IT’S CHRISTMAS—TIME FOR SOME GOOD ACTION MOVIES!

Do not make me watch IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE ever again. Ditto MIRACLE ON 34^TH STREET, any version. It’s not that I don’t like those old movies—okay, I don’t. There are plenty of Christmas comedies that the family can enjoy together and a couple like LOVE ACTUALLY (one of my faves!) that fall into the PG-13 category. But when the gifts are all open and dinner’s finished, give me a good ole holiday action flick to keep the spirit going. Here are a few even the guys will stick around and watch:

DIE HARD – Who doesn’t love Bruce Willis as New York cop, John McClane? And Alan Rickman makes such a brilliantly evil villain--his voice alone is worth the price of a rental. This one is THE classic.

DIE HARD 2 – A year later, Bruce has to battle terrorists at Dulles Airport on Christmas Eve. Can you say Bah, Humbug?
 

LETHAL WEAPON – Let’s ignore that Mel gets more like Briggs all the time and just enjoy him as the young, good-looking, crazy cop shooting up a Christmas tree lot.

KISS KISS BANG BANG – Robert Downey, Jr. as a thief-accidentally-turned-movie-detective is coached by Val Kilmer as private eye Gay Perry. This one may be an acquired taste. Just saying.

LONG KISS GOODNIGHT – Geena Davis plays a housewife with amnesia who starts to remember she’s an assassin. Who knew? Isn’t that a holiday surprise?

BATMAN RETURNS – Not my favorite Batman—that would be Christian Bale—but this one is amusing in a camp sort of way.

THE LAST BOY SCOUT – Bruce Willis again, (yeah, he's one of my favorites!!), this time with  Damon Wayans and some of the best one-liners of all time.

 Do you have any favorites to add? I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Intents and Purposes

I like bargains and brake for thirty-percent-off sales, but the Amazon mobile price-comparison app bugs me. (It bugs a lot of people, and Amazon triggered outrage when it offered a one-day-only bounty of five-percent off the price of an item scanned at a brick-and-mortar store but bought through Amazon: Check out this. Then, for the sake of fairness, read this, too.)

At first, I couldn't figure out what I disliked about the app's concept. After all, I shop online and regularly compare prices at a handful of sites before clicking "purchase now." I check grocery-store circulars before I head to my neighborhood HEB or Kroger's and frequently visit both in the same week. (Neither is far, so I'm not racking up miles in the car to save a dime.) I believe in comparison shopping.

What's more, I've cooed about my Amazon Prime membership in this space and love my Kindle.

So, what the heck irks me about Amazon's price-comparison app?

I suspect consumers who go into brick-and-mortar stores, pick up items, and scan them into the app have no intention of buying from the stores they entered. Their visits are made simply to trigger lower prices from Amazon. Yet, those same consumers eyeball, try out, even fondle the items in question. Employee of the stores may answer questions and demonstrate features.

Granted it's the employees' job to answer questions and demonstrate features. When Hubs and I went shopping for a new refrigerator, we visited at least three brick-and-mortar stores before we bought at a fourth. At each, we questioned salespeople, opened and closed fridge doors, checked butter compartments, and examined finishes. In retrospect, did we waste salespeople's time at three out of four stores? Yes, but our intention at each was to buy there if we found the right fridge at the right price. Intention matters.

Amazon's price-comparison app caters to consumers who do little or no prior research and price-checking, and it sends them into brick-and-mortar stores they have little or no intention of patronizing,

Give me Prime membership and the Kindle, Amazon. Keep your app. I'm a bargain-hunter, not a jerk.

NOSTALGIA FOR A TROPICAL CHRISTMAS

St. Croix Boat Parade

After many years in Houston, I still feel a bit nostalgic for the wonderful Christmases I spent in the Caribbean--seven in St. Croix, another more recent on a sailboat off a tiny sandy island somewhere near Petit Saint Vincent. We had white sand under our feet instead of snow, wore bathing suits and drank rum punch. The only fire roasted a pig on the beach and plantains replaced sweet potatoes. But what brings back those times more than anything else is the music. The radio played Charo’s MAMACITA DONDE ESTA SANTA CLAUS and The Mighty Sparrow’s CARIBBEAN CHRISTMAS MEDLEY, and, of course, The Great John L. sang CHRISTMAS IN ST. CROIX.  Cruzan Gold and tonic anyone?