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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Apr 29, 2022 15:10:59 GMT -5
Jesus...9 is way too much. Even if I got all of them for free, that's just too inconvenient for my lazy ass. It's too bad we were too late getting a Spotify type thing for shows and movies going on (although I guess that was never as likely to have happened with shows and movies than with music). HBO having Warner's stuff is nice, but I checked to see if they had any of the many theatrical cartoons they have the right to and unfortunately they don't. At least not over here. I would actually use it if they had some old Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, Tom & Jerry and other MGM cartoons. At least I saw they have some old movies on there.
And yeah, it's true that even in the US you need a lot of different services (as you clearly showed), but at least each of them have a lot more content on them than they have over here.
I think the Criterion Channel would be the only one that I'd consider subscribing to, but I don't think we even have that over here yet.
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Post by windfisch on Apr 29, 2022 15:11:50 GMT -5
Just remember kids: few things are actually free. If you don't pay with your money, you'll most likely pay with your data (mostly both). Going back to Star Wars, over time The Last Jedi has actually grown on me a little. It's still all over the place, but it is the only one of the more recent Star Wars movies (spin-offs like Rogue One included) that feels like it actually tries to have its own voice, instead of pushing all nostalgia buttons as hard as possible, all at once. There are some pretty good fan-edits out there that turn it into a genuinely good movie. And I agree with you, dsparil , Rise of Skywalker is a bloated spectacle of pure nothingness. I'm glad I didn't pay any money to see that one (what are friends for).
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Post by excelsior on Apr 29, 2022 15:19:01 GMT -5
The way I look at it is the streaming market is currently in a growth phase with increased competition through various companies breaking away from Netflix etc - this is diluting the content of each so it's a matter of picking and choosing, subscribing to multiple or as 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 points out many have been driven to piracy due to the expense. Realistically not all of these services will succeed and I'd imagine will begin to contract again by forming partnerships in turn hopefully enabling more fully rounded services. Personally I only sub to Netflix - and I'm only continuing that because my partner's gotten more into watching it lately. They are more driven by series and the movie selection may as well not exist at all, but even their series seem to be less diverse in their target audiences at this point. I haven't found a new show that caught my interest in a while. On the movie front it's something that seems to get me weird looks and responses but I still think physical is the way to go - due to the lack of available content. Re: Star Wars - I actually used to be a bit of a fan myself though at this point any mention of the franchise is exhausting to me. I couldn't even tell you how many films there have been at this point. I think I saw a new one a few years ago perhaps? Couldn't tell you what it was called. Anyway, I think the best thing to do in cases like this where the property has moved passed what we actually like about it is to draw a line under it and pick and choose which parts you want to acknowledge. This is what I do with the Alien films for instance. In my head there are only 2 and it's a better existence.
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Post by windfisch on Apr 29, 2022 15:26:23 GMT -5
On the movie front it's something that seems to get me weird looks and responses but I still think physical is the way to go - due to the lack of available content. I agree. Sadly I don't have a reel to reel projector at home Same goes for most cinema theatres.
I do miss actual film.
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Post by spanky on Apr 29, 2022 19:58:28 GMT -5
I realized the only thing I was watching on Netflix was old Star Trek stuff...and much of that is gone now, so I didn't see a need to keep it around especially since my wife finished Fuller House . I'll pick it back up when they add some more Baki episodes though! I actually think HBO Max is decent streaming service. The movie selection is a bit small but there's a much higher percentage of stuff I actually might want to watch on there. They actually have old movies to watch! I watched The Public Enemy (1931) and some old Kurosawa stuff a few months and really enjoyed them. We also have the Hulu+Disney+ESPN bundle. My kid watches some stuff on Disney and I'll watch old Simpsons episodes on there but I have little interest in Marvel stuff nowadays. Outside of the occasional documentary or UFC show I don't use ESPN. I used Hulu to watch that's right...Star Trek, but that's all moved to Paramount now, so the only thing I watch is old Married With Children episodes. People gripe about Netflix original shows but they all look a zillion times better than the Hulu originals. I also get Peacock to watch Indycar stuff and the occasional WWE show. I'm sort of miffed because the WWE Network was actually pretty excellent and a lot of the content didn't survive the transition to Peacock. It's also a nightmare to navigate. The REAL best streaming service is Tubi. Columbo episodes? Violent 80s anime? Grindhouse and wuxia flicks out the wazoo??? Yeah!!! Rise of the Skywalker is the last movie I ever saw in the theater - it was a brewery theater and I had a few drinks and was howling at some of the scenes. It made the Last Jedi look like a great movie....and that's saying something. Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of the ideas in the movie have legs I just think it was executed poorly. That whole casino planet sequence gave me bad prequel vibes.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Apr 30, 2022 5:55:11 GMT -5
I suppose I'm vaguely old-fashioned as the only movies I've watched over the last few weeks are stuff people have uploaded onto the YouTube that nobody cares enough about to take down, as well as the odd cartoon piracy website. Wind in the Willows (1983, dir. Mark Hall) is a stop-motion film based on the Kenneth Grahame book, which later resulted in a fairly beloved TV series. I know Cosgrove-Hall produced plenty of stop-motion cartoons during their time, but my experience with them begins and ends with the handful of Danger Mouse episodes I've been watching recently. So it was really cool to see how tastefully directed the film was, despite Cosgrove-Hall's reputation for very goofy, tongue-in-cheek cartoons like DM, Count Duckula and Avenger Penguins. The character animation is delicate, the pacing gives scenes to breathe and speak for themselves, and the score is really quite wonderful. There's a real sense of atmosphere, especially for the cozy scenes at the riverbank and the genuinely spooky excursion in the Wild Woods. I had a lovely time watching it, as I'd had a terribly anxious day and this chilled me out enormously. I'd definitely recommend giving this a look if you've got the time. Footrot Flats: A Dog's Tale (1985, dir. Murray Ball) is a New Zealand/Australian animated film based on the popular comic strip Footrot Flats by Murray Ball, looking at the life of a farmyard dog and the animals/people he lives with. It's notable for being New Zealand's first feature-length animated film, as well as featuring some well liked songs by Dave Dobbyn and early animation by Jon McClenahan (responsible for a good few of the nicely animated domestic cuts produced for 90s WB cartoons like Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures. Here's an animation reel produced by an online friend showcasing some of his work: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJv5lhe6G84). It's a decent enough film, though I'm unfortunately rather middling on the whole thing for whatever reason. I really dig the film's art direction, with its lovely backgrounds and charming character designs. There's plenty of good animation to go around, it's got a relaxed vibe that I found quite comforting when I watched this at 7:30am, and I was particularly chuffed with seeing some things from the UK/Irish culture I grew up in appearing here. The unexplained greatness of the All Blacks, and characters flashing V-signs. More things should have characters flashing V-signs. But somehow, I was left rather cold by the end. Maybe the pacing has something to do with that, as the film is largely a series of vignettes - the dog being brought to the farm, Wal practicing for rugby tryouts, his date with Cheeky being foiled by his paranoid dog - that are connected by two plotlines that kinda come and go. I'm not sure why that bothers me, as I'm not a stickler for clean and efficient narratives. Perhaps it just isn't for me, even though it's actually fine. Still, it's only 70 minutes, so you could give it a look and see what you think: West and Soda (1965, dir. Bruno Bozzetto) is an Italian western comedy, and the directorial debut of Bozzetto. A pair of hysterically awful cowboys and their vicious boss pester Clementina for her land and hand in marriage, when a stranger named Johnny arrives and shakes things up. I popped this movie on at random while I was housesitting for my sister, and this was such a great surprise. It's one of those idiosyncratic films where everything in it just comes together: the UPA-esque artstyle, the irreverent sense of humour, the variety of sequences showcasing different tones in a really striking way, even the amusingly barmy English subtitles that came with the version I watched. I was in hysterics whenever the two cowboy crooks were around, particularly Slim and his memorable laugh. I wish I could describe it better (maybe I'll try to write something on it in more detail), but this is a fantastic film worth watching if you've got the time.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Apr 30, 2022 10:23:49 GMT -5
Hmmm...West and Soda looks interesting. I'll add it to my ever-expanding watchlist. Just remember kids: few things are actually free. If you don't pay with your money, you'll most likely pay with your data (mostly both). Eh, there's some ways to stay relatively safe if you're using usenets and a VPN. Then again, those do cost money so I guess your point still stands. But I'm probably giving infinite more amounts of data to "less shady" parties. The way I look at it is the streaming market is currently in a growth phase with increased competition through various companies breaking away from Netflix etc - this is diluting the content of each so it's a matter of picking and choosing, subscribing to multiple or as 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 points out many have been driven to piracy due to the expense. (...) On the movie front it's something that seems to get me weird looks and responses but I still think physical is the way to go - due to the lack of available content. It's not only the expense of having multiple streaming services. Most of the time you can get something discounted if you sign up as a family or something. But if I had all major streaming services, that would still leave me with movies I can't watch anywhere. Of course not having a perfect internet connection makes the quality suffer too, so even if I know I can watch something on Netflix I'll still download it (unless I'm watching something with one of my parents or something). If Blurays were more affordable I'd go physical, but prizes are ludicrous. I watch about a hundred movies a year, so I'd go bankrupt if I did (and my wallet has its hands full with games and music anyway). Some movies aren't even on bluray yet, and if you think I'm watching a movie in anything less than 1080p in 2022 you're crazy, so DVDs are out of the question. Buying a movie digitally and owning it permanently would be a nice alternative too, but I don't think that's really a thing. There's a lot of options for legal, but I'd have to mix and match them depending on the movie and even then there's some I'd have to download. The more movies you watch, the more bothersome it becomes. So until studios get their act together I'll just p1r4t3 everything. At least I visit the movie theatre from time to time. I realized the only thing I was watching on Netflix was old Star Trek stuff... I was watching the original Star Trek series on Netflix but I got too disgusted by the new CG effects of the remasters. Another pet peeve, speaking of the Simpsons, is when they put widescreen versions of non-widescreen shows on streaming services. They pulled the same crap with Seinfeld.
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Post by excelsior on Apr 30, 2022 11:43:02 GMT -5
If Blurays were more affordable I'd go physical, but prizes are ludicrous. I watch about a hundred movies a year, so I'd go bankrupt if I did (and my wallet has its hands full with games and music anyway). Some movies aren't even on bluray yet, and if you think I'm watching a movie in anything less than 1080p in 2022 you're crazy, so DVDs are out of the question. Buying a movie digitally and owning it permanently would be a nice alternative too, but I don't think that's really a thing. There's a lot of options for legal, but I'd have to mix and match them depending on the movie and even then there's some I'd have to download. The more movies you watch, the more bothersome it becomes. So until studios get their act together I'll just p1r4t3 everything. At least I visit the movie theatre from time to time. Yeah hundreds of movies is always going to be a big expense - I used to be the same with consuming tonnes of them but now I get to watch maybe a film a month so I just buy it. Of course that was the only option back in the day. It's mostly anecdotal when it comes to pricing but from what I've seen there's a significant price difference based on region. If you want something a bit more niche here or the latest release you might have to pay £15, but due to price competition they plummet fairly quickly and I would expect to pay maybe a third of that to pick up something to watch. I don't really mind paying that. Now 4K discs - those really are expensive. The cinema though, used to be a hobby of mine just turning up and finding something to watch. Nowadays I find it a miserable experience. Due to the increasing cost of running a business it's expensive and also films are only ran when they can be filled to capacity so I'd have to travel to see anything beyond the latest big releases and of course it's less comfortable when crowded. Generally there's teens in messing around. I'd rather just spend less and stay home, have a beer in the comfort of my living room. I guess that's my old man yells at cloud moment for the week.
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Post by spanky on Apr 30, 2022 15:49:43 GMT -5
🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 Yeah, who is going to watch Star Trek and going to have an issue with a 60s TV show...looking like a 60s TV show? Disney did actually listen to customer feedback and fixed the resolution for the old Simpsons episodes, so that's nice. The episodes still look sort of weird to me. Like, the resolution is so high that you can see the "shadows" under the animated characters. Almost like where the cels were overlaid on a background. Also the animation flaws are a lot more noticeable. I find it really distracting. Maybe a "fuzzy CRT" filter would help.
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Post by lurker on Apr 30, 2022 19:19:55 GMT -5
Apparently, the widescreen Simpsons episodes on D+ were an FX network thing.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on May 2, 2022 4:39:41 GMT -5
Yeah hundreds of movies is always going to be a big expense - I used to be the same with consuming tonnes of them but now I get to watch maybe a film a month so I just buy it. Of course that was the only option back in the day. It's mostly anecdotal when it comes to pricing but from what I've seen there's a significant price difference based on region. If you want something a bit more niche here or the latest release you might have to pay £15, but due to price competition they plummet fairly quickly and I would expect to pay maybe a third of that to pick up something to watch. I don't really mind paying that. Now 4K discs - those really are expensive. The cinema though, used to be a hobby of mine just turning up and finding something to watch. Nowadays I find it a miserable experience. Due to the increasing cost of running a business it's expensive and also films are only ran when they can be filled to capacity so I'd have to travel to see anything beyond the latest big releases and of course it's less comfortable when crowded. Generally there's teens in messing around. I'd rather just spend less and stay home, have a beer in the comfort of my living room. I guess that's my old man yells at cloud moment for the week. I'm just going by the movies I've happened to look up on Bluray. I checked out a couple of recent ones I've seen to see how much they were and they were all quite expensive. As for going to the movie theatre, it's true that they're often mainly running the big commercial titles. Thankfully I've got a pretty good smaller theatre nearby that also has some old movies from time to time, and tends to run smaller titles as frequently as big ones. Even there, it can take a while for movies to show up. Like, I just noticed Red Rocket is showing today, but I've been waiting for it so long that I already ended up DL'ing it. I don't know if you have something like that in your vicinity, but it might also be less likely to attract loud teens. Gotta say that even my big commercial theatre doesn't tend to have annoying audiences, so I might just be lucky. Speaking of Red Rocket, it's highly recommended. I had never heard of Simon Rex before, but he's phenomenal in this. Truly one of the best likeable asshole performances ever. 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 Yeah, who is going to watch Star Trek and going to have an issue with a 60s TV show...looking like a 60s TV show? I'm guessing they remasterd TOS to make it a little more palatable to younger/new viewers, but ironically the CG has aged even worse than the original effects now.
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Post by Colonel Kurtz on May 2, 2022 10:37:14 GMT -5
I'm trying to watch The Batman, but I give up after 10 minutes. Maybe I'm Nolanised; I just don't have it in me to watch that reboot. Should I?
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Post by windfisch on May 2, 2022 20:24:05 GMT -5
Now that are some great recommendations - the perfect Hollywood-cgi-antidote for me. Isn't it amazing how many Wind in the Willows adaptations there are? West and Soda looks especially interesting, the animation is very well timed, it seems.
My smartassery about the most obvious was directed at the BIG tech companies. I'd never use a subscription service like Netflix or Disney+ myself. I hope noone takes that comment as advocacy against using other methods of obtaining their pieces of media, such as using public libraries or finding them in the wild, or whatever one likes. You certainly seem to put more thought/care into your online behaviour than I do, I have to admit.
That really depends. What kind of Batman do you like? The Animated Series aside, I prefer the stylized Burton ones, with their dark fairytale qualities and bigger than life characters. I'm also fond of the 60s campy comedy show and I even kinda enjoy Schumacher's neon-fueled attempts to combine those qualities, even though I wouldn't call the results entirely successful. I'm so-so on the Nolan movies and no-no on Snyder's iterations. Just so you know where I'm coming from.
Reeves' Batman certainly is tonally closest to Nolan's. It arguably is even the dakest of Knights. And I guess therein lies my problem with it: It tries to give formerly outlandish comic book characters more weight than those constructs could possibly carry. The script borrows some elements from The Long Halloween graphic novel (at least ones not already used by Nolan), but what works in a comic book, doesn't always work in a movie, especially in one that goes for pseudo-realism. In any real world scenario a billionaire son with anger issues would be the least likely person to make the world a better place... Admittedly, the movie kind of acknowledges the latter, but only tangentially. And there are other interesting concepts, too, but the movie just doesn't follow through on them in ways that I'd call satisfying. At times it also feels fairly formulaic, like having a rather out of place car chase. I guess audiences need their explosion-filled rollercoaster-rides to hold their attention. And those Batmobile toys don't sell themselves either. Just like The Dark Knight tried to be Michael Mann crime-drama, but nowhere as good, The Batman tries to be a David Fincher thriller, also nowhere as good. I wouldn't call it a waste of time, visually it can be quite appealing, but it certainly isn't the kind of movie that needed to be three hours long.
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Post by lurker on May 2, 2022 22:46:01 GMT -5
It's probably the closest the live action films have gotten to capturing the feel of BTAS.
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Post by excelsior on May 3, 2022 1:33:15 GMT -5
I'm just going by the movies I've happened to look up on Bluray. I checked out a couple of recent ones I've seen to see how much they were and they were all quite expensive. As for going to the movie theatre, it's true that they're often mainly running the big commercial titles. Thankfully I've got a pretty good smaller theatre nearby that also has some old movies from time to time, and tends to run smaller titles as frequently as big ones. Even there, it can take a while for movies to show up. Like, I just noticed Red Rocket is showing today, but I've been waiting for it so long that I already ended up DL'ing it. I don't know if you have something like that in your vicinity, but it might also be less likely to attract loud teens. Gotta say that even my big commercial theatre doesn't tend to have annoying audiences, so I might just be lucky. Speaking of Red Rocket, it's highly recommended. I had never heard of Simon Rex before, but he's phenomenal in this. Truly one of the best likeable asshole performances ever. We had an arthouse cinema where I used to live that had all the latest indie showings, retro screenings etc and a really nice bar. It made for a good date night place. Nothing like that where I am now though unfortunately. I think Simon Rex is from Scary Movie and stuff of that nature.
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