Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Biggest Product Flops of 2011

MSN reports the following as the biggest product flops of the prior year. Did we fall for any of them?

1) Abercrombie & Fitch’s Ashley Push-Up Bikini. This is a bikini, designed for 8 to14-year- old girls, features a top with padding. Is this something Jon Benet would have worn?

2) Qwikster. This was Netflix’s attempt to spin off its DVD-by-mail service onto a new website, complete with increased pricing. “The company had to kill it off before it even launched.”

3) Chevy Volt. Apparently, the world is not ready to switch to electric vehicles.

4) HTC Status – a Facebook phone. “This was the first, and likely last, smartphone with a dedicated FB share button.” AT&T forgot that it is pretty easy to get on FB with most smartphones.

5) PlayBook. Launched by RIM, using a Blackberry foundation, this was another iPad competitor that didn’t measure up.

6) Fiat 500. A three-door car under 12 feet long. Hmm. Can you say clown car? Claustrophobia?

7) Mars Needs Moms. “A Disney flop of epic proportions…In the movie business, sometimes a flop is just a flop. Then there are misses so disastrous that they send signals to broad swaths of Hollywood.” Ouch! This was no Avatar. Not everything in 3-D is good.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Girl With A Dragon Tattoo (Swedish Version) -- Movie Review

     I read this book series probably a year ago, and I am famous for forgetting the details of what I read. Actually, it is kind of fun when you forget who the bad guy is and get surprised all over again! Having said that, I found this movie to be very good and true to what I remembered of the book. Did you know that the Swedish title can be translated literally as “Men Who Hate Women?” The subtitles didn’t bother me (except that they were a very light color and sometimes hard to read when the movie scene was bright). The actress who played Lisbeth portrayed the edgy, dark and conflicted character very well. The smarmy men were appropriately smarmy. Having read the book first did give some background to the story and characters that was not covered in the movie. Overall, I liked it and I’m looking forward to seeing the American version too.
     By the way, I watched this via streaming video on Amazon for free because I subscribe to Amazon Prime. I’m going to work through their list of free movies, looking for good ones. I’d like to work through the lists of Oscar winners over the past few years but I don’t know if they are available.

Monday, January 02, 2012

A New Year Of Blogging

I have started and stopped blogging several times over the years. So here I go again. I enjoy writing out my thoughts, musing about issues, and sharing photos. FB just doesn’t give enough space. I hope to be a regular contributor in the new year, and I’m purposely not going to define the parameters of “regular.” I’ve already written a several entries, so I should be good to go for a few weeks! Perhaps you’ll enjoy reading my mind. If not, feel free NOT to read!