Made for TV Movies

The other day I found myself laying on the couch channel surfing. Okay, this is not out of the ordinary, especially the laying and the surfing. Anyhow, I stopped upon one of the many runs of "Grandma's Boy" on FX. It's a great movie by the people behind such other classics as Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. The thing is, if I looked 10 degrees below my television, I could see the DVD case of "Grandma's Boy" staring back at me. I own the uncut, much funnier version of this great flick which is at my disposal at any time I choose, yet I decide to watch the cut-for-tv version on basic cable instead.

This wouldn't be much of an issue if I had just watched a segment or two to catch a funny part and then went on to other channels. No, instead I watched about 3/4 of the entire movie before deciding it was enough. Why would I do this? All the swear words are gone, most of the innuendos have been changed to something lame like 'petting the puppy' or some mess and let's not forget, there are freaking commercial breaks. Why would I put up with this when a disc of much better movie goodness is 5 feet in front of me? I can only attribute it to the shear laziness that goes with couch potato-ing.

See, in order to watch said DVD, I would have to 1. get up. 2. turn on dvd player 3. open disc case and put in dvd and 4, most importantly, sit through an entire hour plus of movie. For someone lazing about on a couch in the afternoon, this is far too much effort. Watching a DVD is essentially an hour or so long event that I must participate in. This does not fare well against an option that requires not much more than lifting a finger. Plus, with the TV version, I always have the option of just switching to something else in an instant; not messing with video inputs or pausing.

Sure, I miss a lot of the stuff not suitable for broadcast television, but I can certainly remember what I am missing. Sometimes, that part is kind of fun, seeing what silly words they use to replace actual curse words ('rubber sucker', 'muffin fudger', etc.) and what parts they just blatantly cut out (there's a lot of bong hits in Grandma's boy). Remembering these things is a fun novelty, but why don't I just watch the whole thing as it was intended? That same reason, the DVD takes away my surfing vegetating freedom.

I imagine in the future, my DVD collection will be completely stored on a hard drive or some sort of cloud computing will allow me instant access and this point will no longer hold water. Until then, my poor DVDs continue to sit on the shelf and stare back at me while I watch their bastardized TV counterparts get my viewing pleasure.

World Cup Fever Mild Contagion

Today kicks off the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The world is excited. Well, every country except the USA. I take that back, there are plenty of people in the US who will be watching as much World Cup action as possible these next few weeks, but I would say as a majority, the US is just not that into it.

For some reason, the appeal is just not there. My only explanation is the fact that most soccer games are low scoring affairs. This would also explain why hockey does not have as much of a following as the other sports. Hockey does have some great physicality to it that can draw people in. Soccer is a more strategic game of possession and progress rather than big hits and flashiness. There aren't many goals, but there is great play in between. At the very least, what needs to be appreciated is the sheer athleticism of the soccer players themselves. These athletes are constantly on the run for 2 45-minute halves, all the while bumping and racing the other players. I'd like to see any baseball or NFL player try to keep up.

I am actually not that interested in comparing sports; I will resign to the fact that soccer just won't be popular here in the states when compared to the other major sports. This fact is fine with me, it means that the actual followers are real fans and the interest will be more genuine. For now, it is time to sit back and enjoy some world class soccer matches and be happy to share the emotion and experience with the rest of the world, albeit less enthusiastic. If the US team makes a deep run, perhaps the story may change.