The Netflix Instant Watch recommendation thread

[Teggy]

Maybe we had one of these? I couldn't find one. I thought it would be cool for people to recommend lesser known or straight-to-video films that are worth watching on instant watch. I know threads about individual movies come up every once in a while, such as the one about "The Man From Earth" (which is in my queue, although I have yet to watch).

Last night I watched "Show Me Love", which is a movie I've been meaning to see for a long time. I remember seeing a review on "At The Movies" when it first came out in the US, so that would be 10+ years ago, as it released in Sweden in 1998. It's pretty low budget and didn't make much of a splash in the US, but it apparently was very popular overseas, winning quite a few awards, including Sweden's version of the Oscar for best picture.

The movie is a coming-of-age story with bit of a twist, in that it is about a 15 year old girl, the girl she has a crush on, and all the issues that arise when they are brought together. It has a lot of the humor and drama of a John Hughes movie, but feels updated. The two young actresses are really what make the movie. It isn't anamorphic, unfortunately, if that bothers people with widescreen tvs. I actually just watched it on my computer.

[CeeKay]

I just found out they got 86 episodes of Robotech up along with all of Futurama (except the new stuff).

[EngineNo9]

The better Instant Watch movies I've seen recently would be Visioneers (a bizarre dystopian? comedy with Zach Galifanakas), The Vicious Kind (family drama/dark comedy/romance), Timer (an abnormal romantic comedy that doesn't succumb to the same old formula), Spring Forward (a kind of quiet, slow drama about the friendship between an older man and a younger guy), and Primer (a great, mind-bending sci-fi movie done on a low budget).

Going down my list of others that I have watched previously, some of the better ones would be Arranged, Special, The World's Fastest Indian, When Did You Last See Your Father, Shrink, Sleepwalking, Dirty Filthy Love, How About You, OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies, Dakota Skye, Mozart and the Whale.

Good TV series' that are on Instant Watch: The IT Crowd, Dexter, Dead Like Me.

No guarantees that my tastes are suitable for others. 

[DOSHIGH]

No guarantees that my tastes are suitable for others.

That's the tricky part.  I really try and rate every movie because their recommendations based on my ratings have led me to see some movies that I never would have found or considered.  This is especially true for foreign films, assuming you don't mind subtitles.   I recently watched a French film called A Very Long Engagement.  It's about a French woman who wants to find out what happened to her missing fiancé during WWI who was court martialed for cowardice and sent into no mans land with 4 others to die.  There are several twist in the story that keep it interesting and the woman is played by Audrey Tautou who is easy on the eyes.  This movie led me to Amelie, another French film starring Tautou and the same director.  It's much more of a romance film than the first, which is not my thing, but I must admit I found the movie decent.  She is major league cute in this film and the quirky, oddness of the story and characters made it entertaining. 

If you like historical based films, particularly military, then Breaker Morant is a must see.  A 1980 Australian film based on the true story of 3 Australians court martialed for murder during the Boer War. 
 

[rshetts2]

Ill second Dexter.  Excellent show.  I also watched the movie Moon on there recently.  Its style wont appeal to everyone but its a good flick.

[KC]

Archer was recommended as an instant streaming title.  I loved it and don't even know which channel it is on.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I saw "Show Me Love" back when it came out (I guess they needed to change it's original name of "Fucking Amal"), but I remember liking it a lot. I'll need to check it out again.

I have only watched half of The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, but so far it's been pretty good (though there are some seriously hard to watch scenes).

I've also recent watched Zombieland and season 1-3 of Friday Night Lights.

I end up using Watch Instantly about 10x more than the the by-mail DVDs.

[Clanwolfer]

Quarantine - a first-person POV horror movie, from the perspective of a news reporter/cameraman that get trapped in a building under siege by the undead. Apparently a shot-for-shot remake of [REC].

The Third Man - a true classic, with Orson Welles. Intrigue in post-WWII Vienna.

[Tscott]

I just watched The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters on instant view and loved it.  Must see.

[wonderpug]

These are all pulled from my instant viewing history and my instant queue.  I'm realizing that some of these are not currently available, but they all were at one time.  Shows come and go from instant availability depending on if they're going to be shown on cable TV in a given time period.

TV Series
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Bourdain's No Reservations
Samurai Champloo
Fawlty Towers
SNL: Best of _____
Dr Who
Top Gear
Lost
The Office
Star Trek: TOS
Star Trek: Next Gen
The Prisoner (original)

Movies
Monsters, Inc
Up
Toy Story 1 & 2 (these Pixar ones are all full-screen, though )
Muppets Take Manhattan
MST3K Stuff
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Superman Doomsday
The Karate Kid (original)
The Iron Giant
Ghostbusters
Spaceballs
Groundhog Day
Ong-Bak 1 & 2
Enter the Dragon
3:10 to Yuma
Tombstone
Unforgiven
District 9
Moon
World's Fastest Indian
Hotel Rwanda
Tommy Boy
Mad Max
Black Hawk Down

[Teggy]

Maybe we had one of these? I couldn't find one. I thought it would be cool for people to recommend lesser known or straight-to-video films that are worth watching on instant watch.

Monsters, Inc
Up
Toy Story 1 & 2 (these Pixar ones are all full-screen, though  )
etc.

Anyway, I also noticed that "The Unusuals" is now on instant watch. It's just 9 episodes and I think it is very much worth watching if you are into slightly quirky stuff. I was really bummed that it was cancelled. Be aware that what they have labeled the pilot is actually the 5 minute making-of short and that all of the other episodes are off by one on the titles.

[USMC Kato]

The movie "Cashback" is one of my wife's and I favorite.
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Cashback/70070482?trkid=1211018

[wonderpug]

Woops. Saw the other well-known stuff mentioned and forgot the thread premise.

Samurai Champloo should still count. Really enjoyable anime series.

[Laner]

Good idea for a thread... here's some I've watched:

Bigger, Stronger, Faster - documentary on steroid use

Buck Rogers TV series - The intro alone just sweeps me away in a wave of nostalgia

JVCD - Van Damme playing himself in a semi-autobiographical story (doesn't look like it's currently available via Instant Watch)

The Answer Man - an average RomCom, but it has Lauren Graham, who is always fun to watch.

The Call of Cthulu - I think there was a thread about this a year or two ago; recently produced, but made to look like an 20s era silent film

The Great Happiness Space - heard about this on one of the 1UP podcasts; documentary on Japanese male host clubs

[CeeKay]

The movie "Cashback" is one of my wife's and I favorite.
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Cashback/70070482?trkid=1211018

plus it's also got a topless Keeley Hazel in it 

[Isgrimnur]

The movie "Cashback" is one of my wife's and I favorite.
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Cashback/70070482?trkid=1211018

Seconded (well, thirded... And no wife... )

[Captain Caveman]

Loving, loving, loving Seasons 6 and 7 of the Shield.

Unfortunately, the first 5 seasons are only available by mail, and they definitely need to be watched in order.

Oh, and Arrested Development is available on Watch Instantly, but everybody here has watched that unless they're as dumb as a box of hammers.

I was going to say Party Down, but it seems to have been removed.

My favorite movie I've seen on watch instantly is probably This is England.

Other recommended flicks include The Vicious Kind (starring Adam Scott from Party Down in a very different kind of role) and Gigantic (starring Zoey Deschanel, hubba hubba).

[wonderpug]

Documentary-wise:

Les Paul: Chasing Sound
Buena Vista Social Club
Carrier (life on an aircraft carrier)
Independent Lens: The Atom Smashers

[LoneStarSpur]

The movie "Cashback" is one of my wife's and I favorite.
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Cashback/70070482?trkid=1211018

That was a pretty good little movie. Not sure my wife would care for it, but I liked it well enough.

[EngineNo9]

Oooh, I see that Black Dynamite is now on Watch Instantly.  That is an awesome movie!  Action!  Comedy!  Afros!

I also just watched Mary and Max last night and that was quite good.  It is a somewhat dark, sad claymation movie with some heartwarming parts.

[Isgrimnur]

Bring on Epix streaming!  Never heard of Epix?  There's a reason...

Epix--a premium movie network formed in a joint-venture between Viacom Inc. (VIA,VIAB), Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. (LGF) and Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Inc.--has struggled to gain distribution from several major, traditional pay-TV operators in order to compete with counterparts like HBO and Showtime.
...
The five-year deal whittles away at the film industry's strategy of delaying releases to online platforms in order to protect its traditional theatrical and DVD revenue streams. It sets a new precedent by giving Netflix the rights to major film titles, like "Iron Man 2" for its online "Watch Instantly" streaming service just three months after they appear on pay-TV.

[Azhag]

I'l re-iterate some mentioned earlier

TV Series
Avatar: The Last Airbender
The IT Crowd
Dr Who
Torchwood
Dollhouse
The Office
30 Rock
Star Trek: TOS
Star Trek: Next Gen
The Unusuals
Angel
Buffy
X-Files
The Legend of the Seeker
Sanctuary
Archer
Hotel Babylon

Good animes:
Last Exile
Clannad
Air TV
Air Gear

[Malificent]

Besides Cashback, which gets another thumbs up from me, there is also:

Following - Christopher Nolan's first film. 70 minutes long, black and white, but if you like his films, it is definitely worth a watch. Not quite as polished as some of his more recent films, but you can see the underpinnings of a lot of them in this film.

Timecrimes - Spanish film about murder and time travel. Starts a little slow but really gets moving later on.

Nothing to Lose - If you've never seen this underrated Tim Robbins/Martin Lawrence comedy, it's worth giving it a go. It's a semi-standard odd couple buddy flick, but I don't like Martin Lawrence normally and I liked him in this film.

[USMC Kato]

Pushing Daises 1st and 2nd season is available and aslo Lie to me 1st season. 2 great shows!

[CeeKay]

St:ng is back?  Sweet!

[McBa1n]

Question. Do they offer any seasons of The Wire streaming? Was thinking of starting up Netflix again to check that out.

[CeeKay]

Question. Do they offer any seasons of The Wire streaming? Was thinking of starting up Netflix again to check that out.

according to Feedfliks it's not.

[Isgrimnur]

Not at the moment.  There are sites that will mine the Netflix data for you.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Question. Do they offer any seasons of The Wire streaming? Was thinking of starting up Netflix again to check that out.

I don't think any HBO shows are available over Neflix streaming.

[Morgul]

I liked The Tudors and True Blood...   

And, every season of Hank Hill my niece seems to have on all the time...   

[CeeKay]

Malice in Wonderland- an interesting take on the original.

[McBa1n]

Not at the moment.  There are sites that will mine the Netflix data for you.

Nice, thank you.

[Laner]

Oooh, I see that Black Dynamite is now on Watch Instantly.  That is an awesome movie!  Action!  Comedy!  Afros!

DY-NA-MITE!  DY-NA-MITE!

Funny flick, but really needed it's runtime shortened by 20-30 minutes.

[Louis Cypher]

Just watched The Man From Earth. Pretty good!

[RobbieD]

We just started watching Doc Martin and really enjoy it. It's an UK based dramedy about a (from the wiki) brilliant and highly successful London surgeon until he developed a phobia of blood that prevented him conducting operations. After retraining as a GP, he applied for a post in the sleepy Cornish village of Portwenn, where he had spent childhood holidays.

[CeeKay]

Looks like they just added Family Guy and American Dad recently, plus Beavis & Butthead The Mike Judge Collection.

[CeeKay]

dudes!  coming 9-1-2010, the ultimate sequel movie!!!!!

BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO!

 

[Crawley]

Got around two watching the two Stargate SG-1 TV movies:

Ark of Truth - crap
Continuum - Not bad. It picked up in the last 25-30 minutes and ended up being ok.

Another recommendation:

The Visitor - This one stars the father from 6 Feet Under. A quiet film but I really like the interaction between the two main characters.

Not recommended but its so batshit crazy you might want to watch it anyways:

Zardoz - A very 70's sci-fi movie staring Sean Connery. In this one a giant flying stone head tells a bunch of wastelanders "The gun is good! Penis is evil!" I wasn't quite sure what was accomplished by the end but this film is just a culmination of WTF moments anyways.

[EngineNo9]

The Visitor - This one stars the father from 6 Feet Under. A quiet film but I really like the interaction between the two main characters.

I'll second that recommendation. 

[CeeKay]

Zardoz - A very 70's sci-fi movie staring Sean Connery. In this one a giant flying stone head tells a bunch of wastelanders "The gun is good! Penis is evil!" I wasn't quite sure what was accomplished by the end but this film is just a culmination of WTF moments anyways.

I need to check that out now.