So I randomly ended up watching ‘The Aviator’ again. Found myself in a Wikipedia binge on Howard Hughes and felt like watching the movie. My review: Pretty dang good! Alan Alda is a delight, but I gotta say that Decappytoad fella might just be a pretty okay actor. Funny how indifferent I was to him growing up…
I’m old enough to recall the Leo Fever at my school in the late 90s. One of our classes even watched that bizarre Romeo & Juliet adaption he was in, not that anybody complained. Roll that little TV cart out and you could screen anything to rave reviews if it meant avoiding a math quiz… Thinking back I honestly think our teacher just didn’t feel like teaching that day and rented the movie more for herself. We were nine.
…
Well anyway, between that movie and Titanic following, Leo Fever was at its peak. As a guy, Titanic is an unpleasant horror flick. So outside of that French girl scene, I didn’t care much for it. At the time I considered Batman & Robin as clearly the superior film.
I quickly realized the girls I was starting-to-sorta-be-interested-in damn near WORSHIPPED Leo Decapricorn. I remember them carrying actual physical pictures, likely cut out from magazines (for Gen Z twerps: imagine the internet printed out on dead trees and mailed to your house every month), and spontaneously squealing in a register that frightened canines when exchanging their treasured images of teen heartthrobs.
It was certainly a strange thing to witness, but shortly after that ‘The Mummy’ came out and I finally understood where they were coming from…
-K
