Gunn Family Movies

Amy and I are about to celebrate six years of marriage next month. As I've been reflecting on our history together a lot of good warm feelings (and other feelings of a more complicated nature) have come back to me. There are certain movies that conjure up those feelings every time. Amy and I love watching movies, and the ones we like we tend to watch repeatedly. We both like a lot of movies, but there are certain titles that have a special place in our hearts: "our" movies.

We thought it would be fun to post those titles and talk about what we like about them in case you're stumped as to what to add to your Netflix queue or reserve at the library. Here's our top 10 in no particular order.

Joe Vs The Volcano

This lesser-known Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks romantic comedy is a farce, but don't let that label fool you. There's nothing sarcastic, crass, or cynical about this movie. The title character has a crappy job and worst of all, he's dying of a mysterious illness. A rich business owner needs his help saving a tiny island in the south pacific and offers Joe a chance to die a hero. All he has to do is hurl himself into an errupting volcano.

The tone is light, sweet, and purely fun. It reflects our odd-ball sense of humor and our generally optimistic outlook on life.

Soup-bone Quote: "Clothes make the man. I believe that. Now you ask me what clothes you should buy and to me that's like asking me who you are. I don't know who you are. I've spent my entire life trying to figure out who I am and I am tired, you understand?"

The Incredibles

Some of you may know that our favorite term of endearment for each other is "boss." Here's the story behind that. When Amy and I were engaged we went to go see The Incredibles. Sitting in front of us was a young family with little kids. One of the kids was anxious for the film to start. When the titles for the short began he asked one of his parents "Is this the 'credibles, boss?" We thought that was hillarious and cute and somehow the term "boss" worked its way into our vocabulary. The family of super heros has been making us laugh, cry, and cheer ever since. It also reflects our mutual love of animation and the hopes and dreams we had for our future family in the days before our marriage.

Soup-bone Quote:

Mr Incredible: "Your mother and I are always united against . . ."

Mrs. Incredible: "Pig-headedness?"

Mr. Incredible: "I don't know. I was going to to say 'evil' or something."

Up

If The Incredibles reflects our past, Up reflects our present, and possibly our future. Within a few minutes of the curtain going up in this movie, Amy and I were in tears. While it touches on the subject of infertility, it also beautifully portrays the love and friendship between a married couple, even after one of them has passed away. Amy and I are each other's best friends, and we definitely relate.

Soup-bone Quote:

"MY NAME IS DOUG AND WE HAVE JUST MET AND I LOVE YOU."

Gentleman Broncos

Benji is a teenage sci-fi writer who's novella, Yeast Lords, is disgraced with a terrible movie adaptation and plagiarized by his hero. The writers of this movie torture this character so much it wouldn't be worth the time if the pay-off wasn't so satisfying, bizarre, and flat-out hillarious.

Soup-bone Quote:

"And finally we have a young-ling trying to penetrate the secrets of the human mind. You won't do it like that young-ling... You must use friendship. "

The Terminal

Amy and I watched this movie from the jacuzzi tub in a presidential suite at the Bellvue doubletree on the morning of Thanksgiving day 2004. It was our honeymoon. This story of a man (Tom Hanks) stuck in a foreign airport always reminds me of that day: one of the happiest of our life together.

Soup-bone Quote:

"You told me you were delayed. You never said it was for nine months!"

School of Rock

Dewey Finn (Jack Black) is a failed would-be rock star who sees an opportunity to live his dreams by posing as his friend, a substitute teacher at a prep school. On our second date Amy and I watched this movie together, at least most of it. Amy fell asleep wrapped up in a blanket cuddled up against me. I remember thinking "I could get used to this."

Soup-bone Quote:

Dewey: I've always believed that children are our future. And you can teach them well, but brother, you have got to let them lead the way. Let the childrens laughter remind us how we used to be. That's what I decided long ago.

Gabe: Isn't that a song?

Dewey: No. No it isn't.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

I don't know where to begin describing this. Arthur Dent is having a bad day that begins with his home planet, Earth, being destroyed by aliens. You wouldn't expect most comedies to start this way, but this one has always kept us smiling. I especially love the two-headed, three-armed Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox played by Sam Rockwell. He's a combination of Elvis, Bill Clinton, and Patrick Swayze with a little dash of George W. Bush for good measure: a thoroughly watchable and entertaining character. This one reflects our love of sci-fi, quirky humor, and both of those things with a slightly british flavor.

Soup-bone Quote:

"All time is an illusion. Lunch-time, doubly, so."

Return to Me

This is one of the few romantic comedies that I find a)genuinely funny, and b) irresistably charming. I find most so-called romantic comedies to be either romantic, funny, or neither. This one is pitch-perfect and impossible not to like. Any plot synopsis would just ruin it. The acting is awesome, Bonnie Hunt and Jim Belushi are hillarious, and the old guys are a crack up. Just see it. Women, prepare to cry. Men, make sure you have a hankerchief handy for her.

Soup-bone Quote:

Kid: Awe, hell!

Jim Belushi: Did you teach him 'hell'? You taught him to say 'hell'!

Bonnie Hunt: I never say hell, you son of a bitch!

Meet The Robinsons

Amy and I saw this one to celebrate her 27th birthday. Lewis is a brilliant orphan inventor who encounters a time-traveler. They team up to stop an inept villian from destroying the future. Along the way he stumbles into a tyranasaurus rex, a neurotic robot, a pizza delivery man who thinks he's a super-hero, his destiny as an inventor, and the family he always wanted. There's something about this movie's motto "Keep moving forward" that just makes it feel like a love letter to Walt Disney, which for us is emphatically a good thing. It helps us have courage through tough times and reminds Amy and I how much we are each-other's dream come true.

Soup-bone Quote: "Then, um, I didn't choose that one because it was gonna give me pimples so I choosed, um, another scary one cause for, um, all those years that I went for halloween I wasn't scary at all... I love baseball. It's my destiny to play that game. And I don't really care about winning. Well, like, now i do, cause, like, we've lost every game and I've gotten tired of it! I'm working like so hard, all the balls are getting thrown to me, I'm trying to catch, like, every one. All of the people in the out field are all looking around, and, c'mon, lets play some baseball, ok? Not the lazy game."

Stranger Than Fiction

IRS auditor Harold Crick's life turns upside-down when a narrator's voice in his head convinces him that a) he's soon going to die and b) that he's a character in someone else's novel. This one has natural appeal to us because we're both aspiring fiction writers. It also happened to coincide with a crucial do-or-die moment in our marriage. This movie helped us choose "do" when it wasn't so easy.

Soup-bone Quote:

Harold Crick: Dave, can I pose a somewhat abstract, purely hypothetical question?

Dave: Sure

Harold Crick: If you knew you were gonna die, possibly soon, what would you do?

Dave: Wow, I don't know. Am I the richest man in the world?

Harold Crick: No, you're you.

Dave: Do I have a superpower?

Harold Crick: No, you're *you*.

Dave: I know I'm me, but do I have a superpower?

Harold Crick: No. Why would you have a superpower?

Dave: I don't know. You said it was hypothetical.

Harold Crick: Fine. Yes, you're really good at math.

Dave: That's not a power, that's a skill.

Harold Crick: Okay, you're good at math and you're invisible. And you know you're gonna die.

Dave: Okay, okay. That's easy. I'd go to space camp.

Harold Crick: Space Camp?

Dave: Yeah, it's in Alabama. It's where kids go to learn how to become astronauts. I've always wanted to go since I was nine.

Harold Crick: You're invisible and you want to go to space camp?

Dave: I didn't pick invisible. You picked invisible.

Harold Crick: Aren't you too old to go to space camp?

Dave: You're never too old to go to space camp, dude.

Does your family have special movies that everyone agrees are awesome, or have some special meaning for you?