Watch these movies for my pop culture training:

(M) Girls Just Want to Have Fun. (Alan Metter, 1985) Grade: C

Thoughts: Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker) tries to become a dancer on a popular dance show called DTV with the help of her friend Lynne Stone (Helen Hunt). A pretty silly 80’s movie with a young Shannen Doherty and Jonathan Silverman and guest appearance of Richard Blade as the host of DTV.

(M) Stand By Me. (Rob Reiner, 1986) Grade: A-

Thoughts: Four friends, Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton), Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) and Vern Tessio (Jerry O’Connell), go on a boyhood journey to search for the dead body of one of their classmates. Along the way they make self discoveries about themselves, while avoiding dealing with Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland) and his gang. Stand By Me was such a simple plot yet it was so effective. River Phoenix was a great actor and this movie just demonstrated it. It was cool to see a young Kiefer (yay Jack Bauer!) and John Cusack as Gordie’s dead older brother. Trivia - The movie is based on a short story called "The Body" by Stephen King from a book of short stories called "Different Seasons" which also includes "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" which became The Shawshank Redemption and to keep in character while off-camera, Kiefer Sutherland often picked on Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell.

(M) The Jerk. (Carl Reiner, 1979) Grade: B-

Thoughts: Navin R. Johnson (Steve Martin) wants to make it out on his own, too bad he is a complete idiot. The movie is silly and all over the place but I found it entertaining and funny. It did do a good job of showing Steve Martin’s comedy genius. Trivia – The mansion shown in the film is the infamous Sheik Al-Fassi mansion in Beverly Hills. The 38-room mansion no longer exists; it was torched by an arsonist in 1980.

Count: 133 movies