Most of the movies and TV series I watch come from my Netflix Instant Queue. It has been my go to for over five years now. I like to use it to find hidden gems, but not everyone wants to commit two hours of their free time to a decent looking movie poster. I’ve watched a ton of garbage over the years, but have missed even more, so there’s always something I want to watch, whether it’s revisiting an old favorite, or finally catching something I missed over the years. Instant Cinefessions will list some weekly recommendations based on what’s new on the Netflix service. It will also include my “Pull List”, which are films I’m interested in watching in the coming weeks. Look for reviews of the movies in my pull list in future columns. Also featured are brief reviews of films I’ve watched off the Pull List.


Netflix BigNew Films added to Netflix as of 04/09/2015
30 for 30: I Hate Christian Laettner (2015)
Actress (2014)
America: Imagine the World Without Her (2014)
Charlie Bartlett (2007)
Crank (2006)
Delta Farce (2007)
Life Partners (2014)
Monk with a Camera (2014)
Moto 6: The Movie (2014)
Nfinity Champions League Cheerleading Event (2014)
Pioneer (2013)
Preservation (2014)
Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage (2014)
Starry Eyes (2014)
The Circle (2014)
The Invisible Front (2014)
The Quiet Ones (2014)
The Sheik (2014)
Wooly Boys (2001)

Ashe’s Seal of Approval
These are the films or series that are on Netflix that get my seal of approval. In lieu of something not showing up that I’ve seen with recent additions to Netflix, which is a good problem to have if you’re looking for something new, I’ll recommend something that I’ve seen recently or that I know will be on the service for a while.

Marvel’s Daredevil (2015, Netflix Original Series)
No, I didn’t get a sneak peek at this one, but everything I’ve seen about it has my interest piqued. I love the amount of comic-related content we’re getting on all fronts, and a mature or R-rated Daredevil series sounds right up my alley.

Top Gear: Series 21
I have loved Top Gear ever since I caught my first marathon of the show back when I still had cable. This series might be the last complete one we get with Clarkson and his two cohorts, though, after the BBC sacked him for attacking a producer.

Crank (2006, dir. Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor)
Professional assassin Chev Chelios learns his rival has injected him with a poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops. While I really didn’t think this one needed a follow up, the original is at least what I expected going in: a high-octane action film that moves from set piece to ridiculous stunt over and over again. Don’t go in expecting this to make a lot of sense, but it is at least fun to watch.three_starsAshe’s Pull List
The Pull List is a list of films I’m interested in but haven’t seen that have been added to Netflix since the beginning of the year. These listed below are the films that have been added to the Pull List since last issue. Look for reviews of some of these in future issues of Instant Cinefessions. Don’t be surprised if I don’t end up clearing out this entire list either. Even I can be picky sometimes.

30 for 30: I Hate Christian Laettner (2015)
Actress (2014)
America: Imagine the World Without Her (2014)
Charlie Bartlett (2007)
Delta Farce (2007)
Nfinity Champions League Cheerleading Event (2014)
Pioneer (2013)
Preservation (2014)
Starry Eyes (2014)
The Circle (2014)
The Quiet Ones (2014)
The Sheik (2014)
Wooly Boys (2001)

Ashe’s Pull List Picks of the Week
So what did I watch off my Netflix Pull List this week? This past week was marred with illness, both personal and in the family, but I did cram in a number off my list. So what made it off the list? Here we go.

WolfCop (2014, dir. Lowell Dean)
After being transformed into a werewolf, a boozy cop uses his new powers to tangle with devil worshipers, shape-shifters and other minions of evil. This isn’t quite a parody of anything but it is a pretty fun satire on the whole rogue cop type of film while throwing in a whole lot of supernatural insanity along with some great werewolf-on-human violence, and even a werewolf sex scene. This isn’t my favorite kind of werewolf, more the classic horror film werewolf than American Werewolf in London style, but it is fun and over the top and highly amusing. Looking forward to the sequel.two_and_a_half_starsVeronkia Decides to Die (2009, dir. Emily Young)
Though she has it all, Veronika feels she’s experienced everything life has to offer and wants to die. But when her suicide attempt fails and she wakes in a mental hospital with a diagnosis that she has only a week to live, she begins to re-evaluate. I admit that I mainly watched this for Sarah Michelle Gellar. David Thewlis being in it is icing on that cake. Both do a great job, but I think Jonathan Tucker’s part in this is even better. There are some interesting ideas presented, but it feels a bit on the short side, like maybe they could have done a bit more. It’s still a fairly satisfying ending.three_starsEva (2011, dir. Kike Maíllo)
Programmer Alex, recently hired to develop a robot child, is inspired by his pretty niece Eva, whose mother, his former lover, awakens some old feelings between them. Claudia Vega is fantastic in this as the niece. She’s the centerpiece through which most of the events unfold and if she wasn’t as good as she is most of the film would fall apart. This is a sci-fi film, but at the same time, this is very much about dealing with your past and it coming to catch up to you. There are a number of really touching moments and the effects work is fantastic. This reminded me a lot of Asimov’s work quite a bit. Really good sci-fi film that doesn’t lose the one thing that makes a good sci-fi story work: its humanity.three_and_a_half_stars

Cat Run 2 (2014, dir. John Stockwell)
Two bumbling private eyes take a trip to New Orleans and find themselves entangled in a web of sexy female spies and government conspiracy. The biggest issue with this film is that everything that made the first film fun and exciting and amusing is stripped away here. The action isn’t nearly as good, they opted to go with some kind of bizarre sci-fi subplot that results in a fight with a CGI opponent that really doesn’t work at all, and there’s just no pacing to this one. If the first was a fast paced thriller, this is the follow up that tries to capture that moving pace by sticking in one place and handing out the clues instead of the characters and the audience piecing it together as we go. It’s not horrible, but it feels like a wholly unnecessary sequel that does nothing to capture what made the first work so well.two_and_a_half_starsV/H/S: Viral (2014, dirs. Nacho Vigalondo, Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead)
During a police chase, amateurs rush to shoot videos they hope will go viral, unwittingly casting themselves as victims in a cyber-horror story. While the first two films dealt with a set of VHS tapes that people were cycling through, this one changes up the formula, using all sorts of recording devices to tell the story. The others were more found footage and worked for the shorts they were, and while they work here, this definitely feels like a different sort of anthology collection than we got with the first two films. There are a few really well done segments that blow the others away in terms of short storytelling, and the overall story isn’t terrible, but it’s kind of a weak link tying these all together. Not nearly as good as the first two, this was still worth a look.two_and_a_half_stars

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – The Egg of the King (2012, dir.Toshiyuki Kubooka)
Loner Guts is recruited by Griffith and his band of mercenaries, but their ensuing success as a full-fledged army could lead to a horrible fate. Based off the manga and assembled from footage in the anime series, this is the first of three films that set out to tell the story of the manga and complete where the TV series left off. Even though this is assembled from the anime, where a lot of shows that do this fall apart, they made a good choice to make this into three films as they still have time to tell the story while keeping the plot to a bit less than sedate pace. It’s still as amazing to watch as I remember and while we get a bit less time with the mercenaries, the core story between Guts and Griffith remains intact. Definitely hoping Netflix ends up getting the other two parts, or at the very least I’ll end up hunting the films down to buy on my own.
three_and_a_half_stars

Make sure to check back on April 18th for more reviews and recommendations from the Netflix Instant Queue in Issue 13 of Instant Cinefessions!


Source: Whats on Netflix and Netflix