The Netflix Stream: Week of July 21st, 2011

There’s not much leaving the Netflix stream in terms of greatness this week, but there’s even less coming to it. We’re losing the usual glut of movies, but only getting two in return. That’s right – two.

Leaving the Stream
  1. ‘Purple Rain’ (7/22): Don’t act like you’re too good to enjoy a little Prince. Is this a great movie? The better question is: “Does it matter?” Pull up the Oscar-winning film ‘Purple Rain‘ (yeah, that’s right; it earned an Academy Award for Best Score) and get down to some great tunes from Morris Day and, of course, and his royal badness himself.
  2. ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’ (7/22): Too good for the Prince flick? Fine. ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc‘ is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. It’s a silent film from 1928 that depicts the trial of Joan of Arc. It’s a major piece of cinema history and a must watch for film buffs. Fun fact: The movie was believed lost in a fire, but was found in the janitor closet of an Oslo mental institution in 1981. This is apparently true.
Entering the Stream
  1. ‘Four for Texas’ (7/22): I guess I’d consider this to be the more interesting of the two flicks coming to the stream this week. It stars Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress. You’ll also find the likes of Charles Bronson, Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine showing up in the movie. It may not be a legendary film, but ‘Four for Texas‘ sounds like a fun way to spend an evening.
  2. ‘Johnny Be Good’ (7/22): I wouldn’t even be writing about this picture, except that I’d feel like I was doing a disservice by not listing both of the movies coming this week. ‘Johnny Be Good‘ is a run-of-the-mill ’80s comedy that at least boasts some interesting stars. In addition to Anthony Michael Hall, the film features Robert Downey Jr., Uma Thurman and the principal from ‘The Breakfast Club’. Don’t act like you knew his name without hitting up IMDb.

3 comments

  1. Prince was the single greatest concert I’ve ever seen. He was a surprise headliner at Coachella one of the years I went. My fiance and I managed to be right up against the bar at the main stage for Kraftwerk into Portishead into Prince. To top it off he brought The Time and Sheila E. with him. Too awesome for words.

  2. Prince recently played 2 shows here in San Jose, and you can see that he really enjoys performing for an audience. At one point, he was banging out stuff on his piano/synth/mix machine hybrid, and he kinda laughed and said “I got too many hits” and the audience went nuts.

    Not the greatest acting in “Purple Rain” but the soundtrack is phenomenal (voted by Entertainment Weekly as the most important album in the last 25 years back in 2009) and the part where he kisses a crying Lisa on the cheek while they’re onstage playing “Purple Rain” is priceless.

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