Divan (2003)

This is a documentary from Borough Park, Brooklyn native Pearl Gluck. It is, on the surface, the story of her journey to Hungary to retrieve a family heirloom: a couch on which several important rabbis slept. But it also a tale about her Hasidic Jewish heritage, even though she left that lifestyle behind much to the disappointment of her father. We are witness to many customs and rituals of the Hasidic community in both Brooklyn, New York and abroad in Hungary. And we gain some insight into those that "slipped" from the strict practice of that religion.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Face/Off (1997)

John Travolta stars as Sean Archer, an FBI agent who is after terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage). The hunt has become personal after Castor shot and killed Archer's young son Michael. Archer finally captures and just about kills Castor. However, there is a bomb planted to go off in Los Angeles and the only one alive that knows its location is Castor's brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola). Through some innovative science, Archer has Castor's face put on his head so that he can go into prison and get Pollux to reveal the location of the bomb. Unfortunately, the stress of the operation revives Castor, who then puts Archer's face on his own and kills the only people that know about the switch. Trapped in prison, Archer must find a way to get out and alert the authorities that a madman is lose in the disguise of a Federal Agent.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Defiance (2008)

Based on the true story of the Polish (now Belarus) Bielski Partisians, this film stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski, the eldest brother of four whose parents are killed when the Nazis liquidate the Jewish community where they lived. The siblings escape into the woods and hide out to escape the death squads. However, there are other Jews who have also got away and the population of the forest camp quickly rises to hundreds. Tuvia, the self-appointed leader, makes sure to organize the people into a working community but the second-eldest, Zus (Liev Schreiber), doesn't agree with his brother's methods and leaves to fight with the Russian resistance. This secret society struggles to survive, not only trying to avoid the Gestapo but also starvation and the harsh winter.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

The Man From Hong Kong (1975)

Exciting, action-packed film from Ozploitation director Brian Trenchard-Smith starts off with a beautifully shot kung-fu fight on top of the famous Australian landmark, Ayres Rock. A Chinese courier (Sammo Hung) has been caught in a drug deal and is taken in by the Australian police (which includes Hugh Keays-Byrne from Mad Max). Special Agent Inspector Feng (Jimmy Wang Yu) is brought over from Hong Kong to find out any information that the courier may have about who is supplying the drugs. Seems the big man is Jack Wilton (George Lazenby), who has an army of martial artists in his employ which makes him a hard man to get. However, after lots of violent and destructive fight scenes and impressive stunts, Feng does get his man.

Alternate Titles: The Dragon Files, Zhi Dao Huang Long

Available: (not available in US)

Cropsey (2009)

Fantastic documentary by Staten Island, New York natives Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio about the local Urban Legend of Cropsey. The story goes that a former mental patient lived at the abandoned Willowbrook Mental Institution and would come out at night and snatch children. As the filmmakers got older, they came to realize that the tale was just a story to scare the kids from hanging around the crumbling hospital buildings. However thing got creepy when a young girl did disappear and a drifter and former hospital worker was arrested for the crime. As the police investigated the crime, it came out that quite a few children have been reported missing over the years. Are the tales true? And does Staten Island have a real live Boogieman in its midst?

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Straight To Hell (1987)

Wacky film directed by Alex Cox who is a big Spaghetti Western fan. He takes the love of that genre and applies it to this film of his.

The film starts off with a bumbling group of criminals who mess up a hit in a hotel and then clumsily rob a bank in Mexico. They make their escape in a crappy car that barely works. They end up hiding out in a desolate desert town that is inhabited by some gunfighters with an addiction to coffee. There isn't much else coherent to the story except that every once in a while one of the baddies asks where the guys have hidden the money.

The cast is just as bizarre with appearances by Joe Strummer of The Clash, Grace Jones, Elvis Costello, Dennis Hopper, Courtney Love,  and Jim Jarmusch among others.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

...And God Created Woman (1956)

This film directed by Roger Vadim is credited with launching Brigitte Bardot into the international spotlight and creating her sex kitten persona. In it she stars as Juliette, a teenage orphan who basically does as she pleases. She doesn't hide her sexuality and openly flirts with men, including wealthy Eric Carradine (Curd Jurgens). When her foster mother plans to send her back to the orphanage, Carradine plans to get her married off so that she can stay. She ends up marrying naive Michel Tardieu (Jean-Louis Trintignant), the brother of Antoine (Christian Marquand) the man she is really in love with. Everything is fine until Antoine comes back home to run the docks for Carradine.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Assassination In Rome (1965)

Italian thriller starring Cyd Charisse as Shelley North, a woman whose husband has gone missing shortly after their arrival in Rome. At the same time, an unidentified man with drugs on him has turned up dead at the Trevi Fountain. An old friend of Shelley's, reporter Dick Sherman (Hugh O'Brian), teams up with her and the Roman police to try to find where her husband is and what connection he might have with the dead man. There are quite a few red herrings and some wacky characters including a pair of bumbling thieves who rob the dead man's apartment after it's already been ransacked.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

You Only Live Twice (1967)

This is the fifth film in the James Bond series based on the books written by Ian Fleming. It again stars Sean Connery as the MI6 agent.

It seems that someone unidentified has sent up a spacecraft that is hijacking both U.S. and soviet spaceships. This UFO is believed to be coming back to earth around the Sea of Japan. James Bond has been sent to the Orient to try to find out who may be stealing these space capsules. After some mysterious disappearances and deaths around a dormant volcano, Bond is turned into a Japanese man and married to a woman from the island. There they discover that the volcano is actually a SPECTRE headquarters. Blofeld (Donald Pleasence) and his henchmen have concocted a plan to get the two superpowers into a conflict (although I am not exactly sure why). It's up to James Bond to save the day!

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Good Hair (2009)

Comedian Chris Rock goes on a journey to find out about black women's hair after his young daughter asked him why she didn't have "good hair". He explores all the different ways that these women change their naturally nappy hair to become the "ideal" flowing locks reminiscent of Caucasian women. He interviews women about hair relaxer and weaves, and even travels to India where "real human hair" comes from. Through-out the film we cut back to a handful of contestants who are competing in the Bronner Bros. hair show hoping to be this year's winner. 

Available: Netflix, Amazon

North To Alaska (1960)

Light-hearted western starring John Wayne as Sam McCord who, along with his partner George Pratt (Stewart Granger), has just struck it big with their gold mine near Nome, Alaska.

Sam has to travel down to Seattle to pick up equipment and George's French finance, Jenny. However when he gets there, he finds out that Jenny is already married. Not wanting to disappoint his buddy, Sam asks a French saloon girl named Angel (Capucine) to travel with him back to Alaska. He hopes that this might heal George's broken heart. This turns out to not be such a good idea. It seems that Angel has fallen in love with Sam (and he loves her although he doesn't know it).  To make matters worse, con-man Frankie (Ernie Kovacs) has concocted a plan to get a claim on Sam and George's mine.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Machete (2010)

Based on the fake trailer shown in the Grindhouse film double-feature, this movie is directed by Robert Rodriguez. It stars Danny Trejo as Machete, a former Mexican Federale who is now a day-laborer on the border of Texas and Mexico. Machete is hired by Booth (Jeff Fahey) to assassinate Senator McLaughlin (Robert DeNiro), a conservative politician who wants to build a fence between Mexico and the United States. However, the assassination doesn't go as planned (or as Machete had planned) and now everyone is after him...the cops, Booth's men, Torrez the Drug Lord (Steven Seagal) to name just a few. On the run, he gets help from the Underground organization run by Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), and the unlikely source of ICE federal agent Sartana (Jessica Alba).

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Black Sister's Revenge (1976)

Emma Mae (Jerri Hayes) has come to the inner city of Los Angeles from her country home in Mississippi to visit her relatives. At first her cousins don't want to have anything to do with this country girl. However after she kicks the butt of pill-head Jesse (Ernest Williams), they change their minds. But now it seems that Emma has fallen for Jesse, and when he is arrested for beating some cops, she is faithfully by his side. She does everything in her power to get him released from prison, first by organizing everyone and then getting them to work at a car wash to raise money for his bail. When Jesse finally does come home though, Emma realizes what a loser he really is.

Alternate Titles: Emma Mae

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Soul Vengeance (1975)

Small time drug dealer Charles (Marlo Monte) is arrested by a bigoted cop. Before he is brought in to jail though, the cop tries to cut off his penis. When Charles gets out of prison three years later, he has his mind set on revenge. However something strange has happened to him while he was away...his dick has become a weapon. Charles goes to the homes of the cop, the judge and prosecuting attorney and at first hypnotizes their wives with his enormous manhood. He then makes his cock grow to an unbelievable length; it becomes long enough to strangle a man (which, of course, is what he does with it).

Alternate Titles: Welcome Home Brother Charles

Available: Netflix, Amazon

The One (2001)

This science-fiction film proposes that there are multiple universes with multiple versions of ourselves in each of these worlds. One man, Yulaw (Jet Li), has traveled to each of these places and has assassinated all his other selves. Each time one of them dies, he gets stronger as the life force is distributed to the remaining ones. He hopes to eventually be "The One", a God-like being. The Multiverse Authority has sent out agents Rodecker (Delroy Lindo) and Funsch (Jason Statham) to try to stop Yulaw. Things get intense as the showdown between Yulaw and his final self, of course occurs in our world.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Dear Wendy (2005)

Jamie Bell stars as Dick, a young man who does not want to follow in his father's footsteps down into the mines. Through the encouragement of his caring housekeeper Clarabelle (Novella Nelson), Dick gets a job at the local market even though not being a miner brands one a loser in the town of Estherslope, West Virginia. After his father dies, Dick becomes friends with his co-worker Stevie (Mark Webber) who shows him a vintage gun that he owns. Though both are pacifists, the young men become obsessed with their guns going so far as giving them names and secretly shooting them down in an abandoned mine. Dick and Stevie recruit other misfits from the town and form a secret society that they call "The Dandies". These kids form a close bond not only with each other but with their "partners", their guns.

Available: Netflix, Amazon

Surrogates (2009)

This science-fiction film is based on a comic book series of the same name. In the near future, humans have become so vain and lazy that they don't even leave their homes anymore. They have employed "surrogates" to do their daily routines for them. In fact, the people of tomorrow even sends their robots out to enjoy the nightlife while they stay at home and experience the fun vicariously.

This world seems pretty perfect until one day there are some murders of surrogates that also kills their handlers. This should be impossible, but it looks like someone has developed a weapon that could wipe out everyone. Detective Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell) are assigned to the case. During his investigation, Greer's surrogate gets destroyed. Suddenly he is thrust out into a world that he was sheltered from for many years when he decides to continue the investigation, going out into the world on his own.

Available: Amazon, Netflix

Espionage In Tangiers (1965)

James Bond-esque agent Mike Murphy (Luis Dávila) is put on the assignment of finding the missing plate of a disintegration ray-gun. Smiling through-out the film he travels the world following the trail (that apparently only he can see). Like the majority of Euro-spy movies he has lots of close calls and entertains lots of beautiful women: he gets shot is but saved by a book in his pocket, he is "fooled" into getting into a car at the airport that is loaded with a bomb, he gets trapped in a room that is filled with water and almost drowns, he beds a beautiful agent that he knows must be in alliance with the bad guy. And of course in the end he escapes harm and gets the women in a boat. 

Alternate Titles:  Marc Mato, Agente S. 077

Available: Netflix, Amazon

The Expendables (2010)

Sylvester Stallone writes, directs and stars in this action film filled with classic action hero stars. In addition to Stallone, we have Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Jason Statham, former wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, former football player Terry Crews, former Ultimate Fighter Randy Couture, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis.

The Expendables are a group of mercenaries that have agreed to take on a job to dispose of a South American general (David Zayas). This general is in cahoots with a rouge government agent (Eric Roberts) in getting rich via the drug trade. Stallone and Statham embark on a reconnaissance visit to the island country and end up wreaking some havoc. Stallone then decides to go back and rescue the young woman who was their guide on their initial stopover.

Available: Netflix, Amazon