Working the Weekend with Luke-Never Forget, Joan Rivers, Trilogy Countdown #5

Welcome back to another edition of “Working the Weekend with Luke”. Hopefully, you’ve had a good weekend thus far and are enjoying a relaxing Sunday. I’ve got my daughters this weekend, so relaxation really isn’t an option for me, but that’s okay. We spent Friday night enjoying some pizza and another viewing of Frozen, which I’m actually okay with. Seriously, it’s a good movie and watching my girls act it out is hysterical. We spent yesterday at a pumpkin festival nearby which included a parade, a few rides, and some face painting, so another win. They’re down for a nap at the moment, which is allowing me to watch some of the Cowboys game and get this out to you, so you better enjoy it. Today, I’ll be bringing you #5 in the trilogy countdown and a tribute to Joan Rivers you probably haven’t seen, but before I get to that, let’s start with the biggest day of last week.

9/11-NEVER FORGET

Since that fateful Tuesday morning, I’ve always been fascinated by September 11th. It would be very easy for me to spend a great deal of time talking about it and/or writing about it, but I won’t do that here today. Thursday marked the 13th anniversary of the terrorist attacks and I’m still captivated by the images. I still remember staying up for nearly two days straight watching the live coverage as the events unfolded in 2001. And this year, just as I do every year, I went looking through the program guide, wondering which show I would watch to remind myself, even if just for a day, what the people that were directly affected by this horrific tragedy went through. I’ve yet to decide whether or not that makes me a sick individual, but I digress. The documentary I chose to watch this year was one I’ve seen before, but I believe is one of the most interesting ones out there. 102 Minutes That Changed America gives the viewer a different perspective on the events that played out in New York, focusing on nine different pieces of footage shot from regular people. If you do plan to ever watch this, please be aware that the footage is unfiltered and can be very disturbing. There is clear footage of some of the people that jumped from the World Trade Center, so again, consider yourself warned. I really have no idea why I choose to watch these things every year. I really don’t. I didn’t know a single person in New York or Washington or Pennsylvania, but as I said previously, I’m fascinated by the whole thing.

I honestly didn’t even plan to write any of that. The whole point I was going to make was simply about the term “Never Forget”, which you undoubtedly saw on your facebook or Twitter this week, probably something similar to the picture you see above. While I’ve got zero problem with anybody putting something like this, there’s something else I want all of you to think about, and I include myself in this. I want everyone to never forget the way we treated each other after the attacks. We were all a little nicer to each other back then. We became a society, even for a few weeks, that we all wish that we were all the time. We held open a few more doors. We helped a neighbor that maybe we didn’t know before. We let go of some of the petty arguments and situations that continue to plague us all. If there’s anything positive that we could take away from 9/11, maybe that was it. Maybe we really are capable of better things. Maybe that’s why I go back and watch.

JOAN RIVERS

I know that I’m a week late on this, but I just wanted to comment quickly on the passing of Joan Rivers. I don’t pretend to be an expert on her, but what I do know is that she was a funny lady. Without her doing what she did for women comics, we wouldn’t have Whitney Cummings or Amy Schumer, so I’ll thank her just for that. If only her daughter wasn’t so annoyingly awful. If you’re a fan or Joan Rivers, then I’m sure you’ve seen all of her greatest clips, so I won’t give you those. If you really know me, then you know that I’m a big pro wrestling nerd. I’ve watched since I was a kid, so what I have for you today is a tribute I saw on WWE Monday Night Raw. Enjoy.

THE TRILOGY COUNTDOWN

#10-THE INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE

#9-THE NAKED GUN TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE

#8-THE LECTER TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE

#7-THE MAN WITH NO NAME TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE

#6-THE KARATE KID TRILOGY-IF YOU MISSED IT, CLICK HERE

#5-THE BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY

BACK TO THE FUTURE, BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II, BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III

 Okay, here we go with the top five in my favorite trilogies. You had to know that this was coming at some point. It’s the 80s at its finest. It’s Michael J. Fox. It’s Christopher Lloyd. It’s Crispin Glover. It’s Lea Thompson. It’s Back to the Future and it’s #5 on the countdown.

To put it simply, the original is a classic. If you’ve seen the top 15 movie lists going around facebook the past few weeks, then you’ve probably seen this movie on at least a few of your friends’ picks. If you can get past the creepiness of a high school kid hanging out with an oddball scientist and nobody batting an eye at it, then it’s nearly impossible not to love this movie.

There’s not much I can say about this movie that you don’t already know, so I won’t bore you with a full synopsis. We’re in 1985 and then we’re in 1955 and Marty McFly is making sure that he doesn’t screw anything up. Chaos ensues, his mother tries to bang him, he nearly evaporates, but makes it back to his own time after a serious lightning storm. Damn, if I were to try to sell a movie to a studio right now with that description, you think they’d go for it?  But seriously, this film really is what entertainment is supposed to be. It gives you some great comedy, some great drama if you really pay attention, and some amazing quotes. Come on, you can’t tell me that even to this day, that you don’t use “HELLO! MCFLY?” from time to time. But my favorite quote comes from perhaps my favorite character. Classic Glover.

 Back to the Future Part II continues the saga where the first movie left off. Doc has taken Marty into the year 2015 to solve a problem with one of his kids. More chaos ensues, Biff is crazy rich due to a sports almanac that seems way too thin to have that many years of scores in it, flying cars, and more. In fact, with this date coming up next year, I’m hoping to open an exact replica of that kick-ass 80s café they were hanging out in. While I still think the original is the best in the trilogy, there are a lot of people that would list this one instead. For those that do think that part two is the best, I can’t blame you and I’ll give you two reasons why. For those who grew up with these flicks, you can’t tell me that you never wished you had one of these.

No, not the shoes, but those are pretty badass too. But if you’re around my age group and you didn’t somehow try to invent a hoverboard, your childhood was awful or you’re just a stone-faced liar. Reason number two should be quite obvious for those who know me.

The Cubs win the World Series! I love Hollywood.

While Back to the Future Part III is widely regarded as the weakest of the trilogy, I still enjoy it. Maybe it’s because I’m a big fan of the Old West, but the last entry closes things out rather nicely. Michael J. Fox even gets to use a really bad Irish accent. There’s a gunfight, a train rundown, and hey, Doc deserves a chick too. We’re taken back to the beginning of the clock tower and the story comes full circle. Marty returns home to 1985 for the final time and he and Jennifer watch the final destruction of the Delorean. Doc and Ted Danson’s wife show up in a train time machine with two creepy-looking kids and some great advice. All is well in Hill Valley and all is awesome in the #5 entry in the trilogy countdown.

Well, I’m outatime (damn, I’m clever) for today. Do you have any thoughts on 9/11, Joan Rivers, or Back to the Future? Leave them in the comments section below, or just follow me and tweet @THElukenorris. But as always, before I go, here’s your Beverly Hills, 90210 clip of the week. That’s right, I’ve still got Tiffani Thiessen on the brain.