Top 10 Movies That Made Me a Better Human | Part 1

Movies have a unique way of touching our hearts and shaping our minds. They inspire us, challenge us, and sometimes they even change us. In today's episode, I'm counting down the top ten films that don't just entertain me, but inspire me to become a better human being. From life lessons on love and kindness to stories of resilience and hope, these movies left a lasting impact on me. Stick around. You just might find your next source of inspiration. I'm Joe, my pal, right over there, holding a bucket of popcorn and a 44 ounce cherry icee. That's Kurt. And we are dudes in progress. Hey, Kurt.

Hey, Joe. 44oz, huh? You know they made that one that big.

And free refills, right?

I do like my slushies.

Do you like going to the movies? Like, to the movies? Like, at a theater?

Yeah, of course. I don't do it very often. Funny enough, but I do enjoy it when I do go.

Yeah, I wish I did it more often. It is. It is a bit of an event, but I, you know, like. Like it's always been, you better take a small loan out for the concession stand. That's where the movies. That's where movies really make their money, at the concession stand. And it shows, right? Get a bucket of popcorn for $12. I mean, it is free refills, but I don't care, man. You gotta. You gotta eat a lot of popcorn to get $12 worth of popcorn, right?

I know. Yeah. It's still really enjoyable. Yeah, I like the big. I do like the big sizes. I'm not gonna lie about that. I always got the biggest one. All that goopy butter.

There's a couple theaters that have flavoring that you can sprinkle on top of your popcorn, like ranch flavoring or cheddar cheese flavoring or garlic flavoring. I'll go to town on that. One of the worst decisions I ever made in my life was getting my money's worth on all you can eat popcorn. One time. Got sick as a dog.

Yeah. It is a fun event, fun time out in the big screen. There is some impact there from the music and just being fully enveloped into a. Yeah, a movie that big.

Immerse yourself in it, for sure. And movie theaters, man, they've. They've gotten comfortable, right?

Oh, yeah.

Right. And you got the reclining seats and your cup holder, and many, many movie theaters now have at your seat food service, where they just come and bring you your food. It's pretty cool.

That's true. We've had life for many, many years up in Winsted north of me, and it's called the Gilson. It's usually second run movies after they've made their first run there. And then it's all about the dinner. But that's been there for many, many years. But they are fun. They have a lot more comfort you can find at a movie theater, for sure.

How do you feel about 3d movies?

That's an interesting question. It sounds. I like tech stuff. I don't know. It sounds. It sounds fun at first, but I don't think it's necessary.

They make 3d movies so they have 3d effects, and they always seem so contrived to me. I'm just waiting for AI movies where, where you are. Maybe Nai is not the best word for, like, holographic movies. That's the best word for holographic movies, where you are really, truly immersed in the, in the, in the movie itself. I can't wait for that time. And that's coming. That's, that's definitely coming where it's around, truly around you in three D. And maybe there come. They'll come a time where you can actually interact with the, with the events of the movie. That would be neat.

Yeah. Disney World's always had, like, the Muppets 3D, that, which I thought was just fascinating. Of course, it's a much shorter experience, and they are really trying to do effects that really are entertaining, whereas an action film or something, it's there, but I don't know that it adds a whole lot for me.

Well, let me ask you, Kurt, what is the last movie you saw that truly inspired you?

Interesting that you brought this up as a resource, I think, recently on the podcast I did, I know I thought of you when I saw this. Sometimes I'll scroll for what seems like hours trying to find something and all the movie channel selections that I have on my box here, and I get frustrated because I can't find anything. And I stumbled across this film called the Peanut Butter Falcon. And just as much as I'm disappointed sometimes in starting to watch a film that's not really catching my attention, this one really grabbed my attention and kept it the whole time. And I'm always really fond of, or what's the right word, but the down syndrome kids. And if I see a film like that, that's probably why I clicked on it. And I think I recognize, you probably know the actors better than I do, but I think I recognize the main guy who comes, his pal, and they're not pals in the beginning, so there's a whole progression and a, an epic to this journey that they're going on. But the enthusiasm of this young boy to become a professional wrestler and, and the dismissiveness of this kid who's in trouble, he's running from trouble. And they go on this little journey down the east coast along the beach, too, in, I think. Are they in like North Carolina?

I think so.

Something like that.

Shia LaBeouf is the actor who plays the main character.

Okay.

And the peanut butter Falcon. I love that movie, too. And I don't remember you recommending it to me, but you said you recommended, recommended it to me and you may have recommended it to me on, on this show, Kurt, and I just forgot cuz I gave it. Like you said, I gave that as a, as a resource because it's such a sweet, feel good and inspirational movie. Just inspires you to be, be a better person, inspires you to be a kinder person, to think about other people's needs and to understand the dreams, no matter how crazy they might be of another person and helping that person with their dreams. It was, it is a truly inspiring movie. I like it a lot. And it seems like, I mean, I don't know how much Shia LaBeouf pulls in to be an actor now, but it seems like it was probably a relatively low budget movie. But still, it's a, it's a neat movie. I like the Peanut butter Falcon a lot.

Yeah. Because it surprised me. I just stumbled across it, didn't know anything about it. No one recommended it to me. I just started watching it. And I love that. I love it on a Sunday afternoon and I got nothing else to watch because I don't. I haven't been watching a lot of movies lately, Joe, but that one sticks in my mind is a recent real favorite and a surprise.

Well, the last movie that I saw that truly inspired me wasn't a movie. And I'm not going to talk about it here because I'm looking at some notes that you took on this show and I'm not going to steal your thunder, but the last inspirational movie that I saw wasn't technically a movie. But wow, did it blow me away. It's fantastic. It's inspiring, it's thought provoking. Uh, it'll, it'll make you realize what some people have been through at a very young age. And, uh, wow. I mean, I don't want to give it away because I think you know where I'm going with this, Kurt. But it was very recent for me. Uh, and, uh, so anyway, well, we'll we'll chat about it. So I thought it'd be fun. Uh, you know, we're kind of in the vacation mode here. I'm just coming off vacation and you're getting ready to leave for vacation. And I just thought it'd be fun, light hearted to talk about, to talk about movies and specifically movies that I wanted to say movies that inspired me, but that's not even the best way. I wanted to look at this. I wanted to look at this as movies that made me a better human being, that, that changed me in some way to be a better human being. And some of these movies are old movies and some of them are, I don't know, as I look at my, listen, none of these are actually terribly recent movies. One of them might be, but these are movies that had, that had an impact on me. And I want to say movies that made me a better human being. Is that fair enough?

Yeah. I'm curious how you're going to spin this. And as you were just talking, some thoughts that popped in my head. I didn't write these down, but I was doing some searches and I like the historical movies, too. And that give, I walk away from those being feeling pretty grateful of my own personal situation.

I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that the last movie that inspired me, and I'm going to steal your thunder a little bit, and I'm not going to talk a lot about it because I want you to talk about it was band of brothers, the HBO special. I know for a few years, Kurt, you've been asking me to watch this series, and I'm not big on war movies. I don't mind them, but this was something special and I'll let you talk about it when the time comes. Fair enough.

Yeah. You've already plugged it. I'm so excited that you watched it. We were just talking before we hit record. I'm glad you told me you were going to and you binge watched it over a weekend. I'm glad it hooked you in.

Let's go ahead and move forward with the list. I have my top ten list of movies that inspired me to be a better human being. And I'm going to start with number ten. My number ten is pay it forward. Do you remember this movie back in 2000?

I don't. This is one of the ones on your list that I'm not familiar with.

Yeah. It stars Haley Joe Osment, Kevin Spacey's in it, Helen Hunt. This, this kid Trevor, he's a, he's a young boy that was inspired by a. An assignment from grade school. He wanted to do a test to make the world a better place. Just. Bye. Doing a good deed for three people. Three people. That's it. And then he asked those three people to do a good deed for three more people. And it created this ripple effect. And there's a scene in the movie, Kurt, where some guy pulls over randomly, gives his, like, rolls Royce to another man. And it all started way back on Trevor's school experiment.

Wow. Yeah. I've never heard of this movie. And now I'm inspired to watch it. So I thank you for the. I always love getting recommendations. So this is great.

It's such a good movie and it feels so good and it's, you know, I mean, it's 24 years old. It really tells the story about the power of one small act of kindness.

I love it.

And how it can have that ripple effect that we don't even know and how even like the smallest, what seems insignificant person can make a significant impact just by doing good things and encouraging other people to do good things. And I found a quote for each one of these, for each one of these movies. And I wanted to share the quote from, from Trevor. In this movie, Trevor says, and Trevor's paid, played by Haley Joe Osment. You remember Hallie Joe Osment from 6th sense? Oh, yeah, the kid from $0.06.

Yeah.

He says, I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things being the way they are, even if they're bad, to change because they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses. Let's go ahead and do one of your movies.

I agree with several of yours. Matter of fact, the next one you're going to talk about, that would been on my list. I tried to do some others and things that popped in my head, maybe related, nothing necessarily. More of a kids movie, I guess. The wizard of Oz. My parents tell the story. We were out on a Sunday, probably got ice cream. We used to go for Sunday drives when I was a little kid. And I don't remember this, I was so small. But I kept saying biz of Baz. You see, I didn't have the command of the english language like I do now, Joe. And you know, your kids are saying something. When you're little and you can't really understand what they're saying, you're. You're befuddled. The whole ride back to and back from where we went, I kept saying, bizar Baz, mommy. Bizar Baz. And then when we got home, I don't know. I was how old I was, but I ran right to the television because I knew the wizard of Oz was on that night. And it's been a inspiring movie for me. You know, I went to Broadway with my daughter recently. We had a Wizard of Oz weekend, and it's still an incredibly inspiring story. My daughter had me on YouTube watch something of the tremendous troubles they had producing the wizard of Oz. All the mishaps and the many directors and story changes. And it was not an easy thing to bring to the big screen, but also that it had a lot of failures up until that movie. And then just as this amazing cultural changing film from the 1930s in the beautiful color. So wizard of Oz, always inspiring.

What inspires me about the wizard of Oz, Kurt, is how the end message of the wizard of Oz, and if you haven't seen the wizard of Oz, okay, I'm going to spoil it.

Yeah. Where you been?

The end message of the wizard. I'm not going to exactly spoil it, but the end message of the wizard of Oz is each one of them have what they want already within them.

Yeah. Yeah. They don't know it. They got it.

They just don't know it.

Yeah.

I like it a lot.

Pretty deep for a very children's story.

Good stuff. My number nine is Braveheart. Man, you talk about a. There's a few movies that are just crazy, testosterone filled, action adventure, ready to take on the world kind of movies. And for me, I have a trilogy, Braveheart, gladiator, and the Patriot.

Oh, yeah.

Braveheart is on my list. Is the only one of those that really inspired me to be a better human being. You remember Braveheart, right?

Oh, it's one of my favorites. It would have been on my list. Yeah, I have. Whatever you're gonna say about it, I think I'm already agreeing.

It's a fictional telling of William Wallace. There's a lot of stuff that they don't get historically right, but there's some. But the spirit of the. Of who William Wallace was, was, I think, captured. Captured well, the spirit of who he was was captured well. I mean, you talk about courage and sacrifice. The scottish warrior who led this revolt, man, against England in the, I guess, the late 13th century, his wife was brutally killed by English sold soldiers. And he pulls England. Excuse me. He pulls all of Scotland together to fight the English. And, wow, what an inspirational movie. But what inspires me the most about this movie, when he's on his horse and he gives this big, long speech, and if I think about it, I could probably cite it, but I'm not going to. The spirit of the speech is what man would look back at this moment if they decided to run away from this battle? What man would look back from this moment and. And give everything he had to come back to this moment and fight. And fight again.

Yeah. Would you trade any freedom from this day to your last?

Right.

Yeah. I mean, I think that captures the spirit of the film, which is freedom, which. He screams. I mean, this is a brute. This is one of those movies that you're shocked by the brutality.

I remember this movie just inspiring me, truly inspiring me to take hold of the moment, right. To fight the good fight, whatever that might be. And this movie is from 1995, so I was in my twenties, and I remember thinking, that's the kind of man I want to be.

Mel Gibson, as we know, is a crazy son of a gun.

Yeah.

He sure made some good movies, though. And like that brutality or the realness of the film. And you really get drawn into it and feel the, he really helps you feel the way the characters are living during that period. I love historical dramas like this, but. Yeah, and you mentioned gladiator. I would put that on my list, too.

And you mentioned the patriot. That's inspirational in its own right. I love that movie because who would trade, trade their lives for one tyrant 3000 miles away or 3000 tyrants 1 mile away?

Again, the reality brings the american revolution a little different spin than we may have seen before. Again, understanding. I mean, I think it gets glorified in America, the revolutionary war. You don't realize the brutality that it really was. That was kind of that movie that brought it for me. And you're right, he lived the brutality of war in the french and indian war. He's got these demons in his head and he knows what war is. And in that meeting at the courthouse, everyone is all fired up to go to war. And he goes, he's basically saying, you realize this is coming to your house. This is not something far off in the distance. This is going to be something we're going to pay dearly. This is the greatest nation war machine in the known world that's going to be in our homes.

So, yeah, patriots, a good movie, too. So my number nine is braveheart. My number eight is the pursuit of happiness has Will Smith and Will Smith's kid in it. It's a, it's a really good movie. And, and it's a true story of Chris Gardner. He, Chris is a, he was a single father his wife left him. He ended up being homeless, completely homeless. I mean, true homeless. There's. There's scenes of them riding around on the bus because that's the only thing that they could do. Sleeping in the, in the train station bathroom. Chris Gardner's determination in this movie, he's, like I said, he's homeless. Have you seen this movie, the pursuit of happiness? Yes, he's homeless. He gets this break to be an unpaid intern at a stock brokerage, and he realizes that this is his moment. And he works, and he works, and he works harder than anybody else. And they know that hes not a polished stockbroker, and they give him a chance. And he became one of the most successful stockbrokers at the time. And this guys journey from homelessness to success. It really, I mean, its an example of believing in yourself and taking care of those that are most important to you and serving as an example to, to the world. And you serve as an example to the world by serving as an example to those closest to you. And that's what I got from this movie. He says, chris says in this movie, it's great. Don't ever let someone tell you that you can't do something, not even me. If you've got a dream, you got to protect it. He said that to his son.

Anytime children are involved. It's rough on me. And to me, the one of the problems, the tough part about this movie is it's rough most of the time. There's a lot of heartbreak.

Oh, yeah.

There's a, he, of course, he has a glorious triumph at the end, but it's too short. You're like, you've been going through this horrible situation for the entire. If it's a two hour movie, it's depressing.

You know, I'm in. I'm in. I'm almost in tears right now. Kurt, thinking of that moment when he tells him that he has the job.

Yeah.

You know, yeah, it's a son.

You. They definitely built it up because you're like, there's no, this guy's never gonna make it. It's been so what he's doing, he's trying. He bought some kind of medical device that he's trying to sell it, like, breaks. At one point, he drops it or something. The poor guy can't get a break, right? And then he. This one thing that's like, he's hanging on to. To try to pay rent, and it drops, and you're. Please give this guy a break.

But, yeah, this is Will Smith, a pursuit of happiness back in 2006. That's my number eight. My number seven. Kurt is good. Will hunting with Matt Damon and Robin Williams. Matt plays will hunting, and Robin Williams plays a site psychiatrist. And this might surprise you as an inspirational movie, but it is, man. It is for me. Matt Damon plays will hunting. Like I said, he's a janitor at MIT who is extremely talented, extremely smart. He's a mathematical genius, but he's kind of haunted by a traumatic past. He's a janitor, and he sees this math problem on a blackboard, like, in a hallway that's supposedly unsolvable, this big, complex math problem, and he solves it. But he's not even in the math class, right? He just. He's a janitor, and he solves it, but he's a genius. He's offered help by the teachers and by. By a certain teacher to further his talent and to go in this. In this direction, and he just doesn't want to because he's. He's haunted by this traumatic past. So in comes Robin Williams, a psychiatrist, who. They become friends, and they become connected, and. And they have a real. There's some stress in the relationship. Robin Williams, I think he won an Oscar for this performance. The reason this movie inspires me, and there's one thing that I'll talk about, is, we have things in our past that aren't our fault, right? And that's important that I said it that way. And some of them. Some of the things in our past, they are our fault. But we hold onto it, and we let it hold us back. We don't allow ourselves to reach our full potential because of this baggage that we're carrying along that we just need to let go. And there's this scene between Robin Williams and Matt Damon, between Sean McGuire and Will Hunting, where Robin Williams is. They're talking to each other, and Robin Williams looks at him and says, it's not your fault. They have this exchange where will Hunting says, oh, I know, man. I know it. And Robin Williams. It's not your fault. And will hunting.

Yeah, man.

What are you doing to me? I know. It's not my fault. It's not that big of a deal. It's not your fault. Over and over again, Kurt. It's not your fault. And then, finally, in this. And then it's this real, sincere, intense, focused way. This scene is extraordinary to me. It's not your fault. And then, finally, will hunting just breaks down. Man, I love this movie. I love this movie. It inspires me. It's. I don't know. I guess it's an exploration of self discovery, personal growth, as this guy goes on this journey from doubting himself to accepting the talents that he has, accepting wisdom and compassion from the people around him, especially the therapist, Robin Williams, and how we all have our own inner struggles that we have to face and we have to let go of those inner struggles and let go of that baggage. It's a really good movie, man. Good will hunting back, way back in 1997.

So now you got two movies I've not seen before, so I definitely want to see. I was thinking, I'm going to be flying tomorrow. Always want to get a good movie for the flight. Makes it go by faster.

Yeah.

One of these two is on the plane when I fly, but yeah. I like how your list has some really deep themes. I didn't go quite that deep. Was this a true story?

No. And in fact, it's that it was the first. It has. It also has been Affleck. I'm sorry, I should have mentioned Ben Affleck is. Is. Is Matt Damon's best friend in real life. And in this movie. It was their first. Their first major production together. One of the two wrote it and I think. I think maybe even Ben wrote this where they wrote it together. But it's a really good movie and it's their first big movie together. Good will hunting. Boys are good.

I'm inspired now to go check that out. I love all those themes. Yeah. My stuff is not as deep. I'll give you one of mine. This was an inspiring. From when I don't remember a lot of my early childhood. My memory is so horrible. But I still remember going to this beautiful theater here where I live now in Torrington, and my mom taking me there to see the Jungle Book. So I had to throw a Disney movie in there. Something about. But the thought about this later and we had this conversation about being your best self. If my character. If I wanted to pick a character that I would like to be Baloo, the big, lovable, protective guy who's always looking for the best part of life. So if I'm ever being my best self, it'd be being that character. Baloo, the big bear.

Yeah. Just a fun one. I know you like the jungle book.

A lot just to throw that one in there for those characters.

Yeah. You know, my number six is a little more lighthearted, I guess you could call it. But it's got a serious theme. We go back, way back to 1946, and it's not one of my favorite Christmas movies. My favorite Christmas movies are a Christmas story, the Polar Express and elf. Those are my top three favorite Christmas movies. This might be in my top ten. It's definitely in my top ten. But I remember the first time I saw this movie, weeping at how this character's life was changed and how his attitude was changed and how his outlook on life was changed. It's a wonderful Life with James Stewart. Donna Reed. You remember that movie?

Oh, God, yeah.

It's played a hundred times during the holidays. Just wait a few months. It'll be on again.

Yeah, I was kind of late to this one, but, yeah, again, kind of like the wizard of Oz. One of those older movies that is just so inspirational that you can watch. You got to watch it every year. It's. You don't forget that feeling. It does it to you every time.

If you haven't seen it's a wonderful life, just go see it. It's about George Bailey. His brother's a war hero. George kind of stays back to take care of the. The family business, I think it is. You know, he kind of puts others before himself. He overextends the. He runs the bank. He owns the bank and. And he overextends it. Overextends the bank because. Just trying to help people, putting. Putting people before himself. And it ends up the bank has, like, $2 left. Right.

Well, and his uncle loses the bank deposit.

The deposit. Yep.

Put him in trouble with the Federal Trade commission.

Quite honestly, George Bailey, he. He feels like his life would just be better. I mean, the world would be better without him. And then in comes. What's the angel's name? Clarence. It's very similar to pay it forward, but more reflective. Right, right. It's just a reminder of the impact that we have on everybody around us that we just don't know and how life would be different if we weren't here. And the little things that have gone on in life that make an impact across our world. Right. It's just such a good, feel good movie. Then I remember weeping at this movie because of the impact that George Bailey had that he didn't know that he had. And the turn of who George Bailey was before his experience with Clarence and who he was after his experience with Clarence, how he was just so grateful just to just. Just for everything in his life. Remember him running through the streets and after he had had his thing with Clarence and him running through the streets, just grateful for every little thing he sees. Right.

Go home, you crazy nut.

Yeah.

The police are waiting for you, so.

My number six is. It's a wonderful life.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

100%.

Love that movie.

I can't compete with the style. You're going down. These are just things that popped in my hand that impacted me. And Jaws is one of those movies.

Okay. I'm really curious to see how Jaws inspired you to be a better human being.

I guess I wasn't 100% following the theme. Maybe I can spin it a little bit to give you this. The first thing when I think of Jaws is that I'll never go back in the ocean again because of jaws. That inspired me to stay out of the water. That is a fear I have had since I was a kid, although I have faced that fear, and I enjoy the ocean when I go in, but still, I don't like seeing shark attacks on the news, and they've been seen quite far north than we're used to.

You know, that's true. When Jaws came out, it caused a nationwide worldwide panic, an anxiety about going into the ocean and about going into any body of water, really. I mean, people were freaked out to go. Just to go into lakes. That opening scene where she's just kind of swimming along and just mining, you know, there by herself, and then she gets. She gets hit by jaws. Oh, boy. My gosh.

But here's my spin. And it's the characters in this film, especially Captain Quint and the Richard Dreyfus character, total opposites. The educated got all the fancy equipment versus the old school guy and their dynamic between each other and even the police chief with Captain Quint and the scene when they are having a good time, they're really dark, late at night, boats just kind of drifting. They're. They're drinking some kind of hooch, and they're singing and dancing and showing off tattoos or scars that they have. And Captain Quint, when he says, no, Mister Hooper, that. That one's from the USS Indianapolis. That scene right there. I mean.

Yeah.

What's the actor? He is so good. Yeah, film. But then you learn. I don't think I knew this story, but they delivered the atomic bomb. Bomb. And they were torpedoed by the Japanese, and he went into the water with all the sharks.

Right, right.

Watching his buddies, one by one, be pulled away. So there you go.

That's a good spin. That's a good spin. Yeah, I'll take it.

That was a. That was an amazing scene right there.

You know, Kurt, I was hoping to get through all ten today, but I don't think we're going to. So I think this is a good place to stop. These are the movies that I've talked about so far, and if you want to throw in yours, I don't, I don't remember all of yours. I'll try to remember them. My top ten through six are pay it forward, brave heart, the pursuit of happiness, good will hunting. I know you mentioned the wizard of Ozdev Jungle Book. We, we talked about Jaws and the Patriot, but let's stop right there. Let's stop right there. And I will give you my number five through one. My number one and two is kind of cheating, but you'll see that as we go. But my top ten movies from the top ten movies that inspired me to be better human beings, number ten through number six, again, is pay it forward, Braveheart, the pursuit of happiness, good will hunting, and it's a wonderful life. Stay tuned next week for numbers five through one. I think you will. When you look at these movies, I think you'll agree that these are movies that are truly inspirational and personally inspired me to be a better human being. So that said, let's stop right there. Kurt.

Well, that's a classic cliffhanger, Joe, to come back next week. This was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. It's got a little bit of entertainment, but also, you got some deep, inspiring films there and a couple that I got to check out. So thanks for. It's a great idea, and I'm really.

Excited to talk about one through five. I mean, five through one, I'm really excited to talk about those movies because you'll recognize these movies. We've talked about these movies in the past, and I'm really excited to talk about them, but we're running out of time, so let's just make this a two parter. Fair enough.

Yeah, they're, they're in my top list, too. I, we, we share several of those. I will agree with you on those, too. I'll try to bring a couple myself next time.

How about your win for the week?

Well, yesterday, you know, we talked about our values and getting inspiration from them and driving our goals. Well, at the day job, I spoke, did a half hour session. There were several half hour sessions we call it was an enterprise end user kind of learning and training event. So I went into Hartford for the whole day, and I learned some, a few things. I'll tell you one thing. Chat, GPT and Bing is being brought into my company. And there were some great announcements. I got access to it at work, so I learned something. I think that's true about any conference you go to, even if you're going to be a speaker. There you go. Sit back and be a learner, too. And I did. And I helped out with some of the other sessions because I have a broad range. This is primarily in the office 365 space. I talked about Sharepoint and how to modernize from the old to the new. A couple other tricks in there, but boy, you got to speak fast because that's the only thing. I felt like I was crammed for time and I knew it was going to be that way. But it was a good day. And they're going to do part two today, but I'm going to listen in. I'm not speaking. And I. It was a fun, enjoyable day and learned something and helped some other people learn some things, too.

So fantastic, man. Kind of feels good to be called on to do things like that, doesn't it?

Absolutely. And I got a. I got a t shirt and a coffee mug.

My win for the week is I took 15 teenagers on a canoe trip this past weekend, and we spent about 6 hours corralling the tea. These teenagers, you know, and they're all from middle school age up until I think the oldest one was 11th, was 11th grade. I don't think we had a senior in there, but from middle school age up into about to graduate high school. And it was a blast. Used muscles, Kurt, that I didn't. That I had forgotten that I had.

Right.

The river was a little low, so there were some times there were. Sometimes we had to push ourselves through the. Through shallow water, over the rocks. Didn't have to get out of the boat one time to navigate the river itself. So we. We were able to do that. And remember, when you're canoeing or during doing anything like that, still waters run deep. Just remember that you look closely, man. You can see the path that you need to go. Still waters run deep. Dark waters run deep. Right.

Well, it's always fun. I did this with my kids when they were involved with youth groups, especially at church. I did work camps. We did like four of those where you're gone for a whole week working on houses. Those are always fun. Or every year we did a camping event as a weekend down at Hammonasset Park State park down in the Connecticut shore. I always look forward to those. I love hanging out with the young teenagers and kids. So, yeah, I would put that for my win for the week for sure, too.

How about your resource?

Well, I'm getting ready for this trip. I thought I'd try something because it's going to be so hot. Although interesting. Yesterday and today it's cool here in Connecticut. I got to check the Florida weather and I saw one of my friends post that it was 60 degrees yesterday. I don't know if that's true or not. We'll find out. But I bought one of these portable neck fans and highly rated on Amazon. I'll see if I, if it's a nuisance or if it's helpful, but I thought I'd try something like that. I even got one of those little bands that you, I got at Walmart where you wrap it around your neck and keep it wet and try to stay cool. So we'll find out. I've tried it sounds it's got four speeds. Got supposed to have a long battery life. I got it off of Amazon. Rohant neck fan is what it's called and I'm hoping I stay as cool as possible while I'm down at Disney World.

Yeah, let me know how that works because I see these a lot. It kind of looks awkward to me. But, you know, I'm beyond. I'm beyond aesthetics at this point. You know, if it. If it'll make. It'll make me more comfortable, I'm willing to try it. So let me know how this, how this thing works.

I will do. What was your resource tipper hack?

Mine is the either app or website. Cargurus. Have you heard of this?

Yeah.

And I've used this each time I've bought a car. And I'm surprised I've not brought it up. And I've bought it. I've bought a few cars. My wife and I had some car damage over the past few years that caused us to go in the market of for buying a new car. And I think I'm on the market again for buying a new car for various reasons that I won't get into here, but I'm just not terribly happy with the car that I have right now. But what do they call that? First world problems. So I might be buying a new car. And so I engaged Cargurus again, and I realized, man, this is a fantastic tool. You can, in CarGurus, either the app or the website, you can search exactly what you're looking for, down to make, model, year, mileage, price range, rating, how long it's been on the market, everything, right. You can, you can really drill down to the specific car that you want or type of car that you're looking for, and it'll give you, you know, by, you know, you can pick 100 miles away, 200 miles away, 25 miles away. It'll really, really drill down as much as you want and see what's, and see what cars are out there. And the good thing is, is these, these car dealerships, they post the, they post to these websites, and I'm sure there's a clearinghouse somewhere that they post to that all these apps and stuff look to for this information. But Cargurus is really a fantastic app. It'll compare the price to the market. So if a car is priced at a good price, it'll say, it'll say overpriced, it'll say fair, it'll say good, it'll say great, depending on what other similar cars in the marketplace are selling for. If you're looking for a car, check out either the app Cargurus or the website Cargurus. It's fantastic.

Well, there's so many of them, so I'm glad to hear one that you've had success with.

Yeah, it's been really good. It's been really good. How about your quote for the week?

Well, I thought we were going to talk about this movie. I won't tell you what it is, but if you know who it's from, you might guess the movie we're going to talk about next time we get together. Pretty short and sweet. One of my favorite movies. I'm glad it was on Joe's list. Get busy living or get busy dying. Andy Dufresne.

Yep. I'm not going to say anything more than that quote by itself, because it speaks for itself and I don't want to steal the thunder of net. Next week's list sounds good. My quote comes from Ridley Scott, who was a director of, he did gladiator and, gosh, I mean, I could name probably a dozen other films that I like. I really, when, when he's the director, I, I will give this movie a chance if he's the director. Right. And he says about movies, the best thing about movies is that they are an escape. Whether it's a beautiful landscape, a heartbreaking story, or an epic adventure, films transport us beyond our everyday reality. Reality. And this is the thing about movies. The reason I like this quote is, first of all, it's an art form, right? People might think it's a waste of time. People might think you could, you could spend your time elsewhere. But, you know, people, people spend time going to art museums and things like that. Movie making and movies are an art form, and you experience that, that art form when you go see a movie. And there's nothing wrong with that. I know people, there are people that have maybe negative connotations about watching too much tv or watching too many movies. But I do watch my fair share. And what I like about this quote is this is exactly how I feel about movies. Even. Even the ridiculous movies. Like, there's a movie that I like called Napoleon Dynamite. Most people that I talk to don't like this movie. I like this movie a lot, but it's a movie you just gotta let yourself enjoy. Dumb and dumber is similar to that. If you just let yourself enjoy the movie, take it for what it is and let yourself enjoy the movie. But also some of these deeper movies, let yourself get into them. Let yourself become a part of this story somehow. Enter this epic adventure. As Ridley Scott says, let yourself be transported beyond your everyday reality. Because we need a break. We all need a break sometimes. And that's what I like about movies. And that's why I like this quote from Ridley Scott.

I think the ones you're talking about today are more than an escape because they, you get transformed into that feeling, the character, what's it like from their perspective and make you think about your own situation, maybe be more grateful, for sure, in some of the things we talked about. So, yeah, dumb and dumber is one of my favorite movies of all time. We talked about comedies that is an escape. That's just silliness. Just complete silliness.

And let it be silliness, right?

Yeah.

I mean, one of my favorite movies is it has no silliness in it whatsoever. It's the Godfather trilogy. And I even like, God, throw the Godfather part three. But I love the Godfather movies. And some people might call them boring, some people might call them too violent. But, and I understand that perspective, but if you just let yourself get into it, just let yourself be a part of the story and be a part of the experience. Whatever movie you're watching, whatever it is, you know, from. From the silly comedies to the, to the serious dramas, just let yourself get into them. Because, listen, we. We all need a break, right?

Time just flies when you get absorbed in a good film. That's for sure. Definitely good feeling.

So as we wrap up, our website is dudesinprogress.com. dudesinprogress.com. Our email address is [email protected]. if you want to talk about movies you love or things that you love or things that inspire you, let us know. We'll be happy to chat with you about it. And as we move forward, I know, Kurt, you're getting ready to head out on vacation. And I wish you. I wish you well. Have a blast, my friend. And remember, even on vacation, even watching movies, stick in there. Make progress. The movie may not be perfect, but. But hang in there. You might get something from it, because progress is better than perfection. You just got to keep moving. Folder.

I hope I get absorbed in a really good film on the plane on the way to Disney world. Make it go faster. That two hour flight is tough for me, but, yeah, I'm gonna be thinking about you, Joe, when I'm down, having a lot of fun with my. My Disney geeks.

Awesome. Talk to you soon, Buddha.