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The Cameo posted:It used to. Then DVD sales dropped immensely very quickly (part of the recession, really; spending money dried up overall, so of course the market for movies shrank). Thus why studios are so intent on getting people to go back to the theater again with the move towards IMAX and 3D. They need to get much closer to the profit point in theatrical release nowadays, or it's going to be a while before the movie begins to make money. gosh darnit, I had a reply but we lost internets and it didn't go through. too lazy to type it again, and going home.
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Jul 29, 2010 19:16
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WHat is the general take on Gamer (2009)?
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Aug 1, 2010 20:12
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EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT JAPAN OR LIVING IN JAPAN IS COMPLETELY WRONG, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'LL 
ABOUT IT.
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kapalama posted:WHat is the general take on Gamer (2009)? Negative just with the only good performance being Michael C Hall's villain. Personally I mostly liked it although it was pretty wishy washy with the whole idea of people being taken over.
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Aug 1, 2010 21:36
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kapalama posted:WHat is the general take on Gamer (2009)? If you liked the Crank movies you'll probably like Gamer too. (I know I did) Angryhead fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Aug 1, 2010 |
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Aug 1, 2010 21:45
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Angryhead posted:if you liked the Crank movies you'll probably like Gamer too. (I know I did) See, I'm interested too, because I love the holy poo poo out of the Crank movies, but Gamer seemed like it was maybe too serious to be the same kind of experience.
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Aug 1, 2010 21:54
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Rake Arms posted:See, I'm interested too, because I love the holy poo poo out of the Crank movies, but Gamer seemed like it was maybe too serious to be the same kind of experience. I have not seen the Crank movies, but... I am part way through Gamer right now, and I understand where you are coming from with that thought. It seems like these guys have good movies in them, but this one misfires a bit, for me. I wonder if the fact I have never played video games has something to do with that? But the idea of the two Crank movies sounds like something right up these guys alley. Plus Jason Statham is fun in every thing I have seen him in.
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Aug 1, 2010 22:15
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Yeah, I and a couple friends of mine felt like Gamer draws a lot from video game logic, or, as somebody put it, "Gamer is what movie people imagine video games to be like", which is an apt description. I really enjoyed Gamer for its style, but as far as substance goes, it's practically empty. Michael C. Hall's performance was worth it though.
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Aug 1, 2010 22:20
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kapalama posted:I have not seen the Crank movies, but... What I've heard of Gamer sounds like it has the essence of Crank, with gaming jokes like teabagging and an impromptu musical number, but the ads made it seem like it was first and foremost an action/drama. Crank does not hold the pretense any sort of serious development for even a millisecond. Both the Crank films revel in intense absurdity and political incorrectness from beginning to end. It seems like having a serious plot in the middle of something like that would just spoil it. edit: Crank is also heavily rooted in video games, but the connection is in the style rather than the plot.
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Aug 1, 2010 22:31
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Rake Arms posted:an impromptu musical number, I though you were kidding about that, but sure enough: an impromptu lipsynching dance number. (WTF?) All in all not a good movie, but not the pile of poop Terminator Salvation was. I think that the Salvation director should be banned from the industry but these guys,well, I will allow them to make more movies.
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Aug 1, 2010 23:07
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kapalama posted:I though you were kidding about that, but sure enough: an impromptu lipsynching dance number. (WTF?) I think they should at least be allowed to make more Crank films. I saw Jonah Hex a few days a go and was incredibly bored, especially considering it's basically Wild Wild West with voodoo. I don't have high hopes for Ghost Rider 2, either.
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Aug 1, 2010 23:27
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I did enjoy the casual nudity in Gamer. It is a remake of Running Man when you think about it, and the ending is so similar, with the couple going off into the sunset on TV while the people in the street cheer. Technology wise, there's some neat stuff, like all the hand wavy controls and internet rooms.
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Aug 2, 2010 00:19
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I thought Gamer was one of the dumbest films I've ever seen; it's certainly the most painfully ugly film I've seen since Speed Racer (2008). And while I get the fact that it's trying to use all of the over-the-top stylistic twitchiness to make a point, all of its observations about consumerism, gaming, and pop culture were utterly facile. It was about one lolcat away from being the film equivalent of 4chan.
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Aug 2, 2010 01:56
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Gerard Butler is in a lot of terrible, terrible movies. I watched The Ugly Truth and Law Abiding Citizen within a few weeks of each other, and I will take all possible steps to avoid watching one of his movies ever again.
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Aug 2, 2010 03:37
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The Machine posted:Gerard Butler is in a lot of terrible, terrible movies. I watched The Ugly Truth and Law Abiding Citizen within a few weeks of each other, and I will take all possible steps to avoid watching one of his movies ever again.
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Aug 2, 2010 04:14
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Just watched Breathless and I really dug it. I'd like to check out some more Godard, but christ the man has made a lot of films, and seeing them listed on wiki under various eras and whatnot is pretty daunting. Any recommendations on where I should go after this one? Should I just continue chronologically, or try a few from each era, or what?
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Aug 2, 2010 04:42
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Band of Outsiders is by far my favorite of the Godard I've seen. Good follow-up to Breathless.
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Aug 2, 2010 04:47
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My favorite Godard film is My Life to Live I haven't seen a whole lot of his work, but my least favorite by a very large margin is Tout Va Bien.
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Aug 2, 2010 05:41
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I have only seen one, Alphaville, but I loved it. But then I love surrealist, out there and weird rear end sci-fi.
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Aug 2, 2010 06:05
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codyclarke posted:Just watched Breathless and I really dug it. I'd like to check out some more Godard, but christ the man has made a lot of films, and seeing them listed on wiki under various eras and whatnot is pretty daunting. Any recommendations on where I should go after this one? Should I just continue chronologically, or try a few from each era, or what? Just stick to the early pre-1968 era. If, after watching his major works from that era, you want more then feel free to try his later work, but most of the films he's famous for are from that era. I think at this point Criterion has released all the big ones except Weekend, so focus on those. For what it's worth my favourites are A Woman is a Woman and Alphaville.
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Aug 2, 2010 06:06
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codyclarke posted:Any recommendations on where I should go after this one? Should I just continue chronologically, or try a few from each era, or what?
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Aug 2, 2010 06:14
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CloseFriend posted:I made a similarly solemn vow that The Ugly Truth will be the last time I fall for the old trick of, "Maybe this romantic comedy will be different! Maybe it'll be funny!" Why on Earth wouldn't the name "Katherine Heigl" inform you otherwise? Seriously, she's literally a klaxon sounding out "THIS MOVIE IS TERRIBLE, DO NOT WATCH ME" on everything she's done post Knocked Up. And for some people, including Knocked Up.
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Aug 2, 2010 07:16
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kapalama posted:I though you were kidding about that, but sure enough: an impromptu lipsynching dance number. (WTF?) I avoided Gamer, but I couldn't read this without this scene from Suicide Club springing to mind.
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Aug 2, 2010 07:55
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therattle posted:gosh darnit, I had a reply but we lost internets and it didn't go through. too lazy to type it again, and going home. So are you ever going to type something up? If I'm wrong about stuff, I'd like to be corrected  (although by "movie market" I obviously mean just DVD sales, although the movie market itself has contracted quite a bit over the past two or three years - that's most of the news I saw coming out of Cannes, actually; that there's no more "easy" money out there, everyone's looking for genre pictures because they can be made on the cheap and potentially pull in shitloads of cash and have somewhat of a DVD lifespan, that directors who don't make movies like that are sort of hosed, that private equity is looking to be the primary funders of independents for the foreseeable future, etc.)
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Aug 2, 2010 08:41
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The Cameo posted:So are you ever going to type something up? If I'm wrong about stuff, I'd like to be corrected Um, sure, but I am going to be appallingly lazy and ask you to clarify what questions remain unanswered.
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Aug 2, 2010 12:01
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therattle posted:Um, sure, but I am going to be appallingly lazy and ask you to clarify what questions remain unanswered. Oh. I figured you had a response to what I said but I guess just beat you to the "answer" punch.
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Aug 2, 2010 16:32
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Well, I just "solved" an ancient DVD crisis. When I first acquired the BBC Miniseries "Hitchhiker's Guide..." immediately after it came out on DVD, I watched it eagerly as I had seen it many times on VHS. Lo and behold, as I got further into it, I noticed audio was missing from the presentation (specifically the voice of the "guide" as the various entries popped up from time to time). I spent about twenty minutes fumbling around the DVD menus trying to correct the issue with no luck. The other day, I happened to look on the IMDB board and someone had the same problem as me! Apparently you only needed to switch the audio to mono. I would have never guessed in a million years that the stereo presentation was set up that way. Any other notorious DVDs with similar problems that don't appear obviously corrected?
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Aug 2, 2010 16:37
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ServoMST3K posted:Any other notorious DVDs with similar problems that don't appear obviously corrected? The Annie Hall DVD has a notorious problem like that. The "subtitles" gag is ruined if you don't actually have the subtitles turned on.
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Aug 2, 2010 16:40
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codyclarke posted:Just watched Breathless and I really dug it. I'd like to check out some more Godard, but christ the man has made a lot of films, and seeing them listed on wiki under various eras and whatnot is pretty daunting. Any recommendations on where I should go after this one? Should I just continue chronologically, or try a few from each era, or what? I like Pierrot le Fou the most. Alphaville was a chore to get through and it felt more like something that should have been on MST3K. Breathless is a lot fun. My Life to Live is fairly depressing, even if it's very well made. But I generally though Alphaville was a spit-take on American B-movies, to the point it came off as Godard trying to do Coleman Francis. Bleh.
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Aug 2, 2010 18:42
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I asked this about a week ago in the Deleted Scenes thread and I was wondering if perhaps anyone in here knew the answer since we drew a blank.KillRoy posted:I remember reading something right before Matrix:Revolutions came out about some helicopter chase scene that was supposed to be revolutionary and had FX techniques that no one had ever seen before. I got pretty excited, but didn't see anything resembling it in the theatrical cut. The only time I ever saw the movie was in theatres, did they add it to the DVD as an extra or anything?
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Aug 2, 2010 22:16
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FitFortDanga posted:The Annie Hall DVD has a notorious problem like that. The "subtitles" gag is ruined if you don't actually have the subtitles turned on. Yeah but the Annie Hall DVD is impossibly lovely anyways so par for the course.
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Aug 2, 2010 22:17
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KillRoy posted:I asked this about a week ago in the Deleted Scenes thread and I was wondering if perhaps anyone in here knew the answer since we drew a blank. The "14 minute low altitude helicopter chase" does crop up in the news for early production gossip. The idea seemed to be they would shut down Sydney's CBD district for two days to film this. However what Joe Silver was referring to was the helicopter was being used for shots for the freeway scene. The press misquoted him and somehow mixed up descriptions of the burley brawl and freeeway chase sequence and assumed it was all for one grand effects sequence. quote:"Somehow, somewhere, something came out about a helicopter chase. I have no idea what they're talking about. There is no such thing. The Brothers shot plates with helicopters, but there's no helicopter sequence, per se."
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Aug 2, 2010 23:13
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Power of Pecota posted:I avoided Gamer, but I couldn't read this without this scene from Suicide Club springing to mind. Thanks for that link. Speaking of 'Suicide Club': 1. It is just Japanese slasher porn? Is it 'porn with a plot'? (I guess the question is, is it 'thinking man's slasher porn', like porn in period costumes? Or is it, rather, a movie that needs to be told in that genre to say what it wants to say? 2. Is all slasher porn violently misogynistic (or is that misogynistically violent?), or does Japan slasher porn just take it to the next level of violent misogyny? (Every time I think about this subject, I am reminding of the movie "This Film is Not Yet Rated", and the idea that violence against women should get films an X-rating.)
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Aug 3, 2010 14:27
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Netflix streaming questions: Why are some movies available and some not? I know this is a very broad question, but just from looking through the catalog, I can't determine some kind of pattern. For example, Wrath of Khan is available, but no other Star Trek movies are. All of these movies are owned by the same company. There are many, many more examples of only some movies in a series being available to watch instantly. Will we ever get to the point where all or nearly all movies that Netflix rents through mail are available to watch instantly? What is the studio reaction to Netflix's streaming service? Is there a site that lists upcoming watch instantly releases?
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Aug 3, 2010 15:18
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zoux posted:Netflix streaming questions: The answer to almost all of those is "Studios are greedy and afraid of change". Except the last one, where I think the closest you'll get is subscribing to instant_netflix on Twitter, which posts announcements when they add things.
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Aug 3, 2010 16:03
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zoux posted:Is there a site that lists upcoming watch instantly releases? http://streamingsoon.blogspot.com/ is a good site for this.
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Aug 3, 2010 16:05
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kapalama posted:Thanks for that link. Could you clarify what you mean by "slasher porn"?
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Aug 3, 2010 17:37
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haveblue posted:The answer to almost all of those is "Studios are greedy and afraid of change". That is a pretty simplistic answer. While true in some instances, where studios are wary of locking in to one VOD provider which gains monopsony power (see iTunes for music), the picture is more complicated. In many cases, especially with independent film, a bundle of rights, which may or may not have included VOD rights, would have been licensed to a distributor in the US territory. Those distributors might not have the rights, or be authorised to exploit those rights without third-party approvals. Or it may be that they are sitting with the producer, or are the subject of dispute (1980 rights definitions didn't contemplate VOD or how VOD revenues would be treated). Because rights to films (even within a series) are often owned by different people, they'll strike different deals with VOD operators. Will all films some day be available via Netflix or similar? Yes, probably: but studios in particular will be watching the market very carefully to ensure that they don't allow one player to become so dominant that it can fix prices. In other cases, the revenue, and revenue splits offered by VOD operators, simply aren't high enough to tempt distributors (including studios) into VOD deals at the risk of cannibalising existing revenue streams (primarily DVD but also PTV and FTV).
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Aug 3, 2010 18:51
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kapalama posted:1. It is just Japanese slasher porn? It's not pornographic at all actually unless you're also prepared to argue that Annie Hall is "New York Intellectual Porn" and that The 400 Blows is "Character Study Porn" and that You The Living is "Surrealist Porn". Slapping a "[x] porn" label on something that doesn't prominently feature people getting naked and loving is pure laziness because you're just randomly assigning negative connotations and meanings to something without even bothering in the slightest to define those connotations and meanings. It smacks of academic hysteria and/or lackadaisical journalism. InfiniteZero fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Aug 3, 2010 |
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Aug 3, 2010 19:02
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therattle posted:That is a pretty simplistic answer. While true in some instances, where studios are wary of locking in to one VOD provider which gains monopsony power (see iTunes for music), the picture is more complicated. In many cases, especially with independent film, a bundle of rights, which may or may not have included VOD rights, would have been licensed to a distributor in the US territory. Those distributors might not have the rights, or be authorised to exploit those rights without third-party approvals. Or it may be that they are sitting with the producer, or are the subject of dispute (1980 rights definitions didn't contemplate VOD or how VOD revenues would be treated). Because rights to films (even within a series) are often owned by different people, they'll strike different deals with VOD operators. So the short answer is yes, but I'll have to have subscriptions to multiple services. Does Netflix even have a close competitor?
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Aug 3, 2010 19:22
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Is there an actual technical reason netflix can't stream subtitles for english language movies? I assume the viewing thing that swaps between full/letterbox/etc is just how it is processed on my end, but come on. I know I'm odd about it but my tv doesn't have one of those moderator chips so sudden spikes in volume annoy the poo poo out of me. And I watch it late at night so I don't want to wake people up.
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Aug 3, 2010 19:34
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