You want how much for a tub of popped corn?

At work we have a group of people who use vacation time to take Friday afternoons off and go to the movies. Yes I know, you hate me. I get that. I make no apologies for my awesome job!

One of the side affects of seeing so many movies is that I see things well in advance of my wife. She is not a fan of the movie going experience. Maybe its the price, maybe its the kid kicking the back of her seat, maybe she would rather spend two hours of her life somewhere she can have a drink and a smoke. Regardless, due to her aversion to the theater, when she adds a movie to the Netflix Que it's likely that I have already seen it.

This is not such a bad thing, I can usually guide our rental experience and avoid seeing something awful (take Vin Diesels Babylon AD for example). Not to mention if I have already seen it and enjoyed it in the theater, I would like to see it again. Therein lies the problem.

My most recent example is Avatar. I saw that in 3D, an experience I came out of with mixed emotion. The glasses hurt my face after a while, and the constant in you face action gave me a headache. Still, I enjoyed the movie. It was good. Not great. Not a gazillion dollars in record setting ticket sales good, but good. I don't really get what the fuss was about. It's not as groundbreaking as they made it out to be, and the plot was very transparent/predictable.

Now the problem comes in when I was getting groceries the other day and noticed the DVD display with a big yellow sale sign on it. Not one to pass up a good deal (it was only $16.99) I put Avatar in the cart. When we watched it at home on the tv, which is fairly large and of good quality, it just fell flat. I immediately realized that this movie was designed for the theater. Everything about it was carefully crafted to dazzle and amaze, but only on a 30 foot tall screen with 3D and surround sound.

The movie is still watchable, but it is not the same. Some great action scenes still came across entertainingly enough, but the forest world, blue people, and flying scenes just seemed cheesy. I noticed the same thing with Transformers 2, and I think they even cut short a gratuitous running scene with Meghan Fox (maybe it just seemed to last longer on the big screen?). At any rate, I am acutely aware now of the difference between my decent home theater setup and seeing it the way Hollywood intended, in all its mind numbing glory.

Recent Movies I recommend:

Kick Ass - Very bloody and graphic, do NOT let young ones see this. Nick Cage plays a super hero he models after Adam West's Bat Man, this alone is enough to see the movie.

Alice in Wonderland - Burton and Depp are at it again. Not as good as I had hoped, but worth seeing.

Avatar - If only to see what the fuss is about.

Hurt Locker - Based largely on the life of a soldier from MI as he defuses bombs in Iraq.

Inglorious Bastards - Again, very bloody. If you don't like Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) than you won't like this. If you are hip to the bizarre and bloody nature of his films, this is a must see.

So enjoy but caveat emptor, I make no warranty implied or expressed. If you see one of these films and think it's horrible, I can not give you a refund. I do however recommend you only see something Bruckheimer produces in the theater. It makes a difference.

What's new?

Well, a lot of things...My head is swimming right now! We sign papers on our new house this Friday afternoon, I just set up a lease with a tenant who is going to rent our old house, and my wife is pregnant! Sheesh. I'm thinking of taking up some new hobbies just to fill the down time...

The house buying experience was a drain. We looked at endless homes on-line, walked through a dozen or so, then found one we absolutely loved only to have it stolen out from under us (it was HUD owned and they do a silent auction. We were outbid by $20k, so I don't feel too bad). When we rounded the corner to see the house we eventually bought, my wife actually went "Ooooooo". We took two tours, then found out someone put in an offer the morning of our second walk through. We put together our best deal, just shy of what several comps in the neighborhood sold for, and sat nervously by the phone.

When our agent called she asked me to put it on speaker, so I suspected good news. Then she said they basically accepted as written, and are paying closing! Whoo hoo! Then set in the overwhelming dread of realizing that we now will have two mortgages, and we have to pack six years worth of accumulation to move. Not to mention we are going to become landlords thanks to the fact that there are dozens of foreclosed homes on the market for sale with twice the space and half the price of ours. Thanks banking/housing sectors, thanks a bunch.

So, to recap the whirlwind last couple months for us; found out we are expanding our family, went through a brutal home buying process (not done yet, worst paperwork/writers cramp session of our life coming this Friday!), listed our home for rent and screened a dozen applicants to find a tenant. Wow. How did we survive? Oh, and did I mention that our daughter turned two through all this? Yeah, terrible twos! She is the light of my life, and so cute it is beyond words. Most of the time she is a joy, but her new favorite response to any request from mommy and daddy is, "not yet..." Love it...

Well that's it in a nut shell as they say. What's new with you? I hope this message finds you and yours happy and well. I know I sure am!