What was Netflix thinking?

[Tancrisism]

Sometimes the movie recommendations that Netflix automates are laughable bordering on absurd.

The two movies that it bases the selection on, if you can't read it, are Woyzeck by Werner Herzog, and The Virgin Spring by Ingmar Bergman.

*(SPOILERS)*

The first one is a surrealist, existential German film from the 70's about a man slowly going insane; there is no action until the end, mostly his crazed philosophizing. It ends with him murdering his wife to euphoric classical music, a la A Clockwork Orange.

The second is a rehashing of an old Nordic fable by the Swedish master Ingmar Bergman, about a daughter of a wealthy Feudal landowner going to deliver candles to the neighboring town, whereupon she is raped and murdered by two brothers in front of their younger brother. They then find shelter, conveniently, at the house of the same Feudal lord, whereupon their are soon found out and murdered. It isn't a satisfying end, though, as the Lord also kills the innocent boy and regrets it.

Both are quite slow-paced, the former quite bizarre, leaving one never sure what is real and what isn't, and the latter mostly disturbing and giving one a sickening sense of injustice. No real action. Some slight suspense, but no "thrills".

*(END SPOILERS)*

And so Netflix naturally saw the most obvious and immediate connection MUST be "Boyz N The Hood".

Other noteworthy selections of films similar to these: Magnum Force, Grilled, Dirty Harry (Deadpool), Cape Fear, and Homegrown.

[Slingshot]

LOL right. I have netflix and for some reason it thanks that because I like Steamboy I must like Futurama. I do like Futurama but what the hell does it have to do with Steamboy?

[SashaSexyFur]

Video recommendations are always bogus. They never ever get it right, especially youtube.

[Tancrisism]

At 2/20/10 08:26 PM, SashaSexyFur wrote: Video recommendations are always bogus. They never ever get it right, especially youtube.

Yes, but this is a bit far. Taking two old existential movies and recommending Dirty Harry?

[EclecticEnnui]

IMDb says if you like Bruno, then Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom is recommended. It's an interesting pick, to say the least, because both are overtly sexual and weird. Salo also has dark humour, except one probably won't find the film as a comedy. IMDb claims it "produces excellent results most of the time", but I don't know because the database is huge and I haven't seen enough movies.

Zip (Canada's equivalent of Netflix) gave me this. Haven't seen them, so again, I don't know if they're accurate.

[Ranklee]

Due to me watching a bunch of 80's movies it has made an entire row entitled "Critically Acclaimed Foreign Films." Not even close NetFlix, not even close.