Day: July 4, 2008

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Review Wall-e (Spoilers)

I caught a matinee at the Regal in Potomac Yard today at 3:30. At that theatre, all movies before 6 PM are matinees unlike Gallery Place where I think it is 11 AM! There is only one showing of a movie as a matinee there.

My partner came with me though he said he already saw the first 2. I was thinking to myself…there were 2 more before this? He was referring to Short Circuit and Johnny 5. There is a strange resemblance, check out this wheels and face with the strange “eyebrows.” While the movie seemed to be for all ages, makes the older crowd laugh more with the sounds and sights from recent technology. For example, when Wall-e is fully charged from his solar panels, Macintosh users will recognize the “gong” sound when a Mac is booted. You will also see an iPod which helps play old movies from beta tape. Zippos make an appearance and Wall-e disposes a diamond ring and keeps the fuzzy case for his collection along with rubber duckie and bobble head dog.

Movie buffs with notice a score from Indiana Jones….From the Raiders of the Lost Ark I believe.  2001: The Space Odyssey is alluded to as well.  Check out the Robot that is assisting the captain.  Notice the red light?

Finally, lights on the floor direct robots all over.  Perhaps this should be an improvement in the next generation Roomba.  Seriously, it reminded me of a robot kit I assembled as a kid which followed a pen mark on paper.  I thought it was pretty cool, and in this case, ensured safe operation of vehicles kind of like how air traffic controllers or a metro control center steers planes and trains.  On a few occasions a “MOP” robot, charged with cleaning, hopped off the “track” following the contamination left by Wall-e as he rolled around the ship.

Lessons to learn from the movie

  • Recycle!  Earth is vacated due to the over abundance of trash from shopping at a store such as Costco or BJs.  Wall-e is meant to clean up the Earth while the humans are away by compacting and stacking, much like the Egyptians stacked blocks to make the pyramids, in the shape of skyscrapers.
  • Get off your butt!  On the 5 year temporary home for the human which turned into 700 years, everyone relies on the robots and just sits, eats, and rides around on hover crafts and have evolved to not be able to walk or have a neck!
  • Meet friends for dinner.  Until they were disrupted, the auto piloted hover crafts with a heads up video display complete transfixed the rider.  No one socialized and there was no personal contact.  Hmm…without interaction with others, there would not be “nocturnal activities” and the population would cease to exist!  So get out from behind the computer, pick up a phone or meet friends for dinner.
  • Cockroaches will outlive every species on the planet.  There was only one plant that survived, but cockroaches abound!  Not surprising since the planet was covered with garbage.  We all know that cockroaches have been on this planet for a very long time, reproduce quickly, and can survive without food for a month.  Oh..twice in the movie the cockroach gets run over…and twice, even though is squished, it got up and scurried off. Yuck!

Verdict?

Go check out the movie.  This is one I am going to pick up as soon as it comes out on DVD.  Too bad it is Disney and that HD-DVD did not make it.  I will have to get the standard definition for now.

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The dreaded furniture shopping!

Last year this time we picked up a few pieces from Marlo furniture. This time we were looking for a new bed and headed out to Marlo again. I dislike stores that pay their workers a menial wage and encourage them by commission from sales. I was saddened to find out that Hudson Trail Outfitters does this, but that is another matter. Everyone knows that furniture stores work that way. Last year we had issues with a salesman in Rockville, so we travelled to Alexandria.

We arrived and attempted to dodge salespeople explaining that if we need help, we will ask for it. This Marlo seemed to be laid out in a odd pattern for shoppers, but like grocery stores who usually put the bread and milk furthest from the entrance to entice you as you go to pick up your staple products. For those who drink soda, you have convenient coolers at the end of each register to save you the hunt ;P Marlo seems to bunch them into collections which means you have to traverse the entire store to see all of the beds. We liked 2 of them, and the one we really liked had a sold floor model which gave me little hope. Sure enough it was the last one and the warehouse was out. I asked the salesman if he could contact other stores in the area for us to check on the floor models.

The salesman would NOT call for us. Making an excuse that he would have to do work and no one would answer the phone anyway or call them back. The latter is true, I tried to call a few stores and once I reached an operator who mumbled something and sent me to a voice mail box…another time, no one answered. Hmm..what about customer service? Basically the salesman did not want to help make a sale that he would not get commission on. Perhaps that is the downside of commission sales. I do know first hand with houses, the more money you are going to spend, the more attention you get!

On the way back to DC we saw signs for a furniture liquidation sale and headed over to the Landmark Mall. We got there and while there was no JC Penny, we did find the sale at Direct Furniture. DO NOT SHOP THERE! We had a pleasant experience in the lower floor showroom and was sent up to check out their other showroom, discount warehouse, on the upper level. I asked if the 2 were owned by the same and the saleswoman said NO! So at that point, my partner jokingly said the bed we really liked was $500. She believed him, I could not keep a straight face, and she went to check the computer to see if that was possible to “match.” At this point we were thinking they were competitors and the fact that the lady downstairs left us her card and said..”If you don’t like the price upstairs, to let her know.” Hmm…perhaps competition at it’s finest. It was a dying mall, so perhaps a sale would make or break the store.

So the saleswoman came back and basically called our bluff, joke anyway, and kind of with an attitude said the regular price that was on the bed. As we walked out, she said “For your information, we are the same.” That just infuriated me, she had flat out lied to us! She was mad at us for saying $500 which was a joke. I asked her why she lied and she had no reply. I am guessing she wanted the sale, but her dishonesty lost the sale. So, on the Internet I go looking for a good price on the bed we wanted, but will not buy from a dishonest store.

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