The Future of Flicks

Remember betamax? When I was growing up, a buddy of mine had a betamax player and a handful of videos in that format. I can still recall holding The Terminator in my hand - betamax style. I thought it was so novel…

Well, betamax fell to VHS, VHS fell to DVD, DVD is about to fall to Blu-Ray. Before we know it, Blu-Ray will fall to streaming media via our computers, which will coincidentally replace our TVs, home phones, and microwaves. (Maybe not the microwaves - though a popcorn popping portal to the information superhighway would be magnificent.)

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the latest method to rent films from Blockbuster Video: Blockbuster Online. I'm sure everyone's familiar with how it works: you sign up for a plan, and they send you DVDs in the mail. We chose Blockbuster over Netflix because we can take DVDs we receive in the mail back to the store in exchange for new ones. And they have a better dental plan.

Blockbuster's vast film library has afforded us the opportunity to see a number of movies that we otherwise wouldn't. You know how you say, "I'll rent it when it comes out"? You don't want to pay the full arm-and-a-leg to see it in the theatre, so you hold off and pay $4.50 for the home viewing experience. Well, these films would've fallen under the "I'll see it if someone else rents it when it comes out" category. Here are two you may have heard of that are surprisingly great:

Juno: Don't allow the teen pregnancy thing to dissuade you from seeing this movie. Juno is the teenage girl who becomes pregnant, then uses the newspaper classifieds to find an uptight couple on the wealthy side of the town to adopt the baby. The film does a great job exploring the relationships between all the characters, and there are way too many one-liners to list.






Lars and the Real Girl: Ryan Gosling (of The Notebook fame) plays Lars - a recluse who lives in the garage behind his brother and sister-in-law's house. One day he orders a life-sized, anatomically correct doll named Bianca. When she arrives, he believes she's a real person. The story follows Lars as he climbs out of his shell and back into reality. I seriously thought this film was going to fly off the handle and be way over the top. It was nothing of the sort, and actually very sweet.



We've also watched some Woody Allen and Coen Brother's films, but they're a little older. I could take or leave Woody Allen. Although we're still waiting to see his hallmark Annie Hall, Melinda and Melinda was just so-so. The Big Lebowski and Fargo were pretty good from the Coen Brothers; if you haven't seen O Brother, Where Art Thou? you should definitely check it out.

If you've seen either or both of the two films above, feel free to post a comment on them. Also, if you have any good film recommendations, please share with the class.