With two little kids, we don’t go out to the movies much. It seems we don’t even get to watch TV that much either. Our TiVo has helped manage our TV watching, but even with the “Silver” cable package, there are very few good movies available to watch–unless you like “Mindhunters” as it has been on at least eight times a day for the last few months.
Like many people, we grew tired of the back and forth transporting of movies to the video store, and although I always thought NetFlix was a good idea, I never brought myself around to joining.
Amazon has partnered with TiVo to offer a pretty good service called “Amazon Unbox
.” Quite simply, you buy, or rent, videos at Amazon.com, and instead of waiting for a DVD, you can download the movie to your computer or directly to your TiVo DVR, and you can start watching almost as soon as you start the download.
I rented “Borat,” (I like) placing the order at work, and the movie was fully downloaded when I got home. It’s kind of like on-demand NetFlix.
When you buy a movie (around $14.99), you own it and can watch it as much as you like. Even if you remove it from your TiVo (presumably for space issues), you can re-download it from your Amazon library. If you rent a movie (around $3.99) as I did, you have thirty days to start watching it before it is removed. After you start watching, you can watch it as much as you like within 24 hours. After that, it is deleted.
The video quality was very good, probably equivalent to the “best” resolution on TiVo, and overall, the viewing was a good experience. I can’t be sure, but it didn’t seem that there were any DVD extras available, which is one of my favorite things about DVDs.
The ease of use and integrating digital media into the living room makes this service a potential hit. The Apple TV is attempting to do this, but it seems a little like trying to shoehorn iTunes from your computer to your television.
If you have a TiVo, I would recommend giving Amazon Unbox a try.
April 30th, 2007
Having two little boys under the age of four, sadly, I haven’t gone to see a movie in a few years. Also sadly, I chose to see Ghost Rider this weekend.
Ghost Rider is yet another adaption of a comic book, but not an immensely popular one. I remember reading about Johnny Blaze’s fiery skeleton motorcycle riding and still even have a collection of these comics somewhere in my basement. The comic book was brought back to life in the late 1980’s, and although I found it interesting, I never thought that Ghost Rider had anywhere the audience or appeal as comics like Superman, Spiderman, X-men, et al.
I was supprised to learn that Ghost Rider was number one in the box office as it opened this past weekend, but when choosing what I should commit my precious movie viewing opportunity, there wasn’t much to choose from.
The special effects were fantastic. The transformation of Nicolas Cage to the flaming rider was smooth and believable. What wasn’t believable was the shallowness of the characters and the script itself.
Johnny learns about his curse of the Ghost Rider and reads in some authoritative book on the subject(?), that the “fire within him can be controlled with extreme concentration.” He then concentrates (extremely) and speaks to the fire within him and controls it. That was easy!
There are also a number of devilish foes which the Ghost Rider defeats so easily I never really feared for him at all. A precious contract of evil souls is given up at the mere asking, and the love interest lets him go, wants him back, and lets him go without any emotion.
Nicolas Cage, now in his forties, also makes use of the special effects to appear to be in great physical shape, although his hair piece could use a little more work. He also seems a little goofy with the prosthetic teeth for this role, probably there to add some continuity when he is portrayed as a flaming skull. Cage’s allure for Elvis again seems to manifest itself in this role in Blaze’s mannerisms and fashion sense. However, I remember the characters in the Ghost Rider comic book being about as young as the nameless actors portraying Blaze and Roxy in the beginning of the film. I suppose having a less than A-list comic with a less than A-list actor and a less than C-list script would not have gotten much draw.
Perhaps my expectations were too high — not seeing a movie for so long, and having “read the book.” My wife enjoyed it however, commenting “I didn’t have to think too much,” but I am guessing her expectations were simply to get out of the house.
February 20th, 2007
