Sunday, February 22, 2009

Watching Movies

In honor of the Oscars today, a movie post. While most of you are chasing kids or serving people or things productive like that, we are not. Were enjoying Netflix, watching movies. We first subscribed about a year and a half ago and watch about 4-5 movies a week, and its become a part of our life.

We subscribe to three movies for a little under 20$ a month. We've learned some tips for making the most of Netflix:

*At least here in Raleigh, if you don't mail your movie by Thursday, you wont get another movie on Saturday. If you mail the movie on Friday or Saturday, the replacement movie comes Monday. Normally it's a two day turnaround from mailing a movie to getting a replacement.
*Check Rotten Tomatoes or Yahoo Movies to see if something good came out that week. Add it to you netflix list, even though its not on DVD yet, or possible not in theaters.
*Move movies coming soon to the top of your list when they have their set release date, so you can get them first.
*If you mail in a movie and it arrives at the netflix warehouse the day before a new release is released, Netflix will mail you that movie. Otherwise there can be weeks of waiting. This is bad when you really want to see something. Sometimes its not. For example, we waited 6 weeks for Alvin and the Chipmunks.
*If you have friends or family on Netflix, they have a social networking feature so you can see what movies they are watching and what movies they are awaiting. This is a great way to get ideas. If you are hiding something or have really embarrassing taste, it is probably not good to share lists. You can send notes and recommend movies you feel are up peoples alley. If any blog readers would like to do this, send us an e-mail and we can link up.
*Rate the movies. That way their is a feature where you can be given ideas or what you might like.

We didn't see a lot of the Oscar nominee movies this year, but have seen a lot of great DVD's. Here are all the movies and TV shows and we (Ryan mostly) have given the highest rating that we saw on Netflix, and recommend. Most are TV series, dramas or documentaries, but there are a few kids movies.
30 Rock: Season 1
The American President
Breach
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Double Indemnity
The Errand of Angels
Flash of Genius
Freaks & Geeks: The Complete Series
FDR: American Experience
The Gospel
John Adams
The King of Kong
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Lars and the Real Girl
Miss Potter
The Namesake
The Office: Season 1
Shattered Glass
Stardust
Sunset Boulevard
Treasures of the Twilight Zone
Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys
Any great movies that we may have missed or that you recommend? Feel free to leave ideas in comments.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize that about the importance of timing your returns for new releases. Makes sense, though. I'll have to try it out.

Unknown said...

Thanks! I always appreciate a good list and you have some great ones on there!

Wendy said...

Very helpful and interesting information. I'll have to check out some of your suggestions. We've loved all of your recommendations.

Renee said...

So...was the alvin and the chipmunks 6 week wait a good thing or a bad thing??

I highly recommend Man on Wire if you're in the mood for a fantastically funny and intense documentary. Loved it.

Ryan said...

renee-I heard this was big at sundance. I've added it to the queue.

Sara said...

I used to have Blockbuster's mail service and it stressed me out finding time to watch the movies. I started feeling guilty if I held onto them too long. So I'd try to make time to watch them or if it felt like I couldn't, I'd just send them back. But then more would show up and I had then the countdown began again. Should I just not care?

courtney said...

can i get a review on kit kittredge? what did you think?