I've been with Netflix for a long time. I first joined when they offered only the per movie fees. You'd rent out a disc for as long as you wanted for a flat $3.99, and then return it.

Now they've got a bunch of different plans, where you can keep from 2 to 8 movies out at a time, ranging from $13 to $39 a month. I think I've been around so long that I've got some ancient plan, because I get charged $21.99/month to keep my 4 discs.

I know I've been around since 98, because I had Cowboy Bebop Vol. 4 out since then. (Sorry if you were waiting for it...I returned it a couple day ago, though. =)

Anyway, here's basically how Netflix works. You go to the website and build yourself a queue of movies. As soon as a the #1 title on your list is ready, it sends it. If your #1 title isn't available and your #2 is, Netflix will wait a day, and send out the #2 title on your list.

You can have as large a queue that you want, but you can only have as many movies in your home as your plan allows for. You can hold these for as long as you want, provided you are paying your fees.

After you review a certain amount of movies, Netflix will start to match other users' preferences against yours and will recommend rentals based on the preferences of other users who enjoyed films that you liked.

They also allow for some small reviews, not as large as Epinions, so you can express how you felt about the film with a bit more than the 1-5 star rating will allow for, but more than enough to your review used by a movie studio as a blurb. (After all, you don't even have to be a real person to write reviews for Sony.)

The one thing I used to really hate about Netflix was that they lumped all the foreign movies together in one huge section. This sucked because all the Indian movies (India produces more films than the US every year.) were lumped in the Chinese movies, and they were all lumped in with the French movies, and this all obscured the HK titles I was looking for.

They've since fixed this organizing the foreign movies by country of origin now, and everythings cool now.

The biggest problem I have now is with the fact that some users never return movies, and they're rented out forever. I've been waiting to rent "The Tai Chi Master" for something like a year now.

The packaging also leaves a bit to be desired. The old yellow packages were great, you tore off one half and plopped it back in the mail slot, and voila. The newer ones now have the little sealing lip part on the half that you tear off. So, if you're not careful, you tear that strip right off, which is a bad thing.

Aside from those small greivances, Netflix has been a very good service for me, and I've gained access to a lot more movies than I would have ever watched because of the convenience and selection of Netflix.

Normally if I wanted to watch Asian cinema, I'd hve to go to one of the mom & pop Asian rental places, and then I'd have to pay a $50 deposit up front, which would be used as credit against all my rentals. Of course, they were all $3 a rental, and most Chinese movies would supiciously end up on 2 tapes.

Now I don't have to worry about any of that any more. I rent something like 10-12 movies a month, which means I save money in the rental department, and I never have to play late fees. If it were a little cheaper, this might almost be too good to be true.

Go get yourself signed up today...just don't rent any of the movies I want to watch...

Recommended: Yes