Forrest Gump (1994)

My momma always say, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get."  Forrest Gump tells the story of a slow-witted person who's led a blessed life.  With a caring and strong-willed mother, Forrest was brought up and given all the opportunities a normal child gets despite his handicap. 

Through the incidents of bullying in school, he discovered his talent in running and it was put to good use in college where he played football.  Despite being slow-witted, it did not stop him from achieving things in life.  He was a soldier that earned a medal of honour, represented the country to play table tennis, owner of a successful shrimp business, and was present in a number of historical events. such as the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal.  Throughout his life, he made three great friends, Jenny, his childhood friend and sweetheart, Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), his buddy in the army, and Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise), his commander in the army who he saved in the Vietnam war.  He's managed to achieve a lot but the only one thing he fails to do is to keep his sweetheart Jenny by his side.

With a heart-warming story and light-hearted humour littered throughout the movie, this is definitely one of my top-rated movies.  The graphics work also deserves praise as they managed to put Forrest into the actual footages of some of the historical events that were covered in the movie.

Jerry Maguire (1996)

SHOW ME THE MONEY!! It's gonna be a weekly-updated blog eventually but I thought I'd post more frequently now to kickstart the blog. =D Yes, if you're all second-guessing already, I'm a Tom Cruise fan. I can't exactly put my finger on it (good plot, good character development, good directing, a bit of everything, I dunno..), but I really enjoyed most of his films and many of them will be reviewed here on Dusty and Nice (I promise my next review won't be a Tom Cruise film though, in case I bore you to death =P).

Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is the typical sports agent, whose objective in life was to have as many clients as possible, and working to get them the best contracts (earning himself a healthy commission as well). However, one fateful night, as though his inner senses were awakened, he did not feel that his objectives in life was morally right. Having this new-found belief, he shared it with his colleagues. However, in the business world where profit-making is the number one priority for any firm, his new-found belief was contradictory to that and he ends up getting fired. Having to start anew on his own, he tries to garner support from his colleagues, but ends up only getting Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) , an accountant, to leave the agency and join him. Among the many clients that he has under the agency, he only ends up with Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr), his least important client with a very strong ego.

And so, Jerry embarks on his journey to revive his career with Rod as his only client. Initially disheartened that he is left with his least important client to work with, Jerry decides to stay true to his new-found beliefs and in this process, makes new friends, and finds true love.

This show definitely illustrates a very good point that colleagues and friends are two separate groups (friends can be colleagues but colleagues can never be friends). Navigating your way through a morally gray world while sticking firmly to your own beliefs is tough and sacrifices will need to be made but at the end of the day, the results can be satisfying and makes all of it seem worthwhile.

On top of great performances by Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger and Cuba Downing Jr, this award-winning film by Cameron Crowe is full of ups and downs, littered with moments of great laughter as well as touching moments that will make you cry. 5/5!