VHS comedy era comedy Hall of fame III (1977-1989)

When Harry Met Sally


This was one of the few films on this list I hadn’t seen yet, I wasn’t sure when or if I would ever get around to it, as there were far more films I had as a higher priority. I’m glad it was nominated, because being able to watch it for the first time, I actually enjoyed it.

First things first. The comparisons to Annie Hall are justifiable. But that doesn’t detract from it. Billy Crystals take on Harry is all his own. Not overly intellectual as Allen’s Ally Singer, but not dummy either. He does alright.
Meg Ryan is the real star here, as Sally, with her girl next door appearance and her famous fake orgasm scene. (I’ll have what she’s having, says the bemused customer, in a genuinely funny scene). She’s all about commitment, and you can tell she wants that from Harry but he is too damaged to even consider one. Indeed, they don’t get along from the first moment they meet. Or the second time, 5 years later. This goes on over a period or 10 years where they spend the majority of it running away from each other.
Shout out to Carrie Fisher as Sally’s friend Marie (I think?). She’s not only pretty but proves she could escape from the shadow of Lei if only better roles had presented themselves. She makes the most of her scenes.
Also, I’m going to guess that Gbgoodies nominated this since she wrote that she had watched it so many times for her class paper and she apparently loves this film.
I wonder if anyone has guessed mine yet?

Whoever nominated Parenthood, thank you. I just teared up watching the ending. I’ll get to a review once I gather my senses.
This is going to be a tough HOF to put in proper order.

Parenthood

It isn’t easy being a parent. To raise a child as beds you as one can, in the hope that you don’t screw them up. In some cases, one might hope that they don’t make the same mistakes their parents made with them.

That is at the heart of this film. In it we follow 4 households. All connected by family bond.
Steve Martin is at the center, who hs 2 sisters and a younger brother (played variously by Dianne Wiest, Tome Hulls and Harley Kozack)

Each one is facing their own issues with their respective families, but I won’t go into them as everyone here either has or will see the film. And I was amazed how each one deals with their respective household issues, and it’s truly impressive how Ron Howard is able to not only bring ample focus on each character (of which there are many) but fleshes all of them out while providing insight to them. Keanu Reeves is a surprising standout here.

Each family has their own story that Howard brings to a satisfying conclusion, without losing sight of the theme: Second chances, and a new beginning, and everyone has a an opportunity for them in small ways (a chance at getting a job back, a new relationship, a chance at a career in drag racing!)
In the end, everyone makes the most of it with one noticeable exception.
And the ending....I teared up, I must confess. Very few movies have moved me in such a way, among them Schindler’s List, The Piano, Brokeback Mountain, Lost In Translation and Million Dollar Baby. Now, I can add Parenthood

4 *’s.

I don't know if you knew this or not, but the woman who says "I’ll have what she’s having." is Rob Reiner's mother, Estelle Reiner.


If how many times I've seen the movie is your criteria for figuring out my nominations, it might be a little bit harder than you think. There are six movies in this HoF that are among my favorite movies that I've seen probably well over a hundred times each. (I haven't reviewed five of them yet, but those reviews are coming soon.)

Usually when I watch HoF movies, I try to start with the movies that I haven't seen before, or movies that I don't remember, because I don't want to have to worry about spoilers when I read the reviews. So the movies that I left as the last six movies to watch for this HoF are all favorite movies for me. but I promise, I didn't nominate all six of these movies.

__________________
.
If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

I actually did know,yeah.
Darn, I was trying to piece together who might have nominated what in this but that’s proven difficult to do. 😩

I'm not saying whether your guess was right or wrong, but I just thought you should have some more information before you make your final guesses. Some of my favorite movies were nominated in this HoF, so making my ranked list is going to be very difficult. My own nominations might not be at the top of my list.

Yeah, it’s going to be difficult to rank the top 5 or 6 films here. The last eight I have figured out mostly. Just need to watch 4 more films, 1 I own and have seen a few times. One I have seen before, and 2 I’ve never seen yet.
Parenthood really touched me, and I wasn’t expecting that.

I have five more movies to watch, and I have the DVDs of all of them. I've been watching so many movies for the westerns list recently that I haven't had time to watch the rest of the movies for this HoF.

Fortunately, I've seen all five of these movies so many times that I don't even need to watch them to write my reviews, but I like to have the movies fresh in my mind when I write about them, so I will watch them all during the holidays.

I liked Parenthood, but I didn't really connect to it. Maybe that's why it didn't get to me the way it got to you.

The family dynamic was what connected with me, as I grew up in a severely broken home.
I was able to relate to Dianne Wiests son, in terms of not having a father figure.

Sometimes I can at least feel something for the people in the movie, even when I can't relate to them, but for some reason I just didn't feel much for them in this movie. It didn't stop me from liking the movie, but I just felt like I was on the outside looking in, instead of actually getting to know any of the characters as if I was there with them. (Does that make sense?)

I'm one of those people who cries at emotional movies, but this movie just missed the "emotional" mark for me, and it didn't make me cry at all.

I think trying to guess who nominated what, will be fun. I plan on guessing after you all review the movies. I've already finished this HoF and reviewed them all, so...you guys take a guess as to which two movies are mine?

All I know is from some certain reviews I might owe an apology for one of my nominations hahaha!
I’m eagerly awaiting to see the 21st HOF and Best Picture HOF nominees that will be coming up. Unsure if I’ll join both or not.
Ah, who am I kidding. I will.

You should never apologize for nominating a movie that you love. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Some people are even entitled to be wrong.

One thing for these are I’ll only nominate films I have seen and personally enjoyed. One of my nominees was a no brainer, but I tried too hard to choose one that I had hoped few had seen.
I’ve found That’s going to be hard to accomplish here haha

I usually like to nominate movies that are lessen known movies that I love, but sometimes it's hard to do that, so I just choose movies that I love.

I've only nominated a blind nom once, and that was for the Best Picture HoF because it was a movie that I wanted to see anyway, so that gave me the push that I needed to finally watch it.

Today’s trip to the library to rent the last 3 movies ended in disappointment. They didn’t have them. So currently trying to find a way to watch Blues Brothers (could have sworn it was on Netflix but can’t locate it), Broadcast News, and Real Genius.
Any suggestions?
I may have to resort paying for them on amazon to view them

I'll PM you in a few minutes.

JustWatch is a search site for legal pay per view streaming like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, etc, it's not a movie streaming site itself. It's always worth a try to look there. Here's a link
https://www.justwatch.com/

I used the link from @Citizen Rules above, and if you don't mind watching it with ads, Real Genius is available to stream from IMDB for free.

And Broadcast News is available to stream from Starz if you have a subscription to them through your cable TV. It is also scheduled to air on Starz Encore on Sat, Jan 4th at 1:59 AM.