For my birthday, Melody and Jacob bought me a three month subscription to Netflix. I received my first movie on Tuesday, watched it that evening and had it in the mail Wednesday morning. Saturday I received my second. The turnaround is super quick and there’s nothing like opening up the mailbox to find a new movie waiting.
I think I’m going to like this.
One reason is the Neflix library. Where else can you find The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, Eraserhead, and The Man with the Screaming Brain? I tend to avoid mainstream stuff anyway, and Netflix is stocked with oddball, indie, out-of-the-norm fare. Of course, it’s got this kind of junk too. But who wants to waste their life watching Razzies?
Here’s my first ten selections, in order of appearance:
- Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
- Who Killed the Electric Car
- Millions
- Waco: The Rules of Engagement
- The Night of the Hunter
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Doctor Strangelove
- The Straight Story
- The Day After Trinity
- To End All Wars
Okay, so it’s not exactly a Hollywood A-list. But who needs The Notebook when you can rent The Thing with Two Heads? I happen to like documentaries (can you tell?) and my local video store only carries this crap. Besides, the Arts and Faith Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films has been a tremendous resource. It’s a compilation of films, reworked yearly by Christian film critics and cinephiles, ranked in order of “spiritual significance.” It’s a fantastic, but challenging list. Most of the films are independent and foreign films — not the kind of stuff you’ll find at Best Buy. But Netflix has them all.
Thus far, I’m watching two movies a week. At this rate, I’ll finish the Arts and Faith list by the end of the year. Hmm. Maybe I will have time for The Notebook.
ya know … it’s the simple things in life 😉
… two heads?
Arts and Faith Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films … interesting list
Okay Ame, The Thing with Two Heads has absolutely no aesthetic value. . .other than holding a place in B-movie lore. I love the tag line on the movie poster however: “They share the same body, but hate each others guts.” Now that’s a plot line! 🙂 🙂
I love Netflix. The Straight Story is really good. I’m going to show you what’s in my queue (keep in mind I have little ones and a teenager who likes watching movies with me. The teen and I like action, thrillers, and have a thing for Bruce Willis):
The Apostle (one of my faves to revisit)
Over the Hedge
Capote (been wanting to see this)
The Glass Menagerie (been reading Tennesse Williams)
Sleeping with the Enemy (to scare my daughter)
Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon 2 (I make my teen watch lots of eighties movies)
Striking Distance
Hart’s War
Tears of the Sun
Janet, you’ve gotta queue too? I liked The Apostle and probably should see it again. I saw the movie in the theater with my mother and recall asking afterwards, “Was he a saint or a sinner?”, to which Mom retorted, “Does he have to be one or the other?” She’s probably right. I liked Tears of the Sun, but I’m afraid I can pass on the Lethal Weapon and Sleeping with the Enemy exercise.
Believe it or not, The Apostle was filmed down my road. As a kid, I used to ride my three-wheeler in the swamp behind that church. One year the water rose and some of the graves, which we have to leave partially above the ground in these parts, actually popped up and floated across the road.
Anyway, my dad was asked to be in that movie, but he said no. They wanted genuine local cajuns to be in the congregation.
Anyway again, Here’s the surprise. I hated that movie. It had a couple of good scenes and some good acting but, in the words of Homer Simpson “Boring.”
BTW Mike, how do you do italics in these comment windows?
BTW 2, You’re mom is brilliant.
-dayle
dayle, “floating graves” is an intriguing concept. Perhaps a story lurks there. Look here for steps to italicize text. I wanted to walk you through, but it keeps italicizing the text. It’s HTML code and, since you will be starting your own website soon ;), you probably should brush up on it anyways.
thanks, Mike.
I checked out the link. Looks simple enough.
Funny story.
In my younger days, when I first saw pictures of Arlington cemetary on T.V. I was shocked that they only had crosses sticking out of the dirt. I thought “Wow, can’t we at least buy those heros some graves.” Then my father explained that since Virginia and most of the country isn’t several feet under sea level, they could actually completely bury their graves.
check out this picture:
http://www.painetworks.com/photos/if/if0170.JPG
We have to bury them in concrete sarcophagi or above ground tombs.
And yes, in the potter’s fields of New Orleans, there have been reports of body parts seeping up through the ground.
Back to the topic of the post. Sort of. Have you seen The Prestige? I think you’d like it.
-dayle
Oops, I forgot the forward slash.
-dayle
I did see The Prestige and did like it. I’m a fan of Christopher Nolan, who also directed Batman Begins and Memento. In the end, The Prestige was a blending of genres — something that I wish CBA was more tolerable of. But Bowie as Tesla was great. He’s come a long way from Ziggy Stardust.
Fun.
Don’t forget the Man With Two Brains. I think they are cousins.
And by the way I’m going to torture you with something. You have been tagged on Scrambled Dregs. I hope you have seven random facts that you can share with the world.
““They share the same body, but hate each others guts.†Now that’s a plot line!”
hummm . . . no tellin where an OMC with a MD could go with something like this!!!!!!!! 😉