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Movie Rentals
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to rent movies on the south-side of Appleton. The east-side Blockbuster, where we used to do the majority of our renting, closed several months ago. I liked Blockbuster because you could return online rented movies there, and you could rent them for more than one day (unlike Family Video). When Blockbuster closed, we started getting our movies from Hollywood video. Sadly, I saw a sign on the door of the Hollywood video near us that they were closing their doors this weekend.
So now the only video store that is near us is Family Video. They have a decent selection, but I hate that the rentals are usually for a day or two (because I often rent a few at a time). Even worse, there will only one video rental store on this side of town now. I’m guessing the chances of getting anything Thursday through Monday will now be slim.
I’ve thought about a recurring Netflix or Blockbuster subscription, however, I hate to add yet another recurring fee to my monthly bills. It’s probably innevitable though – online rentals seems to be the way things are going.
April 6th, 2008 
Tags: Movies & Shrek The Third
Wanda and I saw Shrek The Third today. I was a little worried at the beginning, but the movie turned out to be excellent. I laughed quite a bit throughout the movie. Very clever writing. It’s amazing how far CGI animation has come since Toy Story (kudos to Happy Feet too, which also had cool animation).
I bought my usual $5 soda, but I was shocked to see that the price of a large popcorn is up to $7! They should price it at $100… Then they wouldn’t have to sell nearly as many! I’m still trying to get over charging $5.50 for nachos in Wisconsin.
I haven’t seen Spiderman 3 yet. I didn’t care for Spiderman 2 that much, and the commercials make the latest one look a little silly. I’ll probably wait for that one to come out on video.
Walk the Line
Wanda and I recently saw the movie, Walk the Line, the story of Johnny Cash’s struggle to stardom. The movie was excellent, and I’m sure even those who aren’t fans of the music would find this movie entertaining. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon did phenomenal jobs, both singing and acting. I have no doubt this movie will win many awards.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
We saw the movie today. It was very goofy, but that’s what I had expected from Tim Burton. Overall, I liked it, but would recommend anyone who is thinking about seeing it to do so with an open mind. Just go to have fun, don’t over-analyze it. Johnny Depp was hillarious in the movie! Some of the music was funny too. And in an effort to make the story not simply a duplicate of the first, they had a different ending (although similar result). Depp should get some awards for his performance.
Revenge of the Sith
Wanda and I saw the new Star Wars movie on Saturday at the Hollywood Cinema UltraPlex in Grand Chute. It was great. We got our tickets a few hours early and the attendant said we should show up about 2 hours before the movie started to get a seat. We opted to show up an hour early, which was about right as we got a good position in line and the wait didn’t seem too long. Time flew as we made fun of the geeks in costume who were shoring off their mega-media-player-cell-phones and other gadgets that they probably spent more money on a whole year’s rent.
I had never been much of a Star Wars fan in the past, mostly because I couldn’t get past the dated effects and 1970′s look of the older movies. However, the new ones have ignited my interest in the story as a whole. After the movie, I went home and watched Episode IV again because I couldn’t get enough. Perhaps this week I’ll watch 5 and 6 too, but I’d like to wait until I have them on DVD (currently, I only have them on VHS).
Episode III was great. All the hype was true, and it tied things together quite nicely. I can’t believe I paid $5 for a large soda!
Brokeback Mountain
Curious about all the hype, we saw Brokeback Mountain today. The story was good, and I’m a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal, but the movie was very drawn-out. Both Gyllenhaal and Ledger did a phenomenal job. The movie also had some spectacular scenery. I can see why it was nominated for so many Acadamy Awards. I thought the movie was fairly decent, but I find it hard to imagine the average male would agree. But don’t worry fellas, X-Men 3 is coming, and that spells payback 
On a side note, I see Crash won best picture at the Academy Awards. Pretty good movie. Brokeback seemed to have gotten a lot of nominations too. I was a little surprised Walk the Line didn’t get more nominations. On a side note, they really had some strange selections for the musical entertainment at the awards.
The Notebook
We watched the movie, “The Notebook,” this weekend. If you’re looking for a tear-jerker to watch with your significant other, this would probably a good candidate. It was quite long and the ending was very predictable. However, even though you could predict WHAT the ending was, you still wanted to watch to see HOW it happened. Definitely a chick flick, but I enjoyed it.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Remake
Amazing. Tim Burton is remaking one of my favorite childhood stories – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And Johnny Depp is playing Willy Wonka. Does anyone else think Depp looks like Michael Jackson, or at least a run-of-the-mill child molester? This is gonna be weird. Depp was the bomb in Blow.
Kill Bill
If you haven’t seen them yet, I highly recommend Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2. The story is brilliant and the fight scenes are amazing. Volume 1 is full of martial arts fight scenes where Uma Thurman kicks ass and takes names. Volume 2 has less action, but bring the whole story together in an entertaining and unpredictable way. I thought both movies were equally good.
Spider-Man 2
Well, all bets are off with Spider-Man 2, which I saw with Wanda, et al yesterday afternoon. The question is, which bets? Apparently at least some of the screenwriters had some personal bets like “I bet you can’t write the script while high on Ecstacy!” or “I bet you can’t write the script more disappointing than Matrix Reloaded!” Perhaps the bet should have been qualified with the words “good script”. The impatient 4-year old sitting in front of us didn’t appear to be very interested either. I can’t imagine why a toddler wouldn’t interested in a love story seeded with clunky dialog.
Maybe I’m just bitter because I paid $4.50 for a soda. Yeah, I know, I didn’t have to buy it, but I think they put something in the air to make you extremely thirsty when you walk in the door. Damn you Shell Silverstein!
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