Flicks to Stream: The Best of Netflix and Hulu, June 9th

Streaming a movie is all about timing.  You’ve got to be in a certain type of mood, ready for a certain type of movie, and open to the possibilities of watching something truly terrible.  That’s the game of streaming movies online, and it’s part of the fun.  Just in case you don’t want to take that chance and sit through a piece of junk, you’ve got Flicks to Stream to make sure you catch the best of the best that Netflix and Hulu have to offter.

Last week, two truly unforgettable cinematic adventures came to Netflix, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Jean-Claude Van Damme definitely helps tip the scales of cinematic glory in favor of Street Fighter, but Mortal Combat is not without it’s amazing moments either.  For some of us, Street Fighter and Mortal Combat were the few movies that required multiple viewings in theaters (sorry mom and dad).  If video game and comic book adaptations are considered much better nowadays, let’s just call the mid-’90s attempts the beta phase.

As for the movies that have redeeming cinematic qualities, the list is once again stacked this week.  How’s this for the starting lineup: The Dude,  The President of the United States, a gangster with serious roid-rage issues, a teenager who learns to kick ass, and Swedish vampires.  How can you top that?  Well… maybe Nazi Zombies, but Dead Snow has already been recommended.

Popcorn Movie of the Week

The Big Lebowski (HD)

There isn’t one palpable reason why The Big Lebowski works.  It’s impossible to explain through words, or the use of logic for that matter.  Yet, (in honor of the iPhone 4 spectacle this week) “it just works”.  If you’ve already seen the movie, then odds are The Big Lebowski has either become a staple in your Netflix Instant Queue, or you haven’t seen or thought much about Lebowski since that first viewing.  This pick aims to accomplish one thing: You’ve got to see The Big Lebowski.  It’s in HD, free and easy to watch, and it’s one of the few movies that can accurately be described as “an experience”.  It’s a trip, man.  A trip that covers a lot of ground: bowling, white russians, bowling alley culture, naked flying artists inspired by Jackson Pollock, post traumatic stress disorder, Vietnam, possible schizophrenic epidodes, drugs of the herbal and non-herbal persuasion, and Tara Reid.

Air Force One

Was there a better time for movie posters than the ’90s?  The answer to that: of course not.  Combine the burgeoning technology of photoshop, a limiting range of fonts, and a love of motion blur effects, and that’s the ’90s movie poster experience.  Glorious.  When you think about it, ’90s movies are much the same.  Air Force One is the perfect example of that.  The few scenes of CG are both exhilarating and cheesy, while the use of real explosions makes movie lovers long for the days where things on screen were more than just data.  Thankfully, Gary Oldman is still acting.

The One That Got Away

Get Carter

Among the trash of remakes, there are always a few treasures. Get Carter suffered from timing problems more than anything else.  Stallone was on a downturn in his career, stuck between his past success in the late 80′s and before his career revived with the final (hopefully) Rambo and Rocky movies.  So, Stallone wasn’t a draw, he was more of a joke.  Also, Mickey Rourke was in-between his career peaks, so his performance fell on blind eyes and deaf ears.  And finally, Rachel Leigh Cook (She’s All That) was beginning to realize she was a one hit wonder, not Hollywood’s newest “it” girl.  Throw all that together and it’s obvious why Get Carter slipped under the radar.  Ironically, it’s good.  Anyone with an attachment to the original Get Carter won’t be impressed, but anyone experiencing Get Carter for the first time will find a tightly wound action thriller with surprising intensity.

The Karate Kid

One redeeming quality about the remake-itis Hollywood is currently suffering from, is it gives you a good excuse to go back and watch the original.  Which, most of the time results in nastalgia, and great movie experience.  The great thing about a re-boot specifically, is you don’t have to know anything past the basic plot synopsis of the original to follow along.  However, if you venture back to watch the original incarnation, you may just catch a few easter eggs that you wouldn’t have before.  Plus, while the idea of Jackie Chan as Mr. Miagi is enticing, it is important that an entire generation sees the original Miagi, as he was meant to be seen… on your computer screen while you eat Cheetos Puffs (those things are hard to find nowadays).

For the Movie Buff

Letters from Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood has been rolling out a steady stream of quality movies for nearly a decade now.  This should come as no surprise, but Letters from Iwo Jima is a masterpiece.  Yes, this was technically the “companion piece” to Flags of our Fathers, but Iwo Jima received much more critical acclaim, mainly because the subject matter (a look into the lives of men who were asked to carry out a suicide mission) was much more intriguing in terms of a movie.  I hate to say it, but Saving Private Ryan just about said all was needed to be said about WWII, and even Eastwood can’t add much more to that narrative.  Iwo Jima allowed the exploration of universal war themes, and the more objective viewpoint of war as an evil that produces no winners, only the dead and the holes they leave in their loved ones lives. Letters from Iwo Jima is epic, and not in the common vernacular, it truly is an epic piece of cinema.

Let the Right One In (HD)

Here’s yet another (are you detecting a pattern here?) soon to be American-remake.  Along with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sweden seems to be a hotbed of source material for Hollywood’s mass consumption.  It makes sense actually — it’s cold in Sweden, and they just recently got the iPhone 2G, so they aren’t distracted with technology.  Oh, and they aren’t watching TV.  How do I know this?  Name one Swedish television show…  Nope?  Well, regardless of these unfounded hypotheses, the Let the Right One In garnered a plethora of critical acclaim and caught the eye of Hollywood, so shouldn’t it catch your eye too?

Sweet Streams.  See You Next Week!

All movies this week are available on Netflix.

Past Weeks of Flicks to Steam

Week 14 – Up, The Messenger, The Stepfather

Week 13 – District 9, U.S. Marshalls, Full Metal Jacket
Week 12 – Heat, Hollywood Homicide, Pan’s Labyrinth

Week 11 – Hot Shots!, The Machinist, Being John Malkovich.

Week 10 – Wall-E, Doubt, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

Week 9 – A Nightmare on Elm Street, Beavis and Butthead Do America, Demolition Man

Week 8 – Dead Snow, Cliffhanger, Ong-Bak

Week 7 – Pineapple Express, Reign of Fire, The Saint

Week 6 – Julie and Julia, The Proposal, The Rookie, The Usual Suspects.

Week 5 – The Ugly Truth, Out Cold, Food, Inc.

Week 4 – Step Brothers, Management, Boondock Saints

Week 3 – Year One, Big Trouble, Raising Arizona

Article written by Lee Jaster on GotchaMovies.com. Reposted with permission.