LKL's Blog

John Cusack is my favorite actor of all time. In high school, I watched The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, and Hot Pursuit at least 50 times each, and with some effort I’ve managed to watch nearly every other movie he has ever been in, even in the tiniest roles (Sixteen Candles, anyone?) I’ve been sick for the last two days, and am so glad that I purchased the first two when they came out on DVD, because they are the mental equivalent of comfort food – I may have to invest in a few more for the next time I get sick.

A while back I blogged about how much I like Netflix. Since then, I’ve discovered what most people already know: they engage in a practice called “throttling” (by subscribers) or “smoothing” (by Netflix), whereby Netflix prevents you from getting more movies per month than they think is reasonable. Though the subscription is for unlimited rentals per month, if you turn movies around very quickly, they will withhold your next DVD or send it from a distant center so that you never get quite as many movies as you thought you would.

I was pretty annoyed when I figured/found this out, so I thought I’d switch to Blockbuster, but it turns out they aren’t much better. (And I know they now let you return movies in person and get a free one, but that defeats the purpose of DVDs-by-mail.) So what I’ve done is kept both subscriptions, with Netflix reduced to 2-at-a-time and Blockbuster 3-at-a-time. I’ll have up to 5 movies out at a time, but each company individually will be unlikely to throttle me because I won’t usually be returning movies the day after I receive them. I just started this new arrangement, but I think it will work.

Saw it Saturday night, in IMAX 3-D. Great movie! There was one line that was so unexpected and so funny that I was still shaking with laughter 10 minutes later. In addition to the big names like Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher, I immediately recognized the voice of the character Ian, but it wasn’t until after the movie that I could place it: Patrick Warburton, the guy who played Elaine’s boyfriend Puddy on Seinfeld. (BTW, Seinfeld is not on his Internet Movie Database page, but his name is on the Seinfeld page).

I am a huge fan of animated films. I know people who love them but refuse to go without a kid – I don’t care about that. Good movies are good movies, and the big animated films are always written with adult jokes and sequences. And they’re even better in IMAX, and then when you add 3-D, well, that’s just the ultimate movie. The only thing about IMAX that bothers me is sometimes the action can be a bit blurry, during scenes where the camera “sweeps” across a scene.

Tonight is the season premiere of Smallville. Yay! I became an addict about a year ago, when I caught a couple of episodes on TV and decided to order seasons 1-4 on DVD. I watched them all just in time to catch the reruns of the first 3 episodes of season 5 on TV before I moved to Toulouse, and then had to wait for Season 5 on DVD, released a couple of weeks ago, to see what happened. And there was a great cliffhanger at the end, so I’ve been anxiously awaiting tonight’s resolution. Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town for the 2nd and 3rd episodes, so I’m hoping my brother will be able to TiVo them for me.

I just saw one of the funniest movies ever – Noises Off, with Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Carol Burnett, Denholm Elliott, Julie Hagerty, Nicolette Sheridan, and Marilu Henner! Since it’s over 10 years old, it’s unlikely I would have ever picked it out myself, but I will forever be grateful that Netflix recommended it. The first half is just ok, but I laughed until I cried throughout the entire second half. Rent it, buy it, whatever – just see it!

After pre-ordering months ago, I finally got my DVD’s of the third season of Arrested Development and watched the whole thing in two days. (Of course, there were only 13 episodes rather than a “full season” of 22 or so.) I can’t believe that show was cancelled – it was absolutely brilliant.

My new favorite TV show is “Monk” – I’m watching the first season on rented DVDs. (I often do this, rather than watching the show during its TV run, because I hating waiting a week to find out what happens next.) I’ve always been a huge Tony Shalhoub fan, from when he was the only reason for watching “Wings,” to his hilarious roles in “Galaxy Quest” and “Cars” – he never ceases to amuse me. And yet he can be serious too – he played a victim in an early episode of “The X-Files” that stayed with me for a long time. The role of Monk is a great one for him – I hope it stays on air for years to come.

Why is it that some people get all of the talent? I think Jared Leto is a phenomenal actor (and not bad looking, either) – did anyone see Requiem for a Dream? Just incredible. Then I find out that Jared Leto is in a band called 30 Seconds to Mars, and some of the songs (particularly “Attack”) are amazing. How can one person be able to do so much?

I saw Mission Impossible: III the other night, and was happily surprised – it was pretty good. I’m not a huge fan of Tom Cruise, but I don’t dislike him either, and he is a great actor. I was a little worried that the MI theme might have been overdone, but part 3 was definitely worth the cost of admission.

I love movies, and I’m usually very good at putting faces to names. But when I can’t, the Internet Movie Database is the first place I turn. You can search this incredible resource by actor, movie, theme, and more, and the range of information – trivia, comments, goofs… – is amazing. I’ve spent many a happy hour just browsing around, learning more about my favorite actors, movies, and television shows.