Stephen King's Pet Sematary (1989)

Over the years, I thought Stephen King's Pet Sematary (directed by Mary Lambert of American Psycho fame) might have been a good movie that fell through my movie-going crack so I bought the DVD and sat down to enjoy. After about ten minutes, I noticed Fred Gwynne (Of The Munsters fame) was the only star (unless you count the bland Denise Crosby of granddad Bing Crosby fame), it had some similarities in story to Pumpkinhead, and the pet cemetery is not the film's MacGuffin - the Indian burial ground over the ridge from the pet cemetery is the MacGuffin. I guess it would've been a mouthful to call it Stephen King's Indian Burial Ground Over the Ridge from the Pet Sematary; at least with that title I wouldn't have wondered all these years if the film was any good.

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Huge (2010)

Huge just completed its first season and I was completely enthralled with the stories created around Camp Victory, a summer camp for fat teens. Intelligent writing, multi-layered characters and excellent performances (Nikki Blonsky, Hayley Hasselhoff, Raven Goodwin, Ari Stidham, Ashley Holliday, Harvey Guillen, Paul Dooley, and Gina Torres to name a few of the actors) make this series more of a microcosm for anyone with issues of self-confidence than the one trick pony it could've been. It is a bit strange that the season ended mid-summer and now fans have to wait all winter for the second season end of summer but that's a small price to pay for quality.

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For Me And My Gal (1942)

Gene Kelly took a risk playing an unsympathetic, draft-dodging song and dance man for his screen debut but he pulls it off in For Me And My Gal, a dramatic musical vaudeville set during World War I but made during World War II. Judy Garland is heart-breaking and endearing as the distaff half of the team; on stage and off she exudes the stuff that dreams are made of. Black and white photography and an adult script make this grittier than the usual 40s musical but the many classic songs and dances with direction by Busby Berkeley are fun and involving and it all works together.

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