It has been a while so let me get right into my rant and this is truly a rant.
I was juiced to get my hands on the new Hulk DVD. I didn't get a chance to see it in the theaters, so I popped it into my DVD player as soon as I got it. I hit play and what do you know, there were ads at the head of the DVD. This is nothing new, so I hit the menu button to get to the beginning of the movie quicker. I hit and hit and hit and NOTHING. Nothing happened and the ads kept right on playing. I thought, 'OK, I will hit chapter forward and be on with the business of watching the Hulk.' Nothing happened again, nothing was working. I was being forced to watch horrible ads I didn't want to. I wasn't licked yet, I hit scan forward and much to my relief it worked. I had to scan forward for a bit to get rid of the offending ads.
This seemed far too much to go through to override ads on a DVD I rented. Thankfully I just rented it cause if I had bought it, I would have returned it immediately. I know that ads are suppose to keep the cost down and keep DVD's cheap but come on. I was so pissed about the ads, that it made watching the Hulk more of a drudgery. Not that I think I would have liked it much better if I had seen it without the ads but they sure didn't help. I'm the kind of person that can usually see good in just about any movie but not in this one and surely not with the way this DVD was set up. It pissed me off so terrible and I just thought, the studio and the DVD makers out there should take note.
IF I EVER GET A DVD WITH ADS I CAN'T GET RID OF AT THE TOUCH OF A BUTTON, I WILL RETURN IT, PERIOD.
Also, every time I get one, I will scream and rant about it here. And scream and rant and scream and rant.
This is the latest thing, in the chain of annoying crap coming from Hollywood lately and it has to stop. Like the "No Screeners" nonsense that Mr. Valenti has made his misguided attempt at stopping video piracy. I have yet to see a bootleg that had a screener tag on it. The MPAA cut off screeners, when just two days ago I saw a copy of "Kill Bill" selling on the street and when I asked the man to play a little of it for me, it had a time code burn on it. This means that it was stolen long before any screeners made it to our front door. What this "SCREENER BAN" is really all about, is making it look like Valenti is doing something about the bootlegs, when in reality, not a whole lot can be done, that isn't already being done.
Bootlegging, is a ever evolving game of moves and counter moves. The bootleggers do something to circumvent a block and then the movie industry adds another wall. This is the way it's always been. Like the software industry and the music industry, the latter of which is really starting to get smart about bootlegging (short of their attempt to SUE a few 14 year olds) and slowing it down. If you can't beat them, join them. You offer a service where people can get their hands on movies for a decent price. You make sure there are a butt load of bad copies on the Internet. Maybe you even make a bunch of your own bootlegs, with the end of the movie missing or bootlegs that look really crappy. You keep updating the copy protection on the DVD's, etc., etc., etc. That is it, that is the game. It hasn't changed and never will. There will always be someone out there smarter than the studios and they will take advantage when they can.
What the studios really dislike is, it cost them money $$$. The movie studios all thought (The Music Industry included) "Oh, we are just going to make ass loads of money with all the newer and cleaner formats (DVD's CD's) out there. People will have to buy all their favorite movies all over again, if they want to see and hear how good it can be." Hell, I have even heard that there is going to be HDDVD's coming soon, so the pictures will be even better and of course, you will have to buy all your favorites all over again. So, I really don't feel bad for the industry at all, this is all a product of their own greed and of their own making. The media companies have made a tons of money, way before this talk of bootlegs that are supposedly destroying the industry.
So now it is time for the industry to suck it up and spend a few bucks to secure all the money they are making. It's NOT time to sue movies lovers, not time to denying screeners to the industry (one of the coolest perks of being in this business), it's not time to piss us off. It's time to take appropriate action and keep people loving movies, in the theaters and in the stores. I will give you an example.
Before I was deep into the business. I went to see "Silence of the Lambs" twice in the theaters. When I got the chance, I got my hands on a bootleg, time coded copy of the film on video (Before it was released), then when it was released on video, I bought a copy, then I bought a copy in widescreen on video, then when DVD's came out, I bought a copy on that format as well. So where is the money loss? Dose Valenti and the MPAA really think that seeing a crappy copy will stop people from seeing the movie in the theater or buying a clean copy on DVD? Well, maybe if the movie sucks, in which case it shouldn't make that much money anyway. However, if you make good movies, the money will be there. Fans will go see a movie in the theaters they already own on DVD. What does that tell you? Make better movies and they will come. Stop putting a choke hold on the availability to films and make people love movies and the industry even more. Do that and the money will be there. Piss us off and we may just stop watching all together. I'll be watching and writing about it.
Hell, maybe if I don't get my hands on any screeners this year, I just might start reviewing trailers and save myself the 10 bucks.
Head Honcho
Nov 2, 2003
