MOMENTS IN THE MOVIES THAT STAND OUT AS MY FAVORITES

Because the only interesting thing that happened to me yesterday was my trip to the sleep doctor which became so surreal that I'm still trying to find the proper words to describe it, I've decided to kinda do one of those "theme" entries.

This one should be entitled "My Favorite Movie Moments". But that sounds kinda boring. So I'll call it "Moments In The Movies That Stand Out As My Favorites".

Yeah...that's got excitement written all over it.

So anyway...here you go.

MOVIE: "U2:Rattle and Hum"

MOMENT: When the band finally gets around to playing "Where The Streets Have No Name".

WHY: I saw this in a crowded theater when it first came out. For the first hour, the movie is in black and white. After a while you get used to that. Finally, the screen goes black. Then you hear a synthesizer note, signalling the beginning of the song. All of a sudden, the screen is red and in a crowded theater with a bunch of stoned U2 fans, I got completely caught up in a moment where it was the first color we had seen in an hour. Everyone cheered and the screen slowly erupted into a full color movie. It was really cool. I also watched the same moment last night on DVD with the surround sound cranked and that was what prompted me to write this entry today. But..it was much cooler the first time while stoned in a crowded theater.

MOVIE: "The Commitments"

MOMENT: When the band finally plays "Try A Little Tenderness" at the end.

WHY: It's the song that they have been working on throughout the movie and in its various incarnations, it always sounds like a piece in progress. But when they finally play it at their most important show in the history of the band, they pull it off with no flaws. It's awesome.

MOVIE: "Rudy"

MOMENT: At the end when the coaches FINALLY decide to let Rudy play in the game with about eight seconds left.

WHY:Because you've been waiting the entire movie to see Rudy play. You've been cheering for him to beat the odds and play football for Notre Dame and finally achieve his dream. And because the pride on his dad's face when he does it is overwhelming.

MOVIE: "Airplane"

MOMENT:When the stewardess starts leading the passengers in song and accidentally swings the neck of the guitar around and jerks the IV out of the little sick girl.

WHY:When I saw this in the theater, this was the first time that I was LITERALLY on the floor laughing. The little girl's face as she sucks her cheeks in and rolls her eyes back in her head as everyone's caught up in song and oblivious to the fact that she's about to die was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. After about a hundred laughs coming one after the other, this one in the middle of the movie topped them all for me. I literally left my seat from laughing so hard. I can't recall laughing that hard in a movie theater since.

MOVIE:"Jerry McGuire"

MOMENT:When Tom Cruise and Renee Zelliwiener do their whole "You had me at hello"-"You complete me" talk.

WHY:I've only seen this movie once on video at my parents' house with the rest of my family. I wasn't really following the movie the whole time because of all the noise in the house, but when this moment finally happens, it was just too sweet.

MOVIE:"Rock and Roll High School"

MOMENT:When the Ramones show up at the theater where fans are waiting in line to buy tickets for their show in a convertible and singing "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do".

WHY:Because even though the whole movie is about going to see The Ramones in concert. And when they finally show up like 45 minutes into the film, this song comes blasting out of the speakers and they show up in all their punkish glory. Keep in mind, I saw this in the theater, this was before MTV, I had never seen the Ramones live (but did a few months later), so this was the first time I had ever seen them in action. It's one of the worst lip-sync moments ever, and since they're in a convertible, the drummer can't play drums so he's just banging his drum sticks together. But it's a real cool moment.

MOVIE:"It's A Wonderful Life"

MOMENT:At the end when the entire town is showering George Bailey with money and his business is saved.

WHY:Oh c'mon. If you've seen it, you know exactly why. You can't sit through that entire movie and not cry tears of joy at the end.

MOVIE:"The Jerk"

MOMENT:When Steve Martin decides to leave his black family in the rural area and move to the big city to find his special purpose in life and someone at the dinner table wonders aloud how he's doing several hours after he left. So one of his sisters hangs out the window and hollers "How you doin' Navin?" and he's still in front of the house with his thumb out, waiting to hitch a ride while everyone's inside eating.

WHY:Because it's damned funny.

MOVIE:"Blue Velvet"

MOMENT:When they go to see Dean Stockwell in a strange whorehouse and he lip syncs Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" into a lamp for Dennis Hopper's drugged out amusement.

WHY:Because it's a creepy, creepy moment that goes on for a while and you just KNOW something bad's going to happen.

MOVIE:"A Christmas Story"

MOMENT:When Ralphie's dad points out that there's one more gift hidden behind a chair for Ralphie and it turns out to be his BB Gun.

WHY:C'mon...all the kid wants in life is a BB Gun and when he doesn't get it on Christmas morning you're all sad already. Then to have him get it and to watch his face as he goes to get it ... man...I'm tearing up as I think about it.

MOVIE:"Terms of Endearment"

MOMENT:When Debra Winger is saying her last goodbyes to her sons and even though the older one is still being a brat, the younger one is so sweet. And when he closes her hospital door, he's trying to be so strong but he knows it's the last time he'll ever see his mother and his face just scrunches up as he's trying to fight back the tears unsuccessfully.

WHY:Shit. You should be crying just reading that description, you heartless bastard.

MOVIE:"Carrie"

MOMENT:At the end where the girl goes to visit Carrie's grave and it's so peaceful and serene and then all of a sudden, Carrie's hand shoots up out of the grave and grabs her.

WHY:Watching it now, this moment is incredibly hokey and barely scary because we've seen it a million times since then. But I saw this in the theater on a double date with my best friend and some gals that we had taken. When this moment happened, my friend and I both jumped in each other's directions, collided and fell to the floor. This probably also still stands as my most embarrassing movie moment.

MOVIE:"Pink Floyd - The Wall"

MOMENT:When "Comfortably Numb is played and Pink begins to melt before our eyes in a hospital corridor.

WHY:Because the first time I saw it, the acid kicked in just as this moment came on.

MOVIE:"Blazing Saddles"

MOMENT:When the bad guys ride into town and are doing all sorts of despicable things including punching a little old lady in the gut repeatedly. They stop long enough for her to look into the camera and say "Have you ever seen such cruelty?"

WHY: I think that moment shaped my sense of humor into the dark, warped mode that it has remained in ever since.

I'm sure there's thousands of other moments that I can list here and probably will in another entry some other time, but I'm out of time here this morning.

A lot of my favorite movies ("Fast Times At Ridgemont High", "Pulp Fiction", "Sleepless in Seattle") were consciously omitted because I can't pin it down on one specific moment right now.

But hey...here's the deal...I want to hear about YOUR favorite movie moments.

Go to my message board and leave me your favorite movie moments. You can leave one or leave a hundred. It's actually a cool little exercise to do.

And I promise you ... today only ... I will NOT make fun of you if you say it was in "Star Wars" or "Harry Potter" or "Lord of the Rings". Today, we're all allowed to be geeky and proud. C'mon...I just admitted I cried at chick flicks.

So let's go.

What the hell you waiting for?

Let me hear your favorite movie moments.