Roger Ebert on why movie revenue is dropping… 5. Competition from other forms of delivery. Movies streaming over the internet are no longer a sci-fi fantasy. TV screens are growing larger and cheaper. Consumers are finding devices that easily play internet movies through TV sets. Netflix alone accounts for 30% of all internet traffic in [...]
That question led to a lot of interesting discussion not only on the found-footage genre, but on the specific question — if it’s found footage, doesn’t that imply that the footage has already been recorded — as in “past tense” as in “already happened”? And, if you CAN have “found footage” from the future, how [...]
Star Wars? Today? Maybe so. Maybe no. You can read some reasonable assessments HERE. My opinion? In today’s studio-oriented system, no. But things change quickly. They’re gearing up to shoot Riddick 3: Riddick Harder, so never say never! M A R K
You may have noticed over the past several months, the mounting speculation that, in the very near future, you will be able to watch theatrical releases “day and date” on your home rig. The idea, of course, from the studios perspective, is more revenue. What if you could watch the new version of STRAW DOGS [...]
Two movies to talk about. The Reef. Best shark movie since JAWS. 89 minutes of tension. A simple set-up, a stomach-churning 70 minutes of characters in the water with the sharks. All made on a shoe-string budget. Why does it work? Six things that make this a must-see white-knuckle ride… 1) Notice how, when they’re [...]
Check it… Interesting. You have to wonder how some of these things (especially Ermy’s rant) laid out on the page. Was it ‘Drill instructor lays into recruits,’ or were there dialogue queues? Or did Kubrick (also credited as writer) just tell Ermy to ‘go for it’? In today’s Hollywood, it just wouldn’t work for a [...]
Interesting… 30 Little Known Facts about Raging Bull 50 Useless But Genius Facts about Goodfellas M A R K
Scream 4 comes out this week. And if you know Scream, you know there are “certain rules” that define the slasher genre. the good folks over at Slate took the time to chart out how body counts change from sequel to sequel. M A R K
Sometimes, you hear a pitch of a concept and you go “aw, c’mon. Really?” What almost always twists my spine is the thought “they’re making THAT crap instead of making BETTER crap.” Only so many movies can be made a year and only ONE THING motivates a studio to make a movie: PROFIT. Everything else [...]
Jason’s kills. Up through Friday the 13th part 8, Jason Takes Manhattan. I don’t know if it’s a record. First, the criteria. It has to be a bi-pedal human-esque character to inflict the carnage. Second, it can’t be a war movie (including Rambo). Third, no kung-fu movies. With my self-imposed rules, I would put Freddy [...]