Things Aren't Always As They Seem

I think everyone knows how much I love TiVo. Well, I also like things for free and there is HBO in my hotel. The only channel that TiVo's correctly is HBO Signature, which I think their slogan should be "Movies I guess you could watch if you were really bored." Well I got a couple of movies off there a few weeks ago because of what I thought they were-and then I watched them and things aren't always as they seem.



1. North Country is not Monster (no matter how many times you will it to be.)



I watched this movie for a full 30 minutes before I started asking questions and pressing the INFO button on my remote. Although North Country is boring as it could possibly be, it is well done and a semi-interesting story. It is, however, not about serial-killer women, which is way more interesting than a movie about women working in a mine. Seriously, although it was a decent movie, the best part was the end because it meant that I had accomplished something and I saw it through to the last boring frame.












2. Match Point is not the 'light romantic comedy' that Wimbledon may or may not be (if only I'd seen the latter)


I started this movie on Tuesday and it was just so intense that I had to wait to finish it last night. I'm still sort of reeling about it and it is the reason for my post. This movie is far from what I thought it was, a movie about love and tennis. Hells no. This movie is kind of intense and is about deceit, broken promises and getting away with murder. It was rough and although I was highly disappointed in it's lack of "romantic comedy" qualities, it was pretty decent and had I not gone into it with the totally wrong expectations it might actually have been entertaining for me (as opposed to completely confusing for the first few minutes because no one was laughing or flirting) This movie did feature Jonathan Rhys Meyers, whose acting actually confused me at some points. He so flat in his delivery, but maybe that is just how the Brits are, you know? He is somewhat handsome, but I kept wanting him to be Wentworth Miller, which is just ridiculous. The movie also featured Scarlett Johansson. I don't want to sound catty, but I just plain don't like her. I don't trust her. She's a very sexy woman (girl?) but I just don't like her all that much. (I didn't realize she was the girl from the Horse Whisperer, which I watched one morning 5 years ago and sobbed for the better part of the day for no apparent reason) Maybe it is because I think she is smug. Or maybe I'm just jealous because she's a hottie. You choose.

Customer Service Isn't Dead (Really, I Mean it)

Let me share my wonderful Tivo experience with you. As most of you know, I am currently staying on Coronado Island at the Navy Lodge on base. And yes, I was crazy enough to bring my Tivo because a) I paid for the service and b) I'm not sure that I could live without it. (Really, I might actually die if I have to watch a commericial. Try me!) Well, when I get to the Lodge, I realize that they have a private cable station, one that I can't program in to the Tivo. So I'm manually recording things, and believe me, I'm screwing it up at all possible instances. (I swear to you that Law & Order: SVU was supposed to be on Wednesday night and when I went to record it I ended up with Medium, which appeared to me to be a pretty lame show. What the hell? Editor's note: Apparently SVU is on Tuesday nights. I clearly need a machine that is smarter than me to record this stuff!) Enough about my idiocy. While I'm doing the guided setup there are instructions on whom to contact to enter a new cable station. I figured "why not?" and emailed them. They emailed me back within the day to ask me to send a copy of the station guide. I faxed this to them with a letter explaining that I was only there for three months but that I figured others might want this as well, that is, if they are psycho enough to bring their TIVO on travel with them. I get a call on my cell phone at the end of the Chargers-Patriots game and this very nice lady says "Ms Reed, this is Jennifer from Tivo. I just wanted to let you know we updated all your stations. You can just go ahead and run the setup again." I thanked her profusely and got off the phone just completely impressed. They set up a new cable station for a silly little girl who is on travel. That is just awesome.

So thank you Tivo, thank you.