Happy snow day everyone! Many of you are probably just getting out of bed, and I’m sure even more of you haven’t left bed yet. So here’s our tribute to you.
Happy snow day everyone! Many of you are probably just getting out of bed, and I’m sure even more of you haven’t left bed yet. So here’s our tribute to you.
Below are five movies available on Netflix right now which are worth watching. Now, “worth watching” is a loose statement, as everyone’s opinion is different. However, much like a book, it never hurts to add another one to your mental library. (I’m sorry to book people offended by that comparison)
So tune in, turn off, and stay warm RVA.
Chico & Rita
Chico & Rita, a Spanish animated film directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, delves into the lives of two ambitious Cuban musicians in the late 1940s/early 1950s. Incorporating real jazz musicians of the time such as Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, Woody Herman, and Tito Puente, the film beautifully integrates Cuban jazz music and its influences in places such as Havana, New York City, Las Vegas, Hollywood, and Paris, laying out an appropriate setting for a story filled with romance, nostalgia, and glamour.
Chico and Rita, two aspiring Cuban musicians, meet in a bar where they play a ballad together. After a few failed attempts on Chico’s part, Chico and Rita fall in love. However, Rita is offered a gig in New York City, which tears them apart, and after a while Chico is convinced by his manager to go to New York to find his own fortune. Chico struggles in New York to find Rita as well as a place for his music, and the movie unfolds his world full of discrimination and betrayal. A must-watch if you enjoy animation, Cuban music, or jazz!
The Wash
In this underappreciated piece of comedic gold, Dr. Dre plays a down-on-his-luck dude who just can’t seem to hold a job. Snoop Dogg plays his cool-ass-drug-dealer-chiller-baller-hustler bff/roommate who happens to work at a carwash where all the employees do seemingly nothing all day. Snoop Dogg gets Dr. Dre (the characters’ names don’t matter. Sorry, writer/director DJ Pooh) a managerial position at the car wash, and their friendship goes awry once Snoop accuses Dre of becoming a power-hungry dictator of sorts.
Anyway, George Wallace is their boss/a total douche and keeps getting death threat phone calls from Eminem. He eventually gets kidnapped and everyone at the Wash has to band together to save him. Not because they care about his livelihood, mind you, but because they need to get paid.
The whole movie features a lot of A+ stank-faces brought to you by Snoop Dogg, as well as bathroom sex and thievery! There’s also a girl who does nothing but boogie down the whole time. Dr. Dre is there, too, being a total buzzkill! Come on, Dre. Snoop can’t be tamed; you know that!
Cameo appearances by Shaq, Ludacris, Xzibit, Pauly Shore and Snoop’s little cousin, Daz. The Wash is legit one of the silliest, most poorly thought out movies I’ve seen in a while. That being said, this 90-minute thrill ride keeps the belly laughs coming.
Battle Royale 2: Requiem
The first Battle Royale is a piece of classic Japanese cinema which examines the tense relationship between young and old members of Japanese society. It puts under the microscope, albeit violently, the physiological pains associated with this tense relationship and how it manifests in daily life.
Battle Royale 2, however, is a heavy-handed crap fest which serves more as a mockery of the original than anything else.
This might sound harsh, but the director, Kenta Fukasaku, son of BR 1’s director Kinji Fukasaku, really missed the ball on this one. Released in 2003, what this movie lacks in moral lessons it makes up for in brutal, over-acted violence. There is no heart, no concern for the children, no attempt to understand why and how these things are happening. Rather, this move bulldozes the audience through gun shot after bombing, playing out like an old roller coaster, flying off the rails and guided by terrorist children.
So why would we recommend this terrible movie? Lots and lots of Japanese teenager’s heads exploding. It’s a snow day, don’t try too hard today.
Love
Written and directed by William Eubank, Love tells the story of astronaut Lee Miller aboard the International Space Station. Miller, played by Gunner Wright, is alone aside from the occasional radio transmission from Houston. But the transmissions stop and all becomes silent.
Stranded and lost, Miller orbits the place he once knew as home: Earth. As time passes and life support systems dwindle, Lee battles to maintain his sanity—and to simply stay alive. Life becomes a claustrophobic and lonely existence, until he makes a strange discovery aboard the ship that allows him to travel through space and time.
With a lack of human interaction and a loss of reality, Miller learns that love is at the core of the human condition.
Love is beautifully shot. The meticulous consideration of the composition of every scene is evident. The sound is also artfully considered. If you want to go on a dramatic sci-fi journey, Love will take you there. But will Miller find his way back to his home on Earth?
Cabin In The Woods
At first Cabin In The Woods seems to follow typical horror cliches, but the Ccbin in the woods is not all it appears to be. It follows the story of a group of teenagers as they go on a camping trip to a remote cabin. And, as you can probably guess, when they get to the cabin, freaky shit happens.
It seems familiar but as the story progresses, you realize that this isn’t like horror movies you’ve seen before.
Unshockingly, the teens find some weird rooms and the cabin and shortly become overrun. It is soon revealed that the teen’s vacation is being manipulated by some kind of scientists in an underground lab and the plot only gets weirder from there. Not only does it get weirder, it gets even more terrifying and even a little “meta.”
Its almost impossible to know what happens next unless you’ve already seen it.
Yes, The Cabin in the Woods is scary but what makes it so unique is that it’s also funny and smart; qualities the genre has been lacking. The film is sharp with satire and unforgivingly ironic, no doubt thanks to Joss Whedon’s writing. You think you know the plot but you’ll be sure to walk away with your head-spinning.
