I’m looking for stuff to watch (movies and TV shows) while riding my exercise bicycle, but this thread isn’t just for me. For me I’d like people to recommend comedies because exercise and comedy go well together, but if there are other good movies you want to recommend, I’m sure other people would love to hear about them. This thread could be awesome one-stop shopping for good movie recommendations (and TV shows) for people who want to watch something right this minute.
THE RULE OF THE THREAD insofar as rules can be imposed by thread-starters, is that the movie HAS to be available on Netflix’s Instant Queue (streaming view-right-this-minute thingie).
If you want to recommend a movie but aren’t sure if it is available instantly, please don’t post it until you check. If you know it’s not there but want to recommend it anyway because it’s just soooooo gooooood, please start a different thread. Please no posts like “I’m not sure if it’s available streaming but I liked [movie]”.
So, that said, the floor is open to pimp your favorite recommendations (so long as they’re available). Also, if you are in the mood to watch something particular, feel free to use this thread to make requests!
I’ll throw a couple out there that I was recommended last week in a different thread:
The Big Lebowski, which I’d been meaning to see for YEARS, I finally watched streaming. I loved it! It was very zany and funny.
Orgazmo, another I’d been meaning to watch and finally did. It was funny but I think I’d gotten my hopes up a little too high. I’ll probably watch it again when I’m drunk or something, though!
Big Fan- Dark comedy starring Patton Oswalt as a over the top NY Giants fan. Goes in directions you don’t expect.
Don’t know if you’re interested in TV series, but check out the VERY funny Starz series “Party Down.” Season One is available and Season Two is currently airing on TV, but they’re putting up the episodes on Netflix the day after they air.
Doctor Who. So much Doctor Who I don’t even know where to start. But maybe I will start with the complete Christopher Eccleston run and then move on to the first three seasons of David Tennant’s run. Then there are tons of older series also. Months of Doctor Who is available.
There is also Red Dwarf for days.
My Man Godfrey is available until
05/12/2010. So hurry up and watch it while you can. It’s a classic.
Also only available until Wednesday is the 39 Steps. It’s early Hitchcock and some say it’s his best. Me, I say it’s in the top five but not quite at the top. Still, it’s a great film. Go watch. **Vertigo **is also available if you want my pick for his best movie, so are The Lady Vanishes and Lifeboat which are less good but still lots of fun.
For something a little different
Shelly Duval’s Faerie Tale Theater and Jim Henson’s Storyteller are both available on view instantly. Classics both, and both hold up really well. And Pink Panther Classic Cartoons! Can’t go wrong with those.
I have more, lots more (BBC Hitchhikers Guide to the Galexy TV series anyone?), but I will hold off.
I caught a bit of Step Brothers the other night but had to turn it off after about 15 minutes because a 9 y.o. was in the room. The language is decidedly rough. Now this isn’t high comedy, in fact it’s about as stupid of a movie as I’ll even consider but if all you’re giving it is half your concentration as you work out it might suffice. The T-Shirts they wore were funny enough to get a chuckle or two out of me (Pablo Cruise - Ha!), as were the names they wanted to be called. It’s as dumb as Talledega Nights, another movie I failed to finish, but could fit the criteria you’ve got in place. Again, I missed 7/8th of it so that portion could push it beyond redemption for all I know.
Orgazmo improves quite a bit on subsequent viewings. I think the first time around you’re so busy waiting to be shocked that you miss a lot of the good laughs. Truth is, it’s probably the 2nd least shocking thing Trey and Matt have ever done, after Cannibal.
I have a lot of TV on my instant queue, because I like to watch it while I work. The first three seasons of Arrested Development are available (the first two were amazing, the third is ok so far). The first season of Archer is out - a hilarious animated show about incompetent spies (I think it’s by the adult swim people? There are a lot of good “name” voice actors). There’s Better Off Ted, which I saw a couple of people recommend on here - that was really funny, too.
In the non-comedy vein, I’ve really been enjoying Satisfaction, a drama (dramedy?) from Showtime Australia about sex workers at an upscale brothel. There are also several seasons of Angel & Bones (both with the delectable David Boreanaz). There are a couple of seasons of This American Life that are interesting, although perhaps not the best workout material.
I think someone on the Dope recommended instantwatcher.com - it’s a much better search engine for Netflix stuff than the one netflix has.
Dexter from Showtime, Season 1 and 2 are available. Fantastic show.
Old PBS Masterpiece Theater show Duchess of Duke Street, Season 1. Excellent.
The only bad thing about series is that I tend to stay glued to my TV for hours at a time and when I finally surface, whole decades have gone by without my noticing.
I’ve been watching a ton of documentaries lately, and there are a lot of good ones on Watch Instantly. I’m currently watching A Certain Kind of Death, which is about what happens when people die with no family. It’s hard to watch, because they’re unstinting with the decomposed dead people shots (I get why, but damn, guys.) Very interesting, moving, and good, though.
I’ll second the recommendation for Arrested Development. I’ve just watched through the entire series in about the past four months and it’s one of the most consistently funny shows ever.
