Netflix Pick of the Week

I've always liked English movies.  I don't know why, because usually the budgets are smaller and the acting isn't as good.  Maybe it's because subconsciously I feel like I'm good looking enough to star in one.  A couple of months ago, I watched the movie Wild Bill.  It was rated at 100% at Rotten Tomatoes, so I thought it would be a good watch.

The movie is about a guy named Wild Bill who is out on parole after spending eight years in the klink.  He doesn't have anywhere to go, so he goes to his old apartment, where he used to live with his two sons and their mother.  But Wild Bill isn't named Wild Bill for being an angel and before his time in jail, he was quite the hooligan and lived a life of crime.

After he went to jail, his sons were left to fend for themselves after their mother abandoned them.  When he comes back, they are 16 and 11.  Dean (the oldest son) isn't happy to see him and doesn't want Bill to have anything to do with them.  But eventually social services finds out the boys are on their own and unless Wild Bill plays the role of Dad, they will be forced to live in a foster home.  Dean happily agrees to the situation as long as Wild Bill leaves them alone after social services gets off their case.

Over time, Wild Bill understands that if he wants to stay away from jail and keep his boys together, he has to live a clean life.  At first, he does it because he has to, but over time, he does it because he chooses to and he begins to embrace his role as a real father. Things start going well until Wild Bill's old cronies try to force him back into the game and even attempt to get his youngest son involved as well.  Wild Bill don't want none of that.

While it wasn't as good as the ratings make it out to be, it's still a pretty decent action-drama.  The ending kind of came out of nowhere but it's not a bad movie for a bunch of Brits.

Netflix Movie Monday

For this week, I decided to switch it up and go with a TV show. Yeah, I know it's "Movie" Monday but I've been patiently waiting for this show to come on Netflix for quite a while.  I started the 12 episode season on Friday night and by Saturday night (well, technically Sunday morning at 2:30am), I had watched it all.  It's definitely Breaking Bad worthy and way above The Walking Dead worthy. The storyline is great, the acting is top notch and you can't beat it's darkness and creepiness. This week's pick is:

The first season of American Horror Story takes place in Los Angeles, CA.  The Harmon family, who reside in Boston, are having some martial issues.  The wife (Vivien) busted her husband (Ben) having an affair with a girl who is less than half her age.  Shortly before that, she also delivered a stillborn baby.  Vivien wants to leave Ben, but Ben finds this super cheap house on the other side of the country and feel that it will be a fresh start for them.  After much reluctance, she finally agrees, and they take their teenage daughter, Violet, with them.

After one visit to the house, they decide to purchase it in and move in.  Sure, they know the previous owners died in a murder-suicide that took place inside the house, but hey, the price is good. Shortly after moving in, they meet their strange neighbor, Constanance, her daughter, Addy and her son, Tate, who Violet forms a bond with.

Unfortunately, there have been a lot more than just one death episode inside the house.  And nearly everyone who has lived in the house has either gone mad or died a horrible death.  And the former residents have not passed on, they still reside in the house.  At first, the Harmon's believe them to be normal people but it turns out not all of the main characters are living and not all of them are friendly.

As usual, I don't want to give too much away.  But I promise this is a show that is worth watching. And if you have F/X, season two is currently playing.  Each season of American Horror Story are unrelated, so you can pick right up on season two if you like.

Give it a chance and watch 8-9 hours of your life melt away.  And if you run at nighttime directly after watching this, you may become scared by hidden rabbits and deer.

 

First Official Trailer

 Better, Fan-Created Trailer

Netflix Movie Monday (Tuesday)

Well, technically it's Tuesday but I had a fever yesterday evening/night, so I felt more like watching episodes of Criminal Minds than pounding on a keyboard. But Tuesday is better than never!

I've always enjoyed dark/black movies.  Maybe I'm in the minority and is why a lot of people hate my usual movie selection.  At least Vance Pounders and Justin Patterson enjoy a good movie!  But as you can guess, my pick this week is a dark comedy.  Not many people have seen it because it was released on a limited basis in the theaters.  But I heard some good things about it from a few people (well, message board people), and since it was on Netflix, I decided to watch World's Greatest Dad.

World's Greatest Dad stars Robin Williams, who I've always been a big fan of.  The movie is about a single dad/teacher/unpublished author (Lance Clayton) who is struggling at connecting with and raising his overly perverted/manipulative/moody teenage son, Kyle, who could very well be the evil twin of Napoleon Dynamite.  Kyle struggles in school, with academics and socially and the principal even suggests to Lance that his son may be better off in a special-needs school.  Well, that doesn't happen because his son dies in a freak accident.

To avoid the embarrassment of how his son really died, Lance stages the death to look like a suicide and also writes a fake suicide note. After the note is made public, all of the students in the school start to identify with and idolize Kyle.  Lance gets too caught up in the moment and also writes a fake diary that Kyle supposedly kept a secret.  After the diary does out, the legend of Kyle grows and he serves as an inspiration to everyone and develops a huge cult following.

His diary starts to obtain the interest of several book publishers, Lance is invited on national talk shows and the school library even gets named after Kyle.  But as always, I don't want to give away too many spoilers, so that's it for now.

Overall, I thought the movie was really funny (but it was funnier with Kyle) and it's definitely worth a viewing.  It does have a lot of middle school type humor and has a few vulgar moments, so it's not something you would want to watch with your mother.   And if it means anything, I didn't dare try to watch it with Mary in the room.

Netflix Movie Monday

I spent another late Saturday night scrolling through Netflix, trying to find a movie to watch.  I probably spend more time scrolling for movies and looking them up on rottentomatoes.com than I actually do watching the movie I picked.  Harry Brown looked decent, and I wasn't in the mood to watch a Korean horror flick, so I decided to give it a go.

Harry Brown is about an old guy who likes doing old guy things...walking in the park, playing chess, and talking about the good ol' days with his friend.  He lives in an area with your typical English punks:  bad dental hygiene and worse attitudes.  Drug dealing and violence runs rampant, which has made everyone in area fearful for their safety.

Harry's wife was in a coma and on his way to visit her in the hospital, he has to take the long way, due to his fear of the gangs.  Before he gets there, she dies.  After Harry's BFF gets killed by some of the gang members, he's had enough.  He resorts to his former military hero background and goes vigilante style on them, without a Batman mask.  The movie has a decent story line, has good action and it's always fun to watch loud-mouthed Brits get beat up by an old man.

Netflix Movie Monday

About six months ago, my wife and I dropped cable. With a kid, a mortgage and other things in life, we couldn't justify spending so much money on something that we didn't use a whole lot.  We ended up buying an antenna and a subscription to Hulu Plus.  The antenna works really well and we get a ton of channels in HD.  Hulu Plus is also great because they have all the season of a ton of shoes that I love and shows that I'm growing to love.

This summer, we also added Netflix. I haven't spent much time watching it because I wasn't as familar with the movies that they offered.  Lately, my summer running buddy, Vance Pounders and I have been sharing different movies, and I'm starting to find Netflix's movie collection is much better than I anticipated.

Each week, until I run out of movies or get bored typing this up, I'll share a different movie that I
feel is blog worthy.  I'll review some of the lesser known movies and as always, I'm always up for tips and suggestions. 

I decided to start with one of the best-worst movies I've ever seen.  I was scrolling through the Netflix selection Saturday night around 1am (well, technically, Sunday morning, I guess) and came upon Troll 2.  It's not associated with Troll or Troll 3 in any fashion at all.  The director named it that to make it sound more marketable. I plugged it into rottentomatoes.com and saw that it was reviewed by critics at 0%.  I then Googled it and saw that the director spoke very little English, the film crew spoke no English, and the actors thought they were just going to be extras and had to wear their own clothes in the movie.  During one scene, the producer had to nail one of those actor's shoes to the ground (his own, purchased shoes).  Sounded like a winner to me!

The movie is about a family who visits a town called Nilbog (which is goblin, backwards).  The son's dead grandfather warns him about the town and tells him it's full of real-life trolls who turned people into plants and eat them.  Of course the boy is terrified and his family doesn't believe him.  I'll attack some pictures and the trailer, but if you want any more details, you'll have to watch the movie.  At least you can't say my selections get worse every week, because frankly, you can't get any worse than this pic.

I know what you are thinking, but no, that's not real CGI

How did he not win a Grammy?

And now for the trailer....