blockbuster rant

Hey, merry xmas everybody! Or festivus. Whatever.

I spent all morning (that would be xmas-eve morning in the the goyish world) watching The Bourne Supremacy on dvd. Wow, except for those standardly extended fight and car chase scenes, pretty fascinating screwed-up espionage movie. And beautifully shot. The scenes were luscious. It was so interesting, I watched the WHOLE thing again with the director's commentary. (Hey, don't judge; I'm fighting an internet addiction here.)

Probably because of the philosophy of film lectures I've been attending, I focussed on the dehumanization aspect of politics and power at play in the fabric of society, not that that's new or original, but it's what I love about movies at their best: tapping into the meaning of it all, exploring the directions we choose to go with our free will. The character of Bourne is very interesting in that he has evolved and continues to evolve, and he gives us some optimism vis a vis what we might have thought was irredeemable dehumanization.

There are points of light, but they do seem to shine brighter because of wisdom gained the hard way. I'm starting to think maybe there really isn't any road to wisdom other than that one.

Unfortunately, accessing the dvd's requires dealing with one of only two video/dvd rental places here in the burg: Blockbuster and a branch of a local chain. I haven't been to the local chain store for a long time, preferring the more spacious ambience of the Blockbuster layout, but I'm starting to get really pissed off at the lousy service there. What is up with them? They have two, sometimes three counter staff and nobody else in the whole store, for hundreds of customers at the busiest times of the week (Thursday evening and Friday all day, till sundown). Because nobody is shelving the movies, there's nothing left on the shelves. To find out if any of the new movies you want are available, you have to wait in a 10-minute line just to get your turn to ask the counter staff if they're in one of several piles of returned movies behind the counter.

But even worse: Blockbuster has had a new marketing program going for a while that causes the lineups to grow very long as each customer is given a spiel about package deals, which you buy on punch cards of 4 movies. And THEN each punch card they buy also has a little "scratch to see what you won" section, which of course the customer has to do right there in front of the clerk, while the lineup continues to grow. Even if you're renting a movie with a previously-bought punch card (i.e. no money needs to change hands), their whole procedure takes 5-10 minutes because of the questions customers need to ask about movies they can't find, while the clerk runs around searching the piles. Meanwhile, the phone rings off the hook and nobody answers it. The really idiotic, inefficient thing about Blockbuster is they seem to have made a point of NOT selling 10, 20, or 30-movie deals, as the other store (local chain) does. At the other place, you pay for a quantity up front, and then you breeze through the cash very quickly. Blockbuster always used to charge per movie, no package deals. Then I guess they saw the competition maybe had a point, so they start complicating our lives with these piddly 4-movie punch cards, and they try to get you to buy several. That's what takes so long at the counter!

But HELLOOOOOO! There are more efficient ways of doing this, people! Weekend = time to watch movies, which means you need more hands on deck on Thursdays and Fridays, and more copies of the new movies! Obviously, there's not enough competition for the service. In the area of Toronto I lived in, there were 3 other competitors within walking distance, besides the 2 nearby BB's. They HAD to try harder.