Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

DVD/Movie Review: Private School

 


Private School is a coming-of-age comedy from 1983 starring Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell, Matthew Modine, Kathleen Wihote, and Ray Walston. The best way I can describe this movie is a combination of Porky's and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, yet nowhere near as good as either of them. However, if you were a boy anywhere near puberty in the 1980s this was one of the movies you always hoped came on cable late at night when you got to stay up late. The script and acting are atrocious. Even though the movie had some young stars who would go on to be relatively good actors, they were not given much to work with, even by teen sex comedy standards. There were also some whose careers never made it out of the 1980s. It has about every 80s movie cliche you can imagine (right down to the cheesy music montage). 

The DVD is very bare-bones. There are no extras such as deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, or the like. Realistically, given that it was not one of the major teen comedies of the 1980s and is far more of a cult classic, it is not surprising that it did not get a more expensive DVD release.

The two best things about the movie are Betsy Russell and having some relatively good songs on the soundtrack. Phoebe Cates was the big star in the movie, coming off her role in Fast Times. And although she was the "sexy one" in that movie, she plays the rather bland "good girl" in this one. She is of course still gorgeous and did show a little bit toward the end of the movie, but Betsy Russell is the one who amps up the sex factor here. Ultimately you know what you get with this. It is not great by any means. Do not expect an Academy Award winner, but if you fall within the demographic who remembers this movie from your youth, you can have a good laugh at how good you probably thought it was when you were young and fondly remember ogling Betsy.

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