Movie: The Bank Job, & Netflix Upgrades

The Bank Job
Yesterday Netflix saw fit to grace us with a couple of movies. One we decided to pop in for the night was solely The Girl’s decision to watch. It’s supposedly “based on a true story,” revolving around a 1971 bank heist in London that was never solved. How true the movie itself is however, is not quite clear. But I’ve heard it said that it’s true like the Titanic is true: yeppers, there was a big ship that sunk in the ocean. Well with that out of the way, how was the movie on its other merits?

Surprisingly, I think I liked it more than The Little Woman did (she normally picks out some big-time losers. “Let’s watch The Animal!” Dear god). It was a pretty watchable movie I must say, though not without its own folley. Some of the stuff you watch just seems so ridiculous, as in “there’s no way that happens” or “wow how convenient for them…”

The basic idea is that the crooks were sort of guided to the mission by MI5 agents, because there’s something in a certain safe deposit box that they want buried instead of held against the Royal Family. Namely, revealing photographs of Princess Margaret (Who, by the way, has an awesome rack).

But again, I stress that this movie is probably true like Titanic is true, so don’t get too carried away looking for truth in the details. Yes there’s rookie mistakes that make you cringe, but those rookie mistakes were actually real: their radio conversations were recorded (why didn’t they bother to cover themselves better? Duh!), and in the context of the movie – that these guys weren’t professional bank robbers – it makes sense. So you can give it a little leeway and not feel stupid in doing so.

It’s not surprisingly awesome though, just surprisingly watchable. You could definitely do better (Ocean’s 11, anyone?), but it’s also definitely possible to do worse. It’s worthwhile entertainment that doesn’t get added to the library, is what I’m saying. It’s a B-. Rotten tomatoes this time almost agrees with me to the letter.



Considering more Netflix goodness
We’re currently on the Two Movies At Once plan, which means that we have two in our possession at most at any given time. This seems to work out OK most of the time, except if we have 3 days of movie time and especially if there’s a Weekend in between.

Because, if we watch one on Monday, send it in on Tuesday, we don’t get that refilled until at least Thursday. Which means that we only have one movie to watch from Tuesday to Thursday. Now, this works so long as we watch a movie between Sunday and Tuesday; as soon as we pop one in on a Wednesday, things get a little tight. We watch one on Thursday night, it gets sent in on Friday, they receive it on Saturday… We’re not receiving it until Monday or Tuesday. Almost a week later.

Which, truth be told, is probably fine for the most part. I mean, on a typical workweek, that’s probably fine. It’s just that on a nonstandard workweek, it could really suck. Like, for instance, if I was on vacation. We get by during the slow times with a rental from the local video store, but at almost $5 a pop, how often do you do that before the additional cost of Three Movies At Once starts making fiscal sense?


The answer is once. The difference between 2 and 3 movies is a whopping $3.