A dog of a movie.

[Biggles]

Annoyed.

Just spent £15 buying a recent movie on Blu-ray.

We sat down to watch it tonight.

Terrible scrip, more like a series of one liners.

Acting by posing.

Songs and music totally out of keeping with the era the movie as set in.

The Greatest Showman ....... makes Plan 9 From Outer Space seem like the Oscar winner as best movie.

 

[happyrat1]

I've got you beat.

Eraserhead.

Smoke a large joint and wash it down with a beer and be prepared to watch your brain explode in a mirror.

This is partly the reason why I no longer buy DVDs or Bluerays.

I despise the "theater experience" of morons on cellphones, overpriced snacks and rushing in the washroom to get back before I miss an important plot point.

Nowadays I'll watch it on Netflix.

I have no desire to see the "latest and greatest" and most blockbuster hits will hit Netflix within 2 months of Blueray release anyway.

And for anything that seems really worth watching in spite of the hype? There's always Kodi on my Android Box.

F*** the Cable Companies and F*** Hollywood. These are not "artists" needing support. These are carpetbaggers who spend $300 Million on effects and $20 on writing.

I feel no shame being an admitted video pirate. In Canada today there is no law against streaming video to your set over the Internet. Only if you share copyright material via filesharing apps, and Kodi doesn't work that way

Gary

 

[Becky]

I've not watched it yet, but I know a lot of people who love The Greatest Showman. Mind you, they're all families with kids, so maybe that changes things. I'm not in any rush to watch it, looks a bit corny. Might take a peek if it ever makes its way to Netflix

 

[Biggles]

Corny it is.

Mind you after seeing Michael Crawford in the Stage show Barnum at the Manchester Opera House in the eighties then our expectations for the movie was high.

Our Grandaughter performed some of the songs from the show at a recent stage school production that she was in, sadly we could not get to see her show, so guess what? She will get the Blu-ray next time she comes to visit.

 

[Rayblewit]

I agree with Gary.
I have never bought a NEW DVD movie ever! Second hand music ones on ebay . . yes! But never a movie. I do not own one movie.
What is the point of having a stack of dvd's sitting on shelves for years which have only been watched once.

You can watch a movie for Free through youtube and send it to your smart tv.

We even borrow dvd's from the library for free.

I don't have any sympathy Col for you £15 loss. You would have been better off putting the money into a music dvd. At least you may watch it a few times. Music is ongoing. Movies are a one off event.
Ray

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I own a lot of movies-- on VHS tapes, DVDs, HD-DVDs (remember those?), and Blu-Rays. I don't own any 3D or 4K movies yet, since I don't have a 3D or 4K Blu-Ray player and TV.

Over the years, I've bought a lot of movies that I probably watched just once, but also a lot of movies that I've watched dozens of times. To me, a great movie is like a great piece of music that you love to listen to again and again, or a great book that you love to read again and again. (Yes, there actually are books that I've read more than once!)

It's difficult to say what makes a movie (or piece of music, or book, etc.) great, because it might be something different for different people, or even for the same person at different times-- and it might seem great at one time, but days or weeks or months or years later it no longer seems great, or vice versa.

 

[Biggles]

We only buy Blu-rays now that we would want to watch many times.

Blade Runner (original not the dull slow recent sequel), Star Wars, Avatar, Lord of the Rings, Cary Grant collection etc we have about 100 and thought that The Greatest Showman would be one of those as we like Hugh Jackman and he does have a great voice.

Music DVDs, concerts and compilation of single videos we have quite a mixed selection of 40 ranging from Runrig, Rod Stewart, The Who, Tina Turner to The Pasadena Roof Orchestra, Santana and Buena Vista Social Club.

So £15 on something we will get enjoyment out of multiple times is a small sum as we do have Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky movies for one offs.

As it is the movies coming out of Hollywood are pretty dire, the multiplex near us has 16 movies showing and of these there is probably only one that we would buy but we would certainly not go to see any of them.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I'd like to buy more concerts on Blu-Ray/DVD. About the only ones I have are ELP Pictures at an Exhibition and George Strait's Farewell Show, plus maybe a Yes show that wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I have The Who's Anniversary Show on DVR, but I'd like to have it on Blu-Ray, as well as a good Genesis concert or two.

 

[Biggles]

Michael

I can reccomend:-

Yes, 35th Anniversary (I saw this tour in Manchester)
Tina Turner, One Last Time (another I saw in Manchester)
Pink Ffloyd, Pulse
Jeff Wayne, War of the Worlds

 

[Rayblewit]

Now we are talkin'
Music
I must admit I did buy a couple of DVD new (full price) music vids over the years. I also bought VHS tapes brand new. They were all Jethro Tull since I use to be a Tull freak.
I have a few orther DVD of other bands now since I have broadened my music taste and slipped out of the Tull rut.
I have never bought any brand new. Always second hand from garage sales, thrift shops and markets. Usually I pay just $2. I have sold some on ebay for good profit too. Some jazz is collectible and worth the $2 investment for $50 auction sale. LOL
Ray

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I've watched a number of concert videos on YouTube, so I can understand the argument for not buying any discs of your own and just streaming movies, music videos-- even entire albums-- off of the internet. But I've yet to watch a concert video on YouTube, or stream an album on Amazon Music, or binge-stream a TV series on Netflix, without encountering some sort of interruption-- a momentary reduction in quality, momentary freeze while the data was being buffered, etc. You don't get those problems when watching a Blu-Ray disc. So I'm all for streaming movies and videos and albums, etc.-- but I'm also for buying a physical copy of anything that you care enough about that you want to enjoy it without the risk of any glitches. And it's also nice not to have to worry about losing the ability to watch or listen to something because your internet is out or the site you were using no longer carries that particular content, etc.

 

[Frankin]

Now the discs are gradually starting to come out of our everyday life, as they are replaced more and more often by flash memory, but still these media remain quite in demand.
I also have a few favorite movies on discs

 

[Biggles]

David Crosby.

He was on our BBC TV this morning discussing his Music but more so discussing the Music industry in general and specifically how difficult it now is for those actually with talent to make an impact.

According to him a major problem is with Streaming service providers, they make the money and the Artist does not get anything.

So you may want to rethink your subscription to Spotify, Deezer etc and the other streaming services.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I don't subscribe to any streaming services, at least not specifically to any music streaming services. I subscribe to Amazon Prime, and as part of that subscription I get "free" access to a large amount of music on Amazon Music-- but there's also a lot of music that isn't "free" on Amazon Music, so if I want to listen to it then I must either buy it or subscribe to the "premium" version of Amazon Music.

But the real reason I'm replying is to mention something I read just the other day regarding Apple and movies that you can "buy" on iTunes. If you buy a movie or TV show or album, etc., and add it to your iTunes library on iCloud, Apple can and will (and must?) delete that content if they ever lose, or choose not to continue licensing, the rights to that content. That's nothing new, of course, and it applies to any content provider-- Netflix, Amazon, etc.-- but it's a reminder that when you "buy" a digital copy of a movie, you had better download it while (and if) you can and don't just store it in the cloud, otherwise you may eventually lose it.

I've yet to hear of a company that manufactures Blu-ray or DVD discs going into people's houses and confiscating their purchased discs because the company had decided not to maintain a licensing agreement with the motion picture studio or TV broadcasting company who owns the rights to a particular motion picture or TV show.

 

[happyrat1]

One thing I should add to this conversation that I failed to mention earlier.

I do own a collection of approximately 1,000 music CDs.

While I believe in supporting the artists in music I do not consider it worth my time to download a digital copy and pay full price for a digital album.

Current copyright law in Canada states that you can legally rip a music CD and keep digital copies for personal use as long as you own an original copy.

In my case I ripped the entire collection to MP3 this year and now enjoy the best of both worlds. I can enjoy all the music in my collection anywhere I go while my original discs remain safely locked away in their jewel cases.

It's also infinitely simpler to point my Music Player Software at the entire collection and hit shuffle rather than tediously swapping discs in the CD player.

And one final item worth considering.

Whenever you pass on to the great music studio in the sky, it is virtually impossible to bequeath your music collection to anyone if all you have is an iTunes or Amazon account. I can pass on my entire collection in my last will and testament to anyone I choose without any legal gymnastics.

The difference with movies, however, is while music gets better when played and replayed again and again, a movie is usually watchable once per decade or so at most.

Gary

 

[Rayblewit]

a movie is usually watchable once

Is why I do not buy movies. $30+ to watch it once. To watch nancy boys pretending to be tough guys is pathetic. They are raking in millions just to say a few lines. Crazy! People are so gullible. Ridiculous! I have ZERO movie dvd's. I have but a few music dvd's.
ray

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I agree with everything you said except that "a movie is usually watchable once per decade or so at most." A great movie can be watched several times per year, if not per month-- until you get sick of it, anyway. I'm sure that when I lived in an apartment my neighbors got sick of me watching the original Star Wars trilogy over and over and over and over and over again. And in the case of certain popular holiday movies, it seems like certain TV broadcasters feel that a given movie should be watched all day or weekend long in back-to-back airings. (I'm talking about you, A Christmas Story!) Of course, there are also plenty of movies that aren't watchable even once during your entire lifetime. And there are movies which were great when they came out but that seem far too "dated" to be watchable years later.

 

[happyrat1]

I used to buy DVDs decades ago, when I didn't have any premium cable or inclination to go to the theaters.

But I used to buy them at a discount from Amazon resellers for anywhere between $3.99 and $7.99 a piece.

As a result I do also own a couple of hundred DVD's and boxed sets. The thing is, most of those are so old now I've forgotten what they were about and nowadays if the internet is down for whatever reason I still have a sizable collection to keep me entertained.

I stopped buying them around 8 or 9 years ago though, when Netflix came on the scene.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I used to belong to the Columbia House Video Club, or whatever they used to call it-- the old one where you bought movies on VHS videotape, not the current one where you buy movies on DVD. I have a lot of movies on VHS that I will think about watching from time to time, and when I go to my DVDs and Blu-rays I can't find them, so I go crazy digging through everything trying to find them-- until I remember that I've got them on VHS, not DVD or Blu-ray. And I don't even keep them in the house anymore-- they're in storage. If there's one I really, really want to see again, I might buy it on Blu-ray, but only if it isn't available to stream online. And I haven't bought into the 4K Ultra-HD thing yet, but if I ever do then I guess I'll have to start thinking about movies that way. But these days I only buy movies or TV shows that I'm really, really into. The days when I would buy random movies on VHS, then on DVD, and then on Blu-ray, are long gone.

 

[happyrat1]

I committed to DVD about 1996 or so and gave away all my VHS stuff. To this day I still don't own a Blueray player.

My eyesight simply isn't good enough to tell the difference between a Blueray picture and an anamorphic widescreen DVD picture on a 32 inch screen so why bother?

I always made a point of buying the widescreen or letterbox formats though, simply thinking ahead to the forecasts of Digital TV becoming the standard.

The only stuff I own on DVD that's not widescreen are old TV series box sets like Married With Children or Gilligan's Island or the Munsters which were originally shot in 4:3 aspect ratios.

Everything else looks simply splendid on a 1080p LCD or LED screen as far as my tired old astigmatic eyes can tell the difference.

And for that matter, even the old broadcast stuff looks pretty good after it was remastered for DVD.

Gary