Agnew's Mind He's got a long journey ahead of him.

Cashback…and some other movies

    by Mike Agnew Jr.

A few days ago Amanda, a girl who follows me around and shows adoration towards me, and I figured out how to use her Netflix account on my XBox.  It's pretty sweet.  I had previously been downloading and ripping dvds to harddrives and playing them on the XBox.  Now I just scroll through, pick the movie, and it starts playing.  Sometimes it plays in HD as I discovered for all 4 seasons of LOST.

This brought up a new opportunity for movie watching not just because of the instant on demand aspect but because of the variety as well.  One of the hardest things to do is find a movie that you will enjoy and you have heard nothing about.  Well let me say first that the Instant Play List for Netflix movies is good but there is a whole lot of crap in there.  I stumbled upon Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus right off the bat.  Ironically Preston and Steve did as well because they were talking about it this morning on the radio.  However I didn't find it as enjoyable as they did.  Although it was as campy and as  cheesy as the title, it still gave me less than expected.  It was just too easy to make fun of.  After about 10 minutes I stopped laughing and moved on to another selection.  Don't fall into the internet gap of thinking this is funny.  It's not.  give me a Mystery Science Theater 3000 any day.

After some trial and error, we ended up finding a gem by the name of Cashback.

Plot: "After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild."

This movie is the first movie I have ever scene that depicts how a person feels after a big break-up.  The way your mind wanders.  They way all you want is for time to pass and for some reason it starts to slow down.  The main character, played by the guy who plays Wood in the Harry Potter movies, find himself unable to sleep.  He takes a job at a 24-hour supermarket.  His imagination and reality begin to get blurred.  It gets a little confusing as to whether you are watching a drama or a sci-fi movie for a bit but once you chalk it up to artistic story telling you will get back to enjoying the movie.  I would also like to make a note that there is a handful of nudity in this movie similar to the way it was in Titanic.  He's an artist and likes to sketch.  I suggest watching this movie.  Do it now.

Some other notables:

The Express :  Being as I hate the movies Remember the Titans and We are Marshall, I finally have a Racism/Football Movie I can stand behind.  The Express is about Ernie Davis' journey towards being the first African American Heisman Trophy Winner.  The story is solid.  Dennis Quad as Coach Ben Schwartzwalder is perfect and even gave me chills when some of his lines sounds just like my high school football coach, Dr. Algeo.  There is no silly resolution where an Aretha Franklin song brings together the team and racisim is erased in 5 minutes in the middle of the movie.  There is no key bad guy.  There is just the sport and the respect it has for talent no matter the race.  One of my favorite lines comes as the linemen are lining up.  Bad guy: "I'm gonna send you back to Africa."  Good Guy: "Too bad I'm from Philly!"  I stood up and yelled with my fist in the air in the middle of the lab.  I loved this movie.

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New in Town: Now this movie is a chick flick and stupid and campy and predictable.  But I still loved it and all because of two actors/characters in the movie.  The actors were NOT Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr.  They were Siobhan Fallon as Blanche Gunderson and J.K. Simmons as Foreman Stu Kopenhafer.  Siobhan plays a delightful Minnesotan with an amazing accent.  I guarantee after you watch this movie you will be saying Tee-ap-e-o-ka  for the rest of the day. Don't cha know.