Netflix Unleashes Another Batch of "Forgotten" Flicks

Someone over at Netflix (and, more specifically Netflix's 'Watch Instantly' department) has been digging into my brain and pulling out some really strange and obscure movies that (as far as I know) aren't even available on DVD! The last time out, I was gushing over titles like Rolling Thunder, The Squeeze, and Planet of the Vampires -- but this time the Netflix VHS Stack is overflowing with wierd little flickers. Get a load of these ones:

The 1986 comedy Modern Girls, starring Cynthia Gibb, Daphne Zuniga, Virginia Madsen, and Clayton Rohner. I actually saw this one during its theatrical run. Some of the Animal House guys (Tim Matheson, Stephen Furst) team up with one of the Porky's guys (Dan Monahan) and the ESP hottie from Ghostbusters (Jennifer Runyon) to deliver one of the more fondly-remembered sex comedies of 1984: Up the Creek! Also features a cool Cheap Trick song and a great performance by a dog.

J. Lee Thompson's The White Buffalo (1977) is a bona-fide curio for fans of semi-forgotten cinema. It's an odd mixture of adventure, western, and horror in which Wild Bill Hicock (Charles Bronson) and Crazy Horse (Will Sampson) match wits with, yep, a large buffalo. Remember back in 1981 when "Klinton Spilsbury" was introduced as the legendary hero in The Legend of the Lone Ranger? Most people don't, but the movie does exist as proof. Martin Short and Danny Glover in the silly comedy Pure Luck (1991), which is a remake of the French farce La Chevre.

Richard Burton experiences unpleasant telekinesis in The Medusa Touch (1978). Pretty creepy. Sky Pirates. 1986. Anyone? How about Gene Hackman and Richard Widmark in The Domino Principle (1977)? James Coburn and Sophia Loren in Firepower (1979)? Frank Sinatra in the 1970 western comedy Dirty Dingus Magee! Oooh, Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda in There Was a Crooked Man... (1970). (I'm defintely watching that one.) On the other hand ... 1989's Eddie and the Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives! and (from the same year) The Return of the Musketeers, which stars Oliver Reed, Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, Christopher Lee, and ... C. Thomas Howell.

You want more? How about the 1982 Bette Midler flick Jinxed!? Jack Lemmon as a priest in 1986's Mass Appeal? Perhaps some Penn & Madonna in Shanghai Surprise (also '86) or Charlton Heston in the 1978 submarine thriller Gray Lady Down? Perhaps the all-star WWII thriller Voyage of the Damned (1976)? Jill Clayburgh as An Unmarried Woman (1978) or Winona Ryder dealing with Boys (1996)? Looks like I (or we) have a lot of flicks to get through, but I think I'm starting with this one. Heh. And if you've never seen Robert Duvall in The Great Santini (1979), well here's your chance.