After weeks and weeks of complaining that other people were getting a Netflix streaming disc for their Wii before me, I finally got mine in the mail earlier this week. So far, I love it. I've watched a Mike Tyson documentary, Julie & Julia, The Shawshank Redemption, and 2 episodes of 30 Rock. I was having such a good time, and as you may all know, when Truperior people like something they want to talk about it. However with Truperior.com being about all the free stuff you can do on the internet, it's not our style to tell you go to buy a Wii ($199) and a Netflix membership ($8.99). Our style is to tell you that there are movies you can watch on the computer for free and not worry about getting the FBI beating down your door, or having to break your ankle as you jump off your perch of a moral high ground.
Do not be mistaken, you are not going to be watching Star Trek, Iron Man 2, or Avatar for free through these streaming options, but you will be watching something. First off, we have Hulu. Not only does Hulu let you watch full episodes of television shows such as Family Guy, 30 Rock, and Lost, but it also lets you watch a small selection of movies. The quality of titles isn't the best, but it's free. We have some Lifetime movies, The Flinestones in Viva Rock Vegas, and some Patrick Stewart movie called Dad Savage. Not all of the movies are as deficient of quality as these movies. There are a host of foreign films listed, some with subtitles, some without. There's also Bean, Rowan Atkinson's hilarious potrayal of his British weirdo, Mr. Bean. The real gem of Hulu's lineup, is Just One of the Guys, an 80's movie about a high school girl who goes undercover as a guy in another school to write a newspaper article. If you haven't seen this movie and have any interest in 80's culture, this is where you need to start. Even though Hulu does not have a stellar lineup of free streaming movies, they do have a few hidden gems, and with almost a thousand free movies, you can have a good time trying to find a few. If you really like watching Hulu's movie selection, they have a desktop viewer application which lets you set up a que of movies and watch them in an order you choose. It's great for choosing movies that you want to watch for the future.
The other source of cinematic goodness I found was Youtube. I know what you're thinking, "That's stealing because people are illegally posting copyrighted material." That may be true, but Youtube also has a selection of legal movies to watch. The selection is similar to Hulu but they do have a few good films. Super Size Me, a documentary about a man who eats McDonalds non-stop for 30 days (gross), is available. Just One of the Guys is also there in case you didn't get a chance to check it out on Hulu. There's a few James Bond movies on here as well as a couple of stand up comedy specials from performers such as Paul Mooney. I definitely did not find this layout by Youtube to be as nice or accessible as Hulu. I did not see a desktop view application which means it's a little more difficult for me to remember which movies I wanted to view.
Overall, Netflix streaming compared to Hulu and Youtube is comparing caviar to sardines, but if you're a huge movie fan and need something, those sardines could be very filling. I think eventually free streaming is only going to get bigger as the general public is getting very comfortable with everything being free, legally or illegally. Still, if you are the type of person who gets squismish about those dirty bit torrents, these are nice safe options to help you sleep at night.
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