Netflix. It's on the 360, it's on PS3, it's on the Wii, it's $8 a month, it doesn't require a disc, and it's now even in Canada (with a severely reduced selection). So. Unless you're really poor, a picky Canadian, a hater of the 7th art, or European, there's no excuse for not having it!

What movies has the streaming service allowed you to discover?

Because of the limited selection here in Canada, which denies us access to some of the more recent and popular movies on the service, I've been using Netflix to watch 2 different kinds of movies: terrible crap that I'd never make any effort or pay anything to see (The Happening, Teen Wolf Too), and highly respected and acclaimed foreign movies that for some reason I always put back on the shelf without renting when I'm at the video store.

So here's a recommendation for you:

Amores Perros - This movie received much acclaim, won many prizes, and I'm probably one of the last chumps to see it. But hey, maybe you haven't seen it either, so at least I'm better than you. From looking at the title, you may recognize the word "amores" (love) and get totally the wrong idea about the movie. You may also recognize "perros" (dog) and be completely befuddled. Basically, the movie contains three vignettes in which cruelty and, yes, love, are central themes.

For one third of the movie, you follow the story of a kid using his dog to participate in dog fights and win money so he can elope with his brother's wife. For the second part, you follow a couple's crumbling relationship and oh god you're getting totally the wrong idea again. Don't worry, it's totally interesting and plays out a bit like a thriller. Actually, watching it I felt like I was reading an Edgar Allan Poe short story, but maybe it's just because it features... sounds... coming out of the floorboard. The third story is about this vagrant who abandoned his family to become a guerillero, went to prison, and now takes on hitman jobs from the corrupt cop who arrested him.

The characters cross each others' paths a couple of time, so you could say it's a bit like Pulp Fiction in that way, except I found the stories and characters in this film infinitely more interesting. Heh.

I don't know what your experience with foreign movies is or what you think of them, all I can say is that this movie is absolutely not boring. From the first scene to the last, I was hooked.

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Yea, its the new one.

gamewizard65 said:

Yea, its the new one.

You're just telling me what I WANT to hear, aren't you? I have to go check this out right now before I go bat shit insane.

The little of I've seen of the new Battlestar didn't impress me. It looked well made, but I'm picky about my sci-fi. Battlestar has always struck me as somewhat of a Star Wars rip-off, and their frequent use of their made-up cuss word "frack" is cheezy and a big turn-off. Why not just have them cuss for real and have it bleeped out for broadcast but have it unedited for DVD? Makes way more sense to me.

Anyway though, I just signed up for Netflix yesterday. I've only watched one movie so far, Born On The Fourth Of July, and it was quite good. I didn't really like the turn Tom Cruise's character takes in the story, but he was superb in the movie. Maybe his best acted movie I've seen of his so far. I want to check out Inception plus start knocking out some movies in my Hall Of Shame of movies that everyone has seen that I haven't like The Godfather movies, Schindler's List, Airlplane (since Leslie Nielsen just died), and a few others. I can see myself getting addicted to Netflix pretty easily. They have a great selection and it's very easy to use and very convenient.

Yeah I freaked out a little too, especially since we just watched them all recently (using the library for most of our viewing pleasure, which sucked because the discs were scratched to hell). I love love LOVE BSG, it's one of my favorites.

@WrathOfSamus777

It's way more Star Trek influenced than Star Wars. It's actually nothing like Star Wars. And "frack" makes sense kind of. It just shows how arbitrary the meanings of a culture's words are. It's not like they're from Earth, they're a different society on another planet. But I guess the only issue is that their are very few words that are different like that. So it's a little contrived but it works. Bleeping would have been terrible.

I'm really loving Avatar. Just started watching it this morning and I have to say it's pretty awesome. I'm on Disc 4 of the first season. Loving the action and characters in this one :).

@shinriley

It's so awesome. Although I just watched all of the seasons, I'm getting ready to do it again.

@Marsh

I really like the new BSG. Like, I was addicted when I first watched it years ago. I'm not saying the old show is bad or anything, but I like the new one so much more. I feel the same way about Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was so addicted to that show, but I didn't really care for the old Star Trek that much.

No no, the old show was bad. And quite honestly, I tried watching the new one and couldn't stand it. None of the characters had any redeemable qualities, and 100% of the conflicts would have been resolved if they spoke to each other. I can't stand that stuff.

I started watching Heroes last week. I think I'm addicted. The writing isn't very good, but I like the plot and the atmosphere of the show.

@Pandareus

I haven't seen BSG in years, so I'm going to look at it again before I comment further on it. Who knows, my opinion may change. I just remember being absolutely engrossed in the series some years back, but I never had the time to sit down and watch it cohesively. Man, Netflix is so aweome.

@casper884 - You think you've seen bad writing in Heroes? Just wait until you get to Season 3.

@V_s

It really is bad. I absolutely hate when they try to reveal relationships between characters in a 'subtle' way; "why, because you're my BROTHER". It's like, oh God please tell me you can do better than that. It's literally like the clues you get from Zelda where the key words are in red, blue, or green. For a game, it works. For a movie/show, it's just terrible writing.

But despite the writing, the actually plot is just very intriguing to me, and I'm always wondering what will happen next. I really like the concept of the show, more than anything else. The atmosphere is brilliantly eerie too.

Enjoy it while it lasts. The Stephen Kingesque mystery of the show is gone by season 2, and the whole show just gets more ridiculous and badly written as it goes on.

@Pandareus

Well...thanks. That sounds disappointing.

@Pandareus

Haha. Indeed. It reminded me of Lost. It was a good show, with a lot of good people, just a hugely confused creative writing team. While many shows just kind of make stuff up as they go along, Heroes and Lost seemed to make things up as they went from show to show. And if they wrote something in they wish they hadn't, a bizarre twist was added and what was done had magically become undone. And didn't Heroes miss out on a true finale? I'm glad I stopped watching it before things went truly south. It was fun while it lasted.

@NoName

I'm so pissed they took most of the Lost seasons off of Netflix. I mean, why?? What an idiotic move.

@NoName - LOST never magically undid anything. They changed the roles of one or two characters in the show, but that was it. I don't see how you're getting a confused creative team from that. As for Heroes, it depends on how you look at it. Season 4 got a true finale, and they ended it with such a scenario that it was a decent place to either end the series or keep going. They weren't renewed, so it worked out. A universe in which people start evolving super powers would be kind of hard to give a definitive end to one way or the other though without the powers all being wiped out or all the entire planet being wiped out though.

@casper884 - If it's any consolation, after the good Season 1 (because it does get better), the boring Season 2, and the AWFUL Season 3, it does pick up again with a really good Season 4 (though the beginning of the season did kind of suck).

@casper884

I hadn't noticed, but that is odd. I often thought about catching up on the series (as I missed quite a bit of it due to ABC's wonky program scheduling over the years), and thought I might turn to Netflix at some point. Well, hopefully they'll add them back in now that they are beefing up their streaming service.

@V_s

My words are more general than solid, so please do not let what I say offend. This is why I usually delete most of my posts. Unwittingly, my facetiousness is often misconstrued as fact.

@NoName

It's the internet. Posts get misconstrued all the time. I think it'd be better it you clarified your posts if you feel that they aren't being read well, rather than delete them, because that gives us more opportunities to know your writing style and tone.

So in short, please don't delete your posts.