Countdown: 20 Ultimate Chick Flicks (No. 19)

"Ten things I hate about you" is about as close an equivalent as the Gen Y'ers are going to get to one of the old school John Hughes / Molly Ringwald chick flicks. Smart, funny and righteously angry it represents everything that the navel-gazing late nineties almost stood for. Julia Stiles, whether she likes it or not will probably be remembered more for her role as Kat Stratford in this re-interpretation of "The Taming of the Shrew" than for any real Shakespeare she has or will play in her career. The say cannot, of course, be said of Heath Ledger who through better acting choices was an academy award nominee for "Brokeback Mountain" and may very well get a posthumous accolade for his portrayal of The Joker on "Batman: The Dark Night". This classic tale of opposites attract may seem a little dated in the late 00's. But yes, that's how we dressed in the late nineties (for better or for worse) and that was the music we make no apologies to listening to. Just ask your cool Aunt / older cousin / absent sister (hopefully not your mom), and get her to confess that she too stood in line more than twice to watch this film and still knows the lyrics to "One Week" by heart.

Trivia

*In addition to playing this "re-imagining" of The Taming of The Shrew, Julia Styles also has also done two more movies based on the Bard's plays: Hamlet and Othello.

*Larisa Oleynik and Joseph Gordon-Levitt also played a couple on the NBC TV series "3rd Rock From The Sun".

*Before Heath Ledger played "Patrick Verona" in this film, he starred in the short lived Fox series "Roar"


Soundtrack Song For The Mix Tape

Your Winter - Sister Hazel

Countdown: 20 Ultimate Chick Flicks (No. 20)

20. The Cutting Edge
The Cutting Edge

This is the movie that made people believe that a rugged hockey player could go from being, well, a rugged hockey player to an Olympic grade figure skater in less than two years if he could just believe. Thanks to the perfect casting of Moira Kelly as an ice princess and D.B. Sweeney as her "bottom of the barrel" partner, everybody happened to fall in love with figure skating just in time for the Lillehammer '94 Winter Olympics. We may eventually forget about the whole Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan debacle, but we'd be hard press to forget the moment where Doug Dorsey finally kisses Kate Moseley on the ice after a routine that by all accounts should have gotten them disqualified from the event. But after such a demonstration of true love, surely all rules went out the window.

Trivia

*The name of the girl who almost prevented Doug from getting to the name where he lost half his eyesight was Gita.

*Coach Anton showed no measure of humbleness after naming the life threatening final routine the "Pamchenko"

*Terry 'O Quinn (best known as John Locke from "Lost") played Kate Moseley's gold obsessed father. He is only 16 years older than Moira Kelly.


Soundtrack Song For The Mix Tape:

I've got dreams to remember - Otis Redding