The Deaths Of Ian Stone (2007, R)

Another film that's only available for streaming until 10/1/12 is The Deaths Of Ian Stone.  Labeled as a horror movie, I'd say it's more of an Action/Horror.  I hadn't heard of this movie before but I liked the sound of the premise.  How it works is: Ian Stone gets killed by this supernatural being, a shadow wraith or something.  But he doesn't go to the afterlife, doesn't even get reincarnated (at least not exactly)... he wakes up in a new life the next day.  He has the same face and name, he acts pretty much like him, but he's in a different job in the same city (London, though he's got an American accent), he encounters the same people but in different (though similar) relationships to him.  And then he gets killed by the same (or another very similar) monster again later in the day.  Basically he gets killed every day and wakes up as someone new and not remembering the old life (until someone in the know clues him in, which would have to happen for the plot to go anywhere).  But I love crazy crap like this, and it kind of reminds me of the currently-running Image comic Grim Leaper which I also get a real kick out of (Grim Leaper is about a guy who is extremely death-prone and keeps getting "reincarnated(?)" into a new pre-existing adult body with his own full memory.  He doesn't know why but gets pretty paranoid about death but not at all concerned about health, since he'll get hit by a bus or decapitated by a flying manhole cover in a couple hours anyway.).

I really enjoyed the intrigue of trying to figure out what's going on with Ian Stone and why; and it was a blast once he figured out how to fight back.  His girlfriend from the second life had the most delicious voice I've ever heard and the rest of her wasn't too far behind.  If your preferences and/or organ sets run opposite to mine, the male cast was attractive as well.  The only face I recognized in the cast was Andew Buchan who played the brother to Matt Smith (Doctor Who) in the British TV series Party Animals (about political parties, not frat parties, and quite good as well), and he was a side character.  The visual quality and cg creature effects were good, especially considering what under-the-radar horror flicks often are (I'm thinking of Dark Floors here.  You haven't heard of it, and you're not worse off for that.).  I especially liked that this movie sets up its own mythology for how things work with the shadow creatures, and it's pretty original despite some similarity to a classic monster (I'm not spoiling which one).  As a negative, later in the movie the wardrobe department started channeling The Matrix, a decision that I didn't think was necessary at all for the story and made it look like a cheap imitation.  But other than that I had a blast.  This film won't change your life or anything, but if you like Action/Horrors and want to have a good time, you could do a lot worse than this movie.