dr_kromm | Last day of the ol' vacation

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Last day of the ol' vacation

And so I come to the final day of my vacation. Over the last few days I've finished the remaining items on my list:

Revise and print new character sheets for my GURPS campaign (takes all day owing to the sheer amount of info!).
Spend the last of the Christmas money on DVDs (got 17 at an average price of $8.36 apiece after tax).
Write the recap for our December 30 gaming session.

And I managed to avoid work . . . well, aside from a dozen "absolutely, positively must be done right now" e-mails. My plans for the remaining few hours are to watch some of those DVDs and play a last late-night game of Left 4 Dead.

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Heh. I got a generous check from my parents, and my fingers are all a-quiver to rampage through the Blu-Ray section of Amazon. My wife is offering some gentle restraint, but not much.

I look forward to your return, as I have a couple of questions to ask about the current project. Though I'll probably hold off for a day or so, to let you wade through the backlog first; they're not so desperately urgent as all that.

I haven't spent the Christmas money. I'm thinking about practical stuff, though: some new cookware and maybe a shredder.

$8.36? What did you get? The Tango & Cash Editor's Cut? Kickboxer 5? Cobra? Bah! Not worth watching. So get back to work you lazy bastard!

Oh wait, it's been mostly my emails you've been answering...er...get back to vacation you hard-working bastard!

I got a few crappy action movies, balanced by several okay movies that were discounted for no longer being the latest, greatest thing. I've put them on the shelf, so I can't list specifics without trusting my faulty memory. To give you an idea, though, here's the collection so far. Many of these are dreadful movies acquired on the "$1 clearance bin" or "my friend was about to toss it in the trash" basis!

Part 1

Abyss, The
Airplane
Alien
Alien vs. Predator
Aliens
Amélie
American Beauty
Analyze This
Angel Heart
Apocalypse Now
Apt Pupil
Arlington Road
Armageddon
Army of Darkness
Astronaut’s Wife, The
Audition
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Aviator, The
Batman
Batman
Batman Begins
Batman Returns
Beetlejuice
Ben-Hur
Beowulf & Grendel
Best in Show
Beverly Hills Cop
Big Lebowski, The
Big Trouble in Little China
Black Hawk Down
Blade
Blade Runner
Blood Diamond
Blood of Heroes, The
Blood Work
Bloodsport
Blown Away
Body, The
Bon Cop Bad Cop
Bounty, The
Braveheart
Bridge Too Far, A
Bubba Ho-Tep
Buckaroo Banzai
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bulletproof Monk
Caddyshack
Casino Royale
Cast Away
Catch Me If You Can
Cemetery Man
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Children of Men
City Hall
Clear and Present Danger
Clockwork Orange, A
Code 46
Collateral
Coming to America
Commando
Conan the Barbarian
Conspiracy Theory
Constantine
Control
Count of Monte Cristo, The
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dante’s Peak
Dark City
Das Boot
Dawn of the Dead (Romero)
Dawn of the Dead (Snyder)
Day After Tomorrow, The
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium
Daybreak
Dead Alive
Dead Zone, The
Death Wish
Demolition Man
Desperado
Devil’s Advocate
Diary of the Dead
Die Another Day
Die Hard
Die Hard 2
District 13
Dog Day Afternoon
Dogma
Doom
Double Jeopardy
Dr. No
Dr. Strangelove
Dune
Edward Scissorhands
El Mariachi
Enemy at the Gates
Enemy of the State (Extended Edition)
Entrapment
Eraser
Escape From LA
Escape From New York
Ever After
Evil Dead
Evil Dead II
eXistenZ
Fallen
Falling Down
Fargo
Fearless
Fifth Element, The
Fight Club
First Blood
Fish Called Wanda, A
Flags of Our Fathers
Flight of the Phoenix, The
For a Few Dollars More
Frankenstein (Branagh)
Frantic
From Dusk Till Dawn
From Hell
Full Metal Jacket
Full Monty, The
G.I. Jane
Galaxy Quest
Get Shorty
Ghost and the Darkness, The
Ginger Snaps
Gladiator
Goldfinger
Good German, The
Good Shepherd, The
Gothika
Heat
Hellboy
Highway 61
History of Violence, A
Host, The
Hot Fuzz
House of Sand and Fog
Hudson Hawk
Hudsucker Proxy, The
Hunt for Red October, The
I, Robot
Independence Day
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Inside Man
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The
Jacket, The
Jarhead
K-19
Kalifornia
Kelly’s Heroes/The Dirty Dozen (Double Feature)
Kill Bill, Volume 1
Kill Bill, Volume 2
King Kong (Jackson)
Kingdom of Heaven
Labyrinth
Lady in the Water
Ladyhawke
Lake Placid
Land of the Dead
Last Action Hero
Last King of Scotland, The
Last Man Standing
Last of the Mohicans, The
Layer Cake
Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon 2
Letters from Iwo Jima
Libertine, The
Life Aquatic, The (Criterion)
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Special Extended Edition)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Special Extended Edition)
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Special Extended Edition)
Lord of War
Lucky Number Slevin
Mad Max
Mad Max – Beyond the Thunderdome
Man in the Iron Mask, The
Man on Fire
Mars Attacks
Mask of Zorro, The
Master and Commander
Matrix, The
Meaning of Life, The
Messenger, The
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Miller’s Crossing
Monty Python’s 16 Ton Megaset
Moulin Rouge
Mouse that Roared, The
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Mystic River

Edited 2009-01-05 03:42 (UTC)

Part 2

Name of the Rose, The
Natural Born Killers
Never Say Never Again
Night of the Living Dead
Nightmare Before Christmas, The
Ninth Gate, The
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Ocean’s Eleven (Soderbergh)
Office Space
Once Upon a Time in the West
One Hour Photo
Ong-Bak
Others, The
Outbreak
Outland
Pan’s Labyrinth
Panic Room
Party, The
Patriot Games
Patton
Pelican Brief, The
Perfect Storm, The
Perfume
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Planet of the Apes (Burton)
Platoon
Player, The
Poltergeist
Practical Magic
Predator
Prince of Darkness
Princess Bride, The
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Prizzi’s Honor
Professional, The
Pulp Fiction
Raising Arizona
Rapid Fire
Raw Deal
Red Violin
Repo Man
Reservoir Dogs
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Extinction
Return of the Living Dead
Riddick Trilogy: Pitch Black
Riddick Trilogy: Dark Fury
Riddick Trilogy: The Chronicles of Riddick
Risky Business
Robocop
Romeo Must Die
Ronin
Run Lola Run
Scanners
Secret Window
Seraphim Falls
Sergio Leone Anthology, The
Serpico
Seven
Sexy Beast
Shaun of the Dead
Shining, The
Shoot ‘Em Up
Showdown in Little Tokyo
Sid & Nancy
Silence of the Lambs, The
Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Snakes on a Plane
Snatch
Solaris
Soldier
Speed
Star Wars Boxed Set: A New Hope
Star Wars Boxed Set: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Boxed Set: Return of the Jedi
Stigmata
Strange Days
Suicide Kings
Suspect Zero
Syriana
Tango & Cash
Tank Girl
Terminator, The
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Thelma and Louise
Thin Red Line, The
This Is Spinal Tap
Thomas Crown Affair, The
Three Kings
Throw Momma from the Train
To Die For
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
Tombstone
Tomorrow Never Dies
Total Recall
Trading Places
Traffic
Training Day
Transporter, The
True Lies
True Romance
Twister
Under Siege
Underworld
Unforgiven
Unknown
Unleashed
Untouchables, The
Usual Suspects, The
V for Vendetta
Videodrome
Virtuosity
Volcano
Wanted
War of the Worlds
Warriors, The
Witches of Eastwick, The
X-Men
X2
X-Men: The Last Stand
Yellowbeard
You Kill Me
6th Day, The
12 Monkeys
13th Warrior, The
16 Blocks
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
2001: A Space Odyssey

You've got a lot more than we do, and our list would include more television series: Alias, Angel, Buffy, and Veronica Mars I'm sure of without looking (not all the seasons of anything but Buffy). But there's some overlap, including specialized items such as Ginger Snaps and Run Lola Run. Our latest additions, at a supermarket 3-for-2 sale, were The Iron Giant, Mirrormask, and My Super Ex-Girl Friend.

We're kind of in a strange transition: we expect to replace our DVD player with a Blu-Ray when it dies, or within a year or so, and that opens up the prospect of buying some things on Blu-Ray; our current collection is mostly DVD; but we have a dozen or so good things on videotape that we can no longer watch because our new TV won't take analog input.

Ginger Snaps is a fave, and so is Run Lola Run. Really, most of those movies are nasty action and adventure films, more for inspiration (for action and adventure RPGs) than anything else. The favorites are a much shorter list that mostly doesn't include the aforementioned. Amélie, for instance.

Two of my favorites that you don't have, but that fall somewhere into the "action and adventure" range, are "Streets of Fire" and "Tremors." Both have a streak of humor: broad satire in "Tremors," but more irony in "Streets of Fire," as when the heroine starts off performing the song "Going Nowhere Fast" about the joy of nihilism and then is rudely interrupted by the intrusion of a band of actual nihilists.

Ah, streets of fire. Willem deFoe being a really excellent bad guy, as usual.

Other than in Platoon, has he EVER played a good guy?

Uh, Dafoe was Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ; call Jesus a villain at your peril. His character in The Life Aquatic, Klaus, was downright likeable. He was a perfectly good cop in Inside Man, and a weird-but-just cop in The Boondock Saints (must get that!). And his portrayal of Clark in Clear and Present Danger was, if anything, less villainous than the character in the novel (who is technically one of the white hats anyway). To be honest, I'd say that if Dafoe is typecast as anything, it's as "weird" . . . not unlike Johnny Depp.

D'oh! If I say "I forgot about Jesus," I guess I'm a sinner. Or more of one than I am by definition (esp as an RPGer...)

Good point. I guess that Dafoe is such a compelling bad guy that I most strongly remember those roles. I never did see Last Temptation, although I do remember my friends talking about some people protesting the protesters wearing lion suits carrying signs reading "Christians: breakfast of Champions."

I remember thinking Dafoe was an odd choice for Clark at the time. Now, older, I think that his characterization was probably OK, but some of the wardrobing was very odd at the time (blue jeans in a combat zone, IIRC?)

I do want Tremors . . . I just have to find a copy for a sensible price. I get action, disaster, and monster movies only from the bargain bin; I save full-price for specialty films that I'll never see in the bin.

I barely remember Streets of Fire!

You got Yellowbeard on DVD? Where?

Right here.

Besmirch not Kromm's taste in movies! His love of bad action flicks gave us Action 1 & 2, so far my favorite additions to my GURPS collection.

People are free to razz me about the likes of Bloodsport, Commando, Eraser, Rapid Fire, Raw Deal, Showdown in Little Tokyo, and Tango & Cash, though. These are B-grade even among action movies. They're just not C-grade, like Kickboxer 5. I'll still get Silent Trigger when I see it, though. ;)

Just don't mess with my cult films. Anybody who takes a poke at Big Trouble in Little China, Buckaroo Banzai, or Repo Man is asking for it.

Ditto my Canadiana. Ginger Snaps and Highway 61 rule. My biggest regret there is not yet owning Exotica, Kissed, and Roadkill.

Mmmm. Bloodsport. I recently shared an embarrassing recollection with my instructor, about how Bloodsport was "so realistic" when I was in high school. Then I actually trained a bit, came back to watch the movie...well.

Made me happy that he admitted he'd thought the same thing. J-C vD is quite graceful, but in a ballet kind of way, not Chuck or even Bourne...

What I actually like about Bloodsport is the character acting. Everybody reminds me of PCs in an RPG, especially the Donald Gibb character.

And can be reflected with proper use of Styles in MA4a

We've got something like 200 movies as well, but one day I aspire to have 331 or more like you. Won't list them, tho. Right now I'm all about the just shy of 20 Blu-Ray titles I've got. Fuzzy's declared that she'd rather watch a movie at home than in the theater.

I can't believe you counted! I never have. I just have a big list for friends to look at when they borrow DVDs. Geez, 300+? Maybe I should lay off the $4 sales.

Well, "counting" is a matter of popping both lists into Excel, so it was sixty seconds at best. :-)

It is a bit eye opening when one realizes that a media collection may be worth more than one's car. :-)

Based on our past buying habits, the $8.36 apiece figure is probably close to the real mean. So the DVDs represent 331 × $8.36 = $2,767.16. Hm, that's a little high; perhaps it's closer to $2,500 (Canadian . . . over that period, $2,000-$2,100 U.S.), spent over about 10 years. That wouldn't buy much of a car here! On the other hand, we don't own a car; where we live, parking it would be a neat trick and we'd drive it about four times a year.

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Last day of the ol' vacation

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