One Fine Day, 1996

Director: Michael Hoffman

Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, George Clooney

Now I know, after watching this movie, why George Clooney was voted "Sexiest Man Alive" so many times.

A single mom and a single dad spend a crazy, hectic day together after their respective kids miss the boat for their field trip. They take turns watching the kids and doing their jobs, hating each other and flirting the whole time!

I love the last scene- so good!

Get Smart, 2008

Director: Peter Segal

Stars: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin

This was based on the 1960's tv show Get Smart, starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, about Maxwell Smart, a bumbling secret agent working for "Control", and his partner, Agent 99 (who doesn't have a name- it's just 99! I love that!). Together they fight against the KAOS agents who are bent on destroying the world.

Well, that's how I remember it anyway. And it's close enough!

This is an action-adventure-comedy-romance. It's totally cute, and I highly recommend it!!

Steve Carell is kind of brilliant!

Pitcher and the Pin-Up, 2004

Director: Drew Johnson

Stars: Drew Johnson, Corinna Harney

This was not a very popular movie. I can tell because I looked it up on Google, and it's listed as being made in 3 different years. I'm going with what Netflix says. It also has two different titles; it's also known as "The Road Home". I like that one better; it gives it a classier feel, taking the word "pin-up" out of there.

It's an all-American love story. It's also a sports movie, of course. The style of story-telling is a bit scattered. I think I would have just gone chronological, but things tend to skip around. It's not too confusing, since I could tell where they were (or "when" they were) at all times.

Childhood friends Danny (Johnson) and Melissa (Harney) decide to take different paths in life, but their feelings for each other always bring them back together somehow. But after Melissa marries, Danny fears he's lost her forever.

That's the best I can do. It wasn't bad, I just probably will never watch it again. Yes, it had a happy ending, but the rest of the movie isn't as happy as I wanted it to be.

Someone Like You, 2001

Director: Tony Goldwyn

Stars: Ashley Judd, Greg Kinnear, Hugh Jackman, Marisa Tomei

Cute. Not the cleanest movie ever, but not the dirtiest either. Very cute!

Jane (Judd) meets Ray (Kinnear), and they begin dating, though he is already dating Dee. Six weeks later, Ray calls it off just as they are planning to move in together. Needing a place to stay (not to mention recover), she moves in with her womanizing co-worker, Eddie (Jackman). With her life falling apart, Jane comes up with a theory for why men leave women. Under a false name, her theories (equating men with cows) are published in a men's magazine, and suddenly everyone wants to meet and interview her! Or her assumed identity, anyway.

And of course, the truth is going to come out. Soon everyone will know the real identity of "Dr. Marie Charles", and Jane will realize that she has probably misjudged men, especially Eddie.

I love Greg Kinnear. He's so hilarious in this movie!

Laura, 1944

Director: Otto Preminger

Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb

Sometimes I take Netflix's advice and watch what they suggest, hoping that their "best guess" rating is right. They guess what you will think of a movie by your reviews of other movies. This one they guessed at 5 stars for me.

And they weren't wrong! I absolutely adore mysteries- can't get enough of them. And if there's a little romance, and plenty of suspense, I will be happy!

(Note: names can be confusing. Just so we're clear Dana Andrews is the man and Gene Tierney is the woman!)

(SPOILER!) Detective MacPherson (Andrews) investigates the murder of Laura (Tierney), questioning her fiance, her employees, and special friend, reporter Lydecker (Webb), as he tries to get at the truth of what happened on Friday night. Well, turns out everyone was in love with this lovely woman, and MacPherson finds himself falling for her, as well. But things aren't as they seem! (Which means, of course, that Laura shocks everyone by turning up alive and well on Monday morning!) But there's still a body, and a murder to solve!

Sleepless in Seattle, 1993

Director: Nora Ephron

Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan,Ross Malinger, Bill Pullman, Rob Reiner, Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson

Before she directed You've Got Mail and Bewitched (good movies!), Nora Ephron made Sleepless in Seattle. The film was actually inspired by An Affair to Remember, which I reviewed yesterday, and which starred Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Sleepless refers back to it several times.

"And all I could say was 'hello'."

So, Sam Baldwin (Hanks) is a widower in Seattle, whose son Jonah (Malinger) calls in to a radio station on Christmas Eve, asking Dr. Marsha Fieldstone for help because he thinks his dad needs a new wife. Driving home from her family's Christmas celebration, where she just announced her engagement to Walter (Pullman), Annie (Ryan) hears the broadcast, and is moved to tears by Sam's open and honest conversation on the radio.

Unable to get Sam and his words out of her mind, Annie struggles with her growing feelings for a stranger in Seattle and her engagement to Walter. Meanwhile, Sam is dealing with a broken heart, and his determination to start dating again, after he discovers that his 8-year-old son has a girlfriend.

"What if this man is my destiny and I never meet him?" --Annie

(I couldn't say it better myself!)

My favorites: 1) Rob Reiner and Rosie O'Donnell's characters are definitely worth mentioning here. They play the best friends of Sam and Annie, and they are just fantastic! 2) My favorite part is the conversation about An Affair to Remember and The Dirty Dozen. Very Amusing! 3) I think this is a very unique movie- the main characters are only in 3 short scenes together. And they only talk to each other in 2 of those scenes. That's crazy! Want to see Meg and Tom really work together? You've Got Mail!

An Affair to Remember, 1957

Director: Leo McCarey

Stars: Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr

I love Cary Grant!

Nickie (Grant) and Terry (Kerr) meet on an ocean-liner, headed for New York. Both are engaged to other people, and both are traveling alone. Sounds like love to me!

They fall in love, and begin their "affair" (I think of affair more as an "extra-marital" thing, and marriage isn't involved here. Not that that makes it ok. I guess that conversation could go on forever. They were both cheating, anyway!) At the end of the voyage they agree that in 6 months, if nothing has changed, to meet on the top on the Empire State Building. But something prevents one of them from making it! Will it prevent them from spending the rest of their lives together? (That question is to get you to watch it, because you're in such suspense!)

The part where they go off and meet Nickie's Grandmother is my favorite! I don't know why I love it so much, but I would watch the film just for this part!

FACT: This was a remake of McCarey's 1939 film Love Affair