MOVIEGOERS SURVEYED SAY 3D PICS ARE BETTER NETFLIX ADDED 3 MILLION ONLINE SUBSCRIBERS IN QUARTER …LOST 1.08 MILLION BY-MAIL SUBSCRIBERS RAVE FOR MEL GIBSON’S DIRECT-TO-PPV ‘THE GRINGO’ …NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL AN ACTION MOVIE! MEL GIBSON
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: AMAZON PRIME VS. NETFLIX I agree with all of this but would add one very important note: Amazon Instant is an absolute mess. The television programs and films are not organized in a way that makes anything
READER QUESTIONS REGARDING STREAMING/CORD-CUTTING Lots of good comments and questions from my piece from yesterday, which is linked above: Could you describe your version of movie/TV/online/etc utopia from a consumer purchase and user experience point of view? Love your …
THE NIMBLE EMPIRE: A DEFENSE OF CABLE TV Cable defenders are down to rationalizing piracy (also known as STEALING) and arguing that HBO as a standalone service is worth $20 a month, just so that we can enjoy the shared
Deadline doesn’t usually miss with their headlines, but in the case of this particular story, this headline… Netflix Could Undermine UltraViolet As Low Cost Rentals Trash Studio Profits …seems a little out of place with this blockbuster report: Moguls will need
The rise of streaming television is something I’ve been covering rather obsessively on my Daily Call Sheet for going on a year now. Not because I have any kind of inside information or data, but because if you connect the
ASHTON KUTCHER TO PLAY STEVE JOBS IN INDIE BIOPIC The resemblance is certainly there, it’s just that buying Kutcher as someone with an IQ above room temperature is a bit more belief than those of us not from the planet
WHY WE’RE SICK – LITERALLY – OF THE SHAKY-CAM The inspiration for the piece linked above is “Hunger Games,” which the writer says is almost unwatchable during the first hour thanks to the shaky-cam. I’ve been complaining about this thing
XBOX NOW USED MORE FOR ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT THAN ONLINE GAMING 20 million people subscribe to the Xbox streaming entertainment services and over the course of a single year, use of that entertainment usage is up a whopping 30%. Subscribers spend
Today’s Wall Street Journal captures an interesting trend in our viewing habits that is at least in part driven by on-demand outlets like Netflix Streaming and the DVR. The real casualty appears to be syndicated reruns, the kind of shows
The A&E original series “Breakout Kings” is three episodes into its second season, and fans are being treated to more of the same action and suspense from season one – following a surprise ending in the season premiere. “Breakout Kings,”
UNIVERSAL HIRES NEW SCRIBES FOR ‘MIDNIGHT RUN 2,’ BRETT RATNER WILL DIRECT Robert De Niro’s already on board and Charles Grodin seems willing to temporarily suspend the awful work he’s doing now — fighting to release criminals into neighborhoods other
My formative years could be summed up in two significant stages – life before cable … and with cable. Cable television was a gift from up above for an entertainment addict like me, and for decades I relied on cable
TRAILER RELEASED FOR NEW ‘BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’ SERIES Another prequel/reboot. This one takes place when Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos, Lorne Green) is a young, hot shot pilot in his twenties during the first Cyclon war. The previous reboot’s first couple
BLU-RAY’S BIG ‘PICTURE PROBLEM’ Interesting article where the author floats the theory that part of the reason Blu-rays aren’t selling like they should is due to the fact that the studios undersell them: By all objective measures, Blu-ray offers the
Faye Dunaway once told me that to play a role she had to commit to the character with all her heart and soul. She needed, she explained, to love the character. In terms of performance this means the actor has
(AP) Miramax CEO steps down as studio pivots LOS ANGELES Miramax CEO Mike Lang is stepping down, signaling that the award-winning studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein is heading in a new direction. The studio behind movies such as
‘300′ SEQUEL BRINGS BACK XERXES Don’t we all share the same concern about this sequel: the worry that what truly made “300” special will be gutted? We loved “300” because it was a politically incorrect allegory for the War on
CLINT EASTWOOD’S FAMILY GETS E! REALITY SHOW TO HELP PROMOTE SOUTH AFRICAN BAND The only thing worse than celeb-reality narcissism is celeb-reality narcissism disguised as politically correct do-gooderism. Insufferable squared. GAY, JEWISH BLOGGER SUGGESTS: HOW ABOUT A TV SERIES TREATING
THE CALL SHEET IS BACK AND HERE TO STAY I don’t think I have to explain why this column was suspended for two weeks. The least of it was the training and launch of this awesome new site — which
This week on the HomeVideodrome podcast, Hunter and Jim talk about the results of the Oscars as well as run-down this week’s releases. Head on over to The Film Thugs to give it a listen. George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” set the standard
HUGE NEWS: ‘THE ARTIST’ WILL MAKE PAY CABLE DEBUT ON NETFLIX STREAMING Now can I say “I told you so?” Actually, things are happening faster than even I expected. The studios have to go to where the customers are going.
CONSERVATIVES MUST TAKE A MOMENT TO THANK NETFLIX FOR ‘LILYHAMMER.’ “Lilyhammer’ isn’t just a conservative show; it’s an anti-leftist show. This is the kind of show I’ve been waiting for for decades. For years now, those of us who believe
Steven Van Zandt must, at times, slow down his busy life in order to take a moment to savor and appreciate where he finds his career today. With the exception of a brief sabbatical, he’s been the co-star of Bruce
A LOOK AT JADEN SMITH IN COSTUME FOR M. NIGHT’S NEW SCIENCE FICTION EPIC How can any parent look at the near 100% record of child celebrity train wrecks and then put their child in front of the train? If
SOMETHING TO ADMIRE ABOUT WHITNEY HOUSTON Houston was a true superstar. She had the pipes, looks, presence and poise — she had it all. And if you look at her evolution as an actress from “The Bodyguard” to “The Preacher’s
OVER TWO MILLION WATCHED SUPER BOWL LIVE STREAM This is the first time the NFL live-streamed the Super Bowl and the hook was what they called a “second screen” experience, which sounds like the idea was to convince those watching
‘BLADE RUNNER’ MAKERS AT ALCON SAY HARRISON FORD NOT IN TALKS TO STAR But the scuttlebutt sure got the project a lot of attention. Well done, Hollywood. Well done. AXL ROSE TURNS 50 TODAY Which means I’m like a hundred
Reprinted with permission from Conservatives For Palin. Written by Stacy Drake. Many months ago, HBO announced it was planning to make a movie based on the book, “Game Change” by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. After reading John Nolte’s article,
This week on the HomeVideodrome podcast, Hunter reviews Liam Neeson’s death-obsessed wolf-fighting-fest “The Grey,” Jim discovers “Blubberella” and extols on the greatness of “Adaptation” and the week’s releases get the usual treatment. Head on over to The Film Thugs and
MEL GIBSON’S FILM ‘GET THE GRINGO’ BYPASSES THEATERS WITH DIRECTV VOD DEAL “Get the Gringo” is actually the new title. The film has been advertised as “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” This is a radical move on Gibson’s part.
REDBOX VOWS TO ACQUIRE WARNER BROS DVDS ‘THROUGH ALTERNATIVE MEANS’ I love capitalism, and now you get another look into why Hollywood loves Castro and hates liberty: Looks like Redbox has told Warner Bros to take a hike with its
‘THE HELP’ WINS THREE SAG AWARDS, STREEP AND CLOONEY LOSE This is a good sign for “The Help,” which is a superb film. SAG is one of the most reliable Oscar bellwethers because so much of the Oscar voting pool
NEW ‘TERMINATOR’ FILM TO BE R-RATED That’s the ONLY news on ‘Terminator 5.’ Nothing else is really happening, just a tweet from the woman funding the film. This might be heresy, but I thought “Terminator 3” was damn good and
STEVEN SPIELBERG MIGHT PART RED SEA FOR WARNER BROS. Which Spielberg will show up to direct this one? If it’s the “Munich” Spielberg, the moral illiterate who sees an equivalency between Islamists who target the innocent and Israelis who target
This week on HomeVideodrome, Hunter reviews Haywire, Shame, and Warrior, Jim has cedar fever, and we plow through a cornucopia of new releases. Head on over to The Film Thugs to check it out. Okay, so I was a little
HOLLYWOOD’S NEWEST CRYBABIES: LEPERS … AND INDIA It doesn’t bother me when crybabies crybaby. That’s what crybabies do, especially GLAAD and CAIR — two of the biggest, fascist crybabies in the history of crybabying. What bothers me is that the
In a FOX News interview on Monday, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) defended former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s contention that President Barack Obama is the best “food stamp president” America has ever seen, a charge that some Democrats have argued is laced
SIGOURNEY WEAVER: ‘ALL FILMS WILL EVENTUALLY BE 3D’ Weaver believes 2D will go the way of black and white, and I don’t completely disagree. Hollywood is absolutely freaked out over piracy, so freaked out they’ve embraced their own Patriot Act
NETFLIX USERS STREAM 3000 LIFETIMES’ WORTH OF VIDEOS IN 3 MONTHS And Hollywood thinks they can put this genie back in the bottle. Never. DID YOU KNOW KING KONG ALMOST BATTLED FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER? Alternate title: Did you know the greatest