Just watched Cloverfield, this is what I thought

I just finished watching Cloverfield. I really didn't plan on watching it today but when returning another movie to Redbox, I couldn't resist finding out what all the hype was about for only a $1. I really didn't know what to expect beforehand other than there was some unknown monster in NYC. Not having expectations usually is a good thing though. I am more likely to enjoy the movie if I don't know what is coming.

Overall, I thought Cloverfield was a good movie. It was definitely entertaining and worth watching. I am glad I waited to watch it on DVD instead of in theaters though. It would not have been worth $10. I still fail to understand all the hype. Why did people talk about this movie so much? Was it supposed to be some wildly original film? Was it just the reputation of J.J. Abrams that sold it? The mystery about what you were actually going to see?

Maybe all of those but it certainly was not very original. We have a suspense/horror-ish movie shot in the first person with hand held cameras à la The Blair Witch Project. (This one didn't make me as dizzy though and only in a few places.) We have some crazy monster crashing through a major city with the military trying to kill it à la Godzilla. We have monsters biting people and likely reproducing inside of them before exploding out of their chest à la Alien (watch it). Copy-paste.

Bravo on then ending though. I wondered how they were going to wrap it up and they did it well.

Box Office Receipts Graph Since 1986

I love statistics, graphs and movies so I was extra thrilled a few months ago when I ran across this awesome graph of movie box office revenues from 1986 to February 2008. From this graph you can really see how concentrated the big money maker releases are in the summer and over Christmas.

Looking at individual movies is also pretty interesting. The Shawshank Redemption, for instance, is rated 9.2 out of 10 and is ranked as the 2nd best movie ever on IMDB but had a poor performance in theaters.

The Shawshank Redemption (click to enlarge)

Another interesting movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was released in April 2002 and never had a big weekend. It started out making next to nothing but in the end it made money for a full year. According to the IMDB trivia page, "it surpassed Dances with Wolves (1990) as the highest grossing movie never to have hit number one at the box office".

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (click to enlarge)

Last but not least we have one of the worst movies ever made, Gigli (pronounced as Jee-lee). I've never actually seen it but it's reputation is enough for me. From the graph for this movie (I had to search to find it) you can see it had a semi decent opening weekend before everyone realized how bad it was and it was taken out of theaters. This movie opened in 2,215 theaters but by the third weekend it was only showing in 73 (IMDB trivia page). Gigli also did well in the Razzie Awards that year with 6 wins.



What have we learned? Good movies don't always do very well in theaters and bad movies sometimes can, at least at first. Go find your favorite and least favorite movies on the graph too.

Full Screen Movie Releases Should Die!

I watched a video last night, Skinny Girl Owned By Desert Eagle, that got me wanting to watch a movie I haven't seen in a long time, Snatch, all because of this scene with Bullet Tooth Tony.

And, the fact that you've got "replica" written down the side of your guns. And, the fact that I've got "Desert Eagle point 5 0" written on the side of mine, should precipitate your balls into shrinking, along with your presence. Now... fuck off.

Anyway, when I started watching Snatch, I was asked, which version I wanted to watch, Wide Screen or Full Screen. It reminded me of a question I have been wondering for a long time, Why do full screen releases even still exist?

Watching a movie in full screen is an abomination. You lose much of the movie the director intended for you to see and pan and scan is noticeably annoying. Movies are an art form that should not be disrespected just because someone owns a POS television and doesn't like the letterbox, even for bad movies. Furthermore, as old TV sales have been greatly eclipsed by newer 16:9HD TVs, wide screen is full screen (aspect ratios explained) on newer screens. Shoot, some movies like Gladiator, with an aspect ration of 2.35:1, are still letterbox on a 16:9 (1.78:1) TV.

I don't have any problems if the movie is released with both versions in the same package but it is a waste of resources to even create the full screen version. Many movies support both on the same disc but I still am annoyed at having to select it instead of going right to the movie. Some movies are released on dual sided discs to accommodate both. That is a little better but it does make the disc more expensive and I don't care to pay for the crappy full screen version I never will watch.

On Black Friday, there are always lots of good movie deals. This past year I went to Target on Black Friday to find a ton of movies for $5 and $10 each. I would have stocked up but they were all full screen! Why? I wouldn't even pay $5 for a full screen version of a movie. Another visit to Target in search of the newest Harry Potter release also proved frustrating. There were plenty of full screen versions of the film to purchase but the wide screen versions were all gone (fortunately they were only gone in the actual DVD section, there were still some wide screen versions by the checkout line).

I have to wonder, with the obvious differences in demand, why even offer a full screen version? Consumers are voting with our purchases but whoever makes the decision to carry more or only the wide screen version isn't listening. I imagine there are a number of full screen purchases made out of ignorance of the version purchased and other full screen purchases because only a full screen is available and the customer really wants the movie. Once or twice I have mistakenly purchased the full screen myself, only to return or exchange it ASAP. So full screen DVD releases should die a very quick death now with the prominence of widescreen televisions and the rise of HD-DVD and Blue-Ray high definition discs. Please!

And check out the Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy Page.