Watched the first few episodes of this, prolly will resume the series at some point. Semi-annoying that I really have to pay attention to what some of the characters are saying though, because their British accents are so thick and they mix in Brit slang I have never heard.

Spoiler:

Just started Important Things with Demetri Martin. He's the Daily Show correspondent guy and does a mix of stand up and skits. Pretty funny so far - lots of word play, dumb formulas, and satire.

Here is everything available on instant watch from this list of The 50 Best Documentaries of All-Time Rushmore posted in the Lounge.

Sans Soleil (1982)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976)
The War Game (1965)
Man with the Movie Camera (1929)
Hearts and Minds (1974)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
The Gleaners and I (2000)
Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Grey Gardens (1975)
The Sorrow and the Pity (1972)
The Up Series:
- 21 Up (1977)
- 28 Up (1985)
- 42 Up (1998)
- 49 Up (2005)
Sherman's March (1986)
Burden of Dreams (1982)
Point of Order (1964)
Man on Wire (2008)
F for Fake (1973)

I'm watching F for Fake and the editing is interesting. It uses a very quick-cut editing style like music videos or Moulin Rouge. Welles may have been one of the first to employ this style, it's quite jarring for a 1973 movie.

Of course I don't know that much about cinematic history.

edit: ok I just looked on wiki and it says, "Some have even argued that after Citizen Kane, F for Fake is Welles's most influential film, for it invented the MTV style of editing." so there you go

4 hours of misery. I know I should see it, but it just feels like a burden.

From what I have read the frogs just hung around and ate croissants and painted **** during the war.

I recently saw a documentary on Sherman that is evidently different than this one. In fact it's hard to figure out if this one has much to do with Sherman at all.

i thought woody allen made this movie up in 'annie hall'. there's no chance i can see it now, thanks to that - i'll just always laugh at the title.

Yeah, my first thought was of Alvie Singer.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it 8.6/10.

Synopsis from Wiki:

I guess fascism is an an elitist thing if the aristocracy can get behind it. Crap, now I'm going to have to watch it. I'm sure it'll make great convo while eating turkey.

If there are any of you younger people who haven't seen the Peter Sellers versions of 'The Pink Panther' you probably should. They're so much better than the stupid Steve Martin movies. There is a ton of gold in 'A Shot in the Dark'.

He'd be ancient (or dead) now anyway, but I still feel Peter Sellers died too soon.

Netflix adds streaming only plan and increases prices for all dvd plans

Had a feeling this was inevitable. Still a great bargain.

Ya the one DVD out at a time for 10 bucks a month is still a really solid deal. Stream lots of great shows and get the rest via the disc.

agreed. usually the turn around time is pretty quick so you dont have to wait awhile before you can order a new one...and even though the streaming options arent the greatest, theyre still decent

There are a LOT of people pissed off on the comments for it. Such a sick deal, no idea how they can care that much. Threatening to go to Redbox, etc... Redbox is great for some things, but it's still a pain. And they'll raise their rates soon enough. Other people bitching about not enough on streaming.

If you are willing to pay $9/mo for 1 DVD and medicore streaming content, paying $10/mo with all they've added in the last year is a no-brainer. Raising rates without giving people a choice may backfire some. Seems like they should just give a "benefit" for people willing to pay more, perhaps give streaming "premium" content, where they get access to it first if they are buying new deals or whatever. Leave the cheap bastards with what they had before if that's what they wanted.

Hopefully this doesn't backfire the way blockbuster did. I was a blockbuster customer that left after they jacked up rates and took away return at store. It seems a bit different since the increase is much smaller, they are giving more content instead of less, and have been so cheap for so long.

They are going to loose some customers, but I don't think it will be a big hit.

A lot of the complaints in the comments were not about the price increase. They were from people that treat Netflix as a service to watch things that just left theaters and want it that night because they want to watch a movie. However, that's not what Netflix is trying to be. Netflix is about the depth of the collection.

Also, people that want to stream HBO shows needs to understand that it's just not going to happen. Netflix wants all the content they can have, but some companies put very high values on their content. And Netflix has to play nice with things like delaying availability when the DVD is actually released in order to be able to stream all the content they do have.

I may get netflix again because of this. What's the instant watch selection like now? Do they have a wide selection of classics? How about TV?

i've NEVER had to wait more than two business days. one day to get from me to them and one day to get back to me.
seriously, +1.

(a) it was already a HUGE steal. netflix is worth way more to me than it costs
(b) they've gotten a LOT more content in the last few years, without raising costs (at least, i don't think they've raised costs? i've only been a subscriber for a year)
(c) they've added cheaper options to benefit people at the extremes (those who only stream or those who only get movies)

It's not ideal, but I can find things I would enjoy to watch. If I want to watch one particular thing, odds are not great it's on Instant Watch. But I have 100+ things in my queue, so I have no excuse for saying nothing is on.

TV is decent. I watched Dexter S1 and S2 on it. Wife watched Weeds. There is a ton of stuff from History/Discovery/etc... that's good and worth watching if you haven't seen it.

Older movies tend to have better luck.

The other thing I'd add to this is how they've also been able to add support and improve it for devices to stream. I used to have to hook up my computer which was incredibly annoying and we would rarely stream things. Now I can use my Bluray player or my Wii (now without a disc needed).

What is this queue you speak of? Maybe it's something not available on the Canadian version but having some sort of watch list would be great. Currently I surf around the site and keep a word document on my desktop with titles that interest me.

The queue is a feature that lets you organize upcoming movies you want shipped to you.

It's an ordered list that you can change on the fly. They will automatically send out #1 on your list whenever they receive the current movie, then the list jumps up 1 space and the next one gets sent automatically, etc..

Using the queue is as easy as clicking "add to queue" next to a movie, and then positioning it manually if you decide you want the movie sooner/later.

There's also a saved list where you can watch for upcoming releases that is separate from the queue.

As for real world usage, it's pretty much:

- Add 6 or so movies to your queue and order them in any way you want.
- Do nothing except ship back the movies when you're done and it handles the rest until your queue is empty.

I went to downgrade in light of the pricing change and got this message: any chance they're offering some sort of grace period for current subscribers? maybe it will just change in my next billing cycle.

An extra $1/mo. is a deal, especially if they use the added revenue to increase their on-demand selection.

If you go to Membership Terms & Details instead of change plan, it will tell you what your new price will be and that it will start with the next billing cycle.

Ah, got it. So it's just for the DVD by mail option. I was hoping there was a way you could flag movies you want to watch later via streaming. It would be ideal if you could click a movie and select "watch later" or something and have it added to an Instant Watch list.