(In honor of Mother's Day, we're launching a series of posts today written, in part, by our mothers after we asked them one simple (yet very complex) question: What's your favorite movie and why?)

My mother, Deanna, is not much of a cinephile, but she claims to have at least learned from me different ways of appreciating movies. For example, she was always a huge Rogers and Hammerstein fan, and still cites The Sound of Music and South Pacific, as well as the non-R&H musical My Fair Lady, as some of her favorite films. But after I went to film school in the mid-90s, she became a fan of Quentin Tarantino dialogue and added Reservoir Dogs and True Romance to her list. However, it was dropping out of college that caused her to subjectively choose Good Will Hunting as her most favorite movie of all time:

"I love GWH very much because of how much the lead character reminds me of my son (Christopher) and how gifted/intelligent he is ... and how frustrated friends and family of his (like Will's) were when he decided there was no need to return to college and get his degree ... etc. But now that Christopher, as Will did, has come to his senses (!!!!) and did go back to school ... and he graduates with honors this month ... and how happy Chistopher's friend's and family and especially his MOM are.... well, I won't tell you the ending! You'll just have to watch the film and come listen to me brag on and on and on about my Christopher!!!!"

Over on Movie City News, LexG had a thought-provoking post under BYOB last Friday on which of the highly buzzed films of this excellent movie year will actually be remembered down the road. LexG posits that the best test of whether a film will stand the test of time among the film crowd is "whether it's directed by a world-class, etched-in-stone AUTEUR." Much interesting debate ensues in the comments: 1983 -- which do you remember more fondly? The Dresser or Vacation? Which is more revered, Fight Club or Green Mile? LexG argues that There Will Be Blood, Eastern Promises and Sweeney Todd are more likely to be remembered down the road than, say, Michael Clayton.

The discussion that follows is pretty interesting. Which are regarded to be the "best" years for movies (1939, 1975, 1983, 1997?) and which are the worst (the '80s in general?) Of course, it partly depends on what question you're really asking -- are the years and decades being evaluated by which films critics still regard as the best, or the ones they're most likely to pop into their DVD player again now?

I don't, as a general rule, rewatch movies a whole lot. Trying to stay on top of the current fare requires watching a lot of films as it is, especially staying on top of the indies, docs, and obscure foreigns; I just don't have time to rewatch films much. When I look back the movies that really made an impression at defining points of my own life, the ones that stand out are generally there for reasons of emotional attachment that may have nothing to do with how I would review the films critically.

ET, first and foremost, followed by Star Wars, Alien, The Goonies, Indiana Jones, Grease, Ghostbusters, Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Dr. Strangelove, Terms of Endearment, Good Will Hunting -- these are some of the movies that I saw in theaters when they first came out to which I have a strong enough emotional attachment that I'll re-watch them. And course there's a plethora of older films that I had the pleasure of discovering for myself at various key points in my life, all of which, to one degree or another, influenced me growing into a film dork person who loves movies.

Which year (or decade) do you think had the best movies? And what are some of your personal faves?

This past Saturday, I was almost in a fight. A real fight with, like, fists. It's been almost 12 years since I was last in a fight (or, well, almost in a fight). Back then I had just started college, pretending to be this macho New Yorker (even though I weighed 100 pounds soaking wet) and knew how to act tough. I couldn't beat up a six-year-old girl, mind you, but I knew how to talk like a guy who grew up on the streets, with a hunting knife in my mouth instead of a baby's bottle. Now, however, I'm a laid back guy who writes about movies. That's it. I'm a quiet gent, and you'd have to try real hard to get me going. While shopping in a shoe store this past weekend, there was this guy (late 20s) standing with two older people who didn't speak English. They were situated right in front of the shoe I needed to look at. They stood there for a good 15 minutes, not moving. And so I patiently waited as long as I possibly could before saying "excuse me" while sliding in between them so I could look at the shoe.

That's when I heard it: "A**hole." Then again. And again. Until finally I looked up at this dude and asked if he was talking to me. He was ... and he didn't stop: "You're an a**hole," he said with a smirk. I replied, "I've been waiting 15 minutes for you folks to move and you haven't. I have a right to look at this shoe too." Then he goes, "F*ck you a**hole. I'll be waiting for you outside." "Waiting for me outside? Dude, you're in a shoe store. Calm down." Only he didn't calm down, he kept at it. He decided to go from cursing to personal insults: "Baldy. You're going bald. Ha! Baldy, baldy, baldy ..." He was not the first person to point this out; I'd been losing my hair for several years and have been made fun of numerous times by friends, family members and even random people on subway platforms. So I told him this: "I might be going bald, but at least I'm not unoriginal." And suddenly I felt like I was Matt Damon's character in Good Will Hunting -- only we were in a shoe store, and instead of fighting a guy from Harvard, it was a guy who learned English from watching the Jerry Springer Show.

I tried my best to keep it cool, and when I complained to the girl running the fitting rooms, she just looked at me like, "Um, I control the fitting rooms. This wasn't in my job description." My wife convinced me to take a different exit because she didn't want me getting arrested for fighting in a shoe store, and I never saw the guy again. But it made me wonder: How many of you have ever thrown out a random movie quote in the middle of an argument and passed it off as your own?

Check out the video of that classic Good Will Hunting scene after the jump ...

It's often the first few sentences of a novel that define the rest of the story, and in the case of Gone Baby Gone, it's Patrick Kenzie's (Casey Affleck) opening lines that tell you everything you need to know about his character, his mindset and the choices he'll make throughout the film: "It's what you don't choose in life that make you who you are." He goes on to give examples like family, or where you were born, while the camera sweeps across the hardened blue-collar streets of Dorchester, Mass., eventually landing smack in the middle of a community grieving the disappearance of a little girl who was kidnapped from her bed. Those of us on the outside looking in would describe these people as "white trash" -- the kind of folks that made Jerry Springer a household name -- but to Patrick, this is home. These are the people he grew up with, these are the people he'll grow old with, and these are the people he'll go out of his way to protect.

Patrick knows Helene McCready (Amy Ryan) from high school (he was a freshman when she was a slutty senior), and when her daughter Amanda is kidnapped in the middle of the night, Dorchester is thrown into a frenzy: Cops, news reporters, cameras and crowds of people camp outside Helene's small, unkempt apartment complex. Helene isn't some white, middle-class stay-at-home mom, she's a single woman with an abusive boyfriend and a coke habit. The cops, led by police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), begin to do what they do best -- but for Helene's sister-in-law (Amy Madigan), that's not enough. And so she, along with her reluctant husband Lionel (Titus Welliver) seek out the services of Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro (Michele Monaghan); two fairly young private investigators who know the neighborhood, know its people and know how to find someone. And while Kenzie and Gennaro are extremely hesitant at first (after all, every cop in the city is looking for that little girl), they eventually decide to take the case. It would wind up being the single best -- and worst -- decision they would ever make.

One of these days we may end up suffering the existence of another Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie. It may even have Angelina Jolie reprising the title role. Unfortunately for the few who actually like the video game adaptation and its sequel, this isn't yet the day. But it is a day to celebrate if you're a Lara Croft fan in general. The character is now getting her own online animated series. The show is called Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider and it will 'air' on Turner Broadcasting's GameTap broadband channel. Also, each episode will be written and drawn by a different big-name talent, like Jim Lee, Warren Ellis and Aeon Flux's Peter Chung. I don't know if the series' creators attempted to snag Angelina Jolie for the gig, but instead of her Minnie Driver will be voicing the character.

Yeah, poor Minnie Driver. To think ten years ago she was my ideal girlfriend thanks to Grosse Pointe Blank and Good Will Hunting. Nowadays it isn't easy to find her in any movie role, let alone an ideal girlfriend role. But taking a part in an internet cartoon is pretty low. Can't John Cusack make a sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank already? Or couldn't Matt Damon and Ben Affleck write a part for her in that new script they may be working on? I will admit that I love Driver's voice, which can also be heard in the English-language version of Princess Mononoke, as Brooke Shields in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut and in the upcoming Simpsons: The Movie. So, I'll probably check out the series, at least for a listen. The first episode premieres on Tuesday with subsequent episodes premiering in the days following.

According to Us Weekly, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are currently in Hawaii working on a new screenplay. If true, this will be the duo's first script written together since they won Oscars for Good Will Hunting almost ten years ago. In the past decade, neither has done much professional writing. Damon was credited as a co-writer on Gus Van Sant's Gerry and Affleck just co-wrote his feature directorial debut, Gone, Baby, Gone. Obviously no details are given on the script, so we have to just imagine what it will be like. Personally, I'm hoping it's a realization of that sequel to Good Will Hunting (Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season) that we got a hint of in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Actually, I'm sort of kidding, but I can't honestly imagine any other idea would be better for the guys. Nothing else will live up to the anticipation and the definite hype that audiences will endure up until it is released. So, why not just do something silly?

A lot of people, including the editors at Premiere, consider Good Will Hunting to be highly overrated. I'm far from being one of them, though I have to admit I would rather have seen Paul Thomas Anderson get the Oscar in 1998 (others may have favored Academy regulars Woody Allen or James L. Brooks that year). Awards aside, though, I like the 'forced premise' and formulaic structure of the film. However, I probably buy the Will Hunting character and his story because Matt Damon's performance makes him so convincing. I don't think the duo will have as much luck with their next script unless Damon again takes a lead role. Anyway, Us has an amusing photo up of Affleck and Damon taking a surfing break while out in Hawaii. Maybe they're actually doing research for their script. Maybe while in California Will Hunting has become an avid surfer. Maybe we will get a Good Will Hunting sequel after all.

I haven't picked up an issue of Premiere Magazine in quite some time, but a friend of mine recently recommended I visit the publication's newly refurbished website. So I did. Pretty solid content across the board, I'm happy to opine -- but one particular article caught my eye, tickled my fancy, and squatted in my brain long enough to recommend it here.

Basically, a bunch of the Premiere writers were asked to come up with their picks for Most Overrated Film of All Time -- and while most of the sacred cows slaughtered here are pretty darn obvious ones, the opinions and explanations as to why each film was chosen, well, I thought they were fairly compelling. Frankly, I'm thrilled to see someone call Field of Dreams "just too on the nose," because it absolutely is.

Fully prepared for the onslaught of How Dare YE!! hate mail, the Premiere posse has wisely decided to add an equally pithy rebuttal in defense of each movie. So when someone has the audacity to impugn The Wizard of Oz, we sane people have a defender who'll say Dude, Please. I've placed the 20 titles under the jump, just to help spark discussion, but do not let that stop you from reading through the whole article. It might make you think a little differently about some of those Unquestioned Classics that everyone's afraid to admit they don't really dig. (Yep, 2001: A Space Odyssey is overrated; I said it and I'm proud.)

According to Contact Music (via America's OK Magazine), Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will be taking on the roles of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in a remake of the classic film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Okay, now put the gun down, it's going to be okay - we're still very unsure how legit this rumor is.

If you want my opinion, I'm thinking one of them (Affleck seems to be the bigger idiot) probably mentioned something in an interview noting that their "dream" project would be to remake Butch and Sundance. That was then twisted and turned around to the point that Damon's name got thrown in and - bam - here we are, on Cinematical, praying this thing does not get made.

Damon and Affleck last shared the screen in Dogma (though I believe Matt had a small role in Jersey Girl) and are best known for their "collaborative" effort on Good Will Hunting, for which the two won an Oscar for best screenplay. Honestly, Damon has done a good job of separating himself from Affleck over the last few years, and with a few big roles coming up, it's probably in his best interest to stay away from his buddy who is, ultimately ,slipping from the spotlight. What do you think about this?