Ok, so last week my beloved Oregon Ducks lost to Stanford, which ruined their chances at playing for the national championship for the second year in a row, my student loan payments got increased to the point I had to get a second job, so I was feeling down and morbid on life, hence I focused my blog on the most horrifically sad death scenes in movie history. For that, I apologize. Many of you commented that you wanted something happier this week, and so I’m not one to turn down my loyal readers. This week I will try and raise all of our spirits with my personal all-time feel good movies. I’m not talking traditional feel-good movies like Miracle, Pursuit of Happiness, The Exorcist and Platoon, I’m talking movies that are a part of my soul, that make me feel good, or remind me of happy times in my life. The clips I will share will run parallel with each remaining Survivor player. This isn’t like past blogs where I’m trying to make exact comparisons with the players and with the specific theme I chose that week, but more a companion piece for each player. Maybe if I can’t make a direct link with the clip and the character I can link the essence of the Survivor player to the movie and you can judge for yourself and offer your own favorite movie to each character down below if you feel motivated to do so. I should note that growing up a male means obviously my all-time favorite movies aren’t filled with a lot of female leads (all though there are a couple!). I hope this is a safe place to share such a huge piece of who I am with all you, but hell, were all pretty much family here at Robhasawebsite.com anyways, right?
Some quick hits on this episode first though:
– I could never do the “eat gross” food competitions. I can’t take eating Ranch dressing or mayo, let alone raw bugs.
– If your life depended on either Katie or Caleb having to give a charismatic talk to save your life who would you feel least confident in?
– Tyson is winning this game..but let’s cover that right here:
· Tyson and Ferris Bueller’s day off:
Wait I think we need this whole scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnsPpAGB9MU
I know every line from this movie. Matthew Broderick has never been as good as he was in this movie. Even for being a total 80’s dated movie; it holds up extremely well, the jokes still work. It’s really a great movie. My only question with it is what the hell happened to the girl who played the sultry Sloan? Has she been seen or heard from since 1986? I don’t think anyone could argue that Tyson definitely has some Ferris Bueller in him when he is playing Survivor. The way he seems to take so much pleasure in playing the game while always teetering that line of mischief and going too far. The question now for Tyson is whether last Tribal Council will actually lead to people going after him. Did Monica and Tina in different ways put enough fear into everybody about Tyson and Gervase to make them act on it? I still say no, because for god’s sake, Tyson is steering this huge survivor cruise ship like it’s a canoe right to the destination of his choice. I can see why some people might not like Tyson, but it’s tough to argue at this point that he is not an overwhelming favorite to win this game. Tyson has learned from his past mistakes (it appears) of losing his focus and even if a group gets enough courage and gumption to attempt an overthrow, he has the idol and is smart enough to sniff that out. For me, Tyson not winning this season would be an absolute shock. Like Ferris Bueller savoring every moment of the Chicago day, Tyson is going to enjoy and play every aspect of Survivor to the end. I wonder if he makes it easy next week and takes out Katie or will he look to split up Laura and Ciera?
· Gervase and Major League:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixjtxle483I
“You trying to say Jesus Christ can’t hit a curve ball?”
I could write every line in order for this movie right now! This movie makes me happy no matter what. For some reason my mom let me see this in the theater (Its rated R, language very vulgar) and then we got it on tape (yes videotape) which we would play in our jimmy-rigged TV inside our Landmark purple van on road trips. If you’re not familiar with this movie, it’s about the Cleveland Indians, who at that time were Major league Baseball’s worst franchise as they hadn’t made the playoffs in 50 years. The owner in the movie wishes to move the team to Miami so she needs the team to be horrible so nobody will come to the games and she can justify moving the team. She creates a rag-tag team filled with players past their primes and players with major flaws. The team comes together somehow and wins with great chemistry and Wesley Snipes being Wesley Snipes which lead to this (spoiler alert): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPH9cWTJgdU
Gervase came into this season of Survivor as perceived as over-the-hill or a “nobody” by this author and I will be the first to say now, that I was wrong. Gervase has played the game well. The problem for Gervase is that he can’t be sitting next Tyson in the finals if he wants to win the game. So when and how do you make a move to win the game if your Gervase. The answer is not now. Gervase should and will probably ride with Tyson till he gets to around the final four or five and then win the right challenge at the right time and Gervase can make his move.
· Hayden and Big:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yu62StlsMY
Tom Hanks has been in so many good movies that for people under 30, Big probably gets lost in the mix, but this movie is a classic and always makes me feel good. Although if the gender of the character was switched would the movie seem a little more creepy? I mean Tom Hanks does sleep with Elizabeth Perkins in the movie. Would it have seemed wrong if it was a girl who slept with somebody like Alec Baldwin at that time? It would right? Also when Tom Hanks is back to being a pre-teen is he immediately trying to sleep with women now that he lost his virginity? Does he become a teen parent? Does Elizabeth Perkins freak out and turn to alcohol. Wait this is a feel-good blog…Big is awesome!
Hayden can easily be characterized as a man-child. Like Tom Hanks character in Big, Hayden is finding how jaded and tough the (Adult) Survivor world can be. Can’t you see Hayden continuing to do well in this game? I think Hayden and Caleb need to try and get Laura and Ciera to join forces (doubtful) and try to aggressively alter the destiny that this game is headed for. If you’re Hayden, you can’t just wait for Tyson and Gervase to decide when it’s your time to go.
· Laura and Moonstruck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZONPVG2YZk
Any good Italian should own and love this movie, capice? This movie was one of my late grandmother’s favorites. I watch this movie at least once all the way through every year and it’s one of the only romantic comedy movies I can take seriously. It’s also a movie that has been forgotten over time it seems, which I hope since this blog reaches so many people…awkward pause to reflect that the previous statement is false that I hope I can bring Moonstruck back to the forefront.
Monica like Cher is looking for her Survivor love, which I mean she is looking for a way to avoid her upcoming reunion with Redemption Island. Monica lost her loved one in the game and now is a Survivor widow. Monica needs desperately someone to believe in her and work with her. The problem like Gervase said at Tribal Counsil, is that your perception of someone can change at an instant and it seems like everybody has a negative perception of Monica right now. The only benefit of having everybody be against you is that it makes you an attractive person to keep around for someone who thinks they’re going to the finals, like Tyson. Monica needs to work on selling the fact that the group can’t leave Ciera and Laura in the game because their the last pair.
· Vytas and Aras , My Blue Heaven, Inner Space and Midnight run:
I’m grouping the brothers here together, but instead of two movies you get three! Let me talk about the three movies and then I will get to the two brothers. The three movies below are all special movies to me and they fit what I’m trying to do here as all three have a plot that revolves around two men working together or dealing with a tough situation together, like Aras and Vytas.
To keep with the Italian theme and a movie that reminds me of happy times with my family in the summer at Lake Tahoe, I picked my Blue Heaven. Steven Martin playing a mobster in the witness protection program stuck in Pleasantville. Rick Moranis plays the FBI agent in charge of protecting Steve Martin from himself and the mob. This movie is criminally underrated. It’s impossible not to watch that movie and not feel good afterwards.
Innerspace: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3cr7-5fNQg Is about Dennis Quaid getting shrunk to microscopic size and accidently getting shot into Martin Short. Dennis Quaid then tries to use Martin Short to beat the bad guys and then return to normal form. Shockingly that formula did not lead to an Academy Award that year.
Midnight Run:
This flick is about Bounty hunter Robert De Niro trying to bring mob turncoat Charles Grodin to LA and collect a huge sum of money. Midnight Run may lead all movies with the “F” word being used in film history. There’s also like 10 cases where somebody gets punched once and gets knocked out cold, which is also some sort of record. It also is a movie with a heart of gold. My father and I would watch this movie back when I was kid and laugh all the way through.
So the brothers find themselves in quite the pickle. The three movies above all deal with partnerships in one way or another. The brothers in Survivor hardly had a day together to truly play the game and now will have to face off in epic fashion. I guess this is what this season has been all about though for these two. For Vytas to have the opportunity to face his brother and beat him would be quite the story arc. You would think the brothers stand a good chance of getting far on Redemption. People they would not want to join them there would be Laura, Tyson and Hayden, anybody else they would have to be viewed as favorites to get as far as Redemption Island goes. Aras seems a defeated man, but luckily he is at the right place at Redemption Island. The best story here is Aras and Vytas making it to the final Redemption Island competition. One final competition between brothers to decide who gets a second life in the game of Survivor would be epic.
· Laura and The Karate Kid:
One of the first feel-good movies I can remember as a kid. Daniel Larusso really knew how to rub people the wrong way and this clip pretty much lays out why:
That aside, the Karate Kid made my day many times growing up and for that it must be included here. Is there any kid who didn’t try to do the crane kick growing up?
Laura has some Daniel Larusso qualities herself, such as her ability to rub people the wrong way and her natural athletic talent. Laura M is such a competitor, but is that the reason why she is perpetually a risk to be voted out? My question to you guys, what does Monica do during down time at the camp that makes everybody want to vote her out? The next episode previews are insinuating that Ciera may flip on her mother, but I have a hard time believing that. Laura was the swing vote this episode, so for right now her place in the game seems safe, with Katie and Monica as the potential targets next week, or will there be a campaign to split up the remaining pair?
Katie and Adventures in Babysitting:
For some reason I always loved this movie. It takes me back to my childhood, Friday night renting this movie as it felt like such an adventure. Is this a chick flick? Does liking this movie as much as I do make me soft? I don’t know and frankly I don’t know if I care. Try watching this and then watch Elizabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas, where she plays a drugged up hooker. It was the most jarring thing I have ever seen the first time I watched that movie when she got…..never mind…feel-good blog.
Katie is facing the Survivor world without her mother. Does Tina leaving help her game more? I think at this point it does not. It seems like Katie is going to be exiled in the next couple of weeks and really has she done anything to deserve a deep run in this game? She won one challenge which I guess is something, but I haven’t really seen anything resembling a social game to justify her being called a good Survivor player. That’s all I have to say about that.
· Caleb and The Great Outdoors:
Just a classic. Every time I went to Lake Tahoe as a teenager I thought I was going to meet a hot bad girl like the son in this movie (I actually did when I was 17 and the story is great with what happened, but since my mom reads this I will save that story for Robhasawebsiteafterdark.com). Dan Aykroyd just cracks me up throughout this whole movie. This is a feel-good movie for me because it takes me back to every vacation trip we would take growing up.
I don’t think Caleb has spoken an audible word in the last seven episodes. Caleb like John Candy is kind of being replaced by the fun Uncle Tyson. It was weird this episode because Monica at Tribal pointed out that Hayden and Caleb were partnered up, but I don’t remember any clip or anything that was shown to give us the viewer that impression, so I guess that goes to show that there is so much that we don’t get to see as viewers. If it is true that Caleb is rolling with Hayden then good for them. Will Caleb and Hayden try and make a move away from Tyson and Gervase? Like I covered with Hayden, I doubt they will do anything right now.
· Ciera and The Goonies:
The clip above I was able to get courtesy of the Academy Awards. It’s the clip they used right before Corey Feldman won the best supporting Oscar award. This movie has to be on the list for any fellow 80’s child. How do you not feel better about yourself after watching that movie? I will say though, that blonde chick in the movie is annoying and they should have drowned her in the water when she started trying to prevent them from collecting the coins because they were other people “dreams”.
Ciera needs to drop her mom and join the Survivor Goonies of Tyson, Gervase, Hayden, Caleb and herself. Obviously she can’t really advocate for her mother to be voted out, but if it does happen it won’t be the worst thing in the world for her game. Ciera is in the swing vote category for the time being and maybe that will be her role for the next three weeks.
Tina and Christmas Vacation:
I mean, we need one holiday movie right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iByfqls-xbU
And:
This movie is the Christmas staple for me. This movie is guaranteed to put me in a good mood. So many great laughs in this movie. Randy Quaid has never been better; somehow he got shut-out from the Best Supporting Actor nomination that year. Some people have other xmas movies that they love but this is my feel-good xmas movie.
Tina, like Clark W Griswold just wanted her Survivor experience to be special and un-corrupted (obviously I’m generalizing here). I have not been impressed with Tina’s gameplay. Could Tina have done more to unite the woman against the men? You would think if there was one woman who could unite the other women it would be Tina. That ship has sailed though. Will see how much fight Tina has left in her next episode. My guess is she is one and done at Redemption.
So here we are again. I shared all my feel-good movies and you are probably saying “who gives a sh**.” So let’s get to my power rankings for this week
1.Tyson
2. Gervase
3. Hayden
4.Caleb
5. Ciera
6.Aras/Vytas/Tina-
7.Laura
8. Katie
9.Monica
