Some more of my favorite picks for your Netflix Instant viewing pleasure.
Easy A: The really nice thing about Netflix Instant is that it makes it easy to check out movies you’d probably never see otherwise, like this teen comedy based on The Scarlet Letter. I’d heard some good things about it but it’s probably something I’d never rent or see in a theater. We watched it this weekend, and it’s a fun film: Emma Stone is great as a high school girl who rides rumors of her promiscuity to new highs and then lows, and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson steal every scene they’re in as her goofball hippie parents.
A Bunch of James Bond Movies: These were added recently to celebrate the 50th anniversary of James Bond, and I suspect they won’t be up indefinitely. But, at the moment, you can watch Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Never Say Never Again, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, and Licence to Kill. That’s a weekend killer right there.
Black Dynamite: Kris mentioned it her last post, and it’s one of our favorites. This homage to blacksploitation films of the 1970’s made less than $300 thousand dollars at the box office but is one of the greatest spoofs of all time and hilarious start to finish. And, if you’re already a fan, the Nerdist podcast recently featured a panel with the actors and writers that’s worth a listen.
Farscape: I’ve never seen this sci-fi show, but it was recommended by a commenter the last time I posted a Stream Cuisine. His review: “Farscape. Farscape. Farscape. Farscape. Farscape.” That’s a strong argument.
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus: This movie is terrible in the way you want movies to be terrible. Filmed for the SyFy channel over the course of almost two weeks, it features 80’s pop star Debbie Gibson as a scientist trying to save the world from a giant prehistoric shark and an octopus the size of an aircraft carrier. Can you believe that nonsense? Debbie Gibson as a scientist? I did a write-up for it for my other long-neglected site last year.
Dreamscape: Remember this 80’s film? It was great, huh? Starring Dennis Quaid as a psychic who learns to enter people’s dreams, he must protect the President of the United States from an assassin sent into his dream to kill him because he’s gone soft on nuclear war. Ah, the 80’s, when all we had to worry about was the entire earth being destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Those were such simple times. With the dream-invading film Inception being such a huge hit, I’m sort of surprised Dreamscape isn’t being remade already.
The Tick: The short-lived live action television show from 2001, based on the comic book about a clueless superhero and his band of equally clueless superhero friends. Died well before its time.
Farscape, eh? I see you are a man of good taste! (Hope you enjoy(ed?) it!)
I love The Tick!
This might be a little spoilery (not an actual plot point or anything like that, just a stretching of what I understand about the laws of space) about Farscape and I don’t know how far you got into it, but what turned me off to it one day was that…a man jumps from one spaceship to another…in space. He seems a little winded from the act of bravado.