (the scene with Arnold walking the Chihauhau in the rain always cracks me up), truly enchanting movie that makes me happy just to think about. I also loved the Die Hard films, and am a rapacious fan of Bruce Willis (The Whole Nine Yards springs to mind). I think a little movie violence goes a long way, and should always be tempered with comedy. Really, don't you think the idea of hurting another is stupid, anyway? And, oh, boy, horror movies. I took my son and three stepchildren by myself to see Alien when 8 1/2 months pregnant with my daughter, thinking A) it was wildly lauded in Time magazine with a 4 page spread and B) that is was a scifi film. I have never been so scared in my tiny life, and had to hold it together for the two 10 year olds sitting next to me. It has since become one of my top 10 movies, partly because Ripley, while also terrified, managed to manage with such grace to defeat the big bad monster. My all time favorite horror flick is Curse of the Demon, a British film starring Dana Andrews, black and white, psychologically taut, suspenseful, with a very cultured villan who summons up the demon then attempts to tell it what to do. Gee, I think I will order that up on NetFlix. I gave my copy to my brother, I think, and never got it back.
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