h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been rating every film I watch, hoping that it would improve their recommendations. It obviously hasn't. I've rated over 1000 films and I still get mostly asinine suggestions. If nothing else I just wish it would stop suggesting films I'VE ALREADY SEEN/RATED!

I reckon I can count on one hand the number of films I've rented from a recommendation, not because the recommendations are crap, but because I form a particular attachment to each individual film that doesn't necessarily transfer to others like it. Just because I like the the Sean Connery James Bond films doesn't mean I like 1960s spy thrillers (or any other James Bond films for that matter), it means I like Sean Connery James Bond films. I don't have the same personal attachment to other 1960s spy thrillers and action films. Loved Ladyhawk, hated Conan. Loved Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, hated just about every other Bogart film. Loved Carousel, hated just about every other similar musical (although I still haven't seen South Pacific).

Business models and algorithms can't deal with sort of personal taste.

How about Sean Connery in balls-trippingly unfathomable 70's sci-fi fantasies?
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Zardoz/60020833?trkid=222336

http://seanconneryonline.com/zardoz07.jpg
http://seanconneryonline.com/zardoz12.jpg

Yeah, I rented that one.

WTF was he thinking

Here's a list of overlooked flix from this decade (whatever we decided to call it).

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/You-Missed-It-Most-Unfairly-Overlooked-Movies-Of-The-Decade-16012.html

This will fill out my netflix queue. Of the films I've seen on this list:
Black Snake Moan,
Zack and Miri Make a Porno,
Fearless,
Choke,
Grindhouse,
The Notorious Bettie Page,
Stardust,
Death at a Funeral,
The Wackness,

I've enjoyed all of them. So, I'm putting most of the others in my queue. I think I'll skip the Woodsman, The Girl Next Door and Open Water. They're probably good as well, but I'm just not interested at the moment. I wish I'd seen this list a few weeks (or were it months) ago when my queue was desperately short. I would have put off watching the last Indiana Jones.

Ugh... I'm obviously still in that zone of my queue from when it was getting very short and I just tossed a bunch of flix on their quickly.

Last week was Indiana Jones: the Skulltastrophy.

This weekend it was Tropic Dunderheads.

With this one, I knew better. I really did. I saw the ads and had no desire to see it. I saw that not only was Ben Stiller in it, but he directed. I do not like Ben Stiller at all. When I heard that Tom Cruise was in it too, well that was gravy on a pie.

But I let my friends talk me into giving it a chance. Like they say, there's no accounting for taste.

Moon


Seriously, that was good.
I was hearing lots of talk about how good it was but I didn't want to know too much about it so I bumped it up to the top of my queue.

I absolutely am glad I did. After watching the film, I watched the trailer and as usual too much plot important scenes were in it including scenes from the end of the film. I really wish they wouldn't do that.

Anyways, it's very nice to watch a film that isn't just stupid. I've had a bit of a run of very stupid films recently. For instance, I wouldn't recommend The Foot Fist Way.

I got a nice disc in the mail today. I got my disc to upgrade my Wii for streaming Netflix.

Now if I can just get a chance to load it up and play with it to see how well it works. Today I got my replacement exhaust for the bike so that took up most of the evening. Yesterday I got home to a busted A/C. I won't get a chance to deal with that until probably Friday.

Good thing it happened before the summer really kicks in.

Is there a benefit to watching Netflix on a Wii as opposed to a PC?

I can't watch on my laptop because it runs linux. I can't run it on my desktop because it's FUBAR. Even if I could, I'd rather run it through my TV than through a small monitor. The question now will be whether it will be a high enough resolution to look decent on my 50" hi def screen.

Do they stream Blu-Ray yet?

I'm just waiting for the day they can stream it directly onto the inside of my eyelids

No, no they do not. And even if they did, I'm sure my piss-poor DSL connection couldn't take it.

http://www.broadband.gov/ Here's the FCC test.

Tested the Wii connection last night with an MST3K episode. It actually looked as good as normal def TV. There might have been a very small frame rate issue but not terribly bad. The bottom of the screen was cut off however, but all in all I was quite pleased.

(Oh, and I installed the new A/C today with a bit of help from my nephew to carry it up the stairs. )

We get iPlayer on ours, but I want Netflix too!

MST3K - damn I haven't watched that in ages

Yea, it had been years since I'd watched it as well. Of course I still think it lost a lot when Joel Hodgson left.

Inglourious Basterds

Friends of mine saw it in the theater and pretty much gave me the impression that they hated it. I have no idea why (yet, I'll ask them now that I've seen it). I thought it was pretty good.

I've also seen the original (spelled correctly). They have very little in common other than being set in occupied France in WWII. The original is quite fun if you like cheesy, low budget, over-the-top action flix from the 70's. It's just a bit too good to have made good fodder for MST3K, but just barely.

The new one actually had me feeling involved with the characters, especially Shoshana. And the bad guy, Landa, is superb. You really want bad things to happen to him. It's a bit of a change for Tarantino, but not overly so. It probably doesn't have the same "rewatchability" that most of his films have. It is a bit gorier than previous films... No, really. He's never really shown much gore before. Plenty of blood, yes, bucket loads. But not that much viscera. Much of the most memorable, shocking scenes in his films actually are not on screen. In Reservoir Dogs, the ear cut isn't actually on screen. In Pulp Fiction, you don't actually see the needle go in. In Basterds, you get plenty of closeups of knives cutting into flesh. I'm hoping he doesn't continue this in future films. It probably owed a lot to Eli Roth being involved. (I have no desire to see his Hostel films.)

Anyway, I mostly enjoyed it. I'll watch it again. I just probably won't watch it over and over again like I did with Dogs, Fiction, Bill, Jackie and Deathproof.

Yay! Now I have less than zero desire to see Sex and the City 2. I had no desire to ever see either one, of course, but after reading this brilliant review of the sequel, well, I have even less now.

(warning: language - my favorite kind)
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/burkas-and-birkins/Content?oid=4132715#


In other news, I watched Beer Wars last night. Gosho, I presume that you've seen this. Even if you haven't I doubt there is much in it of which you weren't previously aware. I learned some things I didn't know. The most disturbing is that Boddington's and Bass are part of the InBev/Bud family. I also wasn't aware of the "neo-prohibitionist" movement so rampant in this country (according to the distributors and their lobbyists, but curiously difficult to track down by the filmmakers).

I have seen it, and I learned a few things too, like the way that the big companies (hereinafter called BMC - BudMillerCoors) take the best best spots in the supermarket display and marginalise everything else. But I do know all about the three-tier system with its pros and cons.

Yes, I was aware which brands are part of ABInBev, which used to be InBev which used to be InterBrew, because we get them delivered by the same distributor and most of the kegs have InBev stickers on them. All the Scottish and Newcastle beers, plus Bass, Stella, Beck's, Boddingtons, the list goes on. And here it is http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/the-big-brewers-brands/

And, coincidentally, this piece of news came out today http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article7136607.ece

"However, it is understood that the sale process excludes both the trademark and international rights, including lucrative exports to America, where the beer is a familiar sight in trendy bars from Manhattan to San Francisco."

EGAD! They want to sell Bass ale, but they buyer won't be able to call it Bass, nor sell it in the U.S.? WTF?

That's it, game over. So much for the world's oldest trademark.

I took Bass off the menu a while back and put Smithwick's on but it makes a crappy Black and Tan so I brought Bass back in, and I brought it back just because it's Bass, with all that history. It really doesn't sell much, though, because it's just not a good beer any more, despite being made by Marston's who make one of my favourite beers - Pedigree (which you can't get in Texas... but I'm working on it). It's always in the bottom three or four of our drafts so I'm considering taking it off again because we've got a couple of other good pale ales on tap. But a real Black and Tan should be made with Bass. We should have a British pale/bitter on tap.