Flix on the Net

Netflix has become my new best friend.  After years of putting up with the tyranny of Blockbuster and their like, my wife and I opened up an account with Netflix a couple weeks ago.  Yesterday while driving to the local HyVee, I asked my wife, "Do you want to go to Blockbuster?" We looked at each other for a second and started laughing. 

In the past 3 or 4 years, the "helpful" staff at Blockbuster, never had our address correct in their records and when they did, they sent a postcard threatening to take our account to collections over an $8 late fee.  I won't even get started about the horrible lack of Gamecube games for rent but the Blockbusters we frequented actually got worse after the removal of late fees and the week long rentals. 

If someone wanted to pay the almost $10 to rent a new release, they better get there the instant it's put on the shelves or they'll just end up looking at a shelf of empty cases.  Plus, since people can keep them for a week, or eternity even, those hit movies won't be coming back any time soon.  That rental period also eliminates any chance at getting an older movie.  Just try finding a copy of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King...I couldn't in two stores and that's why I browsed out to Netflix. 

For $15, my wife and I can keep a rotating library of 2 DVDs coming to our house.  Choose a list of movies and when one arrives in your mailbox, it's almost better than Xmas.  I like this plan because you're not spending $20 for a DVD you'll probably never watch again.  (Honestly, how many of the movies in your glorious collection have you watched only once or not at all!) Simply watch the movie, drop it in the mailbox, wait two days, and repeat.  You can pay more for a larger number of DVDs but we've each already received two sets of movies and we're not even out of the 2 week free trial.  (Sounds like I'm working for them, huh?)

Thanks to Netflix, (and my college buddies) I got to see Batman Begins which is the best Batman movie of all time.  Being a lot closer to the original spirit of a dark and brooding "caped crusader", this movie paved the way for what I hope is a series of excellent escapes into Gotham City.  I guess Katie Holmes, who's too busy being impregnated by Tom Cruise, decided she won't do another movie so I guess Bruce Wayne is getting a new girlfriend in the next one.  I hate it when that happens in movies like the other Batman ones and especially Austin Powers 3 where they don't even explain what happened to the girl from the previous movie...I'm sure there's other examples. 

The second DVD I received from Netflix was the Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.  Needless to say, I was disappointed.  This really wasn't a "movie" as defined by Webster...or even Google since it was pretty much just three barely related episodes played back to back.  I've expressed my disappointment with Family Guy in Spolem Talk...saying how its new shows since cancellation are weak and off target compared to the original run.  Unfortunately, the disappointment continues and I'm glad that Futurama won't be coming back into production to risk this kind of schlock. 

Anyway, Netflix is cool.  So is Batman.  Later.