Every year, Dan attends a computer hacker-oriented "business conference" in Las Vegas for a week. It's a fun week for him since he likes to play poker and he gets to spend time with a few friends from college and work. It's also Dan Appreciation Week here in Haley Land. I don't mind it too much for the first couple of days, but I'm usually boring myself by Day 3. Usually I catch up on all the girly movies I've been wanting to watch and do any weird projects around the house that I would usually pass up in favor of doing something with Dan. (On deck for this week: Watching the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice and organizing our kitchen drawers ... I know, I'm so exciting.) I'm not sure if I can find Pride and Prejudice to rent anywhere though, so I thought I would ask for movie reccomendations. What have you seen recently that you would reccomend, or what movie do you think everyone should see no matter what? I don't promise to watch them all, but I'm taking suggestions.
Since I've asked for your short list of go-to movies, here are a few from my list, pulled from an article I had to write for work back in December. Note the film ratings, which indicate that most of these aren't for kids, and don't make too much fun of me if you hate my taste.

High Fidelity, R
Based on the excellent best-selling novel by Nick Hornby, this is a dark comedy about dissecting the ruins of failed relationships. Cusack's character, Rob, is a mid-30s record store manager who has recently been dumped by his long-time girlfriend, Laura. In an effort to determine why he keeps getting dumped, Rob replays his top five worst breakups, and even contacts the women who dumped him to ask them why he keeps getting left behind. As depressing as that sounds, it's actually a very funny movie made better by sharp writing and a side-splitting supporting cast that includes Jack Black as Rob's music-obsessed slacker store employee, Joan Cusack as Rob's tightly-wound sister, and Tim Robbins, the man Laura dates after breaking up with Rob.
This movie, like the book before it, also delves into the odd connections between the music we like, the people we love, and the mistakes we make over and over again. As Rob asks in the opening scene: "Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable, or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"

The Big Kahuna, R
As a fair warning, this movie basically consists of three guys sitting in a hotel room talking about the big questions of life for two hours. Unless you find this kind of thing enjoyable, you might be bored to tears by this movie. But it certainly helps that one of the verbose men is Kevin Spacey, one of my all-time favorite actors. Spacey was the driving force behind bringing this story, which was originally a stage play, to film. Spacey plays a cynical, hardened salseman, on a business trip with his likewise bitter and recently divorced co-worker Phil, played by Danny Devito. The two of them have been sent to a convention with the sole purpose of meeting and making a sales pitch to a top-dog sales executive they refer to only as "The Big Kahuna." Along for the ride is a recent hire named Bob who is young, newly-married and announces early on in the film that he is a born-again Christian. The ensuing conversations are thought-provoking. So if you're in the mood for a movie to make you think. this is it. Another warning: Spacey's character uses a lot of foul language in this movie, so it's not one for the kids.

Sense and Sensibility, PG
Emma Thompson's brilliant screen adaption of this classic Jane Austen novel is a joy to watch, and asks a very good question: When a girl falls in love, should she let the man know how far gone she is or play her cards close to the vest? Emma Thompson plays Elinor, older sister to Kate Winslet's Marianne. In the course of the film, both sisters fall for the charms of two very different men. Elinor is smitten with the always-charming Edward Ferrars, played by Hugh Grant, but she keeps her feelings to herself when it becomes apparent that objections from his family will keep them apart. Marianne falls for a firtatious rake named Willoughby, but doesn't have the sense to keep him guessing. The story follows both girls in the trials and tribulations brought on by their different approaches to love. It's not one for the guys, but the ladies will give it a full box of Kleenex rating.

The Family Man, PG-13
A high-powered Wall Street executive named Jack is celebrating Christmas Eve alone by working until midnight and then stopping into a convenience store on his way home to buy some eggnog. While he is in the store, the man in line in front of him pulls a gun and begins threatening to shoot everyone in the store if he isn't given the money for a lottery ticket he believes is worth $250. The cashier insists that the ticket is fake, but Jack steps in and gives the man the cash to save everyone's lives. He walks out with the man, and they talk. It soon becomes apparent that the man Jack is talking to knows too much about him to be some guy off the street. The man tells Jack that he has the power to grant him one wish, anything he wants. Jack replies that he has everything he needs and he has no regrets. But the next morning, he wakes up in a house in New Jersey, lying in bed next to a woman he almost married after college but instead broke up with in order to give his career his utmost attention. The angel/God figure from the store tells Jack that he is getting a glimpse into what his life could have been like if he had made different choices as a younger man. The question then becomes which life will he choose?

French Kiss, PG-13
Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline star in this blatant chick-flick about a woman named Kate whose doctor fiancee goes to a medical conference in Paris and calls a few days later to tell her that he met a "French godess" and the wedding is off. In spite of her horror of flying, Kate gets on a plane to try to find him, but along the way she gets tangled up with a Frenchman named Luc, a jewel thief who first uses her to try to smuggle a stolen necklace into the country, then tries to help her find her fiancee, then, (because, after all, this is a Meg Ryan movie) falls in love with her. Ryan's performance as the highly-neurotic Kate is truly funny, and Kline shows off his acting versatility as Luc, the cynical thief who does his best to get under Kate's skin.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, R
I am not a big Jim Carrey fan. Somehow, Ace Ventura, Pet Detective just didn't do it for me. But this movie, which stars Carrey and Kate Winslet as two ex-lovers, is excellent. Joel (Carrey) and Clementine (Winslet) had a relationship that lasted about two years, but at the start of the film, we learn that they have recently broken up after a serious fight. But when Joel begins to have second thoughts about the breakup and goes to see Clementine to try to patch things up, she does not know who he is. He learns that shortly after they broke up, she decided to undergo a ground-breaking medical procedure to erase her memories of him. Shocked and hurt, Joel decides that he, too, will have the procedure done. This film is, at times, confusing because certain events are shown out of sequence, but it provides an excellent backdrop for the characters to work through the questions of why the heart remembers a person, and what it would truly take to forget them forever.