i.q.

the year: 1994

the genre: comedy


the cast: Tim Robbins (Ed Walters); Walter Matthau (Albert Einstein); Meg Ryan (Catherine Boyd); Stephen Fry (James Moreland)


the plot: Edward Walters, an auto mechanic, falls for the intelligent and beautiful Catherine Boyd. Unfortunately, she's engaged to James "The Rat Man" Moreland. Fortunately, Catherine's uncle (who happens to be Albert Einstein) likes Ed, and with his mischievous colleages, schemes to make Catherine fall for Ed.


don't miss: Ed being fed the test answers by Nathan, Kurt, Boris and Albert.



count: how many nickels you would have if you had a nickel for every nickel James has.



listen for: "Be right there, Ike!"



watch for: Uncle Albert "steering ze boat".

you've got mail

the year: 1998

the genre: comedy



the cast: Tom Hanks (Joe Fox); Meg Ryan (Kathleen Kelly); Greg Kinnear (Frank Navasky); Steve Zahn (George Pappas); Jean Stapleton (Birdie Conrad); Dave Chappelle (Kevin Jackson); Parker Posey (Patricia Eden)


the plot: He's the owner of a bookstore chain; she's the woman he falls for online. Both are unaware that she runs the little shop his company is trying to shut down.



don't miss: how to spell "dog".


watch for: what size cup Kathleen *really* gets when she orders a Tall Caramel Macchiato.


listen for: "One hundred and fifty-two people who think he looks like a Clark *Bar*."


did you know: the scene where Joe accidentally closes the door of Kathleen's shop on the balloons was unscripted. When it happened, Tom Hanks ad libbed the line, "Good thing it wasn't the fish." The director thought it was so funny that she kept it in.




extra bonus points: if you know the importance of the movie theater where the NYC previews of this film occurred.


also listen for: "Why?" "Because we're going to sell them cheap books and legal addictive stimulants. In the meantime, we'll just put up a big sign: "Coming soon: a FoxBooks superstore and the end of civilization as you know it."