5 More Recommendations on Netflix

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Want me to piss you off? What if I told you that in the 1960's, a 16-year-old ran away from home, created a new way to steal from banks via check fraud, stole over 4 million dollars from the banks all over the world, impersonated a substitute teacher, doctor, lawyer, and Pan Am pilot, and managed to outsmart the FBI for years all before his 19th birthday? What if I then told you that after getting caught and serving only 4 years in prison, he became the Hannibal Lecter of bank fraud and spent the rest of his life making millions by taking down other elusive bank fraudsters, consulting with the government on national bank security, and lives a nice cushy live with a wife and kids? What rebellious things did you do as a 16-year-old? Play Call of Duty instead of doing your homework, peep at your friend's test, sneak out to go to Sparkles? Pathetic.

Don't believe me? Watch Catch Me If You Can, a brilliant and fun movie about the true story of Frank Abegnale Jr, the youngest and most prolific con man in US history. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the movie manages to capture you with witty dialogue and excellent pacing. Leonardo DiCaprio shines as the young, but clearly not naive Frank, a 16-year-old boy who spends 2 years on the run from the FBI as he creates fake checks, cashes them in banks all over the world, and impersonates several professions (I guess they just thought he looked young). He was pursued by a very determined FBI agent, played by the great Tom Hanks, who acts almost like a surrogate father at times to Frank, but nonetheless is determined to take him down.

One of the things I love most about this film is how it reminds you that Frank is not just an elusive, brilliant mastermind who is outsmarting the nation's best, but also he's just a kid. He'll forge a Harvard degree, get hired as a doctor, throw wild parties at his bachelor pad he bought with cash, and then at the end of the day desperately want guidance and protection.

Watch this and not only be thoroughly entertained, but also dumbfounded that this actually happened.

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Yes Man (2008)

My god how can you not love Jim Carey? By far one of his more human (and less cartoon-ish) roles was as Carl in Yes Man. It follows Carl, a bank teller who can't get over a divorce, is losing friends by bailing on them all the time, and doesn't say yes to life. All of a sudden he does what every person does and goes to a seminar with a cult following and is taught the wonders of saying yes to every opportunity presented. The movie has a very simple premise, but a very important message that you shouldn't take as super literally as Carey does.

He, quite literally, says yes to everything. The movie plays with this idea really well by showing the consequences sucking at first, but ending up leading to good things. A homeless person asks you to borrow your phone to call someone, but ends up being the most popular homeless guy on the planet and drains your battery so you can't call AAA when your car breaks down. But hey, a beautiful girl on a moped gives you a ride and her number. Shoot your shot, Carl.

The movie also has an awesome scene where Carey plays and sings Jumper by Third Eye Blind to convince a guy not to commit suicide and now Jumper is the second out of the only two songs I can play on the guitar.

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Inception (2010)

You thought I wouldn't eventually recommend a Christopher Nolan film? Think again peasants, the internet's God of Cinema never disappoints and I'll throw hands with anyone who disagrees.

Inception follows Leonardo DiCaprio and his merry band of star-studded thieves as they steal people's ideas. Through what way you're definitely not asking me? Through their DREAMS. I wish I could explain how they do it, but my dining hall is serving chicken pot pie and I want to churn these reviews out fast. Essentially, they create the world of the dream, bring the subject into the dream, and they fill it with their subconscious secrets.

The movie will confuse you on the first watch, I promise. Just know that there are several layers to a dream, and the deeper you go, the more diluted time becomes. If you've already watched it and didn't bother to watch again because it confused you, give it another watch. I promise you'll slowly piece everything together. Nolan makes the audience work for it, for sure, but my boy Nolan leaves a very intricate bread crumb trail for the audience to find out for themselves.

In a world of very passive movie experiences where I could use the bathroom at any point and not care about missing important plot points, this movie shines as a true movie-goer experience.

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The Entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

No, I don't care if you hate fantasy, you're going to dedicate 9 hours of your life to watching the greatest trilogy of all time and you're not going to bitch about it.

I say The Lord of the Rings trilogy and not one individually because they are all equally amazing and need to be watched one after the other to get fully immersed in the world.

I'm not going to lie, this franchise is what got me into movies in the first place and was arguably one of the biggest parts of my childhood. My dad showed me all three movies before I was five and I clearly didn't understand who was fighting who or why, but damn were those sword fights cool. I was in love with the movies and watched them all so many times during long car rides to the beach that I memorized the time points to jump to for my favorite scenes.

So much goes on, so there is no way I can properly summarize, but I will try. A hobbit (essentially a little person who loves peace, partying, and sleeping) is tasked with delivering a ring that posses great power to Mordor, a land of evil. There, he must throw the ring in the fires of the volcano where it was made in order to finally rid the world of the evil Sauron, the original creator of the world. The ring has the power to corrupt everyone who comes into contact with it, even the best warriors. But Frodo, our hobbit protagonist, proves that the bravest among us are sometimes the ones we least expect. Was that cheesy? Who cares, you'll like it.

Every character that helps Frodo through this journey is amazing and iconic. Aragorn, the lost heir of a forgotten linage of kings, Legolas, an bad-ass elven prince, Gandalf, the best wizard of all time (piss off, Dumbledore), and the true hero of this franchise, Sam. Oh my god, Sam sets the bar for the best friend of all time by being the one who accompanies Frodo until the very end of their journey.

This franchise has everything. It will make you cry, laugh, clench your teeth in suspense, and cheer. The score? Howard Shore's best and arguably the best soundtrack of all time. The special effects? Better than most effects today. The locations and setting? The top of my bucket list is to go to New Zealand and see all the film sights. The dialogue? Some of the best ever written. Every one of the movies won Oscars, with the third holding the record for the most Oscars won by any one movie (piss off, Titanic).

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Don't F**k With Cats (2019 Documentary)

Okay, this one is out of left field since it's not a movie but a documentary series. I didn't expect this to be good to be honest, because the name is kind of off-putting and I'm a dog person myself.

But good lord, this was one of the craziest crime documentaries I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them. It's about a video that was posted by an anonymous person on YouTube that showed a mystery person putting two kittens into a vacuumed bag and suffocating them. It was horrible, and it pissed off the worst community to piss off, the Internet. A group of cat-lovers banned together on a Facebook page and devoted themselves to finding out the identity of this guy, and oh my god they do some FBI-level investigation that is so damn impressive you'll be dumbfounded that they're all normal people from the suburbs.

The story is almost unbelievable and you'd swear its made up. A quick google search will prove you wrong. The guy who killed these cats wants to be chased. When he first posts the horrible video, these internet hunters check his profile and find only one video in his likes, the trailer for Catch Me If You Can (and my reviews come full circle). Eventually the kittens are not enough and the mystery man starts seeking other outlets to get attention. It's absolutely nuts and the ending will have you throwing your ramen noodles at the TV.