Netflix can't make useful recommendations, can you?

Archive: Watching

Seeking the therapeutic powers of escapist entertainment and making a last effort to patch together things together with Charles I upgraded my Netflix account to eight movies out at time.

I have seventy-one movies in my Netflix queue. A few queer films, British tv comedies I?ve mostly never even heard of. Some old chestnuts from the days of Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant and RKO.

I?d like to load the queue more heavily so the flow of movies will continue unabated for the next month or so.

As I?ve done before I thought I?d see if I could catch a passing web surfer?s attention and get a few movie recommendations.

Happily or not I?ve probably seen almost every movie that I?d like to watch from the 30s through the 90s that has been out on video or DVD. My enthusiasms are narrow:

Busby Berkeley, Fred Astaire and kindred: I?ll watch any silly old screwball comedy.

Hammer, AIP, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Wes Craven: just about every horror movie ever made through the end of the 1980s no matter how witless.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is the most beloved movie of my childhood. Likewise I watch almost every science fiction movie made until Spielberg and Lucas made them popular.

Pretty much all the trashy, exploitative movies that fall under the label psychotronic.

And Jackie Chan. But to me that is the other side of the coin as Fred Astaire.

That is what I?ve seen and obviously I?m asking for your help with what I haven?t.

I?m looking for fairly recent movies to get from Netflix. Two categories:

Horror movies. Last time I was in a video rental store there were lots and lots of them. The last kind of movie to judge by its box. My standards aren?t high. No vain hopes of original ideas. Merely competent presentation, able pacing. Inventive mayhem is a plus but has always been hard to come by. I don?t even expect good acting. All I ask is the movie not make me squirm in my chair. Sadly I can?t remember the last one that I genuinely took pleasure in. The ring thing was risible. But for me watching this sort of trash is a ritual. One that I enjoy and please don?t get the impression that I apologize for it.

Fluffy romantic comedies are what I?m really hoping for. In these the thought of evading clich?s is laughable. The necessaries are at lest mildly charming performers and a director who can gracefully glide over the improbabilities. Cheerful nugatory films with happy endings quite unlike real life.

I don?t watch TV if there isn?t a DVD in the player, don?t read magazines. I live in such a poverty of mass culture that I couldn?t tell you the name of five movies playing in theaters. So I have to solicit the kindness of strangers.

Curious to see if Netflix?s own recommendation system could help me I?ve rated over 1,100 movies. Netflix has given up trying to make suggestions. Even when it is brave enough it is still apt to offer me anime and John Wayne movies. Or movies with subtitles - my eyes can?t deal with them. I?m surprised there isn?t the simple option to exclude foreign language and animated titles. Netflix?s recommendations are almost enough to make me appreciate Amazon?s.

Neftflix?s categorization is painfully shallow. I?d like to be able to browse 1950s American sitcoms. It is wearying to have to push through collections of All in the Family and The Jeffersons. But I was glad to see they did have the I Married Joan collection. Always had a soft spot for Jim Backus.

If you made it down here to the final paragraph do leave a suggestion or ten.