The movie selection at the hotel had not grown by much since our last stay, so I consider it to still be scraping the bottom of the barrel, but there were some that were pretty good.

Crazy Heart Beau Bridges plays a washed-up country western singer whose career has come down to appearances at bowling alleys around the southwest. There is some lovely scenery in this movie as he drives between gigs. Colin Farrell (who is Irish but does great American accents) plays his former protege who has made good and whose help is the only thing that keeps money in the old guy's pockets.

Motherhood "Financially strapped Eliza Welch (Uma Thurman) wants to throw her 6-year-old daughter a great birthday party, but all of Manhattan, her goofy dog, and her 2-year-old dynamo of a son seem to be conspiring against her." -- Netflix. This movie was like a pilot for a Sex and the City sort of TV series, complete with the voice-overs, aimed at the mommy audience.

What most attracted me was seeing how people adapt to life in New York City, moving their parked cars across the street twice a day so they wouldn't get towed, coveting their parking spots, and living 6 floors up with no elevator. Her dog Coupon was too old to handle the stairs, so had to be carried up and down every day for walks.

Her car got towed anyway to make room for a movie crew, so she had to ride a bicycle to do her shopping for the birthday party. First the grocery store where she comes out with 3 bags of food that she hangs off the handlebars, then to the party store where she's carrying the groceries plus shoving two shopping baskets along the floor with her foot. Somehow she gets all that on the bike, but now the tires are flat so she has to push it, not done yet, though, she has to go to the bakery to pick up the cake. Finally she gets it all home and fortunately someone helps her carry it upstairs. And through all this she is doing her best to make a wonderful childhood for her children, which was nice to see.

Hurt Locker I wanted to see this because Fredo said it was good, and there is an Oscar nomination. It's about the war in Iraq and I didn't know if I'd like it, but because it was focused on a small aspect of the war, it was a good story, and I recommend it.

9 A science fiction animated movie. Post apocalypse, little rag dolls have to fight the machine that caused the destruction of the world. It was co-produced by Tim Burton, for whatever that's worth. The animation was very detailed and made the movie interesting. The story was okay, but it wasn't 'Scary, Suspenseful, Mind-bending, Exciting' as described by Netflix.

The Office This was on the "Just Missed TV" channel where they charge $4.99 per show. Two episodes of The Office were available, one of my favorite shows mainly because there is no laugh track and the humor is dry. We don't get that channel at home here, so I don't ever get to see it. So I'm watching along, and Michael Scott says this:

"It's like Joe Camel. They drew him to look like a penis, so now when I see a penis I think of smoking, and vice versa, when I see smoking I think of a penis."

Whuuut? He said what? On prime time network TV? I know TV has gotten more and more permissive, but come on! Kids watch this stuff.

I finally decided that this explains why there are so many commercials during the network airing of The Office - the local stations edit out the racy stuff by showing more ads. I guess - since I don't have the network version here at home, I don't have anything to go by. Next I'll check out the version available on the Internet, but that's not the same as what comes across the network. Strange!