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Lou Pickney's Online Commentary

Renting Movies

Saturday
March 24, 2007

This morning I finally watched the movie Lucky Number Slevin, which I rented a week ago yesterday from Blockbuster... and the movie proved to be very entertaining. I picked it up on a whim, based on one good recommendation that I heard awhile back (and I don't even remember who made the recommendation), but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Is Slevin an all-time great film? No. But it was very entertaining and had plenty of twists to keep things interesting, and the dialog was strong. Plus having Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman interact was great, like when Locke (Terry O'Quinn) and Ben (Michael Emerson -- not the same Michael Emerson I went to high school with) had those great scenes together on Lost this week.

Incidentally, I'd be pissed if I was Emerson because of his lower billing than Madison the Dog on the IMDB.com Lost cast page.

Later this morning I took Slevin back to Blockbuster... and saw a giant banner in the window at Blockbuster notifying customers that the location is going out of business and that the last day for rentals from there is tomorrow (3/25.)

Inside, I quizzed the guy at the counter about what was happening. "The store is closing," he said indifferently. I asked what was going into the building, but the counter guy didn't know. "Someone else will pick up the lease," he replied.

I picked up Love Actually with my free March rental coupon, and at that time I offered to pay my late fee. But the counter guy said not to bother, since I might not have to pay it (the implication being because of the store's impending closure.) Maybe he wasn't so indifferent after all.

Most Blockbuster stores have a "no late fees" promise, but the Alabaster location is a non-participating member in that program. Moreover, the store inexplicably closes at 10 p.m., even on weekends, which might correlate with why it's closing down. But if the late fee ends up showing up on my credit report on down the line, heads are gonna roll.

In a final bit of irony, the guy gave me my free April rental coupon (I signed up for the Blockbuster rewards program when I first moved here), and in theory I can use it elsewhere, but it was funny being given a free rental coupon that won't be usable until after that store shuts down.

It was a bitter pill last night with Vanderbilt losing to Georgetown on a shot where the player who hit the winning shot for the Hoyas (Jeff Green) clearly traveled. It would've been great to see Vandy make the Elite Eight, but those are the breaks. Watch Green switch his pivot foot (from right to left) in this rather grainy YouTube clip, as long as it lasts (until the people at war with Fair Use force it down):

Georgetown has a good team that I enjoy watching (especially with the requisite crowd shots of Patrick Ewing), but that no-call was a tough way for Vanderbilt to lose.


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