Netflix Instant Play Picks of the Moment: The Crimson Rivers/Les rivière pourpres (2000)

Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Crimson Rivers/Les rivière pourpres (2000)

I recall Tom Hanks on a talk show plugging The Da Vinci Code and being appropriately geeky over the fact that he not only got to see the Mona Lisa after hours, but that Jean Reno was with him.

Is Reno the coolest man in movies? Faithful Reno-philes will simply murmur Ronin, and close the case. But how often can you watch Ronin? (Don't tell me; my own number is embarrassingly high.) So, if you want all-Reno, all the time, turn to The Crimson Rivers, a twisty-curvy mondo-weirdo thriller that sends Reno--and aint-he-also-cool Vincent Cassel--clambering around the French Alps in search of a--well, I won't spoil it for you, even though the movie itself does some of that for us: Its plot is a bit untidy, its ending a little off-center.

But who cares? Reno and Cassel are fun to watch, the Alps look great--and the murders are satisfyingly Se7en-ish. Besides, do you really want to get your Reno-fix by watching Godzilla again? (All right, a cheap shot: I actually like that one, especially when Reno spits out the "French" roast coffee.)

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T.V. Party

•Eerie, Indiana: A short-lived, early-'90s older kid show about a town situated somewhere between The Twilight Zone and The Addams Family.

•The IT Crowd (series 1): A British series that feels a little like Scrubs—if that show were set in the basement of a corporate headquarters, where an I.T. staff answers the phone with an automatic "Have you tried turning it off and on?" while dealing with Monty-Pythonesque catastrophes. And oh yeah: It's funnier than Scrubs, with the added comedy bonus of British accents.

•Thriller: Not as well-known as its contemporary, The Twilight Zone, this 1960-62 series began as "thrillers" and moved into territory more closely associated with the horror comics of the '50s than the cooly observed socio-psychological parables that Rod Serling favored. Still, as with Zone, top-notch writers pitched in: Robert (Psycho) Bloch, Cornell Woolrich, August Derleth, Charles Beaumont. And of course there's the usual early-'60s lineup of hey-look-who-it-is actors, including Mary Tyler Moore, Victor Buono, Warren Oates, John Carradine, and the ubiquitous William Shatner. Great music, too--plus, you get the King, Boris Karloff, as the host. (I'd suggest you mix these up with episodes of The Andy Griffith Show for a taste of both sides of the pre-counterculture '60s.)

•Spectacle: Elvis Costello With ... : If The Beatles were still together when John was killed, they could have asked Elvis Costello to join them. Just listen to any number of the songs on Imperial Bedroom—such as "Beyond Belief," as full of slippery rhythms and winking lyrics as any Abbey Road tune. Elvis knows—and loves—music, and his Sundance Channel series gives him a chance to straight-up interview, goof around with—and best of all—perform with some stellar guests, including Smokey Robinson, Rufus Wainwright, Elton John, Lou Reed, and Bill Clinton(?). Season two, not yet on Instant Play, includes Nick Lowe, Lyle Lovett, and Bruce Springsteen. But regardless of the guest, the real fun is watching—and listening to—the puckish Elvis enjoying himself immensely, happy to share the stage with the kind of musicians he loves—which is just about every kind. His enthusiasm is infectious in what may be TV's best music-talk show since—well, maybe the kind of things MTV and VH-1 used to do when they were about music, a decade or so ago.

About This Site

I've been a Netflix subscriber since 1999, and since then the opportunities for instant streaming have multiplied dramatically. But to narrow the playing field, I'm going to stick with titles that are Netflix-ready—although most of these certainly can be found elsewhere. The picks are recommendations, not "reviews"; my hope is that the titles are new to you—or ones that you've seen before and I can persuade you to revisit. In any case, I hope that, for the moment, these picks make you as happy as I am when something new or an old friend pops up on the Watch Instantly lineup.

Note: Netflix Instant Play Picks of the Moment is not affiliated with or endorsed by Netflix, which you should get right now, right HERE.

(And a special thanks to Roger Ebert, rest his soul, who Tweeted this site and added mightily to my Followers. You should also go get Ebert, right now, right HERE.)