Netflix; Nuggets & Nasties

Welcome everybody to another episode of Netflix;Nuggets & Nasties I know you all (all 2 or 3 of you) have been eagerly anticipating my report on “The Croods” and don’t worry your pretty little heads I will deliver shortly…

Unaffiliated.

But before I do we here at RWR wanted to give a nod out to our top quick Nug picks available on NetFlix.

“Is it Safe?”

The Classic Choice: If you only have time for one Movie this week-end make it Marathon Man, if you haven’t seen this excellent thriller staring Dustin Hoffman it is definitely must see material. Never has the innocently asked question “Is it safe?” seemed so threatening. This Movie was the overall  #1 pick

Umm…Ya just gotta see it…really.

Runner up is the adaptation of Joseph Heller’s novel, the 1970 classic Catch 22. This is another film you, especially our younger viewers, may not have yet experienced. An excellent comedy featuring a stellar cast and a piece of 70’s film history you should eventually explore.

We all love ducks now!

Brain Gain: We’re big fans of the great documentaries, and plenty of them, available on NetFlix at the moment and if you can only watch one our top pick is DUCKumentary, another excellent offering from the folks at PBS’s Nature features outstanding narration by one of our favorites, Paul Giamatti, and such beautiful HD cinematography your TV becomes a portal to the marshes of North America.

Exposing animal prejudices and species on species violence.

Our runners up are Eternal Enemies, an extremely honest look at the often brutal relationship between Lions and Hyenas in the African grasslands (this was my top pick, Go Lions!) and for non nature lovers The City Dark is an excellent choice and complex enough to make it worthy of multiple viewings.

Their terror is your hilarity.

For Entertainment Purposes Only: Alright if you haven’t seen Tucker n Dale Vs. Evil yet, well then this is our numero uno pick…I argued against it only because I’m pretty sure everyone has seen it already.

The” Best Actor You May Not Have Heard of Award” goes to…

If you haven’t, well make a date with funny tonight. Granted you must be tolerant of blood, gore and plenty of cursing that comes with T&D vs Evil, one of the funniest movies we’ve seen and a insanely clever twist on an over done classic horror theme.

Amazingly enough, this wasn’t my top pick, but I love the film so am happy it won just the same.

No I just figured it wasn’t enough of a nugget.

Heck it stars Alan Tudyk and he’s a household name…around our house.

Despite the title this is not a movie featuring a Nancy Drew type character.

My pick was Detective Dee & Mystery of the Phantom Flame, a movie I didn’t watch forever just because the title seemed so…lame.

Now of course I love both the rockin’ awesome title and the movie. In Phantom Flame the action really heats up.

This time the girl’s in the wheel chair.

Our odd man out this time is another excellent import from China, The Four.

A great oddball film possibly best described as X-Men meets Chinese Action/Adventure Film.

The Four equals fun.

The Croods from Dreamworks Ent.

Okay a huge range of watchable material and now yes even I gotta admit…so was DreamWorks “The Croods“.

A fantastically fun, stunningly animated romp through a wonderland of trippy plants and animals.

I would still argue that I was for the most part right…just missed the fine points and a couple of tweaks (tweaks not twerks) to the overall usual thematic schema of today’s propaganda disguised as fluff, Animated Children’s Films.

Still unclear as to the movies message…Yea okay Girl power…but isn’t she still following a boy?

Though the propaganda wasn’t favoring my schema as in the overwhelmingly kick butt Incredibles nor as blatantly left leaning as any of the “Anything Featuring A Penguin” Movie.

Oh the big P was still there…it was just muddled which made it for the most part ignorable (for the most part).

I expected to be blasted in the face and except for the one “pouty” dad scene it was relatively (ridiculously) unclear.

Instead I was treated to a relatively minor morally abrasive tale that was actually pretty darn funny and beautifully animated.

I made some jokey reference in the last couple posts about acid, that is LSD use here at RWR, and while I assure you that of course was not true, I did think about acid while watching this movie. The digital scenery is fun, inventive and breathtakingly animated.

One of those places a man could settle down.

Bear in mind they went with the fantasy approach to their primeval world, but they went for it with bravado and it paid off for me. I certainly would live there despite the flying piranha birds and giant headed cats.

“The Croods” was better than I thought it’d be. If I let pass some of the more goofy socio-new agerey I actually found myself enjoying it.

I doubt it will become a perennial favorite around my house…but I may give it a watch again or two.

Okay well that was by far our longest NF;N &N post so definitely will keep it shorter next time.

Thanks for watching everyone and watch for our next episode where we dig up more great NetFlix Nuggets.