The Untouchables

I finally tried Netflix’s ‘Watch it now” feature.  It’s free and doesn’t count against your movies you have sent out.  I figured it would be crappy quality but I’d try it anyway.  I was impressed with it.  The movie looked and sounded as good as if I were watching a DVD on the computer.  No lag, no stutter at all.

So I’ve seen this movie many times but always in pieces.  I always seem to miss the beginning or the end and most often, both.  I love De Niro as Al Capone giving the “Enthusiasm” speech.  With work and all of the rogue techs that don’t seem to give a shit about the rest of the team, I’ve been using that speech a lot recently.

The story is about Elliot Ness and his drive to enforce prohibition even under threat from Capone.  Not really much more to describe on the plot other than it was good.  He has a small band of men.  An old, honest beat-cop, an idealistic recruit and an accountant.  Together they stand up against corruption on the force as against Capone, breaking every law in order to uphold the law.  It was like an old western but set in the 1920′s mob war era.  I liked it, even if it was Kevin Costner.  Sean Connery was terrific.  I just heard about him retiring and saying he’d only come back as a supporting role in a Bond film.  Screw that, I think he’d make an incredible Bond villain!

There was another example of non-gun-Hollywood types being in charge of continuity.  I can’t count how many times these guys cocked their shotguns and nothing came out!  That kind of stuff drives me nuts!  Like a digital timer on a bomb.  It’s counting down and the good guy always clips the right wire (Blue! Cut the blue wire!) just in time, leaving 00:03 seconds on the clock or something like that.  NO!  The clock would either go dark or it would keep counting down to zero even if the explosive was cut.  I can’t imagine a crazed bomber building a hold circuit into the clock just for visual effect!  Ok, no digital bombs in this movie, just another rant…

The Untouchables was good.  I liked it.  It has a lot of cliches in it and is often over played but I was glad to see it in full and even happier to know that the Netflix Watch It Now feature works just fine on my computer.  Now I wonder if it works on my laptop…