I (heart) Netflix and Broadway

More trip report will be coming up in the coming days. But I needed to take a break from that for a bit.

I signed up for Netflix awhile ago, and after the free trial was over I kept it. I have the cheapest plan - one DVD and unlimited streaming. I use the streaming the most. Between the PS3 and our Netflix enabled Bluray, it's really handy to have so many movie and TV shows ready to watch whenever I want. The streaming library grows all the time - just today I discovered they have Into the Woods! Into the Woods!! Really?! That isn't exactly a common movie to have. When it comes to musicals their selection leaves a lot to be desired, but there are a couple of good choices and I'm sure there will be more as time goes on. (Where is Show Boat?! I know it's old as hell and probably never came out on DVD, but come on! Find a way!)

I've been on a bit of a Broadway kick lately, which is evident in what I've watched on Netflix streaming lately:

Stagedoor - A documentary about the musical theater camp in upstate NY. It was interesting, and a quick watch.

Life After Tomorrow - This was an interesting and slightly disturbing documentary about the girls who were in Annie during the 70's and early 80's on Broadway and on tour. (Including Sarah Jessica Parker - totally forgot she was in that.)

Broadway: The American Musical - this was a six part series that originally aired on PBS, I believe. Hosted by Julie Andrews, it chronicles the history of Broadway from the turn of the century until like 2004. Very interesting and entertaining.

Singin' in the Rain - Can you believe I had never seen this before? It was really good - Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Man. Stars don't have talent like that these days. And Gene Kelly was like 40 when that movie came out and he's dancing all over the place.

Besides being on a musicals kick, I'm also on a old movie kick. I plan to watch a bunch in the coming weeks... I'm sick of new movies. Most of them suck. Why can't people write a story any more? It seems to be we're just relying more and more on special effects and computers to tell our stories for us...which is impossible.

I have seen two new movies lately - The Hangover and Zombieland. Both were good. The Hangover was amusing and entertaining but not the non stop laugh-a-thon people make it out to be. I only laughed out loud a handful of times. (I do, however, finally get what's so hot about Bradley Cooper. Yum.) So over hyped, but still good. Zombieland was amusing, the perfect length and not very gory for a movie about zombies.

That's about it for now - FYI, if you set up a station on Pandora Radio for Wicked (Original Broadway Cast) you mostly seem to get music from Rent, Disney movies and Glee. (And Wicked, of course!) That's what I've been getting with my latest station, anyway.

Christmas Crap

Right now my house is like Christmas exploded. Seriously. There are plastic tubs of Christmas related crap strewn in every direction. I'm spending my week working late...yay...so hopefully this weekend I'll be able to tackle my holiday hell and put up my tree, town etc. 

Since I don't have much time, here's a quick run down of what I've been up to:

• Thanksgiving was good, although I didn't pay as much attention to the parade as I would have liked. Every time we did look it was another music star we'd never heard of - they always parade (haha, intended) out these up and comers they want to get exposure for at the parade. The whole thing really has gone so commercial. My dad was laughing because one of the floats was sponsored by Jimmy Dean sausage, or something ridiculous. Well, it's kinda sad but kinda necessary. The parade don't pay for itself after all. Just look at the balloons - they're pretty much all corporate mascots. But I still think a corporate parade is better than no parade.
•  So...we got up at 5 a.m. for Black Friday. (We almost didn't get up on time at all because of an iPhone alarm snafu, but I digress.) Anyway, we get to the mall around 5:30 and the parking lot is PACKED. Seriously. It was re-fucking-diculous. I could not believe what a scene it was. It was NOTHING like that last year. So we go inside, and the line at Best Buy wraps around the entire store. Meanwhile, the same stuff is selling online for the same prices. Haha. But I leave my husband online with some stuff anyway, since we're already there and all, and my sister and I go to Old Navy. Line is to the back of the store. I'm not too impressed with the merchandise for sale, but I find a few things, she finds a few things, and she stands online while I check out Target. Another line that wraps around the store. "Fuck this", I say, because I am not about to stand in a line like that for a $10 pack of pajamas (which I was able to buy the next day, with no crowds, thank you very much.) Apparently there was 2 fist fights in Target, and while I thankfully did not see any such displays (seriously, people?! Seriously?! It's stuff! Not the last lifeboat off the Titanic!) I did see a cop. So I go to J.C. Penney. And omg, it was nirvana in there. So not crowded, found pretty much everything I wanted, and checked out quickly without waiting on a line that stretched on endlessly to a department I didn't even know existed. Thank you, J.C. Penney. They ended up getting more of my business because of the chaos at Target. I returned to Old Navy after this, where my sister was still waiting online (she was finally at the front) and had only been recently joined by Brian, the Best Buy line survivor. Once we were finally done there, it was on to Express (totally fine) and Bath and Body Works (crowded, but certainly manageable) before we headed to Modells. That store was also pretty quiet. Then we went home and shopped online. This was my fourth Black Friday, and I've always said the craziness was worth it...but this year I don't really think it was. A lot of the stuff was available online. I don't know if I'll get up early again next year.
• Have you seen Million Dollar Listing on Bravo? It deserves a post all to itself, but I certainly suggest watching it if you should stumble across an episode.
• Streaming Netflix? Amazing. How did we ever live without this stuff? It's so easy to get spoiled isn't it? Remember VCRs? I shudder just thinking about it. We had a separate device just to rewind the tapes! 

All right, well that about does it for now. I've seen no good movies lately, I'm behind on my TV shows and podcasts, and I've got a trip to California coming up in 24 days and a major holiday I still need to buy for coming up in 23. And before all of that I need to get some sleep. 

Movies On Base

So, with baseball season coming to a close, I've had a yearning to watch some baseball movies. Enter Netflix. After a simple internet search, I created a list of movies I wanna watch having to do with America's favorite pastime. Some of these are movies I've seen before. But most of them I haven't seen.

Here's the list:

bold - watched it since starting since project.
italics - seen it before


Mr. Baseball
Field of Dreams
61*
The Natural
Cobb
Major League
Major League 2
Angels in the Outfield
The Sandlot 
The Rookie of the Year
The Babe
Pastime
Bang the Drum Slowly
The Bad News Bears
Bleacher Bums
Bull Durham
Eight Men Out
For Love of the Game
Damn Yankees
Everyone's Hero
Fear Strikes Out
Mickey
The Winning Season
The Life and Times of Hank Greenburg
Finding Buck McHenry
A League of Their Own
Hustle 
The Pride of the Yankees
The Rookie
The Scout

So yeah, I've only watched one movie so far, Mr. Baseball, which is from the early 90's and stars Tom Selleck as a fading major leaguer who goes to play in Japan. It's a comedy, and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's pretty funny. Plus, Tom Selleck is just plain awesome. Also, it has the guy from those State Farm commercials. A good start to my project.


Next on my list? I'm not sure. I have a bunch of the movies waiting for me from Netflix, plus I actually own a few. I'll probably watch either Cobb or The Natural next.

The Flix

So you know what's awesome? Netflix. Before you used to practically have to strap me down to get me to watch a movie at home. I just feel like I'm wasting my time if it's on DVD and I can watch it later. I bet I have something more important to do NOW. Like sit on this couch. Yeah.

Anyway, so now that I'm paying for these DVDs I'm more inclined to watch them. Here are quickie reviews of everything I've watched so far. And don't judge me - Netflix seriously screwed up at one point and sent me random movies that were WAY far down on my queue, saved for a rainy day where I felt like watching something brainless. I'm not making this up - I have a witness.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno ~ I enjoy Seth Rogen, I must admit. And while this movie was funny, I wouldn't put it in the same humor category as 40 Year Old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up or Step Brothers. The movie was entertaining but not particularly memorable. A solid rental, though. Worth a watch.

Marley & Me ~ If you're not a dog lover, don't bother. But I think dog lovers like myself will definitely get something out of this movie. (Including a tear or two.) It's a really enjoyable movie - not to the point that I would buy it, but I recommend it. Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson have a great chemistry. Definitely worth watching.

Stranger Than Fiction ~ An odd movie... I enjoy Will Ferrell, but this is not one of his best. The story really teeters on being unbelievable - you'll really have to get your brain a rest to enjoy this one. Once was enough. I don't think I'd watch it again. If you like Will Ferrell you should watch it just to see him do something kind of different.

Milk ~ A solid biopic, but not my favorite. A little slow in parts. Good and solid without being great. Definitely worth seeing, but I wouldn't buy it.

Ghost Town ~ Based on the trailer I thought I would love it. But it's not as funny or clever as it could have been. An enjoyable movie, and while I'd recommend it, it's not with much enthusiasm. Paced oddly.

Charlie Bartlett ~ Another movie that looked promising based on the trailer. But it too was not as funny/clever as it could have been, and was also paced poorly. Just okay. If you wanna see a lot of the kids from Degrassi, I swear they shoved them all in a bus and drove them over to the set.

Definitely, Maybe ~ A cute romantic comedy starring the always entertaining Ryan Reynolds. Sweet without being sappy. I wouldn't buy it, but I enjoyed it. Definitely an different kind of a romantic comedy, which was refreshing.

Hamlet 2 ~ Another movie where the trailer was better. While a few moments were funny, most of the movie was weird and AGAIN not paced well. (Who is editting these movies? The same guy?) Just okay. There are much better comedies out there.

And this is where Netflix kind of decided to do it's own thing.

Bee Movie ~ Cuter, funnier and more entertaining than I thought it would be. Though at times it is ridiculous, it never takes itself seriously, which only adds to the charm. I actually really enjoyed this movie and highly recommend it - if you like animated movies and you like Jerry Seinfeld, you should definitely give this movie a look. I would actually consider buying this one.

Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa ~ Even more medicore than the original. If I have to hear "I like to move it" one more time... There were a few laughs, but otherwise there have been much better animated movies made. If you haven't seen the first one, forget it all together. If you have, it's worth watching if you're bored. The penguins, as always, steal the show.

Uptown Girls ~ A fluffy chick flick all the way. It's a very stereotypical romantic comedy, but it's good enough that you won't want those minutes of your life back - if you like these kinds of movies. Dakota Fanning is cute. Made me wonder what the hell happened to Brittany Murphy.

13 Going on 30 ~ Okay, this movie was really cute. Far from being anything groundbreaking, but it was just an enjoyable hour and a half. Jennifer Garner is entertaining to watch. I'd watch this one again.

Role Models ~ Who doesn't love Paul Rudd? This movie isn't as hilarious as some of the other movies he's done recently, but it's still an enjoyable comedy that's worth a watch. Not too many laugh out loud moments, but you'll be entertained.

Okay, I'm done. Count how many times I used the word 'enjoyable'. I bet it's a lot.