If you’re one of those people who munches on movie popcorn and placates yourself by rationalizing that as snacks go, it’s not all that bad for you, you’re just deluding yourself.
movies
Fight Club Blu-ray Messes With Viewers
By 11.18.09
If you bought or rented the new Fight Club blu-ray and brought it back to the store convinced you rented a faulty disc, you’ve been Punk’d by director David Fincher. When the disc boots up it displays the menu for Never Been Kissed for a few seconds before showing its true Fight Club colors.
Warner Bros. Offers Discount Blu-ray Upgrade Program
By 11.18.09
Warner Bros. has thought of a way to boost sagging Blu-ray sales. The DVD2Blu program lets you mail up to 25 DVDs (discs only), with a prepaid shipping label, to a processing plant — after having paid $8 to $10 online for each film — to get new, factory-sealed Blu-ray versions sent back to you.
Disney Removes Closed Captioning From "Up" Rental Release
By 11.15.09
Imagine you’re deaf or hard of hearing, and put off watching Pixar’s “Up” until the DVD release. You rent the DVD from Netflix, Redbox, or Blockbuster, and the box or Web listing promises captions. But when you settle in to watch the movie, you discover that there are no captions to be found. Not in any language.
Sony Hunts For Morons Willing To Pay $25 To Rent A Movie
By 11.12.09
Has Sony got a deal for you if you’ve got a Sony Bravia HDTV that can connect to the internet: Rent Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 30 days early for the low, low price of $24.95. Movie blogger Colin Boyd gushes about the fantastic offer on his site (citing a ZDNet story), Get the Big Picture:
Netflix Will Screw You For The Right Price
By 11.11.09
Hollywood studios are sick of you renting their DVDs and want you to start buying them again. The way to trick you into this, they figure, is to withhold the discs from rental companies for a month, forcing you to get all antsy and run out and buy them.
MPAA Asks FCC For Control Of Your TV's Analog Outputs
By 11.9.09
The Motion Picture Association of American wants to rent movies to TV viewers earlier in the release window, but they don’t want anyone potentially streaming that video out to other appliances. That’s why last week they went back to the FCC to once again ask for the power to disable analog ports on consumer television sets.
Netflix Streaming Coming To PS3 In November
By 10.26.09
Sony is barging in on Microsoft’s territory, having hammered out a deal to stream Netflix movies over the console just like the Xbox 360 for no additional charge beyond the Netflix membership.
Monster Energy Threatens Actual Movie Monster (We're Not Kidding)
By 10.16.09
We’re back to thinking Hansen Beverage Company is being taken for a ride by its legal counsel, Continental Enterprises, with this latest chapter in their trademark bullying saga. An actor named Trygve Lode has been contacted by Continental Enterprises on behalf of Hansen and told to remove all advertising and sales of Monster Energy from his site. The only reference to Monster Energy is the photo above.
Woman Arrested For Keeping Rented Movies 10 Years Past Due Date
By 10.5.09
A woman in Iowa was arrested last week for the theft of three video tapes from a local video store. She rented them in May of 1998, and a charge was filed against her in September of that same year after she repeatedly neglected to return them.
Yes Men Try To Mess With U.N., One Gets Arrested And Jailed
By 9.25.09
Those wily Yes Men, pranksters of the business and political worlds and comedy documentarians who masquerade as big business honchos to create “gotcha!” moments, were gotten themselves by the cops when they tried to disrupt the U.N. Security Council Summit.
Nigeria Demands Apology For District 9
By 9.21.09
On a roll from demanding an apology from Sony for insinsuating the country was a haven for scams, Nigeria is demanding an apology from the makers of District 9 for portraying Nigeria as full of gangsters and cannibals. They also want the movie to be re-edited so all the Nigerian gangsters are taken out.
Watch Wizard Of Oz For Free Online On Oct 3
By 9.16.09
You can start watching Wizard of Oz for free online via Netflix from 9am October 3rd to 9am October 4th. The promo is part of the 70th anniversary of Dorothy and the gang’s epic adventure. Yay, free flying monkeys!
New Michael Moore Movie Tackles Wall Street
By 8.26.09
Love or hate Michael Moore, he will not go away. A trailer for his upcoming movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, is now online; as is this interview with Moore in the Hollywood Reporter.
iReel.com Offers Free Trial, Downloads Your Money Instead
By 8.23.09
iReel.com seems like a pretty neat and reasonably priced service, which allows you to harness the power of the interweb to beam recently released movies directly to your home computing device. However, two Consumerist readers have contacted us about the company, and their misleading or just plain dishonest “free trial” billing practices.
Studio Turns High School Graduation Into Marketing Stunt, Nobody Cares
By 7.29.09
The Wall Street Journal looks at how an unfortunately named marketing agency called the Intelligence Group tried to promote recent bomb “I Love You, Beth Cooper” with a viral video on YouTube. (Can we just once and for all ban anyone who works in advertising from accessing YouTube?) They paid the valedictorian of a Los Angeles high school $1,800 to “spontaneously” blurt out a secret crush during her speech, and they hired someone to film the speech in a faux-homemade style to post online.
Save Money on Cable Television and TV Services
By 7.17.09
Given the state of the economy, it seems like everyone is looking for ways to save on non-discretionary expenses. Lucky for us, The Digerati Life offers some useful thoughts on how to cut back on TV services without turning off media completely. Their five suggestions include:
