I just watched In Bruges (yes, saturday night at home, watching movies lol) through HBO on demand.  Its one of those movies you watch and are in something of a shock state after the ending, frantically googling to see if there is a sequel coming, or to see if there is some sort of news of any sort whatsoever – that’ll let you know what happened.  Starts out slow like a kettle warming up if you pour really cold water into it.  Then it starts to crackle and pop and it finishes with a dramatic release thats just unbelievably good.  Bottom line is – must see movie, very much the kind you write home about.

Funny thing is, I have a mixed sort of feeling about Colin Farrel – a friend of mine knows him personally, and he seems exactly like the kind of conflicted character that he plays in this movie.  But all that aside, even if you take this movie on an as-is basis, its very much worth watching.  And I’m not kidding about this, I’m writing this literally 2 minutes after I finished watching it.

There are definitely some quality lines in it, like:

“Two prostitutes and a racist dwarf – I’m going home”.

But thats not why the movie is good.  And honestly, I don’t even know why I’m writing this – you really have to see it to enjoy it in some sort of full capacity.  I recommend having at least two or three vodkas on the rocks ready – the last two you’ll need for the last 20 minutes of the film. And I’m not talking measured out shots of vodka on the rocks, I’m talking 4 ice cubes and a generous pour of your favorite “little water” in a sizeable glass.  The “cover” or “poster” image above doesn’t really do it justice, neither do the commercials I saw when it was in theaters.  But really, go and see it – download it, stream it, view it on demand, rent it, whatever – its a pretty damn good movie.

Pete, a friend-of-a-friend who lives in Philadelphia and works at Gamestop recently enlightened me to the fact that you can now use Netflix on the Xbox 360.  Let me tell you, its a brilliant collaboration on the part of Microsoft and Netflix.  You can download the Netflix app and link it to your Netflix account – and stream anything in your Instant Queue via your Xbox 360.  The process is absolutely painless and a free trial for Netflix is available which gives you 30 days of free rentals and streaming.  So many great movies and TV Series are available for instant streaming.  I started watching Heroes this way (yeah, I know I’m behind, just started season 1, but I was a little bit disinterested at first given the somewhat “dorky” stigma the show had initially).  A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010, Alien and Aliens, and oh-so-many other great moview are available for instant gratification.  Pete also recommends Heavy Metal 2000 as great background visuals for good conversation, which I plan to use next time friends are over to chit-chat.

Bottom line, if you have an Xbox 360 and you haven’t tried Netflix on it, you’re seriously missing out. It definitely beats digital cable’s on-demand service.  If more stuff was available on Netflix for Instant Streaming, I’d be even happier.  Also, HD streaming works if you have enough bandwidth, and let me tell you, there’s nothing better than seeing something you want in HD over your Xbox 360 with virtually zero effort!