Oh, add Sharon Stone and Meg Ryan to my list.

What's your opinion of Joey Lauren Adams?

Well, I had to hit imdb.com to remember who she is, so she's definitely not a deal breaker for my movie viewing. That said, her voice in Chasing Amy got on my last nerve.

I think there should be a statue of limitations for giving people a pass.

Nah, I give Kate Hepburn a pass for all the crap she made the last 20 years of her life for all the stuff she made way before I was born. Same with Fred Astaire or Barbara Stanwyck.

Bull Durham= Beautifully written, great characters throughout, kick-ass female character who doesn not punished for expressing her sexuality, nice mixture of poetry and reality, terrific dialogue, truly brings us into the world of baseball and makes us see what these folk love about it.

This, plus it's hilarious and sexy and quotable, and hopeful yet wistful.

It occurs to me that 3 of my 5 favorite movies aren't really what you'd expect given my reading preferences and general interests. Glory and LOTR (I'm counting the three as one for now) fit. Bull Durham, Dave, and The Shawshank Redemption, NSM.

You are DEAD TO ME. Here, take your Dirty Dancing tape and go sit in the corner.

Pfft. I wanted to watch The Natural, but nooooo, he had more prurient interests at heart.

And it's a DVD, not a tape. Dirty Dancing should be watched in all of its remastered glory.

::flounces off to a corner::

::waits for Patrick Swayze to swoop in for the rescue::

::realizes there's not enough money in the world and vacates the corner as fast as humanly possible::

beth, I know it. I wish I'd never found it. I bow to Princess Alibelle for getting to level 8.

I got to level 10, then turned my computer off, like a dummy. I am not going through all that again, though. So my level 10 ranking will just have to stand.

The one, and only, actor I cannot stand and will just avoid? Nicholas Cage. He irritates me like no one else. Man. Just thinking about him is beginning to piss me off.

I don't mind any of the other actors mentioned, though Meg Ryan always plays the same character, and it's kind of boring. Oh, and I've been a little irritated with Tom Hanks ever since he mentioned in an interview that he thinks it's dumb to imagine toys talking, and he never did. This was when he was doing press for "Toy Story." Luckily, Tim Allen was on hand to be all, "ARE YOU CRAZY? Weirdo. My toys totally came to life when I wasn't in the room."

Oh, and I hate John Rhys Davies. Not enough to ruin LotR (that'd be a lot of hate, considering the love), but I don't think I'll watch him in anything for a long, long time.

Just like with people every day, sometimes I just take an instant, visceral dislike to an actor, like I did with Nicholas Cage and Jennifer Love Hewitt. I've grown to dislike some actors over the years mostly due to hubris, like Gibson, Travolta, Hanks, etc. Some actors, I'm just 'meh' on, some I like, and others I adore.

Signed,
Cannot Channel-Surf Past a Paul Newman Movie to Save Her Life

For some reason I'm not a big fan of Sarah Jessica Parker. (I've never seen Sex and the City so I'm judging from her movie roles.)

I love the fact that all of David's Mel Gibson movie loves came out before I was out of junior high. I think there should be a statue of limitations for giving people a pass.

Some careers go sour. Just to be clear, the "pass" doesn't mean I reserve judgement about their craptacular work - I just can't muster a hate on for them. Though I kind of hate Mel for his whacko right wing views. But it doesn't impede my enjoyment of his early work. What was it Godard said? [spoiler for The Searchers] "I hate John Wayne and his politics. But when he picks Natalie Wood up at the end of The Searchers I love him passionately, unreservedly."

People like Costner and Hanks get in trouble playing Good Guys. Not just protagonists or heroes but Good People. They wind up picking up a sanctimonious tincture. But Hanks was spot-on as the hardass hustler manager in That Thing You Do. He wasn't cruel, but he wasn't nice either. He exploited people, but he didn't try to destroy them either. It was a very honest performance.