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.