The other day I mentioned that Netflix had redesigned it’s movie details page, updated their blog stating such, and then deleted about 180 comments on the blog post that raised concerns and questions over the redesign. A Netflix representative commented on the blog post that the comments were deleted due to a technical error.

Since that time, Netflix has made no communication at all with its customers. The comments on the post continue to swell, now up to 280, and it would seem as though no end is in site.

Several users are canceling their accounts, or putting them on hold, until Netflix issues some sort of explanation as to the removal of both the Friends and Top 10 Lists from the movie details page. I am likely going to be doing that very same thing shortly, while simultaneously calling in their customer support to voice my concerns. There are other DVD services out there to be considered, as well as local rental shops.

This is pretty infuriating. I am a die-hard Netflix fan and have been for years. I’ve converted several of my friends and family into Netflix customers. I feel as though I have been swindled by my own best friend, and they won’t even explain themselves.

Another interesting thing about this is that I haven’t seen a single blog post or news article about this change. I would’ve expected TechCrunch or some other internet news blog to pick this up as it is a pretty significant change to a pretty significant online business.

This is the second post in a series covering my favorite movies of 2009.

My second Honorable mention is “Du Levande”, translated to “You, The Living”. I know what you are thinking… “I’ve never heard of this movie!” Just stay with me. It’s Swedish, absurdest, and bizarre, but literally every scene is a piece of art. And in the off chance that you have heard of it, then you are most likely thinking “Didn’t this come out in 2007?” Well, yes it did, but the first time any non-film-festival-going United States citizen had a chance to see it was 2009. What am I supposed to do, go back and update my favorites of 2007 list? Bah.

You, The Living - Rain at the Bus Stop

Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson’s second film is a black comedy portraying everyday life of the existence of different characters. It is the second of a trilogy of unrelated movies from Andersson, the first being “Songs from the Second Floor”. According to everything I have read, “You, The Living” was inspired by Goethe’s poetry series The Roman Elegies, which sounds to me to be just as peculiar as the movie itself. “You, The Living” is composed of 50 different and loosely connected vignettes. Andersson’s meandering story touches on both being happy and hurt while highlighting the most banal and mundane tasks, only to somehow point out the humor in it all. Each vignette consistently paints the bleakest of pictures about the characters and their lives.

The actors in this movie are not professionals and have some very unique looks in terms of costumes, make-up, and appearance. They are all truly human. From an obese woman to a heartbroken groupie, a bad carpenter to an ailing business consultant, each character is believable, recognizable, and absurd. Although the movie portrays these people in their natural environments they occasionally break through the boundaries of the screen by talking directly to the camera, either explaining their feelings or how they came to their tragically humorous circumstances. This helps highlight the depravity of their various situations while simultaneously making it more difficult to find humor in them, except when their comical dreams take over. I couldn’t possibly begin to go into details about each of the vignettes as they each deserve a post in their own right. They are all poignant, tragic, uplifting, and sad.

You, The Living - Phoning at the Bar

The best aspect of this movie is its cinematography and scene composition. The lighting, focal points, and placement in every scene are all well-designed and well-composed throughout. The appearance sometimes gives off an almost computer generated feel because normally the only way such a look could be attained is through some special effects company. In particular the shadows, or lack there-of, give off a sort of dream-like appearance. Hopefully you can tell from some of the images I have included in this post that the visuals of this movie, its raw appearance, are often unmatched and truly unique.

The end of the movie is very “Magnolia-esque”. *Spoiler* As the last vignette winds up, suddenly, all of the different characters stop their various lives to look up into the sky. A dixieland-era song plays as the scene changes to a fleet of airplanes appearing out of nowhere. The planes are large B-52 bombers, and they slowly fly over the city to give an almost foreboding sense of doom. Then credits the roll.

You can read more about “You, The Living” on Wikipedia, Netflix, and IMDB.

You, The Living - The Musician

On March 4th Netflix announced via their blog that they are rolling out a newly designed Movie Details Page. This page, which I had seen a couple of times in my regular usage of Netflix, has a very nice and appealing look to it. Most of the information has been reorganized in an attempt to provide users with what they want to see.

However, Netflix has made a serious mistake with this page, unintentional or not. They have removed both the Friends and Top 10 List functionality. That’s right… when you view a movie you can no longer see what your friends rated it.

I’ve been a devout Netflix user almost since the company was founded. During those years, I have managed to attract a fair amount of my friends and family onto Netflix. The main selling point of Netflix for me, aside from easy and convenient DVD and streaming access, is the capability to share movies with friends and see what your friends think of those movies. If I see a movie that my friends have rated poorly, I will trust their instincts far more than Netflix’s star recommendation engine. Likewise, if my friends all 5-star a movie I’m only partially interested in, odds are that I’ll bump that movie way up my queue. ALL of that means an increased satisfaction in the Netflix service.

Since the March 4th announcement, Netflix has garnered at least 110 comments on the blog post, almost all of which have been negative. Almost every comment cited the missing Friends and Top 10 Lists features. Most of these comments were constructive, I know mine was, in that they contained pleas to Netflix as to how important the Friends and Top 10 List functionality is.

Today however, all of those comments have been deleted. So just to recap, Netflix pulls features out of the Movie pages, lots of users comment, and Netflix deletes those comments. This is the sort of move I didn’t think a company would even think about making in this new ‘internet age’ of increased interaction and discussion between the business and its customers.

There are a couple of possible options that might have happened here:

1. Netflix intentionally removed this functionality and didn’t bother to say anything about it.
2. Netflix accidentally removed this functionality in what must be one of the biggest product blunders ever (they’ve made similar mistakes in the past).
3. Netflix listened to a very small sample of their customers that don’t represent the whole, and removed this functionality accordingly.

Regardless, Netflix should not have deleted users’ comments from the blog. That is extremely poor form. I hope that Netflix makes a comment about this situation or they are going to have a pretty big revolt on their hands. My capability to make recommendations and share things with friends, and utilize friends’ ratings, is really important to my movie going experience with Netflix. Despite that, Netflix has continued to shy away from any further increase in socially enhancing their website to allow a better experience between its users. It’s a shame.

If you are interested in a sampling of what some of the original complaints were like, you can make your way over to Hacking Netflix’s post about this.

Update:

A Netflix representative commented on the original blog post.

“Hi everyone. This is Jamie from Netflix. We’re looking into the technical issues on how to restore the lost comments. We believe in and value open communications and comments, and regret that a technical problem caused the original comments to disappear.”

Is it coincidence that all these negative comments were deleted or did they really experience a technical issue?

Over the next month I’ll be posting my favorite movies of 2009. Why so late you ask? Well, a lot of movies came out in 2009. And now that I have seen 78 of them, I feel as though I have covered all my bases. Like any good critic, before I get to the list of my favorite 10 movies of ‘09, I have some honorable mentions. Let’s kick things off with a movie featuring Bill Murray as a badger.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a Fantastic Mr. Film. It’s clever, witty, full of eye-popping animation, and features great voice acting. If you are fan of Wes Anderson, or animation, or Roald Dahl stories, then you should see this movie.

This movie was written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, who is perhaps one of America’s most quirky modern film makers. He began his career in the mid 90’s and has quickly established himself with a clearly defined sense of style, character, and emotion. If you are unfamiliar with his work, I would encourage you to check his movies out. You might as well start with Bottle Rocket and work your way through the library, although some will claim he has faltered in his latest movies (I’m not in that camp).

Fantastic Mr. Fox Crew

George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Eric Chase Anderson, in addition to a host of other great actors, provide some great voice acting. Clooney is particularly well suited for the dry wit and sure-fire attitude of Mr. Fox.

And of course it’s worth mentioning that Anderson has maintained a great selection of music to accompany the movie. Songs from The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones accompany other well known bands while resting comfortably on an original score by Alexandre Desplat.

So at this point you may be asking: Why didn’t this make my top 10 list? Although I love this movie, at times it feels like it was just following a recipe for movie success without taking any real risks. Take a great author’s story, an interesting animation style, and a bunch of great actors and what could possibly go wrong? Perhaps there weren’t any serious twists, turns, or risks because Anderson wanted to keep it child-friendly, but ultimately the movie suffered for it. In addition, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” doesn’t really hold up when compared to other movies on my list. This was definitely a tough call, but ultimately I think it’s the right one. I still want a copy of this in my library though…

Read more about “Fantastic Mr. Fox” on IMDB, Netflix (log in required), and Wikipedia. Take a gander at Wes Anderson’s Wikipedia page while you are at it.

Ricky Gervais is a British comedian who is most well known for creating The Office and Extras. If you haven’t heard of him by now, get out from under that rock. Most recently Ricky hosted the Golden Globes, where he made fun of Mel Gibson by saying Mel drank more than he did. Yeah, he went there. This is one of many reasons why he is my favorite comedian.

Ricky got his start on a radio show you’ve probably never heard of called XFM, broadcast in the UK. The BBC took a chance on him by letting him create a pilot for a new series during their comedy hour. The resulting show was the first incarnation of The Office. The BBC version of The Office is one of my favorite television series of all times. It’s humor is both subtle and blunt, embarrassing and oblivious. Unlike the American version of The Office it was limited to a total of 12 episodes over 2 series of 6 each, and 2 Christmas specials each about 45 minutes long. Despite that, I still believe that it is far and away better than it’s American counterpart.

Ricky Gervais as David Brent

Gervais stars as David Brent, the bumbling moronic boss who can’t do anything right, but will do anything to be idolized, and is oblivious of others’ emotions. Steve Carell does a good job of channeling David Brent as his own Michael Scott, however the more subtle approach from Gervais ultimately pays off more. If you are a fan of the American version of The Office, I couldn’t possibly recommend to you enough that you should give the British version a chance. (Check out the BBC version of The Office on Wikipedia and IMDB)

After The Office Ricky Gervais spent a good spell doing some podcasts while writing the series Extras for BBC/HBO. In Extras, Gervais stars as a downtrodden film extra that isn’t happy with his life, doesn’t know what he wants, and doesn’t know what he’s got. The great thing about this show is that every episode a different celebrity/movie star makes a cameo appearance, often interacting and clashing with Gervais.

Extras

Extras is just as good as The Office, but I would never go so far as to say it is better. However, my boy Patrick Stewart stars in one episode in a truly unforgettable role as a more sexist version of himself. Extras has the same format and length as Gervais’ previous series, 12 episodes and a Christmas Special, in which Gordon Ramsay makes a guest appearance… bonus. (Check out Extras on Wikipedia and IMDB)

Gervais’ almost-regular series of podcasts stars Stephen Merchant (co-creator of The Office and Gervais’ partner in crime) and a bumbling anomaly of  a man known as Karl Pilkington. Karl, who’s head is shaped like a f*cking orange, is a man with little education, says what he wants, and is capable of taking absurd amounts of abuse from his podcast co-stars. The majority of each episode features Karl talking endlessly about bizarre topics or explaining half-baked theories on the world, all while Ricky and Stephen both push him to go further and rip into him for being a dullard. If you listen to podcasts at all, you need to make sure you give these shows a listen. At one time this podcast was the most downloaded podcast in the world, making an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records. There are over 40 different podcasts, over several different seasons, for you to catch up with. You can get a start at the Guardian podcast site. You could also just search for him on iTunes. Unfortunately some of the series do cost money, but with all the time that has passed they are extremely cheap.

Gervais has also been involved with a handful of movies, such as Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying, each featuring his typical comedic approach. None of them have done particularly well or been praised by critics, but if you appreciate Gervais’ humor you’ll love his movies just the same. In the long run, his style of comedy may not appeal to movie going crowds in the same way it has appealed to the television-going audience.

In addition to films, podcasts, and TV shows, Gervais has done a fair share of stand-up appearances as well as authored books. Surprisingly enough most of his books are children-oriented. And let’s not forget that he made a great appearance in Grand Theft Auto IV.

A Digitized Gervais in Grand Theft Auto IV

Unfortunately Gervais’ own web site is a bit of a hodge-podge of links and media information. He blogs frequently, however it’s not accessible by any sort of an RSS application (If you don’t know what that means, I both pity and envy you). Whoever his webmasters are need to get on that… welcome to 2010. Booooo. He often shares some of his favorite music, insights into what he is working on, and funny stories from his travels as a hotshot comedian-actor-producer.

If you are interested in trying to see one of his infrequent stand-up shows, your best bet is to regularly check out his website. Whenever (and however) he chooses to do live shows he makes announcements about tours, which often have internet ticket pre-sales. Fortunately for me he’s coming to Hollywood in May!

One great thing about his blog is that he regularly uploads pictures of himself making bizarre faces. It’s high brow stuff, can you handle it?

Ricky Gervias - A Collage of Faces

As of this writing, Gervais has a new series coming out on HBO called The Ricky Gervais Show. Its not truly “new” in that they are animating scenes from the legendary Gervais Show podcasts. However, from the clips that I’ve seen, bringing these audio snippets into a new animated format will prove to be absolutely hilarious. Finally the rambling incoherency of Karl Pilkington will make it to our television sets. The show premieres this Friday on HBO.

Everyone who is anyone knows that you can add different types of search engines into Firefox. You know, you’ve got your IMDB, your Netflix, your Wikipedia, your SanduskyCabinets.com, and what have you. It’s real quick and easy to just add searches to that dropdown in the upper right, but it’s a tad inconvenient to really use them.

You know what I mean you lazy, laptop-lit bum. You have to move your mouse ALL THE WAY to the upper right… then you have to click on the dropdown… and actually click on the search you want. And don’t get me started on how then you STILL have to click or erase the search box and type in what you are looking for! Ugghhh it’s the worst.

Well friend, today is your lucky day, because I have recently discovered the most fabulous and sneaky feature in Firefox.

Instructions

When you click ‘Manage Searches’ in the search dropdown, there is a column in the dialog box list called ‘keyword’. When you have a search selected, you can hit ‘Edit Keyword’ and type in any old keyword you like. For example I just have the word ‘i’ for IMDB.com. After you have saved some keywords for your searches, get ready to rock.

When you want to search for something on a specific site, just type directly into the URL bar your keyword and then your search term. For example, if I wanted to read all I could about the movie Lifeforce on Wikipedia (sweeeeet), I just type ‘w Lifeforce’ (where w is my keyword for Wikipedia) into the URL bar and hit enter. Voilà. Instant search results from the search site you specified, for the keyword you typed. When you combine this with CTRL+L, the shortcut to put your cursor into the URL bar, you can get super speedy with your searches.

Keyword Search Galore

Want to search Amazon for that copy of  Her Passionate Pirate (you know… to fill out that Harlequin American Romance Series collection you have going…)? CTRL+L and then type “a Her Passionate Pirate” and boom! You’re there!

Now all you have to do is add all the different searches you want and give them good keywords. Google is obvious (g) and I even added Google Maps (map). You can really go crazy with it… go on… go crazy!

YOU’RE WELCOME.

The Escapist is a 2008 British prison break film starring the-one-and-only Brian Cox. It flew under the radar, being an independent release from a fledgling writer/director Rupert Wyatt. Joseph Fiennes, Liam Cunningham, Dominic Cooper, Seu Jorge, Steven Mackintosh and Damian Lewis co-star in the film. The movie premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, although like I said it managed to escape me until now. This review is spoiler free!

Let’s get right to the point. I gave this movie 4 out 5 stars. There are endless ways to approach a movie review, but I’ll go for the simplest. Since I gave it 4/5 stars, I’ll write about 4 things from the movie that I liked, and the one thing that I didn’t.

1. This movie is smart and subtle. It doesn’t explain everything that is going on, and the viewer must piece things together bit by bit. In addition, there are essentially two stories going on at the same time; one focusing on the build-up to the escape and the other on the break itself. There is also a great deal of attention paid to the caged feeling one must sense when being incarcerated, so much so that you start to feel incarcerated yourself. Adding to this stir-crazy feeling is the fact that the viewer never even finds out why the main character is in prison, let alone why he’s serving a life sentence.

Brian Cox as Frank Perry in The Escapist

2. The entire cast, in particular Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, and Damian Lewis, put on a wonderful show. In fact, Joseph Fiennes is so good in this that he is hardly recognizable and almost redeems himself from his current butchering on the ABC series Flash Forward. Damian Lewis plays a super creepy and intimidating prison kingpin with an effeminate flare. According to IMDB, Lewis apparently wore women’s underwear throughout the movie’s filming. You could almost see a thong riding up.

3. The tension is unbearable. These inmates are at each others throats, yet despite that, they each have a peace of the puzzle that may help them escape. Meanwhile the imposing rule of the prison leader puts severe strains on the plans to escape, as well as what little friendships do exist. The music and sound in this movie is both masterfully simplistic and perfect, which is something I don’t normally recognize, and served the tension and build-up nicely without being at all overdone.

4. The actual escape from prison is clever and sophisticated, yet all the gritty and grimy things one supposedly must do to break out are there. The other great aspect of the break is that it basically takes place through-out the entire movie, interspersed with the build-up and planning. Often the best part of a prison break movie is the break itself, so making this extend for an hour and a half was sheer brilliance.

… And The 1 Thing I Didn’t Like About Movie

1. The ending. It’s good… it’s just not great. In fact, despite the unexpectedness of it, I felt like it was a bit of a cop-out. I still like the movie and recommend it, but a 5 star movie wouldn’t have left me with that same sort of feeling. I’ll just leave it by saying that the ending doesn’t mesh well with what the rest of the movie is presenting, regardless of how shocking and surprising it is.

I rated this movie 4/5 stars on Netflix. I would say that around the last 10 minutes was when it jumped from a 5 to a 4. If you’re into clever dramas, prison breaks, and/or Brian Cox, this movie will not disappoint you. Here are your obligatory Official ‘The Escapist’ Movie, Netflix (must be logged in), Wikipedia, and IMDB links. (Who can possible write about a movie on the web these days without links to those four sites?)

Other Prison Break Movies

The Shawshank Redemption will probably forever by the reigning king of prison break movies, although that’s a pretty niche genre to be categorizing. The Great Escape, Papillon (massively under appreciated and much more of a cinematic masterpiece), and O Brother Where Art Thou come to mind as other great escape flicks.  No, I have not seen Midnight Express… yet.

• New post on my site – Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-21 http://ping.fm/vCXFg #
• @codypo That’s only the first half. Throwing stars make a big showing in the second batch. Especially during the ninja uprising. in reply to codypo #
• @carmenite where are you? #
• Pictures from my trip to Southeast Asia pictures are finished! http://bit.ly/E3Jpw #
• I saw Moon this afternoon, it was really good and quite unique. It’s a cross between a lighter Primer and Solaris. Rockwell is great in it. #

• New post on my site – Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-21 http://ping.fm/vCXFg #
• @codypo That’s only the first half. Throwing stars make a big showing in the second batch. Especially during the ninja uprising. in reply to codypo #
• @carmenite where are you? #
• Pictures from my trip to Southeast Asia pictures are finished! http://bit.ly/E3Jpw #
• I saw Moon this afternoon, it was really good and quite unique. It’s a cross between a lighter Primer and Solaris. Rockwell is great in it. #

Like the Royale with cheese.