Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan is interviewed in this month’s Vanity Fair. In the interview she’s talking about the early years of her fame and says, “I would look up to those girls… the Britneys and whatever. And I would be like, I want to be like that.” She definitely achieved her goal and worse. In my opinion, her career is one of the greatest disappointments in show biz history. As a father of four, I still feel a mixture of happy and sad emotions when I hear her name. You see, the movie Parent Trap (1998) was one of the great family movies of the last 20 years. I have 4 kids of varying ages, and all 4 have watched it over and over. I remember many nights when my wife and I watched it with them and enjoyed it just as much as they did. Lindsay Lohan was nearly perfect in that movie in every way. I suppose she set expectations too high with that movie, for herself and for her public.

After Parent Trap she went steadily down hill. Lindsay did a few more watchable movies, but her personal life and her career slipped into a waste pool of wild parties, sexual hookups, confused sexual orientation, run-ins with the law, etc. That left me, as a parent, worried about the impact her antics would have, not only on my 3 girls, but on millions more around the world.

I don't mean to judge her personally or say that she is totally to blame. She is, after all, just a confused girl as vulnerable and misdirected as many young girls are these days. It's just that Lindsay was elevated higher than most and given farther to fall. My impression is that her family life was weak and dysfunctional, leaving her alone to face the hooks of Hollywood that were only too helpful in pulling her down to the bottom. When she was selecting her role models, someone should have told her that the “Britneys and whatever” are falling fast themselves and wishing someone had warned them before they'd made the jump.

In the Vanity Fair article, it sounds like she’s beginning to mature and re-think her life. I’ll be praying for her to take the right steps to get back on track. It doesn’t matter if she never does another movie. What matters is that she does grow up finally, and begins to make the right choices in life. I especially hope she’ll choose to give her life to the one who truely does love her, her Heavenly Father above. If she’ll make that choice, she’ll finally have the inner peace and joy that she’s been searching for during her wild ride of a life since Parent Trap.

All of this leads me to make a few suggestions for movies that I’ve found over the years that my girls have thoroughly enjoyed. and I have been excited about the positive influence these movies have had on my girls. I’ll begin with Parent Trap, because I still think it’s a great movie for families to watch together.

1. Parent Trap (1998)

2. Akeelah and the Bee (2006) A great encouragement to kids to excell in school.

3. Nancy Drew (2007) This Nancy is smart and she makes being a good girl look cool.

4. Pride And Prejudice (2005) A beautiful movie. It's amazing how even young girls love a good romance.

5. Ever After (1998) Well made, fun Cinderella story. Drew Barrymore at her best.

What's Your Favorite Movie?

I love reading those top 100 movies of all time lists that come out every so often. The only problem is, those polls are always compiled by critics. Their idea of what makes a great movie and what I, and the people I know, call a great movie is usually worlds apart. I've always wanted to see what the normal, movie-going public would select as their favorite movies of all time if given the chance. Well, the Watcher500 is giving you that chance.
Either leave a comment here or on the Scott Cahan Facebook page telling me what your favorite movie is. If you have more than one, list them all. I'll give everyone a week or two to get their votes in and then post the results right here at Watcher500.
For this poll, I'm not necessarily looking for family movies. We're just looking for favorites, no matter how clean or not clean they are. Any movie you want to list is fine here from any decade.
So, here's your chance. Let the critics know what movies the people really love.

Date Night

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are possibly the two hottest comedians on television right now. The paring of the two in an action/comedy was pure genius. I'm a big fan of both actors and I was looking forward to seeing them perform together. Their chemistry is the best thing about this movie. Without them, Date Night would have been another routine high speed comedy. Some of the action sequences were ridiculous enough to garner a few laughs, but overall, the plot wore thin and the action got tiresome by the half way point of the movie.
However, I could have forgiven all that just for the sake of watching these two very funny actors, if it weren't for this film's tendency to wallow in the dark trenches of human depravity. We watched our heroes get involved with crooked cops, mobsters, a pervert politician, a studly guy who lived for sex, and a loser couple who also lived for sex. All of this was intended to give Carell and Fey uncomfortable situations in which to react and be funny. But it was way over the top. They're both capable of making us laugh in simpler, cleaner situations too. Perfect examples are the 2 restaurant scenes toward the beginning when they tried to imagine what other couples might be saying at other tables. Those scenes were funny and sweet.
I give Date night 185 stars for sheer entertainment value, solely on the strength of Carell's and Fey's performances. For moral character, I'll give it 16. That gives it a total score of 201 out of a possible 500.