movies

OK. I'll admit. I really enjoy getting completely and pleasantly surprised by a movie. Especially one with Keira Knightley in it. The "completely perfect" girl from Love Actually. Guinevere in King Arthur. Elizabeth Swann in Pirates. I'm not usually one to fall for a skinny girl, but I'll admit that I'm enamored.

The ever brilliant Netflix decided to recommend Domino to me, no doubt, as it could tell that I wanted to see more movies with Keira. And it was right, but this was no Lizzie Bennett.

From the start, it was clear this was action, action and more action. And then the intrigue kicked up a notch! I'll warn you there's a gruesome moment, but you'll probably live through it just fine. Whether or not you're also enamored with Keira, I strongly recommend adding this movie to your must see list.

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.

-Edward R. Murrow

Sometimes it pays to not know what you're about to watch. I rented this movie because it was an Oscar nominee. That and I really like hearing Edward R. Murrow's voice from old radio broadcasts. It was immensely entertaining, and a thoroughly immersive and engaging experience.

If you have not seen this movie, it is an absolute must see. You can enjoy it because it was filmed beautifully in black & white. You can enjoy it because it was completed for less than $7 million - though I assume that none of the cast accepted salaries, if that was truly the budget.

But, most importantly, we need to be reminded of the dangers of McCarthyism. They lurk all around us. And for good reason. The practice of "rounding up" our enemies is highly effective at silencing opposition. Right or wrong, we round up terrorists. Right or wrong, we round up those who oppose a woman's reproductive rights. Right or wrong, we round up those who support a woman's reproductive rights. There are evils at every corner, and we must all be careful not to fall in to the comfortable trap that is McCarthyism.

I'm happy to report that I was not murdered with a salad bowl. Very happy indeed. Team America: World Police was a lot of fun.

Heh. Bwaha. Teeeheehee.

I couldn't wait to see it. After the show I was asked if I wanted to go meet some of the performers backstage. Man, I was thrilled. But when I got back there, they were drunk and out of control. Rumpus Cat and Macavity kept feeling up my leg. I tried to leave, but, Rumpleteazer held me down, and... I was raped by Mr. Mistoffelees.

Matt and Trey continue to prove their genius. And even Amanda laughed. But don't tell her I told you so.

We've been watching Netflix for two months now. My original intention was to catch up on 24. I found a few extra movies along the way... According to our stats, we've returned 35 movies in the last 60 days (and we've got a few more waiting to go back right now).

It's been really great having an assortment of good stuff to watch, especially since the regular TV seasons have retired for the summer - although that will be improving soon since The 4400, Deadwood (and probably something else I'm completely forgetting) are coming back for a summer run.

It's fun having the list of movies we're watching posted on our website. I've been surprised by the people that have told me they really enjoyed some movie (that I remembered watching recently) and figured out that they'd seen it on our site. And here I thought no one ever read it but me! Kudos to Netflix for the RSS feeds.

My favorite feature on Netflix, however, is the ability to queue up movies that haven't been released - or for that matter, don't even have a release date. Bullshit season 3? No problem. Cars? No problem. Once the movies are released on DVD they float up to the end of the queue. How handy is that?

I do have a few complaints about Netflix, though. First - and this is no big surprise - a lot of the DVD's we've received look like they've been cleaned with sandpaper. However, all but 2 have played with no more than a few seconds lost. Chasing Amy and Pride and Prejudice, however, deprived us of some critical content. Netflix does, however, immediately ship replacements when you request them for damaged discs. Still a huge downer.

Second, it's tough to make suggestions go away sometimes. For example, Netflix thinks I'm a huge Michael Moore fan at the moment. No amount of clicking "Not Interested" seems to change its mind. But that's a small price to pay to have a catalog of thousands of movies available.

I hate to do it, but I'm going to mix nerdy, uber-nerdy and food all in to one posting. Heh. Lock up your women, eh!

So... there's this documentary film out called Super Size Me... I thought... hey... another commentary on the sad state of Americans and their diets. Well... I'm sure of it now... I'm one of those sad state Americans. No more processed food for me, I tell ya! Fortunately it's summer time and Amanda is feeding us lots of salads and keeping healthy food in the house. I need to work harder on the exercise part, though.

I promised nerdy, and by gum, I've got nerdy! I spent some quality time this morning supervising my friend David as he demonstrated his ability to make some highly accurate cuts on half inch PVC. We're going to build an antenna - and I think it should qualify for the Team Cheap Bastard hall of fame. After a little oopsie the first time we glued pieces together, we made some good progress. It should definitely be ready for field day. I should have watched Super Size Me first, though, as I wound up having a Preston Trail burger from Scotty P's for the second day in a row...

Uber-nerdy? Yup... That's what I said!