As has been widely
reported, today,
May 1, Netflix is letting
thousands of titles expire
(link down due to heavy traffic) mostly licensed from Warner Bros, Universal, and MGM. Some will possibly to move to the new
streaming service offered by Warner Bros itself. (
Warner Archive denies that they are "taking" content from Netflix.) Less widely reported is the fact that Netflix has also
let their deal with Viacom expire this month, removing large swaths of children's favorites (including Dora, Thomas, Bob the Builder, and Backyardigans) from the service. Despite
forecasts that this could be the end for Netflix (
again)
The company maintains that they are headed
in the direction they
want to go.
posted by anastasiav
on May 1, 2013 -
151 comments
On June 7th, the Disney XD channel will premiere a new, 10-part miniseries:
Tron Uprising. The series, which will feature the voices of Elijah Wood, Lance Henriksen, Bruce Boxleitner (reprising his role as 'Tron',) Mandy Moore and Paul Reubens, will combine 2D and CGI animation styles, and is set between the events of the first and second Tron movies. Trailers:
1,
2. 2011 ComicCon
Preview. Disney released a full-length "prelude episode" yesterday evening (US Only):
Beck's Beginning. (
Via)
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on May 13, 2012 -
38 comments
Kirby Ferguson's fourth and final installment of
Everything is a Remix:
System Failure has been released. (Also on
YouTube.) It covers intellectual property rights, the derivative nature of creativity, patents and copyright.
Transcript.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Feb 17, 2012 -
5 comments
Death to the spoiler police! Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams takes a stand against people who insist on spoiler alerts: "[O]nce a work enters the pop culture vernacular, it is not society's responsibility to provide you with earmuffs until you finally get around to experiencing it. ... But for the love of God, if you really don't want to know about a book/movie/television show, do the rest of the world a favor and stop hanging out in the online discussion groups about it." Via
Roger Ebert.
posted by mcwetboy
on May 20, 2010 -
151 comments
The bumping off of a famous person is the
sort of oyster that any detective delights to open, so you can just bet the
family jewels that I was pretty much elated when my Chief, the late Thomas
Lee Woolwine, District Attorney of Los Angeles County, called me into his
private office on the morning of February 3rd, 1922, and assigned me to
represent his office in the investigation of this greatest of all murder
mysteries. -- Excerpted from an article archived at
Taylorology, a site exploring the life and death of William Desmond Taylor, a silent movie actor and director whose unsolved murder was among the earliest Hollywood true crime scandals. Researcher
Bruce Long first published his accumulated information about the case as a small fanzine which evolved into a monthly electronic newsletter and is now a vast archive of articles and interviews, official documents, photos, and more. Although the Taylor case is the main focus, there's also a wealth of supplemental information about the silent film industry and its stars.
[more inside]
posted by amyms
on Feb 22, 2009 -
7 comments
"Movies: They're worth it!" In a move to educate those darn thieving kids and their evil P2P file-sharing networks which are used to trade ripped movies, the MPAA has launched a
public service campaign to explain, in layman's terms, why violating their copyrights is wrong. …Yes, these are the same people who have just brought us an entire summer of bloated sequels, shameless celebrity vehicles and uninspired hack-work. Respect!
posted by Down10
on Aug 3, 2003 -
81 comments
The toughest Chelonia to every grace the media. Come on. Everyone had to love them at some point, with their pizzas and funny weapons.
This page has some interesting sketch art.
This one includes the complete cast of the cartoon and movies, with links to their career since said roles.
This site, my favorite, has the entire "Coming out of our Shells" tape for download. Remember the classic, Cowabunga?
posted by lazaruslong
on Dec 12, 2002 -
10 comments
Director John Frankenheimer is dead. I don't want to make this out to be one of those "random celebrity dies and is suddenly hailed as a genius" things, but Frankenheimer's made quite a few
damn good movies (and, yes, some bad ones). While his
later works weren't nearly as great as some of his
earlier films, his gift for filming action never went away: his 1998 film
Ronin wound up on
several lists of the "best car chases on film". He was supposed to helm the upcoming
Exorcist prequel, but failing health forced him to step aside. Despite the dodgy source material, I would have really liked to see Frankenheimer's take on it. He'll be missed.
posted by toddshot
on Jul 6, 2002 -
34 comments
It's the plot, stupid.
USA Today runs their usual insightful commentary about the upcoming release of Lilo and Stitch. It obsesses over the absence of CGI graphics pointing to
Atlantis as evidence for the failure of traditional animation to draw box office. Funny me, I thought that
Atlantis bombed because of a plot better left in 50s serial format, a cast of sterotypes rather than characters, and no sense of humor beyind dirty French jokes repeated over and over again. And is huge success of
Pixar due to their pioneering animation, or their brilliant comic talent?
What causes FX myopia anyway? Granted I can understand why fanboys obsess over the wrong things in a movie. Do the studios set it up by trying to hype each new summer release as the next big technical development (while the artistic development gets trumped by
Waking Life and
Insomnia?)
posted by KirkJobSluder
on Jun 18, 2002 -
7 comments
This column (NYT/reg. req) gets my vote for Stupidest Theory of the Day. Basically, he says that movies are more memorable and stay with us longer than TV shows. Huh?! He's kidding, right? (more inside).
posted by sassone
on Jun 3, 2002 -
25 comments
The Bottom Feeders. Are these truly the 5 worst movie critics in America? Personally, Ebert gives me migraines and Joel Siegel makes me want to claw out my eyes. Who's your most hated movie critic?
posted by tankboy
on Mar 29, 2002 -
30 comments
If you were expecting the Lord of the Rings movie to receive as much if not more scrutiny from Conservative Christians
as Harry Potter did you’re in for a surprise. Despite LOTR being filled with violence and intense fantasy imagery few churches or religious watch-god groups will be condemning the fantasy epic
like they did the occult heavy, yet kid-friendly Harry Potter flick.
The reason is simple:
Tolkien was a devout Christian.
In fact, Tolkien persuaded C.S. Lewis, who himself later wrote several Christian classics, to become a Christian. The two are credited with paving the way for a new genre of devotional literature, influencing authors like Charles Williams, T.S. Eliot, G.K. Chesteron and Dorothy Sayers.
Fortunately for most Tolkien doesn’t let Christian imagery dribble into his stories
the way C.S. Lewis did. So expect religous LOTR friendly reviews from all with the possible exception of the
ChildCare Action Project. One has to wonder though - if Harry Potter author, J. K. Rowling, was more publicly religious would her books be as controversial?
posted by wfrgms
on Dec 5, 2001 -
38 comments
A'll be bach – Terminiator 3 is coming!!! With a budget projected to be more than $170 million, Daily Variety reports that Schwarzenegger is working out the final contract details to star in the third installment, with Jonathan Mostow replacing James Cameron as director.
Shooting on the film is expected to begin in April ...
posted by Brilliantcrank
on Dec 5, 2001 -
39 comments
Hot damn! An Episode II trailer that actually gives us plot details! And the only sign of Jar Jar seems to be a shot of him falling from a building on Coruscant.
posted by silusGROK
on Nov 16, 2001 -
38 comments
As to be expected the dumb critics are ripping Lara Croft to shreds; I mean
really tearing it a new orifice. Which means of course I must see
this film. Major argument against? A hack plot designed only to engender scenes of mindless violence. Duh. It's not supposed to have
emotional impact. It's just supposed to be fun. Did any of these critics actually play the game? What frightens me though is that
Roger Ebert enjoyed it...
I'm so torn...
posted by ZachsMind
on Jun 16, 2001 -
50 comments
iPix Movies are cool interactive movies, you choose the angle you view while it is playing and you can turn to any angle, up, down, left, right and zoom. This is pretty wild but takes a broadband connection so if you are a dial up user, forget it. I want the little helicopter the camera is on, very cool.
posted by me myself and i
on Apr 13, 2001 -
11 comments
A.I. is already into advertising. BELLADERMA-SRL-IT.COM, INOURIMAGE.ORG, METROPOLITANLIVINGHOMES.COM, DONU-TECH.COM, ROGUERETRIEVAL.COM, SPCB.ORG, ELECTRIC-TOYLAND.COM, KATENEI.COM, FAMILYCHAN.ORG, MARTINSWINTONDESIGNS.COM, RATIONAL-HATTER.COM, UNITE-AND-RESIST.ORG, JEANINESALLA.COM, MARTINSWINTON.COM, CORONERSWEB.ORG, TREACLE-WELL.NET, ONE-LUMP-OR-TWO.NET, OFFWITHHISHEAD.NET, ALEPH-NAUGHT.ORG, ELIZAS-TEAROOM.NET, RAVEN-LIKE-WRITING-DESK.NET, www.bangaloreworldu-in.co.nz are all part of the a.i. website.
more inside...
posted by tiaka
on Apr 11, 2001 -
13 comments
My wife and I watched
'Notorious' last night. We weren't far into it before we realized the plot had been lifted for
'Mission:Impossible 2'! It makes us think even less of the latter movie. What's more, we couldn't find anything in their publicity about stealing the plot. It had to be left to
the critics.
Can you name any reworkings of original plots that actually turned out good or better? (more inside)
posted by Sean Meade
on Jan 1, 2001 -
48 comments
Dark Angel is a rip-off of Heinlein's Friday, which I completely agree with. Cameron has been successfully sued by Harlon Ellison before for blatantly ripping off his ideas. Then again the sci-fi word is a static world of either super-humans/machines/aliens/time-trave/alternate dimensions.
posted by skallas
on Oct 19, 2000 -
13 comments
