Netflix

[Marlowe]

 

List removed from the first post. See the most recent posts in the thread for recommendations and discussion of new releases. 

 

Netflix Genre Link - http://ogres-crypt.com/public/NetFlix-Streaming-Genres2.html

[Mortis]

Foreign

Merantau (2009) - Indonesian martial arts movie by the same folk bringing you The Raid later this year. Has some of the best fight scenes I've seen in ages and a decent story too.

[deerokus]

Great idea!

Documentary: Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

Beautiful, gripping film about a cave in France which contains the oldest drawings yet discovered. The film is partly about the process of its own making, which actually makes it all the more immersive, since for the first part of the film the viewer is guided around the cave along with Werner Herzog and his (tiny) crew, who are effectively on location scouting. It occasionally breaks out of the cave for interviews with local experts, most of whom are, in typical Herzog fashion, amusingly eccentric. As is often the case with his documentaries, there's a constructed, artifical element of the film, and a frankly bizarre post-script*, though it is not quite to the extent of some of them. A perfect film to put on with a glass of whisky and get absorbed into.

*

What is it with Herzog and non-sequiturs involving reptiles?

[lordcookie]

Is there a list online to browse the selection available (going on Netflix they only list about twenty or so per genre)?

There is no point me signing up for the service as it won't work with my crap connection but I'm happy to offer film recommendations.

[Mortis]

Instantwatcher.com but the site navigation is awful

[dfq23]

Spinal tap has to be on the comedy list. I would recommend once in a lifetime for the documentaries. It's all about the history of the new york cosmos

[LittleJoe]

TV

Comedy

Louie [season 1]

Closer to Seinfeld than Curb in the fictionalised versions of themselves stakes - it leans to the absurd and isn't really shot in the mockumentary style of Curb or Gervais' stuff - but definitely worth catching if you vaguely like either.

Like Seinfeld, there's no real overreaching theme and there's no big, intrusive celebrity cameos. Instead, it's just a collection of 'extended vignettes' about life in New York, sex, divorce, Catholicism. Very funny, quite affecting at times, and always brilliant.

Arrested Development

Don't really have to say much about this. There's no excuse not to watch it now.

Parks and Recreation [seasons 1-3]

Another The Office-style mockumentary.The first season isn't great but is worth sitting through to get a sense of the characters (like Seinfeld *again*, I guess).

The Larry Sanders Show

Classic 90s show-within-a-show comedy.

Film

Comedy

Manhattan Murder Mystery

One of three Allen films on Netflix. Not brilliant by any means, but a better than a lot of his later stuff. Pastichey,witty - you know what you're getting.

[deerokus]

Oh yes, for TV Comedy: 30 Rock. Another of those 'show within a show' shows. This time it's behind the scenes on an SNL-style show that absolutely isn't SNL, even though it is set in the place where SNL is filmed, and it is wrriten by and stars Tina Fey. It's a shame that it's relatively obscure in the UK. It is fairly mainstream, broad humour, but it is much funnier than something like Scrubs or Friends ever were, it's really quite silly and surreal, and there are occasional subtler moments, such as at least two wonderful LemonParty jokes that only real nerds who remember such disgusting early '00s memes would get.

[lordcookie]

Instantwatcher.com but the site navigation is awful

Cheers.

Well based on that site I'd recommend the following (apologies there are no IMDb links or reviews but it is quite a lengthy list):

Action

13 Assassins

Apocalypse Now

Jackie Brown

Speed

Cliffhanger

Die Hard

Lethal Weapon

Robocop

Escape from New York

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

The Chinese Connection

Animation

Mary and Max

FLCL

Castle of Cagliostro

Tangled

Classics

Edward Scissorhands

Slacker

Paper Moon

Hired Hand

Harold and Maude

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Kes

The Producers

Witchfinder General

Cul de Sac

The War Game

Zulu

Charade

Hud

The Hustler

Peeping Tom

All about Eve

Harvey

The Third Man

The Naked City

Comedy

Four Lions

Being John Malkovich

Train spotting

This is Spinal Tap

Drama

Fish Tank

Hunger

Brokeback Mountain

Romeo + Juliet

Naked

Light Sleeper

Naked Lunch

The Grifters

My Left Foot

Mona Lisa

The Long Good Friday

Kramer vs Kramer

Punch drunk Love

Horror

Theatre of Blood

Vampire Circus

Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Santa Sangre

Prince of Darkness

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Videodrome

Dead and Buried

Evil Dead

The Funhouse

The Howling

The Fury

Deep Red

The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Black Sabbath

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Big

They Live

The Fly

A Boy and His Dog

Silent Running

Thriller

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Lake Mungo

The Constant Gardener

Swimming Pool

Intacto

Reservoir Dogs

Dead Calm

Across 110th Street

[lordcookie]

And the two biggest categories...

Documentary

American: The Bill Hicks Story

The Arbor

The Rolling Stones: Stones in Exile

Collapse

The Cove

Yellowstone

Cocaine Cowboys

Helvetica

The Thin Blue Line

28 Up

21 Up

7 Up

The Atomic Cafe

Television

Mad Men

FLCL

The Larry Sanders Show

My So-Called Life

Kids in the Hall

Quantum Leap

Eerie Indiana

Jim Henson's The Storyteller

Twin Peaks

The Twilight Zone

[Paulando]

Jackie Brown is in 'action'?

Get The Iron Giant listed in animation

And Beavis and Butt-Head in TV.

[lordcookie]

Don't blame me for the film placements I just went off the genre groupings on the instantwatcher site. I'm sure I've missed loads, I went through about ten thousand films so they were becoming a bit of a blur.

[AK Bell]

You can't have Frasier up there and no Cheers. They're all I really watch on it at the moment.

Special mention for all of Star Trek on TV. And the new movie. HD The Originsl Series and TNG should be too as soon as they're released.

Don't put it up on the list, but it has Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct series on it. It's very cheap and cheesy but has its moments.

I'm wasting my netflix, aren't I?

Limitless was much better than I was expecting. Stick that on.

Doesn't it have the second & third Die Hard on too?

[scottcr]

Space Precinct!!! Fucking yas!!!

I've even got the flying police car toy in my loft.

[Silent Runner]

The Sweedish Millenium trilogy is on there. The first one is definitely worth watching to compare to the David Fincher version. The other 2 are pretty bad, though.

[Guest]

It only clicked with me last night that The A-Team is on there too. It's cheesy and that but I love a bit of A-Team!

[larrydavidsanger]

TV

King of the Hill series 1-13

Party Down

[Ben]

It has the brilliant Troll 2 on it, a favourite of the midnight cult screening circuit; it's up there with The Room for it's "so bad it's good"-ness. Your reaction to

from it will probably be a good indication if you'll enjoy the movie or not. The script is diabolical and completely baffling, the acting is wooden and the effects are terrible - I love it to pieces

Netfilx did have the very sweet and warm documentary about the film, Best Worst Movie, last week but I can't seem to find it now. Made by one of the original actors, it's a "where are they now" of the cast and the makers of the film focusing on it's new cult status - much to the chagrin of Troll 2's Italian director who genuinely thought he was making a good movie. Worth keeping an eye on if it returns.

The Oscar-shortlisted documentary Bill Cunningham New York is good too, very light (as you'd expect with it's focus on the fashion world) but you can't help but fall in love with the eponymous Cunningham - the 80 year old photographer for the New York Times who cycles around Manhattan taking photos of what people are wearing on the streets. It could do with a few more questions into his personal life and his upbringing, which is only touched upon briefly near the end, but it put a smile on my face almost throughout - a good man doing what he loves.

[AK Bell]

Yep, it looks like stuff is taken down all the time. Slackers needs to be taken off that list at the top now.

[Harsin]

Any chance we could expand this thread to encompass other streaming services. I know Netflix has much better streaming service than Lovefilm, but I imagine that many here are on their packages for film/game discs and get unlimited streaming as a bonus.

Tonight I watched Dr. Strangelove and a week ago I watched The Dark Knight, both films easily worthy of the 4-5 stars mandated in the OP I feel.

[AK Bell]

You could just make a new thread so it's not confusing

[Ben]

Having a unified streaming thread would make more sense I think, would just need people to specify where the films are from when listing recommendations.

[polygon_monkey]

Sports Night - The show Aaron Sorkin did before The West Wing. Good stuff (apart from the terribly inappropriate network mandated laugh track)

Chappelle's show

Senna

[Marlowe]

I don't want to compile and update two lists, especially when one would be for a service I don't even use. Nothing to stop Lovefilm users making their own thread.

[Oh Danny Boy]

great idea for a topic! certainly what was needed. This is what i've been watching recently on netflix which i recommend;

films:

The perfect host (worth watching just to see David Hyde Pierce playing a proper loony tune)

Robin Hoood; men in tights

Centurion

TV

Spartacus; blood and sand

Xena warrior princess

Hercules

South Park

Super Mario Bros

[Darragh]

Sports Night - The show Aaron Sorkin did before The West Wing. Good stuff (apart from the terribly inappropriate network mandated laugh track)

I watched the first episode of this today, it being the only Sorkin-scripted show/movie I've never seen. I'm looking forward to watching more of it, but Jesus tap-dancing Christ that laugh track really is awful. Literally every time audience laughter kicked in, it took me right out of the show. Woefully misused and poorly-implemented.

Never mind, though. As soon as I heard Isaac, the head honcho on the eponymous show-within-a-show, speak, I knew I recognised his voice. Then it hit me:

[polygon_monkey]

Apparently it gets phased out as the show progresses.

Also forgot to mention that Friday Night Lights is on there - in glorious HD!

[ravon]

I watched Jens Pulver:Driven (USA) last night and it was a stunning documentary about his life and preparation before his last fight in the WEC, If you love MMA its well worth a look.

[Paulando]

Noticed this 2009 animation on US Netflix last night:

Never heard of it before, but it sounds intriguing. Gets 8.2 on IMDb too.

A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.

Anyone seen it?

[lordcookie]

Yep, it was a film I had on my original recommendation list and here is my review for the film from a couple of years ago:

Mary & Max - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978762/

A young Austrailian girl with no friends starts an unlikely friendship with a 40 something New Yorker with Aspergers syndrome.

This is a lovely stop frame animated film that manages to effortlessly skirt humour, pathos and touching sentimentality often in the same scene. Just like the director's short films Mary & Max is told via heavy narration. Normally this is something I dislike but the scripts are so good it works brilliantly. The fact the story spans 20 odd years and is rather visually static (letter writing is hard to be dynamic) the voice over gives it vibrancy. The film is pretty depressing given the subject matter and what befalls both of the lead characters but the whole thing is shot through with a wonderful sense of humour and genuine warmth for the characters that it never becomes maudlin. The animation may seem crude by some standards but there are some wonderful little details and the characters are surprisingly expressive. The vocal cast are great. Sometimes when animated films cast star names they don't always fit with what is on screen but here you forget who is voicing them within the opening few minutes.

A lovely film.