Svetlana and I are pretty obsessed with Netflix. I take the slightly more OCD route though by rating all my movies (between 1 and 5 stars) and rearranging my queue on an hourly basis. I will often berate her for giving odd ratings: "5 stars out of 5 for The Descent? Really?" She doesn't give a shit. I also send a lot of "notes" to friends, a Netflix feature that allows you to suggest movies to your friends via an up to 200 character mini review. Svetlana wishes I would channel all my Netflix energy into BYT. So at her request every once in a while I'll post some of my mini-reviews from the past 4 years, a dozen or so at a time. Feel free to give me shit like I give her shit:
The Hammer
Huh? An (almost) straight to DVD sports comedy with Adam Carolla is actually a good natured, well acted, quirky, and consistently hilarious little movie.
4 Stars
Shortbus
A touching, funny, honest film about relationships in a post 9/11 NYC, Mitchell again creates a truly original film, developed by the actors via workshops and improv. Plus there's lots of fucking.
4 Stars
Battlestar Galactica: Season 1: Disc 1: The Miniseries
Way more entertaining than you would think.
5 Stars
Living in Oblivion
simply not funny, had to turn it off half way through
1 Star
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr.
Another amazing Morris documentary - don't read the synopsis, it's better to let it unfold suckas
5 Stars
Rambo III: Ultimate Edition
Final transformation of Rambo from the sympathetic complex character of First Blood to quintessential 80's action hero. Worth watching only for the historically ironic glorification of jihad.
2 Stars
Control Room
finally got around to watching this, a fascinating behind the scenes look of the Al Jazeera news network and the reporting of the first weeks of the Iraq war
4 Stars
This American Life: Season 1
Available to watch instantly, so good!
4 Stars
The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down
Poorly acted and at times pretty stupid, but hilarious and totally worth watching.
3 Stars
Stranger than Fiction
perfect
5 Stars
Eight Below
Surprisingly well made and exciting Disney family film, just finished watching it while snuggling with my dog on the couch - he loved it too (except for the human-only scenes which he found boring)
4 Stars
The Universe: Season 1
Entire series is worth watching, but Disc 4 which contains the finale "Beyond the Big Bang" is an absolute must. Truly awe inspiring, not just for geeks, don't miss out by renting Ms. Congeniality 2
5 Stars
God loves a cheerful giver.
I was skeptical of Stranger than Fiction, but it truly is great.
Great column! Keep up the good work.
I totally agree with giving five stars to the descent. most awesome horror flick! I went caving right after and freaked all my friends out by making suspicious, clicking noises in the dark. Fun!
But fours stars for Shortbus??? I thought it was one of the most annoying and self-indulgent movies ever. What a waste of time.....Urgh.
this is way better
shortbus is probably one of the most annoying, unsexy movies ever.
stranger than fiction however - absolutely perfect
Re: Shortbus
I don't think I ever said it was sexy... in fact Mitchell specifically wanted it to be unsexy.
I appreciated it a lot more after watching the special features and seeing the organic way in which the movie was actually made. I don't think anything like that has ever quite been tried before. Read up on it. Just seeing the end result and not understanding the context, I don't think I would give it 4 stars.
Re: I was skeptical of Stranger than Fiction, but it truly is great.
Me too!
i agree with cale about shortbus. i had a way different appreciation of the film after i watched the special features. as far as i know, it was a first attempt at making a film that had a real storyline and for all intents and purposes is a real movie, but with real fucking. definitely worth a netflix rental.
i just think that because everyone talks about all the sex in shortbus as one of the major advantages of this movie that everyone thinks the sex in the movie is sexy.
because nothing is less entertaining than watching unsexy sex. and as such I was not entertained at all by it.
and the people were really unlikable.
so unlikable that maybe they didn't deserve sex that is sexy?
was that the point?
i've reviewed it on byt before, btw.
click here
The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down had some pretty true-to-life stuff in it...but yeah, the acting was reeeeally bad.
Control Room was good, but not as good as Taxi to the Dark Side!
Svet - so basically you didn't like it because it didn't meet your pre-conceived notions about it?
Steph - Taxi to the Dark Side is in my watch instant queue, I'll get to it soon.
no, i just didn't like it.
i never want to see any part of it again.
and you liked it only after the extra features fixed your unliking of it. that's not a four star movie.
thats 3 at best.
Is 'Taxi to the Dark Side' is indeed as shocking as everyone saiz?
Apart from possibly the Morris entry, this is a fairly weak selection. I'm surprised at you, Cale.
3 stars is way too generous for schrott like shortbus. It ranks pretty high in my top 50 list of hate-movies.
Another recent entry is Happy Go Lucky (by Mike Leigh). Do not see this movie. I repeat: do not see this movie. I firmly believe that it has the potential to turn every optimistic, people loving person into a cynical misantroph. Schrott!
I netflixed Stranger than Fiction last night. You were right. I tried to forget that you said it was perfect so my expectations wouldnt be high. but it was.
I watched Mr. Death. You should have warned everybody that an elephant gets electrocuted in that film. For real. Gruesome. Just gruesome. But what an interesting documentary!