Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Mike]

[Jeff Buchanan]

Oscar ratings fell 50% from the previous year.

Read that the reason for that is partly due to the proliferation of on-line access to a wider range of films and artists. Even before the pandemic less people were going to the movie theaters to pay 50 bucks after popcorn and a drink to watch the shit coming out of Hollywood, this on a decade long decline. Obviously, the pandemic contributed this year too but the wheels were set in motion a while ago to make a lot of Hollywood's glitterati irrelevant.

[Jeff Buchanan]

COVID news today: WH leakers are prepping the public for a major shift in the Biden administrations overly cautious pandemic policy to one that recognizes people are sick of this shit and the facts and the science along with what people are seeing on the ground don't comport with the CDC's nonsense.

The messaging coming from the President is more likely to shift from the COVID boogey man approach intended to keep the masses from being too cavalier about SARS2 to here's how to return to a post-pandemic normalcy safely. Oh, and BTW, if you get vaccinated you can move faster toward that goal and do more along the way.

I feel pretty confident that the WH has been reading my posts here.

[Dr. Strangelove]

WP investigates the claim that Kamala Harris' children's book is being given to every illegal immigrant kid as part of a "welcome kit". Seems the only evidence of this is a single widely-recycled photograph that shows exactly one copy of her book at a detention facility in Long Beach, CA. The WP contacted the facility and they flat out denied this was true, saying one copy of her book was donated by the community for the kids among hundreds of others.

The WP contacted the original NY Post reporter who "broke" this story, and asked for what evidence she had that every kid was being given a copy, and got no reply.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...-migrant-kids/

https://nypost.com/2021/04/23/kamala...ting-her-book/

[Dr. Strangelove]

COVID news today: WH leakers are prepping the public for a major shift in the Biden administrations overly cautious pandemic policy to one that recognizes people are sick of this shit and the facts and the science along with what people are seeing on the ground don't comport with the CDC's nonsense.

The messaging coming from the President is more likely to shift from the COVID boogey man approach intended to keep the masses from being too cavalier about SARS2 to here's how to return to a post-pandemic normalcy safely. Oh, and BTW, if you get vaccinated you can move faster toward that goal and do more along the way.

I feel pretty confident that the WH has been reading my posts here.

If so I assume they behave like any person with their wits about them and skim the first paragraph and skip the rest.

[Mike]

WP investigates the claim that Kamala Harris' children's book is being given to every illegal immigrant kid as part of a "welcome kit". Seems the only evidence of this is a single widely-recycled photograph that shows exactly one copy of her book at a detention facility in Long Beach, CA. The WP contacted the facility and they flat out denied this was true, saying one copy of her book was donated by the community for the kids among hundreds of others.

The WP contacted the original NY Post reporter who "broke" this story, and asked for what evidence she had that every kid was being given a copy, and got no reply.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...-migrant-kids/

https://nypost.com/2021/04/23/kamala...ting-her-book/

So her book has made more appearances at the border (1) than she has?

[Tom W]

Read that the reason for that is partly due to the proliferation of on-line access to a wider range of films and artists. Even before the pandemic less people were going to the movie theaters to pay 50 bucks after popcorn and a drink to watch the shit coming out of Hollywood, this on a decade long decline. Obviously, the pandemic contributed this year too but the wheels were set in motion a while ago to make a lot of Hollywood's glitterati irrelevant.

Yeah, it's all self-inflicted by the Movie and Theater industries- and, yes, it was set in place before COVID.

Hollywood abandoned the practice of making decent intelligent movies in favor of CGI superhero crap. There's still decent stuff being done, but it's almost all being done by the streaming services.
The Theater industry decided that they wanted to capitalize on the "experience": adjustable recliners, fancy food, and alcohol-. The stuff that you can get at home, but all with a premium price. It was a stupid idea that missed the point of why people GO OUT to the movies.

Now, instead of stepping back and realizing that maybe they should rethink their business models, there's absurdities like the outrage over "Hopkins' winning out over Boseman".

Screw those clueless dumbfucks.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Yeah, it's all self-inflicted by the Movie and Theater industries- and, yes, it was set in place before COVID.

Hollywood abandoned the practice of making decent intelligent movies in favor of CGI superhero crap. There's still decent stuff being done, but it's almost all being done by the streaming services.
The Theater industry decided that they wanted to capitalize on the "experience": adjustable recliners, fancy food, and alcohol-. The stuff that you can get at home, but all with a premium price. It was a stupid idea that missed the point of why people GO OUT to the movies.

Now, instead of stepping back and realizing that maybe they should rethink their business models, there's absurdities like the outrage over "Hopkins' winning out over Boseman".

Screw those clueless dumbfucks.

See I disagree with you. If you ask me to pay $10 to sit in an uncomfortable seat for 2 and 1/2 hours while Bubba right next to me plows his way through a large popcorn, I will happily pay a little more to have drink service and a large comfortable recliner that I can reserve ahead of time.

And flashy spectacle movies are exactly what you should be seeing in a huge theater. Who the fuck needs a theater experience to watch something like Marriage Story?

[lineygoblue]

Why would you be asking Bubba out on a date? Are things that bad out on the dating scene?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Why would you be asking Bubba out on a date? Are things that bad out on the dating scene?

Bubba's the only one I could get to go see Transformers 5 with me

[Tom W]

Well, you obviously haven't been to the movies in a while. or maybe you don't have a decent TV, a comfortable chair or access to decent food or libations.

[Hannibal]

Read that the reason for that is partly due to the proliferation of on-line access to a wider range of films and artists. Even before the pandemic less people were going to the movie theaters to pay 50 bucks after popcorn and a drink to watch the shit coming out of Hollywood, this on a decade long decline. Obviously, the pandemic contributed this year too but the wheels were set in motion a while ago to make a lot of Hollywood's glitterati irrelevant.

There is truth to this, and as far as I can tell, Netflix and other streaming services are doing great. I think that this is due to a combination of convenience, but also some really compelling original programming on those services that do what the mainstream content producers used to do. For instance, my son and I have been watching a shit ton of historical documentaries on World War II and The Roman Empire that we can't find anywhere else. We also watched a four part documentary on the Challenger disaster. Netflix, like every other content provider, has a big time Liberal bias, but little of the original programming that I have seen on there comes across as preachy or overly Woke.

Still, if you are struggling financially and your movies aren't making as much money as they used to, then doesn't that mean that you should respect the customer as much as possible instead of taking a gigantic shit on them? The latter is precisely what Hollywood is doing, Nobody is entitled to my money. The people who want my money should realize that.

[Hannibal]

See I disagree with you. If you ask me to pay $10 to sit in an uncomfortable seat for 2 and 1/2 hours while Bubba right next to me plows his way through a large popcorn, I will happily pay a little more to have drink service and a large comfortable recliner that I can reserve ahead of time.

And flashy spectacle movies are exactly what you should be seeing in a huge theater. Who the fuck needs a theater experience to watch something like Marriage Story?

Maybe I'm an artifact of the past, but I still love seeing movies in the theater. I don't love it as much now that they are almost totally empty, but there is an atmosphere that is there when you watch it with a crowd of people that isn't there at home.

There are still a few experiences beyond shitty comic book movies that you need to be in the theater for. They Shall Not Grow Old is a perfect example. I have a pretty good surround sound system at home but I still can't hope to get the same experience as I got when I first saw it in the theater.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I was just talking about that with someone and it's been 2 years since I went to a theater. Avengers Endgame was the last thing I saw.

I can see one day having a home setup that rivals a good theater. I don't really care about 3D or IMAX or any of that, but the sound quality you get in one of those Dolby Theaters just can't be replicated at home IMO. Unless you've spent a small fortune on your audio system and have a special theater room in your house. Which is why for any big action movie that I'm looking forward to, I'd still prefer going to the theater.

Movie theaters had no choice: it was either go bare minimum and run a $5 theater showing movies on their second run (and even that probably isn't feasible anymore with everything going to streaming instead of second run theaters) or enhance the "experience".

[Dr. Strangelove]

Maybe I'm an artifact of the past, but I still love seeing movies in the theater. I don't love it as much now that they are almost totally empty, but there is an atmosphere that is there when you watch it with a crowd of people that isn't there at home.

There are still a few experiences beyond shitty comic book movies that you need to be in the theater for. They Shall Not Grow Old is a perfect example. I have a pretty good surround sound system at home but I still can't hope to get the same experience as I got when I first saw it in the theater.

Yeah action movies, comic book stuff, war movies, a lot of sci-fi, etc. I'm not the biggest Tarantino guy but if I was his stuff deserves to be seen on a huge screen. Depending on the cinematographer I'd say some dramas. The overwhelming majority of comedies, nope. I bet I haven't seen a comedy in a theater since...Anchorman maybe? Oh no, wait, I got dragged to Forgetting Sarah Marshall