Now on Kindle and iPad! WeekinRewind.com's New eBooks: "Queued!"

Update:  Purchase the first volume of "Queued!" for Kindle and iPad here.

Purchase the second volume of "Queued!"for Kindle and iPad here.

All formats will be available soon.

You can download a lengthy sample for free at each link, and then download the books themselves for just $2.99 if you find them helpful.

Introduction:

In my 14 years as a film critic for a major daily newspaper in the Northeast, at which I’ve written more than 4,000 movie reviews, the question I’m now asked most is this: “What should I add to my Netflix queue?”

It’s not a surprising question.

Netflix, Blockbuster, Wal-Mart and any number of other online DVD rental stores is the way many are receiving their DVDs and Blu-ray discs. And why not? It’s inexpensive, and they make it ridiculously easy to order what you want. No reason to leave home. Just bring up their website, scan the tens of thousands of offerings, choose something that looks promising, in the mail it comes. And then you hope for the best.

It’s that last part that I want to remove from the equation. It’s also the sheer number of offerings that led me to write this book, which takes a sampling of the thousands of reviews I’ve written over the years, and gives you a solid idea of what movies you absolutely should add to your queue, and what movies you absolutely should leave queueless.

Several major films are reviewed in each book, but what I set out to accomplish with the first and second volume of the “Queued!” series, which now are available as an eBook on Kindle and iPad (the latter with the Kindle app), and soon on all other devices, such as Nook, Kobo, Diesel and more, is to suggest films you might have heard of only in passing, or perhaps not at all.

There are gems out there that receive little attention because, frankly, they lack the massive marketing campaigns enjoyed by most blockbusters. In all the noise those movies make, you might have missed such terrific films as “Aimee and Jaguar,” “The Kite Runner,” “The Opposite of Sex,” “Let the Right One In” and “East-West,” to name a few.

These movies are richly drawn and worth your time. Have you heard of them? Seen them? Maybe, maybe not. But if you haven’t, Netflix at the very least has them, and by adding them to your queue, they can offer you a swell night with a movie you might never have given a chance.

Mixed into these groups of reviews are some less-favorable choices, movies that receive such a massive financial push from the studios, the very idea that they’ve become part of the landscape suggests they might be worth viewing.

And so you rent them. And a sour feeling overcomes you when you realize you’ve been had. While this book focuses mainly on what you should add to your queue, a handful of some well-known yet terrible films have been selected to help save you time and disappointment.

As a bonus, these particular reviews tend to be the most fun to read.

Some of the reviews in "Queued" appear on this website--but many, many don't.  The third volume of “Queued!” will be coming shortly. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this first and second volume, and use it to find movies that offer escape, insight and entertainment.

Christopher Smith
August 14, 2010