Introduction

Hi, my name is Patrick and I like movies. I like a wide variety of movies and I tend to watch a whole bunch, but… I rarely go to the movies. I love seeing a film from the comfort of my own couch, with a tasty beverage of my choice in my hand and able to pause the film when I need to pee or make a sandwich or something. And there are enough awesome movies out from the last several decades that I don’t feel a gaping hole in my life for not seeing the brand-spankin-new shows on opening week (unless it’s X-Men; I can't help it). As you might imagine, I think instant streaming services are the greatest invention since sliced bread.  I can slice my own damn bread! One of the things I like the most about streaming is that I can add a bunch of movies to my queue when I stumble across it in listings and have a huge catalogue of me-specific awesomeness to sit down in front of. Sometimes I add a movies because I’d been meaning to watch it for a long time; maybe I’d heard it was good (like The Thing [1982]; I loved it), maybe it caught my attention years ago and I never got around to watching it (Cool World was not what I expected, but I did have fun) (sometimes I realize I was just a sucker for a flashy trailer when I was a kid: Lawnmower Man ::shiver::).  Sometimes I run across something I’ve never heard of before but looks pretty cool…

And now we come to the reason for this blog. Some people actually value their time and only want to watch good movies. Ppffsht! I personally like watching the variety: the bad ones make the good ones all the more rewarding, and I value the personal experience of having found with the under-the-radar films. But I know I’m weird for this. Anyway, I’d like to share with you my thoughts regarding some of the films I watch. These are not recent films (with rare exception) hence the name Past-Due Reviews (despite the fact that I’m pretty sure professional critics did in fact review them when they were new).  My goal is to give candid opinions about whether it’s worth your time to watch, and who would get the most out of it. I tend to get the most enjoyment out of good story and character development rather than big explosions and flashy colors. I often like when a movie pushes the envelope in a certain way or does a really good job of getting a certain feeling across to the audience.  Basically I'm a story junkie: my favorite music is the blues, my favorite books are fiction, my favorite tv shows likewise are fiction.  You wont see a lot of reviews for reality TV though on some occasions I will end up watching a documentary and like it.

The service I use is Netflix, though there are other services out there that also provide streaming. When a movie is within a week of leaving the streaming option (sometimes for good, sometimes temporarily), they list the date that the movie will be departing. I scan my queue (which tends to be full near the maximum of 500 movies/TV series; like I said, a lot and much varied!) almost daily to make sure I prioritize the movies that are leaving soon, and I’ll try to post about those ASAP after I watch them to let you folks know what I thought and when it will be gone. In case it doesn’t come back, you might want to hurry. For example, I currently have ~15 movies that will no longer be available as of 10/1/12, so I’ve got a lot to try to watch this week (in addition to my full-time job). I assume that when I added them, I did so for a reason, and sometimes my present-self thanks my past-self for the wonderful gift.  I hope this site helps you find some good stuff.  Happy viewing!