Watch It, Now!

As you know, I’m a bit of a fan of the Netflix Watch It Now feature.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from Netflix saying that they have opened up their watch it now program to unlimited hours. Before you were restrained to only being able to watch as many hours as you paid in dollars a month (i.e. if you had a $15/month subscription, you could watch 15 hours/month).

The only question now is the amount of stuff you want to watch on Netflix. To their benefit, Netflix has put full seasons of NBC programs (The Office, 30 Rock, Heroes, etc.). So, that takes up some time. Also, there are some decent movies that are starting to pop up on there. I recently watched Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (which I really liked and gave 4 out of 5 stars) and Street Fight (which, also, I really liked giving it 4 out of 5 stars). There is also numerous others on there like Pan’s Labyrinth, Casablanca, Happy Gilmore, Means Girls, and a bunch of others. Sure, you may have a lot of those on DVD already, but if you are away from your collection, you can still watch it now.

From a business stand point, I suspect the reason that Netflix has gone to unlimited watch it now hours is that few people use even close to their number of hours. I know that I have had months where I could have used the extra hours. But at the same time, I know that my parents and (probably) my sisters have yet to use a single watch it now hour. So, Netflix going to unlimited number of hours isn’t going to effect their amoutn of bandwith used too much. Yet, it offers an additional benefit for the people who are interested in it.

Overall, I like the movie from both the stand point of Netflix and the viewers. Everyone wins. Yay!

Street Fight

Last night, I checked out an older-ish documentary. Produced in 2002, Street Fight, is an Academy Award nominated documentary about the 2002 Mayorial Election in Newark, NJ.

The documentary is shown from the side of Cory Booker. Booker is a son of political activists, a Stanford grad, and a Yale Law grad. His biggest detractors in his campaign are his age (early 30’s), his relative inexperience, the fact that his competitor (Sharpe James) is the incumbant, and his competitor’s slimey tactics.

You instantly get behind Booker as he walks the streets talking to citizens about the election. Upon hearing his views on the topics, it becomes obvious that Booker has a good idea. All this swaying your support farther in Booker’s direction. When Sharpe James unleashes his slanderous tactics, you are completely behind Booker.

If you are at all interested in documentaries or politics, you should check out this movie. Unlike numerous other documentaries, it fills up the the full run time and holds your attention. Thus avoiding the dreaded last half hour bore that hits many docs (i.e. Wordplay and The Giant Buddhas to name two).

I gave Street Fight 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix.