Apr 19 2009
Crack is whack.
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is a funny film. At least I think it is. I only managed to get about 45 minutes into it before my Blu-ray player sounded like it was grinding corn for the day’s tortillas.
Lo and behold, upon inspecting the disc, a crack near the edge. So I used the handy “Report a Problem” link on the Netflix site, and they’re sending me out a new one tomorrow. End of story, right?
Well, it would be, except that this happened to me two weeks ago with a copy of “Hancock.” The replacement Netflix sent out worked fine, so I managed to finish watching that one. (It was about half of really good movie, but that’s a story for a different blog post.) I didn’t think anything of it at the time — but now that it’s happened to me twice, I had to use the Google to find out if something is amiss.
Sure enough, there are plenty of annecdotes about cracked Blu-rays from Netflix. When pressed, Netflix apparently blames the Post Office for mishandling the discs. The Post Office apparently blames Netflix for using crappy paper envelopes for shipping the discs. They’re probably both right. All I know is that it’s enough of an inconvenience that the missus thinks I should drop Blu-rays and only order regular DVDs from Netflix. Cooler heads prevailed, but Netflix should take note: Since you’re charging extra for these things, you should probably find a way to have them delivered properly.
Edit (04/21/09): Replacement copy of “Forgetting Sarah Marshal,” also cracked.
Edit (04/24/09): Replacement of replacement copy of “Forgetting Sarah Marshal,” also cracked. Netflix customer service gave me a Post Office number and basically told me to bitch to them.
Edit (04/28/09): Replacement of replacement copy of replacement copy of “Forgetting Sarah Marshal,” also cracked. I’ve switched to DVD-only. If anyone knows how to contact Netflix executives to express displeasure, please let me know.
Edit (04/29/09): I thought I was going to get a DVD, but my Blu-ray subscription runs through the end of the month. So they sent me another cracked Blu-ray.
Edit (05/02/09): Another day, another cracked copy of “Forgetting Sarah Marshal.” This time, I didn’t ask for a replacement.
I know that we have significantly different standards, but I liked Hancock all the way through.
Superhero stories don’t have to live up to some vast emotional arc– they just have to tell an entertaining, escapist story.
To me, that was an almost fatal flaw in the last Batman movie. Too dark, too serious, and too topical. But to each his own…
Don’t get me wrong — I dug the darkness that was Hancock’s existence… what bugged me ultimately about the film was that there was too much about the plot that didn’t make any sense.
These beings were placed on Earth to protect humans, but they’re divinely fated to pair up and become human — thereby becoming useless when it comes to protecting humans. Only two left by 2008? Damn, that wasn’t much of a plan.
My biggest gripe was the prison breakout of the guy who wanted to kill Hancock. At the time he broke out, Hancock hadn’t yet figured out that he was losing his powers, so the public at large certainly had no idea. What exactly did the convict think he was going to do? No Mensa candidate there.
That’s why I thought it was half of a good movie. A little more thinking and it could have been a really great film. I hope they spend more time plotting the sequel.
The actor playing the villain was so obviously channeling early 90’s Gary Oldman, that I never expected him to behave rationally.
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