I have been a faithful Netflix customer for several years now, and I disappoint my kids every time we pass the nearby Blockbuster by declaring I will never go back there. Nope. Only Netflix. Blockbuster requires you to actually get in the car and take the movie back. Ugh. With Netflix, you simply pop it into the envelope they sent, seal it up, and stick it in the mailbox. That takes all of 1 minute.
Netflix also means I get to control the movies we see. Now, granted, I don’t always do a great job of censoring things. Sometimes I have to grab the remote from Alesia and fast forward while yelling at Michael to cover his eyes, but hey, those are not every day occasions. Just as often, I get some kids’ movie and fall asleep watching it.
I still maintain that an hour or so of movie watching at night after dinner is more wholesome than an hour or so of TV.
I have more than 300 movie in my Netflix queue, and I add new ones weekly. Sometimes, for instance, the kids will be studying World War II, and I’ll add a World War II movie. Sometimes I just discover an old movie by an actor I like, and order it, just to see if it’s really good. I often look up movies I liked as a kid and order them – Jungle Book, Mary Poppins, etc.
There’s a whole group of films out there that didn’t get much of a theatrical release, because they didn’t make 100 million dollars the first weekend in theatres, and yet they are good little films and deserve to be seen. When we watch something like that, I try to mention it here or even review it on the movie site, because I think it’s important to support smaller, less commercial films.
Here are some titles of movies that I consider “hidden treasures” – they either weren’t big at the box office, or are older films: Corrina Corrina, Last of the Dogmen, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [the Steve Martin one], Moscow on the Hudson, Dragon The Bruce Lee Story, Being John Malkovich, Flicka. Then of course there are my all-time favorite movies, Braveheart, Groundhog Day, and Jerry Maguire. [NOTE: I have a weird, twisted sense of humor, and not everyone will like my choices. Google them first, and read a synopsis, if you’re in doubt.]
We recently watched a preview for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I saw in high school with a bunch of my fellow newspaper staffers, and thought was hysterically funny. Of course, as a high school kid I recall we had been drinking something beforehand [beer? Wine?] and so of course it was funny. Years later I saw it and was not so amused. I think I am going to order it for the kids, however. They like slapstick. I was on newspaper staff all 4 years of high school and we all used to enjoy walking around all day talking in our imitation Monty Python accents. The boys were especially amusing, doing that. (I was just shrill. I’m amazed my teachers didn’t have me hauled off to detention or the loony bin.)
I had a friend whose mother was British, and one day we were all in the car and I did my Monty Python voice for her. She started laughing hysterically and nearly wrecked the car. Funny thing was, the mother sounded like a Python character, and not just because she was British – she was tall and mannish looking and had a high shrill voice. She wasn’t funny, though - she didn't always remember to drive on the American side of the road. Yikes.
Netflix has an annoying habit. They feed into their computer my past choices, and suggest other movies I might like. Although that may sound fabulous to some marketing exec somewhere, it’s not really anything but annoying to me.
Since I rented Look Who’s Talking Now and Vice Versa, Netflix suggests I see The Bee Movie, and some dreadful thing called College Road Trip. I saw The Bee Movie in the theatre, and it was awful. Love Jerry Seinfeld, but he can’t write movies. College Road Trip I don’t think ever made it to the local gigaplex, because I had never heard of it until I saw a preview. It looked insanely stupid.
Netflix thinks I should see a movie called What Happens in Vegas. It stars Ashton Kutcher. I cannot stand Ashton. He made “prank” a verb. I LOATHE him. If I ever see him, I will kick him in his Mr. Happy and Ashton will speak soprano for the rest of his life.
They also think I want to see Definitely Maybe, a comedy about a little girl who tries to guess the identity of her mother. She’s being raised by her single dad. Considering the fact my kids never knew their birth fathers and their birthmoms are long gone, I don’t think that movie would be a good experience for us.
Sometimes, I have to admit, their choices are eerily accurate. Because I rented two comedies from the 1980’s. Big Business and Survivors, they suggest I see Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Airplane, and Beetlejuice. I actually own all those movies except Airplane.
We watched a movie over the weekend called The Prince & Me, about a Danish Prince who goes to an American college and falls in love, not telling his girlfriend he is a prince. Cute premise. It had some funny moments. At the end, though, the girlfriend chose to go to medical school and not be a princess, or queen, since the prince’s father conveniently abdicates. OK, I am fine with that. Test audiences must’ve hated the breakup, though, because in the end, the prince [now king] says he will wait for her to go to medical school and get out and work for Doctor’s Without Borders, and then, years later, she can marry him. They kiss. Happy ending. AAAARGH! I wanted to throw things at the TV. He’s going to wait 5-10 YEARS for her??? She’s going to be the king’s fiancée and go to medical school and then travel to third world countries where it’s dangerous??! I know, you’re saying Relax Dee, it’s just a movie. Well, yeah, but c’mon. I started explaining to Alesia why the ending was stupid and she got irate with me. It was Pretty Woman [terrible life choices! Be warned!] all over again…
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!
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I put this on the recipe page, for a yummy sounding Spinach Souffle. My cousin Frank's wife Karen makes this and says it's very tasty. I am sure it is, and we will make it soon. Michael loves spinach souffle. I may use fresh spinach though.
