# What is your standby "alone time" movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249 "2007-04-09T01:46:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/41 "2007-04-09T17:23:00Z")
Mine’s **Anne of Green Gables**. It’s like hanging out with an old friend. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/42 "2007-04-09T17:41:42Z")
[QUOTE=Beadalin] Mine’s **Anne of Green Gables**. It’s like hanging out with an old friend. [/QUOTE] Oh! Oh! I miss Anne so much! My videotape got all squeaky and warbly, I watched it so much. Now we don’t even have a VCR. I have to go get the DVD today. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/43 "2007-04-09T18:54:55Z")
_Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead_ - And you thought existentialism wasn’t funny. _The Madness of King George_ - “What what?” _The Right Stuff_ - Probably the most hypnotic movie I’ve ever seen. Again and again and again. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/44 "2007-04-09T19:10:14Z")
_The Matrix_, and certain scenes must be turned up to eleven; If I need a humor pick-me-up, _Caddyshack_. Watching Rodney turning on the golfbag radio and boogying makes me laugh every time. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/45 "2007-04-09T19:15:48Z")
**The Shawshank Redemption** **Chicago** **The Princess Bride** **Forrest Gump** **Glory** **The Green Mile** ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/46 "2007-04-09T19:17:39Z")
When hubby is out of town, I like to play a double-feature of _The Princess Bride_ and Terry Gilliam’s _Brazil_. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/47 "2007-04-10T01:10:53Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] So by the later Due South oeuvre, do you mean the RayK episodes instead of the RayV ones? I’m at a bit of a crossroads here. I like the style of the RayV Due South episodes better, for their more serious and less-slapstick style, but I like RayK so much more than RayV. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I like the slapstick better – I’ve come to realize that I prefer almost all my action with a seasoning of comedy, hence my affinity for Nicolas Cage and Bruce Willis movies – _and_ I like RayK better, so it’s a win/win! 🙂 There are some standout episodes in the RayV seasons, like “Pizza and Promises” and “Victoria’s Secret,” but on the whole, the RayK episodes are the ones I come back to. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/48 "2007-04-10T01:20:36Z")
Depends on what I’m in the mood for. A crying mood? _Empire of the Sun_ Amusing and feeling nostalgic? Might be _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_, \*Ghostbusters \* or _Joe vs the Volcano_ TV show? Could be _Buffy_, \*Angel \* or _Dead Like Me_ - all three I can pop into at any point and not be confused about what’s already happened. Cheesy 80’s miniseries/bad costumes & plot? _V_ or _V: The Final Battle_ Musical? Then it’s all about _The Sound of Music_ ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/49 "2007-04-10T01:21:19Z")
My favorite “alone time” movie is “Big Trouble in Little China”. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, whatever I SHOULD be doing at that time, I can sit down and watch that movie again. It holds up well. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/50 "2007-04-10T01:30:22Z")
[QUOTE=medstar] My favorite “alone time” movie is “Big Trouble in Little China”. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, whatever I SHOULD be doing at that time, I can sit down and watch that movie again. It holds up well. [/QUOTE] Medstar, can you stop rubbing your body against mine? Because I can’t concentrate when you do that. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/51 "2007-04-10T01:39:36Z")
\*\*Tombstone \*\*- “You tell ‘em I’m comin’… and Hell’s comin’ with me! HELL’s comin’ with me!” ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/52 "2007-04-10T01:52:28Z")
[QUOTE=Tracy Lord] I like the slapstick better – I’ve come to realize that I prefer almost all my action with a seasoning of comedy, hence my affinity for Nicolas Cage and Bruce Willis movies – _and_ I like RayK better, so it’s a win/win! 🙂 There are some standout episodes in the RayV seasons, like “Pizza and Promises” and “Victoria’s Secret,” but on the whole, the RayK episodes are the ones I come back to. [/QUOTE] Well, the best RayV episode that I’ve seen so far, I think, is “The Deal”. You gotta love an episode where the show’s hero is taken out of the action at the end of the second act, leaving the sidekick to set things right, street justice style. The end of that episode has what I think is one of the more brutal beatdowns I’ve seen in a comedy show, just in terms of sheer emotional investment RayV put into it and how the other guy just about tried to crawl under the wall to get away from him. Also, “The Deal” featured one of the steamiest first-aid sequences I’ve ever seen before. 😃 “I guess that’s what happens in a country with gun control.” “No, I believe he shot the otter first.” ---
**Author:** ![Drake\_Tungsten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@Drake\_Tungsten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drake_Tungsten)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/53 "2007-04-10T01:59:58Z")
Almost Famous Rushmore Casablanca ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/54 "2007-04-10T02:10:10Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] I am slightly ashamed to say: _Practical Magic_. [/QUOTE] I can relate. I don’t know what it is about that move that forces me to watch it over and over. In the last year I find myself secretly watching **De-Lovely** quite a bit though. I am very possessive of my Kevin Kline singing Cole Porter and going to heaven time and for some reason I don’t want to share it. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/55 "2007-04-10T02:37:00Z")
Hands down, mine is _Coal Miner’s Daughter_. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Perro\_Fumando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e9c0ed/32.png) [@El\_Perro\_Fumando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Perro_Fumando)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/56 "2007-04-10T13:57:58Z")
[QUOTE=ArrMatey!] Not a movie per se, but my DVD collection of **Sports Night**. Out of all the series I really love, this is the only one that, for whatever reason, I can’t seem to get my friends to watch. ☹ [/QUOTE] That’s only because I’m not one of your friends. Seriously, ditto to what **ArrMatey!** said, and add **The Princess Bride Forrest Gump Big Daddy Legally Blonde** ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/57 "2007-04-10T18:37:14Z")
[QUOTE=Lsura] Depends on what I’m in the mood for. A crying mood? _Empire of the Sun_ [/QUOTE] I just finally saw this movie recently and for the first time after having been told it was an underappreciated masterpiece. Holy crap. Beautiful and depressing and painful. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Millamant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@Mrs.Millamant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Millamant)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/58 "2007-04-10T18:39:06Z")
Most of mine have already been mentioned, but the ultimate, for me, is _The Slipper and the Rose._ It has Richard Chamberlain swinging from rafters while singing cheerfully about how he’s going to die someday. It has a roomful of old men doing a kick line while singing about protocol. It has the best, practical, sarcastic fairy godmother ever. (“I suppose I shall simply have to rise to the occasion and do something spectacular yet again. And spectaculars always take so much out of me.”) It takes the story of Cinderella and not only does it not turn Cinderella into a simpering idiot (she’s rather practical, and while she enjoys the ball, doesn’t imagine that it’s going to change her life in any way), but it actually pays a little bit of attention to the political mess that a prince deciding that he was going to marry some random peasant would cause. Another is _A Knight’s Tale_, which is truly the best of movies (anything involving Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, Alan Tudyk, Heath Ledger, and really, everyone who did not name their child “Audio Science”) and the worst of movies (anything involving Shannyn Sossamon). It is silly fluff, but I love it so. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/59 "2007-04-10T18:59:47Z")
I haven’t seen _Empire of the Sun_ in ages. I love that movie! As far as something I will watch if it’s on, no matter what else I’m supposed to be doing is _The Red Violin_. So sad, so sweet, such lovely music. ---
**Author:** ![tomh987](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@tomh987](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomh987)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-standby-alone-time-movie/399249/60 "2007-04-10T23:09:00Z")
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