With thousands and thousands of selections on the Netflix Watch Instantly service, it would be impossible to see them all in one lifetime. So here's a handy guide to find the films worth watching, the hidden treasures, the diamonds in the rough, the movies you thought might suck but actually kick ass, and so on. These selections come from my weekly appearances on "SBK Live" on Real Radio 104.1 FM (www.sbklive.com) on Monday nights at 8:45 pm.
From my original review posted on Examiner.com (found here):
"Cleanflix is a crazy documentary
about the insane practice of editing movies and reselling them to the
“family values” market. Starting up in Utah and quickly spreading
throughout the Midwest, savvy businessmen realized that there was a
large market of people who wanted to watch rated-R films but without all
the dang cussing and sex and violence in them. Basically, they wanted
to take out all the stuff that makes the movie rated-R in the first
place. After all, a respectable family is the one that sits all the kids
down for a sanitized viewing of The Big Lebowski (click here for an idea of why a censored version of The Big Lebowski is so funny)."
This is a fascinating documentary, one that I saw through the Florida Film Festival a couple of years ago, and I am glad to see it here available for easy, mass consumption. Because this story is crazy and people need to know about it.
Okay, this one isn't some sort of hidden gem or unknown masterpiece or hipster choice of the week, this is the one and only Glengarry Glen Ross, which is a heralded and well known movie.
But it IS twenty years old, almost drinking age, and since this movie was released, many things have happened, the world has changed in GREAT ways, and a whole new generation has been born into this post-Glengarry Glen Ross world. So sometimes certain things bear repeating, and this is one of those things. Watch Glengarry Glen Ross.
There, I said it. This is initially aimed at the youngings, those in the early 20s and youngers, the people too young to have seen the movie upon release and who haven't had a chance to see it yet. Hey, it happens, I understand. No one is judging here. This is your chance to see an excellent reason as to why people actually give a shit about that old dude Al Pacino, or Kevin Spacey for that matter. And you may be surprised to see a svelte Alec Baldwin, doing back then what he does best now - being a charismatic blowhard (albeit for one scene only, but oh what a scene). And there's this old guy in it named Jack Lemmon, and while it's no big deal to a whipper snapper like you since you don't even know who he was, just be advised that this performance from Mr. Lemmon was kind of a big deal, and his portrayal of sad sack Shelly "The Machine" Levine was something of a revelation to legions of admirers, fans and followers.
And for those of you, who have seen this movie, why not revisit it? When was the last time you even saw it? Back when it came out? Twenty years ago? Do you really remember the great lyricism and sing-songy quality of David Mamet's dialogue, being expertly and precisely spit out by actors of the highest order? Do you remember Ed Harris's tough exterior but insecure on the inside performance? Alan Arkin stumbling and bumbling around, oblivious to his surroundings? Pacino just killing it as the office hot shot? That aforementioned Baldwin walk on? Come on, this this is worth watching again.
From 2001, Sexy Beast is an insane crime drama, made insane by a blistering, electric, white hot performance from Sir Ben Kingsley, who got himself an Oscar nomination for acting with a role that is the exact opposite of the one he won an Oscar for twenty years prior, that of Mohandas Gandhi. Here in Sexy Beast, Kingsley plays Don Logan, an extremely violent and vitriolic sociopath of a mobster who is deadset on recruiting this one particular guy for this one particular job. The problem for Don is that this guy is retired and living the life of Riley in Spain, so Don has to crash this dude's house, impose himself on this guy, and then try to force him to come back to London to do a job. This is a well-made movie, featuring great English actors like Ian McShane and Ray Winstone, but no one is fooling nobody, in the end this movie is all about Sir Ben and how awesome he is in this role. So get with it and watch this now on the ole Netflix Watch Instant service.
From 1996, Bottle Rocket is Wes Anderson's first feature length film, co-written and made with fellow first timers Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson, and what a way to start this gaggle of varying careers, most notably that of reluctant actor turned movie star Owen Wilson, and most interestingly that of writer/director Wes Anderson, who has carved out an incredible niche for himself in the modern movie landscape in the fact that he has developed a distinctive and what many say "quirky" style which is easily distinguishable from the rest of the crap out there (though really this is because most people don't notice that he is actually aping the cinema greats of the 1960's French New Wave movement, what with their over stylization, painstaking detail to set design, and attention to strange character details), and much of his style and quirk can be found in Bottle Rocket, which includes the use of a fantastic score penned by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, and this great debut can be seen on the Netflix Instant so get to watching and enjoy and oh yeah James Caan is in this too so that's cool.
From 1974, The Conversation is the fantastic, award-winning thriller that Francis Ford Coppola directed between The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now, so to say he was in the midst of a nice run is an understatement. Featuring a world class lead performance from Gene Hackman, who was pretty much operating at the height of his powers at the time, small roles for Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall and John Cazale, and a tight story told really well, The Conversation is where its at, a great movie that is worth being talked about on the same level as Coppola's other towering works of art.
"What makes Headhunters so good is how every scene
and each piece of dialogue and every action resonates through the whole
movie, as everything has a point and purpose – there isn’t a single
wasted moment in this movie, it’s all information that will ultimately
serve the overall picture, which keeps the movie hurtling forward pretty
relentlessly and in an very entertaining way. A great central character
plus a very well told story makes for a great movie, easy to recommend
to anyone looking for a fun crime movie to take in."
That sells it right there, me thinks. Great story, great plotting, tight movie, it's totally worth seeing, trust me on this one (of course you trust me, why else are you even here? This is all built on TRUST).
"For thought provoking and idea driven science fiction, genre-hopper Michael Winterbottom brings us Code 46,
a film that explores the consequences of human modification and genetic
sampling and cloning. No intergalactic space battles here. Hell, they
don't even leave Earth. And there's no time travel either. It's just a
story set in the future, albeit a future where people speak a language
that is a mixture of English, Spanish and French, one can take Empathy
Drugs so they can read people's minds, and a special law is created to
prevent accidental genetic inbreeding. Guess what numerical code that
law is. Go ahead, take a wild stab at it, genius."
This is a great sci-fi tale, an interesting love story, and overall, a fantastic movie. So get with it.
