By Leonard Gray / L’Observateur / April 20, 1998

I haven’t seen “Titanic” and don’t plan to.

It’s not that I hate the actors or the subject matter. It just struck me asbeing something of a tear-jerker, and I don’t particularly feel the need to go to a movie if I want a good cry.

There are a lot of movies which have come out in recent months and years which I missed in the theaters and will look for in the video stores. Theseinclude “Spawn,” “Air Force One,” “Scream,” “Scream II,” “Escape from L.A.,” “The Fifth Element,” “Volcano,” “Romy and Michell’s High SchoolReunion” and “G.I. Jane.”It’s a mixed bag which one could possibly lump under the “schlock” category. I don’t claim to have wonderful taste in films.There are also a group of current and upcoming movies I plan to see as soon as possible, before they all leave the theaters, including “Lost in Space,” “Godzilla,” “Odd Couple II,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “Mask of Zorro,” “Mighty Joe Young,” “My Favorite Martian,” “X-Files: The Movie” and “The Avengers.”Again, I don’t claim to have particularly high standards as to motion pictures. I even bought a copy of “Howard Stern’s Private Parts.”The odds are very good I will miss most of the new and upcoming movies and haunt the video stores for a year or so, trying to find them.

My wife and I do not agree on movies and most TV shows. She has hertastes and I have mine and rarely do the twain meet. The routine when Icome home from work is to wait until she finishes watching the tape of her soap opera, then she watches something she enjoys but which I usually don’t and after she goes to bed, I may take out a videotape of something I want to see.

We both enjoyed the recent presentation of “Tom Jones” on TV and look forward to the upcoming “Merlin.” But don’t expect us to see very muchtelevision together. We both enjoy swashbucklers, but she hates monsterand science-fiction movies. However, we both love “X-Files” and”Millennium.”One TV show she loved but which I despised was “Murder She Wrote.” I’m abig fan of detective movies, more the classical ones than most of the drek on TV now.

I frankly never understood why small-town (and even some big-town) police officials, confronted by a pushy Jessica Fletcher, never locked her up for obstruction of justice or interfering in a police investigation. If Ihad been a TV detective and Jessica Fletcher showed up saying, “If I might have a word here…” I’d have her off the crime scene immediately, inhandcuffs, if necessary.

This summer, however, promises to be a fun time for me what with all the upcoming releases. Now, if I can just stay out of Barnes & Noble longenough to see these movies…

Return To News Stories