The Netflix Experiment

I have decided that I don't use Netflix enough and there are way too many movies I've never heard of on it, so I'm going to put it to better use.

Twice a week, I shall watch a film on Netflix randomly, close my eyes, press the direction buttons around a bunch of times, land on a movie and watch it no matter what it is, with some rules of course.

No TV shows, stand up specials or films that I have already seen

So, the film has to be something I've never seen before, it can be a documentary, a foreign film or a film in the 1313 series (I hope not).

I've been super busy with work in Toronto, wedding planning and being tired (who knew being tired can keep you busy) so this is not only an effort to make me use Netflix more and watch more films, but an effort to get me posting around these parts more often.

Let the adventure begin?

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Suspect's Reviews

Completely aleatory is interesting but not sure if it's efficient for enjoyment/growth/education, you can still alter this to something better. There's a lot of crap on there too you know.

Nevertheless I'll be a keen reader.

You could alleviate the aleatory by restricting it to things Netflix recommends, or something. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. Cool experiment.

Watch all the movies I like.

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My IMDb page

Only if you list them all.

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Mubi

Week 1 - November 8th, 2013

American Mary



Mary is a medical student trying to become a surgeon. She is smart, skilled and beautiful. Low on money, she applies at a strip club, but ends up having to save the life of a tortured man instead (don't ask). A dancer, with a face full of plastic, gets a hold of her resume and calls her up, asking for a favour. This favour lets Mary use her medical skills and earns her big cash. Things seem to be going well for Mary, her instructor even invites her to a party....but good things don't last long. Mary is drugged and raped at the party and takes it upon herself to get revenge, using her....medical skills.

So this is a rape revenge film that seems uninterested in either of those things. Both of them happen in the middle of the film and are not really revisited again. There is a detective that is looking for the instructor, but not much else. She never takes revenge on the other doctors at the party. Instead this new feeling of power makes her open up her own body modification business. Doing the weird and abnormal things that other surgeons wouldn't normally do. Tongue splitting, limb exchange, horns....this film reveals a whole subculture of the grotesque and weird.

I feel like the film doesn't really have much of a story to tell. It relies on making you squirm a bit with the medical scenes, which are tame and short. We have no connection to our lead, and there is no climax. The film goes around aimlessly through the motions of what a movie should be. I found the most interesting and creepy thing about the film are the two woman who have gone to the extreme with the plastic surgery that their faces look like porcelain dolls.

Character relationships are thrown together and make no sense. The detective on the case never really pursues Mary, so there is no suspense of "will she get caught".

There are makings of a good cult film here, unfortunately American Mary falls short in far too many areas to be considered so.

That sounds awful. You a braver man than me going through with this experiment.

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Letterboxd

^ It's nothing special but not awful(if you meant American Mary there). For some reason American Mary got a lot of hype among the Horror community, high praise and everything. Don't know what all the fuss was about really...

There was a bit of hype surrounding this film, then it came and went with a whimper. I agree with TUS in that the film could have been so much more had it gone to the extremes that it deals with. It almost seems like the film was afraid to push the envelope.

damn man if you want to watch a netflix film then watch The Man From Nowhere!!

There are lots of interesting movies on Netflix, but the interface sucks. You will never be able to get a handle on what they have by clicking all those dumb-ass scrolling things. There are several third party search sites worth checking out -

http://www.hackingnetflix.com

http://www.instantwatchdb.com

http://instantwatcher.com

For my 2 cents, Instant Watcher is the weakest, Instantwatcher and Hacking are better. You will probably do better with any one of these than your random pick.

This is actually very similar to what my girlfriend and I have been doing for the last several weeks (we put every movie that we want to see, but haven't, in a bucket and pluck one out at random when we want to watch something). I never thought that somebody else would end up having the same idea. I look forward to seeing what other movies you end up watching.

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You should keep this going because it's a fun idea and there are some good, under-the-radar movies on instant right now. To be fair to you though I also would've given up if the first movie I had to watch was American Mary

I agree with mark. Watch all the movies I like.

These words and TUS's review do seem out of the ordinary as, as Nausicaa said, this caused a bit of a stir with the horror community over here and I've been interested in seeing what it was all about. I still am, but my enthusiasm's been tempered.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I have Netflix streaming but I find that I download torrent files for free and watch those more often. Netflix needs more content to keep my interest. I'm losing interest in Netflix.

Week 1 - November 15th, 2013

That Guy....Who Was In That Thing



Ever see a movie and see some guy, not the main star, usually a supporting character and say to yourself, "I've seen that guy before, he's in that thing!!!" Welcome to the documentary that explores those guys.

Xander Berkeley, Bruce Davison, Zeljko Ivanek, Paul Guilfoyle, Gregory Itzin, Wade Williams, if those names don't ring any bells, their faces will. Each one of these gentlemen have been in high profile tv shows or films and when they immediately appear on the screen people utter the title phrase to themselves. Years ago J.K. Simmons would have been in this film, but the guy has broken out from the THAT GUY moniker into his own.

The film interviews a few actors, their reasonings for becoming actors, their "one role" people seem to remember them from and what they hope the future lies in store for them. The film becomes more informational to the viewer on how actors get jobs, how they keep jobs, how the get fired, etc. It's not all glitz and glamour, these guys point that out. These gentlemen have recognizable faces, but still have trouble finding work.

What makes the film interesting is hearing their insight on Hollywood and the stories they tell. So often we have interviews with the A-list celebs going on about whatever film they are promoting. These guys are promoting nothing, they tell their stories and that's it.

Some people might be turned off by the fact that the documentary is simply talking heads and nothing else, but I think those going into this film know what they are getting into. This film could even be something aspiring actors can view before deciding whether or not they want this lifestyle. They might even change their minds.

I knew about 90% of the people they interviewed, and it got me thinking of people I would have included. I guess I'll have to wait for That Gal....Who Was In That Thing.

I gave it too.

I did my own Netflix experiment today. I wondered whether it was worth signing up to Netflix - so I picked 15 random movies to see if they were on Netflix in my region. Only 1 of them was! (Adaptation). I was staggered to find that movies such as Scarface, 500 Days of Summer, Temple of Doom and Gallipoli weren't on it.

That Guy Who Was in That Thing sounds pretty interesting. I think that I'll have to check it out.

It's interesting how Netflix tries to seperate it's new releases from it's streaming. I like to use their streaming directly to my big TV but rather use Red Box for new Dvd releases. I've pretty much seen all the older stuff Netflix has that interests me. Got tired of recommending movies to them. They could certainly improve their Asian stock. I have more Asian movies than Blockbuster and Netflix put together.