Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
August 10, 2010
Browsing through NetFlix’s online streaming collection is not unlike those late Friday nights spent browsing through the movie maze in your local video store. The search for that perfect movie is often tricky. Sometimes you have to deal with a fuming partner and/or a melting tub of ice-cream in the car. The pressure is compounded by a listless, unhelpful store clerk in some cases. This column aims to be that clerk for NetFlix Instant Watch – maybe just a little less listless and little more helpful. This is what I waded through recently – at NetFlix.
Went Looking For… Believe it or not, I sometimes do have a predetermined playlist while browsing for movie titles. Generally, there is a week between my adding them to the playlist and actually watching them. The movies under “Went Looking For…” are typically the movies that I had slotted as “Ended up with…” the previous week.
2012
NASA scientists have proved that if at all something expires in 2012, it is the Mayan calendar, not the world. "That’s what they want you to believe," says eminent scholar of disaster movies, Roland Emerich. The premise of his masterpiece is that the world will come to an end thanks to excessive heating in the earth’s crust. The preeminent leaders of the world get to know about this and decide to keep it under wraps. A troubled writer with a family to unite gets progressively linked with the right people and leads his family to relative safety. He overcomes all his failings in the process and eliminates some of the obstacles in his personal life. From the minute his ex-wife’s character is introduced I was plotting his demise but was surprised how long he survives. However, it is not this story that you go for in this movie. It is what happens around this family – the destruction of whole cities, floods reaching the Himalayas, the token destruction of the White House – that the film is all about. This is in all fairness a summer popcorn movie and is better seen that way. The flaws are too visible in the sedate setting of instant watch.
Law Abiding Citizen
Now that 2012 satisfied my unhealthy craving for a mindless blockbuster, Law Abiding Citizen was going to be a study in patience. Patient was I. It required every ounce and then some. Law Abiding Citizen is to meaningful movies what the iPhone 4 antenna is to cell phone reception – it makes sense only to the makers. Gerard Butler brings back the rage from his 300 days. Without the purpose of defending an entire tribe, the rage seems a tad unnecessary. He goes about killing people who were instrumental in destroying his content life. The last on his list is the attorney who failed to bring justice to the table. The first on his list is the actual perpetrator of the crime that consumed his family. He does most of his work while inside the justice system sponsored prison cell. His yield rate in this project is a tad less than 100% as he has to contend with remorse at the worst possible time. The movie is the result of A-movie budgets for B-movie ideas. They have undone all the good work Charles Bronson did with his vigilante movies.
15 Minutes
I went three for three in my choice of mindless action movies this week. 15 Minutes at least had a semblance of narration as compared to the other two. The premise is interesting enough, with two eastern European visitors to the US going on a killing spree and relying on the quirkiness of the justice system to get out of any legal tangles. One of the early running titles for the movie was Law Abiding Immigrant. I kid. A few later year superstars emerge in small roles, including Charlize Theron (in all of one scene), Vera Farmiga, Kim Cattrall, David Alan Grier, Anton Yelchin and Melina Kanakaredes. Robert De Niro appears to be carrying the movie for some time before he hands over the responsibility to Edward Burns. The two killers seem to have more screen presence than any of the other actors in this ensemble piece. The narrative is fast paced and sustains interest for most parts. The climatic scenes unfortunately reveal some shoddy writing. With the bulk of A-list actors and a fast paced narration, this was the best for the week.
Ended up with… Whilst checking out the above movies, I invariably end up fattening my instant watch queue with some new additions. These go into my “Ended up with…” list and the plan is to watch them during the week ahead. NetFlix keeps tempting me to move each one of them to the top of the queue but I resist. These are movies that I plan to check out in the days ahead.
Planet 51
An interesting enough premise with the story of E.T. twisted on its head – an astronaut lands on an alien planet and a local teenager helps him get back to his spaceship. Featuring the voice talents of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, whose comedic sense is something I do like.
Every Which Way But Loose
I must applaud the producers who came up with the idea of combining Dirty Harry with King Louie from Jungle Book. I am not sure what to expect from a premise that involves Clint Eastwood and a an orangutan but I am going to find out. Do you want slapstick comedy… punk?
Sin Nombre
Sundance winner for Dramatic Movies, Sin Nombre (Without Name), is a much acclaimed Spanish thriller tracing the escape path of one lowlife. The movie is talked about as much for its beautiful visuals as for its gritty realistic violence. That is a heady mix.
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