March Netflix Report

February 2010 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Cutter's Way	03/03	03/11	8
Hurricane Season	03/05	03/11	6
The King of Marvin Gardens	03/08	03/10	2
Assassination Tango	03/11	03/26	15
Ballast	03/12	03/19	7
Cirque de Freak: The Vampire's Assistant	03/12	03/16	4
Up in the Air	03/18	03/22	4
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day	03/20	03/30	10
Brothers	03/23	03/31	8
The Men Who Stare at Goats	03/27	04/01	5
An Education	03/31	04/13	13
	March 2010			7.5	$1.68

I kept up a good pace of movie-watching this month: 11 from Netflix, and it would have been more except for the Curse of the King of Marvin Gardens.

I'd love to know more about Netflix's internal statistics, like the how many movies per month the average viewer watches, how many days they keep it, BUT particularly I'd love to see their statistics on damaged discs and on how often the a damaged disc is replaced with another copy of the movie that turns out to ALSO be damaged.

This is a screen capture of part of my rental history this month:


I got three copies of that disc that were all damaged. And by "damaged" I don't mean just scratch - these discs was cracked like they all had been crushed by a heavy package during shipping. This happened to me once before and I swear I got the same damaged disc twice, but this time I noted the cracks and I swear it was three different damaged discs they sent me before I got one that was in playable condition. How many people are out there trying to watch The King of Marvin Gardens? Actually, probably a good number, given how great a lot of other Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern movies are, a lot of folks probably got suckered into putting this on their queue thinking it would also be a good flick. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Some interesting characterizations and, yes, Nicholson and Dern are playing against type and have their typical movie personas reversed here but, jeez, I don't mind movies where "nothing happens" - all those Eric Rohmer movies I saw back in college about French people on vacation come to mind - as long as the characters are people you care about or find intriguing. But that's not the case here.

Cutter's Way was another one that was built up in anticipation: I guess the New York Times weekly DVD new releases story has to fill up its column inches with something; it featured this movie when Jeff Bridges was riding the build-up to Oscar night for Crazy Heart, and so I put this at the top of my queue. Notable for John Heard's portrayal of a early, proto-typical "crazy" Viet Nam vet, but there's wasn't much else that stayed with me.

The two best recent movies this month were Up in the Air and An Education; my wife said An Education made her want to go to London, and I said it made me want to go to 1962. And I thought Up in the Air was probably the best of all the best picture-nominated movies I've seen so far, but I think Hollywood was really desperate to demonstrate their relevance and after a series of really lame Iraq/Afganistan war movies, they anointed a decent one made by a female director to be best picture of the year.

But the best surprise this month was Ballast; this was a Netflix recommendation based on other things I've watched and rated highly, and these recommendations don't always pan out but in this instance they got the algorithms right. This movie felt more real than anything I've seen in a long time and though slow-paced it is compelling and populated by characters that were real and made me hope they prevailed by the end. You don't really know whether they do, but that's part of the real-life feel of this movie.


Full blog post...

February 2010 Netflix Report

Jeez, only seven movies again last month? Well, there WAS Mardi Gras and the Saints WINNING THE SUPERBOWL!!!!

February 2010 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Zombieland	02/05	02/10	5
Cinderella Liberty	02/05	02/25	20
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell	02/06	02/10	4
Jumper	02/10	02/23	13
Black Snake Moan	02/10	02/25	15
Sorority Row	02/26	03/02	4
Brothers in Arms	02/26	03/04	6
				9.6	$2.65

Zombieland was a lot of fun - don't know why I missed that one in the theaters, it would have been fun to see it on opening weekend. And I see at IMDB they have a page for Zombieland 2 and the studio may apparently go ahead and greenlight two sequels. Sorority Row was a decent slasher movie - I saw the previews for that so many times I had to eventually see it (I guess coming attractions saturation works afterall, eh?) And I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell was as stupid as everything I read indicated it would be, but was worth watching as its proof that any minor publishing success - on-line and/or in print - can lead to a movie deal if a studio thinks a property will have a large built-in audience.

The best movie from Netflix this month was Cinderella Liberty. I had just read The Last Detail and learned that another book by the author, Darryl Ponicsan, was the source for this movie. Like The Last Detail, its a gritty, realistic portrayal of Nacy life. Marsha Mason was great in it and maybe I've come to associate James Caan with Sonny Corleone too much, but I thought he was mis-cast in this and I didn't really buy him as the directionless, needy sailor. I picture someone like Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy mode being better for this role. But still a great flick. And I hadn't realized before I saw it that it was set and filmed in Seattle - I recognized some of the settings, and it must be a great record of what the city looked like in the late seventies, pre-urban renewal.


Full blog post...

January 2010 Netflix Report

January 2010 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
The Crazies (1973)	1/06	1/13	7
The Comfort of Strangers	1/08	1/27	19
All That Jazz	1/14	1/27	13
The Hurt Locker	1/16	1/27	11
Hounddog	1/28	02/04	7
The Small Back Room	1/28	02/05	8
Splendor in the Grass	1/28	02/04	7
				10.3	$2.65

Damn, only seven movies from Netflix this month? I’m slipping, gotta buck you and get going. Watched The Crazies because I heard it was being remade - pretty much what it sounded like it would be, fun but forgettable. Finally got around to watching All That Jazz - fantastic movie! I didn’t think I’d be able to buy Roy Scheider as a song-and-dance choreographer/director, but wow - he was amazing and this is easily one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while.

Finally saw The Hurt Locker and it may be the best war movie of recent vintage I’ve seen, and I think I’m now close to having seen all the big ones. Very understated (take a hint, Irwin Winkler - if you had taken Home of the Brave down a couple of dozen notches, it might have been a decent movie), and I would pair it with The Lucky Ones as perhaps the best two recent war movies, with Stop-Loss a third, but a distant third.

Coincidentally, soon after The Hurt Locker I watched The Small Back Room, which is an EOD tale from another place and war: England during World War II. Very good, very British, very detailed and technical war picture. I get the impression that it might be revered as one of the best and most accurate “bomb squad” movies by whoever out there has researched and watched movies like that in detail.

There wasn’t much to Hound Dog: the shock value got it all the publicity it deserved when it was being made. My one classic movie this month was Splendor in the Grass: very good, and very much a period piece, both in its setting - the 1920s - and when it was made - the early 1960s. It makes me want to watch more Natalie Wood movies - I might have to dig out my copy of This Property Is Condemned.

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December 2009 Netflix Report

December 2009 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Mexico City	12/01	12/03	2
Sangre Costena	12/04	12/05	1
Observe and Report	12/07	12/10	3
Funny People	12/07	1/07	31
Not Quite Hollywood	12/11	12/21	10
The Legend of Boggy Creek	12/15	12/21	6
Brothers	12/26	1/15	20
World's Greatest Dad	12/22	1/05	14
	Dec 09			10.4	$2.65

Only eight movies from Netflix in December - our annual Christmas trip to the in-laws in Colorado and six days in Mexico City before Christmas ate into my available movie-watching time this month. And the latter of those two trips is the reason for the continued run of Mexico-set movies. None of them were as good as Amores Perres from November's Netflix summary, but Mexico City was decent, despite the careless dumb errors that hopefully resulted in someone's exit from the movie business. The three "comedies" I saw were among the best movies I saw this month. The two that got wide release - Observe and Report and Funny People - were both marketed as being more straight-forward gutbusters than they were: both were rather dark/black comedies, Observe and Report so much that its humorous momebts are so overshadowed by its darker moments as to maybe rate a new genre: the "black non-comedy"? The "black, bleak, dark movie with a few incidental laughs"? World's Greatest Dad is in a similar vein, and though it didn't get a wide release, to me it confirms that Bobcat Goldthwait is a unsung comedic movie genius.
And Brothers - the original Danish version - stands out as the best war movie to come out of the Iraq/Afganistan era that I've seen, by far.

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November 2009 Netflix Summary

November 2009 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Saw	11/02	11/05	3
Zack and Miri Make a Porno	11/06	11/13	7
Timeline	11/06	11/11	5
Hard Candy	11/12	11/23	11
The Boondock Saints	11/12	11/17	5
Overnight	11/13	11/17	4
Twilight	11/18	11/25	7
Dirty Pretty Things	11/18	11/30	12
Streets of Mexico City	11/24	12/24	30
El Callejon De Los Milagros	11/27	12/05	8
				9.2	$1.85

Ten movies from Netflix this month - most of them are catch-ups for things I've missed in the last few years. Timeline sucked, I can understand the appear of Twilight, and Zack and Miri, yeah, whatever. Dirty Pretty Things was very good and deserved all the acclaim it got, but my two favorites this month were Hard Candy - very intense and extremely hard to watch, even besides the obvious core revenge-fantasy scene - and Boondock Saints, a great little action/vigilante flick that is all the more amazing given the story of the guy who made it, told in the documentary Overnight. And El callejón de los milagros was a pretty good Mexico city movies, not as good as Amores Perres, but it tells a couple of compelling stories and stars a very young Selma Hayek (she was what, sixteen like her character here was?).

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October Netflix Report

October 2009 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Babel	10/01	10/03	2
Away We Go	10/06	10/08	2
Wait Until Dark	10/06	10/23	17
Sir, No Sir	10/13	10/23	10
The Girlfriend Experience	10/19	10/23	4
The Fountain	10/24	10/31	7
Amores Perros	10/24	11/10	17
The Children's Hour	10/24	11/05	12
FTA	10/26	11/05	10
				9.0	$2.06

Nine Netflix movies this month. Babel and Ammores Perros were the best two of the bunch, and I didn't realize until after I saw them that they were made by the same director: Babel came up because its one I missed when it was out, and Amores Perros is one of several cities set in Mexico City that I've been watching in "preparation" for the early vacation my wife and I are taken there two weeks before Christmas. She didn't want to watch Amores Perros after the opening dog-fighting scenes, so I watched that by myself and those scenes indeed - and there were worse to come - were harrowing, but it was an excellent flick and, duh, you can see how it and Babel are similar in structure and scope. The Fountain was the other really good movie in the bunch, and both Wait Until Dark and The Children's Hour are two more in our efforts to watch all the Audrey Hepburn movies on Netflix.

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September 2009 Netflix Report

September 2009 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Trouble the Water	09/03	9/11	8
Duplicity	09/04	10/05	31
12 Rounds	09/08	9/12	4
Sunshine Cleaning	09/12	09/19	7
Stop-Loss	09/14	09/30	16
Lookin' to Get Out	09/20	09/29	9
Charade	09/30	10/17	17
				13.1	$2.65

Back working full-time now for the Fall semester, so only seven movies this month, and it sure took me a hell of a long time to get around to watching Charade. That's the classic movie this month that I have seen parts of several times, but never watched start to finish. Most of the rest of this month's movies were recent releases I'd missed. Duplicity was very good but suffered at the end from the one-twist-too-many/my-aren't-we-clever-filmmakers syndrome. Sunshine Cleaning was very good with characters and situations that played very real for the most part, with only a few scenes played a bit too much for laughs.

Trouble the Water is one of the best Katrina documentaries that I've seen so far. I was hoping it would be better than Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke, but after the home movie footage of the Ninth Ward flooding in Trouble the Water, the evacuation story of the protags begins to play out as too much of a "look at me" cry for attention. So despite its flaws, When the Levees Broke is still the definitive cinematic statement about Katrina, at least of the ones I've seen - a few still haven't seen wide release.

But Stop-Loss, on the other hand, I think is the best movie about the Iraq war so far. I haven't seen them all, but they've generally gotten lousy reviews and one of the one I did see - whatever that one where Jessica Biel loses her hand in an IED explosion - was pretty wooden and sterile except for Sameul Jackson's story line upon returning to the states. But Stop-Loss had real heart to it and all the character and the situations they're in played very real.
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August 2009 Netflix Report

August 2009 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
The Whole Shootin' Match: Bonus Materials	08/01	08/04	3
Session 9	08/01	08/04	3
Silver City	08/04	08/11	7
Robin and Marion	08/05	08/10	5
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog	08/05	08/07	2
Emergency Kisses	08/07	08/11	4
The Soloist	08/08	08/11	3
The Inglorious Bastards (1978)	08/11	08/13	2
The Strange One	08/12	09/02	21
Hamlet 2	08/12	08/25	13
Shakes the Clown	08/13	09/03	21
Sleeping Dogs Lie	08/14	09/05	22
				7.6	$1.54

These 12 movies are all over the board. A recent big release - the Soloist - was neither as cliched or as good as it could have been. Session 9 looked more interesting than it was when it was a "suggested" title at Netflix. Emergency Kisses was the worst of the lot - I only watched it because its a follow up to I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar, which was in last month's queue, and both of which, again, were mentioned in the Sunday New York Times' DVD new releases column and both of which I would gouge my eyes out before watching again - indulgent, autobiographical crap. But the NYT also highlighted the two Bobcat Goldthwait titles - Shakes the Clown (starred and directed) and Sleeping Dogs Lis (directed). The first one was damn funny, but the second one was really good, especially given a premise that must have been a hell of a pitch to try to sell.

And - I think I just realized this - when your next Netflix movie is not available from your closest distribution center, they'll let you know that its being shipped from wherever, BUT they'll also ship an additional movie that is next in your queue at the same time so you have an extra at home at no extra charge. This month, two movies - Shakes the Clown and Emergency Kisses - were extras for me.


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July Netflix Summary

July 2009 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Vicky Christy Barcelona	07/01	07/13	12
Carnal Knowledge	07/01	07/09	8
Days of Heaven	07/01	07/14	13
Honkeytonk Man	07/10	07/16	6
I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar	07/14	07/24	10
Tender Mercies	07/15	07/21	6
Last Holiday (1950)	07/17	07/20	3
Youth Without Youth	07/21	07/31	10
Tideland	07/22	07/31	9
The Whole Shootin' Match	07/25	08/03	9
				8.6	$1.85

Only made it through ten movies this month, what with the AALL meeting and the bathroom renovation from hell. It was mostly movies I've been meaning to get around to for years - Days of Heaven (really good), and Tender Mercies and Honkeytonk Man, which are a great pair of movies that I wish I had watched as a double feature. I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar is exhibit #1 for why making Netflix choices based on the New York Times' DVD column is a very dicey business - that was the biggest waste this month, with Tideland coming in a very close second. My third favorite after Eastwood's and Duvall's individual turns at country music movies, though, was The Whole Shootin' Match, which also was a NYT DVD column selection, so I guess it all comes out in the balance.

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June 2009 Netflix Summary

After starting this last month, I, of course, have to do this every month. Here's my Netflix activity for June:

June 2009 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Eagle Eye	06/02	06/05	3
Hard Eight	06/02	06/04	2
Labou	06/03	06/04	1
Rounders	06/06	06/10	4
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)	06/06	06/15	9
You Can't Take it With You	06/06	06/09	3
Crazy Love	06/10	06/12	2
Goodbye, Columbus	06/11	06/15	4
25th Hour	06/13	6/22	9
Defiance	06/16	6/23	7
David and Lisa	06/16	6/22	6
Secretary	06/23	06/30	7
Thumbsucker	06/23	06/30	7
Powder Blue	06/24	06/30	6
				5.0	$1.32

My Netflix queue basically breaks down into a few categories based on why I'm watching them: stuff I'm just getting around to seeing, whether recent mildly-intriguing recent releases (Eagle Eye, Powder Blue), stuff I've encountered while flipping channels on TV and I want to see the whole movie (You Can't Take it With You, David and Lisa), and stuff I'm genuinely interested in seeing and for which I thank God that Netflix exists (Crazy Love, Hard Eight). Whatever the reason, I think I'm equally surprised and dissapointed whatever reason I'm watching a movie. David and Lisa was mildly intriguing when I saw part of it on TCM, but turned out to be one of the best old movies I've seen in a while (Keir Dullea is great, and Janet Margolin playing opposite him is also amazing - a great "nuthouse" movie). And for the first half of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" I was puzzled about why this seemingly-rountine noir intrigue was so reknowned, but then after ther great mid-point courtroom sequence (which should be mandatory for trial practice courses!), the movie really hits high gear and I agree it one of the classics. Goodby Columbus was alright - think a Jewish "The Graduate" - and Ali MacGraw os gorgeous, but its one like so many films of the late sixties and early seventies that doesn't really hold up.
The best surprise this month was Powder Blue - I thought it was just a gritty urban angst drama centered around the strip club where Jessica Biel's character works (she got most of the press for this movie as far as I can tell), but it was much, much more than that. A very sweet, very real movie that carefully veers just this side of being cheesy, but movies like this are why I endure watching a wide variety of movies I don't know a lot about (I really want the hours spent watching Thumbsucker and Eagle Eye back).

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May 2009 Netflix Summary

Everybody tracks their Netflix rentals with a spreadsheet, right? That makes it easy to measure the average time at home for all your movies in a given month and determine the per-movie breakdown of the membership fee. :)

May 2009 Netflix Summary	Arrived at Home	Received at Netflix	Days at Home	Monthly Average Days at Home	Cost Per Movie
Atlantic City	05/05	05/20	15
Factory Girl	05/05	05/11	6
Frozen River	05/05	05/20	15
Wendy and Lucy	05/12	05/20	8
The Da Vinci Code	05/21	05/27	6
Steal This Movie	05/21	05/27	6
Time of the Wolf	05/21	05/27	6
Last House on the Left (1972)	05/28	06/01	4
Irreversible	05/28	06/01	4
Sunshine State	05/28	06/02	5
				7.5	$1.85

Irreversible and Atlantic City were probably the best two out of this bunch. Frozen River was also very good. I was just curious to finally watch Da Vinci Code since I saw Angels and Demons the other day but had never seen Da Vinci Code. The original Last House on the Left is probably pretty deserving of its reputation, but like a lot of notable movies its hard to tell how ground-breaking it was way back then. It made for a good double-feature when I watched it and Irreversible, and luckily I had no grisly nightmares than night.

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