HBO Go For Non-Cable Subscribers?

HBO Go For Non-Cable Subscribers?
Todd Wasserman - Mashable

HBO’s CEO is considering making the company’s HBO Go online streaming service available to consumers who don’t have cable, according to a report.

“Right now we have the right model,” HBO chief executive Richard Plepler told Reuters on Wednesday. “Maybe HBO GO, with our broadband partners, could evolve.”

HBO Go, which has about 6.5 million registered users, requires a subscription to a cable operator. However, Plepler mused that the service could conceivably be packaged with a broadband service offering. Broadband customers could pay $10 or $15 extra for HBO to be added to the service,…

Read The Rest

‘Everything Wrong with The Dark Knight’

‘Everything Wrong with The Dark Knight’

I saw this going around last night and I was looking forward to it. I usually like these, even if I did like the film they were criticizing, because they are fun and hilarious. This one however, seems to be a dud. It’s just not any good at all. I didn’t laugh once. I did crack a smile once or twice early on, but no laughing at all for me.

It’s possible, but I don’t think my funny bone is broken this morning, I think this one is just a complete dud.

See for yourself (for our more sensitive watchers, there are several bleeped bad words).

Superman Kills Lois Lane

Superman Kills Lois Lane
John Gholson

He mentioned a few specific plot points, most of them idiotic, and the most offensive of these bits takes place in issue #3 - a comic that finds Superman punching his pregnant wife so hard that it kills her and sends her flying into space. Sure, he’s hallucinating that Lois Lane is Doomsday, but the event still happens. Sims has a pretty thorough critical breakdown of the series, so I’m not going to do that here, but I am going to pound the stump, pull up a soapbox, and cry in the streets to anyone who will listen that DC Comics allowing Superman to punch Lois Lane and his unborn child to…

Read The Rest

‘Dumb and Dumber’ Sequel

‘Dumb and Dumber’ Sequel
Emma Dibdin - Digital Spy

“We’re talking about it,” Carrey told Access Hollywood. “Jeff [Daniels] and I are really excited about it and hopefully next year we’ll be able to do that.”

Carrey reportedly dropped out of the sequel last summer, but Daniels confirmed two months later that the film would go ahead with both he and his co-star attached.

Carrey and co-director Peter Farrelly have both expressed interest in casting Emma Stone in Dumb and Dumber To.

WHY WHY WHY??? Why can a movie like this get made? Why must the box office get plugged up with this sort of stupidity.

This is why we can’t have…

Read The Rest

Why Raimi Didn’t Do ‘Spider-Man 4’

Why Raimi Didn’t Do ‘Spider-Man 4’
Kyle Buchanan - Vulture.com

I hope enough time has passed that you feel comfortable talking about Spider-Man 4, which was in preproduction and began casting but fell apart before shooting began. What happened there?
It really was the most amicable and undramatic of breakups: It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn’t get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work. I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn’t get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, “I don’t…

Read The Rest

Time Warner Cable: “No Demand for Gigabit Internet”

Time Warner Cable: “No Demand for Gigabit Internet”
The Verge

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, Time Warner Cable’s Chief Financial Officer Irene Esteves seemed dismissive of the impact Google Fiber is having on consumers. “We’re in the business of delivering what consumers want, and to stay a little ahead of what we think they will want,” she said when asked about the breakneck internet speeds delivered by Google’s young Kansas City network. “We just don’t see the need of delivering that to consumers.” Esteves seems to think business customers are more likely to need that level of throughput, and notes that Time Warner Cable is…

Read The Rest

Six Strikes ISP Policy

Six Strikes ISP Policy
Ars Technica

After months of delay, the “Copyright Alert System,” (also known as “six strikes”) is ready for its “implementation phase.” Participating ISPs will be rolling out the system “over the course of the next several days.”

As we’ve reported previously, six strikes was conceived of by Center for Copyright Information (CCI)—an umbrella group representing major ISPs across the US and representatives from the recording and film industries. The group agreed in 2011 to come up with a six-stage warning scheme that would progressively warn—and eventually penalize—alleged online copyright…

Read The Rest

Questions for Jennifer Lawrence

Questions for Jennifer Lawrence

Alright, alright, one more of Jennifer. This one isn’t so much about Lawrence — at least that’s not the reason I’m posting it. I mean, she’s a decent actress and I’m glad she won. But the reason I’m posting this is because, good grief, do these “press people” seriously not have any better questions? I mean really, this is a “go home and write better questions” kind of a deal. I mean, “what was the process of getting ready?” Really? “What happened when you fell?” “What was going through your mind?” Good grief. Ask better questions people, seriously!

Identity Thief Leading the Box Office

Identity Thief Leading the Box Office
FilmoFilia

Rentrak Corporation, today announced the official weekend theatrical box office numbers for the weekend period of February 22nd, 2013 through February 24th, 2013 according to the company’s Box Office Essentials theatrical box office data collection and analytical service.

At the top of the list, Identity Thief. It’s a shame such a terrible film is in the lead. Speaks to the lackluster offerings available right now.

An Aspect Ratio Visual Essay

An Aspect Ratio Visual Essay

Oh aspect ratio, how you vex us! I can remember when I was younger seeing the caption at the beginning of a film on VHS, “This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen,” and wondering what it meant. Now of course that I know what it means it makes me upset and angry that doing that was ever a thing. In the video below, the talk is of how cinematographers composed for many different aspect ratios and how things might be either cut off or shown in different contexts, mattes, and aspect ratios. I wish that all films could be shot and composed…

Read The Rest