Baoding Balls
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MOVIE REVIEW OF THE DAY:

Two of a Kind

No, I am not reviewing that John Travolta/Olivia Newton John turd that effectively ruined Travolta's career until Quentin Tarantino rediscovered him. I hated that film and I wish I could wash the memory from my mind. It was terrible.

The film I am reviewing today is the George Burns/Robby Benson flick Two of a Kind. This movie is something that I remember from my fifth grade "Movie Day" with my cute teacher, Mrs. Ashlock. She popped this movie into the VCR and we sat back and watched it with home-popped popcorn and tepid Pepsi poured from a two liter bottle.

In this film, Nolie Minor (Robby Benson) and his elderly grandfather, Ross Minor (George Burns), are two of a kind in that nobody seems to believe in them but each other. Nolie, a mentally retarded 21-year-old man with the intelligence of a child, goes to a special school for the mentally retarded and lives at home with his parents, who can't seem to agree on how to raise their son.

His father (Cliff Robertson) struggles with embarassment over Nolie's disability and wants to see him independant as an adult, while his overprotective mother (Barbara Barrie) is unwilling to let him go and still treats him like a child. Meanwhile, 81-year-old Ross is left by Nolie's parents in a nursing home, where he is given medications that seem to take all the life out of him.

When Nolie goes to the home to visit his grandfather for the first time in two years, he is shocked and heartbroken to find him bound to a wheelchair, unable to respond or communicate. However, he is determined to bring his grandfather back to the old "Papa Ross" that he has once known. Nolie visits him frequently in the home to do exercises with him and spend time with him, and gradually sees Ross improve back to the way he was.

At the same time, Nolie learns some valuable lessons about life from his grandfather, who frequently calls him "Einstein" and encourages him to always believe in himself. In summation, this movie has its funny moments and its sad moments, but is basically a poignant story of the power of love between a boy and his grandfather, and how believing in someone can truly make a difference in their lives.

I really dug the way that the movie played and upon my viewing of it today, it was every bit as sappy-sweet as I remember it. It was a blast.

Boading Balls:

I still have boxes and boxes of Baoding Balls stacked up in my living room and my wife wants me to unload them soon. Please visit my site and buy a pair or three. George Burns is looking down from heaven and he wants you to buy a pair: http://www.freewebstore.org/brownpanda/