Eye of the Tiger
I think I’ve watched enough as far as goofy documentaries and relatively new movies in the two movies I’ve rented from Blockbuster, so now it’s time to use my membership for its true purpose: watching movies I probably should have seen already. I returned Thank You for Smoking today (it was pretty funny, and I thought it interesting that in a film about the tobacco lobby they never showed anyone actually light a cigarette) and rented The Godfather and Rocky. That’s right, I’ve never seen Rocky. I think I’ve watched Rocky IV on TBS or something, or if not IV then whichever one had the Russian guy who was maybe from space, and I think I just described a Superman movie instead. Sure, I know what it’s about, and it’s basically a two-hour training montage, but still, not seeing that is just downright unamerican. The box says it was the best movie of 1976, and I’ve been burned on that before—An American in Paris was the best movie of 1952 and even recommended by some old guy wandering through the same section of the movie store a few years ago, and that movie was a piece of crap—but I don’t expect Rocky to be any good. I expect a cheesy movie about a boxer given a chance to make it big, and as long as Gene Kelly doesn’t spend twenty freaking minutes dancing through a Mary Poppins candyland fantasy at the end, I can’t think of any way this movie will disappoint.
I’m not sure what to think of The Godfather. It’s another classic, sure, but it’s supposed be a good movie as well, so I’m not sure if it has enough lowbrow appeal to be part of that moviegoing zeitgeist that would make me less of a person for not having seen it. I’m not really sure what to make of gangster movies since I’ve really never bothered to watch any. I’ve seen Once Upon a Time in America, but I’m not sure that really counts. It’s a four-hour movie by Sergio Leone, a director best known for his spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood, and I think that this probably colors my perception of gangster movies. I like westerns, and I liked Once Upon a Time in America for the ways in which related to westerns. The move from a barren frontier to an urban setting was a huge change, but it still centered around flawed heroes and cold-hearted criminals. It wasn’t as much an off-genre western as Yojimbo (the story for which Leone adapted without permission into A Fistful of Dollars), but there was a definite progression along the same theme through Leone’s last three films. Coppola hasn’t done any westerns I’m aware of, so I don’t really know what to expect. The only other gangster movie I’ve seen was a recent one, The Departed, and that was pretty good, but I don’t know how well that relates. The Departed seemed to me like just a well done action movie with some convoluted plot twists, and I would hope that the best picture of 1972 (there’s that stupid award again) would be better than that. It’s number freaking 1 on the IMdb best movie list, so I should probably see it.
Both Rocky and the The Godfather have sequels, so that opens up even more rental possibilities once I’m done with these two. I know that the Rocky sequels are ridiculous, and I’ve been told that the third Godfather movie is not so great, but whatever. That’s the beauty of renting: I can watch crap and enjoy it without the guilt of paying twenty bucks for a bad movie.
The clerk at Blockbuster asked me today if I was interested in joining the Blockbuster Rewards program, and I’m not sure what to think of that. I said no reflexively without even asking what it was. Now that I’ve looked it up, it appears to provide free rentals every now and then for repeat customers, but I can’t figure out what the advantage to Blockbuster is. Most customer loyalty cards trade customer data for discounts, but Blockbuster already has a unique ID attached to all my of rentals. Why don’t they just give the free rentals to every member, like a coupon or something? Maybe there’s some kind of extra fee like with Barnes and Noble? If there’s an extra card involved, I want no part in it. I currently have nineteen cards stuffed into the main pocket of my wallet: my driver’s license, three credit cards, a MARTA Breeze card, three insurance cards, four customer loyalty cards, my Blockbuster membership card, organ donor information (if any of y’all want my parts when I die, you can have them), the RFID keycard that gets me into the office, my Fedex account number, a card that gets me into a handful of goofy Sandy Springs events, and a card that gets me a free burrito after I eat another five. I don’t need any more cards. I already feel like I’m dealing a hand of poker when someone asks me any particular one. I guess I’ll have to ask some questions about this program, but right now I’m not too worried about losing a free rental a month if it means one less card.
I just really don’t like customer loyalty cards, though I’ve been able to justify pretty much all of those presented to me except for the Kroger Plus card. Kroger trades customer data for normal prices disguised as a discount, but other stores seem to provide genuine discounts compared to their competitors. The Barnes and Noble card costs $15 (or something) a year and provides a 10% discount, so it’s bascially a gamble that I’m going to spend $150 (or whatever) over the course of a year. That’s a pretty safe bet. I got the Performance Bike card since the discount provided with buying a bicycle was more than the cost of the card. REI membership and provides a yearly dividend, and I can pretend to care about the economics of sporting equipment by being a coöp member. The Borders Rewards card is the most confusing that I currently have. I think I signed up for the (free) program because the cashier that offered it to me looked kind of hot, but I don’t even know what it does. I get emails once in a while, and sometimes the receipt says I got a discount. Looking at the Blockbuster page, it seems like their customer loyalty program is the worst of all of these options. It costs money, and there are bizarre rules as to what you can get and when. I’m not sure if I want to be a part of that.