First, Happy Presidents Day. It's a national holiday. Good time to feature former PUS Donald Trump on my subject today:
For me, any excuse for a good time. I spent Valentine's Day alone. Also Valentine's Night. Like my extended Super Bowl series of meals, my Valentine's cuisine began earlier with a luau. Here is what I provided to make ahi poke:
15 Craigside delivered the laulau, lomilomi salmon, chicken longrice, rice, poi and haupia:
My Valentine's luau, hot sake, hot green tea and cold beer:
Then my Valentine's lunch featured a low-calorie combination of a huge artichoke and sushi without rice:
Then for Valentine's dinner, 15 Craigside supplied the prime rib dinner:
I seared the rare meat in Miyazaki wagyu beef fat, and had the meal with a salad, beer and the remaining Cabernet Sauvignon from Super Bowl:
Then, after a satisfying supper, I noticed that
The Way We Were from 1973 was just starting on TCM. I quickly checked, and
Rotten Tomatoes reviewers only gave it a 64 score, but audiences had it at 81. This movie was in the mix of romantic films for Valentine's Day, so I began watching. I once saw it, but that was nearly half a century ago. Just about everything seemed new to me.
Early on came Streisand singing
The Way We Were, which won the Oscar the following year and was named by Billboard as the #1 hit of 1974. So I was hooked and continued. Turned out that the American Film Industry rated the production as #6 in a survey of the top 100 greatest love stories in American Cinema.
The stars were Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford, directed by Sydney Pollack and written by Arthur Laurents, of his college days at Cornell and experiences with the House Un-American Activities Committee. This was not a happy love story, but the opening college scenes did remind me of my days on campus.
Streisand plays a not so good looking strident and vocal Marxist Jew, while Redford was that White Anglo-Saxon Protestant well-to do, cool and handsome stud, who also had personal and writing skills. Streisand falls in love with Redford, but he is mostly just a nice guy who ends up marrying her, ending up with a daughter, followed by a quick divorce. A lot more happens, of course, but the ups and mostly downs were troublesome. There was supposed to be a sequel, and a script was written, but nothing happened.
As I reported yesterday, all day on the E! channel was the 2010
Valentine's Day, so I had recorded it. I hesitated wasting my time because
Rotten Tomatoes reviewers only gave it an 18 rating. Audiences gave 47%, which is pretty poor to spend two hours of my life. Critics used terms like, glib, shallow, gigantic mess and such.
Well, the film was far better than 18, maybe a 70, but it had huge flaws, a poor script, hellacious editing and was confusing. Ashton Kutcher won the
Golden Raspberry for worst actor, and his girlfriend in the flick, Jessica Alba, also got one for worst supporting actress. Actually, I thought Kutcher was one of the highlights. And there were so many stars, directed by Gary Marshall, who also did
Pretty Woman. The soundtrack was fabulous, several good surprise twists and so many Hollywood endings. A bad but enjoyable movie, ideal for Valentine's Day.
Next year, consider those two films. However, here is a
video of 12 Best Valentine's Day movies, including
Valentine's Day, to also put on your list. Of course, you'll forget all the above by then, but going to the right column, just find the 15 February 2021 posting. I might return.
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