Warning!

My daughter gave us a subscription to Netflix for Christmas 2006.  We like this service since it gives us great lead way on how long we can keep a movie.  It seems that we don't necessarily get the most "bang for our buck" though since for some reason it is difficult to find the time to watch a movie in this house.  However, we usually try to settle down on a weekend evening and pop one into the DVD player.

But getting back to my warning...

I live in a male dominant household with a retired (career Marine) 82-year-old father and an "I miss the good old days" 59-year-old.  (These are the best descriptions I can come up with to hopefully convey my point for their "logic").  Both are very good men, but hmmmm....how should I put it...let's say quirky and neither has a problem strongly expressing their opinions for my benefit.  (In public, they almost always come off as docile and mellow, but I am here to tell you...). 

Since Netflix is an online service, I am the designated keeper of the queue.  I almost always order based on testosterone, but this time, I made a fatal error.  One of the movies I picked was Atonement.  Hey the previews looked safe, there were some WWII scenes!  Well, according to the numerous complaints comments throughout the movie, just enough so you could neither hear nor stay focused on the story line, Atonement was a bust. 

Forget the fact that Atonement is a highly acclaimed film that dominated award nominations.  Atonement is a chick flick, this according to our two thumbs up/down team of household critics, Sarge and Fonzie!

Between dishing up servings of peach pie ala mode and small talk conversations, there did finally come a point in the film for some quiet time.  Of course, it was during the war scenes, specifically the evacuation of Dunkirk!  And the ending, a powerful scene by Vanessa Redgrave, even yielded some silence, hence the ability to focus on the remaining story and attempt to put the pieces (I missed) together. 

After the movie was over and I was removing the disc from the DVD player, Fonzie made the comment, "it (the movie) got better towards the end."  Could it be because you only paid attention to the end?  But the comment that beats all came from my Dad aka Sarge after I commented it was a good movie.  He said and I quote, "I wouldn't know, I missed 90% of it!"

The Wild Bunch is now at the top of our queue!

Post Script:  I was just interrupted by my Dad as I was finishing this.  He has some mail that needs to go out.  I told him to put it on top of the movies that I am sending back today.  His comment, "Boy, I really enjoyed that movie we watched last night."

Note to Self:  Pops enjoys the company of others and peach pie ala mode.  We'll definitely need to schedule more time like this.