This Week in Netflix: Volume XVIII

(Switching up the title style a little in honor of the impending Big Game, aka one of the few times anyone in America uses Roman numerals.*)

Megan** blogged about seeing some of the Oscar contenders lately. I don't like many of the nominated movies, so I'm not going to waste my time or money on stuff like Atonement*** or There Will Be Blood. No, I'd much rather waste these items on stuff like Cloverfield! (Which I thought was okay, actually, but Christine seemed to be intensely disappointed by it, especially the more she thought about it afterward.)

I did see Juno, though, and liked it, I guess. I remember complaining to Missy that I thought the dialogue was too-too — nobody really talks like that. Missy helpfully pointed out that movies never sound like real life. Missy felt the music was kind of annoying; I can take it or leave it. I'm not sure I'm going to drink the Kool-Aid and buy the soundtrack, although I might like to hear that Kinks song one more time. Oh, and I also felt that a lot of the "funny" lines were ruined for me by the ads. That snippet of Rainn Wilson in the promos? That's pretty much his entire screen time. I think I'll go back to my Arrested Development DVDs for my Michael Cera/Jason Bateman fix.


As for the actual Netflix rentals . . .

• I finished watching season 1 of Once and Again over the weekend. I knew that Adam Brody was on the show playing a friend of Shane West's character, but I didn't know that Rilo Kiley performed in that same episode! So, that was kind of cool. I was going to wait until I watched the second season, but maybe I'll move it up in the queue.
  
• I watched Transformers on fast-forward. Meh. Maybe if I'd seen it on the big screen I'd have been more impressed?
  
• I hated Mystery, Alaska, and watched that on fast-forward, too. I think the only Russell Crowe movie I like is L.A. Confidential, and that's mostly because of the genre.
  
• Best Men was totally goofy, but at least there was plenty of eye candy — which I think is what I was expecting from the hockey movie? I don't know.
  
• Fletch Lives is Fletch-lite. I don't think this is based on one of the novels, which I prefer in general.
  
• Are We Done Yet? is a cute remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House — a movie my mom and I love.

In other somewhat Super Bowl–related news:

• This Oreos commercial totally squicks me out. Maybe I hang out with Cathy too much, but when I first saw the following shot, all I could think was, "Dirty!" ****
  
  
  
  
  
• Check out Casting Super Bowl: The Movie on SI.com.
  
• I thought about moving up all the NFL Films items in my Netflix queue, but maybe I'll just order the soundtrack music on CD instead.

* Along somewhat similar lines: Why does a bank's time/temperature sign bother giving the Celsius temperature? Nobody around here (Okay, except for Dick Goddard) knows (or cares) what that means. I think I'm just bitter because the bank across the street from the office has a sign that has been unable to display the time or (Fahrenheit) temperature in some form or another for the last few months yet still manages to show the Celsius temperature. Why?!


** The one in Ohio, not the one in Massachusetts.

*** Nevermind my crush on James McEvoy, whose adorableness quotient expanded exponentially when he appeared on Ryan Seacrest's show and on Craig Ferguson's show.

**** On second thought, seeing the freeze-frame doesn't convey the full "Dirty!"-ness of it. I think you really have to see the tongues in (ahem) action; or, as Eli describes it in the special bonus interview footage, "Seeing who can get it off the fastest."