Bye Instant Watch: Terms of Endearment, Tom Cruise, Big Fish...
Thursday, January 28, 2016 at 3:23PM What's leaving Netflix Instant Watch?
We should probably start covering that. It seems like a boring topic but we jazz up your public service announcements. I'll close my eyes and play with the control bar and wherever I freeze the movie I'll share the image. This weekend is your last chance to watch these films for free for who knows how long. Since there are Oscar titles in the mix, perhaps you can fill some holes in your Oscar lists of Things To See or Rewatch.
Ready? In chronological order of their film year, seven films leaving Netflix on February 1st...
TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983)
EMMA: I've got some good news. I'm unofficially pregnant. I mean I haven't got the tests back but I'm never late.
AURORA: [Pause] Well... No, I don't understand."
Look how crazy young Jeff Daniels is! Shirley Maclaine is so hilarious and complicated in this movie -- that long pause with cascading rejection of possible responses under frozen 'I don't understand' face. She's going to lose out since she doesn't want to think of herself as a grandmother. A well deserved Best Actress win, with Shirley obviously relieved about it "this show has been as long as my career."
Oscar Note: I know we've asked this before but how long before we get another girlie Best Picture winner it's been FOR-EV-ER. Terms of Endearment was nominated for 11 Oscars (an astounding amount for a contemporary-set film), winning 5.
six more movies after the jump
THE TERMINATOR (1984)
Oh man! Spoiler alert much? Kyle Reese's corpse, I have good news and bad news for you. The Good News: You will be revived in many installments of your franchise on screens both large and small. The Bad News: you will never again be as hot as you were when Michael Biehn was playing you. Also diminishing returns so your franchise should have been terminated after the second movie.
RAIN MAN (1988)
Don't stop moving. Just keep moving."
That random line of dialogue might well be the motto of Tom Cruise's career. Like a shark that would drown if he stopped swimming. Cruise is always racing through his movies. Some people say this is his best performance. I don't know about that but it arrived during the sweet spot in his career when he could do no wrong and would alternate his big cocky leading man roles with roles in which he was paired with an older legend (Newman, Hoffman, Duvall, Nicholson) presumably to feed on their cinematic life force.
Oscar Note: 8 Oscar nominations it took home 4 prizes including a second lead actor win for Dustin Hoffman
THE FIRM (1993)
Karina Lombard: You're not a doctor.
Tom Cruise: I know but I sprained a lot of ankles!
LOL. What a random exchange! Cruise is so handy that he can even perform medical functions with a law degree. I remember literally nothing about this movie other than that it had something to do with Gene Hackman, shady lawyers, and Holly Hunter chewing scenery to liven things up. Does anyone remember Karina Lombard? She was a rumored Brad Pitt fling, in that dark non-doppelganger girlfriend phase between Juliette & Gwyneth.
Oscar Note: two Oscar nominations, one for Holly Hunter the other for the Dave Grusin score. It would be Grusin's final Oscar nomination of 8. He won once for The Milagro Beanfield War (1988. He's 81 years old now and doesn't work much anymore.
BIG FISH (2003)
We put together an elaborate plan for an escape involving a whaling ship to Russia, a barge to Cuba and a small dirty canoe to Miami.
FTR Ewan McGregor's translation book there is called "English to Asian". Get it haha because Asian is not a language? GROAN. This Tim Burton misfire had a ton of Oscar buzz before opening but only ended up with 1 nomination (Original Score). Funny how Oscar buzz goes. Some people thought it was a return to form for the auteur after his Planet of the Apes remake debacle but yours truly thought it a garish mess with an ill conceived framing device. Ewan MacGregor was adorable as always though. Isn't it weird that Marion Cotillard was in this though four years before her international breakthrough as Billy Crudup's wife?
RAY (2004)
It's little Ray Charles (C. J. Sanders) listening to a cricket. Another Best Picture nominee - this one from that sad year where the Academy went full prestige across the board when they had Eternal Sunshine, modern masterpiece, sitting right there for the taking. Netflix is always dumping the higher profile movies (because they're more expensive to license). Aren't you glad the full from cradle to tomb type biopics began to die out shortly after this film? They're so plodding. Just tell us a sharp concise story and let that be a reflection of the person's greater life.
THE HURT LOCKER (2009)
Yes, yes. I know it's listed as 2008 on IMDb. But I hate that they're always confusing people about dates. Aside from a few festival dates it was 2009 virtually everywhere in the world. Such a harrowing film. I snapped this shot and then got the hell away from it because I didn't want to get sucked. Great Best Picture winner. But you have to be sitting down for it, you know?
That's all.
Reader Comments (22)
I just watched Ray for the first time. Plodding is right. I kept checking to see how much time was left in the movie.
On the other hand, I adore that Shirley MacLaine performance in Terms of Endearment. I think it's one of my favorite Best Actress winners ever. That scene with her and Jack driving on the beach is so great.
Aurora Greenway would have had to wrestle a bear for Terms of Endearment to get that many nominations today.
" would alternate his big cocky leading man roles with roles in which he was paired with an older legend (Newman, Hoffman, Duvall, Nicholson) presumably to feed on their cinematic life force."
HA HA HA! So true! Great round-up. I will always love Terms of Endearment and agree that3 Big Fish kind of blew. Tim Burton simply doesn't know how to make an emotionally resonant movie anymore; they are pretty baubles with nothing inside.
how long before we get another girlie Best Picture winner it's been FOR-EV-ER. Terms of Endearment was nominated for 11 Oscars (an astounding amount for a contemporary-set film), winning 5
Jack Nicholson is featured in the movie. A powerful alpha male which the majority male bloc of Academy voters listen to. Hence how The Pianist won three Oscars because he campaigned for his fugitive friend and auteur Polanski.
James L. Brooks is not an alpha male but he does have a penis which means he is taken more seriously when he points his camera at women. Joy could've been a strong movie, but Russell thinks throwing paint on the wall is a guarantee art will be made.
A girlie movie written and directed by a woman will have to be Piano level outstanding in a weak year for male-centered movies.
The Hurt Locker: probably my favorite Best Picture/Director wins of all time. (To be clear, I do not mean my favorite Best Picture/Director winners of all time.)
Terms of Endearment, which I've seen more than I can count the glasses of tears I've shed during said film, and The Hurt Locker are both masterworks. I love Big Fish quite a lot. I think it's one of Burton's best and one of the few that seems to breathe with the director's own emotional currents. I still have no idea how Albert Finney did not get a nom for this. AMPAS, shame on you. Jessica Lange has a few killer scenes.
I watched Brooklyn again last night and that deserves to be a "girly" winner in my opinion and should have also received more nominations including supporting actor, supporting actress and costume. I hope Saoirse Ronan wins.
I still can't believe Terms of Endearment defeated the magnificent The Right Stuff.
(My opinion has nothing to do with this movie being girlie. I LURVE Out of Africa, for example).
One more thing: LURVE Holly Hunter in The Furm, too.
Aurora Greenway - it's been years since I watched "Terms of Endearment", but I love Shirley Maclaine in this film. This film came out 2 years after I had watched my mother battle cancer and lose.
Those scenes in the hospital - particularly the one where she confronts the nurse over the pain medication, that was so true. I didn't explode but let's just say Aurora did what those of us who have been there would love to do.
I like the films funnier moments as well but this TOE is a lot like "Brooklyn". A film about the everyday human things that happen to all of us. You know the type, just a great film.
I wonder if that were released today if Debra Winger would be bumped down to Supporting Actress?!? lol!
lol I just remembered seeing the 2004 nominees that that was year when they had all of the nominees for some categories come up on stage. Man was that one of the worst choices they've done for a ceremony,
Terms of Endearment is simply the best. I love every moment I spend crying while watching that movie. Shirley MacLaine DESERVES that Oscar.
And I just watched Postcards from the Edge. And damn, that one is my most favorite Meryl Streep performance now. Shirley could very well won the Oscar again too in supporting.
@DAVID I agreed if Terms of Endearment & Suddenly, Last Summer were released today. Winger & K Hepburn wld have been campaigned under Supporting &............WON!!
Does this mean that these movies are not popular, or simply that the license to run on streaming is over? Most of the Tom Cruise product is garbage, so good riddance.
I just watched Terms of Endearment for the first time because I saw that it was leaving. So good! Winger and MacLaine have such insanely good chemistry and then I found out how much they didn't get along on set! Never would've guessed. They're both such loose, present, spontaneous pros. And MacLaine and Nicholson also have great chemistry - she really gives him just as much as he's giving her and it's a lot of fun to watch. I don't know how voters chose MacLaine over the also very deserving Winger but either one is deserving. But yeah, if this was released now, they definitely would've bumped one of them to Supporting and I doubt it would've won Best Picture.
Also, FWIW, Compliance is also leaving Netflix streaming on Feb. 7th. I hope to fit that in before it goes.
DJDeeJay
MacLaine was overdue an approaching 50 she was 49 at the time of the ceremony. Also, she was Jack's girl (see Louise Fletcher, Anjelica Huston, Helen Hunt, and Kathy Bates).
I love Debra Winger but she suffered from a reputation as difficult.
Tom Ford -- it simply means the license is up "name" movies like these cost more than the junk you've never heard of that they have millions of.
Nat... man, we were doing so well there for a while. Then you had to go and insult one of my all-time favorites. There is nothing garish or messy about Tim Burton's masterpiece; it is plenty resonant; and I claimed Marion Cotillard long before y'all did!
Thanks. That Brie girl reminds me of Winger. Miranda Otto, also fantastic on most recent season of Homeland. That's how it's done!
Jamie and Taylor received the majority of the praise, but it's the women of Ray who really deliver: Aunjanue Ellis, Kerry Washington, Regina King and Sharon Warren, who should've also heard her name called on Oscar nomination morning. I always get teary during her scenes with the young Ray.
@Craver - Shirley totally deserved to win Supporting for Postcards! If I ran the Oscars, she would be a three-time winner, for The Apartment, Terms and Postcards... And I don't think there should be many three-time winners. I would have nominated her for Bernie as well. She's a great actress who doesn't take herself too seriously when she's performing.
Maclaine is so good in this movie, but I'd give back to back Oscars to Streep for Sophie's Choice and Silkwood. Maclaine should have won for The Apartment, but you know, tracheostomy.