January is my birthday month, so I decided that I would try and do something quite unique and special for this milestone in my life. I will be turning 46, so I decided to watch 47 (46+1 for good luck) of my all time favorite movies in a random order over the course of this month. I have reviewed every one of these films already, but I will now give new perspectives on them all. Every one of these films received a 10/10 scoring from me. Some of these reviews will contain spoilers so if you have never seen them before, I recommend that you read some of my previous reviews of the film that were spoiler free before reading on…
Hope you enjoy!
This is film #20 of the 47.
Let’s continue with… Grand Canyon (1991)
Initial Viewing Memories – I saw this in the theater on opening weekend in 1992 (on my 18th birthday no less) and it spoke so deeply to me about the way that our lives move along in ways we can never understand. Despite not being very well know, this is a film that I can always turn to when life gets me down because it’s message is quite simple… things move in mysterious ways in life that we never know where they will truly end up.
“You think anyone can do what I do? You think anyone can make the crap I make?” – Davis
Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (Theater on 11 Jan 1992, video, 9 Jul 2000, DVD, 11 May 2015, 11 Jan 2017 and 12 Jan 2020)
Link to original review – Here and Here
Brief Synopsis – Six people living in L.A. must deal with the various twists and turns that life throws at them.
My Take on it – Amazing film that is able to show six normal people and how they deal with the roller coaster of life
The film develops these characters extremely well and they all come across as being so genuine and realistic that they could conceivably be any of us or people that we would come in contact with.
Each of the characters are quite different in attitudes and their personalities are quite diverse which helps make things even more enjoyable to watch because they each are affected differently by everything going on around them.
The cast is superb with Danny Glover, Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, Alfre Woodard, Mary McDonnell and Mary Louise Parker all giving stellar performances here.
Love the way that this film brings up the theme of fate and how it affects things in our lives because they present things in a way that helps make that idea seem so much more plausible.
The script is filled with some very insightful dialogue and lets the conversations and debates of the characters stay quite enjoyable throughout.
Of the thousands of movies that I’ve seen in my lifetime, this movie contains my favorite movie quote (delivered by Steve Martins character – a movie producer/director) and remains my motto even after more than 28 years – That’s part of your problem: you haven’t seen enough movies. All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” – Davis
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Show-business trade paper ‘Variety’ stated that “the Steve Martin character, who whines, ‘Nobody in this town will admit that a producer is an artist,’ is a wicked caricature of action pic maker ‘Joel Silver’.” (From IMDB)
Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)
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MovieRob 
A favorite of mine as well. And Kasden is a terrific writer. He did manage to work in a lot of inside Hollywood stuff via Martin’s producer character (and for the record – I worked with Joel Silver – who won a bidding war – via Fox – to get one of my screenplays – the biggest sale of my writing career – and then got played, along with the studio, by Warren Beatty – who attached himself to our film while have a completely different script written by a slug of a writer for who Warren paid off a gambling debt. THAT project got made – and garnered 10 Oscar nominations – while mine – with Joel – was never made). I think the philosophical tow truck driver character played by Danny Glover might be my favorite – and the scene where he gets the gangbangers to back off is a gem.
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wow. love ur stories mike. glover is great here but i love kline too. that scene is definitely written really well.
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