Anyone else notice how rare it is to find decent movies are added to the Netflix Watch Now selection? There are good ones there, but they’re far and few between. I most often find gems like Toxie’s Triple Terror: Deadly Daphne’s Revenge come through the Netflix Watch Now RSS feed. Or possibly another exciting title such as Monster of London City / Mystery of the Red Orchid: Double Feature. Yeah, I’ve never heard of those either thankfully. But there really are a few decent ones, albeit older titles, in the mix occasionally. Here’s some that are worth checking out:
- The Interpreter – Silvia Broome’s (Nicole Kidman) job is to translate for her assigned delegate the complex issues faced by the United Nations. But the interpreter’s daily challenge turns epic when she accidentally overhears details of a plot to assassinate a high-ranking government official. Suddenly, her existence is overshadowed by danger, and she must unravel an intricate yarn of intrigue with the help of an FBI agent (Sean Penn) in order to save herself.
- Beethoven – If you have a young one around who hasn’t seen this yet, give it a shot. Workaholic George Newton (Charles Grodin) reluctantly agrees to let his children keep a St. Bernard puppy who’s just escaped the clutches of two dimwitted dognappers (Oliver Platt and Stanley Tucci). Dubbed Beethoven, the playful pooch soon turns into a full-grown engine of destruction, leaving wreckage and hilarity in his wake. Disney veteran Dean Jones is cast against type as a vile veterinarian who kidnaps Beethoven for a lab experiment.
- Miss Conception – Not the most intelligent sitcom-like movie, but entertaining to the teen/tween crowd regardless. Georgina (Heather Graham) is a high-powered London businesswoman who’s decided to add mother to her list of accomplishments. Unfortunately, her longtime boyfriend (Tom Ellis) isn’t ready to be a daddy. With her biological clock ticking, Georgina recruits her best friend, Clem (Mia Kirshner), to help her find the perfect father for her baby-to-be. Orlando Seale co-stars in this timely romantic comedy.
These are some of the better titles available to stream via Netflix Watch Now – really. There are some TV shows I’ve watched here – I caught up on Office and Dexter, but they really need to expand their Watch Now collection to make the Netflix-attached devices compelling. There’s a bit of content I view using my SageTV Netflix plugin, but not enough to make me want to purchase a dedicated device.
Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Brent Evans Geek Tonic.
i watched cashback the other day, it was good
We saw Cashback (on the Roku box) and thought it was decent too. Though, Netflix obviously isn’t paying the big bucks needed for current, Hollywood releases.
Ben, Steve & I discussed this on the latest EngadgetHD podcast and Ben thinks the reason Netflix watch-now movies are weak (read leftovers that won’t sell anyway) is because they give the service away.
I have to agree. And if they would offer a Netflix Watch Now Premium service that you could subscribe to that offered new releases and a much improved selection – Netflix Watch Now would become MUCH more popular. I kind of thought that this would happen when they brought out the hardware-Netflix devices, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened so far.
It’s a licensing issue, pure and simple – and Netflix is keeping costs down since it isn’t pay-per-play like everyone else. Unfortunately (perhaps), Netflix has stated publicly they won’t be offering a premium service. And the one time I traveled with my Roku box, the hotel firewall blocked it. So it doesn’t see much use…
i did some math on this the other day, comparing my netflix options vs unbox as a replacement. i do 13.99 2-at-a-time plan w/ netflix, and average 2 movies a week which is ~8 a month and its 1.74 per movie.
with unbox, for 13.99 (with good rentals at 3.99) i would get 3 or 4 movies out of it.
i wish unbox had an subscription plan, it would totally blow netflix out of the water
Monster of London City is a great campy old horror movie!…maybe I should reconsider my current NetFlix boycott.
Jon, But if Amazon had a subscription plan they’d be int he same boat – either exclude a large percent of their collection or charge you more for per viewing options of current Hollywood releases. You get what you pay for?
Ugh. I like Heather Graham, but Miss Conception was an insult to my intelligence. I’ve seen a LOT of bad movies but I couldn’t bear that one.
The Watch Now catalog is very unfortunate… I’ve only used it for catching up on TV also… Dexter and Weeds, specifically.
Also, there are lots of good Watch Now films, just none current. Of my queue of 455, there are 45 items available for Watch Now. Including… Casablanca, Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train, Gilda, Marnie, and The Birds.
In my experience, the movie selection pretty much sucks but there’s lots of tv shows which is what I mainly use netflix for anyway. They had several seasons worth of Weeds, Dead like me, Dexter, The Office, SeaQuest season 1, Coupling, Doctor Who, and Voltron to name a few. So for shows it’s great. There are a couple gems from the movie section although mostly in the documentary genre. I’ve watched The Mask of Zorro, Bullit, Blade Runner, Rob Roy, and Once Upon a Time in China 2 which are all decent.
The first two movies are good. But movies on VUDU’s “99 for 99” weekly special (99 titles for 99 cents each) are way better and more current.
*Nothing* beats the selection of foreign films I’ve found using my Roku. Netflix streaming is not for your hollywood popcorn movies, but it excels at TV shows, independent, foreign, and documentary films. Some TV shows are not even out on DVD but are somehow on Roku – example Simon and Simon has the whole series but only season one is out on DVD.
I just discovered it on my xbox 360 with a hack for watching it on TV. It’s actually quite useful and makes my netflix subscription worth it. A few Gems –
*Penn & Teller’s Bullshit
*Korean Foreign Films (Woman is the Future of Man)
*Anime Selection like Blood of a Vampire + old Japanese Anime
*La Vie en Rose
*Fat Actress
*Stand up Comedy!
It’s REALLY COOL with the windows media center extender to my tv. I have a wall of movies just ready to be watched, makes the xbox and netflix a really good team.