To go or not to go? That is the question.
You`ve just received an invitation to a school reunion, wedding or anniversary party where you`re sure to run into that ”certain someone” you haven`t seen in eons.
The prospect leaves you feeling (a) ecstatic, (b) weak in the knees, (c)
nauseous or (d) all of the above.
Reunions can be stressful. Therefore, they make great fodder for the movies. Here are a few reunion-themed films on video that might influence your decision about that fateful invitation:
– ”Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986): Talk about your wildest dreams coming true! Through a cosmic chain of events, an unhappy middle-age woman (Kathleen Turner) is whisked from the scene of her high school reunion back to her adolescence.
She gets to relive the sweetness of her fledgling romance with her unfaithful husband-to-be (Nicolas Cage), finally dates a beatnik boy that she`d always had a secret crush on, and befriends a brainy introvert that the other kids shunned.
– ”The Big Chill” (1983): The funeral of a friend (Kevin Costner plays the corpse!) brings a gang of `60s radicals-turned-yuppies (William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Jo Beth Williams, Jeff Goldblum and more) back together for an emotionally charged weekend.
They rediscover what they really liked about each other back in college-and finally admit what they hated about each other too.
– ”The Way We Were” (1973): Whip out the Kleenex for this one. A handsome and popular preppie (Robert Redford) and an intellectual ugly duckling (Barbra Streisand) cross paths after college and embark on a rocky road strewn with romance and rejection.
– ”Texasville” (1990): The characters from Peter Bogdanovich`s classic
”The Last Picture Show” return to their hometown for a centennial celebration. They`re older, flabbier and just as confused as when they were kids. Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges star.
– ”More American Graffiti” (1979): The sequel to the nostalgic hit
”American Graffiti” catches up with Ron Howard, Paul LeMat, Mackenzie Phillips and others from the original cast as they confront grownup problems in the turbulent late `60s.
– ”National Lampoon`s Class Reunion” (1982): Unfortunately, this is not a follow-up to the hilarious ”National Lampoon`s Animal House,” although Stephen Furst is in both films.
Rather, it`s a dumb, would-be comedy about a high school reunion where a crazed killer is just one of the pathetic weirdos in attendance.
– ”Violets Are Blue” (1986): If you`re going stag to your class reunion and expect to see an old flame there, don`t let your spouse watch this movie. Kevin Kline and Sissy Spacek play one-time honeys who rekindle their romance years later, although he`s now married to someone else.
– ”Late for Dinner” (1991, premiering on video April 29): Can true love survive an Ice Age? This sentimental fantasy flick says yes. Unjustly accused of a crime and eluding the police, a young man is unwittingly frozen in a cryogenic experiment.
He thaws out nearly 30 years later and goes looking for his wife and daughter, painfully aware that their lives have gone on without him.
How will they react when he shows up on their doorstep, looking exactly the same as he did on the day he vanished? Watch and see. Brian Wimmer
(”China Beach”) and Marcia Gay Harden star.
– ”Four Friends” (1981): This ”deep” and bittersweet film is destined to make you say, ”Hmmmmm . . .” A quartet of bosom buddies finishes high school with the customary vim, vigor and wholehearted belief that they will set the world on fire.
As we follow them through the ensuing years and various reunions, we see how each handles the eventual realization that life is no bowl of cherries. With Craig Wasson and Jodi Thelan.
– ”Seems Like Old Times” (1980): Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn star in this Neil Simon comedy about a loser who won`t leave his soft-hearted ex-wife and her new husband (Charles Grodin) alone.
