Movie Reviews

Trying this new thing where I review the movies I watch. I'm sure everyone out there does this but I figured it would be good for my own benefit, in case I ever want to go back and watch something again. And I won't be reviewing just the latest ones either.

Who knows? Maybe it will help you too.

The Truth about the McDonalds Case

At work today, while doing research, I came across an article about a case of a couple suing Google for invasion of privacy and trespassing during one of their StreetView trips. Being the curious person I am, I scrolled through the comments and cannot believe I wasted almost an hour reading through arguments of people I will probably never meet. Or will I...? But it's still fun!

Anyway, I eventually found a link to the Snopes.com article about tort reform. [see link: http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp] It basically discussed widely circulated court cases that were actually not true, and discussed further how there were also other actual court cases people did not know enough about, and how this relates to the public's outcry.

If you read some of these cases, it will likely stir up some emotional feelings like anger and frustration in how our society is turning into a land of lazy, sensitive complainers. But the truth is they were made up. They went on to talk about ones that actually did happen and sound almost as ridiculous, but it brings up the point of how tort reform is difficult to implement since it means either not giving a person a right to have their case in court, or filtering out the idiocracy that seems to be prevalent in our times.

That is a whole debate in and of itself, and I wouldn't mind if you'd like to express your opinions on that. However, what I found was all these years I was among the perpetuators of the misinformed and misguided public.

Apparently all these years, I was confounded beyond belief on why a consumer couldn't know that McDonald's coffee is actually hot and sued for getting burned. I was under the impression that some careless lady drove through the drive-thru, ordered a coffee, drove off, placed the cup in her lap due to reaching for something like makeup, and somehow spilled it all over her legs. And of course, who puts coffee in their laps?

Turns out I, and a whole bunch of other people, are wrong. What had happened was Stella Liebeck was riding shotgun in a car and while it was in park, had placed the coffee between her knees to remove the lid. That's when the spillage happened, and she was hospitalized for 8 days from the resulting third degree burns. McDonalds kept its coffee at 180-190 degrees, which could cause such burns on human contact in 2-7 seconds. And Liebeck wasn't the only one who complained. A lot of people were getting burned by MickeyD's.

It's pretty hard to admit being wrong this whole time but it's interesting how the merit for a case like this can be thrown out the window just because of how little we really know about it. It's important to know all the facts before opening your big ol' mouth.

Know the Facts: The McDonalds Coffee Case [http://www.caoc.com/CA/index.cfm?event=showPage&pg=facts]


Inappropriate Convos

Went to happy hour after work today with a few coworkers and proceeded to get into a long, intense conversation about the following:

• How many times would you let your significant other off the hook for having an inappropriate conversation with someone of the opposite sex? 
• How would you define what is considered an inappropriate conversation? Does it mean sexual? Innuendo? Or just flirting?
• Do you think it's okay for your significant other to partake in such behavior as long as they don't act on it? Why/Why not?

I thought this was a very interesting discussion, particularly because I heard several stories and arguments for both sides, but I want to know what you think! Please post your comments below. Maybe you can help us settle our debate.

Shirley, You Can't Be Serious?

I'm a little late to posting this. As I'm sure you heard by now, Leslie Nielsen passed away recently due to a pneumonia complication. Nielsen was my second favorite character in one of my favorite movies, Airplane!. He came second only to the guy who would make random comments at ground control, such as when he was handed a newspaper and was asked, "What do you make of this?" to which he responded, "This? I can make a hat, or a sailboat..."

Airplane! is one of my favorite movies of all time because of the satirical comedic style in which it was written - as a spoof on disaster movies at the time, and I absolutely loved the play on words! And who can forget the classic line, "Surely you can't be serious." "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."

Sadly, after learning about Nielsen's passing, I realized there's a lot more movies he was in that I have yet to see, mostly similar to Airplane!. So I've tried my best to compile a list with clips of his notable films below. Enjoy!

Nielsen was born on February 11, 1926 and started his career in 1948, during Television's Golden Age.
His first major successful role was in the 1956 film, Forbidden Planet:



After establishing himself as a serious and dramatic actor with several MGM Studios films, Nielsen went on to work on other roles, including Disney's The Swamp Fox:



Hawaii Five-O:



The Poseidon Adventure (1972):



And then there was Airplane!:




Which led to his iconic roles as a comedic actor...in Police Squad!:



And of course, all the Naked Guns:



2001: A Space Travesty:



Dracula: Dead and Loving It:



And finally, Scary Movie 3 as the President:



I'm sure I missed a few but nonetheless, Leslie Nielsen was a great actor and will be sorely missed. RIP.