4.) The Pursuit of Happyness:
A down on his luck salesman has to take care of his son as they both face some life-changing events. This was probably Will Smith’s best performance in his entire career and you’ll see why he almost won the Oscar for Best Actor too. I loved that this was based on a true story because it makes the film and its character that much more relatable. This film was so emotionally compelling and fulfilling that it’ll be hard to watch without getting a little teary. If you’re looking for a positive and hopeful story, then THe Pursuit of Happiness should do the trick.
3.) Philadelphia:
When a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit. I thought it would be appropriate to at the very least put up a Tom Hanks movie here seeing as though he was one of the very first big name celebrities to contract the Coronavirus. The acting in this film is tremendous. You’ve got Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in the pique of their primes and it’s really a solid film to enjoy.
2.) Seis Manos:
Three orphans are raised by a martial arts master. Suddenly their small town is plunged into a mystery involving drugs, demons, and ancient rituals. Let me just say that Seis Manos caught me completely by surprise. The animation is similar to the Boondocks animated tv show, and it’s also in English for those of you cautious of subtitles. I absolutely loved how this series was able to blend both far eastern martial arts and a rich Mexican culture at the same time. I also thought they nailed the martial arts action. Plus, the story and mystery is also quite compelling. It’s only 8 episodes long with each one being less than 30 mins. The show goes in some crazy directions and the ending it will undoubtedly leave you wanting to see more.
1.) Castlevania:
Count Dracula is unleashing his terror upon the world and a lonely vampire hunter will have to do his best to save a city from Dracula’s wrath. Castlevania is an animated take on the video game franchise. I’ll admit, I never played the games, but that clearly didn’t matter with this show. This is probably one of my favorite and most frustrating shows on Netflix. The first season only has four 25 min episodes, and it feels like a complete tease. The second season has 8 25 min episodes and we at least get a much more climatic story. This latest season has 10 episodes and while the story does feel complete, you still can’t help but to want to see more. The benefit here is that if you’re watching this for the first time, you won’t have to suffer those early frustrations that many others had to as we waited a whole year in between seasons just for a few scraps of episodes. What I love about this show is that while you may have a main story and characters, they do a lot of world building with the supporting characters that enable the show to continue growing in a number of different directions. By the time we get to the final season the supporting characters have stories that may even be worthy of their own shows. The subject matter in this show is also really intriguing as they cover a number of different supernatural and religious themes. As a heads up, this show is incredibly violent and graphic. So please be advised that this isn’t a show for small children.
That does it for the Netflix list. However, as an added bonus, I wanted to share with you all a couple things that I think are definitely worth your time if you happen to be a subscriber to Amazon Prime.
