Movie: Death Race 3: Inferno

This was mindless entertainment at its C-movie finest, complete with gratuitous female nudity and blatant misogyny.   The female nudity was fine, and I even expected it.  I neither expected nor needed a rearview shot of Danny Trejo's character getting a blowjob.  Talk about not being able to unsee something...but kudos to the filmmakers for making the scene with someone who doesn't have a perfectly sculpted ass.

A race through the desert, a bad buy, a contract gone wrong, an unexpected sacrifice, mediocre special effects with regard to human carnage, and an unnecessarily expositional ending complete the tour.

Set in the Kalahari Desert, and filmed entirely on location in Cape Town and Cerese (not sure of the name), South Africa.

Dougray Scott is a delightfully over-the-top bad guy.  Actually, most of the bad guys were a bit over-the-top.

Ving Rhames was a nicely understated amoral race promoter.

If you're into these kinds of movies, I think it's worth your time.  If you're not, you'll hate it.

Movie: Skyfall

There's a moment, about ten minutes in, when Bond is drowning, and you can see exactly how well Daniel Craig is built.  :ahem:  It's reminiscent of a popular still from the set of the senior pilots' bunkroom on BSG.  heehee

What?  I've been writing smut, and I'm feeling shallow at the moment.  :D

Dame Judi Dench is the bomb diggity.

I like suspenders on a man.  They give his trousers the right....drape.

The new Q is adorable.

Scruff does not look as good on DC as it does on some other men.  At least not the scruff he was sporting here.

I laughed out loud several times.  I think my personal favorite is "Welcome to Scotland." 

I loved that house - out in the middle of nowhere, plenty of room to tramp around, water nearby, and a secret tunnel!  When can I move in?

Movies: Paperboy, Deadfall

Movies I've seen lately via my redboxinstant trial (and can I just say, I don't recommend it) are Paperboy, Deadfall and The Cold Light of Day.

Paperboy was a very strange movie, described by a friend thus: "despite getting booed at Cannes was a hugely entertaining over-the-top, sweaty, sexy and then some, Southern Gothic kinkfest of a movie."  Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, and David O (from MI-5) are the main stars, with an ubercreepy turn as an inmate by John Cusack.  :shudders:

I had to see this because my friend (mentioned above) told me that Zac runs around most of the movie at least shirtless, and frequently pantsless.  Zac is my hugely age-inappropriate movie star crush, and naturally I was intrigued :snicker: by the idea of him doing much of the movie in his tighty-whities.

If you have trigger issues with incest, probably not your thing.  I do, but it was very subtle here, and male/male, so not as triggery for me.  It was a train wreck, but an entertaining one.  And yes, Zac Efron was muy bueno in his underwear.  lol

Deadfall at its core is a story of family and what we'll do for them when the shit hits the fan.  Brother and sister, father and son, husband and wife, father and daughter.  All four families are dysfunctional in some way, with some overt brother/sister incest vibes (seriously, someone needs to tag these things) that were not too squicky, for me anyway.  Deadfall had a fairly heavy-hitting cast, including Kris Kristofferson, Sissy Spacek, Treat Williams, Kate Mara (a favorite of mine because she gets parts that don't depend on looks - not that she's unattractive, she's just not Hollywood gorgeous) and Eric Bana, with relative newcomers Olivia Wilde (who has gorgeous and unusual eyes) and Charlie Hunnam.  Except for a news report playing in the background in one scene, you'd never know what the brother and sister did that necessitated them running, and it's really not material to the plot.  Suffice it to say, they're on the run, and all kinds of violent hijinks ensue.  Does include one very short but effective lovemaking sequence, with Hunnam and Wilde naked (not the brother and sister, fyi).  Not all the families find resolution by the end of the movie, and the denoument, while not precisely Hollywood, was just what I expected.  It could only have ended one other way, really, and while I was hoping they would go there, they at least opted not to give it a happy ending.

Mark Cuban had top production credit on Deadfall.

Cold Light of Day was a Bruce Willis movie, with Henry Cavill as the son placed in a very strange situation when someone kidnaps his family while he's visiting on vacation.  It did some slightly surprising things with the plot.  A potential love interest (great chemistry between Cavill and the actress) turned out to be the character's sister, and I was really pleased that they chose a sibling direction for the two rather than the more usual love starting under harrowing circumstances.  Cavill is in the new Superman movie, Man of Steel (?) and has grown into quite a striking man since his turn as the young Mondego in Count of Monte Cristo.  The action sequences weren't always believable, and the camera action was a bit much for me at times, but I really enjoyed this movie anyway.  Aside from Bruce Willis, whose part is rather short, there's a star turn by Sigourney Weaver as a colleague of the father's whose motives are suspect.  With the ending they gave it, it could easily turn into a franchise for Cavill, though perhaps not as successful a one as Bourne or Die Hard.

As for the redboxinstant thing - I did like getting the four free credits that I could use at the kiosk, but their streaming leaves a lot to be desired, and that's assuming you can find a recent movie you want to watch (they don't have much in the way of recent major motion pictures available to stream, and what they do have is extremely difficult to find - their search function sucks).  I did managed to stream One For the Money and SWAT: Firefight.  With only four credits per month and the streaming issues, it's definitely not worth $8 a month.  Amazon is a much better deal at $80 a year, or Netflix for the same $8 a month, with a far greater selection and very few streaming issues that I've ever encountered.

Sooo, Die Hard...

I saw it twice on Saturday, once the first show of the day and once late in the evening.  Two different theaters/locations, two different friends, two different experiences.

I liked it, but didn't love it.  I did absolutely love the interactions between John and Jack.  It was all quintessential McClane snark going both ways and it was funny as hell.  It will not surpass One and Four as a favorite, but it edges out Three, despite Sam L Jackson, barely.  MEW has gained or lost some weight.  It made me completely unsure it was actually her until I saw her name in the credits.  She doesn't look bad, just different.

Jai Courtney did a great job as Jack McClane.  He's gone on record as saying that when casting was going on, the implications were that when Bruce was tired of making the movies, he would be ready to pass it on to whoever got cast as his son.  I think Jai's a good choice, physically and in his mannerisms.  He's also on record as saying that despite knowing that the possibility of taking over the franchise exists, he definitely wants at least one more with Bruce, and would prefer more, as many as Bruce is willing to make.

Much as I hate to, I noticed that Bruce is showing his age.  That most assuredly will not stop me loving the Die Hard franchise as a whole, and as long as he wants to keep making DH movies, I'll want to keep seeing them.

There's a lot of the movie in Russian, with subtitles, so be prepared for that.  Listening to so much of it renewed my fickle interest in learning the language.  I'll never have occasion to use it, so I have no idea why I'd want to learn it, but I have for years now.  There were about half a dozen moments that I noticed held some parallel to the first movie.

First show was in a TINY theater, and it was pretty packed.  That was unexpected for 10:25 in the morning, and we had trouble finding seats.  I saw it with my friend B, and we laughed like schoolgirls throughout.  Of course, we both adore DH & BW, so it was fun for both of us.  Interestingly, that audience was almost entirely made up of (I don't even want to say this because it just isn't true, dammit!) middle-aged women, including me (the youngest at 48), B, her older sister, and their mother.  lol

She shared with me that her girlfriend had asked her to marry her, and instead of a ring, she'd gotten a ring on a charm bracelet.  Much more in keeping with B's work, since she'd be unable to wear a diamond ring a lot of the time.  I snarked, correctly, that since she was wearing said charm bracelet complete with engagement ring charm, that she must've said yes.  

Second viewing was less fun, since my companion to that one didn't seem to be enjoying it as much.  I made sure he liked the other DH movies before I asked him to go with me, but I'm not entirely certain he liked this one.  AMC apparently has something called ETX, which is their version of IMAX, and the only difference I was able to ascertain is that it costs three dollars more, and we both got DH t-shirts.  Video, sound, theater set-up, everything seemed the same.  It was very loud, though.  I could have done with the sound turned down about 20%. 

So, while I liked it, and it's a good enough addition to the franchise, I probably won't buy it on DVD unless there are compelling extras.  That said, I have the 1-3 trilogy pack, and rarely, if ever, watch Three unless I do a marathon of all of them, but I did buy it, nonetheless.

Trailers:
Bates Motel on A&E looks like it might be interesting.  I only ever saw Freddie Highmore in August Rush, and he has grown up!  He's much taller, and not 11 any more.  lol  Vera Farmiga is the lead.  I've not seen everything she's made, but I loved her in Roar, and try to keep up with her at least in movies.  Yes, I will go see Fast & Furious.  I don't even care how bad it is, because it'll be so damn much fun!  Olympus Has Fallen - it looked intriguing, and I do like Gerard Butler, but then I saw Morgan Freeman.  I'll see anything that man makes.  Anything.  A Sandra Bullock film that looks truly horrible - Fed/cop thing with Melissa (?) McCarthy (The Heat).  Some Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson thing that might be funny but will not be getting my dollars at the box office to find out.  Also, AfterEarth - Will and Jada make some really frakking pretty kids.  Jaden looks more like Will every day, but with softer, less coarse facial features.  As for the movie, interesting concept.  I'll probably wait for the dollar movie to see it, though.  Now that I know that the first show of the day is only $6, I'll probably try to see Olympus at the regular theater - it's so much more comfortable than my LaZBoy - though getting out of 'bed' that early on a Saturday is hellish.

Movie: Looper

So, Looper.  Interesting concept for a plot.  Low-key performance by Jeff Daniels.  Bruce had some good moments, and he was mostly pretty low-key himself. Gordon-Levitt did a pretty good job.  Never imagined I would see Piper Perabo virtually nude.  The real star of the movie, though, was Pierce Gagnon.  He played Cid, the little boy on the farm, and he Stole. The. Show.  Easily.  I wanna see what that kid's doing in 15 years, and let's hope it's not drugs.  His imdb is pretty sketchy, so I can't even tell you how old he is, but he's worth watching out for. 

Movie: Fire With Fire (2012)

And no, I'm not talking about the Sheffer/Madsen flick from the 80s, though I enjoyed that one, too.

This one apparently went straight to video in August of last year, and it's got a really fantastic cast.  I think I would have cast someone else in the female lead :Katee Sackhoff:, but Rosario Dawson did a fine job.  Bruce Willis, Vincent D'Onofrio, Josh Duhamel (I finally know how to properly pronounce his name!), Rampage Jackson (I gather he's some kind of fighter), a football player whose name I can't spell, Rosario, Julian McMahon, and some good people in the background parts.  

It's heavy on the action, set in Long Beach and New Orleans, and it's got heart at the core. 

I'd never heard of it, so I wasn't sure about renting it, but I figured with a free Redbox code, I wouldn't be out anything if it sucked.  Besides, I'll see just about anything if Bruce is in it.

It does have a racial component - Aryans/black gangs - so avoid if that sort of thing squicks you, or if you're not a fan of violence, but otherwise, I recommend it.

Of interest in the extras, there were cast/crew interviews, and one of the things the director had to say about Bruce Willis was that his scenes were shot during the first week, and Bruce was crucial in helping to pull a crew that hadn't worked together before into a team, that he did it more than the director did, and he really appreciated that Bruce was able to do it, and it helped him see how to do it for himself next time.  Curtis Jackson, in talking about other projects, I think, said that Bruce has worked with him on several indie projects, and that Bruce is not afraid to work with new talent, particularly directors.  He was saying that a lot of big name actors won't do a film if the director has no recognizable work behind them, because they need the security of knowing that person's work, but that Bruce is not like that.  He'll work with anybody.  I've long enjoyed Willis' work, and it's nice to hear that he's not a diva. 

Dreams and Random Stuff

I had this weird dream just before I woke up this morning.  I'm a military brat, so I've been around planes my entire life.  Well, in this dream, I was outside, in front of my house, watching a plane fly across the sky.  Suddenly the plane stopped and hovered.  Not many planes do this, and certainly none non-military, so of course, I knew it was a military plane.  It was also carrying something on its back, a la space shuttle type thing.  Anyway, this hovering plane slowly turns exactly nose down, pauses for a very brief moment, then plunges to the earth.  Somehow, I was seeing this all simultaneously from directly below the nose, and also from a slight angle.  Don't ask me - it was a dream.  Anyway, as I see it begin to slow down before it turned nose down, I said, "Oh, shit."  Then as I watched it hit the ground, in my neighbor's front yard, I was just frozen.  Just watching it happen, like I had no sense at all.  Fortunately, though I watched the explosion in the neighbor's yard as if it were in slo-mo, I woke up before my dream self was dissolved by the shockwave of the impact.  lol  Sometimes, I don't know where my mind comes up with this crap.  I don't even want to know, for that matter.

The cough I got when I got sick at the first of the year has hung around.  Makes me short of breath several times a day, and I'm kinda weaker than usual, but otherwise, I'm getting back to normal.

I have two friend-dates to go see Die Hard 5 opening weekend, and I have another friend-date next Monday to have dinner to celebrate our upcoming birthdays early.  I have a $10 gift card for Cheesecake Factory that expires at the end of the month, so we're going to take advantage of it.  Love Cheesecake Factory, despite the fact that I do not love cheesecake.  Not even a little bit.  Not even at all.

I noticed in November that all I was doing on Facebook was liking a bunch of stuff and reading other people's posts, so I decided that I would check out for a while.  This was also at least partly in response to changes in FB and their incessant need to change their privacy policies for the worse.  Since then, I've been reading a very small list of people whose lives I actually care about, and not liking anything at all, and only posting a comment when I had some actual information to share.  Nobody's noticed I'm gone, and I haven't missed FB, so I've decided I'm going to trim down the pages I've liked (I've already trimmed down friends several times) and make what's on my FB pretty basic.  I haven't posted anything on my own page since mid-November, and I pretty much plan to keep that up.  I guess if somebody wants to know what I'm up to, they can get hold of me some other way.  In the meantime, I have more time to obsess about BSG and read BSG porn.  Thank the gods for smut!

Last but not least, my Firefox has gotten some kind of freaky thing.  When I click on something, a pop-under will randomly open up and redirect me to another page.  You might think this would be some kind of actual porn, all things considered, but the redirects are to Amazon, or search pages, or, about 10% of the time, to porn pages.  Weird, and unwelcome, and I have not been able to figure out how to get rid of it.  It doesn't seem to do anything, other than open a random page in a pop-under.  It never redirects the page I'm actually on.  At the same time this happened, I get ads randomly on livejournal, over the top of people's pictures, that I have to click closed if I want to see said pictures.  Have people begun to monetize their ljs?  Has livejournal started doing this to a random selection of people?  The two things may or may not even be related.  Maybe I should uninstall Firefox and redownload it.  ETA:  I did uninstall and reinstall, and that fixed the problems.

Movie: Conan the Barbarian

I knew if I waited long enough, Amazon would put Conan on Prime's watch-for-free list.  It wasn't terrible, either.

So, I watched it, basically for Jason Momoa.  I loved him in Stargate: Atlantis, and though his part in Game of Thrones was very small, I liked him fine there, too.  The actress playing Tamara has the most amazingly pale blue eyes I've ever seen.  In one scene, they almost look white, they're so pale.  Stunning.

Pros: Conan, at both ages, is pretty.  Tamara is pretty.  There are many naked breasts in one scene that are pretty.  The fights, however unrealistic, are pretty.  His friend, the thief King, is pretty.  In the love scene and aftermath, both Conan and Tamara are very pretty (though the actress has a body double, so presumably it's the double's body that's pretty).  As you can tell, this was all about the pretty.  lol

Cons:  The movie as a whole was mediocre, at best.  The script maybe had good bones, but whoever didn't make any inspired choices in translating that script into film.  I had no idea it was possible to make Rose McGowan unattractive, but they managed.  The end was kind of non-endy.

Also, lest people continue to think that watching TV is not educational, while I was watching the credits, I was able to tell the gender of many of the film's Slavic workers.  If the name ended with ev, ov, av (not too many of those), then I knew that person was male.  If it ended eva, ova, ava, then that person was female.  Where did I learn that?  Babylon 5, maybe?  JAG?  I don't even remember, just that it stuck in my head.  Another useless bit of trivia for that trip to Eastern Europe that will never happen.  :)

Was that barbarian/King played by the same guy who was the head dude on Terra Nova?  I'll have to look that up, if I remember long enough. 

Anyway, it wasn't a waste of my time, but I doubt I'll be watching it again.  If they got a different director, I might even watch a sequel, though I would not pay to watch at a movie house.  I hear tell they're making another Conan movie with Arnold back as Conan.  I can guarantee I won't be watching that one. 

Happy Day!

(original post on livejournal 12/18/2012)
Well, you know, as happy as it gets in December.

The roast I put in the crockpot at 0530 is the best roast I ever made.  From now on, I will always make my roast from a brisket cut!  Plus, it was spiced just right, and the juice was just exactly the right thickness that it was good gravy without me actually having to make gravy.  I had to write down how I made it so I can do it again and again and again.

While I was enthusing over my fantastic roast, the mail came, and my BSG Season 3 from swapadvd was delivered!  I inspected the discs, and two might have to be taken somewhere to be run through whatever it is that smooths out the rough edges (so to speak), but the remaining six discs are pristine.  So I am now the proud owner through the end of season three, with only three questionable discs.  I'm in line for the two parts of season four, but I'm kind way down the list.  I did transfer enough credits from paperbackswap so I can get them, so it's just a matter of waiting now.

I have started using Dr Bronner's liquid soap in the shower (Hemp Almond) and it's making my skin smooth.  I like that.  And though it's kind of a strange thing to be happy about, I hardly even have to dry off after my shower.  Also, my dry skin itchies, which used to be pretty severe in the winter, have hardly made an appearance at all.

I feel asleep smiling last night because I happened to fall asleep during a particularly enjoyable John McClane moment during Die Hard 4.  Yes, I love John McClane and I don't care who frakkin' knows.  lol  I am so anxiously anticipating #5 in February.  I conned a friend of mine into seeing it with me for my birthday.  I figured it I asked now, she couldn't say there was anything else on her calendar.  :D

It is too bad that I don't know anybody who needs gifts wrapped.  The only part of the season I really enjoy is wrapping gifts.  Speaking of the season, I got an email from my stepmother, telling me that a cousin and her husband were coming in to town to visit her mom (my step-maternal aunt), and that I was welcome to come over for dinner.  That it would be good to see me.  My first thought was that she only thought it would be good to see me because it's been two years since she set eyes on me and maybe she just forgot that she doesn't really like me.  I am still debating whether or not I can handle all the negative snark aimed my way, or if I should just decline graciously.  It would be good to see my dad and my sister, and my aunt, uncle and cousin, for that matter.  I guess I should just suck it up and go, but gods I hate listening to her putting me down. 

ETA:  I did go to my parents' house for xmas dinner, and everybody except my parents were polite and interacted with me as if I were a person and everything.  My dad said about five words to me, including hello and goodbye, and my stepmother talked to me, was even nice, but avoided me as much as possible.  It was great to see my aunt, uncle, cousin and to meet cousin's hubby.  He's adorable!  And so smitten!

Movie: Conan the Barbarian

I knew if I waited long enough, Amazon would put Conan on Prime's watch-for-free list.  It wasn't terrible, either.

So, I watched it, basically for Jason Momoa.  I loved him in Stargate: Atlantis, and though his part in Game of Thrones was very small, I liked him fine there, too.  The actress playing Tamara has the most amazingly pale blue eyes I've ever seen.  In one scene, they almost look white, they're so pale.  Stunning.

Pros: Conan, at both ages, is pretty.  Tamara is pretty.  There are many naked breasts in one scene that are pretty.  The fights, however unrealistic, are pretty.  His friend, the thief King, is pretty.  In the love scene and aftermath, both Conan and Tamara are very pretty (though the actress has a body double, so presumably it's the double's body that's pretty).  As you can tell, this was all about the pretty.  lol

Cons:  The movie as a whole was mediocre, at best.  The script maybe had good bones, but whoever didn't make any inspired choices in translating that script into film.  I had no idea it was possible to make Rose McGowan unattractive, but they managed.  The end was kind of non-endy.

Also, lest people continue to think that watching TV is not educational, while I was watching the credits, I was able to tell the gender of many of the film's Slavic workers.  If the name ended with ev, ov, av (not too many of those), then I knew that person was male.  If it ended eva, ova, ava, then that person was female.  Where did I learn that?  Babylon 5, maybe?  JAG?  I don't even remember, just that it stuck in my head.  Another useless bit of trivia for that trip to Eastern Europe that will never happen.  :)

Was that barbarian/King played by the same guy who was the head dude on Terra Nova?  I'll have to look that up, if I remember long enough. 

Anyway, it wasn't a waste of my time, but I doubt I'll be watching it again.  If they got a different director, I might even watch a sequel, though I would not pay to watch at a movie house.  I hear tell they're making another Conan movie with Arnold back as Conan.  I can guarantee I won't be watching that one.

Hot and Cold

Sorry.  I suck at subject lines, and I was listening to Katy Perry. 

Good - Voted.
Bad - no bad there, except for the 40-minute line.

Good - smoothie from Smoothie King
Better - next one's free

Good - dinner at Cheesecake Factory
Better - half of it was free thanks to a gift card I earned through MyPoints
Extra Super Good Bonus - even though my favorite item is no longer on the menu, my fantastic waiter asked the kitchen if they could make it anyway, and they did.  Also, I got a survey on my receipt, and by filling it out, I got a $10 gift card for next time.

Good - saw Taken 2
Better - free thanks to a movie ticket voucher from MyCokeRewards
Bad - though it was still good, I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the first one
Good again - saw another trailer for Die Hard 5 and for Skyfall.  I am an unabashed John McClane and Daniel Craig 007 fangirl, and I cannot wait to see these two.

Best - CF and the movie house are in the same "mall," so I only had to park once

Good - Movie Trading Company is having a Buy Two, Get One Free sale through Sunday, and it applies to almost everything.
Better - Season 1, 2 and 2.5 of Battlestar Galactica were available at MTC, so I scored big!  Obviously, this means I'll have to start again at the beginning, so I can watch all those deleted scenes and whatever extras tickle my fancy.  Damn the bad luck.  lol

So, I pretty much got to show myself a good time tonight for practically nothing.  The only way it would have been better is if I had company.  On the other hand, when I'm alone, I can read my book without having to make conversation.  lol

Movie: Fast Five

This was complete and utter escapist fantasy!

It didn't matter that parts of the plot were completely unbelievable. It didn't even matter that there were no captions.

The parts of the scenery that featured the ocean and the countryside surrounding Rio were breathtaking! Made me totally want to visit and see the ocean. Guess that's going on my bucket list. lol

I admit being shallow enough to *totally* enjoy the fight between Johnson and Diesel. I'm sure it was choreographed all to hell, and yet it looked like they were having so much fun with each other.

Yes, I finished high school. Yes, I'm older than twelve. Yes, I'm even a girl. Yes, I just adored this movie. Not everything has to be a high-brow cinematic masterpiece.

Movie: Sleeping Dogs Lie

Please note: there is implied bestiality referred to in this movie several times. That doesn't bother me, but if that squicks you, go find another movie to watch. Really.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this movie. I really wasn't expecting much. I mean, Bobcat Goldthwaite? So, the end result was quite a pleasant surprise.

There are some incredibly nuanced family moments scattered throughout the movie. Melinda Page Hamilton puts in a good enough performance for an unknown that I can see she will be really great in the right part.

Amy's brother was played so kooky as to border on caricature, though his reaction to the news at the prison was particularly well done.

The friendship-at-work chemistry between Amy and Ed was really great, and I would have loved to see that relationship grow into something really intimate, as friends. Once they crossed the line into a romance, they were just not convincing. The speed with which Amy "recovered" from breaking up with John and moved into something with Ed was completely ridiculous. Though the film ended on a Happily Ever After note, I know that's one relationship that isn't going to last long.

Regardless of how unbelievable I felt their relationship to be, I enjoyed this film quite a bit.

Blockbuster DVDs at home for Dummies (well, this one, anyway)

Had a free two-month deal with Blockbuster for DVDs at home, with unlimited exchange in-store.  It ends tomorrow.

The first week, I got DVDs three times - one day turnarounds.  Keep in mind I live in Dallas, where there is most assuredly a Blockbuster warehouse for this service.  Nonetheless, I was impressed by that.  After that first week, I was lucky to get DVDs once a week.  It would take two days to get to them from me, then another day to check in and sometimes another day to mail out whatever was next in my queue, and sometimes two days to get to me after they said it was mailed.  

In addition, after experiencing the selection wonderland that is Netflix (granted, more than four years ago), I was sorely underwhelmed by Blockbuster's DVD selection.  At least half a dozen times, I searched for something that was fairly recent, and they didn't have it.  Online, I'm talking, not in-store.  

There is no Blockbuster anywhere near me, so those unlimited in-store exchanges were worthless to me.  Totally wish I could have taken advantage of that, because that would definitely have added to the value.  

The queue interface is not as intuitive as I remember Netflix being, and it's really easy to get the queue disordered accidentally, and have to spend an hour fixing it back to the right order.  It's a three step process to add TV seasons to the queue, and to make certain that each series comes in order, one series at a time.  How to do that is nowhere in the help information - I had to chat with a customer service rep to learn how to do it, and then only after I'd gotten Season One, DVD 1 and Season Two, DVD 1, of the same series, both at the same time.  The reasoning behind that particular thing is both irritating and ridiculous.

Bottom line for me:  slightly more expensive than Netflix for poorer service and a lackluster selection.  Not worth my money.  Cancelled.  Cancelling took me to ELEVEN screens, wherein Blockbuster asked me three separate times if I was sure I didn't want to pick another plan instead of cancelling.  

Maybe someday, if I live next door to a Blockbuster, this might be worth it.  But by the time that happens, there probably won't be any Blockbuster stores left in the state.

Book Review: Nothing Lasts Forever

The original Die Hard movie was loosely based on this sequel to The Detective.  Nothing Lasts Forever was written by Roderick Thorp and published in 1979.  Unless you pay attention to all the credits in your favorite movies the way I do, you're not likely to know this.  The book has been on my To Read list for a while, and I finally found it at my local library.

Roderick Thorp's tight writing style is easy to read.  The novel is a bit dated, but many of the concerns in the novel are still things we are struggling with today - international terrorism, anyone?   None of the dating distracted me from the story.

There was one place in the book where Joe Leland made a note of the time, 9:11, and that made me pause for a moment to reflect on the unknowable foreshadowing by Thorp and on the events of that date.  That was the only thing that took me out of the story for a moment.

Thorp's Joe Leland is an older man, a grandfather, and self-employed as a private detective and security consultant.  References are made to the air marshall program, where the air marshall could be anyone on board a domestic flight. 

This is a rare instance in which I prefer the movie over the book.  Much of the novel is taken up with Joe Leland's internal dialogue, and he's kind of a sad sack.  He second-guesses himself a lot, and randomly reminisces about his past and how he's mucked up his life.  He's not nearly as snarky or clever as John McLane.  Al Powell is not as friendly or quick to support Joe.   Joe Leland's wife has divorced him and died after remarrying.

Many plot points or characters are precisely the same:  Karl has long-blond hair, and his brother is killed early on; Leland's daughter uses the name Gennero; Ellis is a cocaine-sniffing asshole, eager to get into the daughter's pants; Ellis refers to Stefanie Gennero's watch, urging her to show it to her father; Joe Leland cuts his feet badly, though in the book, it's from unexpectedly stepping into a stairwell filled purposely with broken fluorescent light bulbs; the head terrorist's last name is Gruber; there is a jackass police honcho named Dwayne T Robinson.  I could go on and on.  The movie clearly differed from the book in one particular instance:  the terrorist team that invaded Klaxon Oil included two or three women.

In all, I enjoyed the read.  Mentally comparing the novel to the film might have made it a more interesting read for me.  I LOVE Die Hard and John McLane!

Movie: Unknown

I did some mystery shops last fall and still had a balance on my gift card for the local dollar movie (which is no longer a dollar, but is still way cheaper than the regular movie).  Anyway, I decided to get out of the house and go see Unknown, with Liam Neeson.

I like Liam Neeson.  And, as I have no doubt said before, I am easily entertained.  I liked Unknown - the action, the slightly spotty plot, the contrived coincidences - all of it.  Aidan Quinn was not at his best in this movie, but I greatly enjoyed the former Stasi officer, whose (acting) name I do not know.

I was astounded to walk into the theater and find a complete row of empty seats, to which I proceeded, only to find it was inhabited entirely by children.  Young children, too short to be seen from behind the seat.  There were a LOT of children in this movie, more than the number of parents would indicate.   I finally sat in the very back, in a single seat.  There was a family, an entire family, who sat on the floor behind me.  This family included several small children, noisily opening their multiple plastic-covered nachos and hot dogs, and a crawling, unhappy baby.  Yes, the baby was crawling on the theater floor.  Can I just say ewwwwwwww?  That was all very distracting, and I wondered why the family didn't take the snacks outside the theater to open them.  I mean, they left the theater to buy them, so why not open them right outside the door, where the back six rows of people didn't have to turn around at the very loud noise?  For that matter, why did they take their children to this fairly violent movie?

Maybe I'm just hopelessly stuck in the past when children had manners and parents were in charge, but my child did not behave that way in public, or she went home.  Yes, this meant I went home and missed out on whatever it was, too.  Boohoo.

In the very front of the theater, in front of the front row of seats, were gigantic cardboard cartons of something.  That was distracting, too, when the screen was light enough to view the room. 

It was still an enjoyable evening out of the house, costing me nothing but a little gas money.  Though I appreciate the theater experience as a whole, I generally prefer to watch my movies at home via Netflix or Redbox, so that I have control over my environment.  Guess that's my inner control freak.  lol

Movie: The Pacifier

Another movie review from 2005.

My daughter and I saw this movie last night.  We decided to check out the dollar movie after work and supper and were originally going to see Miss Congeniality 2. Unfortunately, that one didn't start until nearly an hour after we got there, and so we decided on The Pacifier instead.  (on a side note, I saw MC2 at a later date, and thought it pretty well sucked)

It has Vin Diesel (best known for xXx and The Chronicles of Riddick) and Lauren Graham (from Gilmore Girls and Bad Santa), plus Raymond's older brother Robert (sorry, can't remember the actor's name) in a love-to-hate role.

I had cramps from hell when we sat down and was desperately hoping that the movie would at least be distracting so that I'd stop thinking about it, but really, wasn't holding out much hope.

Imagine my surprise to find myself laughing out loud more than a few times, at the antics of Vin Diesel pretending (very well) to be a SpecOps Lieutenant relegated to babysitting duty because of a National Security situation.  His character had no previous experience with children and his overreaction to normal childhood happenings were definitely behind some of the laughs.  His lack of experience, though, also made him more able to handle other things because of a lack of preconceived notions.

I enjoyed this one immensely and daughter and I plan to add it to our library when it comes out on DVD. (we did indeed do this)

There is some violence and there might be some ass or damn, but it's a Disney movie, so it's pretty tame language-wise.  There is one Disneyfied kissus interruptus and a completed kiss toward the end.  And, of course, it has a Disney happily ever after ending.

Movie: Constantine

Yes, I know this movie is way old news.  lol   It's a review I wrote in 2005.

This movie got chosen for two reasons:  It stars Keanu Reeves and it's rated R.  There were other movies I wanted to see more, but the whole point of the evening was to pick something I could see that my daughter couldn't.  I love my brother.  :D  This is the first movie we've each seen in the theater since Troy, which coincidentally, we saw together.  We decided last night that Brad Pitt liked his own ass better than either of us did.

It was dark and confusing and had pretty girly boobies nearly falling out of a shirt, and I liked it.  Not the greatest movie I ever saw, but worth the $6.50 I paid for a student ticket.  It's worth at least a trip to the dollar movie, in my opinion.  It'll definitely play much better on the big screen than as a rental.

If you're not a Keanu fan, don't bother, because he's his trademark self in this movie.  Personally, I love the little almost-smile he has and he uses it a couple of times in this movie.  My brother and I both sighed.  We also both enjoyed the single shot of Constantine with his shirt open.

Rachel Weisz is the female lead and duals as the female lead character's twin sister.  She's very pretty.  Heee!  I just looked her up on IMDB and she and Keanu were together in a little movie I watched a lot of years ago called Chain Reaction.

I had never heard of the comic Constantine, so I don't have any means of knowing whether or not the movie followed the comics.  It's a typical good v evil story, from the point of view of someone not quite either.  Some really interesting imagery related to the peripheral characters, and a lot of untypical casting choices, I thought.

If you're not a bug person, there are at least a half-dozen scenes where you'll be squeaked.

Thus do I review a movie, by telling you whether or not I liked it, without actually telling you anything about the movie's plot.