So this weekend I couldn't get a break from the action of March Madness to get the SO to choose a DVD to watch. But I did the next best thing: movies on the DVR. And this weekend I went with something that is tried and true. I went with a comedy...starring Cary Grant...need I say more? That right there tells me it's a winner, and of course I went with the first movie in which Grant shows off his comedic abilities with The Awful Truth.
If you haven't seen this film, it's pretty simple. Husband comes homes after not being in Florida, wife comes home with singing teacher. Husband gets jealous, they get a divorce and hilarity ensues. Wife, Lucy Warriner (Irene Dunne), moves in with her aunt and becomes engaged to an Oklahoman visiting his mother in the big city (I believe New York, but don't quote me on that). Husband, Jerry Warriner (Grant), still waiting for the divorce to be finalized, finds ways to mess up this new engagement. The spin? Lucy and Jerry still love each other but don't know each other loves the other! (Wow, there's some bad grammar for you... thank you, public high school out in the corn fields!)
For some reason, there's just something about Grant. His good lucks, his voice, his charm, his comedic timing. You're not really thinking someone like him is going to have the comedic presence, but he pulls it off, each and every time I watch one of his films. And with this being the first of his films with his slapstick comedic style, I was blown away by how good he was even at the beginning. And you know what this means?
Yep, I have to buy it now. Somehow this Monday Review post has turned into a Future Purchases post. And if I remember correctly, Borders had it as 30% off last week, which means that's not the case now. So I missed the boat on that one. But at worst case it's $15 bucks. I can handle that, but I think I'll wait until I get another sweet coupon in an e-mail.
Don't know what the SO thought of it as she didn't watch it. Not sure she would have appreciated it, especially since it's a classic and she doesn't do well with that kind of movie. It's okay, she can watch it with me when we get the DVD! Oh, how I can feel the flames from her angry eyes right now...
As you've read in my earlier post, I was finally able to realize my dream of owning Andy Richter Controls the Universe on DVD. But the DVD purchases didn't end there (Yeah, I bought Bolt, but because the SO wanted it, it is neither one of my purchases nor does it count against me in the DVD/Yarns and Shoe War I have with her).
We begin Thursday morning. Just checking my e-mails when I stumble upon the usual garbage known as a Borders coupon e-mail. Usually these contain coupons for 15 or 20 percent off an item. I almost got duped by the 40% off one DVD box set a couple weeks back. But I held out. This e-mail's coupon, though, was too good not to use...
40% off any item, regardless of price!
Hallelujah, the DVD gods have been good to me for all the pains I've taken this week!
So what could I possibly use this on? And how could I get the SO to allow this? Ah, that is the key, for we both receive Borders e-mails, meaning she had a 40% off coupon as well. Therefore, she would make a purchase as well. Not a DVD purchase, but we'll forgive her for that. Maybe.
Indeed, the obvious choice was the choice I almost made a couple weeks back with the earlier coupon: Amadeus. Yes I have it on VHS, but this is Amadeus: Director's Cut. With 5.1 Digital Surround Sound. The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart swarming all around me was so enticing, but was it worthy of such a coupon? Was any movie able to garner my attention for such a priceless coupon (well, not really priceless, but it does mean less money I've spent on DVDs, which is a good thing... well, a good thing in that it means more money to spend on other DVDs!)
But then it dawned on me. What was one of my future purchases that I really wanted? That's right, White Heat. Well, Borders didn't have it, but they did have The Public Enemy, another James Cagney movie and one that was an integral part of my gangster movie collection. So sorry Wolfgang, I promise you one day you will be a part of my collection... in Blu-Ray! Think about it, 7.1 Digital Surround Sound!
So at the end of the day, $12 spent for one DVD. This puts me in the red for the Fund, $5 to be exact. I have to hold off now, unless I want to allow more money to be spent on yarn/shoes. But I can't do that, so I'll just remain content with what I have... until my eye catches the next prize! Later!
I will never forgive myself if this had actually happened. I almost missed out on the opportunity to buy Andy Ricther Controls the Universe this week! I know! But it gets better, as you can tell from the title of this post that not every place had it available. But let's start from the beginning...
So it's Tuesday afternoon, and I'm all excited about today. One, I have an auditory experiment that banks 20 bucks (score!) and two, ARCtU comes out on DVD (SCORE!). The auditory experiment has to do with piano lessons before the age of 10 meant my brain got all kinds of screwed up (the good kind of screwed up) and so they want to see how my brain responds to different sounds. Pretty simple, really. Sit in a chair, hook up some electrodes to my head, put something in my right ear that has the sounds, and I get to doze for an hour. Simple, right? Wrong!
The experiment was to start around 5pm. I had done a couple experiments in the summer, so I knew what was up with how it was going to go down. But it was to be done in a different room, so I wasn't sure where it was, so I waited in the waiting room until someone would get me. After 15 minutes, I finally was called back. Too bad the grad student didn't have me send her the exact same paperwork I filled out over the summer! That took at least 10 minutes. And by the time I was done, it was 7:30!. Mind you, I told the SO that I would be done by 6:30. Yeah, it doesn't get any better from here.
I get back to my lab to notice the time and I call the SO. From the instant messages on my computer, she was leaving right then and there, so I had seconds to catch her. She "kindly" picked me up, but I didn't think it was the best time to go to Best Buy to get the DVD. Instead, in a cruel game made up by the DVD gods, the SO needed to find her doctor's office (which had just recently moved). The SO needed to get this sinus infection diagnosed and taken care of because she was not getting any better. So we drive to the new office, which is 1000 feet from Best Buy! I was in no mood to deal with the SO's mood if we went so I decided to wait until Wednesday.
Wednesday afternoon, the SO goes to the doctor, and I decide to tag along so I can sneakily get the DVD. I thought the doctor's visit would be quick... over 1 hour! Actual doctor time: roughly 5 minutes. Waiting time: 1 hour! But we needed some things from Target (mainly facial tissues for the SO) so we went there to pick up what we needed. The SO wanted to get Disney's Bolt (I know, a total rip-off of Toy Story, but when has Disney come up with its own original idea?) so I begrudingly picked it up in Target's DVD Land (kinda like DisneyLand, except without the stupid costumes and infinite queues). I get to the television DVD section and it's not there. ARCtU is NOT THERE! Who in their f'ing mind would not stock ARCtU on the shelves? I was in a panic. So we had to go to Best Buy, which is not on the way home from Target, so yes, we had to drive all the way back out there near the doctor's office to get to Best Buy. But the joke doesn't end there.
We park in front of Best Buy, the SO not wanting to deal with my DVD whorish ways goes into Barnes and Noble while I search the shelves of Best Buy for ARCtU. I get to the television DVD section... and there's only one copy! Oh, glory be, thank God that I got there to get the last copy. If they were all gone, I might have had a coronary right there on that spot. Suffice it to say, I bought it for $30, thanks to my $5 gift certificate.
Happy ending, right? Nope. For two reasons. One: the music is not the same as the studios couldn't secure the music rights for the DVD, meaning we get some generic disco beat for "The Hustle." Two, one of my good friends went to Best Buy and bought it for $27 because Best Buy still honors lowest competitor's price (Wally World was that competitor- oh, how I hate them!).
But in the end, I have two new DVDs and I can finally realize the dream of owning ARCtU with 5 episodes that never aired... I can't lose! Later!
So I apologize for the tardiness of my posts over the past two weeks. With everything that is going on this semester, it seems I only have time to keep my mind on one thing. And unfortunately, it hasn't been this blog. But that changes today, even though I still have plenty to work on. And even though this really wasn't written on the post date, it would have been the correct date for my Monday reviews, as I actually watched a DVD this weekend, the first (and I think only) for the month of March. Not to worry, there will be another review that will show up, just that it is from a movie on the DVR (I really hope it doesn't die, because I have too many movies and shows on there that I can't miss!).
For this weekend's selection, I had to go with something that needed action. Although the first weekend of March Madness has plenty of excitement, I had to break the monotony of basketball with real action excitement: guns, explosions, and fast cars (along with some fast women!). It also made sense to watch this weekend's selection as the sequel is soon coming out on DVD and I need to decide if I will buy brand spankin' new or wait 'til it hits the proverbial $10 rack (it almost always seems like there are DVDs there that I need). So what movie could this possibly be? Of course, the most obvious of all obvious choices: Casino Royale.
With a new James Bond (Daniel Craig) in the mutli-decade film series, the geniuses running it all decided to start from the beginning, using Ian Fleming's first written incarnation as the inspiration for the film. At the beginning of the film, we see how Bond earns his double zero status as 007. We also learn of a scheme by the villain of the movie, Le Chiffre, to invest funds from a guerrilla group in Uganda into a successful stock portfolio. I know, exciting stuff but it gets better. In order to make a profit, Le Chiffre relies on short selling successful companies and profiting by engineering terrorist attacks to sink their stock values. Creative, huh?
How Bond gets mixed into this is his involvement of capturing an international bomb-maker, whose cell phone has a message from an associate of Le Chiffre. Following the trail, Bond is able to thwart any plans of a terrorist attack on a prototype airliner. Le Chiffre, in order to get the profits needed (i.e. the guerrilla group wants their money... by any means necessary) sets up a high-stakes poker tournament. As the best there supposedly is, Bond infiltrates his way into getting a seat at the poker table. He meets up with Rene Mathis, an ally, and Vesper Lynd, a treasury agent who provides the money necessary to enter the tournament. All kinds of action ensues (although the SO was bored out of her gourd at this point). Bond is able to win the tournament, but Le Chiffre doesn't allow him to get away that easily, torturing Bond and Vesper, but Mr. White (a very mysterious character) eliminates Le Chiffre.
Bond orders the arrest of Mathis (during the torture, he's exposed as a double agent) and professes his love for Vesper, while at the same time leaving his agent life behind. On a romantic holiday, Bond learns the poker winnings were never deposited back into the Treasury, with a tantalizing ending for Bond. Not only for his love, but also for his life as an agent.
Rather than spoil the ending for you, I'll leave it at that. As far as I know, the latest Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, picks up where Casino Royale left off. Which makes it that much more exciting for me to own sooner rather than later. But I bought CR for $10 and I feel I should do the same for QS. I know I would be putting less towards the SO's yarn/shoes fund, and that makes me feel better about waiting. But oh, how I love Bond movies.
The SO? For an action movie, she wasn't too thrilled. This is also the girl who had a sinus infection at the time and was less responsive than I am for a day of shoe shopping.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I miss Pierce Brosnan as Bond. But I do realize we all have to move on at some point. Craig probably wouldn't be my first choice, but he doesn't do a bad job to the film series (not like Timothy Dalton - man, those movies were rough!). Am I glad I made the purchase? Hell yeah! I only own CR and Die Another Day, so I'm not the proud owner of the entire series, but I might start keeping the latest and greatest versions of Bond. Especially if they really delve into what makes Bond the suave yet powerful agent worthy of double-zero status.
More posts to write, involving buying DVDs! I know, so exciting! So I'm off to complete those posts. Later!
If I had tons of extraneous cash lying around, I'd probably go to the movies this weekend (somewhere between the NCAA March Madness games - a guy has priorities). And one movie that has intrigued me since I saw the trailer months ago is I Love You, Man. A tale of a guy (Paul Rudd) who needs a best man for his wedding but has no guy friends. I'm assuming the hilarity ensues when he tries to find that guy friend, who finds that guy friend in an investor (Jason Segel). The twist is how this relationship takes over the relationship Rudd has with his fiancee, so he must learn to balance between the two.
This hits close to home. No, I have plenty of guy friends (although they're all more than an hour away... tear). And I get to see my best bud every couple of weeks or so, especially since I'm in his wedding this summer. But that's the whole thing, he's getting married. Does that change things between us? My boy and his fiancee have been together since I've been with the SO, so I've always felt that I can be myself around him even with the introduction of the SO in my life. It's almost like J.D. and Turk...
Where was I? Oh yeah, my boy and me. How do you balance between the two best friends in your life, the guy who's been there since day 1 in college and the girl who knows you better than you know yourself? I guess that's the part of growing up I never really thought about. So I can have the SO AND the bro-mance (although Rudd and Segel hate the word, it's kinda catchy). One of my other boys even asked when my BF and I were going to go on our bro-date to see the movie. Hardi-har-har.
Of course I want to see it, but I'll wait until it's out on DVD. Just something about that Freaks and Geeks cast. Now there are exceptions (not too sure about Observe and Report... that might be a "wait until cable"). But I have a good feeling about I Love You, Man. And hopefully, there will be no Segel man-part showing in this film like in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Loved that film, but don't need to see his... you know. Not necessary, although his cereal bowl was awesome (and I mean a cereal bowl, so don't get any ideas what slang it is - it's not slang, his bowl was huge!).
So if you go see the film this weekend, think of me and my boy, J.D. and Turk, and all the other bro-mances out there that show two guys can be best buds even when their lives are changing around them. Later!
This weekend just didn't go as planned, in terms of movie viewing. First, I wanted to watch Hoosiers, because the NCAA March Madness has begun, and I thought it'd be a cool way to tie in my two passions: movies and basketball. Didn't even get close to removing it from the shelf. Why? Two reasons: too much good live basketball going on this weekend, and the SO was sick. What is she sick of? Who knows. Hopefully not basketball, because it's a long month of mid-afternoon score checking and late evening upsets. Could it be that, dare I say it, she's sick of Indiana? Already knew that, and I would have thought it would have happened sooner.
Nope, it's just a typical lung-congesting, nose-plugging, stay as far away from the SO as possible cold. At least I hope so, or all this Vitamin C I've been taking will have gone to waste. I did get the chance to get up early Sunday and check out one of the movies I had on the DVR. I thought I should lighten the load (to free up for more recording of my crap... and the SO's as well). So I went with the logical choice. A movie about staying committed to the one you love, no matter how sick they might get: The Seven Year Itch.
To break it down, it's a classic Billy Wilder comedy. Something lighthearted, somewhat dated, and yet universally true in its underlying themes. Richard Sherman (and what appears to be most of NYC) has dumped his wife and child at the train station for the annual summer trip. The men stay behind (I guess that's something you would do back in 1955) and commit all the debauchery they can endure, including drinking, smoking, and fooling around (if you know what I mean... I mean, they would get flirtatious with the opposite sex while the wifey is gone... exactly, up to no good). Well, Richard swears he's not like the other men and plans to work all the time his wife and kid are gone. He's not home two seconds before a blonde bombshell walks into his apartment building. Marilyn Monroe. Yes, that Marilyn Monroe. She's apartment-sitting upstairs, above Richard. And Richard goes into Mr. Hyde mode, thinking of a way to get her into his apartment, but then he regrets and forgets the silly idea. But The Girl (the name of Monroe's character) almost kills Richard, but he's quick to forgive because he's infatuated with her. Throughout the movie, he's going back and forth between doing what's right and what's wrong, always paranoid about if his wife is cheating on him while she's in Maine. To say the least, Richard wises up, with the advice from The Girl, and heads to Maine to be with his wife.
As dumb as she may be portrayed in the movie, Monroe is one smart actor. Not quite sure what it is, but she plays a very smart dumb character. I've only seen her in one other movie (Some Like It Hot, another Billy Wilder film) but it feels like Hollywood wanted to make her the dumb blonde, well before it was cool (I'm talking to you, Paris Hilton). But would she still be the legendary icon she is if she were still alive? Who knows, but I'm guessing because she's forever that young, beautiful blonde, America (and probably a good chunk of the world) will go ga-ga over Monroe.
I truly enjoyed the movie and was surprised at how short it ran. It seemed like the movie could have continued on, like the film reel had accidentally stopped (the SO probably was dying, but for someone who's artsy-fartsy, she has a hard time watching classic movies... okay, classic movies that I want to watch). Maybe because it never seemed like the movie had a climactic ending, in the sense of what movies have today. Not to say it's a bad thing, but I wasn't ready for the end.
So there may be potential for that in the collection, but I think I would need to see it again to confirm this. Too bad I deleted it from the DVR, but I'll try to catch it again. Could be Monroe on the screen, or it could be that Richard gets more paranoid than me about things. I should tell the SO at least I'm not that bad.
Maybe in the middle of the week, I'll get a chance to sit down and watch a DVD. But with the SO under the weather, I'll continue to be the good guy and tend to her needs. Aww, I know. I'm a sweetie, but maybe it's so I can go to Best Buy next week! I know, I'm bad. Later!
So I got into lab this morning, just checking my e-mails before getting ready for a meeting and some lab work (I know, I actually had work to do instead of working on this blog... I know, how dare anything take me away from doing what I love!). And then IT showed up...
An e-mail from Borders. But not just any normal e-mail. Usually it provides a 15-20% coupon good for any item in the store. Sometimes it's 30-40% towards a book or CD. But oh no, they went and did it... a 40% off any DVD box set!
I know, how dare they! They know I'm trying to cut back on spending on those precious DVDs (although I did drive the SO to the yarn store today - $12 more to my DVD fund!). And what do they do? Two weeks before Andy Richter Controls the Universe comes out, they provide a coupon that would provide a lot of relief from a purchase like that. Doing the math, the DVD costs $40.99 at Borders. 40% from that is $16.40, meaning it would cost $24.59...
Okay, so it's cheaper buying from Best Buy (or Amazon... oh Amazon, how I love thee), especially with the $5 gift certificate. But for some reason, it's the whole "40 percent off one DVD box set" that has me happier than a stormtrooper NOT on either of the Death Stars, happier than J.D. in one of his daydreams, happier than... I'll stop there. Can't show too much of my nerdiness in this post.
So is there anything I need in my collection that I don't already have? Check my other blog, Tenacious Spoo in the List of DVDs to see what I have and what I do need. You'll be a big help to me and you'll get the evil look from the SO. Okay, so I'll get the evil look, too... okay, I'm getting it right now from her, even though she's across campus. I can still feel it. Scary. I know. Later!
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