Strangest Netflix titles

Netflix wants me to watch "Harlock: Space Pirate."

The streaming service has a complicated algorithm for recommending movies to its users. No matter how hard you try to tailor a profile that caters to highbrow tastes, Netflix knows you watched "D2: The Mighty Ducks."

Given their track record, I can understand why Netflix offered me a "Space Pirate" adventure. And just when I sat down to watch it, I couldn't ignore the feeling there was a better, stranger title for me on the Netflix servers.

Here are some of the weirder movie titles available now for streaming. Quality is definitely not guaranteed.

"Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?"

Back in my elementary school days, I devoured R.L. Stine's kid-friendly "Goosebumps" series, which featured titles like "Go Eat Worms!" and "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom." This is apparently a film adaptation of a recent R.L. Stine book, and I can't vouch for its quality. I have no interest in returning to Stine in any capacity, mostly because I'm afraid I'll hate the 10-year-old version of myself.

"The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant"

This 1971 film needs a Mystery Science Theater commentary track before I watch it. The plot description is just as lovely as the title: "A demented doctor grafts the head of a psychotic killer onto the body of his assistant's mentally challenged son." Eesh.

"Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead"

A fast-food chicken restaurant is built on sacred Native American burial grounds. The result is something far less terrifying than those Foster Farms chicken recalls.

"Gigli"

The infamous Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez comedy (?) serves as a cautionary tale on so many levels. In addition to being a really bad movie, the title (pronounced 'Gee-Lee") has gone down in the history books as being really, truly, incredibly stupid.

"xXx" and "xXx: State of the Union"

These are not pornographic movies. They are extreme-sports-themed, James Bond rip-offs starring Vin Diesel (part 1) and Ice Cube (part 2). The capital X in the middle is deliberate for some reason, though Samuel L. Jackson only saw $$$ for appearing in both movies.

"Howling 3: The Marsupials"

There's an expansive subgenre of lousy horror sequels available on Netflix. This 1987 werewolf-in-Australia adventure includes beasties that hold their babies in pouches... you know, like kangaroos. It has a score of 3.0 (out of 10) on the Internet Movie Database, but I promise you it's better than "Kangaroo Jack."

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.