Celina and I are moving to Washington in just 17 short days, so we decided to have a garage sale. Her grandmother offered up her garage for said sale. While customers rummaged through some crap and ignored other crap, I noticed a VHS tape with three movies recorded on to it. One of which being, 'Max Dugan Returns'. I myself had never heard of this movie before. I consider myself a movie buff and there are a lot of random ass movies that I like that no one has ever heard of. Like Bill Murray's underrated crime caper, 'Quick Change'. Celina's grandma went on to rave about 'Max Dugan Returns', calling it one of her favorite movies. I brushed it off and really had no desire to seek out this movie.
Skip ahead two days and I am browsing Netflix in the morning before having to go to work. Wouldn't ya know it, Max Dugan pops up in the comedies genre. It was random as hell to say the least. I had no choice but to watch it. In short, 'Max Dugan Returns' is a simple 80s movie starring Jason Robards, Donald Sutherland, and a pre-Ferris Bueller Matthew Broderick. The movie is about an elderly ex-con and absentee Father that comes back into his daughter's life in order to both make amends with her and be a part of his grandson's life. Max Dugan also brings with him a briefcase full of money that may or may not have been legally acquired. The movie didn't WOW me, really. It was good, not great. I did appreciate the screenplay, and I think that's mostly due to it being a Neil Simon script.
What's strangest about this situation is the fact that 'Max Dugan Returns' has been on Netflix since October. So why is Netflix bringing it to my attention 7 months later? If I had googled the movie beforehand, I wouldn't find this happenstance particularly eventful. But the fact of the matter is, I never mentioned the film to anyone. The conspiracy theorist in me immediately assumed that Netflix hacked my phone and recorded my conversation through the microphone. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. I sometimes forget that synchronicity itself is crazy, crazy stuff.
-Dom
