5-year-old Flenker loved his movies

I just finished watching the Hallmark Channel's presentation of Flight of the Navigator. A good damn movie. I remember loving it when I was younger, and can see why. It's funny, it's got Pee Wee Herman as a voice, and it had a spaceship. I'm pretty sure those were my main qualifications for liking a movie back then. Plus, I seem to remember having a little crush on Sarah Jessica Parker's character in it (which would be the first and last time that I ever found her attractive). I got to wondering if there was a better movie from 1986. So I did a little researching, and found that 1986 was a solid year for movies. A great year, even.

Here are the top grossing films of '86


176,781,720 Top Gun (1986)
174,803,506 Crocodile Dundee (1986)
137,963,328 Platoon (1986)
115,103,979 The Karate Kid, Part II (1986)
109,713,132 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
91,258,000 Back to School (1986)
79,817,937 The Golden Child (1986)
77,632,096 Aliens (1986)
71,624,879 Ruthless People (1986)
70,136,369 Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Those were some entertaining movies. And that doesn't include The Fly, Hannah and Her Sisters, Blue Velvet, Hoosiers, The Color of Money, Stand By Me, An American Tail, Short Circuit, F/X, and probably a lot more that I didn't find in my brief search. So 1986 was a good year for movies, at least ones that I like(d) a lot.

You may be able to tell that I'm kind of bored right now. So, I'm talking about movies.

For this year's Oscar Nominated films for Best Pictures, I've only seen Juno and No Country for Old Men, but I really want to see There Will be Blood. The other two (Atonement and Michael Clayton) don't really interest me for whatever reason. I think the award will probably go to either No Country for Old Men or There Will be Blood. I'm really happy and excited that Juno was nominated, I loved the movie, I just don't know if it really "fits in" with the other two. I wouldn't be upset or disappointed if it wins, in fact, I'd be ecstatic! I would also be extremely surprised. Everyone's saying how it's this (I guess last) year's Little Miss Sunshine, which I can kind of see in that it's a smaller budget movie that's well-liked and doing pretty well, critically and otherwise. But I think I liked LMS more. I think it had a little more heart, and funnier parts. I love both movies, though, and am proud (is that the right word/emotion for a film?) of them both for doing so well.

I haven't seen too many of the other movies to comment on other categories (Actor/Actress/Director), but I'll be rooting for Javier Bardem, Daniel Day Lewis, Ellen Page, and both the Coen brothers and P.T. Anderson. I've liked both of them for quite some time, so either way I'd be fine.

One last category, Best Animated Feature Film, really interests me. The only nominee I saw was Ratatouille (and liked it a lot), but I've read the graphic novel on which Persepolis was based, but never got around to seeing this adaptation. The novel was excellent, so I really believe that the movie would be just as good. As for the other film nominated, was Surf's Up really that good? From the previews, it looked okay at best, but maybe I'm missing out. Maybe they needed to throw a third movie in there, just to appease everyone. Who knows!

So, any film buffs out there that care to comment/make predictions/tell me that Surf's Up is a cinematic masterpiece? Let me know! And tell me if the movies I've missed are any good