Hey, It's on Netflix Instant Watch.
Movie Buzz is not always a good sign. While online or word-of-mouth excitement for a film is enough to get many people to the theater, all that build up can lead to pretty big disappointments (Indiana Jones 4, anyone?). Promotions driven by a movie studio's marketing teams can be even more foreboding; cross-promotions with McDonalds and Hasbro can read as desperation moves to the jaded filmlovers among us, wary of anything so forcefully sold.
I only bring this up because late-summer's sci-fi blockbuster District 9 was one of the most visibily promoted films of the summer, with banners everywhere from shopping malls to subway cars to popcorn bags. They all had the same, cutesy conceit: "For Humans Only," as in "No Aliens Allowed." The popcorn bags suggested that popcorn should not be fed to aliens, while the mall banners suggested that aliens were not to shop there. In retrospect, the whole campaign seems alarmingly tongue-in-cheek for a movie that means such serious business.
And boy, did this movie mean business. It quietly sneaks its way from mockumentary to horror-action narrative without drawing attention to the change. It drips with political provocation while grossing you out with its biological precision and shock-and-awing you with explosions. I had been warned that the film was gory, but I still went into the theater expecting something campy.
Congratulations, Hollywood Promotional Machine. Looks like you've still got some tricks up your sleeve.
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