NetFlix ROI - How Much Is NetFlix Saving (or Costing) You?

FeedFliks is a free online service that reviews your past NetFlix use and breaks the information down for you quickly, and in a way that's easy to understand. 

How much do you pay per movie, when you average things out? 
How much money could you save if you took more advantage of the NetFlix free online movies?
How much time do you usually keep the movie?

Things like that.  Definitely worth your time to check out, if you've got a NetFlix account.

Food, Inc. is a Must-See Documentary - and You Can Watch it For Free

If you have Netflix, you can watch Food, Inc. anytime -- it's offered at no charge at their site.  If you don't subscribe to Netflix, then you can watch it (also at no charge) at TVDuck.

And I'm recommended that you do watch this documentary.  Not during dinner, or after any meal. It's not pretty, and it hasn't been made for entertainment.

But you NEED TO KNOW where all that stuff at the local grocery store comes from, and how different it is from the farms of yesteryear.  I remember visiting my aunt and uncle's place south of town, feeding chickens and playing with the cute, tiny piglets. 

It's not my uncle and aunt's farm anymore.  Food, Inc. is a must-see.  Please watch it.

Movies to See: You Can't Take It With You

Here's a great movie that shows Simple Living is far from a new and trendy concept: this is a 1938 film based upon a Pulitzer-Prize winning play written by Kaufman and Hart dealing with materialism, greed, and voluntarily simplicity as a viable lifestyle option.

It's just great. Directed by Frank Capra, it's got an all-star cast including Lionel Barrymore, Jimmy Stewart, and Jean Arthur. The supporting roles are filled with familiar faces, too -- you find Ann Miller, who dances quite a lot (though she's so good that she can't quite fool you into believing that her character is really a bad, bad dancer) and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is a nice surprise - both he and Jimmy Stewart are lots younger here than how we tend to remember them now.

It's a witty film without being weighty. The whole family can watch this one and get something out of it. And, the play's even got an online study guide (learn such things as this movie being created as one of the origins of today's TV sitcoms).

I couldn't find it available for free on the web -- yet. But that's just a matter of time, right?

NetFlix Player - Stream Movies to TV and Watch What U Want Whenever U Want

Well, this will change things.

NetFlix announced today that its NetFlix Player is available for $99 -- connect this to your television, and you can stream movies and TV shows directly to your TV.

When you want, choosing the movies or shows that you want to see from the NetFlix library of over 10,000 selections and growing. The library pops up on your TV screen. That's right - your TV, not your PC.

No mailing, no returning to the store. You do, of course, have to be a NetFlix subscriber (memberships start at $4.95/month).

For details on all this (including all the technical stuff) check out the detailed press release, issued today.

Free TV and Free Movies at Hulu.Com

Have you heard about the latest "free" movie and TV site: hulu.com? Good news: it offers some decent stuff. Bad news, there are commercials.

Why check it out? First, there are the collections. (Click here for the full list.)

There's the Christopher Walken Collection (remember the Continental?) and the Steve Martin Collection (includes the full run of The Jerk, plus several SNL skits), as well as several collections from The Family Guy, the Office, In Living Color, SNL ... you get the idea.

Second, there are the full-feature films.

(Go here for the list.) There are sorta current movies like:

Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World with Russell Crowe
The Simpsons Movie
Ice Age

as well as not so current movies, such as:

October Sky
The Big Lebowski
The Usual Suspects
Sideways

No real classic films, though - unless you count The Three Amigos or Planet of the Apes as classics.

And then there are the TV shows (full list is here). They have full episodes of old and new shows, such as:

The Family Guy
24
Charlie's Angels
Prison Break
Medium
Alfred Hitchcock Hour
My Name is Earl
Monk
The Rockford Files
Miami Vice.


No Seinfeld, though. No Star Trek, no Magnum P.I., no Golden Girls or All in the Family or Friends.

But heck. It's new, it's growing, and there's some pretty cool stuff here to check out for free.

New finds for me today included Mrs. Piggle Wiggle - one of my favorite children's books (actually a series) with Jean Stapleton in the starring role, and some great SNL skits -- "Down By the River" is here, some of "Celebrity Jeopardy," "Killer Bees," "Mr. Bill," plus lots of current stuff.

No "More Cowbell," though. At least, I couldn't find it.

New Movie Must-See: Maxed Out

From the folk that brought us SuperSizeMe, another new documentary: Maxed Out. From the site:

"Maxed Out takes viewers on a journey deep inside the American style of debt, where things seem fine as long as the minimum monthly payment arrives on time. With coverage that spans from small American towns all the way to the White House, the film shows how the modern financial industry really works, explains the true definition of "preferred customer" and tells us why the poor are getting poorer while the rich keep getting richer. Hilarious, shocking and incisive, Maxed Out paints a picture of a national nightmare which is all too real for most of us."

-- MaxedOut.com.

It's only in limited release at the moment, just as SuperSizeMe was - initially. SuperSizeMe is now on television, regularly: just this past week, it was shown in its entirety on MSNBC.

Free Movie - Walmart: the High Cost of Low Pricing

WalMart: the High Cost of Low Pricing can be seen, for free, via Google Video. Just click and watch: it's 1.5 hours long.

This movie is actually a documentary made by Robert Greenwald which has been shown nationwide by various non-profit groups. It's controversial.

Dr. Joseph Mercola recommends taking the time to watch it:

"It might take awhile to watch it, but I can strongly assure that it will be time far better invested than watching most anything on commercial TV.

"While many consider Wal-Mart a bargain, Penn State University researchers estimate some 20,000 American families have dropped below the poverty level due to the astounding growth of Wal-Mart between 1987 and 1998. What's more, in counties where Wal-Mart stores are located, more than 15 percent of families depend on food stamps, compared to the national norm of 8 percent. The true costs of Wal-Mart aren't worth the apparent savings."

Not everyone believes the film is accurate. Here is Brit Hume's take on things: a transcript of his November 2005 Special Report.

What is the truth here? You decide. Cost: money, $0.00; time, 1.5 hours.

More Free Movies Online

Everyday, more and more movies are being downloaded for free viewing ... and there are some great ones out there. Considered to be in the public domain, there is no copyright violation for sharing them online.

PublicDomainTorrents.Com offers up John Wayne in McClintock and seven of the Sherlock Holmes classics.

emol.com has just added My Man Godfrey with William Powell and Carole Lombard; Happy Go Lovely with David Niven and Cesar Romero; and Our Town with William Holden in the title role of the movie classic based upon Wilder's Pulitzer-Prize winning play.

OpenFlix has a film noir section with some of the great ones: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers with Barbara Stanwick, Van Heflin, and Kirk Douglas; Orson Welles' The Stranger; Whistle Stop with George Raft and Ava Gardner; and DOA with Edmund O'Brien. The site has other sections as well: musicals, action, adventure. Lots to choose from.

See It Free: the Movie "Super Size Me"

The award-winning documentary "SuperSize Me," is available online now for free viewing. Takes one hour, and it is definitely worth your time.

An Academy Award Nominee, the film takes you along side Morgan Spurlock as he commits to eating nothing except food from McDonald's for 30 days. One additional rule: if they ask him if he wants his meal super-sized, he must say yes. And, they do. A lot.

Watch how his health is impacted, along with his attitude, his lifestyle, his waistband. See the doctors panic, the girlfriend worry, and listen to all the additional data the film provides about fast food in our society today.

For more information about the film, visit its site: supersizeme.com. To see the movie for free, visit iklipz.com.

Free Movies Online

Movies are available for viewing - FREE - online. No, they're not new. Yes, some of them are great. There is a nice selection at EntertainmentMagazine, including:

"His Girl Friday" Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell (1940)
"Penny Serenade" with Cary Grant (1941)
"Heartbeat" (1946) stars Ginger Rogers
"Royal Wedding" (1951) aka "Wedding Bells" (UK)
(COLOR) with Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford
"Charade" (1963) Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau
"Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" (1943)
Sherlock Holmes "Dressed to Kill" (1946)
"My Dear Secretary" (1949) stars Kirk Douglas

as well as a selection on movieflix.com, where they've got films like:

"Of Human Bondage" starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis & Alan Hale
all the old Dick Tracy and Robin Hood Series from the 1940s
"Lady of Burlesque" starring Barbara Stanwyck (1943)
"The Man on the Eiffel Tower," starring Burgess Meredith & Charles Laughton (1949)

Affluenza - the Movie and its Sequel

Affluenza was first shown on PBS and developed such a following that a sequel was made, Escape from Affluenza. PBS offers a site page devoted to Affluenza - which includes a fun online quiz, if you like that sort of thing (I do).

Buying a copy of the movie is surprisingly expensive: amazon.com offers the original for almost sixty bucks. The sequel is listed on amazon.com, as well, with three buyers waiting and no copy for sale.

If you live in the Seattle area, the original was shown together with the Walmart movie this past November at Camp Long. Googling the movie's name reveals periodic showings around the country; however, nothing on the shelf at the San Antonio Public Library.

So I'm requesting the librarians there check into it, and hoping for a repeat on PBS sometime soon.

Movies For Free

You can see relatively recent movies for free easily by checking them out from your local library. Here in San Antonio, it's even easier than simply roaming the shelves: by going to the local public library website, choosing its search function and limiting that to "VHS/DVD" results, you can review the entirety of the city's film library from your chair.

Once found, put a hold on the selections and choose your closest branch. The library system will bring the various selections to your branch, no matter how scattered they may be in the county. Once they are corraled at the branch of your choice, you pick 'em up, watch 'em, return 'em. Free.

How current is the local library's selection? Well, I couldn't find recent releases as shown on RottenTomatoes.com -- but I could find Sideways as well as the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, both Academy Award nominees for 2004. Not bad.

SuperSize Me

Supersize Me is not a new film - but definitely one that's worth your time. Having been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2004, and winning awards at the Sundance Film Festival as well as from the International Press Academy and the Writers' Guild of America, its reputation for quality is well established.

How does it help simplify your life? By helping you avoid fast food, which is bad on your budget and on your body. The film encourages an appreciation of the simple ideas of cooking at home, of knowing what you're actually eating, and of understanding how the nutritional value of your food impacts the quality of your life.

Get the DVD, used, for under ten bucks at amazon.com. Or better yet, rent it for free at your local library. (The San Antonio Public Library alone has 20 copies on its shelf.)

The Walmart Movie

The Walmart movie everyone is talking about has an unusual distribution method: in all probability, you can see it for free somewhere in your local area. Entitled "The High Cost of a Low Price," the film's site allows you to input your zip code, and the site responds with a listing of times and locations for the next showing near you. You can also buy a used DVD at amazon. com for less than ten bucks.