Redbox Reservations

Did you know you can reserve a film to be picked up at a Redbox location? I didn't, until I clicked on one of those little text ads (the ones we all ignore) on another movie blog.

This could come in handy if you live in a populated area and use Redbox (which is pretty cool, really -- a movie for a buck!). I doubt we'll ever need it here, where there are more moose than people (especially considering the movies we tend to pick), but it's good to know.

Actually, come to think of it, we haven't used Redbox since we hooked up the Xbox 360 to stream movies directly from Netflix (which is even cooler, let's face it). But still.

(More on streaming via Netflix here.)

Redbox

Do you have Redbox video dispensers in your grocery stores? I’m not sure how long they’ve been in ours (maybe six months?), but we tried it a while ago and were pretty impressed. One buck for a movie, and as long as you return it the next day, that’s the entire fee. The only drawback: lines are starting to form at our neighborhood outlet, and this is a real drag, especially if you’re only returning a disc.

The other day I was waiting for a woman who had a baby in her shopping cart, sitting there making cute googly eyes and chuckling at Keegan and I. But my patience started to wear thin when she looked at screen after screen of titles, repeated the process, and finally chose a film. As it came out of the box, she bent over to her little one (about a year old, I would guess), and cooed, “Now I have to find something for YOU!”

Oh. My. God.

I guess she hasn’t yet noticed that the whole world is a movie for a one-year-old kid.

- Link: Slightly alarming Slate article about autism and TV viewing by very young children.