New to Netflix UK - 11/08/14

Only two new movies this week.


The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Part two of the epic story sees Bilbo and the Dwarves finally reaching the Misty Mountains and coming face to face with the dragon Smaug. It's more fluid in terms of plot and action than the first however the entire success of Jackson's return to Middle Earth still feels like its put all of it's dwarven gold on the final entry of the series.

Rififi - A group of criminals begin to slowly turn on one another following the events of a bank robbery. Seminal French classic crime movie that has influenced nearly every heist-gone-wrong movie since.

New to Netflix UK - 04/07/14

The last few weeks have been fairly dry however things seem to have finally clicked into gear at Netflix HQ.

White Collar (TV) - A suave conman partners up with the FBI agent who caught him in order to stay out of jail and find out the people responsible for killing his girlfriend. White Collar continues to be an expectationally entertaining, albeit light, comedy/drama and the newly added forth series doesn't drop a beat.

Machete Kills -  Machete is hired by none other than Mr President to track down a psycho revolutionary who intends on bringing and end to the world's governments. It's the same schtick as the first movie, with all the OTT moments no longer seeming so OTT, but it's worth watching if only to see every favourite actor you ever knew unleash their inner madman.

Harlock: Space Pirate - A rogue spaceship captain strikes back at the evil Gaia Coalition who are trying to take control of the universe. Fans of the original anime will find that all the depth and plot have been removed to make way for a shallow feature that values visuals over brains...but it is still one hell of a good looking movie to watch.

The Fog of War - Documentary following the life of US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and his perspective on warfare. Highly engaging documentary from Errol Morris, who paints a human portrait of a man who was responsible for millions of deaths through warfare

Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different - A random assortment of the comedy group's greatest sketches, each remade with better production values. It's Monty Python. Enough said.

Stake Land - A worn-hunter takes a young man under his protection as they make their way across a vampire-ridden America. One of the best vampire films to emerge in decades, this movie manages to focus more on the characters than the action and highlights director Jim Mickle as a worthy John Carpenter successor.

13 Assassins - A group of samurai join together to take down an evil and powerful lord who's on a bloodthirsty rampage across Japan. Takashi Miike delivers a solid remake of the '66 classic, offering a samurai movie that's part Seven Samurai, part Wild Bunch but all Miike.

Klown - Determined to prove he would make a good father, a man kidnaps his girlfriends nephew and drags him along on a fishing trip with his reckless best friend. Highly uncomfortable viewing but very funny if you can endure the increasingly tasteless situations the leads find themselves in.

Let the Bullets Fly - During a routine heist, a notorious thief kidnaps the local governor and sets about impersonating him in order to swindle the local town crime-lord. Mad doesn't even begin to describe this highly entertaining Chinese comedy that mixes screwball antics, excellent action and some extremely interesting takes on classic western tropes.