Netflix vs. Blockbuster

I've recently dropped Netflix in favor of Blockbuster: Total Access.

Thus far, Blockbuster is a bit slower in sending movies and the whole "turn into the store and it's entered immediately" thing is a bit of a lie. It still takes them a day or two to acknowledge they've reentered it into the system. I do like the trade in policy - I get twice as many movies for the same price as Netflix.

So far I've watched:

28 Days Later: 3 of 5 A British "zombie" movie similar to Dawn of the Dead. A bit slower and kind of a repeat of that movie. Nice little twist thrown in. Still suspenseful and creepy. But not all that scary.

Amadeus: 4 of 5 - Had never seen this classic before. I really enjoyed it. Probably would have had a greater appreciation had I had any knowledge of classical music. Fun, entertaining and a very good plot with interesting characters.

TMNT

Only went to this for the nostalgia factor. Average enough for that. Really a kid's movie. Had they wanted a pg-13, I think it could have been a much better movie.

Not a whole lot to tell. It's a Turtle's movie but completely CGI rather than the costumed guys of long ago. Some story of an ancient general attaining immortality but at a price - his "family" of generals are frozen in stone. The event that allowed him to become immortal occurs every several thousand years. Present day, several thousand years later, Leo has run off and the Turtles are in a bit of disarray. Oh noes! The plot is predictable; from this summary you should be able to guess the rest of the story.

The movie's themes are simplistic because it is a kid's movie. Nothing to complain about.

2.5 of 5. The CGI is clean. The voice-acting fair enough. Just a 25 year old going to a kid's movie.

Hot Fuzz

Hilarious! I love these guys.

From the makers of Shaun of the Dead comes Hot Fuzz. A police comedy. Big city cop, obsessed with his job gets sent to Po-dunk, England. Hijinks ensue. The filmmakers profit.

The movie opens well. The main character does a bit of narration about his career and training. He then has a funny meeting with some of the higher-ups. He then heads off to Nowheresville. And the movie dies.

The first half of the movie, cutting out the very first 5-10 minutes, is rather boring. It drags, isn't very funny but it's setting the scene. The plot is being established and some chracters fleshed out.

The second half is possibly the greatest movie I have ever seen. Pure genius. Pure hilarity. And non-stop fun. I have a slight qualm with the very ending. The movie could have wrapped up more smoothly without the last explosion. It just felt like they needed to throw in one last gag. They'd brought in this prop early on and needed to use it and this was the best they could come up with.

4 of 5 - Overall, go see it. Slow start but ever so funny in the second half.

Spiderman 3

Terrible. While Spiderman 1 and 2 were among the best superhero movies ever, this was terrible.

Let's start at the beginning. The movie shouldn't have. It was boring. A really dull fight scene. Then lots of "plot" that simply drags on forever. I was contemplating napping. Then there's a giant crane accident. Spiderman saves one person but completely ignores the crane. Way to go, tiger.

This movie was really 3 in one. You have a Sandman movie that just seems a bit thrown in there. A venom movie without barely any appearance by Venom and then a drama movie between Spidey and Mary Jane. The Goblin Jr. story isn't really big enough to deserve it's own. So there's way too much going on for one thing. No character development at all.

The black spider suit turns Peter emo and goth. He looks just like one of the South Park goth kids. The movie doesn't really develop that it makes him aggressive and angry much except in the only one good fight scene in the whole movie and that is the second one between Spidey and Harry. It shows what the suit is really doing to him. The jazz club scene was just dumb and pointless.

The final fight scene was terribly cheesy. Gag-o-rama for sure. And it was rudely interrupted by a bad joke with J. Jonah and was a way to get Sam Raimi's daughter into the film.

Topher Grace is a terrible Eddie Brock. I enjoy Topher but Eddie is supposed to be a guy who can bench 700 lbs no problem. That's what makes Venom so deadly is that Eddie is already a badass.

I can't say much about Thomas Haden Church as Sandman. The entire part was poorly done and written. It seemed like it was just slopped in there for no reason.

Kirsten Dunst was annoying. They should not have done a close up of her face when she was supposedly "singing." It made it even more unconvincing.

Tobey McGuire didn't seem like he cared about the part anymore.

Do not see this if you can help it.

1.5 of 5.