I was honestly shocked to find out that there are almost 8000 movies available right now on netflix streaming.
Their "custom tailored" selection screen gives the impression that they have 300 films available at most.
Their "custom tailored" selection screen gives the impression that they have 300 films available at most.
It's like going to a movie store and only browsing one section. Over and over.
You can download the IMDb rating database, although I think it has a very restrictive licence. Alternatively there is this: http://www.omdbapi.com/ - but I wouldn't count on it being around forever. It seems like they would be on shaky legal grounds (but at least it would be them getting sued rather than you).
That website is how I discovered netflix has thousands of movies in the first place.
I suspect this is the reason they obscure the full contents of their library. They only want to show customers things that they think the customer will like, because that set is dwarfed by the set of junk.