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Netflix recommends movies that they think I'll like. I don't know why they think I'll like them, because they clearly
don't know me at all.
Children of Heaven (1999)
Bacheha-Ye aseman
A delightful Iranian movie about a boy who accidentally loses his sister's shoes and must share
his own sneakers with her in a sort of relay while each attends school at different times during the day. Finally, the boy
enters a much-publicized foot race, hoping to place third. The prize: a new pair of sneakers. Directed by respected filmmaker
Majid Majidi, Children of Heaven is just that -- heavenly.
Enjoyed By Members Who Enjoyed
Nowhere in Africa
My Life in Pink
The Chorus
The Bicycle Thief
Monsoon Wedding
More Like This
Baran
The Color of Paradise
Today and Tomorrow
Shadow Magic
Why I'll Never Watch This Movie
It's hard to imagine myself watching, or enjoying, a movie about impoverished children who lose their shoes. There probably
isn'y much crime-solving, explosions, nudity or fighting in this movie. I don't have any of those things in my real life,
and all the rest just bores me.
Love Comes Softly (2003)
Set on the Western frontier, this tale follows a newly widowed pioneer woman as she tries to survive
life on the open range. After her husband dies, Marty ( Katherine Heigl) heeds the advice of friends ( Corbin Bernsen and Theresa Russell) by marrying a man ( Dale Midkiff) she doesn't love and caring for his child ( Skye McCole Bartusiak). Marty plans to stay until spring -- but when it comes time to move on, things don't turn out as she expected.
Enjoyed By Members Who Enjoyed
A Walk to Remember
Love's Enduring Promise
Love's Long Journey
I Am David
Dreamer: Inspired by a True
Story
Why I'll Never Watch This Movie
Movies set on the frontier are not all bad. See any movie by Clint Eastwood. Sure there's hunger and they wear bad clothes,
but they also tend to shoot one another, and they make all their own rules. Movies like this, though, are about how hardship
strengthens us so that we can find true love. In a guy movie, when a spouse dies or gets killed, the surviving spouse will
spend the rest of the movie getting revenge and killing people. In a chick movie like this, the surviving spouse spends the
rest of the movie grieving and finding new love.
Antonia's Line (1995)
Winner of the 1995 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and many other prestigious
international honors, Antonio's Line is the remarkable story of a woman who builds a new life with her daughter in a quiet
Dutch village after World War II. Earthy, sexy, romantic and filled with laughter and warmth, it's a joyous, multi-generational
celebration of simple pleasures and enduring passions
Enjoyed By Members Who Enjoyed
Harold and Maude
My Life in Pink
Nowhere in Africa
Children of Heaven
The Chorus
Why I'll Never Watch This Movie
First of all, it's foreign, and the only reason I would ever watch a foreign movie is if there's a lot of nudity. I like
nudity in films, as long as it's in the context of a good story, even if the people onscreen aren't speaking English. I like to
watch TV while I'm doing other things, like updating this website, so that precludes my actually having my eyes on the screen.
Which is why I don't like foreign films. Or one of the reasons, anyway. The other reason is that they mostly suck. Basically,
anything that's called a "film" and not a "movie" is pretentious crap. So the fact that this movie has won a lot of awards
doesn't impress me.
I can tell from reading the decription of the movie that it's just not for me. Anything that's called a "remarkable
story" and described as "joyous" and "full of laughter and warmth" just translates as being stupid, and I know that
halfway through this movie I'm going to start wondering when something is going to happen. Plus it's "multi-generational"
which just means there's old people in it, and old people are mostly boring unless they're those really cool old people in
Cocoon.
My Life In Pink (1997)
Seven-year-old Ludovic ( Georges Du Fresne) is convinced he's a girl trapped in a boy's body in this whimsical Belgian film. His expressions of sexual identity, which
include wearing dresses and starring in a classroom performance of "Snow White," put a strain on his family and elicit teasing
and intolerance from his schoolmates and neighbors. Ma Vie En Rose was an international film festival smash and received a
Best Foreign Film Golden Globe.
Enjoyed By Members Who Enjoyed
Harold and Maude
Children of Heaven
All About My Mother
Before Night Falls
Nowhere in Africa
Why I'll Never Watch This Movie
I've always tried to be open about my heterosexuality. I think I was born this way, and I've just had to learn to live
with it. Having said that, I don't much care for movies about people who struggle with gender issues, unless they're really
hot 20-somethings who are delivering pizza, or psycho chainsaw killers who have to be tracked down by FBI agents before they
kill again. This movie appears to be neither. If I had ever at any time had any gender issues to work out (which I totally
totally haven't), I might have a common frame of reference to appreciate movies like this, but even lacking that experience,
a movie about a seven year old is boring, unless he can read minds or is raised by wolves.
Spellbound (2002)
This documentary presents the intense, real-life experience of the National Spelling Bee as seen
through the eyes of eight young spellers. We share in their private lives as they train for and compete in this ultimate intellectual
showdown. Within these stories, we discover not only their idiosyncrasies, their obsessive study habits and their sometimes
heartbreaking, sometimes inspiring family dynamics, but also the story of America itself.
Enjoyed By Members Who Enjoyed
Capturing the Friedmans
Word Wars
Wordplay
Mad Hot Ballroom
Murderball
Why I'll Never Watch This Movie
Movies about spelling competitions are not entertaining or exciting, any more or less than movies about a grass-growing
competition or a contest to see who can blow the biggest bubble with their gum. I'm sure there are probably competitions like
this and there are people from all walks of life who invest a lot emotionally into them, but none of that makes them interesting.
I can suggest a way to make this movie more interesting, like if all of the parents of the finalists started getting killed
off one by one and there was a maverick FBI agent who does things his own way and makes all his rules who has to investigate,
and his immediate superior keeps telling him to back off but he swears to do it for all of the spellers out there with nothing
but a dictionary and a dream. Or something like that. Anything but a documentary following around a bunch of kids who spell
good.
Boring. B-O-R-I-N-G. Boring
Green Street Hooligans (2005)
Drawn into the center of a bogus drug scandal by his wealthy roommate, a high-achieving Harvard
newspaper editor ( Elijah Wood) is kicked out of school just a few months shy of getting his degree. With nowhere else to go, he flies to the United Kingdom
to live with his sister ( Claire Forlani) and her family. But his subsequent involvement with the local Green Street Elite -- a gang of violent soccer fans -- could
change his life forever.
Enjoyed By Members Who Enjoyed
The Boondock Saints
Poolhall Junkies
The Chumscrubber
Lords of Dogtown
Layer Cake
Why I'll Never Watch This Movie
I know he was good in the Lord of The Rings movies, but Elijah Wood is kind of weird. Plus, it's European. And
it's soccer. This is different than the other movies here, because there probably are things about this movie that I would
like, but it just seems like there is too much else that I wouldn't.
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