We watched several movies during the past few weeks, all rented through Netflix, in which we’ve been members for three years. Just think–for three years, we haven’t made a single trip to a video store. Zero time spent perusing the racks of recent and old releases, trying to decide what to rent. Zero time spent standing in long lines. Netflix is a pure time-saver…and money saver, all things considered.

Last Saturday we watched “Redeye,” and the previous week we watched “Transporter 2.” Both were carriers of fairly mindless mayhem and mischief. Nothing particularly redeeming, just fun rides. We’ve never watched “Transporter 1.” We’ll need to do tht, because we kinda liked the sequel. An interesting kind of action hero.

I had heard about “The Battle of Algiers,” a French movie with subtitles made somewhere around 1960. It’s black and white, and involves how the French got booted out of Algeria (after having already been unceremoniously ejected from Vietnam). It was very, very good. At least, as a historical piece, I found it quite interesting. I had heard that it was filmed with a documentary feel, and that’s certainly the case. This one did, indeed, have some redeeming value.

Pam and I finally saw “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” last Saturday. I was very impressed. I actually felt that the religious symbolism came through better in the movie than it did in the book (though, as Anthony Lane described it in a review in The New Yorker, the religious symbolism is as obvious as a rhino in a phonebooth). They kept the violence a little off-camera, too, which was nice.

We’ve been under the weather, and are well behind in our holiday movie watching. I’m battling a cold right now, though I’m at work as I write this. Don’t know how long I’ll last. I couldn’t get to sleep last night, thanks to this malady, so I went out on the couch in the living room and turned on the TV (until 3 am!). Ended up watching much of the Jessica Lange-Jeff Bridges version of “King Kong.” I saw it in the theater when it came out, which seems like it was while I was still in college. I didn’t remember how much they played up Jessica Lange’s sexuality (showing her in skimpy outfits as much as possible), and making it seem like Kong was leering at her with lust in his eyes. Watching it last night, it seemed very silly. Pam and I still need to watch the new version.

And we need to see “Munich,” “Memoirs of a Geisha” (great book, but it woudn’t appeal to everyone), and “Syriana.” “Rent” is already gone, and “Aeon Flux” is probably soon to depart. We’ll probably have to catch them (along with the Edward R Murrow flick) on NetFlix. Think we’ll skip “Brokeback Mountain.” Yeah, definitely skip that one.

Pam and I just got back from seeing The Incredibles, the latest Pixar movie. It was a great deal of fun, with lots of humor. Very unlike any previous Pixar movie. It may well be my favorite of all of the Pixar movies thus far. We also saw the trailer for Cars, the 2005 Pixar movie. It’ll be a good one, too. We went to the Sunday 8 pm showing, figuring there wouldn’t be a bunch of kids there. And there weren’t–just a handful of adults. Very nice.

On Saturday we saw National Treasure, with Nicholas Cage. I don’t think critics really cared for it, but it was a very fun ride. Lots of history in it, and more humor than I was expecting. There is validity in calling it a modern-day Raiders of the Lost Ark–there are certainly parallels. I liked it a lot more than I was expecting, and would recommend it.

We also saw, for the first time, the trailer for the next Star Wars movie, the one which tells about the rise of Darth Vader. It looks like it’ll be a great movie. The last two (episodes 1 and 2) have not been well received, at least in comparison to the original three movies, but I’ll bet this one goes all out.