Day 20- A day which will live in infamy- Jon Voight in Pearl Harbor

People often say to me, "Ethan. What movie will be remembered as Robin Williams' best? Which movie will be his legacy?" To this question, I always answer without hesitation: Mrs. Doubtfire. That movie is without a doubt in my mind his funniest, most heartwarming and the one that will stand the test of time.

It all started for me when I saw this film for the first time at my Canadian friend Josh Tabak's house during a sleepover one Saturday night around 1996-ish. Immediately it became one of the funniest movies I had ever seen. The makeover scene where he goes through the Chicita, Streisand and Fiddler (It was such a shande! I will never buy gribinis from a moyel, its so chewy!) impressions alone is worth the price of admission.

The artist formerly known as Josh and I used to have sleepovers every week, and every Sunday morning without fail we would watch Mrs. Doubtfire. The older I got, the more jokes I understood, and that upped the funny quotient. You would also think that I would get sick of Mara Wilson. Guess what. I didnt. Every time I watched her say, "but we're in the middle of Charlotte's Web" a single tear trickled down my cheek and into my bowl Sugar Smacks. Sometimes, I'd be laughing so hard I would miss jokes, which is why just recently on a repeat viewing of it on ABC Family, I caught the joke, "Stu. That's more of a thick soup than a name" for the first time. I also have to give a shout out to the sequence where Daniel calls as fake nanny applicants (A boy! I dont work with the males cause I used to be one!)

This movie is really the pinnacle of Robin Williams career. It utilizes his crazy impressions better than any movie (seeing him "do voices" for Mrs. Sellner trumps in my opinion some of his best Genie lines), it allows him to act dramatically in his scenes with Miranda and the grizzled, bulldogged face judge, and it utilized his improvisation skills (if you've ever seen the Inside the Actor's Studio with him, you'll realize that he is one of the best improvisers in comedy history).

The reveal scene at the restaurant (Bridges) is still one of the best in cinematic history. My friend David Halperin does a mean imitation of it. It goes a little something like this: AAAAHH! DANIEL! (disbelief) DANIEL (shocked) DANIEL (angry) The Whole time (I cant believe it) The Whole time (You have been in my house!) The WHOLE time (I am REALLY REALLY PISSED). I have to go (I cant deal with this). I have to go (This is ridiculous) We have to go (I have to get my children away from you!)

In conclusion, Mrs. Doubtfire is a classic (a great choice to act out for the game Charades) and Robin Williams' best picture ever. Fuck Good Will Hunting.

Talking about Mrs. Doubtfire (and how great it is) made me think of other cross-dressing comedies. Here are some of the best and worst:

BEST:
1- Tootsie. Who knew Dustin Hoffman was so cute? And who knew being a woman was so hard?

By the way, I took a Global Feminisms class last semester to try and learn about how to be sensitive to women's needs and although this dyke kept using the class as her own personal mouthpiece to explain to everyone how much she hates her period, I did learn a lot about issues women fight for in different political realms. If anyone wants to know anything about Female Suicide Bombers, let me know. I wrote a 30 page paper on it called, "She Da Bomb: Literally." Actually, the paper was called "Investigating Female Suicide Bombers." Boring title I know, but I got an A so suck it.

2- Some Like it Hot. Classic Billy Wilder. Funny, smart, ambitious, and starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis (Jamie Lee's pop). This movie is still hilarious 50 years later and has one of the best ending lines in cinematic history (Jerry: Oh, you don't understand, Osgood! Ehhhh... I'm a man. Osgood: Well, nobody's perfect.)

3- Yentl-How can you not like the song, "Papa, Can you Hear Me?" Sometimes when I am talking to my dad on the phone and I am getting bad reception, I sing it to him. Unfortunately (or fortunately) since Thurtene, this song only makes me think of Ben Pote and his powerhouse performance as notorious Sea-Squatch hating Harbor Club President "George Von Vussel."

4- Ladybugs. Rodney Dangerfield and the mom from "Sister Sister" in a picture together? Thats what I call movie magic. This is how that studio executive conversation went:

Exec 1: I got this girl's soccer movie and I want Rodney Dangerfield to star. But I need a sassy black woman asst. coach.
Exec 2: Get the mom from Sister, Sister, Jackee Harry.
Exec 1: What's Sister, Sister?
Exec 2: It's a sitcom about 2 identical twin sisters who get into trouble.
Exec 1: It's not on TV yet...How do you know about it? You must be from....
Exec 2: Yes, I'm from the future.
Exec 1: Wow. What are you doing here?
Exec 2: I've been sent from the mid-90s to the early 90s to help YOU cast movies.
Exec 1: Can you tell me anything about the future? Who wins sports games? What my stock portfolio should look like?
Exec 2: No. I was only programmed to know sitcoms of the mid 90s.
Exec 1: Then who should I cast as Rodney's white love interest
Exec 2: Sorry. I am only programmed to know Black sitcoms
Exec 1: Wow that is really specific.
Exec 2: I know.
Exec 1: So is there anyone else you think I should cast in future movies?
Exec 2: Omar Gooding
Exec 1: Anyone else?
Exec 2: Jamie Foxx
Exec 1: That guy's a comedian. He cant act!
Exec 2: I'm from the future. Trust me.
Exec 1: Ok fine. Any last advice?
Exec 2: Beware of Urkel!
Exec 1: What? What's Urkel? WHO'S URKEL?
(Exec 2 poofs into thin air)

Back to Ladybugs--whenever I hear the song, "Dream, Dream Dream" as in "whenever I want you all I have to do, is dreammmmmm" I think of this movie. The cute girl in that movie, Vanessa Shaw has gone on to do films such as Corky Romano and 3:10 to Yuma (one of my favorite titles ever--whenever I am at an airport and I see on a monitor that a flight is coming in at 3:10 I ALWAYS take out my black Sharpie and write down the arrival/departure city as "Yuma." Like Ben Wade, I havent been caught yet!). The "cute" boy in that movie, Jonathan Brandi, who played Matthew/Martha....well he hung himself. You win some, you lose some.

5- Mulan. Awesome film. Awesome Donny Osmond. I know I know--YOUR TEAM from high school's pump up song was, "I'll Make A Man out of You." Guess what, so was EVERY HIGH SCHOOL TEAM'S PUMP UP SONG. It's not an inside joke if everyone knows about it. By the way, sometimes when I watch this movie, I watch Shrek on another TV and whenever Donkey has a line, I listen to it, while watching Mulan, and clips of Mushu and it's completely seamless. It's like they're the SAME CHARACTER. Weird huh...

WORST
1. Sorority Boys. I make a point of never watching anything Barry Watson ever does. Ever.
I also dont believe Michael Rosenbaum can be anything other than Lex Luthor.

2. White Chicks. How did this movie get made? The makeup is some of the most disgusting shit I've ever seen in my life. They Wayans bros. look like the zombies in "I AM LEGEND."

3. Big Momma's House 2: Really Big Momma's House. I kinda liked Big Momma's House 1 (co-starring a pre-Sideways Paul Giamatti and a pre Hustle and Flow Terrence Howard), but 2 was made about 8 years too late.

4. Juwanna Mann. I also make a point of never watching anything having to do with women's basketball. By the way, do you think that since in the WNBA, women play so much together that their cycles become in sync so that they all get their periods on the same day and then all play really shitty for like one week cause they're all cranky and crampy? Just a thought. Oh, and there's also no "maternity leave" in any other sport.

5- The Hot Chick. Much like how anything Justin Timberlake touches (with the exception of the Love Guru) turns to gold, anything Rob Schneider touches sucks balls. You might say, "But Deuce Bigelow was funny!" Yea. But the funniest line in the movie didnt even belong to him! "Excuse me while I go make pee-pee" is clearly the funniest line in the movie and it was said by Antoine LaConte.

I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch of movies (She's the Man) but its late and I'm tired. Thank you all for reading this incredibly long post. You are all collectively the best.

Until Tomorrow--