How to Use Netflix as an Idea-generation Tool

1. The Last Mercenary

The Last Mercenary is a 2021 French action comedy film, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role. On the poster behind, you see the French President Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron, in office as President of France since May 14, 2017. On either side of him there is a flag. Now, don’t you think that the white shirt looks like the predominant color that contrasts the French flag, and the gold buttons on the colonel’s uniform like the stars on the EU flag? Minister Sivardière is the woman in the middle that looks like she is leading negotiations. Now, as far as I know, we did not have such a minister in France, but there are a couple of people of importance who bear that name. On the one hand, we have Jean Sivardière, former president of the National Federation of Transport Users’ Associations (FNAUT) and we know that when a Minister of the Economy, Macron copied methods of neighbouring European countries and enacted the Macron Law (Loi Macron) on intercity ways of transportation. These are often referred to as “cars Macron.” On the other hand, we have François Sivardière, director of the National Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches (Anena) which fights to inform everybody about avalanches and appears on the Senat website. In 2020, nearly 40 people died from avalanches in France. Before Christmas, Macron threatened the French that “no one is immune to avalanches of nonsense” and revealed that the government was considering taking “restrictive and dissuasive measures” to prevent the French from going skiing.

2. Spenser Confidential

Spenser Confidential is a 2020 American action comedy film, starring Mark Wahlberg in the lead role. On the left poster, you see former US President Barack Hussein Obama II who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. On the right poster, there is a quote by Cesar Chavez, a civil rights activist, “You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.” On the Cesar Chavez 2014 Day, Obama released an official Presidential Proclamation you on the website of the White House. In it Obama says, “… every job has dignity, every life has value, and everyone — no matter who you are, what you look like, or where you come from — should have the chance to get ahead.” On the prisoner’s uniforms, which is formed of a set of scrubs and a white T-shirt beneath, we see DOC that stands for “Department of Corrections.” The color code used is khaki as it designates low-risk inmates, but you see that, paradoxically it is not the case. Now, Obama is famous for his prison and police reforms, and one of the first he did to aleviate tax-payers and free space for “more violent offenders” was the so-called Early Prison Release program or “Parole.” As the movie starts with the Boston police officer Spenser beating up Captain John Boylan because of seeing the indications of him abusing his wife, it is worthy of mentioning that Obama signed major legislations like the Affordable Care Act,the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and the Li‎lly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and created in March 2009 the White House Council on Women and Girls (CWG), etc.

3. Coffee and Kareem

Coffee & Kareem is a 2020 American action comedy film, starring Ed Helms, and it is a two-ply indeed as the plot has some confusing logical leaps back and forth. It follows James Coffee, a bumbling Detroit cop who must rescue his girlfriend and her 12-year-old son from gangsters after the boy witnesses the murder of another cop. At the beginning of the film, we witness an attempted capture of rapper-turned-drug dealer Orlando Johnson led by the lead Detective for the Detroit Metro Police Department Linda Watts. A few stunning details reveal in those few moments that she is the mastermind but the plot is NOT well thought of, and probably most viewers won’t even pay attention: Linda is blonde and beautiful — by stereotype, she’s not very bright, so as she enters a gang’s house on a planned-ahead raid without any protection whatsoever, you think, “yep, she’s stupid.” Then, we see “that look” she gives to Orlando when he escapes from the 2nd floor, and you get it: she’s helping him for whatever reason. Also, his handcuffs allow him to escape later on. This development is so controversial as later it is revealed that she got to a deal with Orlando AFTER he had been detained: so she was stupid or psychologically touched to enter without protection that house … While there are a few times when racial profiling is mentioned, Vanessa, the child’s mother and Linda’s total antagonist in racial terms, is the one who shoots Linda dead during the final stage shooting … In English, we call “Coffee” somebody with a complex name, which suggests it was not the cop’s real name. Also, “going to coffee” in some places is a synonym for “sexual intercourse.” Here, Coffee has a relationship with Vanessa, fact that is emphasized throughout the entire plot.