Last night I got to watch Noel that I digitally recorded*. Funny thing is it had repeated commercials for the movie being available on FlexPlay, a new DVD technology that only allows you to view it for 48 hours once opened (and can get it here) but I had it digitally recorded* already.
Anywho, it's a Christmas movie about 5 problematic people at Christmastime. One quibble with the film is that you know the people by the actors who play them, not their characters' names. Rose (Susan Sarandon, okay, the only one I remember) has a mother who is hospitalized with Altzheimer's, does for others, but needs help herself. She meets someone in a similar situation (an uncredited Robin Williams) who offers that help. Penelope Cruz is dealing with her fiance's jealousy, who in turn is dealing with Alan Arkin, who is convinced he is the reincarnation of his dead wife. Then there's the guy trying to get into the emergency room for the Christmas party by arranging for (director) Chazz Palminteri to break his arm. I would say it was just okay, but I was compelled enough to watch it all the way through, which with my big stack of DVDs and shows on the TiVo, could be considered high praise.

I also watched Napoleon Dynamite that I got from Netflix. The title character is about a high school kid in Idaho that some consider unusual, and his friends and family. It was one of those "It's okay, I don't see what the fuss was about" films. I consider my Netflix charge for this month worth it for this film alone, as I probably would've given in to the impulse and bought it.

In fact, looking over my Netflix rental history over the past 30 days, here's a ranking of what I've rented in order:
Empire Records: Remix Special Fan Edition
SCTV Network 90 Vol 2 disc 1<--(ones I liked so much will buy or bought them, respectively)
Elf
Tombstone
Dodgeball
Kathy Griffin: Allegedly
Money for Nothing (just OK John Cusack, and OK Debi Mazar nude scene)
(the following I gave up on shortly after starting)
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure
Vampyros Lesbos

I am kinda mad at Netflix for not having Surviving Christmas available for me, even though I added it to my queue when the release was announced and saying there was a short wait. And I know it must be a turd for them to release it so quickly after it's release, but still...

*According to the new Entertainment Weekly, TiVo is launching an effort to protect its name by discouraging people from using it as a generic term for it's service (use "digitally recorded" instead of "TiVo'ed", for instance) so they don't lose it, as asparin did and xerox almost did.