Mixed Opinion About Amazon

I have been shopping on Amazon for years now and to date really haven’t had any issues with the items that I have ordered. Actually, it has been a great resource to find some of the more obscure items that most stores don’t carry particularly when it comes to hard to find books. Additionally, the shipping has always been reasonable which is why I have preferred Amazon over other sites like Abe Books.

It continues to be a great place for one stop shopping offering a wide variety of items across numerous categories and from multiple vendors. When comparing one item over another or even on brand over another has been a great resource and, at least in the past, the prices have been the best around. However, things change and Amazon is slowly becoming just another place to shop with not guarantee as to best price and soon without the same variety that I have enjoyed up to this point.

Over the last couple of months, there have been a few stories that have come to light that have but a slight damper on the current and future shopping experience on the site. In addition to the general flux regarding the marketplace (non Amazon products) and whether or not the storefronts will remain beyond this year, there was recently a price fixing scheme uncovered that explained, at least on some products, the lack of competitive pricing of those items not offered directly from Amazon. Makes sense, with price no longer the main driver, why many retailers are willing to price match products sold and shipped by Amazon but not in the general marketplace. I guess this is a big reason why there are other sites that are easily beating the Amazon site as a whole in the pricing game. 

However, with all of that said, I still find myself purchasing a good amount from the site (and my coworkers can attest to the piles of packages that I get on occasion). There are still some moderately priced items, the general availability is still good, shipping is free (most of the time), and the convenience of being able to order a quick item or two while at the office is still key to my continued use. Actually, this is only one of the two main drivers of my continued patronage with the other being the benefits of Prime membership.

I am generally not a big proponent of the membership services offered by Amazon and the like but the video and music benefits have been worth the $100 per year (it helps that a lot of the movies have been watched on a free Kindle). The free video content has been utilized not just at home but on the road during business trips as well. I don’t mind waiting a year or two to watch a ‘new’ movie so it is nice to have free access to the entire prime library. I have also found that when I have ordered DVDs during the holidays that it, many times, comes with free prime access as well. An ancillary perk has been that of free 2-day shipping which has come in handy when I order that occasional item.

Overall, while things have changed and it is no longer the site that I first started using years ago, it is still a decent place to find the items that you are looking for and it is a good resource to compare prices (and match prices). While the purchasing of physical products may no longer be my primary use of the site, the value still exists in the access to a tremendous library of digital content through my prime membership. There are other sites that I go to if I want to find a better deal and in some instances there are a few physical stores where I know the prices will be better. It really is amazing to think about how much has changed over the years and where we now find the value at different places such as on Amazon.

You Can’t Help But Watch

Maybe it stems from watching too much Three Stooges when I was younger. Maybe it is because I am a rather simple individual. Maybe it is all comes down to intellectual laziness. For whatever reason, there are some movies that when you see them on television, listed on Amazon Prime or NetFlicks, or sitting on top of the 99 cent bin at the store you can’t help but watch them. Not because they are some cinematic masterpiece but because you don’t have to think when the movie is playing… it is all about being able to laugh for the sake of laughing. Some call it comedy in its purest for but I like to take a more honest view and see them as so stupid they’re funny.

Everyone is guilty of having that little list of movies in their mind that when they are playing you almost instinctively stop flipping through the channels or scrolling down the page. Three Stooges still gets me to this day although I have only caught myself watching a few minutes at a time. However, if I hear a familiar Clark Griswold line, a Mel Brooks melody, or Tackleberry’s overly intense and naïve take on a situation I immediately stop searching and enjoy the mental break. I even recall the rare moments when UHF was in constant rotation. However, there is one recent movie that I find watching more than any other which falls into this category… Super Troopers.  

I guess this one can meow be seen almost like the modern day Police Academy but I think it is much better. While there are few lines that I can recall from the 80’s franchise, Super Troopers has provided a variety of one liners that are burned into our brains (along with some unfortunate visuals). Meow that is a classic movie. However, while they made 7 Police Academy movies of varying quality, there has only been one Super Troopers movie. That is, until meow.

While scrolling through my Facebook feed I came across a post by Broken Lizard (the group behind the movie) about an announcement that they were preparing to make. When I checked back in a couple of days later I read about the interesting approach that they were taking to finally deliver on a sequel. As it turns out, they have decided to crowd fund the new project and they are offering some rather unique incentives to those who donate. 24 hours after launching their campaign to raise $2 million for production they far surpassed their goal. It looks like the sequel will soon be a reality and Bimpus sized at that. Of course, you can still grab a perk and make the movie even better. I guess I am not the only one who can’t help watching the movie.

Back To The Present

The New Year has started and there is a lot that we have to look forward to in the coming months and a lot that we have to be thankful for from the past year. In the past I have taken this opportunity to make a list of resolutions and to look back on the previous year. Well, those posts will be coming soon but I found myself thinking about something else today… Back to the Future… part 2.

A couple of days ago I found my wife watching the first movie in the trilogy as I ventured up the stairs and got ready for bed. It has always been one of those movies that she would fall asleep to and I really don’t mind because I remember watching them growing up as well. Last night we had to change things up as she had watched part one for a couple of nights in a row. So I put in part two, tucked her in, and came down stairs to get some work done not thinking too much about what was flickering on the screen.

As the clock struck midnight and the calendar turned another page, I could hear the faint sounds of the fictional 2015 echoing down the stairs as the reality of that year was around me. It is amazing to think about something that seemed so far off when we were growing up to now be a reality. While always a little far afield in their predictions, it is even more entertaining to see the drastic difference between reality and the trajectory that Hollywood portrayed over two decades ago.

So where is my freaking flying car?!?!

I am fascinated watching the prediction of the flying car, hover boards, Café 80’s (I am sure there are a few that are around), rehydrating dinner (makes me think of Ramen noodles), 3-D advertisements on the street, the national weather service, and faxing still a prevalent form of communication. All of these things are in addition to the craziness of the ‘fashion’ which you could tell came out of the time when the movie was made. It would be interesting if these things were really part of our daily life but that is not the case.

However, what might be more interesting is what is not represented. The internet and email are a huge part of daily life but are nowhere to be found on the screen. Smart phones are more ubiquitous than the walkie-talkies that Marty and Doc employ but don’t make an appearance. Flat screen televisions have replaced the large boxes that once played our movies but the café still contained the former format. And did you see the size of those discs where they hid Jennifer?

So while we may not have flying cars and weather that we can control to suit our needs (or time travel), there are still a lot of things that we have today that even Hollywood couldn’t predict. It certainly isn’t all perfect but things could be a lot worse as 2015 gets under way. Of course, we will have to see if the Cubs to really beat Miami in the World Series this year… now that would be one heck of a prediction.

Distractions On The Screen

As was mentioned in a previous post, we were discussion what some of our favorite movies are in the office this past week. It came about from the simple fact that there are a few people in the office that had not seen what many of us thought were some of the better movies. So, with that in mind the mass email was sent to see what movies everyone considered ‘must watch’ options. Not necessarily the best movies ever made but the ones that we thought everyone should view at least once.

For me, having watched too much television and seen too many movies in my life, this was a particularly difficult task. Actually, many of the movies I first thought of are the ones that inevitably steal hours from me when I can’t help myself from watching them. The original email sent out asked us to list our top ten and that was quickly becoming an impossibility after about ten seconds of consideration. So, instead of sticking within the numeric confines, I pulled together a much longer list. Despite its length it comprised about 5-10 minutes of thought.

Many of the movies on my list are simply great movies and are recognized as such by countless top movies ever made or award winning films lists. Others are not as obvious but because I can’t help but watch at least 10 minutes of the movie when I am skimming through channels I had to put them on the list. And there are others, this is where many of the historical and documentary movies come in, that tell a story that should be heard.

So, here in no particular order is the 100 movies that, for one reason or another, I think that people should watch. Actually, that’s not true. I have put the movies in a very rough four tier system with every 25 or so movies in a rough groups (they are color coded below).

1.      Gettysburg

2.      Schindler’s List

3.      My Life

4.      Fargo

5.      Rudy

6.      Quiz Show

7.      Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

8.      The Departed

9.      National Treasure

10.  Super Troopers

11.  Talented Mr. Ripley

12.  The Chosen

13.  Hitler’s Children

14.  Good Will Hunting

15.  Saving Private Ryan

16.  All The President’s Men

17.  The War Room

18.  Heat

19.  Holy Land Hardball

20.  You’ve Got Mail

21.  84 Charring Cross Road

22.  The Good Shepherd

23.  Chaplin

24.  Uprising

25.  Patton

26.  Wag the Dog

27.  Arthur

28.  Gravity

29.  Righteous Kill

30.  RED

31.  Bourne Identity

32.  Forrest Gump

33.  Sideways

34.  A Beautiful Mind

35.  Yentl

36.  Munich

37.  Rocky

38.  Catch Me If You Can

39.  Cabaret

40.  Defending Your Life

41.  Wall Street

42.  Back to the Future

43.  My Big Fat Greek Wedding

44.  Serpico

45.  Office Space

46.  Apt Pupil

47.  There Will Be Blood

48.  American History X

49.  Groundhog Day

50.  Deconstructing Harry

51.  Sarah’s Key

52.  Somewhere In Time

53.  Open Range

54.  TAPS

55.  Argo

56.  Gandhi

57.  A Few Good Men

58.  JFK

59.  Silence of the Lambs

60.  Dances with Wolves

61.  The Grey Zone

62.  The Dark Knight

63.  Gladiator

64.  Raiders of the Lost Ark

65.  Citizen Kane

66.  Au Revoir Les Enfants

67.  Gangs of New York

68.  Titanic

69.  Star Wars

70.  Fiddler on the Roof

71.  Stand By Me

72.  Wizard of Oz

73.  Goodfellas

74.  The Godfather

75.  Life Is Beautiful

76.  Paper Clips

77.  Braveheart

78.  Shawshank Redemption

79.  The Fugitive

80.  Unforgiven

81.  Scent of a Woman

82.  Awakenings

83.  Dead Poets Society

84.  The Sixth Sense

85.  National Lampoon’s Vacation

86.  Ghostbusters

87.  Monty Python’s Meaning of Life

88.  What Dreams May Come

89.  Hunt For Red October

90.  Glory

91.  Top Gun

92.  Interview with a Vampire

93.  Seven

94.  Limitless

95.  Major League

96.  The Aviator

97.  Police Academy

98.  Glengarry Glen Ross

99.  Bella

100.                      Any Given Sunday

Well, that is the list that I have now. It will certainly change as I put more thought to it and, in fact, it has changed several times from when I started writing this post until now. While I may have cut them or have yet to think of them, what movies are missing from this list? What are some of your favorites and/or the ones you can’t help but watch whenever you see come across it when channel surfing? And, of course, what movies would you eliminate from the list above? Make your own list and maybe do the same thing in your office. Who knows, you may have a movie or two in common as I found out with a few of my colleagues.

Office Meetings And Decisions

Every once in a while we have a client come to our office to meet with the team that works on their account. More often than not, we travel to the client’s office but today we welcomed them to our little space for the first time. Needless to say, my day was dominated by the meeting and other internal sessions before his arrival.

While I have worked with many clients that I honestly dreaded whenever they were in the area and would hope that they would either somehow forget where our office was or not have the time to stop by, today was the complete opposite of that scenario. I thoroughly enjoy working for this client and we always have a great conversation whenever we are either on the phone or happen to meet face to face. That simple fact makes it very easy to work hard for the company.

Of course, when such a relationship is in place there are always conversations, brief as they may be, that have nothing to do with the company or work in general. It is those interesting times when we catch up about family, vacations, and even the random discussion that have previously popped up earlier in the day like your top ten movies that everyone should watch (he definitely got some bonus points for thinking of Hot Fuzz and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and putting them on his list). All in good fun and even better since we all share a similarly dry sense of humor.

So, while I usually detest meetings that dominate my day, this one I didn’t mind at all and the meeting moved along rather quickly. In fact, time was moving so fast that I nearly forgot that I had an appointment early in the evening to check and see if the baby is still normal (surprisingly, more so than its parents still). So, while I hauled bottom to make the appointment on time, the rest of them headed north for a nice long night. Those are the best kinds of meetings when everyone is happy/content and the work day is done and I wish I had the time to go but family comes first and I am not going to start missing my child’s events this early in their life.

While I am sure there will be times now and again when I will miss something I will do my best to avoid those instances. I don’t need Harry Chapin rising from the grave saying “I told you so!”. I guess I have already started to change… even if it’s just a little bit… and preparing for the inevitable. With that said, don’t expect everything to change!

Sometimes The Second Choice Is Better Than The First

I forget what I was watching last night but I had the thought that we all get sometimes when watching a television show or movie and that is what if someone else were to be cast in that role? I am not talking about the characters being replaced on a show like Charlie Sheen taking over for Michael J. Fox or Joe Mantegna replacing Mandy Patinkin. I am thinking more about the iconic roles. It is something to think about.

First let’s start off with a couple of warm up ‘nearly cast’ moments:

• Sean Connery was originally offered the role of Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy but declined.

 

• Bette Midler turned down the role of Annie Wilkes in the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novel ‘Misery’. Kathy Bates would ultimately win an Oscar for the role. I guess it was too large a leap from Beaches to Misery.

    

• Another notable decline was when Will Smith was offered the role of Neo but turned it down. I guess he picked the wrong pill.  

Some movies would have been completely different:

• When casting the movie The Godfather, studio executives wanted to cast a well know actor in the role of Michael Corleone. Specifically, they wanted someone like Warren Beatty or Jack Nicholson to fill the role. It is for this reason that director Francis Ford Coppola nearly got fired for his choice of Al Pacino who was an unknown commodity at the time.

 

• Mickey Rourke won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Randy the Ram in 2008's The Wrestler. He can thank Nicholas Cage for ultimately deciding that he wouldn't be able to get into the right shape by the time filming was to start. Cage actually initially accepted the role and even began research by attending wrestling events.

 

• Back to the Future would have been a completely different cinematic experience had the role of Marty McFly not been completely reshot when Michael J. Fox became available. While Fox was the original choice for the role, a scheduling conflict (he was starring in the television show ‘Familiy Ties’ at the time) originally prevented him from playing the iconic role. The producers turned to Eric Stoltz and his method acting ways to fill the role but ultimately decided after 5-6 weeks of filming that he was not the right person for the job and persuaded Fox to come aboard. The movie was reshot and the rest is history.

 

• The movie Ghostbusters has a number of re-casted parts. If John Belushi had not passed away, he would have played Dr. Peter Venkman as the part was ultimately written for him. The roles of Winston Zeddmore and Louis Tully were also written for specific actors namely Eddie Murphy and John Candy. It would have been quite the interesting movie if those three actors filled the screen.

 

• After an impressive audition, Kurt Russell nearly got the part of Han Solo. Nick Nolte and Christopher Walken also auditioned for Han Solo, Cindy Williams and Jodie Foster were considered for Princess Leia, and Robby Benson screen tested and nearly got the part of Luke Skywalker.

 

• While many actors have played the role of Batman, there is an even longer list of those who were nearly cast to play the role of the caped crusader. Before agreeing on Michael Keaton for the role, Warner Bros. wanted, at varying times Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Bill Murray and Pierce Brosnan. Frankly, they all would have been better than George Clooney and, most likely, Val Kilmer. While Tim Burton’s ultimate decision to cast Keaton was met with shock by the movie-going public it turned out, he was a perfect Bruce Wayne/Batman. On a side note, Robin Williams has been the first choice for two Batman villains (Joker, Riddler).

 

• Early in his career, Tom Selleck had a difficult career decision to make. He had two offers in front of him. One for a television show called Magnum P.I. and the other for a starring role as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. While Selleck became a television star and has had a very successful career, he had never been able to successfully cross the divide and become a box office star. For those of you scoring at home, this makes 2 come from behind victories for Harrison Ford.

 

• From two successful second chances to two missed opportunities. Molly Ringwald had a bright future ahead of her after a string of hit movies in the 80’s including “Pretty in Pink”, “Sixteen Candles”, and “The Breakfast Club” but she soon found out that it is not so easy to transition into truly adult movie roles. Of course, it didn’t help that she turned down the roles of Vivian in “Pretty Woman” and Molly in the movie “Ghost”. Things may have been quite different if she had taken on those types of career defining roles.

There are many more ‘what if’ type of casting moments but there are also the WTF kind of casting considerations that we can all be thankful they never happened the way they originally supposed to. Consider these choices:  

• John Travolta gave two roles to Tom Hanks. In 1994 Travolta chose to star in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" which meant he had to turn down the role of Forrest Gump. Of course, if Michael Madsen had accepted the role of Vincent Vega, Travolta wouldn’t have had a conflict and Hanks may have never won the Oscar. Years later, he also turned down a role in ‘The Green Mile’ which again went to Hanks. You would think that after that kind of generosity they would be bosom buddies.

 

• Mel Gibson was offered, and turned down the title role of Maximus in the 2001 Best Picture Academy Award winner “Gladiator”.

    

• O.J. Simpson was originally offered the role as The Terminator but producers later reconsidered the offer when they deemed him ‘too nice’.

Can you imagine that trifecta of feces? Those iconic movie roles could have been lost to mediocrity had the casting gone as originally planned. It just goes to show that change is sometimes good and no matter how crazy of a ‘what if’ scenario you come up with they will, most likely, not even come close to the near misses of reality.