Giant Freakin Robot

By now you hopefully know that Netflix Instant Watch is a must have in your home. It’s the best way to catch up on all the great science fiction you might have missed, or in some cases have forgotten. Lately I’ve been using it to revisit oddball sci-fi movies like Battle Beyond the Stars and still others like Brother From Another Planet remain lined up and waiting for me in my instant queue.

Netflix’s lineup is always growing and they’ve just announced they’ll be adding new sci-fi movies to their list of instant watch possibles. Here’s what they have coming and when you’ll be able to add it…

Groundhog Day | AVAILABLE NOW
I’m not sure if it’s science fiction or fantasy or what (the movie never explains what’s going on, and that’s a big part of its charm), but it involves Bill Murray repeating the same day over and over again until he finally gets it right. It’s a brilliant film and on a resume filled with great work I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say that Groundhog Day is the best thing Bill Murray has ever done.

Before they were a bloated Michael Bay franchise starring Shia LeBouef and the hottie of the week, Transformers were an awesome set of kid’s toys based on the simple premise of being able to shift back and forth between an everyday object like a car and a bad ass robot. A whole generation of nerds have grown up desperately wishing that their ride could become Optimus Prime on demand. We’re still a long way from that, but this fan-made “Transformer” is at least a couple steps above your standard toy robot in disguise:

It’s been a while since we had any news about the inevitable (but ill-advised) continuation of the Transformers film franchise. Despite the fact that the franchise has lost its remaining star with no real word on who will replace him, it looks like Transformers 4 will be hitting theaters in 2014.

At an event for upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirmed that Paramount is looking to release Transformers 4 in the summer of 2014. As with pretty much every other bit of intel we’ve gotten so far, Bonaventura couldn’t confirm whether or not Michael Bay would return to direct. This time, though, Bay’s innate need to “top himself” was cited instead of potential timing issues with Bay’s Pain and Gain: ”Michael had a debate because he sort of felt at first that he’d done three. Michael and I are both the same in that we always like to top ourselves. That doesn’t necessarily mean bigger. It can be bigger in places, it just means different, but we’re going to push really hard as fresh and new as we can be.”

Rather than being a straight continuation of the last film, Bonaventura suggested that the new chapter would likely follow a strategy being taken with G.I. Joe sequel: a kind of “hybrid” following up on a plot line or set-up from the previous film but with a new story and different central characters. It’s still in the planning stages, of course, but this could mean that secondary characters from Transformers 1-3 could be brought to the forefront.

With the kind of viewership the Super Bowl gets, chances are that most of you have already seen this new teaser clip for Transformers: The Ride, opening at Universal Studios Hollywood in May. Disguised as a distress signal from Optimus Prime, the clip opens with a warning from Prime that the Decepticons are on their way, and then Megatron, who seems to just be hanging out watching the game with Prime, also lets us humans know that we’re about to be decimated, despite the fact the at the end of the most recent Transformers flick Megatron gets summarily executed with a big friggin axe. Check out the spot below.