Hooray for Hollywood

We were talking a bit at work today about movies that surprised us with how good they were. Most of these were movies I had seen though not in the movie theater. One movie that all of us really liked was a Michael Myers (pre Austin Powers) flick called So I Married an Axe Murderer. We all agreed this was a surprisingly good and funny movie. Had some really funny moments. Co-starred Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia and Amanda Plummer. Terrific cameos by Alan Arkin, Steven Wright and Phil Hartman. Anyway this got me thinking about other not so well known movies that turned out to be so much better than I expected and now are movies I will always watch if they show up on tv.

First and foremost is a funny shoot em up called Snatch. Written and directed by Guy Ritchie while he was married to Madonna (but I won't hold it against him) and it stars Jason Statham. Dennis Farina, Benicio Del Toro and Brad Pitt also have smaller parts in it. Very funny if you can get by the English accents. If you get the DVD I recommend using the subtitle function the first time you see it. Ritchie likes to use the same actors on his movies so if you get a chance you'll want to see Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels which is also a pretty good movie.

Another movie I truly enjoy is a small movie called Nobody's Fool. Actually there were 2 movies with that title that came out in the late 80s and early 90s. The first starred Rosanna Arquette and Eric Roberts. Bleh. The good Nobody's Fool starred Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith. Also in it were Josef Sommer, Phillip Bosco and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Terrific movie, funny, sweet, sentimental and reminds me a lot about growing up in the Northeast. The guy who wrote that also wrote Empire Falls which HBO did as a miniseries. Paul Newman had a big part in that one too along with Ed Harris.

Kelly's Heroes - Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, your Love Boat Captain Gavin McLeod and a young Harry Dean Stanton. A number of other guys you'll recognize but not know their names like Stuart Margolin (Angel on The Rockford Files) and a cameo by Carroll O'Connor. A funny war movie that is just enjoyable to watch.

I believe I talked about In Harms Way before so I won't go back into that one. My last movie is the remake of The Italian Job. Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, Seth Green and Edward Norton. Great double cross movie. Fun and just very watchable.

Those are the lesser known movies I love to watch over and over again. Just ask my wife. What movies do you make sure you watch if you see it's on the tube?