Watched It, Read It

I'll soon be updating the sidebar, so I thought I'd squeeze out a thought or two on the items to the right.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl & Mr Hyde: As I mentioned in an earlier post, this was a public domain Librivox volunteer recording of the Robert Louis Stephenson classic, and what looks to be the first in a series of classic horror novels I wish to work(out) my way through during my afternoon exercise at work. It was delectably read by an Englishman, and covered from a rather quaint perspective the whole notion of man dabbling in areas in which he shouldn't. Following the whole "Icarus" thing, was this perhaps about the first tale in history to call to attention the notion of rampant science without understanding? Good escapism, overall.

The Dirty Dozen: So, these days I'm not a huge action/adventure movie guy, but if and when I do go down that route, I'm a lot more likely to seek out an utterly unrealistic depiction of it all from the sixties than I am a gritty, modern bloodfest. There's almost a pall over my life with all the horror and devilry afoot in the real world as it is; I don't necessarily need a graphic depiction of it when I want to unwind at home; I prefer fantastic, campy tales of broad-brushed characters dsipalying valor, heroism, and sometimes treachery in no uncertain terms. Movies like this and The Guns of Navarrone fit into the same category as Star Wars and Harry Potter, for me: stress-free escapism. This movie, in particular and in that light, was good but not great. Par for the genre, I'd say. On a side note - this movie was one of just a handful so far that I've watched with Netflix's "watch now" feature; a technology that completely blows me away. The movies are essentially DVD-quality, steamed to your computer on-demand and in seamless playback. They basically let you use the amount of dollars you spend a month ($10, in my case) to "buy" the amount of hours worth of movies (a somewhat more limited selection, but still quite expansive) for that month. It doesn't cost you anything additional, and does not affect your movies per month status, at all. It's a total "win," as you can sit down and call up a movie on deman, as you wish. Pure goodness - as seems to be rare in new announcements from companies in this day and age. For them, I suppose it's a win, too. The more movies they stream to you, the fewer on which they have to pick up postage. Plus, if you get addicted to the feature, maybe you boost your plan up to get more hours. In any event, I guess that's what folks call a "win-win."