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chillywilly

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:13 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8251 Location: Salt Lake City

shannon wrote:

Plus, let's pretend a person's only rental option is Blockbuster (in my case, true story). I would say downloading as opposed to paying Blockbuster is the moral high ground there.

Some may disagree with this, but I agree with shannon on this.

Having downloaded music and a few movies, I normally buy the ones I like and delete the ones I watch and/or don't like. The last year has changed some of that, mostly due to time and travel (a lot of hotel ISPs and web access besides my home block Torrent traffic or are too slow).

With some of the new changes coming down the pipeline like Blu-Ray, ripping movies down to watch them on something like an iPod is going to be less enticing. Some of the studios, like Sony and Fox, are going to be bundling iPod and PSP movies right on the disc. It will be a copy, sync and go method that should be a lot more friendly for the non-tech savvy consumer.

In the meantime, I do rip some of the DVDs I have or rent into portable format to watch, deleting them after I've watched them (due to disc space and not wanting to fill up my backup drives with movies I'll not watch repeatedly.

Personally, I think the P2P/Torrent method for music and movies works for previewing something you might be interested in, then purchasing the products of those that you want to keep.

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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend"

inlareviewer

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:29 am

Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS

billyweeds wrote:

Damn you, inlareviewer! I thought I was all set to nominate things for the Blanche and now you've made it imperative for me to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly before I make Decision 2008. Damn you! Well, darn you, anyway.

Like the hole-ridden sock I am. If you don't love it, well, that's okay, too. I didn't mean to go so pedantic in response to what was, after all, a perfectly reasonable reaction from Lshap to the fillum. It's really that darned Edit Function. It simply entrances me, and I just keep tricking up the syntax, and there you have it.

Cannot add to the download/rental discourse (though it's VERY intriguing, more, please, thank you), since I never download anything, and only purchase the odd DVD on clearance, my futile act of resistance to the HD/Blu-Ray revolution now stripping back the choices at rental outlets and retailers.

Trish wrote:

I'm so behind in my movie watching this year

and from what I've seen not much has floored me honestly - I usually look forward to oscar time - the award shows, all the special websites tracking the contenders - I usually make sure I'm not working on any of the award nights (Globes, Sags, Oscars etc) - I didn't even bother this year and funny enough most aren't even going to air due the writers strike

not to say there haven't been a few excellent performances (Loved Pisent and Christie in Away From Her, in particular and Philip Seymour Hoffman in well, everything this year) and of course many "good' performances also

I the only flick I might be tempted to buy though is Black Book

unlike most here I liked a lot of the War-themed flicks: Charlie Wilson's War, Lions For Lambs, In The Valley of Elah which surprised me

Two prominant documentaries, however, Sicko and No End In Sight were fabulous and MUST SEES

I think my Blanche picks this year will be very incomplete

Trish, actually, you're doing not bad at all. Hey, I am the founding member of the Society of Avid Solipsistic Streepian Yoyos, after all, and I saw neither Lions for Lambs (was warned by a colleague to wait for the DVD) nor Rendition (just couldn't pull myself in there), so it's not just you. Heck, I only just saw Away From Her this last weekend myself, for reasons both obvious and obscure -- am still not really able to discuss it in anything like what it merits, but Christie Julie and Canada's Own were wondermous, completely undid me. I loved Tommy Lee in Elah, very much indeed, less so the film, but you can't have everything. If you have no compunction against MINI-SPOILERINA IN WHITE two brief but graphic throat-slittings, one in a barber chair, one in a graveyard, and not even a Sondheim adaptation, one gruesome but thankfully quick digital amputation and a truly horrific disorbitation there's always Mr. Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which stands very high on my own limited list of films seen. If you do have such compunctions, then you certainly shouldn't see Sweeney Todd, tee-hee. Major Word on both those docus. MUST SEES indeed.

Last edited by inlareviewer on Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:57 am; edited 1 time in total
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim

marantzo

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:56 am

Guest

I don't know if it's the Winnipeg audience opr the theatres wanting to make room for the crap that has made it's debut this week, but last week there was only one theatre showing NCFOM and that was one theatre in a chain of multiplexes here that have many theatres in each. This week there are no theatres showing NCFOM. This may be good at some other time because then it would be opening at the cheap theatre, but I'm leaving town on Thurs. so it doesn't do any good for me.

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:44 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

From LA Weekly, and about time the media caught on to this:

"Julie Christie may well earn a bookend Oscar for her performance as a woman in the grip of Alzheimer’s disease in Away From Her, but it’s the veteran Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent, playing Christie’s stoically heartbroken husband, who anchors the picture."

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:08 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Been meaning to post this for several days now.

Javier Bardem's role in No Country for Old Men is IMO legitimately "supporting" in the same way that William H. Macy's role in Fargo was. Bardem and Macy both had larger roles (screen time, number of spoken lines) than the analogous "leads" in NCFOM and Fargo. The leading roles are the ones from whose point of view the story is told. In Fargo it was Marge who was our surrogate. In NCFOM the lead role is split between Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones, which may lead to the perception that Bardem (whose role is larger than either) has the lead. Not in my view. The story arc is not Bardem's. His attitude undergoes no change. By the same token, Anthony Hopkins was awarded the Best Actor Oscar under false pretentions. His role was in support of Jodie Foster.

This, again, is why Psycho was such a groundbreaker. Our surrogate Janet Leigh was killed off. It was as if the earth opened up and swallowed us all.

gromit

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:12 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

shannon wrote:

Gromit: Time and tech savy? You click, you wait three hours. That's all there is to it. Those dvds you buy on the street, how do you think they're made? And watching a film on 19-inch computer monitor should be preferable to watching a film on a 19-inch television. TVs have nowhere near the resolution that your pc monitor has. And it's not like it's hard to make a dvd...

I'm not saying it's an immense threshold, but one exists just the same. Basically you need some form of broadband for starters. Then you have to have heard of bitorrent or be able to find the sites. You also need a pretty sizable hard drive or the skills and hardware to burn a dvd. Otherwise you have to delete films after a limited time.

Does anyone actually have a 19" TV anymore?
Pure guesswork, but I'd assume that almost everyone with a monitor of that magnitude has a telly which is seriously larger. Students might be an exception to this.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

gromit

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:24 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Trish, I've been surprised to hear such praise for No End In Sight from you and others.
I only watched the first half because my Dvd developed a serious stutter ... and I only got around to returning it a few hours ago. (good exchange policy among the pirates of Shanghai ... mainly because they just put the returned copies back out for sale).

I thought the first half of No End was good enough, but I really didn't learn anything I didn't know before. It seemed to me mostly to be for those who didn't pay enough attention when things went down or those with short memories. Not to say that I don't appreciate it as a document of war mismanagement, but that was different than gaining insight or learning more. In the future, it will perhaps be a significant and important record.

It was interesting to see Walter Slocombe, a name I had heard of but not someone I knew much about. However, in a number of his interview segments he denies the (now) conventional wisdom on what mistakes were made, and we don't get any follow-up on why he believes what he does. Also, a number of top officials were unfortunately unwilling to be interviewed.

Anyway, I need to get to the end of No End before I can be sure my objections aren't dealt with in the second half.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

marantzo

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:25 am

Guest

Quote:

Does anyone actually have a 19" TV anymore?

I have two 15" one 20" and a 26".

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:29 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Haven't seen No End in Sight, but Gary's description is similar to my reaction to the Enron doc of last year or 2006, can't remember. Been there, done that, was my reaction if you'd been following the news at all.

marantzo

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:00 pm

Guest

It wasn't my description, I never saw it.

gromit

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:14 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

marantzo wrote:

Quote:

Does anyone actually have a 19" TV anymore?

I have two 15" one 20" and a 26".

Exactly my point -- no one has a 19" TV.

Fast reading and over-identification with Julie Christie are catching up to BillyWeeds ... he meant my post (just slightly above).

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

mo_flixx

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:34 pm

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

shannon wrote:

jeremy wrote:

I'm pretty sure that paying to see a film at the cinema does not give that person the right to subsequently stream it, download it to a hard drive or burn a copy.

I didn't say that I have the right, just that I'm not a complete asshole. Plus, let's pretend a person's only rental option is Blockbuster (in my case, true story). I would say downloading as opposed to paying Blockbuster is the moral high ground there...

Could you use NetFlix or rent from Facets (in Chicago)?

Just how bad if Blockbuster? I'm curious. We don't have one here.

mo_flixx

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:45 pm

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

billyweeds wrote:

Ghulam wrote:

"Yet they never seem to complain when Tarantino or Kevin Smith use the exact same sense of dialogue."

I did.

I complain about every single aspect of every single Kevin Smith movie. The possibly too-hip dialogue is the least of it. Tarantino and Diablo Cody? No problem whatsoever except (Grindhouse, anyone?) when the movies are lousy. Juno is a wonderful movie in (IMO) every single way.

RE: JUNO's dialogue.

I thought JUNO sounded like hip dialogue from TV sitcoms, only more adult.

gromit

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:06 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Any word on King of California?
I'd think Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood would generate some attention. It has a 7.2 rating on Imdb, but who knows. I usually avoid Michael Douglas films. Just haven't heard it mentioned.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

gromit

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:17 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Darjeeling Ltd. anyone?

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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

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