Miramax Movies Begin Showing Up on Netflix for Instant Viewing

Miramax signed a deal with Netflix in May 2012 intended to begin delivering some of that distributor's biggest hits to home televisions via streaming over devices like the Roku and video game consoles like the PS3. Those movies were to begin arriving in June. Well, it's June and some of Miramax's biggest commercial and critical hits are available for instant streaming from Netflix.

So what qualifies as some of Miramax's biggest commercial and critical hits that you can watch over and over again if you have access to Netflix instant streaming? Well, if you are a Quentin Tarantino kind of guy, then you are about to find yourself in the four letter word equivalent of Valhalla. "Pulp Fiction" and "Jackie Brown" are just sitting there waiting for you to add them to your Netflix instant viewing queue. If your idea of Tarantino's greatest talent is watching a man dance to "Stuck in the Middle with You" while cutting off another man's ear, then dial up "Reservoir Dogs" and head to paradise.

If you are the misguided type of fool that thinks "Titanic" is the ultimate romance of the 1990s then now is the chance to catch "The English Patient" and be disabused of that notion. Whereas James Cameron's decision to bypass 4,000 interesting stories that actually took place aboard the Titanic to instead tell a hoary story featuring the oldest cliche romance in movie history, the makers of "The English Patient" tell a densely layered story about two different romances in such a seductive way that most people mistook the movie as something boring because they don't quite know how to respond to a movie romance that doesn't spoon-feed them pabulum.

Other Miramax movies that you can now watch any time you desire on your TV or computer via Netflix instant streaming include the movies that gave us the first two of Daniel Day Lewis' titanic performances -- so far. Both "My Left Foot" and "Gangs of New York" can be enjoyed. "My Left Foot" can be enjoyed as a great movie featuring plenty of fine performances in addition to Daniel Day Lewis' magnificent Oscar winner. "Gangs of New York" requires the use of the fast forward button so that you can skip all the scenes in which Day Lewis doesn't appear.

Lovers of musicals who don't know any better can enjoy "Chicago" as a prelude to enjoying Hollywood musicals that actually are worth watching. Lovers of movie twist that aren't a total cheat like "The Sixth Sense" can learn how a moviemaker can introduce a twist organically into the plot without having to film scenes that lie to you about the reality of the situation by settling in to watch Stephen Rea's towering performance in "The Crying Game.

Horror fans with access to Netflix instant viewing can check out "Scream" and the first sequel "Scream 2." Nearly every entry in the "Hellraiser" series is also currently available for sitting down in your dark living room with all the lights turned to watch Pinhead enact his violence toward others to your heart's content.

If you've put off signing up with Netflix or investing in a device for streaming to your TV like the Roku because you thought the instant streaming section of Netflix offered nothing good -- you've been misinformed for years now. But with the addition of a host of quality flicks from the vaults of Miramax beginning to make their way, you've got even less reason to think there is nothing you'd be interested in instantly viewing.