More relationships are ruined by the phenomenon of not being able to pick a film at the rental store than for any other cause. It's true. I read a study or something. In order to avoid this pitfall, Ami and I have determined a set of rules for video store rental. Each time the store is visited, unless a mutually agreed-upon film is the object of our quest, we must revert to the rules.

Each time, the person who has to pick the movie cycles between the two of us. I pick, then she picks, then I pick, etc. The picker attempts to get a genre consensus with the non-picker (comedy, action, drama, etc.). If no particular genre is requested, that's fine. The picker then chooses a film and then seeks approval from the non-picker, who has the power to veto that particular film choice. However, after two vetoes the non-picker is not saddled with the task of picking the film.

The last two films Ami picked were Bloodsport and Kickboxer, part of our continuing Van Damme film festival. Maybe this isn't the normal course of things in a relationship, but so far Ami has shared with me these two films, plus Running Man and Robocop, none of which I had seen before. This is why she is rad.

For the first ten minutes of Kickboxer, I was running on the assumption that Kurt and Eric, the two stars of the film were actually gay lovers. Consider the following sequence: It is the late 80's. Two very muscular men are sharing a gondola cruising lazily down a river, one is wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and sporting a tidy moustache and jerry-curl mullet, the other is wearing an unbuttoned denim vest over his bare meat pillow chest. They laugh and point at various sights in the city, the denim-vest clad gentleman puts his arm around the other, then buys a boquet of flowers from a passing floating florist.

Only later did it become apparent that the two were brothers, not partners as previously assumed, but can you blame me for thinking that? I mean really, a denim vest with no shirt?

Today's Fun Fact: Did you know that Lingerie Kickboxer, Robo-Kickboxer - Power of Justice, or Kickboxer from Hell are all the titles of actual kickboxing-related films? It's true!