Film list to survive winter ?

[Randall_Oelerich]

Okay this might sound laim but I need help building a film list of great films to rent to get me through a very long and cold winter, up here in northern Minnesota. I mean films that can really distract me for an evening, give me something to look forward to during the long cold day. Films with great soundtracks, fantastic acting talent, theme, etc. Anybody willing to help me build a list gets my sincere gratitude. I am talking about films like (starting the list here):

V for Vendetta
King Arthur
Gladiator
Memoirs of a Geisha
King Kong (Naomi Watts)
Superman Returns
The Ring
Lord of the Rings (trilogy)
Star Wars (+ all sequels and prequels)

[David W. Richardson]

How about things like 'Flight of the Phoenix' and 'Sahara'? You know -- movies set in hot HOT deserts! :)

[Randall_Oelerich]

yeah! movies with heat! deserts, warm islands!
Hidalgo
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Mummy (trilogy)
Pirates of the Caribbean (trilogy)


How about things like 'Flight of the Phoenix' and 'Sahara'? You know -- movies set in hot HOT deserts! :)

[mikkowilson]

Movies to take your mind away from winter seclusion huh?



How about..

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Sections/Travel%20Section/Summer%20Travel/060608_shining_vmed_1p.widec.jpg


:)


- Mikko

[Randall_Oelerich]

Movies to take your mind away from winter seclusion huh?

Yeah, The Shining is a great one, esp for October!

I just joined up at Netflix for their free trial after talking to them by phone; anxious to try the free streaming DVD quality movies and tv shows in addition to movies by mail. With ice and snow and the cost of gas, and wasted time walking the wall and aisles at Blockbuster, I figure Netflix might be a nice switch.

[Cheesesailor77]

too many movies coming out in the next few weeks for me to worry about DVDs.

W.
Milk
Burn After Reading
Choke
Religulous
Synecdoche, New York
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Quantum of Solace
Frost/Nixon
The Brothers Bloom
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Spirit
Valkyrie

and many others. sigh... it's gunna be a nice fall :)

[Kubrick71]

How about things like 'Flight of the Phoenix' and 'Sahara'? You know -- movies set in hot HOT deserts! :)

I'm trying hard not to vomit!

But yeah, what Cheesesailer said, woot woot

[Randall_Oelerich]

Signed up for free trial Netflix last night. Mixed initial impression. Before I signed up I called and was told the streamed movies were "DVD quality"; however when I signed up I discovered DVD quality requires 2200kbps (2.2Mbps) bandwidth coming into one's home/apt. My broadband: 500kbps or 0.50 Mbps. So what I saw was sort of lame VHS quality, blurred figures etc. Because the netflix player automagically determines your bandwidth and chooses the best bitrate streamed download, in my case 500 kbps which is about VHS quality (blows). There is good or better news at least, read on.

Called technical support at Netflix--here is some good info to know: click mouse in black area to right or left of the streamed movie area in browser and press shift+b (b is for bitrate); a drop list appears in lower right of netflix player window and you can choose (force) the download streamed bitrate: 500, 1000, 1600, or 2200 (full DVD quality) kbps. I tried that this morning on an episode of Heroes and chose 1000 kbps. After about 25 minutes of buffering it started playing and I have to say it looked very nice. Buffer bar was about 1/3 in, a good thing.

Tech did warn me that I might not see the end of some movies as they might choke before finishing, if I choose a higher bitrate stream, given my low bandwidth (advertised as high speed broadband of course by my ISP, Clearwire). I also can of course pony up more pesos to Clearwire, my ISP, and get a higher bandwidth. I am currently at 750kbps even though I only am seeing 500kbps; they offer tiered bandwidth so I might just pay more for faster bandwidth to be able to stream movies and TV shows on demand which is pretty cool I must say, especially on icy cold snow drifted-in days here in northern MN. Beats driving to the video store.

Off to newegg.com this morning to buy a DVI cable and a miniDV-to-RCA audio cable, so I can route my streamed netflix movies to my TV big screen (newegg cables are about 1/10th the cost of what Best Buy charges). FWIW, the streamed netflix stuff is easily viewable full screen, no buttons or scroll bars or anything on the PC screen--just the movie or TV show, which is a good thing.

[Randall_Oelerich]

I canceled Netflix. Prior to signing up their telephone person told me their instant play movies were "DVD quality, 480p". Well, their instant play movies are neither instant nor DVD. If you want instant there is about a minute buffer delay and then it plays 500kbps which is about 1/2 the quality of a VHS tape which is useless on a PC let alone sent from my PC to my television. If you want DVD quality (2200kbps) you have about a 4-6 hour download; sorry, I do not care to use that wear and tear on my PC, and noise in my living room, plus the wear and tear and noise to then play back the movie from PC to TV. I am sticking with Blockbuster. I calculate the cost for the free download movie at DVD quality and it approaches $1 (80 cents electricity, 20 cents wear and tear on the PC). Not worth it.

[David W. Richardson]

Sorry to hear you were disappointed with Netflix. I watch movies instantly on my laptop all the time, and have no complaints. Of course, I'm on Roadrunner. And I'm not in northern Minnesota. But I am feeding through a wireless router, which probably slows things down.

[Randall_Oelerich]

My goal was to stream them to my 60" TV, so I really needed the DVD resolution. Their instant watch service probably works much better for those like you that only need to watch a movie on a small laptop screen. To add insult to injury, Netflix just sent me an email (moot at this point0 that they are adding a $1 a month charge because of BluRay.


Sorry to hear you were disappointed with Netflix. I watch movies instantly on my laptop all the time, and have no complaints. Of course, I'm on Roadrunner. And I'm not in northern Minnesota. But I am feeding through a wireless router, which probably slows things down.