Movie Wednesday

Semi-retirement is turning into a bit of a grind. Sure, I'm back looking for work and trying to get into a Master's of Education program, both of which are good for my mental state as it relates to having a longer-term plan. Nevertheless, trying to keep busy on a day-to-day basis is proving a bit of a challenge, particularly as the weather is now cooling.

So I decided to go to the movies on Friday afternoon. Like every good (semi-)retiree, I'm always looking for a good deal. While the matinee deal of $7 is a nice little bargain, Wednesday is a special day with all movies only $5.50 all day long. So now each Wednesday that I'm free I plan on going to the movies. If the mood strikes me and there's something worthwhile, I'll provide a movie review here.

I do have a review of the first movie I saw, Capitalism: A Love Story. Overall I'd say it was a solid movie that is worth seeing. It brings up some very interesting points, particularly in light of the record Wall St. bonuses that are likely going to be paid this year. The best parts of the movie are when MM gives historical perspective comparing us to the Roman Empire and the how the Reagan and Carter eras set some destructive wheels in motion. He argues that we have exported all of our manufacturing and industrial expertise in the name of profits (agreed). Finally, he provides some interesting insight on the bailout package (although I think he borders a bit too much on conspiracy theory here). Areas where I believe he falls short are when he tries to humanize the situation and shows depressing footage of people's homes being repossessed. While it's sad and I'm sympathetic to people being put on the street, it reaks of the victim syndrome. He shows several families that have lived in their houses for 40+ years that get evicted. But if they've lived there for so long why do they have debt on their houses? Sure MM tries to blame the politicans giving confidence in the value of people's homes and that they should tap the equity but in my book you can never blame someone else for your own greed. I'd like to see the whole story of the ridiculous items they bought by tapping their home equity loans. This may not actually be the case (they may have tapped their homes to just survive) but it's an area where MM comes off as sensationalist and potentially without regard to facts. I know this sounds insensitive but I'm just providing a review. Another area where he falls short is in not providing solutions. Sure, he does delve a bit into companies that are run as cooperatives (which I believe are great and likely where our economy is headed in the longer-term). But he could have done more to provide potential solutions.

Overall, I'd give the movie 3.5 stars out of 5.0