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Post by dotxom on Sept 14, 2007 19:21:50 GMT -5
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Post by Ziska on Sept 14, 2007 19:47:38 GMT -5
I agree on most points. My brother bought a home theater back in the day when it was an extravagance, and we bought a big, high def TV with the money we saved from our furnish-the-new-home budget. Hang a few black garbage bags over the odd ball basement windows (just because it wasn't worth custom making mini blinds to fit windows the size of a shoe box). And while it wasn't mentioned in the article, I've more than once put in my two cents abut why I refuse to go to the movies. I actually don't watch that much "written" tv anymore (my two favorites are Burn Notice and Eureka) and am more into non contest reality shows (like Mythbusters and any version of animal cops). Yes, I know all TV shows have writers.
Another part not mentioned (and I was somewhat surprised) is that the speed of home release of movies and the prices thereof also plays into it. I remember back in the day (great, now I feel really old) you were lucky if a given movie would be released to a home version within a year, and depending on the movie pay an ungodly sum of money on it.
True story: When Varsity Blues came out, it was my best friend's boyfriend's favorite movie, so she wanted to buy a tape of it for him. But couldnt' find one, aside from the blockbuster previously viwed by. turns out that it had a super long "Priced to rent" shelf life, and she wasn't about to spend $140 on a single video tape.
Now, you can get the new release hit movie in DVD for between $15 and $20 (more if it's a "special" edition) TV shows aren't that much ahead. Most DVD sets (between 3 to six discs) go for similar prices.
Still waiting for MASK though damn it. Not to mention our 300 plus dvd shelf is overflowing with all of the above.
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Post by Corey Blake on Sept 15, 2007 1:30:35 GMT -5
I would agree that currently there's probably more interesting things going on on TV than in Hollywood movies, but there's a few points he makes that I have to question.
I don't know what Los Angeles theaters he's going to, but he may want to leave some food behind for the rest of the patrons. Movies are $10-11. Probably another $10 for food. Maybe $5-8 for parking. $15 at the absolute worst, I guess. Is this guy getting mugged after each movie?
Perhaps. And yet half of the top 4 on Amazon.com that he mentions earlier is completely original. The other two are a comic book adaptation and an Americanized version of a British show. And then right below his point is a picture of the reinvented "Battlestar Galactica".
Also his use of the word "fact" is highly dubious.
His final question about watching an unedited special episode (like a season finale) in theaters a week before the edited version plays on TV is interesting.
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Post by Ziska on Sept 15, 2007 8:24:00 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure he means for at least two people (he mentioned babysitter earlier, so probably more date oriented?) So everything at least doubles, or more if the two dates are not sharing people. And if for whatever reason you go to a family movie with the kids, yeah I can see 80 dollars easy.
And I guess no matter how much I bitch about the local theaters, at least the parking is free.
And I know more than my share of people that would argue Battle star Galactica IS original. Amazing what you can mush together if you twist up enough cliches
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Post by Corey Blake on Sept 15, 2007 13:55:14 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure he means for at least two people (he mentioned babysitter earlier, so probably more date oriented?) So everything at leastdoubles, or more if the two dates are not sharing people. And if for whatever reason you go to a family movie with the kids, yeah I can see 80 dollars easy. But not everyone goes to the movies paying for a date or kids. With this type of article, it seems like you should only talk in terms of per person. I'm nitpicking, I know. Just about every theater worth going to will validate parking so unless you hang around and go to other stores nearby, usually your parking ends up being free. I love the show (although the last season wasn't quite up to par) but there's no getting around it. It's a remake.
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Post by dotxom on Sept 15, 2007 14:43:43 GMT -5
There isn't one theater in Singapore that I know of that has free parking. An average outing here for a movie (per person) could be as little as seven bucks to twenty, depending on what sorta experience you want.
My gripe with movie-going really doesn't lie in the cost, or even the odd asshole who just doesn't understand what the "Silent" option on his cell phone is for. It's more that I find the quality of most films to be horrendous. Almost 90% of the flicks that end up in cinemas here are just mind-numbing Hollywood drivel.
The best example I can think of is "Transformers". Yeah, the special effects were pretty cool... but not cool enough to warrant it being such a big deal. Yet everyone was raving about it like it was the Second Coming. I guess it might lie in consumers and what they demand too... but then we've got such good shows on television (well, ok... in my case, Bit Torrent as I can't get most of those shows here) and it seems hard to believe that the majority of people are just slack-jawed yokels who want to see "'Splosions!"
I mean, "Weeds", "House", "Entourage", "The Daily Show"... and that's just those from the top of my head. Of course, at the same time, we have shows like "Flavor of Love" (why, Flavor Flav? WHY!) while series like "Drive" gets shitcanned.
OK, I'm just ranting and raving here. Best guess? People in general are insane.
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Post by Ziska on Sept 15, 2007 15:16:09 GMT -5
What you're saying reminds me a lot about how I now feel about the Matrix TRilogy (of course my art teacher interpretation thereof didn't help). At the time, it was the spectacle of the year, since it had these brand new special effects and what not. Then, there were rumors they were trying to rush Matrix 3 to DVD since it didn't seem to test well.
Since I assume everyone has seen these movies by now, no Spoiler tags. Why is it that in most "original" movies these days the good guy dies?
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Post by dotxom on Sept 15, 2007 17:08:34 GMT -5
Well, right now I can't think of any other examples besides "Passion of the Christ" (but we all kinda saw THAT one coming), so could you mention a couple of others that had the good guy dying?
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Post by Ziska on Sept 15, 2007 19:11:43 GMT -5
Saving Private Ryan Does the X-Men Trilogy count? Solaris Doesn't Ripley die once or twice in the Aliens series? And going with that, The Predator in Predator vs Aliens Pitch Black
Not a movie, but Cowboy Bebob
I don't know how to do spoiler tags here, so delete the last one
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Post by dotxom on Sept 15, 2007 21:58:23 GMT -5
I don't know--I wouldn't say that these qualify as a parts of a trend really so much as story-telling choices.
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Post by Corey Blake on Sept 16, 2007 2:04:17 GMT -5
Especially since several of those examples are more than a few years old.
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Post by Ziska on Sept 16, 2007 10:36:27 GMT -5
Several, including the Matrix, are getting old, but Solaris just ended it's run in theaters.
There IS a movie out right now with the same ending, but I don't want to spoil it (expecially since I don't know how to do spoiler tags here)
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