You’d think that owning over 300 DVDs means never having to go to the rental store. While it’s true that I don’t usually frequent the rental place, I decided to do this on Friday. I’d finally gotten around to renewing my driver’s license (though not as late this year as last time I renewed) and decided I’d pick up some movies and lo mein on the way back. So, what flicks did I rent this time out?

Thank You for Smoking: I had recently purchased the book at a buy 2 get 1 free sale and enjoyed it. Funny and cynical – my kind of humor. I think they did a nice job with the movie, though there were some bits that I missed from the book. It wound up being the second favorite of the batch that I rented.

A Prairie Home Companion: I’m not sure what I was expecting with this movie, but whatever it was, it wasn’t what I got. It was more fantasy than I was expecting and just wasn’t that funny for me. Oh, there were some funny bits, but it wasn’t funny enough… Or something. My interest in the flick kept waning and I spent some of the time playing with my Robopet and the kitties. (The kitties still haven’t figured out what to make of it.)

Checking Out: I’ve been a Peter Falk fan for many years now, so it surprised me that there was a recent(ish) Peter Falk movie out there that I didn’t know about. Of course, as soon as I saw it in the rental store, I had to rent it. (And yes, I’ll admit, if they had it for sale used, I’d’ve bought it sight unseen.) This movie wound up being my favorite of the batch. Falk is wonderfully eccentric (wow – so unusual for him! 😉 Heh). He plays a man about to turn 90 who invites his family and many friends to a huge birthday bash – which he’ll follow up by killing himself. His three grown kids (all with fun dysfunctional relationships) then have to work together to talk him out of suicide. It was funny, the acting good, and I’ll have to find this used at some point… 🙂

Napoleon Dynamite: Students of mine have been recommending this film for some time, but I’ve only gotten around to renting it. Well, as with Prairie Home Companion, it wasn’t all that funny for me. Yup, it’s happened – what my students find funny is not the same as what I find funny… I’m getting old! 🙂

Snakes on a Plane: OK, so I just couldn’t resist renting this. I knew it was going to be silly & far fetched, but I thought “Samuel L Jackson battling snakes?” and decided “Hell yeah!” This film was more like what I was expecting and it was very silly and quite violent. Will I ever watch it again? Probably not, unless I was with lots of friends and we were taking the piss out of it. But I did enjoy the ridiculous violence and swearing.

Apart from movie watching, I’ve wasted far too much time doing f*** all. Hate when I get into moods like this where a little productivity could go a long way, but I don’t actually do anything productive. Ah well, at least I’ll have clean sheets tonight (doing laundry right now at least).