Nearly half the movies mentioned so far are considered good to great.

Rotten Tomatoes "certified fresh" (60%+)...

• Boogie Nights: 92%

• Blade Runner: 92%

• Speed: 90%

• The Karate Kid (1984): 90%

• Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome: 81% (and MM1 and MM2 are at 95% and 100%!)

• The Big Lebowski: 80%

• Top Secret: 76%

• Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels: 75%

• Ping Pong: 75%

• The Dark Crystal: 71%

• Strange Brew: 70%

• Clue: 70%

• Bad Taste: 70%

• Point Break: 67%

• Highlander: 67%

• X-Files: Fight the Future: 64%

• Labyrinth: 62%

• Dune: 61%

However...

• Boondock Saints: 17%

• Blankman: 13%

• Cobra: 13%

• Showgirls: 12%

• Action Jackson: 10%

• Postal: 8%

Watching Body Snatchers '78 on Justin.tv now and really wishing I could have been in the chat for it. Great fun.

"That's not a skeptic. That's an idiot." LOL

Kevin McCarthy looks a lot like Kiefer Sutherland.... Like suspiciously a lot.

Whether or not to invite Will Smith over for dinner. "He wants to talk about Scientology...." LOL

[turning gay] "That's not how that works. Good job, the '70s." LOL

"Now THIS is pod-racing." "Go to your room." LOL

"He's gone from watching basketball to watching pressure gauges. I'm not sure which one is the more pointless activity." LOL

"Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Goldblum are in a room together...." LOL

"He's like a full-size Peter Dinklage!" LOL

"The Transamerica Building to HIM is the hive of the evil pod people." LOL

"Considering San Francisco is a city made of Dutch angles, what better place to shoot it?" LOL

I agree with Mike that The 6th Day is kind of an interesting movie, but actually Schwarzenegger had a pretty good eye for scripts. Total Recall, Running Man, the Terminator movies, and even The Last Action Hero all had some interesting themes running thru them.

The funny thing about the communist scare aspect underlying the concept is that a pod people communist state would be AWESOME.

"The problem with modern movies is that there are no characters, so when you reduce it to just two people in a room there's nothing there." ... "The director is banging two pieces of cardboard together." LOL

[Von Neumann probes] "Dude, what do you call broccoli?" LOL

"I'm gonna go around going 'I'm a health inspector' and punching people in the face" LOL

Monk was great for the first couple of seasons. Then they started screwing around with the bottle and the lightning got out.

"Amazing Grace" on bagpipes became a huge thing after this for a while....
    Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
    Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
    Postmortem (1998)
    Highlander II (1991)
    LA Story (1991)
    Tommy Boy (1995)

The Last Samurai was almost awesome because Tom Cruise joined the doomed samurai assault against the Western weapons he came to sell the Japanese... and then somehow he survived anyway, and the movie was stupid.

Before you call Philip Kaufman a "master craftsman"... have you ever seen Fearless Frank? Holy SHIT, that's an awful movie.

Let's not disparage the work of the Catholic church in civilizing Europe. Do you really think the Vikings or the Celts would ever have settled down and become peace/drink-loving Scandinavians and Irish if it weren't for Christianity?

The Irish would be painting themselves up and fighting naked TODAY if they didn't fear Old Scratch.

Evidence:

What if Twilight wasn't about horrible monsters who are rilly, rilly nice and awsum boyfirends if you get to know them? What if they were "elder lords" or druids or aliens or something? Would Twilight be okay then?

Was it murder for hire? Don't even answer! I've already decided it was murder for hire.

A Consumer Reports online subscription costs $26. And computers and TVs are exactly what I use CR for because their differences are not readily apparent. Advising people on connecting up their A/V equipment or programming a Harmony remote, tho... that's worth money. I'm just sayin'.

I agree 100%. I haven't bought any of the Podcast Answer Man's video tutorials or consulting services, but I keep going back to look at the free stuff, so it's probably just a matter of time. Plus, I've now mentioned him at least twice on this forum.

/Note to self: To kidnap Brian for sci fi marathon, lure him close with neat plastic doohickey
//IMPORTANT: Wear stab vest

This is basically being an online personal shopper, right? I think the reason people don't use personal shoppers more is the cost. Add $20 to the price of nearly any consumer item to pay a personal shopper, and you've made that item a lot more expensive.

Personally, the one thing that I think would make online shopping a whole lot easier for everyone is a website that has already done broad research and makes clear recommendations. I subscribe to Consumer Reports, but their site is a bit difficult to navigate and still geared toward 1960s housewives. And most other product review sites are too narrow and too cluttered with things other than product reviews or rely too much on testimonials from buyers, most of whom are idiots.

If a brand new movie is good and something I'd probably like, I'll buy it on Blu-ray. If I'm not so sure, I'll wait for it on the HD movie channels.

What I searched Netflix for and found wanting was the movies that I paid to stream from Amazon to watch along with DIF (Source Code, Sucker Punch, Slither, and Benjamin Button), some classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane, newer James Bond movies, some Italian thrillers from the '70s, and a few obscure titles.

NONE of that is available at Netflix for streaming. Nearly ALL of it is available at Amazon. What Netflix DOES have for streaming is stuff I've watch for FREE at Amazon (with Prime): Howard the Duck, Mortal Kombat, MST3K, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and Blackadder.

I'm just baffled as to what kind of a service they think the new Netflix will provide. It seems like it has already been beaten by Amazon, for whom streaming movies is a minor sideline.

EDIT
Actually, it just occurs to me that what would be awesomely hilarious is if Redbox bought Qwikster from Netflix and then ADDED STREAMING to it, instantly making Redbox a smorgasbord of get-it-any-way-you-want-it and making Netflix itself an also-ran.

Cats again! Why is it always cats?!

That would have been an interesting meeting to listen in on....

Marvel: "We own that duck! That cigar-chomping duck that otherwise looks exactly like Donald Duck is ours now!"

Artist: "No way! I just stuck him in the background! You don't get any sense of character or anything! You don't know what he's like!"

M: "Ours!"

A: "Maybe I'll make a cigar-chomping goose then! Bam! No C&D potential from Disney! Enjoy your lazy Donald Duck clone!"

M: "You do a goose, and I swear to Thor we will sue to into a parallel dimension and we'll own that dimension too!"

A: "La la la! I can't hear you! Howard is mine, you thieving weasels!"

M: "Thieving weasels?! I— I like it! Have it on my desk by Monday! I'll let you work on the duck title!"

Either or both of these sides should be read in the voice of Miley Cyrus.

How about a Thanagarian snare-beast, Mr. Peters?

I've thought that streaming movies would be the future literally since 1987. And I'm not shocked at the pricing. But I am shocked at the lack of content, especially in high def, and especially since Netflix is now hanging its hat entirely on streaming alone.

As for browsing, that's why I have Dish Network. I record 2-4 movies a week and have extra storage, so I can keep about 350 HD movies saved semi-permanently. For me, that's good alternative to Netflix, all things considered (like the $100 I pay). The problem is the lack of obscure titles, which I'd soon have to go to Qwikster for.

Amazon streaming is often cheaper than iTunes and has nearly the same selection (and it's supported by some devices, so you aren't chained to your computer). And Prime gets you a good streaming selection on top of two-day shipping for a good price.

But since it's not in HD, I really just use Amazon streaming for watching along with fan commentaries and revisiting MST3K and British TV (of which a kick-ass selection is included with Prime).