The randomness of movies

As a Netflix.com subscriber, I recently put the Netflix New Releases RSS feed into my reader. Wow. I never knew how many movies were made, and then subsequently released on DVD. My guess is about a crapton. And before you go thinking that these are all Transformers: The Movie quality movies (duh, the 1986 version), think again.

Sampling from this week’s batch of 100+ DVDs newly released, there are some gems, both good and bad. Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory is out this week. I’ve not seen it, but I’ll put it in the “not absolute crap” column. Heroes: Season 1 probably is in that list too. But Meatballs 4? Probably crap. Who said they could make 2 and 3, much less FOUR?

How about Firestorm / Scorpio One from 1995? “Set in a mining compound in 2024, Firestorm follows a faction of freedom-seeking androids as they take on their repressive human owners.” Wow. Queue it up!

It is interesting to me that movies made in the 80s and 90s are getting released this week. What were they waiting for? I mean, I know I’ve been dying for the DVD release of Ski School (1990), but that’s because I really want to hear the director’s commentary. And who can forget the 1989 cross-dressing comedy smash hit, Nobody’s Perfect coming out on DVD August 28th? Again. Queue. It. Up. Netflix should put up a “number of times rented” counter just for kicks.

But don’t think the DVD pressing world is just limited to live-action movies! You will find, freshly added to my queue, Care Bears: Fitness Fun and Legion of Superheros: Vol 1. Gotta see if they use the carebare stare power!

Of course, now that I’m worked up, I’m lucky to have Yoga to the Rescue. Ahhhh.

All in all, it seems that the DVDs that Netflix gets over time, and the rental activity over time, are both really interesting data sets that need to be visualized in some cool way. Until we get a nice pretty picture, I’ll have to live with my RSS feed. Thankfully, Air Guitar Nation is coming out this week.