Well, it’s been two years now since I’ve been hooked on Netflix. I can’t say I’m disappointed yet. In recent months, though, I’ve switched from trying my luck with movies to trying with TV shows a little bit, and the success ratio has been much higher …. around 75% compared to something like 7% with movies. I’m just guessing. I should quantify that.
Anyway, to compare directly to last years stats, I’ll post the same results first:
Current plan: 5 a month (unlimited)
# of times I changed my plan: 7
# DVDs at home: 0
# of movies in my queue: 483
# of movies I’ve rated: 1,948
# recommendations: 7
# of movies I’ve rented: 78
# of 5-star ratings (from rentals): 1
# of 4-star ratings (from rentals): 4
# of movies I’ve bought on DVD (because of rentals): 2
I figured the numbers were poorer this year, but they’re pretty close to last year’s, except for the new movies I bought because I liked the rental so much (84 Charing Cross Road and The Court Jester).
It might be worth explaining my movie rating system. I give something 3 stars if I think it’s clean enough and worth watching … that is, I’d rent it, maybe buy it, and definately watch it again. I don’t include that in the stats since I think its too general a number. But in this case, the number that I rated 3 stars that I haven’t seen before was 7. Still a pretty low number, and it just goes to show that most of the stuff out there isn’t worth watching (in my opinion). I’m pretty picky, though.
Here’s some categories I’d put stuff into, which occurred to me as I was looking over the list:
Movies I expected to be good that disappointed me: Do Not Disturb, The Princess and the Pirate, How to Make an American Quilt, Move Over Darling, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, The Thrill of It All, The Ice Pirates
Thought it would be slightly entertaining, but was horrible: Dungeons and Dragons, Merlin, A Cinderella Story
Unexepected surprises (good movies): The Cure, 84 Charing Cross Road, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, The Court Jester, Time After Time, Hacking Democracy, The Dead Zone, Smallville, Spider-man (the 67 collection), Ivanhoe
Seen it before, liked it, watched it again, still like it: Coach Carter, The Fog of War, Lady in White, Carpool, Mom and Dad Save the World, Without a Trace, The ‘Burbs, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Freaky Friday
My opinion lowered: Greedy, 50 First Dates, The Wizard
Meh: Popeye, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Core
Didn’t finish it: Captain Blood, Capricorn One, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Three Musketeers, Notorious, Dragonheart: The New Beginning, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Sliding Doors, Starcrash, How to Make an American Quilt, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, This Island Earth, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Notebook
What in the world did I just sit through: Silent Running, Logan’s Run, Popeye, Dreamscape, Starcrash
That last category really takes the cake. Silent Running was about the weirdest thing I have ever seen. It’s basically a hippy 70’s sci-fi dream movie …. let’s fly off into space, murder our evil corporate overlords … all to save the trees! That’s not too far off the mark of what happens.
Logan’s Run was just absolutely weird. I’d heard of the movie ever since I was a kid but had no idea what to expect. It was mostly interesting until it got to the halfway point where they spend half their time dilly-dallying around outside. Boring.
Popeye, I already wrote about. Wasn’t bad … just … another trip.
Nothing can beat out Starcrash for extreme oddity though. Apparently this movie never had an editor, as you’ll lose count of the inconsistencies and plot holes since there are about a dozen every 5 minutes. I’m not exaggerating, either. Star Wars rip-off is the simplest way of describing this movie …. I wouldn’t miss it, if only for the experience, and the fact that you’ll never be able to forget.
Two other movies that I think need honorable mention … The Ice Pirates. I remember watching the TV spot for this movie a LONG time ago when I was a kid, and I always thought I would have loved that movie. Watching it now, all I could think to myself was, if I had seen this as a twelve year old, I would have loved it. Unfortunately, it just bothered me a bit now, so I couldn’t sit through the whole thing.
Last but not least, was Superman II: Donner’s cut, which I wrote about as well. A lot of mixed feelings in that one, since they cut out more than they should have, I think. I’d still like to mix my own.
Anyway, I always figured this year kind of sucked for rentals, but looking back I see it wasn’t half bad at all. Most of the good ones I found right near the beginning of the year, and most everything else has just been a complete miss for me. Oh well, there’s still a ton of movies more to watch … I’m sure there’s something good out there, somewhere. 🙂