Monthly Archives: September 2008

Geek Squad Policy?

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Though I was told again today (by the Geek Squad) that somehow my hard-drive became their property, and that their policy is to never return it, in fact they have a written policy that says quite the opposite:

We also work hard to immediately fix problems that put our
customers at risk. For example, in calendar 2006, we learned
that the hard drives of several customers’ computers were not
destroyed, as promised, but instead resold. These hard drives
contained sensitive information belonging to their original owners.
We jeopardized the trust of those customers – something we
regret. However, the incidents led to a comprehensive audit of
how we handle customer computers and hard drives. Today,
whenever possible, we return upgraded or replaced storage
devices – like computers and hard drives – directly to our
customers, giving them the maximum amount of control over
their personal data.

This is from the Best Buy Co., Inc. – 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility Report 

Quoted in the Post

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Today’s Washington Post quotes me, as follows:

the $700 billion price tag “doesn’t seem comprehensible to me. Theoretically, most of it should be paid back, right?”

Now, I did say that. I even gave the writer (who is an attractive woman, BTW) permission to use the quote, by itself. I don’t have a problem with it, don’t feel I was mis-quoted or mis-represented. But I was curious about the nature of the story.

The reporter wanted to write a story about the “feelings” of the person on the street. When she first asked me, I explained I didn’t really have feelings. I had some thoughts. I gave her a lot of my thoughts. She noted that I seemed pretty well informed, implying I probably did have feelings. My quote was my way of saying that, because the number was so inconceivable, there was no point in processing it on an emotional level. In the article, it was just another feeling.

I liked the article, but I just think it’s interesting. Newspapers assign stories according to well-known structures. When they go out to find the quotes to fill in the structure, they find what fits.

Eagle Eye Expectations

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How come expectations are such an integral part of how we enjoy movies? Not just good or bad, but also type, genre, tone. We know who’s in the movie, we think we know the genre, maybe we know the story. Maybe we’ve scene trailers and think we’ve got it pretty much down. Eagle Eye looked like it would be dumb. The plot looked stupid, and the characters seemed questionable. Mostly, it was pretty dumb. But because we weren’t expecting anything good, we enjoyed it. It stayed very close to expectations, often by stealing from other, better movies.

Meanwhile movies that really are good got trashed by some critics because they weren’t what critics expected. Hancock fell to this critical inflexibility earlier this summer, while Burn After Reading took a lot of flack for it more recently. You could blame to publicity people who put together the trailers. In both cases, the trailer weavers went for pure, light-hearted slapstick. Neither movie falls into that role. Both hit a turning point where the movie is no longer the thing you were promised. Something better, perhaps, but your expectations are already fixed.

Some people have little tolerance for the unexpected. Personally, I usually like it. If it’s good. But movies that don’t deliver what they seemed to promise, but then don’t give you anything else, are at the bottom of my FAIL list. (Epic Movie fits into this slot).

Time to File a Complaint

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So Best Buy/Geek Squad has refused to do even the most basic things that could make the laptop situation better.  They will not put the old hard drive back in the computer.  They will not do a free data transfer, and they refuse to send me my hard drive.  So I will now go the small claims route.  I will create a page on this site, for the complaint itself.  Friends can comment, if they like.

I’m kind of looking forward to it.  Not in a “gotcha” kind of way, but in the way I looked forward to Grand Jury duty.  I’ll get to see one more part of the American landscape.  Not a pleasant, pretty part of the picture, but something that is there, that is part of how we live, and something that I feel I should know more about.

Washing that Mummy out of My Brain

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It always annoys when my friends say something like: “I could have told you that,” after I report that some movie really sucked.  No, no you couldn’t have told me that.  Sure, the Mummy III: Tomb of Jet Li Phoning It In looked bad.  There were many warning signs.  But these friends would have said the same thing about Hitman, or Tank Girl, or Blade III: Trinity.  Say what you will, I enjoyed those movies.  I loved all three Resident Evil movies.  I savored the badness (and the cage scene) that was BloodRayne.  Would you deny me those pleasures?  So I take a lot of chances.  Sometimes, as with Babylon A.D., I get about what expect, a flawed movie with derivative elements and some good action.  Even the bad ending didn’t ruin it for me.

But sometimes I get the third Mummy movie.  It’s not so much bad as it is tired.  The almost ritualistic character portrayals using every old trope and stale piece of dialog dragged down the small moments in which the action actually worked.  I love Jet Li, and I like Brendan Frazier.  But neither of them showed up for this movie.  Surrounded by CGI badness, they read through the exhausting dialog with no hope of adding anything fresh to it.  Retired hero misses action.  Father has problems expressing approval of son.  Evil emperor wants to take over world.  (what to good emperors do?)

Fortunately I had already downloaded the unrated version of Hitman on my PS3.  I got home, feeling like I needed to bath in something to get that “Mummy-to-far” feeling out of my system, I started watching this hyper-cool, intense action flick, in which the characters actually seem to care about what they are doing.  Though the reviewers generally have gone negative Hitman, it’s really a lot of fun.

Why Does Boondock Saints Get so Much Love?

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Like Donnie Darko, Boondock Saints seems to receive affection, adoration, even passion far in excess of any value in the movie itself. I’d heard about Boondock Saints from many sources, compelling me to not only put in my Netflix list, but move it up near the top. It’s based on a graphic novel, and there have been some pretty good movies come out of that genre. But this movie kind of hints at why that shouldn’t work.

Many parts of the movie are fun to watch. William Dafoe turns in another “Walken -1″ performance as a gay FBI agent who channels at crime scenes. He is oddly disconnected from the FBI, instead running a group of local policemen, one of whom also tries to channel but with far less success. He’s quirky. Possibly homophobic.  Then he gets quirkier, dresses in drag, and tries to exude tenderness.

The McManus brothers are two good-looking Irish kids who work in a meat-packing plant, yet speak about ten languages.  This is never explained.  At some point, with little motivation except some apparently private religion, they go all Travis Bickle on bad guys, except with much more smoothness, coolness, and moral clarity.

Then there’s this guy, who is supposed to be the baddest assassin ever.  The beast.  Except that he’s also played as a cartoonish yokel.  With long beard, six guns, long-coat and hat.

The only character who isn’t some flat cartoon is poor ‘Funny Man’ Rocco.  He’s a stupid guy, but at least he suffers and changes through the movie.

The story-telling style would be interesting if you’re in film school, but probably only in a basic course.  The story advances to a point, stops, then skips to the consequences.  William Dafoe does his channeling explanation of the scene, then we go back and see how it really happened.  It’s just arty enough to keep the Donnie Darko crowd happy.

In the end, I don’t know what people really like about this movie.  The coolness is destroyed by the beast character, the moral undercurrents were better explored in any of a dozen revenge movies.  The action is passable, and motivation is hokey.  I’d offer a theory, but I really don’t get it.