Netflix, Star Wars, etc.

We periodically rent movies from either Blockbuster or iTunes, and recently we decided to try a couple of other alternatives.

First we tried 'Redbox.' There's a Redbox dispenser at a gas station nearby, so I went over and looked through the menu. It wasn't much better than iTunes as far as selection, but it was somewhat of a novelty. We rented The Rocker starring Dwight from The Office. It was a mostly unfunny knockoff of School of Rock that might have worked if the music the kids were playing wasn't awful! Skip that one.

So then the other day I finally decided to sign up for Netflix. I've been meaning to do so for several months, but because the web-based viewing option relies on Microsoft's Silverlight player, it doesn't work on G5-based Macs or in Linux. But right now I'm using Windows for compatibility reasons at school, so Netflix was go (just like the 'Fit is go' in the commercials).

We got the 'one movie' plan which is like 9 bucks a month. There are about 10,000 movies one can watch online, and then about 100,000 that you can get in the mail.

The first movie we got online was Man on Wire which won the Oscar for Best Documentary this year. It was about a totally crazy French dude that spent 6 years planning for a covert tight rope walk between the WTC towers back in the 70s. This guys was all undercover and everything, taking pictures and movies, and building models. Anyway, great movie, very entertaining.

The next movie we watched online was Ratatouille. I enjoyed it and the kids did too. I think the moral was that even the most thinly-disguised impostors can find success through collaboration with common vermin.



Then we decided to get a movie in the mail. So after consulting Laela and Ivy we settled on Star Wars, Episode 4, A New Hope. I remember watching the Star Wars on Video in about 1980 at age 3 for the first time, so I thought it was sufficiently appropriate for my 3 and 5 year old daughters. Laela was concerned that there was often little justification for the killing in the movie, but she really liked the big hairy ape. She couldn't figure out how he kept getting on the spaceship though! Ivy was admittedly only marginally interested as we watched, but she did take in most of it. Laela, of course, knows most of the back story through past casual conversations; so she was asking about Darth Vader's history quite a bit. She was also especially interested in the good guy/bad guy status of each and every character. I also thought that it was funny and odd that she didn't realize that it was fictional until about 20 minutes in (after the large space battle and the droids walking around on Tatooine ). Laela still wants to see the other 5 movies, so I'd say it was a success.

Then the other day we watched an old collection of Bugs Bunny & Roadrunner cartoons. The kids loved it, but I felt that I had outgrown some of the nuances that had made it more funny when I was 5.

Another cool thing that Netflix does is that it allows you to 'rate' any movies you have previously seen, and then with those ratings it compiles lists of recommended movies for you. So it takes a lot of the effort out of trying to decide what to see next. I used to spend like an hour at Blockbuster, so this is welcome feature. You can also browse by genre, age category, release dates, etc. Honestly the 'watch instantly' selection does leave something to be desired, but I suspect this is largely due to licensing issues on the part of the movies studios. Hopefully that situation will improve in the future.

I still have a $15 iTunes gift card, so I'm afraid that I haven't settled on Netflix, but I would recommend it to anyone who watches 3 or more movies per month, and who can't be bothered to drive for 5 minutes to Blockbuster. :)