his tenure coincided with my prime Mad Magazine readership years, so he's probably too tainted by endless rereads of all their most merciless parodies for me to ever give him an unbiased viewing.

"My assignment is to find 'Mr. Big" of Harlem! I think I'll just lean against this bar with my blond hair and blue eyes, Oxford clothes and English accent, and casually blend in so they won't notice me!"

"What will it be, honky?"

Forgot yesterday but I meant to recommend the retrospective/analysis of the Bond movies at Antagony & Ecstasy: [link]

I just love how he scores the movies in categories like "elegant lifestyle porn," "the fiendish lair" and "the secondary girl who ends up dead."

"elegant lifestyle porn,

Ha! I was just looking for a phrase like this to describe certain passages in Wm. Gibson and Lev Grossman.

I wish the one with Grace Jones wasn't such utter crap, but then again...she isn't exactly a good actress in good films. She's just cool, which isn't enough in and of itself. Especially when paired with batfuck crazy, but at least that part is fun, and doesn't usually require stitches.

And here I always figured part of the fun of Grace Jones' crazy would be that it might occasionally require stitches.

But yes, View To a Kill is pretty crappy. As is Conan the Destroyer, but at least CtD is very campy in a "Plays like a D&D Session" way, and I have a fondness for that one. Not to say it's good, I just have a fondness.

I was very surprised when people were up in arms about remaking (or, more precisely, adding) anything in the Conan stable. They might have been fun, but were they honestly good?

Good enough for nerd rage, clearly,

And there are people who trip out about anything in their childhoods, no matter how sad the original.

I wouldn't say the first Conan movie was a triumph of cinematic artistry that was robbed at the Oscars, but for what it was I thought it was well made.

[i]Conan the Destroyer, of course, fits in the so-bad-it's-good category.

So it's a little late now that Valentines Day is over, but a friend of mine had an interesting question on his Facebook feed yesterday. What are some good/enjoyable movies where love/romance is an important factor to the story, but you wouldn't really classify them as a romance or rom-com?

His first suggestion was The Fifth Element.

My first three thoughts were The Princess Bride, Stardust and Gross Pointe Blank.

Later, I realized I should have suggested Groundhog Day as well.

I consider Princess Bride absolutely a romance--it is a kissing movie. It's about a couple's quest to be together.

Gross Pointe Blank is also a rom com to me, but I understand that it's to me.

Groundhog Day is another quest for a relationship, so I consider it a romance movie, and funny, so rom com.

Why don't you think they are?

How about Undercover Blues ?