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Netflix Watch Instantly: Gems and Finds - Page 2

post #31 of 2399
2/11/10 at 3:54pm
Some of my favorites:
  • Cashback. Dark comedy, in HD, about an art student who can't sleep at all after his girlfriend dumps him, who seems to develop the power to stop time. I loved it.
  • Mister Foe
    Quirky drama starring Jamie Bell of Billy Eliot fame as the title character, a painfully shy teen with a voyeurism problem who thinks that his stepmother murdered his mother. Also starring the beautiful Sophia Myles, who displays pretty much all of her skin, which alone is worth the price of admission . In HD.
  • The Man from Earth
    Quiet Sci-Fi drama, about a college professor who's moving on, who reveals that he's an extremely old immortal to a small group of friends during a gathering to see him off. Not in HD, but it's almost completely a conversation set in a single room; HD video and surround sound wouldn't improve it much. Very, very good.
  • Jekyll
    Very good British Sci-Fi piece presented as six 50+ minute long parts concerning a modern-day Dr. Jekyll. Excellent, though not in HD.
  • Legend of the Seeker, Season 1 and Season 2
    Light-weight sword-and-sorcery fantasy television series which I've enjoyed. Season 2 is the current season, not available on DVD, with each new episode added on the Monday after the Sunday when it first airs. In very good HD (not broadcast in HD by the local station which carries it).
  • Trade
    An eye-opening, upsetting and sad drama about an ex-law-enforcement officer (Kevin Kline) who reluctantly teams up with a Mexican teen to find his daughter and the teen's little sister, both abducted by the same group of sex slave traders. Disliked by the critics, but enjoyed by Netflix subs, including me.
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post #32 of 2399
2/12/10 at 12:51pm
I just watched Cashback last night. It is a British movie so the comedy is British if you like that sort. I do. It raises some interesting questions about eroticism, beauty, lust, and love. This movie is not for the young ones or the prudish because there is a LOT of female nudity. To me the lead actor is not very good, his main ability seems to be staring with an expressionless face, but the movie doesn't suffer too much because of him. Nice recommendation.
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post #33 of 2399
2/12/10 at 2:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DragonLoaf View Post

I just watched Cashback last night. It is a British movie so the comedy is British if you like that sort. I do. It raises some interesting questions about eroticism, beauty, lust, and love. This movie is not for the young ones or the prudish because there is a LOT of female nudity. To me the lead actor is not very good, his main ability seems to be staring with an expressionless face, but the movie doesn't suffer too much because of him. Nice recommendation.

I figured that people would click through to the Netflix page about the film, see the rating and find out about the nudity--sorry if you were suprised by it. To be fair, the actor isn't asked to do much emoting in this role (Sean Biggerstaff, which sounds like a porn star alias, but apparently he was born with it ); his character is severely sleep-deprived, and constantly as exhausted as he could possibly get. (The actor portrayed Oliver Wood, Gryffindor quidditch tream captain, in the first two Harry Potter movies, released 5 and 4 years prior to Cashback).

BTW, Cashback was in HDNet's Sneak Preview series, a set of films which are shown once or twice on on HDNet Movies, a day sometime before their release to theaters; Mr. Foe was in that series as well. Most if not all of these films seem to end up as HD Netflix Watch Instantly streams.
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post #34 of 2399
2/13/10 at 5:26am
Thread Starter 
I definitely agree with Cashback and The Man From Earth...both great movies. There's a large discussion on The Man From Earth in the DVD section here. I loved it.

I have Trade and Mr. Foe in my queue. Jekyll sounds interesting as well. I'll have to add that.
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post #35 of 2399
2/13/10 at 4:38pm
Them
Classic 1950's Sci-Fi starring James Whitmore.

The Fly
Another classic 1950's Sci-Fi with Vincent Price.

Night of the Living Dead
George Romero's classic Sci-Fi thriller.

Of Mice and Men
Classic Steinbeck story starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.
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post #36 of 2399
2/15/10 at 5:53am
You can watch some South Park seasons.
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post #37 of 2399
2/15/10 at 8:11am
[quote=michaeltscott;18124974]I figured that people would click through to the Netflix page about the film, see the rating and find out about the nudity--sorry if you were suprised by it. To be fair, the actor isn't asked to do much emoting in this role (Sean Biggerstaff, which sounds like a porn star alias, but apparently he was born with it ); his character is severely sleep-deprived, and constantly as exhausted as he could possibly get. (The actor portrayed Oliver Wood, Gryffindor quidditch tream captain, in the first two Harry Potter movies, released 5 and 4 years prior to Cashback).

Oh, I was not surprised. I actually watched Cashback right before seeing your recommendation. I was just fleshing out some details that enquiring minds might want to know in order to make a decision whether to watch it.

Biggerstaff, , didn't notice that. Yeah, good defense of his acting, I agree.
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post #38 of 2399
2/22/10 at 6:40am
Watched The Boy In the Striped Pajamas last night. This is mandatory viewing. Watch it. Outstanding!

Thank you mproper!

The Vanishing is a Dutch film from 1988, so it's subtitled. It features an incredibly creepy examination of a sociopath and another man who is obsessed by his desire to know what happened to his wife. Great psychological drama.
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post #39 of 2399
2/22/10 at 12:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DragonLoaf View Post

The Vanishing is a Dutch film from 1988, so it's subtitled. It features an incredibly creepy examination of a sociopath and another man who is obsessed by his desire to know what happened to his wife. Great psychological drama.

The Vanishing is an excellent film, much superior to the Hollywood remake (starring Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock and Kiefer Southerland) with its forced happy ending. Unfortunately too many people object to subtitled foreign films (the original is in Dutch and French); I see that the Netflix stream has big, fat subtitles.
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post #40 of 2399
2/22/10 at 5:27pm
The Road Warrior
Film that put Mel Gibson on the map.

Raising Arizona
Wacky Coen brothers film starring Nicolas Cage.
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post #41 of 2399
2/23/10 at 5:26am
Der Baader Meinhof Komlpex German with subtitles.
Watched half of this last night and will finish it tonight. A story about German terrorists in the 70s. Action movie with lots of nudity as a plus.
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Baa...0&trkid=222336
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post #42 of 2399
3/1/10 at 9:05am
Thread Starter 
Hesitant to put this here because the movie definitely has issues, but I watched Deadgirl last night.

After skipping school, two students go to an abandoned asylum, where they find a barely alive woman, naked and chained to a bed. While one guy wants to free the girl, the other goes a bit crazy and decides to keep her tied up to use as a slave.

This movie takes a turn about 20 minutes into it that I was not expecting based on the writeup above, and I will not spoil it here. I loved the concept, but unfortunately it didn't provide the answers I was hoping for regarding the girl (hard to say anything without spoiling it). The other issue I had is that the actors portraying the students are at least 5-10 years too old for high school students, and they are a little too sex-starved crazy that some parts didn't seem believable.

However, I did like the concept, I was interested throughout.
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post #43 of 2399
3/1/10 at 11:06am
Nothing to contribute yet, but thanks for filling up my queue. I may never watch TV again...
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post #44 of 2399
3/1/10 at 11:52am
One of my favorites, Spartan, is now available as an HD stream. Written and directed by David Mamet, it's the only film I've ever seen where there are no artificial lines of dialog to help the viewer catch the story--people don't say things to each other which everyone present in the scene would obviously know.
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post #45 of 2399
3/2/10 at 4:46am
Good movie!
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post #46 of 2399
3/2/10 at 9:22am
Thread Starter 
I almost watched Spartan last night (had it in my queue for awhile) but decided on Fired Up! instead.

I've gotta tell ya, I was expecting just another dumb American Pie-like, teen sex comedy (and for the first 10 mins or so, that's what it was) but I ended up liking it a lot more than I expected. Sure, the story was predictable as hell (two jocks decide to go to cheerleading camp for the tail, and one cheerleader sees through their facade and resists the advances and you can see where it heads from there), but I actually ended up smiling/laughing through most of it. I think because the two male leads have great comedic timing and really played off of each other well. They make a good duo. Dialogue was funny and I rewound a couple times just to catch some of the banter between the two. And the humor stayed mostly in PG-13 territory and wasn't plastered with the F-bomb every 5 seconds (I'm no prude, but that does get on my nerves).

I dunno...another movie I'm hesitant to recommend as a "gem" but I did end up laughing quite a bit throughout so I'll include it here.
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post #47 of 2399
3/2/10 at 10:36am
Cosmos w/ Carl Sagan - Needs no introduction. Full series is available.

Jesus Camp - Probably the scariest documentary I've ever seen. Heartbreaking to watch children being brainwashed.

In addition, there are several great TV series on Netflix. I started watching Lost from Season 1 Episode 1 in October and was all caught up by the time season 6 started about a month or so ago. Now I have to get used to waiting a whole week between episodes. Much better to watch 2/day. Other TV series that I've noticed on there are:
  • Weeds
  • Numb3rs (last season only)
  • The Office
  • Hannah Montana (I have 2 daughters)
  • Wizards of Waverly Place (IBID)
  • Heroes
  • Doctor Who
  • Mythbusters
  • Saturday Night Live (I only watched the first season's first episode w/ George Carlin hosting, so I can't remember how many seasons they have)
So much good stuff...
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post #48 of 2399
3/2/10 at 12:40pm
Thread Starter 
Oh snap....was just browsing new releases on Watch Instantly, and lo-and-behold, what do I see?

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Drop whatever it is you are doing and watch it. Joss Whedon. Nathan Fillion. Neil Patrick Harris. The Evil League of Evil. Singing. Why are you still reading this?

And The Greatest American Hero Season 1?!?! There goes my weekend. EDIT: Crap...doesn't have the pilot or the last episode. I really hate Netflix when they do that. Grrrrr....
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post #49 of 2399
3/2/10 at 1:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mproper View Post

Oh snap....was just browsing new releases on Watch Instantly, and lo-and-behold, what do I see?

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Drop whatever it is you are doing and watch it. Joss Whedon. Nathan Fillion. Neil Patrick Harris. The Evil League of Evil. Singing. Why are you still reading this?

Noticed that a couple of days ago and already watched it (twice).
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post #50 of 2399
3/2/10 at 5:38pm
German cinema:

1. Dresden - love story, docudrama, the firebombing of Dresden and British pilot with German nurse. A+ movie.

2. A Woman in Berlin - the rape of Berlin by the glorious Red Army.

3. Aimee & Jaguar - Sappho's disciples in WW2 Berlin, same director as above, loved it.

4. Four Minutes - it turns out La Guillotine or Fallbeil (falling axe) took care of 16.500 WW2 political opponents in Germany and Austria alone, never knew it until i watched this. The piano used as a drum and harp was a great performance.

5. Baader-Meinhof Complex - the Red Army Faction's war on the state in West Germany, like hippies with weapons.

Nice to see that these people also have feelings in addition to technology.
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post #51 of 2399
3/2/10 at 6:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mproper View Post

Hesitant to put this here because the movie definitely has issues, but I watched Deadgirl last night.

After skipping school, two students go to an abandoned asylum, where they find a barely alive woman, naked and chained to a bed. While one guy wants to free the girl, the other goes a bit crazy and decides to keep her tied up to use as a slave.

This movie takes a turn about 20 minutes into it that I was not expecting based on the writeup above, and I will not spoil it here. I loved the concept, but unfortunately it didn't provide the answers I was hoping for regarding the girl (hard to say anything without spoiling it). The other issue I had is that the actors portraying the students are at least 5-10 years too old for high school students, and they are a little too sex-starved crazy that some parts didn't seem believable.

However, I did like the concept, I was interested throughout.

i watched this last night. definitely not a gem or a find..
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post #52 of 2399
3/4/10 at 12:40pm
The Signal This one is in the zombie movie vein, but with some different twists. It begins as a rather straight violent and gory horror movie, then in the middle it mixes in a lot of dark humor that for me is the part of the movie that makes it a gem. There are many cheesy-wonderful one-liners that made me laugh out loud. For the end of the movie it returns to more brutal gore and seriousness. A little disjointed, perhaps, but I gave it 4 stars.

For those who care there are no big-name actors in this movie, so if that makes it an automatic pan for you, don't watch it. I thought the acting was fine, especially the funny-creepy guy who comes over for the party and doesn't have a clue that people are killing one another.
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post #53 of 2399
3/5/10 at 12:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mproper View Post

And The Greatest American Hero Season 1?!?! There goes my weekend. EDIT: Crap...doesn't have the pilot or the last episode. I really hate Netflix when they do that. Grrrrr....

oh man, this is awesome.

to add on to the tv shows: No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain is a good one if you enjoy travel/food shows. I'd love to have a beer with that guy.
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post #54 of 2399
3/5/10 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chad473 View Post

oh man, this is awesome.

to add on to the tv shows: No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain is a good one if you enjoy travel/food shows. I'd love to have a beer with that guy.

Totally agree, Tony Bourdain is great!


As for movies, we really enjoyed The Visitor recently - excellent cast, interesting film. Academy award quality performances, fascinating character studies. This one stays with you long after you've watched the movie and moved on.


Widowed professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins, in an Oscar-nominated role) finds himself drawn to a different rhythm when he discovers an immigrant couple, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira), squatting in his Manhattan flat and becomes wrapped up in their lives. Hiam Abbass co-stars as Tarek's mother, who forges an unlikely connection with Walter when Tarek is thrown into a detention center.
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post #55 of 2399
3/5/10 at 3:07pm
Primer - awesome cerebral sci-fi film about a group of engineers who build a time machine.

Sin Nombre - Honduran teen flees a violent gang, making a run to the US border

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill - a documentary about a homeless man in San Francisco who adopts a flock of wild parrots.

Charley Varrick - a 70s bank heist flick featuring Walter Matthau
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post #56 of 2399
3/5/10 at 4:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubiczee View Post

Primer - awesome cerebral sci-fi film about a group of engineers who build a time machine.

I just looked that movie up on IMBD and it was made for $7,000 in 2005 !
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post #57 of 2399
3/5/10 at 4:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raymond42262 View Post

I just looked that movie up on IMBD and it was made for $7,000 in 2005 !

Wow, I knew it was very low budget, but that's crazy.
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post #58 of 2399
3/8/10 at 4:07pm
The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) - psychological thriller based on a true story starring Sean Penn
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post #59 of 2399
3/9/10 at 1:09pm
I have movies in my Queue to watch on my TV. Do these dissapear after a certain amount of time or are the movies taken down at some point and they dessapear from my queue?
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post #60 of 2399
3/9/10 at 1:29pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ringfinger View Post

I have movies in my Queue to watch on my TV. Do these dissapear after a certain amount of time or are the movies taken down at some point and they dessapear from my queue?

Depends on the licensing agreement. I've had a handful disappear (I think they get moved to a Saved section). They used to have an announcement up a month beforehand (it would show up in red in your queue) but I think they shortened that for a week for some reason.
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