With the extended (for some people) weekend and the continued temperatures over 100 degrees, you might decide to stay in for a bit and stream something on Netflix. However, as the page turns on the calendar, some movies leave the streaming service, with new ones coming in as replacements.
Here's our top three you should try to catch before they're gone Sunday night, and three you can plan to watch Monday.
LEAVING:
1973's Black Mama, White Mama (Rated R)
Alternately titled Chicks in Chains (I WISH I WERE KIDDING), Pam Grier stars in a film that manages to exploit on gender, sexual and racial lines, but it's an entertaining enough prison break film. Plus, Pam Grier.
Many, many 30 for 30 specials:
It's ok to have complicated feelings about ESPN or its employee, Grantland founder, Bill Simmons, but the 30 for 30 series, originally commissioned for the network's anniversary, but continuing on since, has been a great source of sports-related filmmaking. Seemingly all of the series is coming off Netflix this weekend and you'd be well-served to watch any of them, but my favorites are "Catching Hell" (a look at the Steve Bartman catch), "The Two Escobars" (the parallels between doomed Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar and drug lord Pablo Escobar) and "June 17th, 1994" (a really uniquely put together collage of archival footage to show the strange events of a day when the World Cup kicked off, Arnold Palmer played his last round at the U.S. Open, an NBA Finals game was played and OJ led the cops on a ride through Los Angeles).
1960's The Apartment:
A perfect film by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray, that manages to be sweet, dark and hilarious at various points.
Also gone soon: About Last Night, Capote, Cujo, Dirty Dancing, El Dorado, Midnight Express, The Fisher King (sigh), Lust Caution, Panic Room, Popeye (sigh again), The Seven Year Itch, the first Star Trek film and First Contact, Stir Crazy, What About Bob? and a bunch of Sesame Street stuff.
NEW ON SEPTEMBER 1:
1987's Good Morning Vietnam (Rated R):
Yes, Fisher King and Popeye are gone, but Robin Williams' performance as Adrian Cronauer seems to capture everything we loved about him: manic, hilarious and then touching and serious in a moment's notice.
1960's Swiss Family Robinson:
Other than the reminder of Disneyland's Swiss Family Treehouse, I had forgotten than this movie exists, but it's a fun family film with mild terror, pirates and monkeys. What's not to like, right?
Also coming soon: Silver Linings Playbook (available September 16), Bad Grandpa (available September 27), Girlfight, Lords of Dogtown, School of Rock and a bunch of 3 Ninjas films.
