New on Netflix for late October

If your Netflix homepage is like mine, the stuff that the company themselves manufacture are shown with great promotion even though there are normally a ton of movies that get added to the library every month. Since a vast majority of Netflix originals are not really all that great. I thought I'd shine a light on some of the films that they added that you should be looking at right after you groan from watching yet another crappy "original"

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Cape Fear

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Long before DeNiro became a political activist blowhard there was a time when he made some pretty fantastic movies. These days I think most people know him as a guy who made some fantastic Italian mobster films and then went on to make a long string of really terrible comedies that are a laugh for all the wrong reasons.

Well somewhere in the middle of all that he got into absolutely fantastic shape and made this legendary film that a lot of people have still never seen. Nick Nolte is actually much bigger than DeNiro in real life but they still managed to make two-pack-a-day Nick seem like a complete wimp in comparison.

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Grand Torino

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Clint Eastwood pulls off an amazing performance in this film about racism but it isn't done in a preachy way. The really amazing thing about this film is that other than Eastwood, there are very few professional actors in the lineup. Instead Eastwood held local auditions and helped them to all be as good of actors and actresses as they can be. At times it shows that we are dealing with inexperienced talent but somehow in the end it all just works.

This is one of my favorite films of all time.

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Stranger Than Fiction

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Will Ferell has been in so many comedies that the few serious roles that he has done kind of get ignored. This film was one of such attempts and even though it was kind of panned by the critics I actually enjoyed it a great deal more than I do most of his comedies. I think this is because even though he tries to mix it up in his humor roles, he always comes across as a bumbling idiot who somehow has positions of authority despite obviously being intellectually incapable of the responsibilties associated with said job.

In Stranger than Fiction he is quite the opposite: He is an exacting genius with very little in the way of a sense of humor and I think the "opposite day" approach is part of the reason why I liked it so much.

The supernatural aspects of it are a bit hokey, but in the end it worked for me. It might not for everyone but if nothing else you can say that you saw the one non comedic film that Will was involved in.

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Honorable mentions

• War Games - Might be a bit too old for some but was a very important film back when the Russians were an actual threat instead of the fake threat that they are today.

• Metallica: Through the Never - It's a documentary of course and I suppose it is important you appreciate the band first. It really shows how much of an a-hole Lars Ulrich is and for me that was the best part

• Moneyball: Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill star in this true story about how a baseball team that was struggling financially was able to have a winning season just by being clever with math. Jonah Hill was nominated for an Oscar in his performance in this one

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I think that will have to do it for now but there are of course many more. The strange thing about Netflix is that there actually are a ton of older and fantastic movies in the mix but they won't show them to you unless you go and dig for them. It's only sensible they would try to advertise their own stuff first i suppose.