Freaking HBO...

In an extremely odd and cruel twist of fate, HBO decided to air 'The Champ' tonight. I haven't seen this movie in over fifteen years. . I remember watching this movie with my sister and a couple of our close family friends way back in the day. Not ONE dry eye was left in the room by the final scene... I challenge ANYONE to watch this movie and remain dry eyed... It's impossible. I'm not just saying this because of my last post either.

For anyone who thinks I might be making this up, PLEASE check HBO listings. I'm on the East Coast, and 'The Champ' aired on HBOF (HBO Family) from 11:5o PM - 1:55 AM.

The Champ tells the story of Billy Flynn (A 'so-young-he's-barely-recognizable' Jon Voight), an ex boxing champion who struggles to make a boxing come-back while fighting to keep custody of his son TJ (A remarkably cute and adorable 6 or 7 year old Ricky Schroeder).

In truth, I haven't thought about this movie in years, and I'm honestly stunned that HBO dug it out of their archives to air it. That little boy did an AMAZING job in that movie... I look at Ricky Schroeder today and marvel at the skills he possessed at that young an age. WHO can watch that movie and stay dry eyed? .. wow.

The Champ is single handedly THE most emotionally stirring movie I have ever seen in my entire life.. And that's saying A LOT. It has the exact same effect on me today as it did all those years ago, maybe even more now as a mom. If the director of that movie was looking to create a tear jerking masterpiece, OH MY GOD did he ever succeed!! I think it's safe to say he directed the greatest tear jerker of all time.

That last scene is just cruel.. I can't think of any other word for it... It literally wrenches my heart apart. It just does. If anybody sees this movie and manages not to cry during that last scene, I have a $20 bill with your name on it... It's not a lot of money, but if I didn't need it, I'd wager my next paycheck on it as well... That's how confident I am that you'll be wiping your eyes as the credits roll... For the heck of it, I went online to see what other random viewers said about the movie, and to further prove my point, I've cut and paste some of the viewer reviews... These are regular people (not critics) who just go online and leave comments about movies... some of the grammar isn't perfect, but I think you'll get the point.


THE BEST OF THE BEST
by meokmba (movies profile) Mar 25, 2006
I THINK THIS IS THE BEST FILM I EVER SEEN, THE ACTORS WERE OUTSTANDING, THIS FILM MARKED MY LIFE FOREVER & THE FINAL WITH THE KID CRYING BROKE MY HEART, WONDERFUL FILM.

A Knockout of an Ending
by gatorspirit14 (movies profile) Apr 21, 2006
A heart-warming story about a boy who worships his father, and a father who loves his son so much that he will do anything for him, even if it means losing him. I don't want to ruin the ending for anyone, but this movie has one of the saddest scenes I have ever seen in film.


GREAT Movie!!
by nedra_wright (movies profile) Jan 31, 2005
My family and I saw this movie for the first time on 1/30/05 and found it to be one of the greatest movies ever. It's a real tear jerker. Two thumbs up!!

Nedra

The Champ
by leeanne1007 (movies profile) Feb 15, 2005
The champ was a excellent film for all the family cried my eyes out watching it a must see film i seen this film for the first time on 20/12/04 one of the best i've seen in years.

THE CHAMP OF ALL MOVIES
by j_2308 (movies profile) Jan 3, 2007

A beautiful movie! It's a great movie that makes me cry all the time. Just shows how much TJ loved his dad-his forever champ. You just have to see it. You'll never see a movie like it.


I rest my case.

I shouldn't have watched this movie tonight. I'm going to wake up with a splitting headache in the morning... *sigh*

I'm Sick of Being a Cry Baby

How is it that movies make me bawl? How is it that even movies I've seen a million and one times are able to reduce me to a sobbing, sniffling mess? It'd be nice to watch 'Father of the Bride' once, and not fall apart every time he looks at his daughter and remembers how they used to play basketball together... It'd be nice to watch 'High School Musical' with Jacob, and not dissolve into tears when Troy and Gabriella make up... It'd be super nice to watch 'Bridge to Terabithia', and not scare my son and neighbors with my loud, heart wrenching wails when Jesse finds out that Leslie died...

You know what? If it was just movies, I'd be okay... I'd be fine. But it doesn't stop there, does it? I even manage somehow to cry when I listen to certain songs... Celine Dion's 'First time I Ever Saw Your Face' causes me to tear up and sniffle every single time I hear it... Listening to 'Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire' audio book at work the other day, I had to pretend a bug flew in my eyes because I couldn't stop the tears from streaming down when Mrs. Weasly hugged Harry after the whole ordeal... Being that the windows in the building don't even open, I don't think my co-workers believed the bug story... Listening to Sade, listening to Charlotte Church... Yup... Lots more too..

Books? Oh yes.. You bet. The Kite Runner reduced me to a weeping, slobbering idiot.. As did 'Good in Bed', 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', and pretty much every book with depth... Commercials.. Ah... Let's not forget those... Wouldn't want to count them out... The jewelry commercials where the guy puts the glittering diamond necklace on his wife while she's asleep? Yep.. I tear up each time. The Sylvan Education Institute commercial where the mom finds out her son's grades improved drastically? That scene she sees his grades for the first time and tears up? Ah.. Well, I'm bawling too.. It's quite bad really...

So what's wrong with me? I mean, I KNOW they're acting. I KNOW Steve Martin isn't really that little girl's daddy, and he didn't really teach her to play basketball... I know its all make believe.. I know none of it is real... I know all involved are getting paid copious amounts of money to act out the emotions they convey oh so well, so WHY am I unable to control myself???!!! How (and when) did I become this human faucet?! .. I try so hard sometimes too... I do. I sit there and tell myself over and over that I won't cry. I grit my teeth, cross my arms, and try to summon every ounce of indifference that I can... Nah.. never works... I feel the tears prickling at the back of my eyes... I feel my lips start to quiver... My nose starts to run... The battle's lost before it even begun. *sigh*... I'm sick of being a cry baby.

New Pics

New pics... Not a lot, but finally an update... :-)

You didn't ask but I'll tell you anyway. I've been

Reading. That's all I've been doing lately. I forcefully took my life back from the insatiable beast that is the World Wide Web, and threw myself back into literature. Thus far, it's been great. I haven't felt like this in years, and I'm loving every second of it. It's amazing how quickly the Internet becomes a large part of a person's life, you know? It starts with one site that you read every other day... then another site that you read and comment on every now and then. Before you know it, your have about 20 sites bookmarked that you're visiting every single day, and about 10 sites that you're visiting or updating every other hour.

The friend networks, the blogs, the information sites... I had tons. Anyway, a month or two ago, I got sick of it and stopped. Just like that. It wasn't planned or anything. I was replying an email one night when I glanced at the time and realized that I had been online for four straight hours. When I tried to think of what I'd done for those four hours, I couldn't come up with anything tangible. Basically, I'd gone from page to page, reading and commenting.

I'm not sure what I felt when I realized this. I've tried to think of how to label or even define the emotions that swept through me... I can't. All I know is that I had this intense, almost overwhelming desire to get away from my laptop. I saved a draft of the email I was writing, walked to my bookshelf, and grabbed the first book my hand touched. It happened to be 'Sands of Time' by Sidney Sheldon. Even though I've read that book over a million times, that night I lay in bed and read the first eight chapters through without pausing once.

After that night, I just sort of lost interest in the Internet... I really did. Don't get me wrong, I'd come online everyday, but it was for the basic stuff... Check mail, do budget, pay bills, things like that. Since that night, I've rediscovered my love of/for the written word... I've always been a reader; I mean, that's a given. Somewhere along the line though, reading had somehow become something I did almost as an afterthought. Something I did more from habit than a genuine desire. Lately though, I've been reading like crazy, and I love it. I've started going book hunting again... On weekends, I head to flea markets and thrift shops to scour through their extensive, very diverse collection of books.

Along with this newly reignited passion of mine has come other positives... I find that I'm less stressed. I'm less cranky. I think best of all, is a new found appreciation of myself. I'm more content with my life now than I've been in a long time. I didn't realize exactly how much I'd been stressing about being single, till I stopped.... lol. Does that sound weird? I didn't realize how much I'd been looking till I stopped... I'm not even sure what I was looking for, but thinking back now, I find that the hunger and zeal I had for the Internet seemed to be fueled by a restlessness in me that I never realized I had... A feeling of discontent... It was almost like I was trying to fill some void...

I don't sit chatting on messenger for hours anymore. I don't sit replying mails and messages sent via facebook, myspace, or hi5 anymore. Nah... I find that I have more time for things I'd always thought myself too busy for. Even when I'm not reading, I'll sit on the couch with Jacob and just hang out. Half the time, he's not paying attention to me 'cause he's playing some game or concentrating on righting all the colors on the Rubiks cube I got him as a joke (Watching him try to solve that has got to be one of the most entertaining things under the sun... ), but it's still cool to be lying there instead of being stuck behind a screen.

Well... I guess that's it? I didn't plan to write this tonight. It was sort of a last minute/split second decision, so if it's a little scattered, I ask that you be a little tolerant... I guess till another time then, huh?