34 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
34 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
if you've ever perused my college comedy diary " another year in the life of a nerd " ( i never run out of cheap plugs ) , you know i didn't get along with my first-semester roommate too well .
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in fact , during the three-week period between thanksgiving and christmas break , i said a total of four sentences to him .
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so when i saw in the residence hall cable listings a movie called roommates , i envisioned 90 minutes of conflict between a couple of bickering young adults trapped in a 10 x 13 foot dorm room .
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then i saw that the star of roommates is peter falk .
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scratch that idea .
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but i still say someone should film the story of two college roommates whose relationship is less than ideal .
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of course , in my case it would be a silent picture .
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even without the college element , i still decided to watch roommates because i had absolutely nothing to do , unless you count studying for final exams ( and who does ? ) .
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i'm glad i did .
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peter falk's performance was actually what made the movie .
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and this is a guy i never considered a real actor , more like someone who went around in a trenchcoat solving prescripted mysteries .
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falk pleasantly surprised me here , permanently earning my respect , so all you " columbo " fans who think i live to insult the guy can just falk off .
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falk plays rocky , a 107-year-old polish baker who raises his grandson after both the kid's parents die .
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the movie begins with the mom's death and the son moving in with his grandparents .
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after a couple stops along the son's journey to manhood , roommates progresses to the present day , with the grandson a surgeon and rocky in a condemned house he refuses to leave .
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the surgeon reluctantly offers the only possible solution -- rocky will have to move into his place , the basement of a building rented by a group of chinese students ( " communists ! " ) .
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the movie spans nine more years of rocky's relationship with his grandson , and the trials posed when the grandson meets and falls in love with--gasp--a woman , and starts spending all his time with her .
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so , in his grandson's absence , rocky turns his pursuits to professional boxing , achieveing the world heavyweight title in a climactic fight with apollo creed . . .
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or am i confusing movie plots again ?
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roommates has an almost epic feel to it , covering several generations of a family with one fiesty immigrant who refuses to die .
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death , though , knocks at the door of almost every other major character in the the movie .
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roommates has about as many casualties as the first halloween .
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the number can't be counted on one hand , unless of course you're the victim of some hideous genetic mutation .
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and you can probably guess who says farewell to planet earth at the end of the movie ( no , not duran duran ) .
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i won't come out and say it .
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instead , i'll just sit here and hum " eye of the tiger " until each and every one of you figures it out .
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roommates plays on all the major emotions .
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it knows when to make you laugh and when to make you cry .
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movies that can perfectly mix comedy and drama are always hits with the audience , even though this one bombed at the theaters .
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my point ?
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there are no absolutes .
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or , another possible point , peter falk just isn't such a great box office draw .
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either way , this is still a good movie and you should give it a chance like i did , whether you hate your roommate or not .
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