Friday, August 3, 2018

Make It A Movie Night

I miss the old days.  I mean I like how you are able to access stuff much faster these days, but I've watched some YouTube videos lately and was reminded how today's kids will never know what a video store is.  Kids today may not even know Netflix used to be a DVD by mail service.  In a few years they might not even know DVD's at all.  I've gotten use to them not knowing what a VCR or a VHS tape is, but its a sign I'm getting older and while it didn't seem like much hassle back then I guess today it is much easier to watch movies.  At the tip of your fingers you can watch movies or TV shows whenever or wherever.  For example I watched "The Legend of Bagger Vance" for the first time in 10 years the other night.  Its funny, I have the DVD, but I just never watch it.  However at night I need some type of noise and saw it was on on of the Roku channels (either The Roku Channel, VUDU, or the like) for free (but with commercials) and I turned it on.  I'm not fully engaged in new technology and my Internet speed is slow.  Though it works for me for now.  I don't use a smart phone and I think its funny people will watch movies on a smart phone but think back to the 90's and shutter when you had a 13" TV in your bedroom.  TVs get larger and phones get smaller, but people are more accepting to watching shows on phones.  I guess I'm a grump and use phones for well, calling people.  I'm not big on texts either, but I will if I need to.  This is becoming a rant for some reason, and that was not my intention.

The reason I brought it up is I hit Savvy Seconds last week and also the local Dollar Tree, and found some tapes and movies I thought I'd show off today.  I finished off a huge stack of cards on my desk adding them to my secondary Trading Card Database account in my list of "Possible Trade cards" and as it stands I have over 13,000 cards counted.  I will likely keep some of the cards after all are counted and sorted, but for now its easier to just sort and count then separate later.  If I have over 50% of the set done, I might build the sets, otherwise, I'll try to find new homes for them.  So before I sort more cards I thought I would blog.  So let's check out some movies.

Let's start with Savvy Seconds, my local second hand store.  I didn't find any DVD's or really anything of interest this time, but since the book section was crowded when we entered the store, I looked at other stuff first.  So before we checked out, my mom looked at the book section and since none caught my eye, I checked out.... VHS TAPES?  Well, 10 for a buck seems like a good deal until you realize a working VCR would be helpful.  So whenever I find one, I'll have some tapes to watch.  In this instance I found 10 sports related tapes and we'll check them out now.


What is VHS tapes without some bloopers?  I'm sure these are all the recycled clips we've seen before, but I'm a little excited to see them.  This was before the days of high definition programming and the great thing about pre-2000 bloopers are not only the production values lower, but since a lot of games were more local than national, the announcers were more laid back too, so its funny to hear their reactions as well.  I'm sure if I looked on YouTube I could find these uploaded somewhere, but I haven't done that yet.


ST. LOUIS RAMS?  They don't exist anymore, this much be worth MILLIONS!  Maybe not, but still as much as I bagged on the Rams, and I was the only person in the room during the Super Bowl rooting for the Titans, I am happy they won.  I liked Kurt Warner and a few of the other guys, but at that time I just liked the Titans more.

The Packers one I got mainly because my mom is a huge Packers fan.  I'm not sure how it started, but its always been her favorite team.  The funny thing is though she never liked Brett Favre or even Aaron Rodgers that much.  Though she did miss him after he got hurt last year and the Packers sucked afterwards.  I would like to see this tape though.  I like a lot of the recap tapes the leagues made each year because they were still pretty fresh and told the story of the team not through hindsight like we might tend to do these days.  Now if I could find some Chiefs ones and one from the Buccaneers the year they won the Super Bowl.  I have that Super Bowl on VHS though with some pre and post show stuff and even some HSN post Super Bowl selling Championship hats and shirts.


A NFL tape with music from Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp, Robert Palmer, and other rockers?  Sure, why not.  As I gather its pretty much I guess music montages with NFL plays, but I was starting to get tired of staring at the VHS tapes and ready to go.  I found this one after I found the 9th or 10th copy of My Best Friend's Wedding and I really just wanted to get out of there.


This one I set aside almost as soon as I saw it.  While today I'm not as big on the concept of pro athletes competing in the Olympics, the Dream Team was so iconic and seeing the cover of this tape brought back memories.  I'm sure its on Youtube, its just a matter of finding it.


Speaking of Youtube, I did do a random search and found the Shaq one on there, and I think found the NBA Superstars as well, but didn't watch them.  In the early 90's I could probably name at least 2 players on every NBA team.  If asked today I could name maybe 15 guys in the entire league.  It's a different game than it was back then and I haven't adapted to it.  I'm not saying its better or worse, it just doesn't appeal to me as much as it did back then.  I'm sure if I had a more localized team that would help too, but I don't really care for the Thunder or Grizzlies that much.  I wasn't too big on the Bulls in the 90's but we had WGN so I got to see pretty much all their games.  I don't even know if my local Fox Sports Net channel shows NBA anymore.  For a while they showed Pacers games, but its been a while since I've seen any.  If asked to name a favorite team, I'd probably say either the Knicks or the Timberwolves.  I wasn't as dedicated to NBA teams as I was to other sports (aside from hockey who I don't think I ever found a team I rooted for more then a few months).


This tape was the main reason I decided to buy these tapes.  While I'll never be a Cardinals fan, I remember as a kid watching a lot of their games on TV.  The Columbia, Missouri market was all Cardinals and during the summer I would get to see their games (remember when teams played weekday DAY games on a regular basis, those were the days).  I somewhat remember the Cardinals celebrating 1992 as their 100th year, and I remember that logo on a few baseball cards.  That logo was what really made me get this tape.  I can't wait to see this one.  I might have to see if any of my VCR's work so I can check these out.

When I got to the checkout I noticed the sign for tapes actually said 5 for .50 or 10 for 1.00.  So I could have passed on half of these, but I don't regret it.  Next time I go back I might look again for more, as I skipped an entire rack of tapes and probably another 200 or some movies to check out.  Since they moved the DVD's away from the area it gives me something to look at.  As for their DVD selection, its not very good and it took about 8 seconds to see I didn't need anything.

After we left we made a trip to the local Dollar Tree.  It's been a while since I've been in there and really just went because we just wanted to get out of the house for a bit, so we looked.  When we opened the doors I spotted the front area had some DVD's.  You set your expectations pretty low when you find movies at Dollar Tree, but sometimes you get lucky.  Today I think I did good.


When I saw this DVD I grabbed it because I thought my friend needed a copy.  Turns out he didn't so now I have a backup in case my first one is scratched.  This movie I usually watch once a year around Halloween.  It's I guess labeled as a "Christian Thriller" as Frank Peretti is a Christian fiction writer, but I like it because while its not real scary it has a few good moments.  I thought the casting was pretty good as well as it had David Keith and Leighton Meester, and for a buck its worth checking out.

That was the only DVD I got, but on rare occasions they also have Blu-Ray movies.  I don't have a lot of Blu-Ray movies as it wasn't until last year when I got a Blu-Ray player, but I wouldn't mind building my collection up, and for a buck I think that's an easy risk.


I was really excited when I saw this for a buck.  I saw this on Netflix I guess a year or so after it was released and liked it.  It wasn't a movie I guess I needed in my collection, at least I didn't think, but for a buck I couldn't pass it up.  I don't think the quality would be much better than a DVD copy, but my Blu-Ray collection currently 90% Disney movies, so I'm happy to get something different.


I heard about this movie but didn't have a lot of interest in seeing it.  However when I saw it for a buck I thought about it.  I mean I could rent it from a streaming app for 99 cents up to 4 bucks, or get it at Redbox for whatever it costs now, what 2 bucks, or I could just buy it for a buck and if I don't like it, never have to watch it again.  What made me get it though was the fact it was not only Blu-Ray, but a DVD copy, AND a digital copy.  While I mentioned at the start how I miss going to the movie store and get movies, I do like how when you buy movies now some come with digital copies.  Not only does it save wear and tear on the discs, but if you travel you don't need to bring all your movies with you.  So basically 3 copies of this movie for a buck, I couldn't pass it up.  In fact if the digital copy worked (sometimes its buyer beware, but 95% of the time they've worked, even if they were expired already), I could use that, then resell the DVD or Blu-Ray and make my money back.  I was pretty happy.

When I got home I was even more happy.


I opened the case and out fell a mini notepad and some thumbtack stickers.  I guess the movie is about a roadtrip, and the idea is to use these thumbtack stickers to stick on a map places you've been and places you want to go.  While I really like that, my first thought was "Do people (besides me) use maps anymore?"  Most people use GPS and Google Maps, I hardly see anyone, at least anyone younger than me using actual maps anymore.  I love Google Maps, and even used Mapquest, but I still miss maps.... I'm a nerd.  Oh well.

Overall though, 3 copies of a movie, a notepad, and stickers for a buck was maybe the best deal I got in a while.

So I got one final movie and if I decide to watch a movie tonight this might be it.


Even without the Digital copy I would have bought this.  Even if it was DVD I would have bought this.  There have been 5 Marine movies and a 6th one in the works, and the fourth one it the only one I haven't seen.  If I were to rank them in order of favorite (minus this one), it would go 1,3,2,5.  The original was so cheesy that I liked it.  The third one was the first one with The Miz and he turned the franchise around.  The second one had Ted DiBiase Jr. in it and while I liked it more at the time then the first one, it isn't as memorable.  The fifth one I just watched last month and it was real hit and miss.  I liked The Miz and Bo Dallas in it, but wish Curtis Axel had more lines in it.  At any rate after seeing the fifth one, I don't have high expectations for this one, but again, I'd pay a buck to see it, so why not just buy it?  The digital copy expired a few months ago, but it let me use it so tonight it looks like I'll have an AWESOME night.  I have been a Miz fan forever.  By the time he entered the WWE I was already a fan.  I was a fan when he ran around the Real World house doing The Rock impressions with a fake belt he had.  While I don't watch as much wrestling these days, I still keep up on the product.  I was happy to hear he got a reality show and even happier its on USA Network (one of the few channels I do get with this crappy cable).  The show is called Miz and Mrs. and it follows around The Miz and his wife Maryse a current/former WWE Women's wrestler.  It was filmed before she gave birth to their first child a few months back.  The first two episodes I've seen so far have been funny and I didn't really think he knew that many celebrities but I guess he does.  This latest episode I saw had wrestlers like John Morrison on but also celebs like Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding) and Avril Lavigne and James Roday.  I don't know how many episodes it lasts, but I'll try to watch them if I remember.

So with that I'll wrap things up.  I think I got a pretty good selection of movies and some great deals.  So if you wonder why I'm not blogging as much, its because I'm still sorting cards and I'm likely watching movies or TV.  Me TV shows WKRP in Cincinnati every night and they've just started showing the first episodes again so I try to tune it.  Anyways, thanks for reading everyone and while the buzz in the card world is on The National, I've liked seeing the tweets from the show.  It seems funny though the biggest complaint right now is wi fi on the floor.  It wouldn't do me any good, but I get some of the complaints about pulling up checklists.  Even though I'd likely watch, I can live without 6000 people livestreaming the event.  Hope all that went have fun, and if you didn't go, maybe you'll find some good deals on COMC as they are having a sale this week.  Have a great week everyone.

No comments:

Post a Comment