A Bizarre Coincidence

I have a rather long Netflix queue, as probably most Netflix users do. I rarely rearrange the movies, so normally when I hear about a movie that I want to add, I just chuck it into the queue, where it starts on the bottom and slowly works its way to the top. As a result of the long queue, that often means that it’s a year or two before I end up seeing that particular movie.

Occasionally I’ll put a movie at or near the top of the list when I add it. Usually that’s either when it’s a movie we’re really anxious to see, or it’s something that’s been recommended by someone, and we want to watch it soon so that we can discuss it with the person who recommended it. If we just leave it at the bottom to work slowly up to the top, chances are that we won’t remember why it was on the list in the first place.

A few days ago, we received two movies in the mail, representing both of these scenarios.  One was “Zardoz“, which was recommended by one of my brothers-in-law recently, and I’d moved it up to within the top 10. The other was “Australia” – a movie I’d thrown on the list when it was still playing in theaters, and it has only just now surfaced to the top.

The two movies couldn’t be much more different. “Zardoz” is an incredibly dreadful sci-fi flick starring Sir Sean Connery, who spends the entire movie running around in a tiny red diaper and thigh-high boots. Sorry if your eyes hurt from that image. Maybe this one will make it better. By the way, did you know that he was a Mr. Universe contestant? (That’s him in the center). But I digress. I absolutely adore Sir Sean, but even he wasn’t enough to save this movie for me. I’m sure it has a cult following, and I suppose it does have a bit of interesting social commentary, but it’s still not a movie I could recommend, unless you like to watch really bad movies just to delight in their extreme badness. It does, in fact, sometimes make it onto the “worst movies of all time” lists.

On the other hand, “Australia” is an epic romance which takes place in Australia (obviously) during WWII, starring the lovely Nicole Kidman and the extremely tasty Hugh Jackman. I can’t exactly say that I disliked the movie, but I admit I found it a bit too melodramatic for my taste. However, that Hugh Jackman “shower scene” was well worth the price of admission. I would happily volunteer to help wash off all the suds. Ahem.

So where does the bizarre coincidence come in?

Both movies use “The Wizard of Oz” as an important plot device. We watched “Zardoz” one night, and “Australia” the next. Our jaws dropped when “The Wizard of Oz” was first mentioned in “Australia”. What are the chances of our receiving two movies on the same day, one totally random and on purpose, of completely different genres, which both use “The Wizard of Oz” as a key theme?

Life is strange.