The American President with Michael Douglas and Annette Bennings

Rating: 10 Arthritic Fingers Up!

 Talk about just the sweetest love story ever and super sexy too (gives the caregiver something to watch at the same time...), The American President is one of our favorite movies ever. What starts off as an adversarial relationship between a lobbyist on The Hill (Sydney Allen Wade played by Benning) turns into a true love story when The President (President Andrew Shepherd played by Douglas) develops feelings for this tough lady.

Recently widowed, the President is running the country with a group of great advisors (including Michael J. Fox) and trying to raise his teenage daughter, Lucy, at the same time. Douglas is a nice guy all around but no nicer than when he takes dating advice from his daughter.

As a mixture of humor and love, one of our favorite parts was when the President tries to buy the lobbyist flowers on his own. Yes, he does own a rose garden but has quite a hard time buying a bouquet of flowers.

This movie is fast enough paced to keep Mom's attention yet was still easy to follow. We both highly recommend it!

If you liked The American President, you might also like:

  

Finding Nemo with Ellen Degeneres and Albert Brooks

Rating - 10 arthritic fingers up!

 "A boat? I saw a boat!"

Now, if you're a caregiver of the elderly, you might well identify your charge with Dory the fish (Ellen Degeneres) - a fish of very short term memory. This character about put me down for good with laughter! I just dropped and rolled. Mom was also amused - albeit, not nearly as much as I was.

Finding Nemo is clearly a winner when looking for a fun, light movie needed to entertain about anyone in the world, including a 94 year old.

The story starts with Nemo, a clownfish with a bum wing (um...fin) and an overprotective father starting off to school on his own. Little did he realize the perils of not listening to good old dad. Poor Nemo gets trapped in a net and ends up in a dentist's office in an aquarium in Sydney, Australia.

The story line is delightfully whimsical and easy to follow. Honestly: everyone will love this movie - if not, just press ESC-APE (pronounced Esc-CA-pe...) on your DVD and dial up something else!

If you liked Finding Nemo, you'll also like:

    

Rainman with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman

 Rating: 10 arthritic fingers up!

Rainman is a delightful story of a mentally-challenged man (Raymond Babbitt) played by Dustin Hoffman and his very selfish younger brother (Charlie Babbitt) played by Tom Cruise.

After their father dies, Charlie Babbitt discovers that his dad's vast fortune (3 million) was left to Raymond while Charlie was left only a rose bush and an antique car which Charlie had stolen from his father when he was young. As a result of the theft, his Dad had reported the car as stolen and Charlie spent a few days in jail which just burned him up and caused an estrangement between Charlie and his dad.

So, Charlie realizes that to get to the money, he has to get to his mentally-challenged brother, which he does. As the two impart upon a cross country journey, Charlie starts to see his brother in a new light.

Our favorite scene of all is when the two men are coming down the escalator in Las Vegas in beautiful suits. This scene alone is worth watching the movie!

There's the prerequisite love story also between Charlie and his girlfriend who takes a liking to Raymond. It's through her eyes that Charlie further sees his brother as a man - not just someone who is dependent upon others.

Rainman is a wonderful movie which held Mom's attention throughout. Have a few hankies around though - Mom wasn't the only one crying...

If you liked Rainman, you might also like:

     

La Bamba with Lou Diamond Phillips

Rating: 7 arthritic fingers up.

La Bamba tells the story of Richie Valens, from the undiscovered youth all the way to the fated plane crash that took his life along with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly on February 3, 1959. Lou Diamond Phillips does an admirable job portraying Richie although I felt like his lip syncing to the songs was a bit off.

La Bamba would have garnished a higher rating if it wasn't that I constantly had to readjust the volume to a comfortable roar. If I adjusted the movie speaking parts to a dull roar, when a song came on, if the volume was left alone, I would have had curled hair! For those who can't hear anyway, it was probably ok but it ground my teeth down! So I was always fiddling with the volume.

Mom and I loved the story though as it is heartwarming and inspiring. In Richie Valens short life, he only got a few songs out but they were all popular. "Come on, let's go" was his first published recording followed shortly by "Donna" and his most popular hit, "La Bamba." In his own way and in his short 17 years, Richie Valens left his mark on the music industry.

If you liked La Bamba, you might like:
    

Living with a Stranger - Julia Roberts

 Rating: 6 arthritic fingers up.

This thriller movie held my interest (mostly) but not Mom's. The story line is a bit implausible. Julia Roberts plays a battered wife who fakes her own drowning to escape from her husband. After a night sail which turns bad in a storm, she slips overboard and manages to make her way to shore and a quick trip to her house to gather her runaway bag. In her wake, she leaves the most gorgeous house on Nantucket. I'm thinking that if I were her, I would have figured out a way to keep that house! But, that's besides the point. She also made a fatal error by putting her wedding ring in the toilet. Why she'd do that when she had the whole ocean in front of her was just too weird. And, the implausibility of the wedding ring still being there peaking out of the bottom of the toilet bowl after the funeral and after the house has been shut up just doesn't ring true (sorry). Didn't those people pee?

Anyway, Julia makes a run for it and tries to start a new life. That's as far as I'm going with this review. Don't want to be a spoiler for the tense ending!

As far as senior citizens liking this movie, maybe not so much. There's flashback scenes that sort of confused my Mom and the suspense was not her favorite thing.

If you or your senior citizen liked this movie, you might also like:
   

The Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg

Rating: 10 arthritic fingers up.

Could The Sister Act be any funnier?! Whoopi Goldberg stands out as a comedian  when she goes undercover as a nun (Deloris) to avoid being, shall we say, annihilated by an ex-boyfriend (of the married variety).

The Mother at the convent is not a fan of Delores' and resists her attempts to interact with the tough neighborhood residents or create a bit more of a social environment inside the convict. Lots of good music and feel good scenes occur as the nuns clean up the area around their convent and create their own type of hipness and the tough guys in the neighborhood crumble.

During The Sister Act, Sister Mary Clarence realizes that the nuns may be good at praying but they suck as a choir. This is one choir that needs HELP and Dolores, with her vast musical background (an ex-lounge singer in Remo), takes over whipping the other sisters into shape, musically.

The Sister Act is an easy movie to follow and Mom chuckled all the way through it. With no sex (there is, of course, a vow of chastity....) or drugs but a lot of rock and roll, there are some great songs from the 70s which are recognizable to almost everyone. A particularly nice musical number is My Guy (performed as My God by the nuns). The finale can't be missed - "I will follow him" takes on a whole new meaning when it's sung by a group of nuns and not a bunch of teenagers crying about lost love.

So, grab your favorite senior citizen, pop some popcorn, and belly up to the sofa for The Sister Act.

If you liked The Sister Act, you might also like:

    

The Odd Couple with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon

Rating: 8 arthritic fingers up.

Dut dut dut dut dooo, dut dut doo dut dut doo doo....Anyone who is a fan of The Odd Couple will semi-recognize the opening music I semi-recreated above.

The Odd Couple is a very comical story of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, a couple as odd as it gets. After his marriage breaksup, the uber-neatnik Felix moves in with his old pal (and slob) Oscar Madison - to the chagrin of both parties. Oscar, of cigar-smoking, sock-throwing, food-under-the-bed fame and Felix who is always gripping and cleaning up entertain poker games with a host of interesting cronies - Vinnie, Murray (the cop), Roy, and Speed.

Then there the Pigeon sisters, Cicely and Gwendolyn who are pretty much interchangeable. Mom rolled at this part of the movie.

The Odd Couple is a movie that is easy to watch and a fun movie for a slow night. Created in 1968, The Odd Couple is as funny today as it was then.

The spin-off TV show is also very very funny. That show features Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar. A great way to keep someone in stitches for hours at a time.