SO close.

Called my brother before Christmas to catch up and chat.

"What's been happening?" he asked.

"I saw two good movies this week," I said.

(I should mention here that my family never - NEVER watches any movies I suggest. I'm not even sure they watch the DVDs I buy them as gifts. It's not as if we're talking The Tin Drum or The Seventh Seal; I get them things like The Usual Suspects or Fargo. But if they haven't heard of it, it doesn't get watched.)

"Really? What?" he asked.

"Well, first I saw No Country for Old Men -"

"Wasn't that AWESOME?!?"

I was stunned into silence.

"J--[his wife] and I saw that. That was a wicked cool movie!"

We talked about it a bit; then I mentioned that I'd also seen I Am Legend.

"We saw that one too! That was really good too! Hey, J-- my sister saw the same two movies we did this week.!"

I was about to mention that it was the second remake, and that there had been a remake in the seventies that was very good--"

"It's The Omega Man. I loved that movie; one of my favorites," my brother declared.

"You remember The Omega Man?" I'd seen the movie on TV when I was ten and absolutely loved it. He'd clearly seen it later on; I know I'd seen it more than once on TV..

"Yeah; that was a wicked cool movie."

I was dizzy with this unexpected connection. We had seen not one, but TWO of the same movies in a single week, we'd both loved them, and it turns out that we shared a favorite childhood movie as well.

This could be the start of a whole new bonded-sibling era...

"The next movie I'm seeing is Alien vs Predator II" came my brother's voice over the phone.

Or maybe not.