Netflix Instant View Heads-Ups - Page 33

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Originally Posted by S.D. Bob Plissken 

I can't.  I love the show too much to NOT watch Season 6 (and 7 and I guess 8).

 

alright but you'll look back and remember me like that old guy that gave you directions to the haunted house but then told you not to go in. "You're all doomed...DOOOOOOOOOMED!"

 

I'm not expecting anything on par with Season 4&5, but if it can at least match the earlier seasons (particularly 1 or 3) then I won't be disappointed.

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Originally Posted by fuzzy dunlop 

Supernatural is up.  I'm looking for a new genre show and I'm considering taking the plunge.  Anybody seen it?  Worth watching?

Thanks for the heads-up. My little brother has been touting this show to me for years. I caught an ep or two back when I actually watched Smalllville-- five years ago, say-- and liked it well enough. I'm also a Ben Edlund fan, but I just never made watching it a priority.

And I need something to get into, now that I've burned through Misfits on Hulu. Think I'll give this a go.

I'd like to bring a little attention to a fun IW discovery I made called LUNOPOLIS. Netflix has so many low profile, low budget indie flicks that can so easily be lost in the shuffle and overlooked - sometimes deservedly, but there are some real gems mixed in.

LUNOPOLIS is in the latter category. It's a sci-fi film, told in faux-documentary style, that riffs on time travel, conspiracy theories, scientology, doomsday scenarios, and more. It's very low budget and sometimes that is very evident but they mostly do a good job with it and make up for the rough edges with uniqueness, lots of cool ideas, and by just being consistently engaging and entertaining.

If you love great movies, you'll do yourself a favor and watch Castaway on the Moon on Instant. Hurry up, too--it's not available anywhere else.

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Originally Posted by Mike J 

I watched Cave of Forgotten Dreams (I never miss a Herzog film, dammit!) and honestly, I found it a little dull. That does happen with his work occasionally but considering the guy seemingly makes a feature-length film every weekend, I guess they all can't be winners.

 

 

It's not his strongest and drags in the middle, slightly. But it's also the rare movie that absolutely needs to be seen in 3D. It adds a lot, seriously.

I'm A Cyborg But That's Okay, a Park Chan Wook comedy rarity, is up. That's a pretty deep cut. And also, Shaolin Soccer, which I find to be much much better than Kung Fu Hustle.

Ooo I'll have to check out Shaolin Soccer!  Thank you :). 

I think that's the reason I liked Soccer more. It's a bit more grounded, with no road runner legs or anything. For me, it's something like a Disney sports comedy, say, the Mighty Ducks, pitched at a ridiculously high emotional volume.

Love Kung Fu Hustle, but it's such a mess structurally.  It often feels insane for no real reason (which I guess is the point!).  And Looney Tunes were pretty solid structurally.  I'd have to say I would prefer Shaolin Soccer as well.  But I admit that it was the first Stephen Chow movie I'd seen.

I mean, how can you not love that shot of the team grabbing all of those free shoes and punching the store manager for trying to calm them down?

Still... in terms of random zaniness, I may prefer God of Cookery.

The Last Circus was a great call by CHUD.  I loved that movie.

Agreed with "Cave" by Herzog.  Fell asleep 20 minutes in.  Just couldn't do it.

The Last Circus is that rare balls-out, bug nuts insane clusterfuck that manages to throw everything and the kitchen sink at the wall to see what sticks and still manages to be interesting and entertaining without climbing up its own ass.

It was mezmerizing.  My fiancee came home just as the "sad clown" picked up the iron.... 

Her:  "What the fuck are you watching?" 

Me:  "The Last Circus.  There was this whole build-up to this....and....and.....well, you don't get....just trust me.  It's really good."

Her:  "Ok, I'm going to upstairs to watch Downton Abbey."

Me:   "Fair enough."

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Originally Posted by bendrix 

Man, when does Supernatural pick up? And if there's a turning point, how much harm done if I just skip to it? I respect its advocates on CHUD, so I know it has to get better, right? Please tell me it gets better.
I'm on ep 4 of the first season. I guess the next one, Bloody Mary, looks promising.

It's a bit like Buffy in that the 1st season is really rocky. For me it's seasons 3-5 that are perfect. Stop at 5 though, it's a perfect ending. Continuing will only harm you.

Also for anyone who hasn't seen the doc This Film is not Yet Rated, please do. My second time seeing it and im still amazed at the MPAA.

The appearance of Jim Beaver is a good milestone for Supernatural starting to turn good. There was a Tricia Helfer episode that really forced me to admit the show has some very strong elements and that I was willing to put up with Jared Padalecki, if that's what it took. It honestly might be best to just google which season one episodes are stand outs, or important, and check those out, then skip to season two. But most importantly, you just have to accept Supernatural's limitations. It's a CW show about beautiful boy-men punching demons, many of them hot women, and even though it's the best possible version of that show, there is something of a ceiling. Buffy's a good comparison, in truth. 

When I started watching the show when it came on, my brother told me that the secret is to skip everything in the first season except the pilot, the airplane episode, the haunted house/ghost hunters one, the Meg ones (they'll all say "Meg" in the description somewhere), and the last three. I never got lost or felt uninformed through the rest of the series after skipping so many. Season 2, I wouldn't necessarily skip too many of them, if only because they set up a lot of stuff, and the two-part finale is pretty good as I recall. Still, if you're feeling bored, go ahead and skip it and anything important will be either explained or featured on the next episode's "previously".

I didn't have as much problem with season six as most chewers seem to, but most definitely the first several episodes were fuckin' useless for the most part. To bring up the Buffy comparison again, it's kind of like the sixth season of that show: a lot of interesting single episodes, but a real schizo throughline and several annoying background plots.

I'm about halfway through of Season One of Supernatural, and am finding that to be the case. There are some alternately amusing/creepy moments-- but besides teasing out some of the long story arc, a lot of it is dull, adventure-of-the-week stuff so far. However, I'm soldiering on through each episode (nerd OCD), and looking forward to the point when everybody tells me this show gets good.

I found the same thing through a lot of the first season, but the chemistry of the two leads was enough to keep me going (I really love Ackles on this show). Around the end of the first season is where things really started picking up for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of season 2, and I'm about to start season 3.

That said, J.L.'s idea isn't a bad one. There isn't a ton of overarching plot you're going to miss if you skip episodes. To his list, I'd add that you should "Skin", if only for the fact that there are some delightfully gory creature effects (which you rarely get on network TV).

One of the little things that I love about the show is that they use some really great music. The season finales have the beginning of the show recap set to "Carry On My Wayward Son", and I swear I enjoyed that little bit just about as much as I enjoyed the episodes that followed.

I agree on Ackles, the guy's got charisma. I really disliked him on Smallville, but I guess I can chalk it up to that show's shitty writing... Watching later seasons of Smallville, I remember catching the recaps at the beginning of Supernatural episodes, and they were accompanied by some classic rock sting. Was that the Kansas song?

Also agree on "Skin"-- the shapeshifter's metamorphosis scene was a lot more gruesome and painful-looking than you usually see in genre shows when they do episodes like this, when they'd more likely use some smooth "morphing" CGI... But then the shapeshifter changed form so often and quickly toward the end of the episode, it kinda threw that away. Still, good episode. The ones I've liked so far have the threat of the week illustrating something about the brothers' relationship, and "Skin" did that pretty well.

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Originally Posted by Slim 

Also agree on "Skin"-- the shapeshifter's metamorphosis scene was a lot more gruesome and painful-looking than you usually see in genre shows when they do episodes like this, when they'd more likely use some smooth "morphing" CGI... But then the shapeshifter changed form so often and quickly toward the end of the episode, it kinda threw that away. Still, good episode. The ones I've liked so far have the threat of the week illustrating something about the brothers' relationship, and "Skin" did that pretty well.

And from season 3 and on they get gorier. Seriously im not sure how a network show gets away with this shit. 
 

Late to the game, but I'm going to add to the Suphurrnatural love. This show is fucking GREAT. The first season's kinda blah, but I'm on S3 right now and everything is just clicking hard.

And this is horrifically fanboyish but Dean better fucking hook up with Bella.

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Originally Posted by Waaaaaaaalt 

And from season 3 and on they get gorier. Seriously im not sure how a network show gets away with this shit. 
 

 

For real, though, Supernatural is probably the most violent television show I've ever seen. A lot of it is just CGI blood spurts, but there's a LOT of interesting and gross (though admittedly mostly CGI) effects work. My brother (who has been watching this show for years, while I've only seen occasional episodes) told me the violence was plentiful, but holy shit.

It's been interesting to watch Buffy and Angel after marathon-ing through all of Supernatural (and having WB/UPN/CW monster show withdrawal) and see how differently they approached their monsters. Buffy/Angel always went for the very highest concept of the monster, even if it meant rough looking CGI (ie, the Mayor) or extensive makeup work, while Supernatural makes EVERY monster, from dragons to phoenixes to werewolves look just like dudes for the most part. I'm not sure which philosophy I prefer, but I do think that I find the mythology of Supernatural somewhat more compelling.

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Originally Posted by Jake 

Late to the game, but I'm going to add to the Suphurrnatural love. This show is fucking GREAT. The first season's kinda blah, but I'm on S3 right now and everything is just clicking hard.

Oh yeah, warning for S3, instant has a mistake on the episode order. The one marked as episode 17 is actually episode 13.

Edit:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slim 

I agree on Ackles, the guy's got charisma. I really disliked him on Smallville, but I guess I can chalk it up to that show's shitty writing... Watching later seasons of Smallville, I remember catching the recaps at the beginning of Supernatural episodes, and they were accompanied by some classic rock sting. Was that the Kansas song?

Each season finale has Carry on Wayward Son, but some episodes, like the ones coming back from hiatus or season premieres, also have awesome classic rock tunes.
Totally agree on Ackles. I can take or leave Padalecki. I'm sure this must be pretty universal, since the first season and a half clearly has Sam as the main character, before the producers must have realized that Dean was a better character and Ackles was more charismatic.

Oh crap, thanks. Did they...uh, reverse it, or is 17 lost to the winds for the moment?

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.L. 

It's been interesting to watch Buffy and Angel after marathon-ing through all of Supernatural (and having WB/UPN/CW monster show withdrawal) and see how differently they approached their monsters. Buffy/Angel always went for the very highest concept of the monster, even if it meant rough looking CGI (ie, the Mayor) or extensive makeup work, while Supernatural makes EVERY monster, from dragons to phoenixes to werewolves look just like dudes for the most part. I'm not sure which philosophy I prefer, but I do think that I find the mythology of Supernatural somewhat more compelling.

Actually the story there is that they did prostetics and heavy make up for the first season and Kripke never liked the way it looked. So from then on he said that all monsters would look human. It works alot of the time but every once in a while there really should be a monster. Seriously when the dragons just turned out to be dudes with warm hands.....ugh. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake 

Oh crap, thanks. Did they...uh, reverse it, or is 17 lost to the winds for the moment?

As far as I know, there's only sixteen episodes, so none of them are missing. There's just a jump from 12 to 14 in the numbering, and for some reason it's tacked on after the season finale.

Yeah, there's only 16 episodes in Season Three.  It's the short season.  Someone warn Butler about the mix-up, by the way.  I would, but FB is on the fritz for me at the moment.

EDIT - Nevermind, got it to work!

Blue Collar, they are taking it away on the 29th. SEE IT NOW because there is no disc.

Good call. I haven't seen Blue Collar since it was in rotation on Showtime or the Movie Channel back in the 80s, when I was but a wee lad. I've put it atop my queue and will watch tomorrow.

Nearly through Supernatural S1-- one thing I'm digging is when the show acknowledges how flimsy and ludicrous the brothers' cover stories are when they're investigating. Also, how they can afford to travel around and fight monsters: credit card fraud... No details, just "credit card fraud". 

Last episode I watched, hot girl of the week asked Sam if fighting monsters is what they did for a living: "We don't get paid for it." 

I guess I appreciate that Supernatural knows it's just goofy, creepy fun-- not getting bogged down in serious detail, but not winking too much at the audience either. It's a good balance. If the show only improves from here, I think I'll really enjoy it. 

It only gets better, trust me!

On a side note, I have not seen the sixth season yet.  While I know S5 would have ended the show perfectly, I refuse to believe the sixth and seventh seasons are AT LEAST as good as the first two seasons of the show.  With that in mind, I have no problem with the show continuing as long as they can at least keep it at that level.

FYI, per a great column by Drew McWeeny, the original Gambit is on Netflix until the end of this month.

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Originally Posted by Waaaaaaaalt 

Blue Collar, they are taking it away on the 29th. SEE IT NOW because there is no disc.

Thank you.  I had been wanting to watch this one for years and had no clue it was up - glad I got to it before the deadline.  I enjoyed it immensely.

 

Supernatural finally turned the corner for me in the third season with the changeling episode. I did a lot of skipping around, and while there's been stuff I liked, nothing's been better than a mediocre ep of Buffy. The changeling episode just clicked--Dean's maybe-son, Buffy-surrogate demon chick, gruesome deaths and some nice jump scares. It was the first time I really saw the show's potential.

Not sure I would have made it through if I had to watch the first 40 episodes in succession.

Anything from Starz is going to be going away over the next few days.  Of course, out of the 150+ titles in my queue, I'll lose six, so I'm not really all that upset about it.

Don't think the disappearance of Starz is affecting my queue all that much. At some point, I had been thinking I should be on the look-out for their Spartacus show-- but did they ever make that available for streaming? And was it worth watching? Not that it matters now, I suppose...

Just finished Supernatural S1, by the by. Okay, I'm hooked.

Also watched Blue Collar again per Waaaaaaaalt's heads-up. Nice performance by Pryor. It's a damn shame he didn't get much opportunity to develop his dramatic chops more.

And I don't think this is newly-added, but over the weekend I also watched Witchfinder General on Netflix, even though I have a DVD copy somewhere. Anybody here who hasn't seen it should do himself a favor and check it out. Vincent Price's greatest performance, for my money.

Yeah, Spartacus had been available for streaming for a while.  At least the first season.

I just found that BEING ELMO (the documentary about Kevin Clash) and the Dujardin-starring OSS 117 films are available on Instant!

The OSS 117 movies are actually next on my list, which I'm told are good. I didn't know it was the same crew who did "The Artist" until a day or so ago.  But then, I haven't seen "The Artist" yet either, so I guess we'll see...

Anyone else notice a dump of 70's sexploitation women-in-prison movies over the past week?  My Newly Added queue is awash with at least four or five.

Yeah, The Big Bird Cage!  

Several Roger Corman "classics" too, Death Race 2000, Humanoids from the Deep and Battle beyond the Stars among them.

Yeah, A LOT of Corman releases have made their way online.  A ton of music documentaries and concerts have gone up as well.

I don't know whats going on with Netflix Canada Instant. A whole bunch of stuff expired today so I've been going through my list to see as much as possible then this morning I switch it on to finish African Queen (which looked fantastic) and fully 20% of my list expires on the 15th. What the hell?

Wait... is the 15th the day we invade Canada and switch you guys to regular Netflix?  I am pretty sure you were not supposed to know that.

I don't know how long it's up, just checked out Iron Man 2. It's a pretty good one. Has Ian from Weird Science in it. 

Human Centipede 2 is up. If you can stomach it. I'm still conflicted about watching it.

LET'S BIG HAPPY -- a comedy/musical web series I helped create and wrote for is now up on Instant. I would describe it as 'mildly amusing.' But it co-stars Andrew W.K. and features some cool bands. And is short.

Chud just did a review of Red, White & Blue.  Now, I gotta see it. 

I've been into really intense movies recently.  That Spanish movie, Kidnapped was a hoot.  And by hoot, I mean, it almost made me nauseous.