everyday

Netflix has acquiesced to the pleadings and demands of their customers and sent out a notice that they will NOT be doing away with multiple queues. Yay! I was seriously concerned about this. I was worried that I may need to cancel my account, even though I truly enjoy the service. Good job Netflix, how about next time, you just don’t decide to cancel aspects of your service on a whim.

UPDATE! Netflix has reversed their decision.

I received a notice from Netflix that, effective September 1st, they will no longer be allowing users to have more than one queue. LAME!

I currently have the “2 at a time” plan with 2 different queues. This allows my wife and I to each get one movie at a time from our respective queues. This is such a convenient feature that I am not sure I will want to continue using the service should they discontinue the multiple queues. I would like to know what bean counter came up with this brilliant way to increase profits. Perhaps I can provide some advice, reducing the costs to operate your service will be meaningless to your bottom line when your customers leave.

Here is a link to some very, very lame corporate marketing / used car salesman language Netflix is using to “sell” this feature removal as a “improvement” to their service. Ha!

Once every ten years a movie comes along that completely captures the essence of a generation, this is that movie, “Step Up”

HA!

I recently watched a couple of odd movies from Netflix, The Salton Sea and The City of Lost Children. While The Salton Sea isn’t all that great, I must say that The City of Lost Children was odd enough to be interesting. I couldn’t really tell if there was a meaning to the movie or not, I suppose it was a tale of children lost in a cruel world (Dickens-ish?), but I think there was something lost in the translation (it is a French film). What I did enjoy about the movie were the wonderfully crafted visuals. The movie is set in an insane, dystopian port town that reminds me of Gotham mixed with Toon Town! I think this movie is worth seeing just for the well crafted scenes.

This is a fine film. I just watched again for what must be the 10th time and it still manages to surprise me with it’s quality. Everything about this movie is spot on, from the dialog, to the music, to the amazing footage. If you haven’t seen this film, I highly recommend it!

Get this movie at Amazon.com: 28 Days Later

The Motorcycle Diaries is an absolutely amazing film chronicling the journey of two young men on a life altering trip from Argentina throughout South America. I normally enjoy foreign films, but I also worry that they will lose something due to the subtitles. This is definitely not the case with The Motorcycle Diaries, perhaps even the opposite is true. I may not have enjoyed this fantastic film as much if the dialog had been in English. The subtitles really kept me engaged and focused on the dialog and the story in general. I highly recommend this film.

I went on a date, which may be the subject of a future post(s), and saw “Syriana“… not so much

Perhaps if I weren’t concerned about my companion enjoying herself I wouldn’t have thought it was this poor. There were four loosely connected plot lines which barely came together in the end. The acting and directing were rather good too, it was wierd. I remember sitting there thinking, “this has to come together”. It can’t look this good, the acting can’t be this good without it coming together to make some sort of sense.

I have been remiss in writing about the movies I have seen lately. So I thought I would catch up.

First, King _{motherfucking} Kong. Fabulous! Absolutely fabulous. I enjoyed every single minute, and there were many, many minutes. Peter Jackson has once again proved his mastery of the silver screen. It was a fantastical journey of sights and sounds. The effects were, for the most part, completely transparent. Stunning effects mean little to me, if they are visible. When I see an 80′ tall silver back gorilla fighting a group of Tyrannasourus Rex’s, I don’t want to think “these are amazing effects”. I want to think “Go Kong, get em’. Kick that dinosaur in the nuts!”. This is exactly the way I felt while watching King Kong. This movie had it all, great story, great acting, great effects, just plain great. And for all of the critics that say the first hour was pointless, well I disagree.

Now for another noteworthy film, Les Miserable’s. This movie has been out for a long time, and thanks to the joy that is Netflix, I have finally seen it. This film is amazing. The acting, the settings, the story, all superb. This is a fine, fine film.

Wedding Crashers and Old School, I saw these movies when they came out in the theatre, and they were just as funny the second time around. Especially the un-rated version of Old School, I highly recommend it.

I just returned from seeing the movie “Jarhead“. All in all a good movie. The one complaint I have is that they tried to tell too much in too little time, it seemed as though the story could have been much bigger if the movie was longer. I think that this is a flaw with most movies, especially movies adapted from a book. I will say that I thought the acting was superb and the story was well told, it just needed to be longer.

I watched Seven Samurai this weekend and it was very good. I have learned, thanks to Netflix, that I really enjoy foreign films. I think it is because I am forced by the subtitles to focus intently on the movie. I find it odd that after a very short while, maybe 5 to 10 minutes, that I don’t even consciously realize I am reading the subtitles anymore! This movie, despite being over 50 years old is still captivating. I suppose it is due to the superb story telling exhibited in this film.