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Gangland 03-07-17 02:39 PM

Netflix Renaissance
 
A few months ago, I fell into a deep movie depression. For some reason, streaming **** just wasn't doing it for me anymore. I don't know why, but just having a DVD, and putting it in a DVD player always completed the ritual for me. Before the collapse, I worked at Blockbuster for about 8 years, so renting movies was the center of my life for almost a decade (you can read more about that here).

Streaming for me is just too instantaneous; bordering on cinematic prostitution. I know that's like someone saying today that they wish the Polio vaccine was never created because they miss the 1950's; I'm not saying this makes sense, it's just how I feel.

Anyway, one day, it suddenly hit me: Netflix by mail. I feverishly looked up to see if this still existed. It does. I instantly singed up and added movies to my queue. Most of the stuff at the top is **** I've always wanted to see, but for some reason I never watched. I'm trying to get that out of the way before I move on to movies I want to revisit.

I've had it for a few months soo far, and here's what I received:

-The American Friend (1977)
-Street Trash (1987)
-In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
-Cronos (1993)
-Witchfinder General (1968)
-Capone (1975)
-Zero Charisma (2013)
-The Element of Crime (1984)
-Cube (1997)
-Love is Colder Than Death (1969)
-All Through the Night (1942)
-Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
-The Street With No Name (1948)
-Underworld U.S.A. (1961) (My favorite out of the bunch)
-Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht (1979)
-Night and the City (1950) ( A close second out of the bunch)

Here is the current top ten in my queue (which changes weekly)

1.) The Driver (1978) (Long Wait)
2.) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (Long Wait)
3.) The Lineup (1958)
4.) Pickup on South Street (1953) (Already seen)
5.) Sympathy for the Underdog (1971)
6.) Odd Man Out (1947)
7.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
8.) Salvatore Guliano (1961)
9.) Stray Dog (1949)
10.)Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000)

The Driver and Where the Sidewalk Ends both have long waits, so I expect to get Eli Wallach FALCON KICKING some d00d in a wheel chair down the stairs in The Line Up next.

I plan to make this a continuous update, hoping this will be Viagra for conversation/debate.
Also, totally open for suggestions for additions to the queue.

Joel 03-07-17 04:27 PM

Re: Netflix Renaissance
 
I keep hearing "In the Mouth of Madness" is Carpenter's most underrated work. I've tried watching it twice with no luck. Maybe 3 times is a charm?

Cool list, BTW!

Gangland 03-07-17 04:41 PM

I keep hearing "In the Mouth of Madness" is Carpenter's most underrated work.
I definitely think it's his most alienating work. Everyone I've talked to about it either loves it or hates it. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll be rushing to watch it again. I still need to watch Prince of Darkness (1987). Any thoughts on that?

Cool list, BTW!
Appreciate it! You have any recommendations?

Blix the Goblin 03-07-17 04:52 PM

Re: Netflix Renaissance
 
I'm not a fan of Netflix Instant which I think gets worse every year, but yeah their DVD-by-mail service is great. I used it for over 10 years, and my first foray into classic movies is thanks to them. I can still remember getting Rear Window and Casablanca in the mail, opened up a whole new world for me.

One thing I really miss about Netflix is the old "friend" system where you could chat with other members and there were percentage meters telling you how close your tastes in movies were. I got some really great recommendations that way, and it's a shame they shut it down. Oh well

Joel 03-07-17 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by Gangland (Post 1663793)
I definitely think it's his most alienating work. Everyone I've talked to about it either loves it or hates it. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll be rushing to watch it again. I still need to watch Prince of Darkness (1987). Any thoughts on that?



Appreciate it! You have any recommendations?
"Prince of Darkness", absolutely. It's slow but very moody. Carpenter wrote it under a pen name, Martin Quatermass.

It's not a masterpiece, but it is sleek, looks great, music is killer!

Good, solid, slow moving Carpenter film.

And if you haven't seen it already, I'd recommend "Split" from 1989, directed by Chris Shaw. It's a trip and very funny, well made B picture that has tons of funny, strange details you could miss. It's absurd. Check it out if you can. :)

Redwell 03-07-17 04:59 PM

Re: Netflix Renaissance
 
I didn't even know they still offered that service. I have no problem streaming Netflix. I've amassed a pretty decent queue of stuff I wouldn't have found without the service. Most of the time I watch a movie it's from DVR, On Demand, Amazon Video, or Netflix. Oh, and bittorrent. ;)

OdumC 03-07-17 08:16 PM

Re: Netflix Renaissance
 
I used to swear by the Netflix mail service and never used streaming, but as they kept jacking the price up, I kept scaling down my plan... Now I'm down to one disk plan to cover anything not on streaming, and use streaming daily...

Plus it would have cost more to upgrade to blu-rays, and not everything is on blu-ray so odds are a lot of the time I'd still be getting dvd's even though I was paying for a blu-ray plan just to get the best copy where available.. and the streaming is 1080.. so the disk plans just got pointless.

Gangland 03-08-17 12:09 PM

Re: Netflix Renaissance
 
My problem with the streaming service is its lack of library. For me, you can't beat the selection that the by mail service opens up to you.

Gangland 03-14-17 01:23 PM

Because of a problem with the mail, it was timed that I received The Lineup (1958) and Pickup on South Street (1953) at the same time.

The Lineup is what I sort of expected it to be; sort of a warm up movie for Siegel's remake of The Killers (1964). Eli Wallach is great as the psychotic hitmen Dancer (But Richard Widmark is better at kicking people in wheelchairs).

Currently have: Pickup on South Street (1953)

Currently Top 10 in Queue:

1.) The Driver (1978) (Long Wait)
2.) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (Long Wait)
3.) Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000)
4.) Murder by Contract (1958)
5.) Sympathy for the Underdog (1971)
6.) Odd Man Out (1947)
7.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
8.) Salvatore Guliano (1961)
9.) Stray Dog (1949)
10.) The Brothers Rico (1957)

Gangland 03-21-17 10:46 AM

Finished Pickup on South Street (1953), which is a solid Samuel Fuller noir. Second time seeing it, and I enjoyed it as much as the first.

I was debating on if I should change my queue, or leave it as is. I suddenly thought about how, aside from The Elephant Man (1980) and Rabbits (2002) (Which initially creeped me the **** out, but that uneasiness soon turned to boredom since it's 42 minutes), I don't really care for any of David Lynch's filmography.

Giving it more thought, I considered giving Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001) another shot. A friend of mind recommended that I give Lost Highway (1997) another chance as well.

Along with some usual shuffling, here's the current top ten in the queue.


1.) The Driver (1978) (Long Wait)
2.) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (Long Wait)
3.) Blue Velvet (1986)
4.) Mulholland Drive (2001)
5.) Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000)
6.) Murder by Contract (1958)
7.) Odd Man Out (1947)
8.) Sympathy for the Underdog (1971)
9.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
10.) Salvatore Guliano (1961)

coffeegod 03-22-17 03:38 PM

Originally Posted by Joel (Post 1663805)
"Prince of Darkness", absolutely. It's slow but very moody. Carpenter wrote it under a pen name, Martin Quatermass.

It's not a masterpiece, but it is sleek, looks great, music is killer!

Good, solid, slow moving Carpenter film.

And if you haven't seen it already, I'd recommend "Split" from 1989, directed by Chris Shaw. It's a trip and very funny, well made B picture that has tons of funny, strange details you could miss. It's absurd. Check it out if you can. :)
I've never looked at Palmolive dishwashing liquid the same after viewing "The Prince of Darkness".

True story - I was working at a nuclear plant and the mainframe went bugnuts one afternoon and started scrolling ascii code nonstop. Upon witnessing this phenomena, I said that if a large container of Palmolive dishwashing liquid rolled into the plant, I was outta there. The project manager high fived me.

Joel 03-22-17 06:44 PM

Originally Posted by coffeegod (Post 1673268)
I've never looked at Palmolive dishwashing liquid the same after viewing "The Prince of Darkness".

True story - I was working at a nuclear plant and the mainframe went bugnuts one afternoon and started scrolling ascii code nonstop. Upon witnessing this phenomena, I said that if a large container of Palmolive dishwashing liquid rolled into the plant, I was outta there. The project manager high fived me.
Hilarious!...

Next time that happens, stare at the screen and mumble quietly.." that's ca ca"...then wait a few beats and repeat..."...ca ca...".

Gangland 03-27-17 11:55 AM

Re watched Blue Velvet (1986), which I definitely enjoyed more a second time around. Being close to a decade since my last viewing, my appreciation for the movie has certainly expanded.

Though, I still think this movie is a victim of hype for me; it's definitely a good one, but I wouldn't hail it as the masterpiece that its reputation boasts.

I put Lynch's stuff on the back burner for the moment.

I remember back in like 2011/2012, I caught the end of Bully on TV. Suddenly have the urge to watch the rest of it now.


Current Top 10:

1.)The Driver (1978) (Long Wait)
2.)Where the Sidewalk Ends(1950) (Long Wait)
3.)Bully(2001)
4.)Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000)
5.)Murder by Contract (1958)
6.)The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
7.)Salvatore Guliano (1961)
8.)The Brothers Rico (1957)
9.)Odd Man Out (1947)
10.)Sympathy for the Underdog (1971)

Gangland 04-05-17 01:02 PM

I got Bully (2001) in, but at this point I feel bad putting a movie made past 1955 in my queue, so THE NOIR KICK CONTINUES! THAT'S MY ONE ARM MAN! THAT'S MY SERIES ARC! 97 MORE YEARS OF NOIR!

1.) The Driver (1978) (Long Wait)
2.) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (Long Wait)
3.) The Garment Jungle (1957) (Short Wait)
4.) The Killers (1946)
5.) Kiss of Death (1947)
6.) Force of Evil (1948)
7.) DOA (1950)
8.) Gun Crazy (1949)
9.) The Brothers Rico (1957)
10.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)


Swan 04-05-17 01:10 PM

Interesting perspective, and to each their own. I think Netflix should start a show about themselves and call it The Cinematic Prostitutes.

Cool that you found a workaround with Netflix DVD, which I still use too. I love physical media and still purchase blu-rays and DVD's. But the convenience of streaming is just fantastic in my opinion, I really love it. I am subscribed to Netflix, Filmstruck, HBO Go and Shudder, and I love having such a massive supply of films ready to be watched of all different kinds. I can't even imagine what buying all these would cost. I think, overall, there is a balance I have struck with all this. I still buy movies but I am more willing to hold off if I know it's available on one of the streaming services. As someone with a past spending addiction, it's a great feeling saying no to buying something like that, and is another reason I love streaming services. Plus it makes shopping a little easier, because I can put some of those films aside in favor of films that are not streamable.

But I love the term cinematic prostitutes. I'm going to make a grindcore band that screams about movies and call it that. :D

matt72582 04-05-17 01:14 PM

Re: Netflix Renaissance
 
I have Netflix for a month, but I don't even see a "Classic" section.. I think I saw the few good ones. I only got it for a few recent stand-up comedy specials.

My cousin gave me Hulu, which I used to love, but of course they don't have any Criterion anymore, I couldn't find a single movie to watch.

Gangland 04-05-17 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by Swan (Post 1682630)
Interesting perspective, and to each their own. I think Netflix should start a show about themselves and call it The Cinematic Prostitutes.

Cool that you found a workaround with Netflix DVD, which I still use too. I love physical media and still purchase blu-rays and DVD's. But the convenience of streaming is just fantastic in my opinion, I really love it. I am subscribed to Netflix, Filmstruck, HBO Go and Shudder, and I love having such a massive supply of films ready to be watched of all different kinds. I can't even imagine what buying all these would cost. I think, overall, there is a balance I have struck with all this. I still buy movies but I am more willing to hold off if I know it's available on one of the streaming services. As someone with a past spending addiction, it's a great feeling saying no to buying something like that, and is another reason I love streaming services. Plus it makes shopping a little easier, because I can put some of those films aside in favor of films that are not streamable.

But I love the term cinematic prostitutes. I'm going to make a grindcore band that screams about movies and call it that. :D
hahaha, I'm glad you enjoyed "cinematic prostitutes."

I also have Hulu and Netflix Streaming, but their library just doesn't fulfill my needs. I still buy DVD/Blurays from time to time, but nowhere near as much as I was 5-7 years ago.

Gangland 04-05-17 02:17 PM

Originally Posted by matt72582 (Post 1682634)
I have Netflix for a month, but I don't even see a "Classic" section.. I think I saw the few good ones. I only got it for a few recent stand-up comedy specials.

My cousin gave me Hulu, which I used to love, but of course they don't have any Criterion anymore, I couldn't find a single movie to watch.
Yea, it's hard justifying to continue to subscribe to Hulu since their Criterion section was lost.

matt72582 04-05-17 03:28 PM

Re: Netflix Renaissance
 
Louis CK has a new special out.. It's ok. I know he's better than that, though.

Yoda 04-05-17 03:47 PM

Originally Posted by matt72582 (Post 1682710)
Louis CK has a new special out.. It's ok. I know he's better than that, though.
I haven't seen it yet, but from the sound of things it's going to be really close to the material he performed when my wife and I saw him live a few months ago. We were pleasantly surprised that virtually all of it was new, but I'm guessing the flip side of that is that virtually all of it's going to be in the special, too.


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