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.

URL to share (right click and copy)

The original UK The Office is glorious. It's a fantastically hilarious show in that cringe-inducing way. I dunno, I felt it had a lot of heart. And it already was "a successful show", thank you.

I haven't seen much of the US version past season one which, as has already been pointed out, was pretty much a remake of the UK version, and therefore pretty devoid of interest.

The Natural History of the Chicken.

... there is a dramatic re-enactment of an elderly woman giving CPR to a chicken. Oh yes.

@Guillaume

Note, I said "when compared against the US version". And it was definitely cringe-worthy, just not in a good way.

Anyway, you should give the other seasons a try and then come back and tell us what you think.

I like the US version of The Office and thought the UK version was hilarious as well albeit in a much less slapstick manner.

Both are good though, imo at least.

For those who won't take me seriously about The Natural History of the Chicken, here is said re-enactment.

@Deerock69
That show is pretty cheesilicious and watchable, but I still think Amazing Friends, Spectacular, and maybe Unlimited were better.

@missypissy
Yeah, I never finished Evolution, either. I did watch the last couple of eps of '90s Spider-Man on Netflix. Ugh.

I can't decide what's worse. The continual mutation of Alistair Smythe or the Mary Jane clone made of water.

@PogueSquadron
It is kind of a weird setup, but I still enjoyed it. I dunno. I'm also kind of leery of the Mystiquification of the X-Verse, though.

@V_s
I always wanted to watch Pushing Daisies, since it was done by Tim Minear, who I loved on Angel and Firefly.

The only thing I can say about Pushies Daisies is that it's nice. It's not an amazing show, it's just cute and sometimes clever, but not as often as Wonderfalls.

Spectacular Spider-Man to me is far and away the best Spidey show. Like, not even a contest. I do have a soft spot for the 90s show but yeah, it doesn't hold up well. I'm excited to see how Ultimate does, since I loved those comics.

I am also Lind of interested in the new Spider-man game, especially now that Josh Keaton will be playing Amazing Spider-Man and Daniel Barnes will be 2099. The two best Spidey voices by far.

I just started watching Mad Men and it's pretty good so far. I hear it gets really go so I'm pretty excited to watch more.

I like Ultimate Spider-Man, but I wish they had just continued Spectacular. It was a great alternate take.

Also, I forgot to mention the CG movie-continuity Spider-Man cartoon, which Bendis was also involved with. That was alright.

I'm interested in the new Spider-Man game solely because it involves Spider-Man 2099 and Peter David is writing the script. Maybe he'll finally tie it all up. The gameplay of the last one left me totally dry, though. They took out the one fun part - the free-form web-swinging.

Guillaume said:

The only thing I can say about Pushies Daisies is that it's nice. It's not an amazing show, it's just cute and sometimes clever, but not as often as Wonderfalls.

I love Wonderfalls too (it's only a couple of shows below PD on my favorites list), but there's no way it beats Pushing Daisies to me. And I can understand the plot of Wonderfalls being more clever than that of PD's, but PD's dialogue and storytelling is infinitely more clever. Top that off with the fact that I love every major character in Pushing Daisies (except for the aunts; I just like the aunts), but I can only bring myself to love Jaye's character in Wonderfalls (and probably her brother, though I do REALLY like Eric's character and probably Mahandra, and then I like the rest of the family to a lesser extent), I just have to give it to Pushing Daisies.

Both are incredibly awesome shows though.

I feel that Pushing Daisies and Wonderfalls disappeared way too soon.
Heck, I also feel that way about Bryan Fuller's other show Dead Like Me even though most of the characters in that are pretty self-serving. It's too bad the Dead Like Me movie was horrible.
I also liked how all three of these shows had small cross over things (Happy Time Temp Agency and Muffin Buffalo). Pretty fun stuff.

Yeah, Dead Like Me was interesting enough, but I just could not bring myself to like more than one or two of the characters, and you're absolutely right about the other shows ending too soon. Though considering what they had planned for Wonderfalls' future, I might be happier with the ending it got since it wrapped up almost everything as well as it did. (I have no problem with their Season 2 plans with Jaye's psychiatrist writing a book about her, but the Season 3 plans where she gets thrown into a mental asylum because of her gifts didn't really sit right with me (especially given how the Eric/Jaye/Heidi plot line worked out), and I especially didn't like the proposed idea of a second Wax Lion being made that always contradicted the first one. That makes it seem like the voices aren't coming from a single entity if two of the voices contradict one another...)

I'm just counting down the days until that Pushing Daisies comic book finally gets released.

Just watched the movie Conviction with Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell, pretty great. True story too.

Amazing Stories is now on the Canadian Netflix.

...is it just me, or was that show not very good? I just watched the first 8 episodes and only The Amazing Falsworth was of any worth. And even then it was a bit predictable.

The Kevin Costner episode, The Mission, had potential but was ruined by a stupid ending.

I need a list of the episodes worth watching, because I'm not subjecting myself to 40 more episodes of this crap...

I'm currently making my way through Mad Men. I'm liking it more and more as it goes on.

I just finished watching Inception. It was certainly interesting, but not as good as the hype would have you believe. It certainly had impressive visual effects. There were many instances where I felt the story could have done a lot more than what it did. I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

First ep of The Sarah Silverman Show was surprisingly funny. I was expecting it to irritate me.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine is now on Netflix.

Oh god. Oh god.

I've just accessed the US Netflix.

Oh god.

I'll never stopped watching TV, ever.

So many TV shows! Oh my!

It's like seeing after being blind for years!

Do you know how many items we have under "TV Shows" on Netflix Canada?

Five.

And they're all Kids in the Hall.

THEY'RE ALL KIDS IN THE HALL.

@Guillaume
I am SO PROUD of you.

@V_s
Also, I can't believe I didn't reply to this post... I agree with you wholeheartedly. I do feel that Wonderfalls would have went in a different direction if they ACTUALLY made it to a third season though.