Waiting on Harry Potter

Here is some footage of Sip and I as we waited to see the harry potter movie whos time got bumped up and left us waiting around doing nothing. But it was good to just sit, talk, and watch people for a while...

Blockbuster VS Netflix

I have been a member of the online DVD rental community off and on now for several years. For the longest time I went with Netflix because, well at first they were the only ones around, but even later because they had the greatest selection and seemed to treat their customer’s with a well pleasing service.

A few months back I switched to Blockbuster, and I don’t see myself turning back.

Here’s the rundown.

Blockbuster has essentially stolen Netflix’s game plan from them so both services are nearly identical. You choose a plan which consists of how many movies you want out at a time. For example I am on the 2 at a time plan which means at any given time I have two movies “out” (this doesn’t necessarily mean I have them in hand for this count also involves mail time. For this it costs me about $17 a month.

Both services have similar queues wherein who select the movies you want to watch and then as returned movies are turned in, the next movies in your queue are mailed out. Due to popularity of certain titles, an item in your queue may not be available when it hits the front of the line. Both services make not of this on their queues and will then send out the next available flick. I have noticed that Blockbuster has a tendency to send the movies in my top ten a little out of order even though none of them are listed as unavailable. Though I’m not sure why this is, it really isn’t too bothersome to me since I’m not that particular.

From my location and my calculations both services are comparable in terms of how quickly they process returns and send movies out. On average I receive a new movie five days from the time I have returned it.

In terms of selection Netflix gets the prize. They, by far, beat Blockbuster with number of movies in their archives. They also do not place any restrictions on ratings (Blockbuster doesn’t allow NC-17 or X rated films.) Neither company supplies pornography or “Adult” films.

So, why did I choose Blockbuster? Because they give you free in-store rentals. Before a few weeks ago they gave me 1 coupon per week to rent a movie from their physical stores. With my normal online rentals averaging out to two movies a week added with the 1 coupon per week I was receiving approximately 12 movies per month. At less than $20 per month this was already a big bargain.

Blockbuster has recently changed their terms and now instead of mailing the movies back to them you can simply return the DVDs to any Blockbuster store. Once turned in they automatically send out the next movie in my queue thus upping the amount of movies sent to me per month. Also each time you turn in a movie, you may rent one from the store. Thus, even with my old average of two movies per week I’m now doubling the amount of movies I rent from the store, and with the improved mailing times this may even triple. That’s 16-20 movies a month!

Well worth it in my book. I will probably even drop my selection to one movie at a time for $10 which will still see me receiving 12-16 movies per month.

It is a no brainer for me. Now I know most of you are probably now thinking to yourselves that there is no way you could watch that many movies in a month. The reality of the situation is that you don’t have to. With the online rentals there are no due dates or late fees. You can keep the movies as long as you want. With my DVD burner I tend to maximize my movie gathering and money saving potential by turning them in the day after, but you can certainly be more leisurely about it. Even if you take the $10 one at a time option and only watch 4 movies, you’ve still saved yourself money over watching those same movies with regular rental prices.

The Librarian And The Sweet Dairy Products

I admit it. I have a great fondness to adventure stories – specifically Indiana Jones-esque adventure stories that involve looking for ancient, secret treasure. This should explain why my wife and I sat this Sunday evening watching The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines.

While my wife watched, she also searched the kitchen for something sweet – anything would do cookies, ice cream, pie. She chastised me for having not picked up any such thing on my visit to the grocery store earlier in the day (silly me, I bought non essentials like milk and chicken.) She then started to crave a Steak and Shake milkshake which is when I started to pay attention.

There is a Steak and Shake a few measly blocks from our abode, and I have to admit they make a mean shake. Suddenly I was craving a little ice cream, vanilla and maybe a hint of caramel.

The problem was we were both bedded in for the evening and tucked into our flannel pajamas. Though in this college town we wouldn’t be looked at twice for stepping out in pajama pants, that’s just not something we do in this family.

So we made a deal. Next commercial we’d change, then the following one we’d make a mad dash for the shakes.

Now the thing is I wear my pajama pants a little free in the undercarriage, if you catch my meaning, and I wasn’t prepared to equip myself with a clean pair for but minutes in the car. Thus I stuffed my khakis over my flannel pants and geared up to go. I got the keys and the coats and we prepared ourselves for the next commercial break.

Like a light we took off and I drove like a madman on crack. Somewhere on Second Street it struck me how absurd it was to be driving in the middle of the night, in the freezing cold, sans underpants with flannel pajamas sticking out of my khakis all in order to obtain a frosty treat.

Never stand in the way of a fat man and his sweetened dairy products.

We arrived safely back at home with our delectable caramel and fudge milkshakes and we only missed a few minutes of the movie.

Robert Altman 1925 - 2006

This very weekend I sat and watched A Prairie Home Companion. It was a lovely thing – funny and sad and whimsical. Very much the sort of thing you’d expect from a collaboration of Garrison Keillor and Robert Altman. It’s got the sort of down-home, Mid-West low key charm you expect from Keillor and the rolling, dialogue over dialogue doesn’t really have a plot appeal of Altman.

Watching the documentaries about the movie I learned that the studio hired a secondary director just in case Altman died while making it. Now I’ve learned he really has died, and I’m suddenly inexplicably sad.

I can’t begin to say I’ve seen all of the director’s 87 films, nor can I pretend to have liked all the ones I watched (I’ve never found MASH to be all that funny, Nashville is snoresville to me, and I can’t seem to ever make it through McCabe and Mrs. Miller) but there are so many film that I love and cherish that the world’s loss, is my loss too.

Who can forget that night in Mullins dorm watching the endless, rambling and oh so entertaining Player, or Short Cuts? He managed to update The Long Goodbye to the 70’s making it relevant all over again, and almost out Bogied Bogie with Elliot Gould of all people.

He made a musical out of Popeye, and damn what the critics say, he made it great.

More recently he turned created a wonderful Upstairs/Downstairs murder mystery and forgot to tell us whodunit.

His style was more laid back than grilled cheese. He seemed to just let the camera roll and the actors do what they please. Sometimes this didn’t work and we go something more of a mess than a film. But when it worked it was pure gold.

Rest in Peace Robert Altman, you deserve it.

Nosferatu Available Online

Google Video now has the entire 1922 classic film Nosferatu for your viewing pleasure. I was just a kid when I first saw that movie, or rather the last twenty minutes of that movie and it scared the bejesus out of my pancreas.

Even then I could tell it was more than just a horror movie made to scare, but rather ART designed with a higher purpose. For years the image of the vampire standing in front of the bed as the sun rises crept into my dreams and haunted my nightmares.

When I actually did watch the entire film I have to admit it seemed to drag a bit and I can never get used to that score, but it remains one of the most haunting scary movies I’ve ever seen.

If you have never seen the film do yourself a favor and catch it now. And once you are done catch the other full length films available on Google like Plan 9 From Outerspace, Night of the Living Dead and Reefer Madness.

Say goodbye to a pioneer of comedy...

R.I.P.

Don Knotts

1924 - 2006

The Shinning

Check out this trailer for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. It looks like a really upbeat film.

Ok, so really it is a nice editing job to make what is one of the great suspense/horror films of all time look like one of those uplifting chick flicks.

Ok, Ok, I intentionally misspelled the title to make a Simpsons reference.

Movie Quote

Just for Jamison, a classic Bob Hope zinger.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

I simply adore The Chronicles of Narnia! I just checked the movie site and found out that WETA workshop (the same special effects, costumes, etc. company that did the LOTR films) is handling all of the same stuff for this movie!!! They are also filming in New Zealand. I can't wait to see it! Go to the site and check out the trailer and behind the scenes stuff. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

spanglish

just a note about a great movie matt and i watched the other nite. "spanglish" proves that adam sandler can go beyond "little nicky" and "the waterboy" you all need to check this one out if you haven't seen it. all i can say about it is he (adam sandler's character) does the right thing. watch and find out what it is.

Constantine/The Jacket

Rachel and I rented a couple of movies this weekend:

Constantine was much better than we had expected. I keep hearing the same thing from just about everyone I have asked about it. The movie took some liberties from a religious/Biblical perspective (as would be expected with all the Catholic dogma), but it was fun to watch and the characters were pretty well-played. Keanu Reeves even managed to be someone other than Keanu Reeves in the movie.

On a very different side of the coin, The Jacket was prime independent film material. The cast was an odd collection of talent with Adrian Brody, Kira Knightly, Kris Kristopherson, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but they worked their characters to the bone and made you think. It's rated R and has some bad language and situations, but was compelling and well-conceived.

I would recommend The Jacket over Constantine, but both were interesting to watch and enjoyable in their own way.

I'm the Bat, I'm the Man, I'm the Batman...

I won't write a review for Batman Returns since there must be a million and one out there, but I will say that I thought it was the best Batman movie, ever! One reason I think so is that I was actually very sad and had tears when his parents were killed. This may be a product of me being a father now, but it seemed like they incorporated more story into the father/son relationship, and it made a difference. On top of all that, the story itself was really well-presented. Y'all watch it if you get a chance.

Suddenly, Last Summer

Rachel was watching AMC the other day and caught the last quarter of this Elizabeth Taylor flick called Suddenly, Last Summer (a movie made in the late 50s). She came in at a point where Elizabeth Taylor' character was in a mental institution becuase she had gone nuts from some horrible thing she experienced while vacationing in Spain with her male cousin. Meanwhile, her aunt (Catherine Hepburn) is trying her best to get the psychiatrists to give her neice a labotamy so that her memory will be erased and she cannot give away a big nasty secret. The big, nasty secret happens to be that Catherine Hepburn's son is a homosexual predator who has been using his mother (Hepburn) to lure young, European boys to him during their vacations in the summers. She, however, has become a little too long in the tooth to lure the boys he wants, so he takes his young, attractive cousin (Taylor) instead. She complies and begins to lure in his fresh prey. After a few liasons, it seems that things are going well until one day when they are about town in Spain and a group of the young men and their friends all gang up on him and chase him around making eerie music on tin cans. They chase him toward the sea and corner him at a precipice, then overtake him. Elizabeth Taylor hears him scream and faints out of despair for lack of being able to help him. When she awakens, she sees that he has been torn to pieces by the young victims. I guess the whole point of this is that it is interesting that this subject matter was out in the cinema in the fifties....that blows my mind!

Jamison's Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Sorry for another review... I just saw a movie that I really liked... I am thinking of reviewing many aspects of my life, not just movies, so stay tuned to the Midnight Cafe discussion group...

Before you say anything, I already know what you are thinking: “Jamison, this is a KIDS movie, you are almost 30 years old!” … But I gotta tell ya, I really love these “kids” movies.

This follow-up to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has our young wizard friend Harry Potter (Played by Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) facing a new challenge or two during their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (A year that almost doesn’t exists for Harry due to his evil Aunt and Uncle trying to lock him up). The gang of young wizards try to discover a dark force that is terrorizing the school, originating from the fabled “Chamber of Secrets”.

Sequels? Oh no! Oh YES! But this is no mere sequel. You see friends; I have never seen any previous Harry Potter movie all the way through before this one. Only bits and pieces on the TV versions of each. I literally go into the Chamber knowing little if anything about the background, history, or characters in the film. Yet, within minutes, I already had decided who to root for, who to root against, and what the goal for the hero is to be during each scene. YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE FORMER POTTER FILMS TO ENJOY THIS ONE!

A few kick backs to the former films may just go over audience members heads… Harry’s cloak, the broom-stick rugby matches, etc. But these in no way hinder the movies ability to bring in the viewer to fall in love with our heroes.

Rather that go into depth about the plot and story line, I’d rather focus on the enjoyment aspects of the film. First off, the kids are cute. Sure, they are older in this one than they were in the past ones, but the little girl is still irresistible cute and a fine actress. Any kid with red hair and freckles is cute (until they get acne) and of course Harry Potter wears glasses. Kids with glasses…c’mon people.

For a bunch of no-named actors prior to these films, the kid’s abilities are outstanding! I can totally see myself as a kid wanting to act like one of them in my adventures in the woods behind my house. The only real un-kid-friendly aspect I can think of is that Ron says “Bloody Hell” several times in the film. Not a comment I would want my 7 or 8 year old repeating, which of course any kid will repeat when heard (Isn’t ‘bloody’ a very vulgar term in Brittan?).

The humor is relatable to all viewers. All characters have a British or Irish accent, yet none of that hard-to-understand British humor (the accents just make the kids seem cuter anyway).

Special effects are outstanding. The last scene involving a large snake looks kind of Willow-ish, but other than that, all the effects seem so flawless that they hardly seem like computer generated effects (Especially the spiders…ewww).

Full of spirits and ghosts, magic and monsters, humor and lovable characters, along with an easy to follow plot (Yet with enough twists to entertain an adult) I can’t help but recommend this movie. I loved it.

Although I have not read any of the books, I can’t help but think that the author was a Tolkien fan… We have two old gray wizards (the school’s Headmaster… and Gandalf from Lord of the Rings), two brown haired, bright eyed boys (Harry Potter… Frodo Baggins), His two friends (Ron and Hermione… Merry and Pippin), Trees that attack, a small, annoying, loud, little ghoul in both films, a very large spider in both Films… and a few more similarities. I certainly am not accusing this woman of copying Tolkien, but the inspiration is there for sure. Go rent it!

Young Frankenstein

Here is an old fave of ours! I found the full screenplay written by Gene Wilder: http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/young.shtml

Here is a page full of wav files from the movie...hilarious!
http://www.moviesounds.com/youngf.html

Jamison's review: Be Cool

"Get Shorty" is truly one of my favorite "Cuss 'em up" movies of all time. And when I heard of the sequel "Be Cool" coming out, I was very pumped. Breifly, the storyline is that the main character, Chili Palmer (played by John Travolta) is tired of the movie biz after having just made a terrible sequel to his first movie, staring Martin Weir (Danny De Vito). Chili has a music producer friend named Woods who is shot during the start of the movie by Russian mafia goons (still not sure how they come into play, I guess they are rampant in L.A.). Due to this turn of events, Chili offers to help out his friend's wife (Uma Thurman) run thier business. Whilst scouting out a talented singer in a club (Christina Milian) Chili is forced to tangle with her sleazy music manager (Vince Vaughn), his gay body guard (The Rock), and his producer partner (Harvey Keitel, who played in Chilis first movie, but in this movie, everyone acted like it was a different person... really confused me). Wood's horrible management of his music company gets Chili entertwined with members of the same Russian mafia (that killed his friend Woods) and a rich, well-to-do, clean-on-the-outside rap roducer (Cedric The Entertainer) and his gang of merry thugs. Uma's charachter had at one time done the laundry for Aerosmith. This sets the stage for Chili and her to make contact with Steven Tyler at a L.A. Lakers game. They end up getting thier scouted out chick (whos group used to actually be called "the chicks"... horrible, I know) a duet with Tyler at an Aerosmith concert. Getting her foot in the door to be produced... I guess...

I actaully went into this movie EXPECTING to like it. The start of the film was pretty pathedic. Chili goes on to explain to his friend Woods that he couldn't get a PG-13 rating in his last movie because it had the "f word" in it more than one time... He then says "You know what I think of that? FU*? that." And, in fact, that is the only F word in the whole movie, allowing it to keep a PG-13 rating. But before I go on, don't think that due to the rating it is safe for all 13 year olds. Every other allowable curse is throw around like a rag doll... if I heard a 13 year old speak like these characters, I'd probably slap him myself... Anyway, it was just pretty stupid to literally use that word for no reason at all... but that's just me...

The movie just does not have that "Get Shorty" feel. Get Shorty kind of felt like a comic book to me. It was fun, colorful, and the characters drove the plot. Chili was much smoother, much cooler in the first one. In "Be Cool" he seems fake-cool... I'm-too-old-to-be-cool-since-Get_shorty-came -out-10-years-ago-cool.... wow, 10 years? You'd think the same writter could come up with a better story in that time.

Cedric the Entertainer is great. He has a nice, multi-millon dollar home in the suburbs, waves a "top of the morning to you!" to his old white neighbors, cooks pancakes for his daughters every morning, and takes them to get ice cream after picking them up from their private school... only to have a group of thugs at his side when out making music deals and taking money from producers that "owe" him. One of his side kicks enjoys killing people. The movie tries to pass this on as comic relief, I actually found it boring. However, this side kick was Barney Fife-esque and had horrible aim, or shot accidently when not asked to...

Vince Vaughn I thought for sure would leave me in stiches, along the side of "the rock". Vaughns style of comedy couldn't really come out in this movie, so I was disappointed. But his attempts to talk and act black were very entertaining. The Rock actually played a black gay man very well, considering he is a straight white man. As horrible as an actor as he is, I dare say he was the most refreshing part of the movie.

And one of the biggest let downs of the whole film was the fact that Danny Devito was left out to only play a cameo. He comes out of a club and sees Chili drive up in a Honda Insight (the hybrid car). Devito says "what about your Cadilac Chili?" (Which got shot up in the start of the movie), to which Chili responds "It's the Cadilac of hybrids." A kickback to "Get Shorty". Was used in the previews for good reasons... it made me laugh in the preview...

All in all, the story was very hard to follow, of course Get Shorty was too, but somehow I understood Get Shorty easier. This one tried to be like Get Shorty, as far as plot twists go, but they seemed to be fake and not genuine plot twists... kind of like the writers were syaing "Hey, we need more plot twists, have someone sit in the living room with the lights off and the TV on and let them point a gun at Chili when he walks in on them and..." it got tiresome fast.

Oh, and one last complaint. The entire movie seemed a good excuse to make a soundtrack... too much singing for too long. It was almost a musical... but that was sort of the theme. Get Shorty was funnier and more entertaining.