If you are ever struggling for a great gift idea, here is one: Netflix. My sister and brother-in-law got us a gift subscribtion to Netflix and we love it. They offer several plans. The one we got includes only 2 movies per month (unlike some of their unlimited plans) which is perfect for us. It is really easy to manage our account and pick movies with the Netflix website. We still go to the video store and do “on-demand” as well so we have been watching a lot of movies lately. Here are my thoughts on a few:

Flags of Our Fathers – This is a “must see”. I say this because I think we owe it to the men that fought on Iwo Jima. It has a lot of the same impact of seeing “Saving Private Ryan”. I wouldn’t say it was as good though. But Flags tells an interesting story too, about what the image of those men raising our flag above Iwo Jima meant to this country. Lots of blood and gore so be prepared.

The Departed - This movie has a ton of stars in it including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, and Martin Sheen. It won the oscar for Best Director. Everyone I heard from loved this movie. I was told to prepare for a lot of violence and a non stop onslaught of bad language. I guess I am desensitized because I didn’t think the language was that over the top. The acting was incredible, as expected. But I thought the plot had some obvious holes in it. Stop here if you haven’t seen it yet as I am about to give away the ending…So no one guessed that the “rat” in the mob was the same guy who attended the police training academy? And no one guessed that the bad cop was the same guy who grew up along side the head mobster? Weak. But again, great acting and still totally a great one to see.