“Being 16 was a breeze” said no one ever. You had to navigate the turbulent waters known as adolescence, you were forced to go to a place everyday where you only liked about a handful of the people, your body is doing all types of weird shit, and oh, don’t get me started on the parentals trying to ‘relate’ to you. Yes, I was once a loud, obnoxious, spoiled teenager who had the whole world figured out. 11 years later I’ve narrowed it down to just being loud and spoiled. One of the fun things about being an adult (I use the term loosely) is being able to look back and laugh at all the tomfoolery and shenanigans of your youth; the things you did, the music you listened to, and the movies you liked. This installment of ‘5 Favorite Things‘ is dedicated to 16 year old Marc and his taste in movies. So guys strap in and we’re going back to 2001…
Exit Wounds
Exit Wounds was the beginning of what could have been a promising action career for rapper-turned-actor DMX and was the must-see action movie that year at my high school. Exit Wounds starred Steven Segal as a Detroit cop chasing corruption on the force and DMX as a tech savvy drug dealer looking for revenge. It was a fun action movie with some decent fight scenes. In hindsight I must say I don’t know why I liked it so much, but I definitely remember getting a kick out of it in theaters.
Say It Isn’t So
Remember when the Farrelley Brothers were associated with funny movies? Say It Isn’t So was only produced by the Farrelley Brothers but still had their signature sense of madcap comedy. At 16, this movie’s premise appealed to my crude sense of humor, Gilly (played by Chris Klein) is an adult orphan who falls in love with Josephine (Heather Graham) but their relationship is derailed when Gilly is told that Josephine is his biological sister. Ha! and Eew! at the same damn time. With small parts played by Sally Fields and Orlando Jones, Say It Isn’t So is a little gem of a comedy that shouldn’t be forgotten.
Freddy Got Fingered
I’m not even going to lie, MTV owned me when I was 16. I wasn’t a TRL kid per se, but shows like Jack Ass and The Tom Green Show fueled the daily lunch conversations we had while playing Uno and battling our Pokémon on our Game Boy Advances (back then you had to use a link cable). Freddy Got Fingered was the brainchild of Canadian shock comedian Tom Green, where he plays the a slacker who plagues with his practical jokes and is constantly shown up by his younger, more successful brother. Listen, it took me 20 minutes to write this one blurb because I kept laughing while thinking of the movie. “Daddy would you like some sausage? Daddy will you like some SAU-SAGE-GES!!”
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
To be honest, I’ve never read, nor have I ever planned on reading any of the Harry Potter books. I was actually dragged to see this one in theaters because my mother needed help corralling my sister and all her friends. I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. For me, Sorcerer’s Stone had fully fleshed out characters and fully immersed you into this magical world, it was escapism at its finest.
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
As quiet as it was kept, I was a little of a nerd in high school, but that was cool. I went to a high school that wasn’t so centered around those stereotypical high school archetypes we all know and love (or loathe). Nerds and Jocks, Band Geeks and Goths, Choir and theater kids all got along fairly peacefully. Everyone had their own lane and everyone respected that. You can imagine how I geeked out when I heard some dude named Peter Jackson was directing one of my favorite books from my childhood (only second to the Narnia series) and turning them into full-length features. Nothing, NOTHING could prepare my mind for the sheer epic-ness of seeing Jackson’s vision on the big screen. I have to say that seeing LOTR was my most memorable theater experience. I saw LOTR during Winter break with my brother and sister and I could not wait to get back to school and tell my friends about it. I remember this sense of awe and excitement that I wanted to share with others. And that’s one of the great things about movies, not only are they a form of entertainment in the present, but they are also time machines, taking you back to where you were and who you were when you first viewed them.
What weresome of your favorite movies when you were sixteen?