I was a Blockbuster member, but I dropped the service to save some cash. One of the movies I was most excited to see was the three-disc documentary about the Monterey Pop Festival (called, oddly enough, “The Complete Monterey Pop Festival”). As a fan of oldies, I was excited to see what kind of concert could include acts like The Mamas and the Papas and Otis Redding on the same bill as Jimi Hendrix and The Who.

Also, you can never go wrong with the comedy “Rushmore.”

I’ll agree with “About a Boy” and “A Life Less Ordinary.” Both are excellent movies. To me, though, “Blue Crush” was unintentionally hilarious. There were a lot of lines in the movie that just made my friends and I laugh. The cinematography was good, though.

Beautiful Girls is one of the best movies ever! Great choice, Karla! I might have to rent that again this weekend. Haven't seen it in years. Is it even on DVD?

I've been using Netflix to binge on TV shows I've never seen (I don't have cable, or particularly good TV reception). I highly recommend the HBO shows Deadwood and The Wire. Both have a lot of course language, violence and explicit sexuality, but both are also very well written, diretced, designed and acted. They are also extremely involving.

Whenever it comes out on DVD, I also encourage everyone to get caught up with Friday Night Lights. It's my favorite current TV show, and even though it's a ratings failure I hope DVD keeps it alive for at least another season. (It's also available in iTunes, and the first episode if free, for now.)

Over the weekend I watched an independent documentary titled, "I'm Not Alone" directed by a San Fransisco-based musician and human rights activist named Michael Franti.

In this documentary Franti takes a small group of friends, camera people and his guitar into Iraq, Israel and Palestine to explore the human cost of war and talk with citizens and soldiers about the experiences they face in those war-torn areas of the world.

Regardless of your political beliefs, I suggest renting this eye-opening tear-jerker. 

I watched the movie "Control Room" last night.

It is a documentary about the Al Jazeera news network.

Interesting to say the least. The film highlights the war from an Arab perspective.

The movie is a few years old now, so some of the perspectives about how long Arabs thought the war would last were interesting.

It also brings up an intersting point about journalistic objectivity when dealing with war.

If you want to see what Arab people were thinking at the start of the war, it's an interesting film.