Bye Instant Watch: United 93, Star Trek, and a Dutch LGBT Gem
Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 8:01PM Here's another batch of movies leaving Instant Watch services on Netflix of Amazon Prime if you'd like to catch up with them. It also provides us with an excuse to talk about a handful of random movies so why not. We've freeze framed randomly. Let's begin...
UNITED 93 (2006) ends February 11th on Netflix
United 93, Cleveland. Verify your altitude."
This freeze frame is about 45 minutes in. The terrorists have just taken the cockpit when air traffic control tries to reach them. God this movie is upsetting.
WERE THE WORLD MINE (2008) ends February 11th on Netflix
-Jonathan. You look luminous.
-I'm in love.
I dont remember this well beyond its silly everyone straight becomes gay through magic plot. But I think there was a good musical number? [More films after the jump...]
VIOLET AND DAISY (2011) ends February 17th on Netflix
Do you know what I wanted to be when I was your age?
Has anyone seen this? Saoirse Ronan in that career wandering period between The Lovely Bones and Budapest Hotel. It was directed by Geoffrey Fletcher, who won the Oscar for writing Precious (2009).
NORTH SEA TEXAS (2011) ends February 19th on Netflix
RECOMMENDED!: I watched this Belgian Dutch language LGBT drama randomly a couple of years ago and found it really affecting, with well drawn characters and sharp acting. In the scene above a 16 year old's (Jelle Florizoone) drunk single mother stumbles in after a date gone horribly wrong. Florizoone went on to star in a long running Belgium teen tv series called "Rox"
AMAZON PRIME & STAR TREK TV (1966-2005)
Amazon Prime has been adding a ton of movies and series to compete with Netflix - you can catch up with 2015 critical darlings you might have missed like Amy, Chi-Raq, and End of the Tour this month. But like Netflix they also dump programming and they're even shadier about it since it's very difficult to know when the titles will expire. And unlike Netflix their search function is absolutely terrible since there are so many different options (rent, buy, stream, "add-ons") and even if you find something it can be difficult to know what you have access to. That's the con. The Pro is that they have a much larger selection of older films handily beating Netflix in that department (since Netflix let so much of their content expire to pursue their own prograaming). Amazon is currently streaming every single Star Trek television series (and there's a whole lotta those) but if you read the fine print they're leaving the system by the 15th. So if you want to check out a classic episode here and there, now might be the time.
I grew up in a Star Trek rerun obsessed home and was the sole member of the family who was not into it though I did love Sulu (George Takei) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and was always aching for them to be given more to do. Later in college when everyone was obsessed with the long running Next Generations and/or Deep Space Nine they were much easier to avoid. But for Sulu & Uhuru, I played the freeze frame game on a few episodes.
And as for my anatomy being different than yours, I am delighted."
S1E4 "The Naked Time"
LOL, Spock sassy. This is the episode where everyone loses their inhibitions and Sulu demonstrates his sword skills
-You take a lot of chances Lieutenant.
-So do you, Mister.
S2E7 "Mirror Mirror"
Skimming these out of context it's like every episode has the cast fighting each other. Here's it's Sulu vs. Uhura for some reason. No idea why her customary outfit is suddenly midriff baring w/ Phoenix sash but this is definitely one of those rare Uhura-focused episodes and her makeup is on point.
S2E15 "The Trouble With Tribbles"
LOL. What is going on? A queeny bartender is campily displaying Tribbles to a patron, complete with a comic tinkling underscore.
Okay and something less ancient than the 1960s... to end with. The very last episode of any Star Trek series
I told them Tripp wouldn't want it any other way."
STAR TREK ENTERPRISE S4E22 "These Are The Voyages..."
(Oh man. Remember how good Scott Bakula was on "Looking"? Sidetracked!) This episode aired in May of '05. And there've been no Star Trek television episodes since after six separate series between the 60s and the Aughts. Supposedly there is a new series being developed for January '17 which, should it come to pass, will end the second longest TV draught for this franchise. The longest was from the animated series ending in October '74 through the first episode of the Star Trek The Next Generation in September '87.
Reader Comments (10)
"Violet and Daisy" was... I want to say inoffensive, unless pretension offends you. You see that premise, a male writer/director and you worry; but it's not particularly sleazy, at least. Nor very memorable, apparently.
Is "Budapest" not part of Ronan's wandering period? That movie has zero interest in her character - such a waste.
Were the World Mine was and (I have no doubt) remains completely terrible. North Sea Texas, however, is smashing.
It isn't perfect, but I found Were the World Mine to be a very sweet film. Campy and fun at points, but honest when it comes to the romantic side of things. I think there are points where the film doesn't know where to go or what its supposed to be. There are some very unique and interesting choices made throughout it that I really loved. I enjoyed the music a lot. I feel like the main cast is fairly good. So as I said not perfect, but I like it.
United 93 is a really upsetting film. I haven't watched it since I first saw it. It hits me a little too hard and I'm not interested in reopening that wound.
I guess I need to watch North Sea Texas before it goes. It has been in my queue for a long time.
Debating on whether to watch Violet and Daisy. I do really love Ronan though.
I have never seen United 93. I want to, because I know it's very good, but I also want to fly without having a panick attack.
Just thinking about United 93 makes me feel tense.
Ha, Nathaniel! One of the things I was going to pitch to you for your Help Wanted post was re-watching Star Trek on Netflix during 50th anniversary! My Mom was a total Trekkie, me not so much. But they fascinate me looking back, from a social context...
United 93 is in my instant queue, but I doubt I will be able to woman up and watch it before it expires.
I cosign everything you say about Amazon Prime - they have added some really good films recently (I just watched The Second Mother via Prime) but I've found I basically have to follow their new arrivals on Instant Watcher in order to find out what they are - and their graphic interface is awful compared to Netflix's.
i have seen United 93 twice in my life and don't really plan to see it many more times. Don't get me wrong it is an excellent film, but I swear the last two times i saw the film it conjured up memories of that day. I actually felt like i was reliving it. Im not one that usually has a hard time watching subject movie, but 9/11 films just kill me. Probably cause i lived the event and remember it like a hole in my head. I had a tough time with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but my issues with that film felt exploitative.
Hey Buddy, You have said the right things here. I will try to follow these all,
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