Take Me Out To The Ballgame – Turner Classic Movies Style

Monday, April 1st is the opening of the major league baseball season.  In actuality, the first game of the season is being played as I write, March 31, but I’ve always thought that particular Sunday Night Game Before Everybody Else Plays as a bullshit bush league move on the part of MLB and ESPN.  From the day they decided to pull that nonsense years ago, it pretty much crapped on one of baseballs time honored tradition.  That was, because they were the first professional team in existence, the Cincinnati Reds always had the honor of being the first team to open the season.  If their game started at one, all other games would usually start a tad later. 

This event is tantamount to being a holiday in Cincinnati.  They have a parade, there’s a lot of pre game hoopla,  and the local newscasts are taken over by the whole event as if Jerry Springer had just returned to town having been elected president.  Now, there’s a thought.

When I lived in Ohio, I made it a point to do my best to watch the event on television.  I never had a chance to be there in person, but I wish I had accomplished that feat at least once.  Despite the attempt by MLB and the almighty advertising dollars of ESPN to water it down, it’s still a big deal for the people of Cincy.  So the Astros's, the Rangers, Texas in general, MLB, and ESPN can go screw themselves.

I don’t follow baseball the same way that I once did.  I still keep track of the Reds and how they are doing by checking scores and the standings on occasion, but I couldn’t tell you too many names of the players on their roster or when was the last time I watched a complete game.  It’s not always been like that.

When I first moved out west, it was almost as if I hadn’t left the Reds behind.  Back in 2001 you could listen to the games for free on the internet by streaming from just about any radio station in the country and that included the Reds home of WLW in Cincinnati.

That didn’t last long and when MLB found out there was a buck to be made, that was the end of the freebies unless you did it illegally.  It’s not worth the trouble for me to bother. 

But all this accomplished as far as I was concerned was to make me less of a fan.  It was a cheapskate move on their part then and still is.  Charge all you want to for streaming video of the games.  I don’t care, because I won’t be paying.  But taking away the audio streaming rights from local stations was a pure b.s. move and I still feel the same way.

Turner Classic Movies is having their own celebration by broadcasting seven very classic almost forgotten baseball films.  All except one in living high definition black and white.  And I’m sure some of you will find them infinitely more entertaining than watching your team get their ass kicked over the course of 168 games again.  I won’t mention names.

You won’t see The Natural here, nor Field of Dreams, Pride of the Yankees, Eight Men Out or even Bang The Drum Slowly.  Nor such idiotic worthless crap as Little Big League or Rookie of the Year.  They showed Little Big League on my cross country flight once.  I gave thought to jumping out somewhere over the Grand Canyon.

The films you will be able to watch are as follows, with times being EDT.  Adjust accordingly for your own zone:

Of the films listed here, I am most familiar with the top three.  Of the others, the only one I have seen and know something about is Kill The Umpire.  

In that film, William Bendix plays a fanatical baseball fan named Bill Johnson who is forced to become an umpire to make a living because his love of the game interferes with his life.  Due to the fact that that he uses some eye drops on the day of his “tryout” game, he begins seeing double, so he makes every call twice.  The guy that does the umpire hiring thinks this is a pretty cool gimmick, hires him, and gives him the name “Two Call Johnson.” Later, he is nearly chased out of town when he makes a close call against the home team in a playoff game.  It’s harmless comical fluff and not a bad way to spend an hour and twenty eight minutes.

As for Fireman, Save My Child and Take Me Out To The Ballgame, I can’t recall having seen either one.  And since Take Me Out is a musical with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, I’m sure I would have remembered it especially since I still have Kill The Umpire planted in my memory circuits.  Why I never crossed paths with it, well your guess is as good as mine.  But now I feel compelled to so I will record it tomorrow.

I also know absolutely nothing about Fireman, Save My Child except that it sounds more like a public service announcement than a baseball film.  The

IMDB gives this synopsis:

Joe Grant is an inventor, fireman and baseball player in his small home town. He gets an offer to play in a big team, he hopes to get more money for his inventions. But he is invited to present his invention to a fire-extinguisher company at the same time when he is supposed to play. Will he be able to show the effectiveness of his invention and win the game ?

The film stars Joe E. Brown, who as Jack Lemmon’s boyfriend Osgood Fielding III, delivered what is considered the ultimate, funniest line ever to end a film.  That was for Some Like It Hot (1959).

For my money the unsung gems are the first three films listed.  I’ve seen all of them several times over the years.  I wrote a brief review of Angels in the Outfield when I rented it from Netflix and back when I attempted to do something new in that regards.  That project turned out to be way more time consuming than I thought it would and you can’t do a movie review justice in just a paragraph or two so I’ve had to dispense with it for now.  You just as well write, “I liked the film.  It was good” because that’s about what it amounts to.  You can get a zillion comments like that on Amazon and IMDB anyway, which is why I put out the effort to do more.  Also because I just like doing it.

Please don’t mistake this version which has the great Paul Douglas as manager of the Pirates with the totally insipid Disney remake that came along in 1994 and included super angel special effects and people flapping their arms like they are angel wings at an Anaheim Angels game.  Believe me, it is the simplicity that makes the 1951 version so much better. 

In The Kid From Left Field, Dan Dailey plays ex-major league ball player Larry “Pop” Cooper.  Pop works as a peanut vendor who is more interested in what is what is happening on the field more than pushing peanuts.  At the same time, he teaches his son everything he knows about the game and he knows quite a bit.  He has way more knowledge than the manager of the team for which he works, the Bisons.  Through a series of circumstances, Pops gets fired from his peanut paying peanut job, his son Christie (Billy Chapin) becomes the bat boy, and then manages to relay the information imparted to him by Dad to the Bison’s roster, thus turning them into a contending team.  Eventually, it is Christie who becomes manager even though Pop is the one pulling the strings.  This was also remade as a Gary Coleman TV vehicle.  (Or should I say an Arnold Jackson and Benson DuBois get together?)  Forget that one as well and watch this one.   

In the case of, It Happens Every Spring, I’ve seen it many times.  In fact, I have a digital copy of it on my computer which I recorded on VHS off Cinemax years ago.  I transferred it onto my hard drive so that I could write a review that I still haven’t gotten around to.  I wrote one years ago for the IMDB, but most of my early reviews on there were a POS.  Now that it has returned to cable, I wish I hadn’t put it off.

The film is available on Amazon and from the Warner Archive Store on DVD.   I may wait until I can pick up a copy which hopefully is sooner rather than later.  But it’s a totally overlooked hilarious gimmick film, not acknowledged at all by Major League Baseball who views Professor Vernon’s  discovery as cheating.  Of course, there is no cheating in baseball, just steroids and an occasional spitter/greaseball.   The latter having been made into an art form by one Gaylord Perry.  Oh, and I guess Angels interfering in the field of play is okay too since MLB lent its license to that film.  Here is my plot synopsis from my original review:

 

Professor Vernon Simpson (Ray Milland) is a chemistry professor at a Midwestern college. He is in love with the Dean's daughter, Deborah Greenleaf (Jean Peters) and hoped that someday they would be married. College professor's salaries being what they were in the late forties, his only hope of being able to financially support Miss Greenleaf depended on an experiment he had devised that would one day change the world.

Like all normal American men of his day, Vernon gets caught up in the Rite of Spring better described as the opening of the baseball season.  He’s also  twitterpated by the Dean’s daughter as well so I guess the title does have a double meaning.

One day while in his lab working intently on his experiment, some of the young college students are outside practicing baseball. Unfortunately, an errant ball comes crashing through the window destroying the Professor's experiment and mixing his chemicals into a convoluted mess. Or so he thought.

While cleaning up the destroyed experiment, Vernon accidentally discovers that the mixture of chemicals left behind has the unique ability to resist wood. After testing the formula in his lab, he recruits the young college baseball players to scientifically examine the reaction of this chemical when applied to a baseball.Having acquiring enough data to prove to himself that when the formula is applied to a baseball, no hitter could touch it, Professor Simpson has no alternative but to offer his services to the St. Louis Team (you’re to take it for granted they are the Cardinals, although the Browns were also in existence at that time as well so choose one.  The Browns later became the Baltimore Orioles)  who are themselves in desperate need of pitching. Although skeptical at first, the owner of St. Louis gives Vernon a tryout in an attempt to embarrass him.  It is Vernon and his secret formula that teach the manager and the owner of St. Louis a thing or two, and they sign him to a contract that would pay Vernon $1,000 dollars for every game he wins.  A princely sum in those days I suspect.  At one point a newspaper shows that Vernon has won 38 games, and this is before the season is over and the world series where he pitches in at least another three.  If he were playing now, he would probably be paid at minimum, a million dollars a game.  Do the math.

If you can only catch one of these films, It Happens Every Spring should be the one. Paul Douglas is in this film as well, as a catcher who uses Vernon's formula as a hair tonic to hilarious results.  And if you can’t watch it, add it to your sports collection while you can.  Yeah, that’s a sales pitch. 

Have a great baseball season, hope your team does well, and in homage to Joe Nuxhall, a Cincinnati Reds broadcaster who should be in the Hall of Fame but isn’t, this is the old movie reviewer rounding third and heading for home.  Now go de-halo the Angels, Reds!

Weekend Box Office Report: 3/31/2013: G.I. Saves The World

GI Joe: Retaliation cleans up globally.  I haven’t seen it and I’m not sure I want to.  I did attempt to watch G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra once, but turned it off after about a half hour.  I couldn’t take it any more.  I may get back to it one of these days but don’t hold your breath.  Maybe the reason I couldn’t get into it was because my testosterone levels were low that day.

Retaliation was supposed to open last summer, but Paramount pulled it back to do a 3D conversion, and to stir in a few more scenes of Channing Tatum.  

Frankly, I’m not getting the whole Channing Tatum thing.  What am I missing?  I saw 21 Jump Street and I wasn’t impressed.  I watched The Vow with my girlfriend, and it was a painful experience.  I hate to say things like “it’s a woman’s thing” because it sounds so damn sexist, but I can’t offer up any other explanation.  Except that a big fat 68 per cent of the audience was made up of hyper testosteroned males.  Thank you, but I’ll wait for the DVD and that’s probably when I’ll get back to the first one.  Not before.

From Hollywood Reporter:

G.I. Joe took in $80.3 million overseas and $51.7 million domestically, including $41.2 million for the weekend proper, the second-best domestic Easter gross behind the 2010 Clash of the Titans ($61.2 million). Internationally, G.I. Joe opened 10 percent ahead of Oz the Great and Powerful, which debuted earlier this month to $69.9 million.

Overseas, the sequel is doing double the business that Cobra did (that film opened to $92 million globally). It's doing especially well in Russia ($11 million), Latin America and Asia, where 3D remains a popular format. IMAX theaters generated $7 million of the total global gross.

The successful opening of G.I. Joe vindicates Paramount for deciding to push back the film's release from summer 2012 in order to convert it to 3D and refashion Channing Tatum's role so that the actor has more scenes.

"Clearly this was a movie that felt like it should be in 3D, so Jon Chu went back and did an excellent job in making that happen," said Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore. "Certain parts of the story also needed to be massaged, and Adam Goodman and his team worked with Jon to get it to a great place. 

Here’s how they stack up for the Cesar Chavez Holiday Weekend.  Oh yea, and that Bunny thing too.

Random Thoughts: Apple’s New Patent, Pre-order Your GalaxyS4, and Why is Buffy Here?

So I’m reading several tech web sites today and the news is that Apple has applied for a patent on a phone with a wraparound screen.  And after reading about it, I’m left scratching my head.  This is not a new idea.  Other’s have gone into this territory before.  But I’ve always held to the firm belief that most of Apple’s ideas aren’t really new.  For all their belly aching about others stealing their patents, practically everything Apple puts into their products came from somewhere else.  But I’m not about to get into that long long history.

You can read it and see for yourself here.  I’ve studied the drawings and designs, but as far as I’m concerned, it could just as well be a new muffler for the next generation Toyota Prius.  That’s how tech savvy I am.

It may all be much ado about nothing.  Just because you apply for a patent does not mean you are ever going to be bringing the thing to market.  Besides, I’m saving my money for a Deluxe Hover Board due out in a couple of years.  Not to mention that running my new Buick Hover Automobile after I have it converted is going to cost me a pretty penny as well.

Speaking of the company whose name comes from the Forbidden Fruit, there’s also a report that Apple is working on a dedicated game controller.  Has there ever a been a day that went by without an Apple rumor?  I didn’t think so.  And has ever a company’s product been speculated about more than Apple.  I can’t think of any.  You can put the controller up there with the ongoing Apple Television rumors that have proliferated forever.  Me?  I don’t care.  I just need something to write about for the massive swarm of people visiting my blog who also don’t give a crap.

So what mobile phone does the great and powerful Clyde use?  The GalaxySIII (see expertly photo shop illustration).  I’m just not an Apple fan although I did have an Apple 3GS phone for a short while.   I really didn’t have much of a choice due to some major fail on Best Buy’s part.  I even started writing a long article at the time but I think that’s about when my health problems took control of my life.  Now that those seem to be working out, if I could just find a way to retire I could write this crap all day long.  As for the 3GS, I still have it although it’s not the original  3GS I had.  (Do you want to see that too?  Okay.  More Buffy.  See the other inspirational graphic) That one went berserk and Best Buy had to replace it with a model that had been rehabilitated in reform school.  One of the few times I’m glad I paid for a warranty.

Mentioning my own Galaxy SIII is my sneaky way of bringing up the fact that the S4 will be out soon.  AT&T will be taking preorders beginning April 15.  But instead of the usual $199 with a two year contract, it will run you $249 to sign your cell phone life away for two years.  I can’t get a new phone for at least a year but I won’t need one before then either.   Hell, I’m not even getting full use out of the one I have now.  If you want to preorder one unlocked, it’ll cost you $725.99 on up.  A grand bargain I say, and just think of my commission I’d get from Amazon!  Why, I bet it would be at least $1.30.  Maybe even $1.50!  One can really rake in the dough with those Amazon ads.  To be honest, the most I’ve made is about $70 bucks total in the three or four years I’ve had them up.  Most of that came when I could write on a regular basis and about 90 percent of that came from family members I bamboozled into buying shit.  What I’m saying is, if you think you can retire by writing a blog,  you better have one hell of a huge family!

Before next year comes around, I’m seriously going to consider getting out from under this cell phone contract nonsense.  It’s nice to have a new model cell phone every couple of years, but I think T-Mobile may be on to something with this plan.  But oh wait, isn’t Straight Talk the same thing?  Just some things for me to consider over the next year.  I’ll let you know what happens if you and I are still around.   More stuff later.  We’re on a roll this week.

Random Thoughts: How I Met Your Mother - Redemption

I became a fan of How I Met Your Mother about a year ago, somewhere in the middle of Season 7.  But I had never seen it in the regular time slot it inhabits on CBS.  Just like I have done with shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Roswell, my girlfriend and I decided to give it a try and we streamed it on Netflix.  It didn’t take long for us to become hooked and we finished off the first six seasons in record time. 

The problem we ran into was that the network broadcasts of the series was in the middle of Season 7 and wasn’t available on Netflix Streaming at that time (it is now).   So the only choices we had were to begin watching Season 7 in the middle and catch up with the early seasons later on, or find some other way.  I opted for an alternative which was to purchase the complete season from Amazon. 

Yes, it was a bit pricey (just under $40 for HD) when you consider that I could have waited and watched it as part of my Netflix subscription later down the road.  But as I suspected, Season 7 didn’t become available until after Season 8, the current season, had already begun.  So I would be no better off.

I also might have been able to watch over the internet at the CBS web site, but that would have meant watching from my computer (ugh) and I believe they only keep up about four episodes at a time.  Can’t have people tuning out and missing the commercials although the CBS stream is not exactly light in that department either.  (5 commercials during each break).

And besides, despite what I had heard in some quarters, season 7 was for me at least, very satisfying.  Sure there were some clunky episodes, but when you have 24 episodes to get on the air, there are going to be a few rhinestones tossed in there along with the rubies, diamonds, and emeralds.

It was originally thought that Season 8 would be the swan song for How I Met Your Mother and that we would finally get to meet the mystery lady.   There certainly have been enough hints thrown in as to where, when, and how Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) would finally meet the girl of his dreams.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the finale.  I was not the only one who had become hooked.  It seems that thanks to Netflix, many people like myself who had never seen the show became fans and the series experienced an unprecedented ratings boost unheard of for a show in it’s seventh season.  So negotiations were done, the actors signed on for one more round, and yes Virginia there will be a Season Nine.

However, not everything has been puppies and flowers.  The series and the premise began to look tired.  Unlike the previous seasons, there seem to be way more forgettable clunkers this season than memorable gems.  The first two episodes were certainly okay (Farhampton & The Prenup), but the two that followed were abysmal by comparison (Nannies and Who Wants To Be A Godparent). 

Honestly, I’ve found just about all the Mickey Aldrin (Chris Elliott) episodes to be more annoying than funny.  And it was becoming apparent that the episodes centering around Baby Marvin just weren’t cutting it either which is what happens sometimes when you have to introduce a kid into a series.  It gums up the works with baby poop jokes and sleepless parents.  Poor Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lilly (Alyson Hannigan). 

The Autumn of Breakups episode was fine, but hampered by Ted (Neil Patrick Harris) and his bro dog.  Or should I say Ted and his Bore Dog.  Splitsville would have been a terrific episode, but was dragged down again by the whole Marshall/Lilly/Marvin dilemma in which they were  unable to get some private time for sex.  Another episode dealt with Marvin having constipation.  Another episode had Ted witnessing Marvin’s first steps instead of Marshall and Lily.  What a drag. 

Then there was all the time spent getting to the mid-season finale The Final Page which included a guest appearance by Buffy alumni Seth Greene.  As usual, good guy Ted ends up with the short end of the stick.  And I’ll be honest.  I dearly love both Barney and Robin (Coby Smulders), but I’ve never really bought into the whole Barney/Robin  on again off again on again romance.  It just doesn’t work for me.  And the fact that Barney had to use every evil trick of deception in the book before proposing to her only added to my conviction.  But there is still a glimmer of hope that these two will never make it down the aisle together.  They just work better as separate entities.  Maybe something will change my mind although the possibility seems remote at this junction. But maybe the whole point is mute what with Season 9 wrapping things up next year.

Robin Sparkles did return, but the less said about that the better.  It was funny the first three times, but this is proof positive that too much is too much.  They should have learned that with the very disappointing reveal of Slutty Pumpkin in Season 7 which was nothing more than an excuse to find a way to use Katie Holmes.  After having heard about Slutty Pumpkin forever, that episode was a major disappointment, but not quite as bad as Robin Sparkles fourth time around.

Marshall’s mom Judy (Suzie Plakson) having sex with Mickey?  Even the thought was sickening.  It was also way out of character for everything we have come to understand about Marshall’s mom and his family in the few episodes she’s been mentioned in or made an appearance.

But the worst part of the whole season, and perhaps the low point of the series?  Ted’s overly obsessed and loony tunes girlfriend, Jeanette Peterson (Abby Elliott).  None of this relationship was remotely funny.  Not one single second of it.  Worse, it was downright painful to watch.  I wanted to throw something at the TV.

For anybody who has witnessed a basket case like Jeanette, or knows somebody who has been in a relationship with a bi-polar maniacal partner, they’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.  Worse yet, as destructive as this character was, Ted broke up and went back with her because despite everything she had done, the sex was good.  Give me a break.  My opinion is that the Jeanette story should never ever see the light of day again.  It’s one thing to make a funny over obsessed girl friend character, it’s quite another to turn her into a violent and dangerous felon with maniacal tendencies. 

“The Ashtray”, which brought back the Captain for no particularly good reason, “Weekend at Barney’s”, and “The Fortress” were not much better.  I was at the point where I didn’t even feel compelled to watch any episodes with the immediacy I once did.  If you’re going to bring back the Captain, wouldn’t you bring back his daughter Zoey?  Certainly that would have been far more interesting.  Okay, so maybe Jennifer Morrison, the actress who played Zoey, is busy on the set of Once Upon A Time.  Get another actress.  It’s been done before.

Then came this past Monday’s episode (3/25/2013), The Time Travelers.  This episode did not exactly start with a bang.  The whole premise centered around Ted and Barney being visited by their future selves to convince Ted to go to Wrestlers vs. Robots, with a silly sub plot added of Carl the Bartender naming a drink that Marshall had invented, calling it the “Robin Sherbatsky.”
For 3/4 of the running time, the episode not only seemed to be going nowhere, as they added Barney from 20 years in the future, Ted from 20 years into the future, 20 hours from now Barney, 20 hours from now Ted, and topped off with 20 minutes from now Barney, it appeared to be approaching total lunacy and not in a funny way.  I was ready to give up and turn in my How I Met Your Mother Fan Club membership.  But, in the last five minutes of the episode, the whole mess was brought together as if someone had shined a light from above and said enough with this b.s. 
What initially appeared to be another writing disaster, the hat check girl appears, the episode took a 180 degree turn, and I was reminded as to why I totally love this show and how the memorable moments, even the small ones, can wash away the bad taste of all the Jeanette episodes.


And in those five precious moments, we learned more about Ted’s future wife than we had in some entire seasons.

But even more, we found out how much he really will love her, forever and always.   And it is another great example of Josh Radnor’s talent, and why he is perfect as Ted.  He has never been given enough credit for his contributions.  In those five minutes, How I Met Your Mother had redeemed itself for the entire season.

If you haven’t seen the episode, I won’t spoil it for you but if you have given up as I almost did, try again.  By my calculations, there are about 4 episodes left until we get to the Ted and Robin’s wedding episode (or episodes if it’s a two part episode), where we might possibly get to meet the future Mrs. Ted Mosby for the very first time.  I hope so.  I’ll be sure to report back here with my thoughts on it when it happens or maybe even before that.

Random Thoughts: Netflix Fail

I’ve been renting discs from Netflix for quite a while.  I’ve also been streaming since way back when they first started offering the service.  Back in the beginning, the streaming came free with the discs rentals but the selection was mostly major suckage.  Over all these years I’ve mostly been satisfied with the Netflix service, but over the past year or so, the disc rental department seems to be on a downward spiral. 

I guess Netflix has a reason for letting this side of the business go all to hell, but I’m not sure I understand why especially when it’s still profitable.  But in the last twelve months, I’ve returned more broken discs than I had in all the previous years combined.  And it’s really getting to be a pain in the ass. 

I guess I’m seriously considering unsubscribing, but if I give up the disc service, I’ll probably quit on the streaming as well.  After all, I still have Amazon Prime and do I really need both?  And Redbox Streaming is out there somewhere waiting in the wings as soon as they put it on one of my devices that I already own.

I’ve been on this Stallone kick for a couple of weeks and had the film Victory starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, and directed by John Huston,  in my DVD Queue.  Somehow along the way I had missed ever seeing the film so I was looking forward to it arriving.  Well it did arrive, on time, but cracked all to hell.  Exasperating and a pain in the ass for this to happen,  but something I’m learning to live with more and more every month when it comes to Netflix. 

They do give you a choice.  When you report it as being broken you can either have them send the same movie or just request for them to send the next one in your queue.  Just about every time except once I have requested the same movie.  If I didn’t want to see it, I wouldn’t have ordered it. And that’s what I did this time.  I requested Victory once again.

Keep in mind that when a disc is obviously unplayable as this one was, and you have to wait on a replacement, you’re kind of getting screwed.  Because instead of a two day turn around, it turns into a four day turn around and you have no movie rental during that time.  Even longer if it takes more than one day for the disc to get to you.  It’s not a great policy but one I understand.  Give someone an extra disc for their inconvenience and you end up with people reporting bad discs on a regular basis.

So finally the discs comes for the second time.  Immediately upon taking it out of the envelope, I notice there is writing scrawled across the front and it is anything but a good sign

And when I took the disc out as you can see from the graphic at the top of the article, it was toast.  I didn’t know whether to be exasperated at Netflix or one not too bright customer.  One thing Netflix makes very clear.  Don’t put a note in an envelope, and don’t write on it.  Nobody will read it.  That’s why you go on the web site and report a problem.  And it’s not that hard.  Two clicks and you’re done.  Practically everything at Netflix is done by machine, and if a human does sort the envelopes, they sure as hell don’t have time to read them from the few rare videos I’ve seen about the inner workings of Reed Hastings baby.

Obviously something was wrong with the disc before they even shipped it out.  It was had to at least have been badly scratched  up when some not too bright dingbat customer sent it back.  If only half the movie played, this person couldn’t realize that there was a serious problem?  Have people become that irrationally ignorant that they would actually think Netflix would send out half the movie?

So I get left holding the bag and now I had to decide whether I wanted to send it back and try for Victory again, or just get something else.  On top of that, when I report it, they’ll obviously pull the disc and surely must think I’m the dumb ass who wrote a message across the envelope.   I’m tempted not even to let them know, but then I would probably be putting the next person to get the disc in the same position that I was in.  And I’m sure they would anonymously be cursing me as being the stupid idiotic customer who scribbled on the front of an envelope.

I ended up reporting it.  But I decided to give up on Victory for now and will be watching Stephen King’s Thinner instead.  Or Christine.  Or the original Mighty Joe Young.  All fodder for future reviews. 

Back in December, I rented the movie Victor/Victoria.  It was broken and I sent it back.  I didn’t report it  but I probably should have.  The reason I didn’t was just a couple of weeks before that I had received the Alfred Hitchcock film Torn Curtain.  And it too was cracked all to hell.   I reported it and ordered it again.  Maybe I was becoming afraid that if I had too many broken discs, Netflix would pull my membership.  I do know they will cancel your ass if you suddenly report too many “lost discs.”  Was this the same thing?

Several years back I ordered the movie Fathom from Netflix.  It was a movie with Raquel Welch that I had seen as a teenager.  The first disc arrived broken so I asked for a replacement.  The next disc came from somewhere in Texas.  It arrived broken as well.  I decided to try again, but the next disc had to be shipped all the way from New York to my place of residence in California.  All in all, it took two weeks before I received a copy of Fathom that was playable.  

Now, Fathom is no longer available on Netflix but that’s not unusual.  I have my doubts these days if they are replacing any catalogue titles at all.  But you may console yourself with my review or order the movie from Amazon while it’s still available at all.  It’s been in and out of print.  So I just ordered a copy from Amazon while it was on my mind.  The fact that it is coming from an outside seller (but handled and shipped by Amazon so it’s okay) does not bode well for the future availability of Fathom.   And I’ll probably just break down and buy a copy of Victory from Amazon as well since it’s less than six dollars at the moment.

I had a grand total of seven broken discs from Netflix last year, and already have had two this year.  Once upon a time I was averaging one a year, and that one included discs that just wouldn’t play although there was no visible breakage.  There comes a time when you begin to wonder if it’s money worth spending since Hastings doesn’t even seem to even believe in that side of the business anymore.  That along with the fact that the catalog titles are starting to dwindle down as I see the word “saved” more and more every day.  I’m just not that enamored of the streaming selection that it would keep me around.  But we’ll see what happens.

The White House is Down, But Apparently Not Out.

Director Roland Emmerich is at it again.  He destroyed the White House in Independence Day.  He then froze it over in The Day After Tomorrow.  And just for good measure, he took it out again in  2012.
And now, he places it under attack again with the movie White House Down which stars Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.  IMDB describes the film this way:

While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a police officer (Channing Tatum) springs into action to protect his child and the president (Jamie Foxx) from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders.

I'm not one to be posting much in the way of videos anymore. Every time I go through my old posts, all I see is those dreaded words "this video is not available" for whatever reason.

What really pisses me off though is when they are on YouTube, but the powers that be won't let you embed them on your blog.

This happened on my West Side Story review. I had about three videos that I found on YouTube when I originally wrote it and they worked fine. When I checked it this past week to make it my movie pick of the week on my Facebook page, the videos no longer worked unless you went directly to you tube. So I just edited the review and took the videos out which is probably what I'll do whenever I have time on some of the others. But I won't be using too many videos when I can keep from it.

But whatever. The White House is Down. Let's hope Emmerich isn't flushing it down the bad movie commode.  Maybe I’ll review one of those previous efforts before June 28.  We shall see. 

Release date in the United States is scheduled for June 28, just in time for the Fourth of July. That figures. Having practically destroyed the planet, at least now it appears Emmerich has narrowed his focus somewhat. We shall see.

Way back when……Interview With The Vampire (1994)

I don’t know how you feel about it, and although Interview With The Vampire is not one of my favorite all time films to watch, I do find it fascinating.  Hard to believe in this era of Vampire Lovers on Television and The Big Screen, you never hear much about this film anymore and it is certainly heads and shoulders way better than any of The Twilight Movies.  I hope to dig into it with an in depth analysis of my own someday, with the usual snarky pictures of course.  I’m debating as to whether I should upgrade my DVD to blue ray.  As for now, here’s a picture of the cast at the premiere including Tom Cruise, Christian Slater, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst.  Hard to believe 18 years have passed.  Photo comes from Imgur: