The Annual Cleaning of the Queue
Each year, I’m forced to clean out my Netflix queue as it becomes completely unmanageable (and I’ve reached the limit of movies they’ll allow me to save). So I make it a policy never to wait for anything longer than 2 years. That means, with the arrival of 2014, it’s time to get rid of the 2011 dead weight and free up some space for the newer releases. Some of those movies, however, even though they were never released on Disc, are available on Instant Streaming. So here is a handy list of movies that were released to DVD in 2011, never made it to disc on Netflix, but that you can watch through your handy, dandy streaming device. Enjoy!
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (foreign drama, Agathe Bonitzer, Ahmud Shalaby) – French language drama about teenagers in Israel.
A Thousand Cuts (horror, Michael O’Keefe, Olesya Rulin) – Horror director meets horror movie bad guy.
About Fifty (comedy, Wendie Malick, Martin Grey Gottlieb) – Midlife crisis vacation.
All Together (foreign comedy, Guy Bedos, Daniel Bruhl) – French language Golden Girls. Except with men.
Beast Beneath (horror, Kristina Morales, Daniel Bonjour) – I hate it when a netherworld creature is guarding my fortune.
Becoming Santa (documentary, Jack Sanderson) – How playing Santa changes a guy. Yeah, weird, but there it is.
Behold the Lamb (comedy, Aoife Duffin, Nigel O’Neill) – I totally love that actress’s first name.
Better This World (documentary) – Protesters at the 2008 Republican convention become terror suspects.
Blood Runs Cold (horror, Hanna Oldenburg, Patrick Saxe) – Stay out of the lonely woods, people!
Cartel War (action, Jack Lucarelli, Mercedes Brito) – Undercover drug cops.
Chop (horror, Timothy Muskatell, Ricardo Gray) – I bet there’s a knife in here. Or maybe an ax!
Clandestine Childhood (foreign drama, Ernesto Alterio, Natalia Oreiro) – Spanish language drama about a child caught in the political underground of Argentina.
Clash of Empires (action, Stephen Rahman Hughes, Gavin Stenhouse) – Cheesy historical adventure.
Collaborator (drama, Martin Donovan, David Morse) – Good cast for this indie about a Broadway writer gone home to care for his mother. Donovan also directed.
Conception (romantic comedy, Connie Britton, Sarah Hyland) – Nine couples conceive babies and we get to watch! Well, we get to see the night of, but I doubt the actual conception.
Corpo Celeste (foreign drama, Yile Vianello, Salvatore Cantalupo) – Italian language drama about a teenager finding religion.
Finding Jenua (drama, Leigh Rose, Gayle James) – Indie drama about two women helping each other.
Fred & Vinnie (comedy, Jack Axelrod, Lee Reherman) – Comedian and agoraphobic roommate.
Heleno (foreign drama, Rodrigo Santoro, Aline Moraes) – Portuguese language drama about a 1940s soccer star.
Hellgate (horror, Cary Elwes, William Hurt) – These guys must have been seriously hurting for a paycheck.
Hopelessly in June (romantic comedy, Vincent Brantley, Carolyn Neff) – Conservative and liberal fall in love.
Jack the Reaper (horror, Douglas Tate, Sally Kirkland) – Field trips can be a bitch, man.
Jacob (horror, Grace Powell, Dylan Horne) – Do not murder the disturbed man’s sister. Take my word for it.
Leave (thriller, Bryan Cranston, Vinessa Shaw) – I’ll watch Walter White in anything! This is going on my list.
Leave it on the Floor (musical, Ephraim Sykes, Andre Myers) – Gay kid gets kicked out of house, musical somehow ensues.
Lucky (foreign drama, Sihle Dlamini, Jayashree Basavaraj) – Young South African boy leaves home to find a better life in the city. This one is running at three plus stars on Netflix.
Mafia (thriller, Ving Rhames, Robert Patrick) – The Law works to bring down The Family.
Mamitas (drama, E.J. Bonilla, Veronica Diaz-Carranza) – Coming of age indie.
Money Matters (drama, Aunjanue Ellis, Terry Abney) – Catholic school girl with perilous home life.
My Best Enemy (foreign drama, Moritz Bleibtreu, Georg Friedrich) – German language WWII drama.
My Sucky Teen Romance (comedy, Devin Bonnee, Tina Rodriguez) – Co-ed meets vampire at comic convention.
Never Stand Still (documentary, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor) – Doc about the world of dance.
Off White Lies (foreign drama, Gur Bentvich, Elya Inbar) – Hebrew language coming of age flick about a girl living with her master of lies father.
Open Gate (drama, Tyler Hoechlin, Agnes Bruckner) – Drugs at the rodeo.
Photographic Memory (documentary, Adrian McElwee, Ross McElwee) – Guy goes home to reflect on adolescence. Who would want to do THAT?
Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury (spoof, Kevin Sorbo, Ross Patterson) – Not sure what it’s spoofing, but it’s about a Vietnam vet wanting his job back.
Rebirth (documentary) – 9/11 doc.
Rites of Spring (horror, Anessa Ramsey, Katherine Randolph) – Sucks when your hide-out contains a serial killer.
Save the Farm (documentary, Daryl Hannah, Julia Butterfly Hill) – Trying to save an urban farm from development.
Serving Life (documentary, Forest Whitaker) – This is running 4 1/2 stars on Netflix – a doc about prisoners serving in the prison hospice.
Shakespeare High (documentary, Luis Cardenas, Richard Dreyfuss) – Kids from bad neighborhoods in a Shakespeare competition.
Shun Li and the Poet (foreign drama, Tao Zhao, Rade Serbedzija) – Italian language drama about an unlikely friendship.
Snow Beast (horror, John Schneider, Jason London) – Small Town vs. Big Beast
Snowmen (drama, Bobby Coleman, Josh Flitter) – Trying to set a world record with a snowman.
Something Ventured (documentary) – Examining successful, innovative companies.
Stags (comedy, Benim Foster, Mark Giordano) – One of 4 bachelor friends gets married.
The Afflicted (horror, Leslie Easterbrook, Kane Hodder) – Twisted religious mother abuses children. Ew.
The Ambassador (foreign documentary, Mads Brugger) – Danish language doc exposing corruption in an African country.
The Bachelor Party (drama, Lamman Rucker, Essence Atkins) – Bachelor party goes bad. Tsk.
The Big Bad (horror, Jessi Gotta, Jessica Savage) – Revenge is a werewolf bitch, baby.
The Big Fix (documentary, Joshua Tickell, Rebecca Harrell Tickell) – Corruption uncovered in the Gulf BP oil spill.
The Colombian Connection (action, Tom Sizemore, Robert Thorne) – Unjustly imprisoned cop goes after drug ring.
The Giants (foreign drama, Zacharie Chasseriaud, Martin Nissen) – French language drama about kids renting their house to a drug dealer.
The Grand Theft (comedy, Blanche Baker, Thomas G. Waites) – Heist finances film.
The Life Zone (thriller, Robert Loggia, Lindsey Haun) – Kidnapped women trapped and transforming.
The Man on the Train (drama, Donald Sutherland, Larry Mullen, Jr.) – Friendship between professor and criminal.
The Odds (thriller, Tyler Johnston, Julia Maxwell) – Teenager looks for killer in casinos.
The Painting (foreign sci-fi, Jessica Monceau, Adrien Larmande) – French language animation about characters in an unfinished painting looking for their artist.
The Road (foreign horror, Carmina Villaroel, Rhian Ramos) – Tagalog language serial crime drama.
The Survival Games (thriller, Konrad Case, Robin Zamora) – Angry mobsters can really ruin a camping trip.
This Is Not a Movie (experimental sci-fi, Edward Furlong, Peter Coyote) – A dude waits for the world to end in Vegas.
Trek Nation (documentary, Eugene Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry) – Son of sci-fi legend Gene Roddenberry tries to figure out why Trek remains so powerful in the lives of fans.
Unfinished Spaces (documentary, Vittorio Garatti, Roberto Gottardi) – Cuban architects go home to finish a 40-year-old project.
Unraveled (documentary, Marc Dreier) – Ponzi scheme detailed by perpetrator.
War of the Dead (horror, Andrew Tiernan, Jouko Ahola) – Wait for it…ZOMBIES!
When the Drum is Beating (documentary, Septentrional, Ulrich Pierre-Louis) – A look at the Haitian band Septentrional.
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