The latest treat from Comcast is a month of MGM+ to enjoy.
Thirty days of movies with no commercials, absolutely free!
I had already alerted Barbara to this reward, so she and her Saturday night salad folks were going to tune in one of the films.
I had asked what they might watch, so I could watch the same one here.
They ended up with one of Carolyn's movies, I think.
Not me.
I like that this channel has the movies organized by genre.
I'd jumped right into "Science Fiction", hoping to maybe find "Nope", but spotting a lot of really old B-grade horror films (like "Creature From The Black Lagoon") and not a lot of real, honest to goodness, scifi (like "Dark City")...
until the very last movie listed.
The synopsis said it was about a guy who's double in an alternate universe was trying to steal his girlfriend.
As it turns out, that wasn't quite right, but it was enough to grab my attention.
I'm a big fan of such things as alternate universes and time travel, most especially when there is a bit of romance involved.
So, if you're reading this and maybe planning to watch it, leave now.
This is your one and only spoiler alert.
Seriously.
Come back later to finish this post, okay?
Bye!
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Alright, so here goes.
This isn't about alternate universes or parallel universes.
It's straight up time travel.
Here's the set up: Todd and Dave are best buddy party dudes and then Todd gets introduced to Dave's sister, Lucy, and falls in love.
Then something goes wrong and Todd and Lucy are no longer together.
After two years of being distraught, Todd discovers that there are people who have been sent over short periods of time by some guy with a lab in a trailer.
Todd wants to go back two years so he can make things right with his girlfriend, but he also wants the Todd of that time to be sent two years ahead to take his place in the present.
So, that's what happens.
It's also a future with no Lucy.
Had she moved to Seattle?
After all, they'd been arguing over her job promotion sending her there, when he'd never been out of Providence, RI.
Where was she???
Future Dave, who has been dealing with his best friend's malaise for two solid years, who has been dealing with his best friend's total refusal to accept the truth, has to break the news to him yet again that Todd's girlfriend - Dave's sister, remember - is dead, having died in a car crash after an argument with Todd.
The baby is even named after her.
Past Todd freaks out, but he eventually enlists the aid of Future Dave to find out just what the hell is going on.
Meanwhile, back two years earlier, Past Dave is suspicious of Future Todd, a slimmer, more responsible, more romantic version of the best friend he knew so well.
Lucy is loving the Future Todd, the man who agrees with her on moving to Seattle, the man who makes her romantic dinners and fancy brunches, the man who has put away his beat up T-shirts and dresses better.
Meanwhile, the mad scientist is after Past Todd, mistaking him for the Future Todd who took his lab trailer and hid it from him so no one else could time travel...
like the Past Todd showing back up in the past.
Eventually, Past Todd does find the trailer and does go back...
finding that Future Todd has kidnapped Past Dave and has him in the time travel chamber to get rid of him...
and Lucy finds that she has two Todds and a missing brother.
But all is soon remedied.
Future Todd agrees to return to his Lucy-less time, as Lucy tells him "I am not her."
Future Todd returns to Future Dave, who is so thrilled to have his friend back again that he greets him with a long hug and a welcome back into his life.
Past Dave is equally thrilled to get Past Todd back, even though Lucy will be taking him away to Seattle with her new job.
And Lucy?
She has the man she loved back again... kinda sorta.
He's learned to be more giving and more appreciative of her.
After all, he's not the same man he was before the time travel experience, nor is she the same woman she was, having been exposed to a different version of him.
That's the thing: no one cold go through such an ordeal without learning something about themselves and experiencing a consequence of that knowledge.
I woke up today still thinking about that movie.
In a way, it brought to mind one of my favorite films in the European time travel romance genre, one I haven't watched for a couple of years.
You know the one I mean: "Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea".
It has the twin astronaut brothers, with one dying accidentally and the other stepping into his lifestyle so as to win a woman's heart.
The thing is, it takes him a few tries to be able to get it right!
But he learns every time he steps back in time and repeats the process, changing the very character of the man he once was.
In a way, that's more like "Groundhog Day", right?
And that has no time travel in it at all!
Ah, but I do so love it!
Nothing like second chances to give a person a new lease on life!
In fact, I've already decided to watch "Big" for my final "Dollar Weekend Movie".
I'd planned on doing "The Fifth Element", but the Tom Hanks film won out.
Not because it's time travel - as it certainly is not.
His body changes, but not his mind, letting him have the same mindset as a middle-school kid even though he's wearing visage of a man in his thirties.
(Note: Tom Hanks was 32 years old when it came out in 1988.)
By the movie's end, his body reverts back to its initial state, leaving him a kid again, but a kid with more knowledge of the world and an appreciation of being a child with only the responsibilities of a child.
Speaking of which... I better go ahead and start that movie before day's end!
Later!
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