Ed's Review Dot Com

I live in Southern California, but I imagine this scenario has played out pretty much the same in every city. It is a fierce business to separate you from your dollars by getting you to come to the theater. They try many things to make it a good experience. Back in the days of my youth, drive-in theaters were great fun for families. Put the kids in their pajamas and pay a dollar a carload to watch two current first run movies. But we had a choice of about 7 drive-in theaters in the area. One of them put it a park near the refreshment building with swings and slides. One theater topped them all by purchasing a kiddie roller coaster from a carnival company and we could go early, while it was still sunny and ride that little roller coaster again and again and again for free. Guess which one we went for.

I remember the grand old theater palaces that were beautifully decorated inside and out. One had stars in the sky. One even had a fountain that played music and colored lights in front of the screen in between shows. There used to be raffles and prize nights. I’ve seen movie stars show up for personal appearances in the middle of the movie, making the rounds to make theater going a major event.

Then out came TV and it became easier to stay home and watch the shows on the “idiot box” than to dress up and make the trek out to the movie house. Many thought this would be the end of the theater business as we could watch our movies on small screens in black and white.

Gone were the days of $0.35 movie tickets and all the special events. The days of $12.50 movie tickets and $12.00 buckets of popcorn are here.

Flash forward to today. How do the theaters get you to show up now that we have Blu-Ray and home theater systems? Well there is some advantage to the community event of watching a movie in the crowd as a group experience. It’s not the same sitting at home alone. But that’s not enough. When you do decide to go out, you have many choices. Some years ago a theater chain called AMC came out with a “Movie Watcher” program. You got a little black card, and every time you bought a ticket you swiped your card and got 2 points. As the points grew, so did the rewards. When your ticket came out, there might be an extra reward of a free drink or free popcorn. Perhaps a $.50 box of Starburst, or once in a while a Free movie ticket. Then at a certain level you would “win” a free night at the movies with a free movie ticket and popcorn and drink, all for the price of $0.00. Suddenly I found myself going to AMC theaters almost all the time so I could swipe my card.

Well, the other theaters wouldn’t stand for AMC doing this, so they started their own rewards programs. Regal Crown Club came out next with one major twist on the AMC Movie Watchers. Royal gave you credit on the amount you spent, and included refreshment purchases. Regal was not only Regal Cinemas, but United Artists and Edwards Theaters too. You could now go to an IMAX film and get points toward free stuff. So now I alternated between AMC and Regal and split the points and got rewards from both theaters. But the local mall, just a few blocks from home opened a huge Krikorian Theater which was very convenient, not so crowded, and a great choice. But going there would delay rewards from another theater and that was a bad choice.

Soon Krikorian came out with “the premiere club” and I could earn points there too. Now I carried 3 rewards cards in my wallet and split my points between 3 chains. How would anyone up the stakes now?

I didn’t have long to wait. Suddenly a few months ago signs started appearing at the AMC’s about a new program called AMC Stubs. Why are they canning my Movie Watcher and changing the program? As time passed the details came out.

AMC Stubs, unlike the the other cards are cash based. The new plan costs you $12.00 a year, but for every $100.00 you spend, you get a $10.00 reward. This $10.00 can be used for anything you like, any time you like. Also, unlike the previous plan, there is no limit. Before we could only get credit for 2 tickets at a time. This means that if me, my wife, my daughter, and a friend went to the theater, we would only get credit for 2 tickets. My wife could have her own card, and we could scan both cards, but then her credits would grow independently. With AMC Stubs my whole family can use the same account. This means that any of us can use the same number and grow our rewards quicker. The points are based upon dollars spent for tickets and refreshments, and grow quickly. Additionally, with the old program we occasionally got $0.50 off on a popcorn or a drink. With AMC Stubs you get the next size upgrade every time you buy a popcorn or a drink or both. Everybody in you party can buy a large for the price of a medium, or a medium for the price of a small. This is a bonus every day, all the time. Sometimes special offers show up in the mail too. So guess now where I am going when I want to see a movie? Would I still want to get rewards from the other places when I can get 10% on every purchase every time at AMC? The first year, for Movie Watcher members was waived, so it’s free for the first year. Will I be willing to pay $12.00 to renew next year? We’ll see, but my feeling is that it’s a pretty good deal.

What do you think? Is it worth carrying membership cards for the theaters you visit to get occasional upgrades, or do you not go to the movies enough to bother?

Would you be willing to shell out $12.00 a year to get $10.00 back for every $100.00, plus the free upsizes? Is it worth it? What do you think? Let me know.

[Click here for AMC Stubs info]

[Click here for Regal Crown Reward info]

[Click here for Krikorian “the premier club” info]

Diamond Docs, A&E IndieFilms, Passion Pictures

Josh Brolin (Narrator), Pat Tillman (archive footage), Kevin Tillman

This is the story of Pat Tillman, once a star NFL football play who gave up a multi million dollar contract to join the service and fight in Afghanistan. He didn’t want to be a hero, and he was soft spoken and reluctant to take credit for things himself. He was also not a highly religious person, but appears to be one guy who felt a strong sense that this was the right thing to do. When he was suddenly killed in action, the nation was quick to declare him a hero. Maybe too quick. Later it was reported that he was killed by friendly fire by his own troops during an ambush. This film takes a one sided view of Tillman’s life and death from his family and is highly critical of the people who reported the events in Iraq and those they feel made hay from the events surrounding this for their own agenda.

I can understand why making this film was useful for the Tillman family. It is a tragedy to lose a son, and something no one should ever have to go through. One of the questions you have is why this happened. You have a driving need to answer that question. I can feel for the family in this regard. But I am not sure I can buy their entire story. Furthermore, even if it’s all true, it doesn’t change anything. Certainly part of the job of the military and the government and the president is to bang drums, have parades with flags and fireworks and driving tanks down the street. This has been the case since the beginning of countries and wars. It is not the job of the leaders of the country to try to prove that every event in a war is our fault and that we are stupid and incompetent. Even a team with a losing record has pep rallies and cheerleaders who yell “We’re number 1”. It doesn’t make Pat Tillman less of a hero that he was killed by a tragic accident and a mistake or two.

The commander split the group into two parts and separated them. One group stayed with a disabled vehicle and the other departed. They were travelling in a canyon. Suddenly several large explosions happened and everyone thought they were under fire. Maybe they were and maybe not. But everyone there thought they were. Tillman and a couple others left the caravan and climbed up the side of the mountain where the shots appeared to be coming from. Meanwhile the other half of the team approached and had no idea that the rest of their team was below them in the canyon. They began firing at the men climbing up where the shots were fired and Tillman was killed. Was this a planned execution or an evil plot? No, its a tragic mistake. Very sad, and lots of blame could be brought to bear, but the most famous person serving in the military had just been killed. Rather than launching into a great investigation immediately, they ran with the story that he had been killed in action, which is true. It was some time before the story came out that it probably was (then definitely was) friendly fire who killed him.

Does this negate the sacrifice he made by putting himself in this difficult situation? I think not, but then they make the giant leap that suddenly everyone up to the white house decided to lie about his death and use his death to push forward an illegal and ill advised fight in Afghanistan to advance their own agenda. This is the step I can’t swallow. I know it would be easier and more comfortable to allow folks to believe Tillman died a hero from enemy fire, and a hero from friendly fire in a tragic mistake, but to make the jump that it was planned and executed as an attempt at propaganda is too much.

Let it go. We all know it was accidental, and that it was heroism and bravery. Let’s not try to pin down the president in an evil plot to trivialize his death as a planned propaganda exercise. The next step is that he was killed on purpose to boost the war. Let’s not go that far.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday Jan 25, 2011

• Red
• Secretariat
• Saw: The Final Chapter
• The Girl Who Kicked Over the Hornet’s Nest (Scandinavian)
• Stone
• Nowhere Boy
• Like Dandelion Dust
• Machete

To Blu-Ray or Not to Blue-Ray, that is the question. Prices on Blu-Ray have been dropping and dropping. Currently Blu-Ray players are in the same price range as traditional DVD players. Blu-Ray disks are a couple dollars more, if that, than standard DVD’s. Also many Blu-Ray titles come with a regular DVD packaged together. So do I want Blu-Ray or not?

Over a year ago we bought a Blu-ray player. I switched my queue from Netflix from DVD to Blu-Ray. Movies started arriving in Blu-Ray format. I watched a couple on HDTV on my Blu-Ray player and was blown away by the video and sound, awesome! But then I noticed two trends. Blu-Ray disks were sitting on my dresser waiting for a time to go down to the living room, kick someone off the TV to watch them. The disks sat there for a long time, often two weeks or more. Then I went into my queue and started changing the Blu-Ray entries to DVD so that I could get them and watch them quicker without waiting for Blu-Ray. I noticed that I was changing all the films in my queue from Blu-ray to DVD because of something on Blu-Ray that I didn’t want to send back without watching. I thought to myself, why am I paying higher fees for Blu-Ray when everything I’m ordering is on standard DVD, so I switched my account back to normal. I also noticed that a lot of the “short wait, long wait, and very long waits” were Available NOW in standard DVD.

Hmm. I realize that I love the flexibility of DVD even though the quality is not quite as great. I enjoy the content not the quality so much. I think any DVD that I felt strongly enough to purchase would be a Blu-Ray, but I’m a renter. (I have an unopened copy of Toy Story 3 in front of me on Blu-Ray), but as a renter I love the flexibility of popping it in my laptop and watching it while I’m paying bills or cooking dinner or just relaxing in the backyard. (If I had a newer laptop with Blu-Ray that might be different, hunh?)

You may have noticed a link to Amazon on every review page. I generally choose the Blu-Ray version of the film for the link to Amazon because I feel that if I wanted a movie enough to purchase it, I would definitely want Blu-Ray. If you read a review on EdsReview and absolutely want to buy a copy (maybe to see those stupid special features that they don’t give us on the rental copies anymore 🙁 ), I think the Blu-Ray is the best way to go. If you want to purchase a standard version of the DVD (or anything else at all from Amazon) it’s easy to get to from the DVD link for the Blu-Ray edition, and we appreciate you using our link! I’d like to hear from you. If you’d rather I put the standard DVD link (or both the standard and Blu-Ray links) let me know and I can modify the procedure. As it is, I try to put the best deal for the best video in the link as the default. Let me know if you’d like me to change it. And for those who have clicked the link and shopped Amazon, thanks!

Happy Viewing! –Ed

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday Jan 18, 2011

• Takers
• Buried
• Animal Kingdom (Australian)
• Jack Goes Boating
• The Virginity Hit

Greetings friends. I’ve noticed a recent trend that also stirs my ire. I’ve noticed more and more DVDs arrive with a full menu. Then when you click on Special Features, another full Menu comes up. You click on “Bloopers” and a notice appears…”This disk is authorized for rental only. To enjoy the special features, you must purchase your own copy of this DVD/BlueRay”. Then you click on “deleted scenes” again a 2 or 3 page list appears with a number of deleted scenes, alternate endings, etc. But when you click on anything, the same message pops up. Ok, so they don’t have special features on the rental copy. But wouldn’t you know it, some of the stuff does work. A “Making of” or some other short is on there. This means that you will want to click on all the items in the special features to see what works and what doesn’t. Now come on. If you insist on screwing the rental customers out of the special features on the disk (at least they used to sometimes offer a special features disk that used up another line in your queue but allowed you to at least see them) is it necessary to put three or four levels of special features MENUS there just to tease us and torture us for not wanting to own a copy of some lame film for all time just to see the blooper reel? Do you really think we will plunk down $24.95 to own a copy of a movie we never want to see again just to see the alternate ending? I don’t think it’s worth irritating your customers just for one or two copies you’re going to sell to someone that just HAS to see something on the Special Features section. I think I’m going to start keeping track of which distributors and studios are doing this. What do you think? Someone should start a “YouTube” channel for on-line special features for disks that don’t have them. 🙂 Till next week. Happy Viewing! –Ed

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday Jan 11, 2011

• Piranha
• Alpha and Omega
• Heartbreaker (French)
• The Other Guys (Netflix)
• The Town (Netflix)
• The A-Team (Netflix)
• Legend of the Guardians (Netflix)
• Nanny McPhee Returns (Netflix)
• Cyrus (Netflix)

We have a lot of movies this week, but mostly it’s NetFlix catching up with Blockbuster and the others who get the DVD’s first now. I don’t know how NetFlix is going to deal with this new twist (ok, maybe not so new) but it seems to be that more and more distributors are starting to release to certain vendors before others. I think this is unfair, and I’m sorry that the technology of today is interfering with the brick and mortar dvd rental businesses, but it seems it would be the same as if only certain theater chains could get movies on their release date and all the others would have to wait a few weeks. It doesn’t seem right to me. Released on DVD should mean released on DVD. I suspect they won’t be able to get away with this as more and more and more DVD’s are given “early release” to just some people to punish others for coming up with the mail-order dvd business in the first place. My opinion for whatever it’s worth. –Happy Viewing! –Ed .