When I saw Catching Fire in the theater, the movie suddenly turned off in the middle. I immediately yelled out, “I volunteer as tribute!”
(No, this has nothing to do with Netflix. But if you haven’t seen it, watch The Quick and the Dead.)
Catching Fire is miles better than Hunger Games; you can tell they invested way more in this movie, and the environments–even the cruddy Districts–seem much more real than the crappy sets and way HG was shot. The setup is also a bit different, though it gets kinda longish before you get to the interesting stuff, and even then Katniss is a bit changed and more than willing to start putting arrows in people. And it didn’t quite end the way I expected it to (though I thought the clock thing was a bit of an odd setup).
— Alan
RichVR
3563
Movies expiring on Netflix Instant:
Movies Expiring November 26
The King’s Speech
Movies Expiring November 30
Black Moon Rising
The Boys Next Door
C.H.U.D.
Helvetica
House
House II
The Philadelphia Experiment
Transylvania 6-5000
The Stuff
Movies Expiring December 1
1941
The Apostle
Audrey Rose
The Believers
Better than Chocolate
Blood & Chocolate
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Chaplin
The Choirboys
The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County
Coffee and Cigarettes
The Cold Light of Day
The Constant Gardener
Count Yorga, Vampire
Cry-Baby
Dirty Dancing
Double Indemnity
En la Cama
Event Horizon
Eye for an Eye
Fairy Tale: A True Story
First Knight
Five Easy Pieces
Foreign Student
Free Men
Funny Lady
The Ghost and Mrs Muir
The Girl from Petrovka
Going Berserk
The Great Waldo Pepper
House of Voices
How to Frame a Figg
I’m Not Rappaport
Imagining Argentina
Invaders from Mars
Ishtar
Joe Gould’s Secret
Joe Kidd
Johnny Mnemonic
Killer at Large
King of the Hill
Lonely Hearts
Magic Trip
Magicians
Mission Impossible III
Minnie and Moskowitz
Monkey Shines
Mr. Mom
‘night Mother
Night of the Creeps
An Officer and a Gentleman
Opal Dream
The Other Side of the Mountain
The Other Side of the Mountain, Part 2
Our City Dreams
The Paper Chase
Paradise Alley
The Parole Officer
The Pirates of Penzance
Prairie Love
The Presidio
The Promise
The Proposition
Reds
The Return of Count Yorga
RoboCop 2
School Ties
The Sci-Fi Boys
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Spice World
Star Trek: Generations
Swashbuckler
The Talented Mr. Ripley
They Might Be Giants
The Untouchables
The Vampire Lovers
Walker
Year of the Horse: Neil Young & Crazy Horse Live
Young Sherlock Holmes
JoshV
3564
Yup, I was also pleasantly surprised by how decent it was.
Coming in December:
Available 12/1
“A Knight’s Tale” (2001)
“Almost Famous” (2000)
“American Beauty” (1999)
“Bewitched” (2005)
“Jewtopia” (2012)
“Knights of Badassdom” (2014)
“Madison” (2005)
“Out of the Clear Blue Sky” (2012)
“Out of Time” (2003)
“The Out-of-Towners” (1999)
“Troop Beverly Hills” (1989)
“Turbo FAST”
Available 12/3
“Oculus” (2014)
“Son of God” (2014)
Available 12/5
“Bill Burr: I’m Sorry You Feel That Way” (2014)
Available 12/6
“American Horror Story: Coven”
“Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” Super-sized version (2013)
“Ava & Lala” (2014)
“Sharknado 2: The Second One” (2014)
Available 12/8
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: Season 3
Available 12/9
“I Am Ali” (2014)
“Drive Hard” (2014)
Available 12/10
“A Haunted House 2” (2014)
Available 12/11
“The Village” (2004)
“The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013)
Available 12/12
“Broadchurch: Season 1”
“Marco Polo”
“Nick Offerman: American Ham”
Available 12/13
“Don’t Blink” (2014)
Available 12/15
“Jake Squared” (2014)
Available 12/18
“Ragnarok” (2014)
“The Honourable Woman: Season 1”
Available 12/19
“All Hail King Julien”
Available 12/20
“Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” Extended Edition (2014)
Available 12/22
“Dark Skies” (2013)
“Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” (1997)
Available 12/23
“The Trip to Italy” (2014)
Available 12/24
“Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return” (2014)
Available 12/25
“Good People” (2014)
Available 12/27
“Child of God” (2014)
“Labor Day” (2013)
Available 12/28
“Behaving Badly” (2014)
“Comedy Bang! Bang! Season 3”
“I, Frankenstein” (2014)
“Maron: Season 2”
“Jessie: Season 3”
Available 12/30
“Last Weekend” (2014)
I’ve seen A Knight’s Tale (2001) and American Beauty. Both pretty good movies. Marco Polo is Netflix’s big budget answer to Game of Thrones apparently. And I finally get to see Wolf of Wall Street. Yay!
Any other gems in there that shouldn’t be missed?
I have heard good things about Broadchurch (David Tennant!), and American Horror Story is usually nice and crazy.
Maron, Comedy Bang! Bang!, and anything by Bill Burr are all things I’d recommend for people who enjoy comedy. Maron is a lot like Louie, but with more of a continual storyline; basically with light touches of sitcom. Comedy Bang! Bang! is either genius or the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. Either way, the fact that liking the show has made me question myself, I think they’re doing a good job. I think Bill Burr is one of the funniest standup comedians working today, but I’ll admit that part of the charm is his Boston accent. It reminds me of home.
Uh, yeah…if you haven’t seen Almost Famous yet, my gosh, see it when it comes to Netflix.
OK. I tried watching that when I was 12, but it was too boring for a 12 year old and I bailed quickly.
Dude, you’re younger than I thought.
Huh?
(Looks it up).
Oh, it came out in 2000? Then I guess that wasn’t the movie I tried watching when I was 12. Weird. I totally thought it was called Almost Famous. I guess not. So I guess I’ve never attempted to watch Almost Famous after all.
Coven is my favorite season, though I know I’m in the minority.
Cyrano
3573
Thanks for the recommendation. My wife and I absolutely loved it.
Razgon
3574
For those who don’t know, Marvel’s Shield is on Netflix USA. Well, the entire first season is.
I have to agree with folks upthread. Catching Fire is a substantial improvement on the original, mediocre Hunger Games movie, and I think manages to do a bit better than the book, too, since I primarily remember feeling like Catching Fire the book was a retread of themes introduced in the first novel and didn’t really offer nearly as much forward movement as I would like. The movie seemed to focus a lot less on Hunger Games V2 and more on the sparks of revolution, which makes for a more satisfying place in the overall narrative to me. Or maybe I’m just appreciating it more on a second take, and it just happens to be the movie that’s giving it to me. <shrug>
I Am Santa
It’s a documentary that profiles those jolly guys that become Santa for a couple of months a year. There’s a low-end Santa at the local Midwest mall, the high-end Santa at an upscale California mall, a gay Santa in Texas, a Jersey Santa who ended a lifetime of anger management issues by living as Santa year-round, and Mick Foley.
Yes, Mick Foley. The WWE wrestler. As it turns out, he’s always been a gigantic Christmas freak.
It’s a pretty interesting, and at times heartwarming, look at professional Santas.
hepcat
3577
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fondly remembering the movie Nightbreed due to my love of all things Clive Barker (it’s based on his story Cabal). It was initially released in 1990 and supposedly the production was fraught with issues caused by the studio, director, etc… The end result was a flawed film that could’ve been better (allegedly). But there’s been talk for years about putting together a special cut of the film that would more closely adhere to Barker’s original vision.
That version was finally released on blu ray and dvd about a month ago. And I noticed it on Netflix last week. So of course, I grabbed some popcorn and hunkered down for this glorious event.
…only to realize I must have been stoned out of my gourd when I saw it the first time and didn’t laugh my ass off. It really isn’t very good. Even with David Cronenberg running around in a bondage mask slicing up anyone who momentarily looks the other way. Hell, it even has our two main characters posing heroically against a setting sun at the end.
But if you were a child of 80’s/90’s horror, I recommend checking it out. If nothing else, you’ll get bragging rights about how tough you are for sitting through it.
The checklist:
Male lead is, to paraphrase a wise man, “A loner, Dottie. A rebel.” He even has the t-shirt, leather jacket and super high waist jeans to prove it. Of course, the super high waist jeans from today’s viewpoint makes him look like he’s escaped from a mall walker’s club. But damn it, he’s a loner…a rebel!
Lead actress believes that shaking her head frequently gives her performance gravitas. Audience believes she’s having grand mal seizures every 3 minutes.
Synthesizer goes to 11.
Magic white and blue lightening added in post production in amounts that would cause the makers of Krull to go, “Whoa, too much, man.”.
Townspeople who form posses the minute someone spots a guy in high waist jeans and a leather jacket at Piggly Wiggly.
Enjoy!
Nightbreed is brought up a lot as some kind of hidden horror gem, and that’s always confounded me. It’s awful.
I think people just got entranced by the fanciful creature masks and got really high.
hepcat
3579
Or remembered the story it was based on and confused that with the movie adaptation over time. I think that might be my issue.
Clive Barker was kind the the “It” horror guy in the late 90’s and early 90’s. Most of his adaptations were horrible. The original Hellraiser was okay,but I’m not remembering any others that had any memorable qualities.
He did do a short story that I always thought should have been made into a movie, or maybe a story in a movie of vignettes. it was called “The Yattering and Jack.” For some reason I was in tears reading that story.
