Monday, March 02, 2009

Thanks but no thanks, Netflix!

Dear Netflix,

While I think it's pretty awesome that you have this software that recommends movies to me based on movies I've enjoyed in the past, I'd like to suggest that your system might need a little tweaking.

Yes, I did, in fact, enjoy The Deer Hunter, but my Deer Hunter love in no way foretells an affinity for Richard Pryor movies. But it's not me I'm worried about - I'm more concerned about the poor sod who takes your Deer Hunter recommendation based on their love of Richard Pryor. I'm concerned for the following reasons:
1.) Richard Pryor is not in The Deer Hunter.
2.) Christopher Walken is in The Deer Hunter. And sure, he's funny on SNL with the cowbells and such, but he is not—I repeat—NOT funny in The Deer Hunter. Not once.
3.) If someone is borderline suicidal and rents The Deer Hunter thinking it will draw them out of their sadness with its bawdy humor and hilarious first-person accounts of trips to Africa, they will not just be sorely disappointed, they will be dead.

So this is just a friendly note to encourage you to do a bit more work on the movie recommender thingy. And here's hoping next time I log in, I won't see:

Because you enjoyed: Home Alone 2
We recommend: Bucket of Blood 8 - The Chopping-Off Of Everything

Love,
Courtenay

2 comments:

Linsel Greene said...

Maybe the connection between Deer Hunter and Richard Pryor's live stuff is actually swearing? Did it suggest that you might like Scarface too?

Secondly...you liked Home Alone 2?

Courrrtenay said...

Swearing's probably the closest thing to a through line on those two movies, sure.

And the Home Alone thing was something they might say to...anyone, really. Just an example. In the same way I might've listed, say, "Return to Me," which is a completely predictable romantic comedy that I would never in a million years have loved and watched 10 times.