An early film starring the young John Cusack, the latest episodes in an excellent historical drama from Britain and two fresh takes on World War II are among the more intriguing recent DVD releases.
-"Better Off Dead" (CBS/Paramount Home Entertainment, $21.99 Blu-ray, rated PG): Unless you're gripped with an enduring nostalgia for the kind of hi jinx portrayed in '80s teen comedies, writer/director Savage Steve Holland's 1985 film (making its Blu-ray debut) starring the young John Cusack as a love-sick high school student may leave you colder than the ski slopes on which Cusack's character competes. The cliches run rampant and the plot, when it's not borrowing from Hal Ashby's "Harold and Maude," is predictable to anyone who's gotten within spitting distance of the genre. Example: The bad guy here, who steals Cusack's girlfriend, is blond, good-looking, egotistical, athletic and mean, his name is Roy Stalin (was Sam Hitler taken?) and he deserves the comeuppance we know he'll get in the end.
Still, Cusack, early in his career (he had just made "The Sure Thing"), is charmingly offbeat as the hapless Lane Meyer, who resorts to a variety of failed suicide schemes after getting dumped by Beth (Amanda Wyss). And amid the suburban stereotypes of the ineffectual dad (David Ogden Stiers), the mom (Kim Darby) whose cooking is run-away-from-the-table disgusting, the tech whiz of a younger brother (Scooter Stevens) and the goofy sidekick (Curtis Armstrong), there's a bunch of very funny, quirky scenes. My favorite features Vincent Schiavelli as a nerdy math teacher whose class is filled with adoring students who pay rapt attention to his complex geometry and algebra lesson, are passionate about their homework assignments and groan when the bell rings to end their class. Scenes like this and running gags like the paper boy obsessively trying to collect his bill ("I want my two dollars!") have helped make "Better Off Dead" a cult classic.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/01/3050034/a-grab-bag-of-new-dvd-releases.html#ixzz1UGJTBOLx
Saturday, 6 August 2011
Netflix Licensing Deal a Boon to CBS' Quarterly Net Income
Broadcaster CBS more than doubled its net income in the second quarter, in what is just the beginning of new revenues generated from Web TV licensing deals - a boon that will likely continue to pay big dividends to traditional media companies.
In an earnings call Aug. 2, CBS executives said company revenue was largely boosted by its relationships with so-called emerging platforms including Netflix and soon, Amazon.
CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves attributed the strong quarter to not only these relationships but also diversifying its revenue base with additional non-advertising sources.
“Despite a lack of political dollars, tough comps and some challenging macroeconomic factors, revenue was up 8 percent, OIBDA was up 51 percent, and diluted EPS was up 164 percent,” Moonves said during the call Wednesday.
Q2 revenue grew to $3.59 billion, up from analysts’ forecast for $3.55 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Analysts suggest CBS’s Netflix deal could be worth about $200 million over two years,” the report added.
CBS struck a licensing deal with Amazon a few weeks ago that will allow Amazon customers to stream television shows from CBS’s vast television library. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“This deal is another example of how we are capitalizing on the value of our content by selling it to new distributors without taking away from established revenue streams,” explained Moonves.
With the deal, Amazon will add 2,000 episodes to grow the total number of Prime instant videos to more than 8,000 movies and television shows, and offer full seasons for 18 popular television series, including “The Tudors,” “Numb3rs,” “Medium,” the complete “Star Trek” franchise, “Frasier” and “Cheers.”
Read more http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/204107-netflix-licensing-deal-boon-cbs-quarterly-net-income.htm
In an earnings call Aug. 2, CBS executives said company revenue was largely boosted by its relationships with so-called emerging platforms including Netflix and soon, Amazon.
CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves attributed the strong quarter to not only these relationships but also diversifying its revenue base with additional non-advertising sources.
“Despite a lack of political dollars, tough comps and some challenging macroeconomic factors, revenue was up 8 percent, OIBDA was up 51 percent, and diluted EPS was up 164 percent,” Moonves said during the call Wednesday.
Q2 revenue grew to $3.59 billion, up from analysts’ forecast for $3.55 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Analysts suggest CBS’s Netflix deal could be worth about $200 million over two years,” the report added.
CBS struck a licensing deal with Amazon a few weeks ago that will allow Amazon customers to stream television shows from CBS’s vast television library. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“This deal is another example of how we are capitalizing on the value of our content by selling it to new distributors without taking away from established revenue streams,” explained Moonves.
With the deal, Amazon will add 2,000 episodes to grow the total number of Prime instant videos to more than 8,000 movies and television shows, and offer full seasons for 18 popular television series, including “The Tudors,” “Numb3rs,” “Medium,” the complete “Star Trek” franchise, “Frasier” and “Cheers.”
Read more http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/204107-netflix-licensing-deal-boon-cbs-quarterly-net-income.htm
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Google may be latest to challenge to Netflix
The list of Netflix competitors keeps growing, this time with Google reportedly looking to step up YouTube's video streaming service.
According to the New York Post, the Internet giant will give more prominence to its movie streaming service, which it launched in May, on YouTube, and may also be looking to add its service to Android devices.
YouTube's video streaming service boasts 6,000 titles, Once they purchase the rental, customers have 30 days to begin viewing, but once they do, have just 24 hours to watch it. Currently, Universal, Sony and Warner have partnered with YouTube to provide content.
This comes as Wal-Mart, Amazon and Blockbuster have also been ramping up and aggressively promoting their video streaming services.
In the past two weeks, Amazon has struck streaming content deals with CBS and NBCUniversal, bringing its library to about 9,000 titles, which compares to Netflix's approximately 20,000.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Micrsoft and NBC Universal.)
Wal-Mart announced last week that it will make many new movies available on its Vudu.com the day they come to DVD. It will also advertise Vudu.com more prominently on its Web site and in stores.
Blockbuster, which was bought out of bankruptcy by Dish Network in April, is also looking to woo back customers it previously lost to Netflix. The company sent out an e-mail to consumers last week promoting its Total Access program and lower prices.
According to the New York Post, the Internet giant will give more prominence to its movie streaming service, which it launched in May, on YouTube, and may also be looking to add its service to Android devices.
YouTube's video streaming service boasts 6,000 titles, Once they purchase the rental, customers have 30 days to begin viewing, but once they do, have just 24 hours to watch it. Currently, Universal, Sony and Warner have partnered with YouTube to provide content.
This comes as Wal-Mart, Amazon and Blockbuster have also been ramping up and aggressively promoting their video streaming services.
In the past two weeks, Amazon has struck streaming content deals with CBS and NBCUniversal, bringing its library to about 9,000 titles, which compares to Netflix's approximately 20,000.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Micrsoft and NBC Universal.)
Wal-Mart announced last week that it will make many new movies available on its Vudu.com the day they come to DVD. It will also advertise Vudu.com more prominently on its Web site and in stores.
Blockbuster, which was bought out of bankruptcy by Dish Network in April, is also looking to woo back customers it previously lost to Netflix. The company sent out an e-mail to consumers last week promoting its Total Access program and lower prices.
Monday, 1 August 2011
DVD Releases
Eight minutes and counting, and counting, and …
If there’s one new DVD release that’s going to give you your money’s worth this summer, not just as satisfying entertainment but also for the number of viewings you’ll get from it, it’s “Source Code’’ (2011). Directed by Duncan Jones (“Moon’’), the time-fracturing mind-bender stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens, a soldier drafted for a mission to identify a terrorist who bombed a Chicago commuter train and who’s poised to strike again. A top-secret program dubbed Source Code enables Colter to cross over into the body of a doomed passenger - and a parallel reality - for eight minutes leading up to the blast. And he’ll keep doing it all again until he completes his mission, or real time runs out. But, oh, the twisty questions enticing you to press “play’’ one more time. Once Colter leaps into an alternate timeline, does that world continue to exist alongside our own? What happens to Sean Fentress, the man whose identity Colter assumes? Watching again, you’ll also keep finding more to like about Gyllenhaal’s performance. His crazed-and-confused inappropriateness is as much a nod to Hitchcock - think Jimmy Stewart’s kooky obsessiveness - as are the film’s macabre segues, mystery-train setting, and Herrmannesque score. Extras: In smart commentary, Jones, Gyllenhaal, and writer Ben Ripley give their definitive take on the story’s paradoxes. Pop-up Blu-ray snippets jumble cast interviews, scientists’ time-travel speculations, and thematically related trivia - with nearly as much ooh-my-head overload as the concept of Source Code itself. (Summit Entertainment, $26.99; Blu-ray, $30.49)
If there’s one new DVD release that’s going to give you your money’s worth this summer, not just as satisfying entertainment but also for the number of viewings you’ll get from it, it’s “Source Code’’ (2011). Directed by Duncan Jones (“Moon’’), the time-fracturing mind-bender stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens, a soldier drafted for a mission to identify a terrorist who bombed a Chicago commuter train and who’s poised to strike again. A top-secret program dubbed Source Code enables Colter to cross over into the body of a doomed passenger - and a parallel reality - for eight minutes leading up to the blast. And he’ll keep doing it all again until he completes his mission, or real time runs out. But, oh, the twisty questions enticing you to press “play’’ one more time. Once Colter leaps into an alternate timeline, does that world continue to exist alongside our own? What happens to Sean Fentress, the man whose identity Colter assumes? Watching again, you’ll also keep finding more to like about Gyllenhaal’s performance. His crazed-and-confused inappropriateness is as much a nod to Hitchcock - think Jimmy Stewart’s kooky obsessiveness - as are the film’s macabre segues, mystery-train setting, and Herrmannesque score. Extras: In smart commentary, Jones, Gyllenhaal, and writer Ben Ripley give their definitive take on the story’s paradoxes. Pop-up Blu-ray snippets jumble cast interviews, scientists’ time-travel speculations, and thematically related trivia - with nearly as much ooh-my-head overload as the concept of Source Code itself. (Summit Entertainment, $26.99; Blu-ray, $30.49)
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