Coronavirus - The New Movie Watching Experience

Mulan on my TV at home. Drive-in theater on the top of the Glendale Galleria parking lot. Quibi - yet another new streaming service. 

Welcome to the new world of movie watching.

According to Timeout.com there are over 40 movies from the last 4 decades being shown at drive-ins across Los Angeles County. Some of these are the brick and mortar drive-ins like the Vineland in San Gabriel Valley that has been showing movies since 1952. Then there are the old brick and mortars that have not shown films in years and are primarily used as swamp meets by day. Rodium in the South Bay is a prime example. These drive-ins show classics as well as the latest movies like Unhinged and Bill and Ted Face The Music.

The majority of drive-ins now are inflatable pop-ups at hotels, outdoor malls, or in parks. Examples of these include Moana being shown at Magic Johnson Park, Jaws at Mel's Drive-In in West Hollywood, and Edwards Scissorhands and Pet Sematary.

However, the most popular form of movie watching has to be through one of a score of streaming apps. Off the top of my head I can name Netflix, Apple TV, HBO Max, Peacock, Quibi, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube TV, Sling TV, CBS All Access, Hulu and Showtime. I am sure that there are dozens more. Movies like Mulan, Hamilton, and Tom Hank's Greyhound were all released straight to streaming services instead of going through their planned movie theater releases. 

I read a crazy statistic on What's On Netflix.com. It said that Netflix has 2.2 million minutes of content currently available. If you sat down in front of you tv today for a long binge watching session, we would not see you for four years!  And this does not include watching content on other apps during the four year period including The Mandalorian on Disney or The Expanse on Amazon Prime Video, two of my favorite shows. 

And the best thing about streamers, you can watch them in a park, on a beach, in the mountains, in your bed, the options are endless.

The point is there are still many outlets and ways to watch new movies even with theaters in Los Angeles still closed.. 

So sit back on your couch or settle into your car seat and enjoy the show.

Take care and be safe.

Posts Tuesdays

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/how-long-would-it-take-to-watch-all-of-netflix/

 

Coronavirus Mulan $30 Why Now

The biggest movie watching news this weekend is undoubtedly Mulan being released to Disney+ subscribers for $30. This is on top of Disney+'s monthly membership fee. At first I was surprised by the price. I mean Netflix is releasing new content monthly with similarly budgeted movies like 6 Underground $150 million and The Irish Man $159 and they did not charge subscribers extra to watch them. (Mulan's budget is $200 million.) 

Perhaps I am not comparing apples to apples here. Mulan was supposed to be a box office smash hit, while Netflix movies are supposed to be streaming hits. This means Mulan had the potential to earn Disney a lot more money as a one-off project. Estimates ticket sales were a billion dollars worldwide. Netflix is fighting for long term subscribers and has to pump out consistent quality content to keep them.

 

So why did Disney decide to bite the proverbial bullet and post Mulan to its streaming service with a $30 price tag?

 

I have Disney+ since it is free for 6 months as part of my cell phone promotion. I enjoyed watching The Mandalorian. I also watched one classic movie. But that has been it. I have not watched Disney+ since the series ended because there is nothing new to watch. Once I watch Hamilton, my plan is to cancel my subscription and then renew it once the new season of Mandalorian arrives for one month.

 

So content issues is one reason Mulan was put on its streaming service.

 

My other two theories have to do with the Oscars and staying relevant. 

 

There has been a growing discussion regarding where streaming services' movies fit in awards season. Historically, only movies in theaters are qualified to earn an Oscar. What happens when the theaters have been closed for half a year and perhaps for the rest of the year? Do you base you Oscar candidates only on the movies shown in the first three months of the year? Or do you include movies like Hamilton, Mulan, and Tom Hank's Greyhound that were supposed to be released in theaters but went the streaming route? Or do you include all movies now - made for tv, made for cable, made for streaming, and made for theater?  Perhaps by charging pay per view rates for Mulan, Disney can argue that the $30 fee alone differentiates it enough to be considered a "real" movie worthy of Oscar contention.

 

I know people who have already paid for Mulan. I know people who have scoffed at the price. Will Disney make $1 billion? I doubt it. But people are talking about the movie. They are talking about the price. They are talking about the amazing special effects. They are talking about political issues surrounding the movie. And best of all for Disney, it is keeping the studio relevant at a time when its cruise line is shut down and many of its theme parks are still closed. And being relevant can be priceless.

 

As a final thought: what would have happened if Disney had pushed Mulan to 2021 and tensions between the US and Chinese governments continue(d) to rise. The movie might not never be released.

 

One thing is sure, the mouse knows what it is doing and no one is moving its cheese.

 

Take care and be safe.

 

Posts Saturdays and Tuesdays

Coronavirus On Set - You're Putting That Q-Tip Where?

The nurse practitioner pulled a ruler-length Q-Tip out of my nose. As she had warned, I would feel some discomfort. Done, I thought blinking away the tears. Then she said now for the other side.  I swallowed and tilted my head back. The show must go on, I thought.

Welcome to the new world of working on set. While the last commercial I shot was during the coronavirus, this one was the first since the official the entertainment unions, studios, and the Governor had come to agreement on shoot procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.

 The previous shoot had hand sanitizer, everyone wore a mask (that they brought from home), someone prepared and handed out food to us, and we kept our distance as best we could.

 

This time, before we could even step on the new set we had to have the lovely nasal-swab covid test. Then we had to read a 10-page document about the new covid-prevention measures; watch four videos on how to put on a mask, gloves, face shield, and how to wash your hands; and sign our lives away. Once we made it to set, they took everyone's temperature and asked us a half dozen questions about how we felt. They also provided us with N-95 masks and a brown paper bag. The bag was to place our mask inside when we were asked to remove them during filming. Then everyone participated in a safety meeting with an emphasis on covid-prevention measures.  A covid monitor routinely walked around the set to make sure everything looked good,  asked if everyone was OK, and offered hand sanitizer.

 

For crafty - i.e. water and snacks - a specific crew member stood there all day handing out whatever people asked for. In the past, people just took what they wanted.

 

For lunch, we were given bagged lunches that were actually pretty good.

 

Needless to say, I felt very safe on set. The crew respected all the restrictions and everyone seemed happy to be there.  

 

I look forward to working on my next set, although this one will require two separate days of covid testing - sorry, nose.

 

Take care and be safe.

 

Posts Tuesday and Saturday

Banned historical movies

"The Ministry of Culture bans the film 'Egyptians: Gods and Kings' for historical inaccuracies," the Egyptian agency said in a statement.

I initially thought, yet another case of censorship by a country that feels its people can't tell truth from fiction.

But as I thought about it more, movies have been banned for a number of reasons by a number of countries since movies have been invented.

Movies from "Birth of a Nation" to "Monty Python the Life of Brian" have been banned in towns and cities throughout the U.S.

"Alexander", "Ben Hur", "The Last Temptation of Christ", 'Noah", and many others have all been banned by one country or another for a multitude of reasons. "Battleship Potemkin" was banned in France and Germany for fear it could incite a revolution in the 1930's and 40's.

"'(Egyptians: Gods and Kings)' shows history from a Zionist viewpoint," according to state news agency EGY in explaining why the film was banned.

Movies are a powerful way to send a message. A movie has an audience's undivided attention for two hours to deliver its story, lessons, point of view, etc. It may be about a subject your audience knows little about, thereby becoming their sole reference point for making all judgments on that topic about the past and the future.

If there is a movie that lambastes a government program the government is trying to gain support for or if it might cause serious dissension within the community that could lead to violence, I can see why a government would ban a movie.

I am not saying that it is right, just that I can see why it might be done.


*Quotes from Susanna Capelouto's article, Egypt Bans Movie 'Exodus'.

Johnny Sokko and Hulu.com

About six months ago, I walked into a store that specializes in selling movies and asked if they had the old Giant Robot episodes I used to love to watch as a kid in the 70's. The clerk said no, but that there were a number of people who had asked her the same question.

So I googled Giant Robot and found that I was calling the t.v. series by the wrong name - it's official title is Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot. Go figure. Anyways, I was extremely excited to find that a website Hulu.com had all of the episodes for free along with other old classics.

Then yesterday, I was looking at the site more in depth and found that they also have about three dozen movies on their site - for free. So last night I watched "The Professional" and tonight I watched "Dragonheart." Old movies to be sure, but good ones.

Check it out.

http://www.hulu.com/

Update to Topics Previously Discussed

Movie reviews: Saw Hancock, thumbs down. It wasn't bad enough that a white man had to show a black man how to be civilized, but then the movie committed the most mortal of sins, the hero couldn't even save himself (to make it worse, the white man had to save the black man). Talk about stereotypes. I'm surprised Will Smith signed on once he read the script.

Wall-E - two thumbs up. Aside from the visuals, the story itself was unique and very heartwarming. Endearing even. I took my kids with me, but over half of the audience was adults without kids.


Politics: Obama and McCain are both moving towards the center, what else is new. Whoever wins, will go back and serve their more radical constituents. Obama is probably wishing the elections were held next week so he doesn't suffer any more reversals.

Book Review: SPQR IX The Princess and the Pirates. The writing was very engaging although a bit unorthodox. The protagonist kept going into these speals about various historical details. Unlike Pompeii, the Robert's laying in of details seemed a bit smoother. Not as suffocating. But the tone of the story was strange, like the protagonist knew his audience was 21st century readers. Strange, but quite engaging. My only problem, just like Star Trek 3 (that was the one with the Hot Headed Klingon chasing Kirk all over the galaxy itching for a fight, right?) was that there was no fight. We read all of these nautical details about how good the pirate captain is and all these interesting tricks and all of the naval manuevers our protagonist is running his men through, but in the end, there is not single sea battle. Mind you, this novel is call the Princess and the Pirates. And with Roberts' eye for detail and good fight scenes on land and the book was less than 200 pages, not having the big fight he had been alluding to throughout the novel was a big let down. Isn't the old saying if there's a gun on page 1, it had better be fired by someone on page 50? If you've got warships, marines, sailors and pirates you'd better have a naval engagement.

That's all for now.

Movie Reviews

Iron Man
Decent actors, decent plot, great special effects. It's just a shame that the Iron Man movie - cartoon version - is very similiar, if not identical, to the the live action movie. It took away a bit of the surprise of what was going to happen next. Hopefully, Marvel doesn't do the same thing with future superhero movies based on other comic books. I'm leery of the Hulk movie, as the Hulk's antagonist is a creature called Abomination; the same as it was in the animated Hulk movie put out by Marvel a couple of years ago.

Speed Racer
Perhaps I went into the movie with lower expectations than I had for Iron Man or it was due to the fact that I was huge Speed Racer fan as a child, but whatever the case I thought the Speed Racer movie was great. When I told a friend how much I liked it, he said from the previews it looked like the racing was confusing and hard to follow - all flash and bang. I agree, some of the editing could have been better, but the storyline, actors, making the movie so close to the cartoon series, and some great racing scenes, I was taken back to my childhood. The only part I didn't like, was that so much of the movie was done like a cartoon - the world, the cars, the fight scenes - that it really bugged me when they showed some guy getting beat while tied to a chair (busted lip, bloody nose, blood on shirt etc.).

Yes, I have kids, but I'm so damn sick of seeing torture in every goddamn movie I see - even one rated PG.

I don't know what's up with Hollywood always doing this. The point in the movie was to show how low the bad guys were, but either Hollywood has gotten lazy or just forgot how to make a bad guy seem really menacing without "showing" him or his henchmen beating someone into a bloody pulp. What ever happened to the good old threat of violence stand on it's own. It really made no sense showing the blood in a movie rated PG and obviously oriented towards children. Every other fight scene except for this was comical - in a good way.

My son after the beating scene said lets go, because he was scared. But then the racing took over for the next hour and a half he forgot about it. But the same thing happened in Iron Man- 10 seconds of rough treatment at the hands of the Afghanis. That's it, but completely unnecessary. And in Transformers - Bumblebee being tortured by the humans. Pirates of the Carribbean-a prisoner gets his eye plucked out by a bird. King Kong. Lord of the Rings - Smegal tortured by the orcs. The last Bond movie - beating him and breaking his nuts - there was no friggin' point for that. But John, you say, it shows our hero's strength. Or it show's the danger he's in. Besides it was an R rating. Dude, who enjoys watching someone's nuts get smashed? Only someone sick and demented. I think most people go to see a Bond movie to see the cool gadgets, awesome cars and fine women and how he gets out of his predicaments. - On a side note, what the hell is that all about when we take the women out of the Bond intro and put in fight scenes. Hollywood once again proves it perverse prudish logic that its better to show violence than the sensuality of a woman's body.

And so many more movies. I'm not saying this because I want all my movies rated G. I love action films and have no problem with appropriate movie violence. I just wonder why all these great movies devote thirty seconds to include a torture quotient. Especially, when the movie has nothing to do with horror. Maybe its the "24" phenomena of Jack Bauer where torture became a regular thing. Or Hostel. Or Abu Grab(?). But when people go to see these movies: Speed Racer, Transformers, Bond, etc : they go to escape and have a good time - not to feel their insides clench.

So if you're listening Hollywood and wondering why kids aren't flocking to see Speed Racer in droves, its because parents like me tell my neighbors with families: Speed Racer was great, except the one scene where someone gets their face beat up. But John, kids see violence everyday. True, I say. But then why in the rest of the entire movie, did you not show a single ounce of blood in any scene even when a monkey was bouncing a wrench on someone's head. See, no reason for it. New scene. Guy tied to chair. Bad guy says something threatening. Good guy scared. Bad guy shows example of what might happen. Then ...well I don't want to give away the movie for those of you who haven't seen it.

In conclusion, I liked Speed Racer better than Iron Man. My son came out of the movie running up and down the aisles pretending to be Speed Racer he liked it so much. And parents, the movie is great for most of kids. I don't mean to scare you away The great special effects and heart pumping racing scenes are something any kid who likes racing should miss out on.