Saw a number of things on both Netflix streaming and just via renting from Netflix.
- Italian Job (2003, w/ Seth Green) – Netflix streaming – I liked it. I thought it was well put together and did a good job of explaining the caper and complicating things and then working out in the end.
- Italian Job (1969, w/ Michael Caine) – Netflix rental – I liked it, but not as well as the 2003 version. It was more comedic, abstract, not as apparently well-planned from the audience’s point of view, and crime didn’t pay.
- Word Wars (2004) – Netflix streaming – I haven’t gone back to finish up the last 20 minutes, but it’s a good documentary about a trainwreck between 4 Scrabble champions who all know each other. These people are various forms of incredibly neurotic. It was a stressful watch, even though a good documentary. I’d sort of like to reserve that degree of stress watching for documentaries about real human tragedy, though, not neurotic Scrabble players.
- A Galaxy Far, Far Away (2001) – Netflix rental – Good documentary about folks obsessed with the release of Star Wars Ep 1. Various whacked fans. Pith-helmet guy was genuinely frightening. I’d look over to H, watching with me, during the times when pith-helmet guy was being interviewed and her look of horrified fascination was priceless. We both agreed that especially these fans in this documentary, were far more frightening than those portrayed in the various Star Trek cons we’ve seen or seen documentaries about.
- Îlé Aiyé (1989) – Netflix rental – An interestingly produced documentary (not the conventional narrative style, mostly un-commented-on video with some picture-in-picture presentation and a very few short clips of subjects talking without filmmakers apparent). I think I learned a lot, but probably not as much as I might have with a more structured narrative, about Candomblé, and African spirit cult that has a lot of crossover, to my mind, with Vodun or Voodoo, as far as the pantheon goes.
I have also been using Netflix’s streaming to enjoy some of the early episodes of the A-Team and Knight Rider. 
Pith helmet guy was scary. The kind of guy around whom girls learn to not set down their drinks and to only drink from bottles/cans they have personally opened. *shudder*
Surely he wasn’t _that_ bad…. Okay, maybe so. He didn’t seem actively harmful like he carried roofies around in his pocket, but he might take advantage of a drunken stupor, I suppose. Ew.
I haven’t seen Word Wars in a while, but other good movies in that genre are Spellbound (about the National Spelling Bee) and Wordplay (about crossword puzzle competitions).
I usually forget about Netflix’s streaming service, thanks for the reminder! I wonder if you can get subtitles that way?