Since neither Matthew nor I have reviewed a movie from this Century yet, I guess I will continue to fill everyone in on exactly what happened during the 20th Century. History will record that pretty much nothing was happening in the 20th Century until the launching of Home Box Office (HBO). I can't guarantee it, but I am fairly sure that my first words as a little tyke were "Home," "Box" and "Office."
When I was growing up in the Midwest, HBO was on channel 2. The best part about this channel being on 2 was that the next channel was CBS (channel 3). So, when I had a questionable HBO movie on, such as When God Created Woman or Disorderlies or Revenge of the Nerds, I could quickly switch the channel to the more family friendly CBS.
I took this walk down memory lane after last night's viewing of another HBO classic - The Best of Times. This is a great 80's movie starring both Robin Williams and Kurt Russell as adult friends attempting to relive their high school football glory by replaying a game from twelve years earlier. I have probably seen this movie about thirty times over the course of my life and it never gets old. There are some classic lines in this film, "I'm pretty quick for a Caucasian," and there are some great sight gags, Jack being hit with the gavel and then punched in the face by Charlie during a meeting with the Caribou Club, but mostly it is just a fun football movie.
When this movie came on last night I watched it and was reminded just how often this (and every other) movie used to be on HBO. It seemed to me as though HBO had about 15 movies to fill an entire monthly lineup. They would show the same movie at 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 11pm. I can remember watching Dead Solid Perfect (with Randy Quaid as a golf pro) over and over again with my father, watching Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer and The Secret of My Success with my sister, and watching Starting Over with my mom (Burt will always be Bo Darville to me). And let's not forget some of the great original series HBO had like Dream On, 1st and 10, and Real Sex.
HBO has come along way since its early days. They now have relatively new movies (I recall HBO having a lot of movies I had never seen, but I don't recall them having movies that had been in the theater "recently") and they have a pretty large catalog of older movies to sprinkle in. Of course, it should be pointed out that they still have the same opening montage for movies that they have used for the past 25 years. You know the one, the camera is flying along down the street scene and then the road turns into the giant HBO sign (I think it is called HBO in Space).
So there you have it...the full history of the 20th Century!
Warren
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It is funny that you mention the specific movies you mentioned in your blog, because now that I have been home so many days in a row, I have watched HBO in many of my down times and the movies they are showing at 4:00 in the afternoon are THE EXACT SAME movies that you mention. So that whole large catalogue thing I really have to question. Sure they may have a large catalogue now. Heck, twenty-five years will tend to build your arsenal. But it isn't that large if they are still showing the same movies. Enough with the "Better Off Dead." God bless him, I love me some John Cusack, but that is not one of his better movies.
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