A compendium of awesome movies on netflix instant

[YojimboMonkey]

because pollo is a jerk was wondering, I'm going to just list the first several awesome-to-pretty-cool movies I see that are available on netflix instant and you guys can add some or alternatively shred my suggestions with your barbs of cruelty or yet a third option, hopelessly derail the thread with some bullshit about knitting or something

The Fifth Element
DIE HARD (and II and With a Vengeance!)
The Omega Man featuring Charlton "Motherfucking" Heston
Moon
Time Bandits
Ong Bak
The Big Sleep
The Warriors
Cool Hand Goddamn Luke
Zero Effect
The Iron Giant
JAWS
Yojimbo
Sanjuro (containing one of my favorite moments in cinematic history)
for that matter a whole bunch of other Kurosawa movies
not to mention a bunch of Japanese gore movies that can be fun to watch too
and Korean horror movies out the yinyang
Valhalla Rising
Cronos

[davy]

The Cove

Documentaries on Scott Walker, Mission of Burma, Townes Van Zandt, Harry Nilsson, Leonard Cohen, Fela Kuti, etc
Man on Wire
Barry Lyndon
Dirty Harry
Who's Harry Crumb
Ken Burns documentaries (Jazz, The War, Baseball)
Buncha stand-up stuff
Buncha National Geographic stuff
Code 46

...and that's just stuff from my queue I haven't seen yet that I'm looking forward to seeing.

[hannah]

Every season of the X-Files
Assorted Hitchcock, Hawks, Cukor, Capra, etc. films
Many fabulous Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger films
Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible and other Eisensteins
Ugetsu
...these last few are leading me to believe that almost every Criterion Collection release is on Netflix Instant. Which is pretty awesome.
FrontLine docs
The Life of Mammals
The Life of Birds

[Bernard]

This is just my real queue, can't say they're all awesome!

My Mother's Smile    Play    
The Son    Play    
Still Walking    Play    
Peter and the Wolf    Play    
Glass: Portrait in Twelve Parts    Play    
From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China    Play    
A Wayfarer's Journey: Listening to Mahler    Play    
The Baader Meinhof Complex    Play    
John Cage: One 11 with 103    Play    
Beautiful Losers    Play    
Rivers and Tides    Play    
Zizek: The Reality of the Virtual    Play    
London to Brighton    Play    
Bullitt    Play    
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations: 6    Play    
21 Jump Street: Season 4    Play    
La Captive    Play    
Tomorrow We Move    Play    
Private Fears in Public Places    Play    
Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails    Play    
Thomas and the Jet Engine    Play    
Thomas & Friends: A Big Day for Thomas    Play    
Caillou: Caillou the Everyday Hero    Play    
Caillou: Caillou the Creative    Play    
Caillou: Caillou's Family Fun    Play    
Jan Svankmajer: The Ossuary & Other Tales    Play    
Alice    Play    
Labyrinth of Darkness: Jiri Barta    Play    
Damned If You Don't    Play    
The Gleaners and I    Play    
The Piano Teacher    Play    
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari    Play    
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse    Play    
Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler    Play    
Nosferatu    Play    
The Day I Became a Woman    Play    
The Song of Sparrows    Play    
Leila    Play    
Hamoun    Play    
The Deserted Station    Play    
Day Break    Play    
The Suitors    Play    
The Beaches of Agnès    Play    
Flight of the Red Balloon    Play    
A Christmas Tale    Play    
The Five Obstructions    Play    
 Hunger    Play    
The Spirit of the Beehive    Play    
Mother    Play    
Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary    Play    
 Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl    Play    
A Talking Picture    Play    
I'm Going Home    Play    
Dot the I    Play    
The White Ribbon    Play    
The Corporation    Play    
The Night of the Shooting Stars    Play    
A Prophet    Play    

[Bernard]

part B
Grey Gardens    Play    
Derek    Play    
 Iraq in Fragments    Play    
 Laura    Play    
Men at Work    Play    
Vidas Secas    Play    
Malcolm X    Play    
The Twelve Chairs    Play    
Frank Lloyd Wright    Play    
 Carol's Journey    Play    
Barry Lyndon    Play    
East of Eden: Special Edition    Play    
The Architecture of Doom    Play    
 Au Revoir Les Enfants    Play    
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead    Play    
Jules and Jim    Play    
A Nos Amours    Play    
To Be and To Have    Play    
Sex Is Comedy    Play    
Following    Play    
Nightwatching    Play    
Rembrandt's J'accuse    Play    
   

[YojimboMonkey]

Caillou & Thomas: NOT awesome pollo.  Please take note.

[hannah]

ha!

[Greg Nog]

One day, when I was teaching kindergarten, we were handing out books, and this one kid said he wanted to read "The Caillou book".  I had no idea what he was talking about; none of the books had anything that looked like the word "Kai-yoo" on them, and I'd never heard of the character.

"I don't think we have that," I said.

"You do!  There's a Caillou book in there!" said the kid.  At this point, a bunch of other kids started piping up:  "Yeah!  Caillou!  The Caillou book!"  I stood there, totally confused.  Finally, one of the kids pointed to the book he'd been reading.  "This one!" he said.

The book was called "Letters and Numbers," or something equally bland, and had a picture of a round-headed bald white child on the front.  I said, "That's the Kai-yoo book?" and all the kids nodded vigorously and sincerely.  I thought maybe I was witnessing some kind of mass hallucination.

Only months later did I see an ad for Caillou on TV, and finally connected the bald kid on that book to Caillou.  I believe I shouted, "Holy shit, CAILLOU!"

[Bernard]

I place my queue before you in all its nakedity. MOCK ME IF YOU WILL.

[Maaik]

I don't really keep up an instant view Q, I'm way too fickle, though it would be easier to keep track of stuff I want to see.

Watched Restrepo last night.  Jesus Christ, what a fucking nightmare.

[mountmccabe]

Nightwatching    Play    
Rembrandt's J'accuse    Play    
   

I watched much of the latter and just the start of the former (someone else was watching;) and it's really an interesting pair. That Greenaway could make an entire documentary about the painting and the artist and the period shows that he really knew his shit for the film. Though I need to sit down and watch all of the film, right now all I have is that the lighting was exquisite... though I kinda had that at Greenaway.

The Belly of an Architect is also on Instant and has come highly recommended to me.

[Nick Ink]

I have mixed feelings about Caillou. He can be a bit whiny.

[elpollodiablo]

This is a great thread idea!

[hannah]

Watched Restrepo last night.  Jesus Christ, what a fucking nightmare.

Amazing film... absolutely devastating. Weirdly overlooked this year on top ten lists.

[elpollodiablo]

I've had that kicking around my Movies folder for months. Have to check it out.

[Greg Nog]

Here's a bunch of movies I've rated as 4 or 5 stars that seem to be available on Instant at the moment:

Kicking and Screaming - Post-college malaise comedy.
Duck, You Sucker (aka A Fistful of Dynamite) - Sergio Leone western, heavy on the class warfare, totally over the top in that Sergio Leone way.
Dogs Decoded - documentary about the genetics of dogs.
Valhalla Rising - pensive Vikings, periodic brutality, lots of craggy scenery.
La Jetee - artsy sci-fi, only a half hour long, 12 Monkeys was based on this.
Moon - Sam Rockwell is alone on the Moon.
District B-13 - French action movie featuring lots of parkour.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - semi-hallucinogenic crime procedural that may or may not be a bizarre fantasy.
The Battle of Algiers - awesome agitprop about the Algerian revolution.
Up - kids movie that features a very great dog.
The Iron Giant - kids movie about a Maine boy who befriends a space robot.
Let The Right One In - vampire child moves next door and acts spooky.
The Big Lebowski - ambling slacker-comedy structured like a Chandlerian mystery, White Russians are drank.
A Prophet - French mob movie that takes place mostly in prison. I loved it, and I generally hate mob movies.
Star Trek - the new one.  Lots of action, space-cowboyism, Romulans.
Brick - High-school pseudo-noir, quiet and suspenseful.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Road movie featuring robots from the future who want to kill each other.
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - Hyperactive manchild goes searching for his lost bicycle.
In The Mood For Love - Hong Kong man and woman fall in love and are so sad.
Happy Together - Hong Kong man and man are in love and are so sad.
Blade Runner - detective is hunting robots in grim dystopia.
Harold and Maude - teenager falls in love with old lady.
Reign of Fire - Americans kill dragons with axes, British people do a post-apocalyptic Arthurian thing.  Dragons.  Dragons.
Seven Samurai - Samurai band together to defend an oft-pillage town from robbers.
The Passion of Joan of Arc - 1928 silent movie about Joan of Arc's sentencing and SPOILER ALERT death.
Waiting for Guffman - small town puts on a musical and things go wrong.
Grey Gardens - documentary about Jackie Onassis's hermit-like relatives, who swing back and forth between cheer and pathos.
Man With the Movie Camera - 1929 silent documentary about Soviet life.
Being John Malkovich - a door to an actor's head is discovered, and people attempt to use it for personal gain.
Amadeus - a composer is mad at another composer because he is a genius.
Beetlejuice - a newly-dead couple hire an excitable demon to haunt their house.
The Fifth Element - Moebiusesque sci-fi, loud and slightly vapid and fantastic.
Oldboy - Korean revenge drama.
The Fugitive - A man is on the run from the law after being accused of killing his wife.
Encounters at the End of the World - a documentary in which Werner Herzog talks to people who live in Antarctica.

This is all movie-length stuff, I think, and I didn't include TV shows.  But a lot of the BBC Life documentaries (Life of Mammals, Blue Planet, Life of Birds, etc) are also available, and are all completely kickass.

[nonotyet]

In The Mood For Love - Hong Kong man and woman fall in love and are so sad.
Happy Together - Hong Kong man and man are in love and are so sad.

hee hee hee hee

[peacocks]

I saw in the mood for love it was so beautiful.  and sad

[Greg Nog]

I liked it, but I think I actually preferred Happy Together, which was rougher and more Tallahassee-esque.

[auto-da-fey]

Kiss Me, Killer is a mid-70s Jess Franco film that's not on DVD or even VHS in the US but somehow popped up on instant viewing. It's not a bad intro into his work of that era: negligible thriller narrative, frequent near-hardcore sex, resort-town setting that belies threadbare budget, and some wacky camera pans and zooms. I kind of love it, but YMMV.

I'm kind of fascinated by the backstage circumstances of how some of these films wind up on instant viewing--stuff like that, or the 1985 Buddies, which I believe was the first film about AIDS but isn't on any home-viewing formats either (and appears to be gone now; think I posted about it around a year ago). I'm assuming their rights are just picked up as corollaries to larger package deals, but I'd like to think there are geeky Netflix functionaries enjoying the privileges their positions afford them and getting all psyched every time their obscure picks get a hit.

[auto-da-fey]

also, I'm gonna try to check out Restrepo tonight too, you guys have me sold.

[YojimboMonkey]

This is a great thread idea!

Thanks man, I did it all for you

Harold and Maude - teenager falls in love with old lady.

This is on my queue and I just noticed earlier it'll be off instant after the end of this month so get on it if you're gonna watch it.

also, I'm gonna try to check out Restrepo tonight too, you guys have me sold.

Me too, maybe not tonight but I'm definitely checking it out

& thanks for the obscure rec there adf I knew you'd come through

[jm]

Here's a bunch of movies I've rated as 4 or 5 stars that seem to be available on Instant at the moment:

Kicking and Screaming - Post-college malaise comedy.
Duck, You Sucker (aka A Fistful of Dynamite) - Sergio Leone western, heavy on the class warfare, totally over the top in that Sergio Leone way.
Dogs Decoded - documentary about the genetics of dogs.
Valhalla Rising - pensive Vikings, periodic brutality, lots of craggy scenery.
La Jetee - artsy sci-fi, only a half hour long, 12 Monkeys was based on this.
Moon - Sam Rockwell is alone on the Moon.
District B-13 - French action movie featuring lots of parkour.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - semi-hallucinogenic crime procedural that may or may not be a bizarre fantasy.
The Battle of Algiers - awesome agitprop about the Algerian revolution.
Up - kids movie that features a very great dog.
The Iron Giant - kids movie about a Maine boy who befriends a space robot.
Let The Right One In - vampire child moves next door and acts spooky.
The Big Lebowski - ambling slacker-comedy structured like a Chandlerian mystery, White Russians are drank.
A Prophet - French mob movie that takes place mostly in prison. I loved it, and I generally hate mob movies.
Star Trek - the new one.  Lots of action, space-cowboyism, Romulans.
Brick - High-school pseudo-noir, quiet and suspenseful.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Road movie featuring robots from the future who want to kill each other.
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - Hyperactive manchild goes searching for his lost bicycle.
In The Mood For Love - Hong Kong man and woman fall in love and are so sad.
Happy Together - Hong Kong man and man are in love and are so sad.
Blade Runner - detective is hunting robots in grim dystopia.
Harold and Maude - teenager falls in love with old lady.
Reign of Fire - Americans kill dragons with axes, British people do a post-apocalyptic Arthurian thing.  Dragons.  Dragons.
Seven Samurai - Samurai band together to defend an oft-pillage town from robbers.
The Passion of Joan of Arc - 1928 silent movie about Joan of Arc's sentencing and SPOILER ALERT death.
Waiting for Guffman - small town puts on a musical and things go wrong.
Grey Gardens - documentary about Jackie Onassis's hermit-like relatives, who swing back and forth between cheer and pathos.
Man With the Movie Camera - 1929 silent documentary about Soviet life.
Being John Malkovich - a door to an actor's head is discovered, and people attempt to use it for personal gain.
Amadeus - a composer is mad at another composer because he is a genius.
Beetlejuice - a newly-dead couple hire an excitable demon to haunt their house.
The Fifth Element - Moebiusesque sci-fi, loud and slightly vapid and fantastic.
Oldboy - Korean revenge drama.
The Fugitive - A man is on the run from the law after being accused of killing his wife.
Encounters at the End of the World - a documentary in which Werner Herzog talks to people who live in Antarctica.

This is all movie-length stuff, I think, and I didn't include TV shows.  But a lot of the BBC Life documentaries (Life of Mammals, Blue Planet, Life of Birds, etc) are also available, and are all completely kickass.

greg this list looks like my list in a big way

[G.C.R]

Greg I love your reviews!
So like, what is the deal with netflix? You pay a certain amount to join and can then watch the ones on "instant" online for free or something? How does it work?

[edison]

In my mind, Netflix is like baseball or something like that - filed under "American things I probably wouldn't understand even if someone explained me". Though I suspect Netflix is actually much easier than baseball.

edit: and I also love Greg's reviews!