Lounging around and browsing through Netflix and can’t make up your mind on what to watch?
Well, there are many timeless flicks to watch, but they don’t have a category for bad ass on there. Here is a rundown of some of the highlights of Netflix.
Here are some plain old great flicks:
Memento – This one is a roller coaster ride. If you can hold on and keep up with the plot twists, it's worth the ride.
Memento – This one is a roller coaster ride. If you can hold on and keep up with the plot twists, it's worth the ride.
Traffic – The closest Steven Soderbergh has come to making a masterpiece. An excellent ensemble cast highlight this look at all sides of the American Drug War.
Fargo – If you have not seen this yet, you are truly missing out. The Coen Brothers did a dynamite job on this stylish dark comedic crime thriller.
Modern Cult Flicks:
Tucker and Dale Vs Evil – An excellent mix of horror and comedy. It makes you wonder who the Evil Dead had a baby with…
Tucker and Dale Vs Evil – An excellent mix of horror and comedy. It makes you wonder who the Evil Dead had a baby with…
The Rules of Attraction – Sex and drugs on a college campus? No way! But this is not your typical college party flick. This is a twisted dark comedy from the author of American Psycho and directed by the twisted mind of Roger Avary.
The Boondock Saints – This movie reeks of style, wit, grit and violence. Two Irish brothers play vigilantes and try to rid Boston of crime. 'Nuff said.
God Bless America – What if Falling Down had a baby with Natural Born Killers and Idiocracy? You would end up with God Bless America. Reality stars, bigots and other dunces of society beware! This dark comedy is the highlight thus far in Bobcat Goldthwait’s directorial career.
Love & a .45 – This would make a good triple bill with Natural Born Killers and Bonnie and Clyde. Not quite as violent and over the top, but it has a unique script, excellent soundtrack and a style and grace that can be found in some of the not so big budget cult flicks of the mid 90's.
Equilibrium – If 1984, Dark City, Blade, Terminator and The Matrix had a baby, it might go a little something like this. Hit it!
The FP – There is no other movie like this in existence. Over the top characters, outlandish story lines, a quotable script and a style of dress you’d think belongs in an eighties gang B-Movie makes this flick work. After you finish this, you will want to dance, dress like J-Tro and will be saying “Never ignorant getting’ goals accomplished!”.
Reservoir Dogs – The movie that put Quentin Tarantino on the map. There isn't a dull moment in this one. A groovy soundtrack with K Billy’s Super Sound of the 70's, one of the most unique scripts ever written and some top notch acting highlight this modern day cult classic. Bear in mind that the script is not linear. It does not go from point A to B to C, it can go from point C to A to C to B, etc. But it doesn’t matter because it's so cool.
Pulp Fiction – Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece. After this flick came out, many of us were blaring the soundtrack, quoting characters left and right and watching this over and over. This is one of those movies, once you watch it, you can sit down at almost any point in the movie and watch it. One question remains: What was on that briefcase?
Donnie Darko – If you like romantic sci fi infused with time travel, a 6 foot tall doomsday prophesying rabbit, creepiness, intrigue and Jake Gyllenhaal, this could be right up your alley.
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – Guy Ritchie’s directorial debut may just be his best flick, with the contender being his second movie, Snatch. This flick has style oozing everywhere. From the flashy characters, the cockney accents, the witty and interesting script and a film making style that we wish Guy Ritchie would get back to.
Cashback – A sketch artist working late nights at a supermarket discovers that he can freeze time. This is a fun little indie flick.
Old school:
Raging Bull – Martin Scorsese’s portrayal of troubled boxer Jake LaMotta. This classic flick stars Robert De Niro in one of his greatest performances on the silver screen. This is raw, gritty, violent and might give you a black eye.
Raging Bull – Martin Scorsese’s portrayal of troubled boxer Jake LaMotta. This classic flick stars Robert De Niro in one of his greatest performances on the silver screen. This is raw, gritty, violent and might give you a black eye.
The Serpent and the Rainbow (late 80's horror) – Wes Craven directs this flick based on a true story. A scientist travels to Haiti to locate a powder which may be beneficial to western medicine for uses such as anesthesia. The powder paralyzes people, but they remain conscious, making it appear they are dead. If you like movies filled with voodoo, zombies, black magic and creepiness, you might dig this.
Charade – The Hitchcockian mystery and suspense flick stars the legendary Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. This would make a good double bill with Clue. A good mix of charm and mystery. Kick it old school with this joint.
Apocalypse Now – Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam cult classic. One of the greatest films of the counterculture era and one of the greatest films of all time. Coppola said when he debuted it at Cannes in 1979 “My film is not a movie. My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It’s what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam.” Netflix offers the original edit and if you want to brave it out for the whole 3 hours and 15 minutes, they also have Apocalypse Now Redux.
Foreign movies:
Tell No One (French) – If you dig a roller coaster thriller with plot twists and suspenseful turns at every other corner, this is it. A pediatrician was accused of killing his wife years earlier and was acquitted. 8 years later, 2 dead bodies end up in his home. What follows is one of the most intriguing movies ever filmed.
Tell No One (French) – If you dig a roller coaster thriller with plot twists and suspenseful turns at every other corner, this is it. A pediatrician was accused of killing his wife years earlier and was acquitted. 8 years later, 2 dead bodies end up in his home. What follows is one of the most intriguing movies ever filmed.
Dead Snow (Norwegian) – Nazi Zombies that make the zombies from 28 Days Later look like cannon fodder. This is my personal favorite zombie flick.
Battle Royale (Japanese) – Put a bunch of kids on an island and let them fight to the death and the lone survivor gets to keep their life and leave. Lord of the Flies meets Running Man meets a whole lot of violence!
Ip Man (Chinese) – Pronounced Yip Man, a legendary martial artist who taught the Wing Chun style to many who would go on to teach it as well. Bruce Lee was the most famous of his students. There have been 5 movies made about Ip Man the past few years and this is the best of the bunch. This Wilson Yip directed action flick focuses on his early years in China, set during the Sino-Japanese War.
Documentaries:
American: The Bill Hicks Story - Bill Hicks still has a cult following to this day. He was referred to as the Dark Poet and was considered years ahead of his time. Too bad his life was cut short and the age of 32 due to pancreatic cancer.
Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) – Nilsson’s was considered one of the strangest careers in singer-songwriter history. He hung out with and recorded with the Beatles, did a whole album of Randy Newman covers. His music has been featured in many great flicks including Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, The Rules of Attraction and Midnight Cowboy.
Food, Inc. – This doc looks at the food industry's detrimental effects on human health and the environment. This is a good introduction in to an ever-growing genre of food/nutrition truth documentaries.
Food Matters – An excellent companion piece to Food, Inc. It documents the American medical establishment's bias against nutritional therapy.
Trudell – John Trudell is a Native American author, poet, actor, philosopher, musician, and former political activist. He is an inspiration to many and a thorn in the side to others. A man that history must not ignore, check out his bio pic. “"I'm just a human being trying to make it in a world that is very rapidly losing its understanding of being human." – John Trudell
Cocaine Cowboys - This doc shines a light on Miami's cocaine-trafficking boom of the 1980's. Filled with grit and violence, this is a must watch if you like true crime documentaries.
- Alex Lowery