Quality vs. Quantity

I sporadically watch a lot of movies. Sometimes I skip a week or two, but sometimes I average one a day. I accomplish this through my Blockbuster subscriptions which affords me 3 movies at a time and allows me to exchange my mailed movies in the store for new movies. Since I pay a flat monthly fee, I'm compelled to maximize the return on my investment. I'd say it's rarely less than 10 in a month.

Sadly, there just aren't that many great movies these days, or if there are, I'm not looking in the right places. When you take all the big name releases and eliminate all of the sappy romance movies, tearjerkers, Larry the Cable Guy movies, movies with musicians-turned-actors, and movies starring Martin Lawrence, I've probably seen most of the rest.

So I watch B movies, movies that might be good, but that I would never pay $7 to watch in the theater. Usually they are about as good (or bad) as I expect. But occasionally, I am pleasantly surprised.

This month's movie pick: Shoot 'Em Up. I passed this movie on the shelves several times. The wife actually picked this one out. I can see why this movie was relatively undetected, but I think it's great. It stars Clive Owen of Sin City fame, and Paul Giamatti, who has always been one of my favorite actors. This gritty, fast-paced, action-packed movie has the perfect balance of relentless shooting, crazy action sequences, and dry, witty humor. It's not at all a family movie, but it was just fun to watch. This movie even breaks the "90-minute rule" by 4 minutes, but it's still great.

So throw this one on your Blockbuster or Net Flix list. And if you don't have a Net Flix of Blockbuster subscription, then this probably doesn't apply to you. I don't think this movie made it onto VHS! :-)