Hacking NetFlix

What Are You Watching on DVD or Streaming This Holiday Weekend?

I'm wondering what you're watching this holiday weekend on DVD or streaming (I'm always interested in something new to watch). 

Paste Magazine posted a list of the top 50 titles on Netflix streaming, and some of the titles that stand out includeThe Bicycle Thief, Chariots of Fire, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Drive, Whale Rider, True Grit, The Big Lebowski, Waiting for "Superman", Brokeback Mountain, Good Will Hunting, The Last Emperor, Memento, The Constant Gardener, Donnie Darko, Winter's Bone, Snatch, and Metropolis Restored.

via the Unofficial Netflix Streaming blog.

What's Your Favorite Documentary on Netflix Streaming?

Paste Magazine has posted a list of the top 20 documentaries on Netflix streaming:

Last year, we looked at 20 Great Documentaries to Watch on Netflix Instant, but as the movie service is constantly updating its offerings, we decided to update the list with 20 different documentaries that are available now.

A handful of documentaries from last year’s list are still available as well: Restrepo, God Grew Tired of Us, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, No End in Sight and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan.

They put together a great list, including The Weather Underground, Bowling for Columbine, King Corn, Into the Abyss, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, and Waiting for "Superman" (a personal favorite).

What's your favorite documentary on Netflix streaming?

via Netflix on Twitter.

Netflix Adds Revolver Titles to Streaming

Home Media Magazine reports that Netflix has signed a deal to stream 8 movies from Revolver Entertainment.

Revolver’s EVP and president Seb Marciano and business affairs executive James Pugh and Netflix’s Ian Bricke, VP of acquisitions and programming, negotiated the deal.

The eight films are Anuvahood, Bonder By Blood, The Mark of Cain, Mum & Dad, Robsessed, Salvage, Shank and Tony: London Serial Killer.

BateFlix Lets You Search Netflix Movies with Nudity

BateFlix uses the Netflix API and enables searching of more than 6,400 Netflix movies with nudity. Sorting options include genre, category, MPAA rating, DVD or streaming, and rating. 

I'm surprised it took this long for someone to create a site like this.

via VentureBeat.

Roger Ebert: "I'm Told Netflix Has Largely Stopped Buying Streaming Rights to Indie Films"

Roger Ebert tweeted that "I'm told Netflix has largely stopped buying the streaming rights to indie films." 

How important are indie films to you?

Netflix's Ted Sarandos Blogs about the Oscars; The Artist & Hugo on Streaming This Year

Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos wrote about the Academy Awards on the Netflix blog:

The two biggest winners this year were "The Artist" and "Hugo." Both films celebrate the world's passion for the history of movies. "The Artist," using classic moviemaking techniques, is presented in black and white and without dialogue, while "Hugo," employs Hollywood’s latest technical artistry to present a dazzling experience in 3D to theatrical audiences.

These films have three things in common; a love for cinema, five Oscars and both will be coming to Netflix later this year. Other big Netflix winners were Best Documentary Feature "Undefeated" and Best Animated Feature "Rango."

Sarandos also notes that box office winners Act of Valor and Good Deeds will also premier on Netflix first instead of pay TV. 

Will You Miss Any of the Starz Movies Expiring Tomorrow?

The Starz deal with Netflix ends tomorrow, and Gizmodo has posted a list of the top 20+ movies that will be missed, including Toy Story 3, Tron: Legacy, Elizabeth, JFK: Special Edition, Tank Girl, Airport, Beetlejuice, Ronin, and more. Netflix has said that the Starz titles only account for a small percentage of viewing, but there a lot of movies expiring (you can see the full list of almost 850 titles at TV & Movies Now). 

What Starz title(s) will you miss the most?

Thanks to Jeff for suggesting this.

The Full List of Expiring Starz Titles -- Watch Them Before February 29th

Netlfix said that they didn't renew the Starz deal because the renewal cost was too high and because the titles only accounted for a small percentage of streaming. So, if you want to see any of the Starz titles you only have a few days left. TV and Movies Now (by Tech of the Hub) has posted the list of expiring Starz titles, and also notes which ones are are available on Amazon Prime.

Netflix Adds Dragon Tatto Extended Editions With Additional Footage to Streaming

If you're waiting for the US version of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you should really check out the original Swedish versions (they're subtitled but good). Netflix added Dragon Tattoo Trilogy: Extended Edition today, and it includes more than 2 hours of additional footage.

How the Online Video Services Compare on Hit Movies

Tristan Louis at TNL.net compared hit movie availablility at Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and DVD. 

The past year has seen an increas­ing align­ment in the libraries of titles offered by online stream­ers in an on-demand basis. At the same time, we have seen Net­flix appar­ently aban­don its strat­egy of offer­ing pop­u­lar movies on a sub­scrip­tion basis. Next week, I will look at whether Netflix’s efforts are get­ting more focused on tele­vi­sion streams or whether we are see­ing them pull back across the board in terms of avail­abil­ity of more recent content.

We are also see­ing Hol­ly­wood now treat­ing online as more equiv­a­lent to DVD sales, offer­ing titles for sale online at roughly the same rate as they do on DVD. Let’s hope that this trend con­tin­ues to hold and that the indus­try sees the wis­dom of pro­vid­ing online streams in an ear­lier release win­dow. A few inde­pen­dent movies have done simul­ta­ne­ous releases online and in the­aters this year and Hol­ly­wood has a poten­tial to increase its rev­enues if it were to increas­ingly go in that direction.