Over the shoulder boulder holders . I will cry at anything it seems, My Girl & Armageddon floor me everytime, and I sometimes even cry at Neighbours. So I just knew by reading the blurb of this, that I would cry.    It's amazing these days that a friendship can span three decades - so far my longest friendship has lasted nearly 10 years. And we've been through a lot, but never had a serious argument. As the old saying goes, guys, jobs, etc come & go, but friendships last forever.    In this, the friendship starts at the age of roughly 11, and the young actresses who play Barbara Hershey & Bette Midler's characters are excellent. The little actress who plays CeCe Bloom at 11 is the spitting image of Bette Midler - poor child! She's got the hair, the wide smile and the mannerisms down pat, and it's so funny to watch her. It's a shame Mayim Bialik hasn't done much else, it's mainly voice work she does now (most notably she voices a character in Extreme Ghostbusters.) They become penpals, and the relationship is played out through letters, until they finally get together. The film spirals from there, from husbands, to divorces, to arguments, to children.    It's predictable, and I did find Bette Midler's character just a little irritating, but that wasn't due to Bette Midler. It was just the way she played the character she annoyed me, she was so self centered. Barbara Hershey's character was fun, kinda the sidekick to CeCe, and Barbara actually got collagen injections in her lips to look younger, as she was playing her character through such a long period.    Of course you know Barbara's character is gonna get ill, but it's the way it's done, it's very subtle to start with, she starts looking more tired, and then it snowballs, and it's shocking how they manage to make her look so awful, she deteriorates really quickly, and I have to say the makeup artists did an excellent job there.    The funniest line in this film is my title for this review. "Over the shoulder boulder holders" is the perfect way to describe those annoying things called bras.    I've heard "Wind Beneath My Wings" many times before, and it's an extremely powerful song. What made a bigger difference was watching what was happening on screen, and listening to the lyrics, it brought a whole new meaning to the song, a meaning that I never got before. Well, that was me. Thankfully, I was watching this alone at the time, cos it would have been really embarrassing for someone to see me crying the way I did. To say Beaches had an effect on me is the understatement of the year. Even after I'd switched it off, I was still going about the house in tears. I'll never hear "Wind Beneath My Wings" the same again.    Unfortunately, I bought the bog standard, no frills, DVD, not realising that there was a special edition. But I'm quite happy with the edition I have. I'd probably cry through the extras too.    I'll probably watch this again (I still force myself to watch Armageddon & My Girl now & again, just because I love them that much), and I'll probably cry even more now I know what's coming. It's a terrific film, and is definitely the ultimate chick flick. It's also directed by Garry Marshall, so watch out for a cameo by Hector Elizondo
Output: POS