Saturday, April 13, 2013

Examining Netflix’s fake movie selection

A family sits down in their living room to watch a blockbuster Hollywood movie streaming on Netflix. They go to the on-screen menu and see their choices. There are thrillers like “Agent .45” and “Hong Kong Taxi,” romantic comedies like “Bella Ciao” and “Hotel Social,” and children’s animated movie “Zen & Zack.”
The cover art for these flicks includes no recognizable actors or movie posters. That’s because they aren’t real. They exist only in the minds of the artists who created promotional art for Netflix.
Netflix provides these photos to the press to illustrate their stories on the company and its service. It obviously came up with the fake movies because the streaming selection on Netflix is subject to change. A movie available one month might not be available the next because of licensing deals with the studios.
A lot of these unfamiliar movies look like some of the Z-grade flicks that end up on Redbox or buried in Netflix’s own library.
Titles include action movies “Kaliber” and “Contract Vengeance,” love story “Ameretina,” documentary “Wild Kenya,” sci-fi movie “Orion 3” (also called “Universe V”) and horror movie “Zombie Colony.”
Also in the fake Netflix library are comedies “Mic Night” and “The Student Exchange,” melodrama “Petals,” foreign films “Salut Mademoiselle” and “Juillet,” and martial arts movie “Silent Ninja” (also called “Rocket Ninja”).
Of course, I’m just guessing at the genres based on the titles and cover art. They’re bogus, so who knows?

Photos: Netflix promotional art with its library of made-up movies. 



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