Cablevision and Popcorn Home Entertainment have announced a new service that lets you watch movies immediately through Cablevision’s set-top box whenever you buy the DVD through their menu system. The DVD is mailed to you, but in the meantime you have the on-demand version for “instant gratification,” reports Reuters.
movies
Mann Free Movie Tickets Settlement Requires Your Credit Card Number
By 1.22.08
Between December 2006 and January 2007, Mann Theatres in Southern California printed the expiration dates of credit cards on receipts. If you were one of the lucky suckers who saw a movie there during this period and paid via credit card, Mann’s lawyers want to make things right by giving you two free movie tickets and some free popcorn. However, to qualify for the free tickets, you have to provide your credit card number. This is like the end of “The Lion King” where the new cub is held aloft—the circle of life continues.
By 1.17.08
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Correction: A Panasonic fat cat (and probably also a big wig) wrote in to let us know that Panasonic does indeed make a Blu-ray player that can play 1.1 Blu-ray discs: “The current Panasonic model available (DMP-BD30) is based on version 1.1 (BonusView) and capable of playing Blu-ray discs offering…
Netflix Lifts Restrictions On Downloadable Movie Rentals
By 1.15.08
Netflix has removed the monthly limits on all but its lowest-cost plan in an apparent attempt to position itself more competitively against Apple, which is expected to announce a downloadable movie rental service tomorrow. Now for as little as $8.99 per month you can watch as many movies on your PC as you can download.
Buyers Beware: Current Blu-ray Players Won't Correctly Play Future Discs
By 1.12.08
After the past week, it seems more and more likely that Blu-ray will be the movie disc format of the future.
Director Of "National Treasure" Weighs In On Misleading Trailers
By 1.11.08
After David Pogue’s public complaint last week that some movie trailers go too far in misleading consumers about the movie, he was contacted by the director of both “National Treasure” flicks, Jon Turteltaub, who offered his opinion on the practice: “What’s funny is that the filmmakers do exactly what you do. I was watching the final trailer for my movie, saying what you said: ‘Ummm….that’s not in the movie, that’s not in the movie, THAT’S not in the movie.'”
If The Critic Doesn't Say Exactly What You Want, Change It
By 1.9.08
Speaking of blurbs and quote-whores, Gelf Magazine has compiled a list of the most egregiously misrepresented blurbs cherry-picked from various reviews last year.
Comcast: Watch 3,000 Hours Of TV On Our New Website
By 1.8.08
Comcast has set up a site called Fancast.com where viewers can watch more than 3,000 hours of television shows from NBC, Fox, CBS and MTV and where they will soon be able to remotely program the digital video recorders in their homes. The shows on Fancast are available free. Comcast has yet to say how it will price the rest of the content as its plan moves forward.
Everybody Panic: DVD Sales Down For The First Time Ever
By 1.8.08
DVD sales slipped for the first time since the format was introduced in 1997, says USAToday.
Where Things Stand In The Hi-Def DVD Format War
By 1.5.08
After Time Warner Inc.’s announcement today that they’ve chosen to support Blu-ray exclusively, here’s the current breakdown of studio support for each format—and things aren’t looking good for HD DVD.
Can A Movie Trailer Be Accused Of False Advertising?
By 1.3.08
David Pogue has an interesting rant in today’s Circuits column about the movie “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”—or more specifically about its trailer, which is chock-full of scenes, dialogue, locations, and plot references that are nowhere to be found in the actual movie. He asks, “Just how different can a trailer be without becoming false advertising?” We immediately thought about last year’s kids flick “Bridge to Terabithia,” which was advertised like a whimsical Narnia spin-off but in reality was about the death of a major character.
By 12.28.07
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Fox and Apple have reached a deal that would allow movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store. No official announcement yet, so no details on pricing, date, or how the rentals will work.
AOL Moviefone Aks Everyone To Choose Hottest MILF
By 12.26.07
Question #17 of Moviefone’s year-end poll asks, “Who was the hottest movie star MILF?” At first glance, we were a little surprised to see an all-ages website asking whose mom you’d like to engage in sex with. On the other hand, maybe Moviefone is intentionally an adults-only site—the copy on the front page says, “Vote on your favorite movies, celebrities and nude scene,” and we don’t imagine too many of the “Enchanted” demo is going to have much of an opinion on that last category.
Dish Subscribers: How To Get Cinemax For 1 Cent For 1 Year
By 12.19.07
Dish Network customers can get the Cinemax movie channel for one cent for year if they switch to paperless billing. Here’s how:
Brawndo Becomes A Real Product, Gets Taste Tested
By 12.18.07
Remember Brawndo from “Idiocracy”—the world’s best and only beverage, the one that mutilates your thirst, and is so awesome that we even use it for irrigation? It’s now a real product, for those of you who enjoy mixing satire about commercialism with actual commercialism. (Wait—how does that work?) Naturally nobody over 12 years old or sane will probably want to actually taste it—it’s just another bad energy drink with fun packaging—so Sarah at CalorieLab has taken a bullet for the rest of us. Good; now we can go back to watching reruns of “Ow My Balls.”
Explanation For The $307.06 Harry Potter DVD
By 11.30.07
On Wednesday, we posted a picture a reader sent us of a Harry Potter DVD priced at $307.06. Not only was it not Photoshopped, several CompUSA employees chimed in to let us know there was actually a very good reason for it to have this huge price. Whenever a movie is supposed to be held until a certain street date, the price for that item is set to the release date. In this case, Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire came out on March, 7th, 2006, 03/07/06. By mistake, this tag was moved out to the floor when it should have been kept in the backroom. Mystery solved!
AMC Plays "SAW IV" Instead Of "Bee Movie"
By 11.21.07
“I went to the AMC Theater in Framingham MA Sunday night with my wife, 27 year old daughter & 12 year old son to see Bee Movie. After sitting through the 10 minutes previews for coming attractions, it’s on to the Feature Presentation. Well, to everyones shock & awe what is the opening scene? There on the big screen in front of the mostly “G” audience what do we see? A naked male corpse on a slab being autopsied…………..yes we were watching SAW IV!”
New Die Hard DVD's Digital Extras: Too Little Too Late?
By 11.19.07
Well, the details of 20th Century Fox’s new digital experiment are now public: the DVD of “Live Free Or Die Harder,” which goes on sale tomorrow, will allow purchasers to transfer a digital copy of the movie twice, once to their PC’s hard drive and once onto a PlaysForSure portable device. If you’ve got an iPod device or even a Zune, you won’t be able to do anything with it.
