As 1997 winds to a close, I thought I'd end it with a bang and not a whimper.  So it is with great pleasusre that I present this new, and highly un-official feature in the Batcave.  Please welcome them in their first foray into Cyberspace.

10 Favorite
Movies of
1997

Chris':

1.  Boogie
Nights
2.  LA Con-
fidential
3.  Amistad
4.  As good
as it gets
5.  Titanic
6.  In the Company of Men
7. Contact
8.  Donnie Brasco
9.  Jackie Brown
10.  Grosse Point Blank

Corby's:

1.  Boogie Nights
2.  Amistad
3.  LA Con-
fidential
4.  As good as it gets
5.  Contact
6.  Titanic
7.  Jackie brown
8.  Private Parts
9.  In the Company of Men
10.  Austin Powers

Chris:  The movie today we are reviewing is called As Good As It Gets, staring Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear and Cuba Gooding, Jr.  It was written and directed by James L. Brooks, who also wrote and directed Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News.  And I tell you what, this movie is about a writer with an attitude, he's a very mean man who lives alone in an apartment building.  In the apartment next to his is a gay artist, played by Greg Kinnear, and his art dealer is the guy played by Cuba Gooding, Jr . . . The artist winds up getting beat up.  Someone tries to burglarize his apartment and he gets beat up.  And Jack Nicholson is required to walk the guy's dog.  He and the dog get along real well.  He and the artist don't get along.  He (Nicholson) don't get along with anybody.  He's got a lot of idiosychracies . . .
Corby:  He's an obsessive-compulsive.
Chris:  And the waitress at the place he likes to eat breakfast, Helen Hunt plays the waitress, and she kinda likes him but she doesn't like him.  Everybody hates this guy.
Corby:  She understands him.
Chris: That's a better word.  Well, he likes things a certain way and he likes her waiting on him.  He doesn't like germs.  He's always using plastic utensils and wearing gloves and stuff all the time . . . He's a very interesting character and Jack Nicholson brings him to life.
Corby:  I loved this movie.  Absolutely loved it.   I said the other day that I thought Private Parts was probably the straight-out, funniest movie that I've seen all year.  This is a comedy in a different sense though.  This is well-written comedy.  This is James L. Brooks at his finest.  Now, he's only directed three other movies, and two of those movies were nominated for awards, Golden Globe and Acadamy Awards.  This is his third movie with Jack, Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and this one, ane all three of these are gonna be nominated for awards.  And Jack, if he doesn't  win the "Best Actor" award for this movie, something's wrong.  He blows away everybody that's been on screen this year, including Djimon Hounsou (of Amistad).  It's a totally different role, you can't compare the two, but I think Jack . . . Jack is Jack.   To me, this is his third best role ever, behind One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Shining.  He's unbelievably funny and he is an ass to the nth degree.  Nobody likes this guy.
Chris:  And then, as the movie progresses, all three of them hook up (Nicholson, Hunt, Kinnear) and it's their story and how they all intertwine together.
Corby:  And it's how Jack kinda makes a metamorphases from being this jackass to a fairly pleasant guy.  And it's because of Helen Hunt, she's the love interest.  It's their relationship.  Helen Hunt makes the transormation great from TV to the Big Screen. I think she was awesome.  I don't know where she got that upper body from.  I don't recall seeing that ever on that TV show.  She's a beautiful woman ansd she's funny as hell in this movie.  Everybody's really funny.   Cuba Gooding, Jr's has a great role in this.  Greg Kinnear is great as the gay guy. 
Chris:  Even the dog is good.
Corby:  The dog steals the movie the first 30 minutes.   Totally steals the movie.
Chris:  I thought that bear was good in that movie earlier this year . . .
Corby:  That dog blows the bear away.
Chris:  Bart the bear, now you're in trouble, 'cause this dog is gonna take the Animal Oscar . .Now this movie is very well written, it's very well acted.  It's very clever and definitely the movie you want to see this time of year.   I'm gonna give As Good As It Gets a solid "A".  
Corby:  I'm gonna give it an "A+", just because, as far as comedies go, it's hard to top a comedy like this.  These come around once every four or five or six years.  Everyione can go and watch this movie; the entire family.