Gentlemen, the lunchbox has landed!

Have I ever said how much I love The Full Monty? It is kind of depressing -- after all, six men on the dole as the Sheffield steel industry goes down the toilet isn't anything fun -- but it is fun and heartfelt. That being said, here's my five reasons to love this 1997 film:

1. The music is spot on for dancing -- disco Donna Summers, Tom Jones and other tunes such as Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing" -- I nearly killed a CD player listening to those songs. And they are fun to bop around to. Say what you want about disco, but that era did produce some danceable music.

2. Lawn gnomes used for comedic effect. Trust me, you have to see it to believe the lawn gnome battle to the death.

3. While there's funny moments, the depressing pall of being unemployed is never far away. One man's fighting to keep custody because he might lose it if he doesn't pay support and another man's keeping up the deception of having a job to not hurt his wife. It's an interesting commentary on the images of masculinity and how a job is tied into that.

4. Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy. Maybe it's the cockiness of Carlyle's Gaz, but I did dig him and Addy's Dave brought the weird mix of female frustration with body image, anger at feeling helpless and useless after losing his job and that refusal to grow up that got me. Gaz is also wonderful as the little guy who talks to much and promises too big -- much to the chagrin of his friends.

5. Yeah, the movie can be depressing. It's about being unemployed and the helplessness and impotency that one feels when day in and day out there's nothing workwise and you're just stuck. You can see the despair in the six men's eyes of not being employed and how much of a blow it is to take a job that they wouldn't have considered before -- it's almost like a minimum wage job is emasculating. But the cool thing about it is the little acts of insanity and silliness that, in a way, keep them sane. I can identify with that -- hell, I've done that at work.

Oh, and the final dance -- while the men aren't hot looking (save for one) -- is really, really cool. This proves the idea that if you've got enough self confidence, you can be sexy.