In the key of rant #2 (formerly known as Glyn Rants) Movies you can watch (for free) and should watch.

The world of content distribution is undergoing a massive transition. With the rapid rise of digital distribution, consumers have got more choice, more flexibility and better bang for their buck than ever before. Unfortunately Australians have missed out on a lot of this. There are options in Australia, but they are few and far between (and more expensive) compared with what is available in the USA.

And Australians are hungry for options. Netflix, despite not actually being officially available in Australia, is the second most popular digital distribution platform in Australia. Using a technique called tunnelling, people are able to get past geo-blocking (blocking access to a website based on location) and gain access to US sites such as Netflix and Hulu. There are more services being launched in Australia (including maybe official Netflix), so hopefully in time we will get more choices and better prices.

Thankfully some companies have already to made their services available in Australia. Crackle was one of my favourite sites while I was in the US. Similar to the well-known website Hulu, Crackle has free on demand video streaming, supported by regular ad breaks. Crackle’s available content is mostly movies, but there are a few TV shows available.

I’ve spent many hours (probably too many) watching movies on Crackle so I thought I would provide you with some interesting and unexpected recommendations. First off, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Crackle has plenty of well-known movies such as The People vs Larry Flint, Gattaca, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1994 version), In The Line Of Fire, Boyz N The Hood, Rob Riener’s A Few Good Men & Stand By Me, and Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery & Husbands And Wives to name a few. If you haven’t seen all of these movies I thoroughly recommend that you do. There are lots of other well-known movies like Doug Liman’s Go, The Patriot, heart-warming sports movie Rudy. Sense and Sensibility directed by Ang Lee starring Emma Thompson (who also wrote the screenplay) and Hugh Grant as well as All The Pretty Horses directed by Billy Bob Thornton (his follow up to ‘Sling Blade’), starring Matt Damon and Penélope Cruz.

But the movies I really want to talk about are lessor known and sometimes wonderfully weird. I could recommend your ear off for hours, so come talk to me at Filmonik some time, but for the sake of not having a ridiculously long blog post, today I’m going to be talking only about movies from the 1980’s…

First we have The Big Picture (1989) and Quicksilver (1986) both starring Kevin Bacon. The Big Picture is about a talented young director starting his career in Hollywood. Quicksilver is about a man who gives up a job as a stock broker to become a bike messenger. Quicksilver also opens with Mr Bacon rocking this stunningly stylish hair-do and mustache combo:

As an example of Quicksilver’s high quality please enjoy this ballet/bike dance sequence.

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RzROpuOv9E[/fve]

A masterpiece!!!

The Razor’s Edge (1984) – based on the book by W. Somerset Maugham – marks the first dramatic role from Bill Murray. Apparently Bill Murray was so determined to get it made he refused to make Ghostbusters until Razor’s edge was green lit.

Punchline (1985) is a film about stand-up comedians starring Tom Hanks & Sally Field (who would later play his mother in Forrest Gump). The film is one of the early examples of Hanks showing off his dramatic acting chops. Sally Field is also awesome as a housewife defying her husband to try and make it as a comedian.

The Natural (1984) stars Robert Redford and Glen Close. Redford plays an aging baseball player looking for one last shot at the big leagues before it’s too late. The film is referenced in the Simpsons episode “Homer at the bat” Ever if you haven’t seen the movie, you might recognise the famous scene from the films climax.

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i94ldGNNSQ0[/fve]

Stir Crazy (1980) starring Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor and directed by the man with the greatest name in the history of the universe; Mr Sidney Poitier. The film is about two friends who are wrongly convicted and imprisoned for a crime. Whilst inside they build an unlikely alliance with other prisoners and formulate a plan to escape.

Real Genius (1988) is a classic sci-fi comedy starring a young Val Kilmer as a talented and rambunctious college student. This movie has everything! Lasers. Popcorn. Val-Kilmer-acting-crazy!

Crossroads (1986) stars Ralph Macchio, (aka the kid from Karate Kid). Crossroads is a bit like Karate Kid if you replaced karate with blues guitar and Mr. Miyagi with an old bluesman. It has music from great guitar players like Ry Cooder, Steve Vai and William Kanengiser. As icing on the cake, the climax of the film is an awesome guitar duel.

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_icctfc9Kw[/fve]

Another personal favorite from my youth is Short Circuit 2. It’s not as good as the first Short Circuit movie and it is sorely lacking in the Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy department. But Fisher Stevens returns and we get Michael McKean from Spinal Tap fame playing a New York street hustler with a heart of gold. We also get a frickin cool robot! I rest my case.

True Believer (1989) is the story of a jaded civil rights lawyer trying to free an innocent man from jail. It stars a baby faced Robert Downey Jr and James Woods sporting an extremely funky ponytail.

If James Woods took that hair out of the ponytail, I think he would look like a shouty intense Michael Bolotin!

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen starring John Neville, is a surreal masterpiece from director Terry Giliam. If you like unusual movies, this one is for you and contains performances from Eric Idle, Oliver Reed, Jonathan Pryce, a young Uma Thurman and Robin Williams.

Keeping with the theme of weird movies is cult animated classic Heavy Metal (1981). This movie is glorious stupid fun that seems like it was made by teenage boys. Just turn your brain off and enjoy.

Speaking of stupid movies for teenage boys we have Silent Rage starring Chuck Norris being all Chuck Norris-ish. I won’t provide a description because the movie’s poster tells you all you need to know:

As an antidote to the rampant ridiculousness of the previous two movies may I suggest Bill Forsyth’s Housekeeping, a film Roger Ebert gave four stars. It’s about two young girls who, abandoned by their mother end up living with their unconventional aunt, played by Christine Lahti. Lahti gives one of the finest performances of her career.

Next we have two films starring Gregory Hines. Tap which also stars Sammy Davis Jr and White Nights which also stars Mikhail Baryshnikov. Both are movies where dance plays an important role.

If you don’t remember, Gregory Hines is this guy:

Most people remember him from the Mel Brooks movie ‘History of the world part 1’. You might not remember him, but never forget, the man could fucking dance.

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbxI3K8GnpU[/fve]

I also believe this Mikhail Baryshnikov guy might also be able to sorta dance, a little bit.

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq9m-bZ6SAQ[/fve]

Finally we have Peggy Sue got Married (1986) directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Kathleen Turner, Nicolas Cage (Coppola’s nephew), a young Jim Carrey, Helen Hunt and Sophia Coppola. It’s a time travelling romantic comedy. That might sound stupid but remember it’s directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Also, Roger Ebert gave it four stars and called it one of the best movies of the year.

This is by no means a complete list of 80’s movies available on crackle, so check it out for yourself and see what you find. If you find another great 80’s movie on Crackle that I didn’t mention, please let us know in the comments.