Frame Watch

So, I finally checked out the new Apple/iTunes electronic movie rental. As promised, here’s a review of the service.

(If you’re wondering, I rented “Disturbia” which I found to be much better than I expected from a blatant “Rear Window” rip-off.)

Usage

Being an Apple entity, it’s not surprising that iTunes rentals are incredibly user-friendly. All of the standard iTunes store search features can be used to browse through the movies in the iTunes library - making finding movies incredibly simple. What is lacking, however, is searchability and browseability of movies that are included in the rental library. As of the writing of this review, you can only search the iTunes library as a whole, with no way to distinguish which films are available for rental until you go to the movie’s individual page. I’m big on scanning titles and browsing through genre categories… It would be nice to be able to do that with only the movies that are available for rental since really I’m not interested in buying.

Once your find your film and see that it is eligible for rental, you can simply click “rent movie.” The movies begins to download onto your computer and is put into your iTunes library in its own little folder designated for rentals. The file remains on for your computer for 30 days or for 24 hours after you begin viewing it. Viewing it is as simple as downloading it: simply play it like you would any song or video file in your iTunes library. There’s even a little announcement of how long you have left to watch the film when you press play.

Selection

The movie selection that is available for rental is a good deal smaller than the movie selection available for purchase. While Apple has promised 1,000 movies by the end of February, they number in the low 100’s for now.

I must say, though, that for such a small selection there are many great choices. They have an eclectic group of old and new titles available, ranging from “Bananas” to “Mean Girls.” It reminds me of an independent music store in Greenwich Village - quality is more important than quantity.

That said, Netflix’s 4,000+ titles, including TV shows, is far more impressive and I think the success of Apple’s rentals will rely largely on how they compete with that.

Quality

The image quality was magnificent, at least on my iMac. I didn’t get a chance to test it out on my iPod, though.

Price

The price of the rentals is where I start to have major problems, though I doubt any of them will be solved. $3.99 is a lot for a 24-hour rental. A lot. Parents with young children may be forced to watch movies in segments across a few days, students often need to watch film several times over the course of a week or two for school projects, and honestly… Stuff happens. You might not get a chance to watch a movie in one sitting.

I think that either the time limit or the price has to change. I can get $1 rentals of new releases for 24-hours at the supermarket down the street… As can most of America. And those come with DVD extras. While I do believe in convenience fees, $2 would be much more fair that $2.99-3.99.

Overall

Netflix’s “Watch Now” is still a better deal for now. However, Apple rentals is off to a good start and is an excellent alternative for Mac users who are being left out of the Netflix festival of cinematic love.

Oscar nominations are in with a few surprises. Strangely enough, my attention is actually on the sound editing and sound mixing categories. I recently saw “Transformers” and was discussing with a sound mixer friend of mine how amazing the sound effects were on all of the robot transformations. The sound was amazingly solid in that flick and it’s definitely worth checking out just for that. Plus, wouldn’t it be hilarious if “Transformers” won an Oscar?

I’ll have a full analysis of the nominees when I don’t have a Lit class in a few minutes.

I hope the strike lasts until after the Oscars just so they lose out on the viewers. Why would I, an avid Oscars enthusiast, be saying this?

Somebody failed to recognize Persepolis as worthy of even making the shortlist for best foreign language film. Worst Oscar snub since Crash beat out Brokeback, if you ask me.

So the Academy will be sleeping on the couch come Oscar night. Maybe if Enchanted gets some nods there will be talks of reconciliation.

Quick update: It looks like there’s some movies up on the iTunes store. When I get a chance I’ll try it out and write a little review.

The selections is small for now, but there a few surprisingly good picks. “The Year of the Dog” is on there, and I’ve been dying to see that flick for months now.

Well, it’s been rumored for awhile that Apple was coming up with an iPod-friendly movie rental service. According to Macworld, the rumor has officially come true. Jobs announced that movies will be downloadable from iTunes and AppleTV for Blockbuster-esque prices: $3.99 for new releases and $2.99 for older flicks. HD movies will be available for AppleTV, priced at $4.99 for new releases and $3.99 for those movies you didn’t bother watching the first time around.  All films remain on your computer for 30 days, and once you start watching it you have 24 hours to watch it as many times as you like.

The hitch in this news? Jobs announced the launch for today, yet nary a rental is to be found on the iTunes store! There’s a “most popular rentals” widget with a short list of titles, which is a little disingenuous  considering that nobody has been able to actually rent these flicks.

Personally, I don’t understand why everyone is so hasty to name this the “end of Netflix.” (Shares for Netflix and Blockbuster are already falling.) Granted, as a Mac user I’m excited to have a digital rental option for Apple computers (something Netflix has been failing to provide). There’s also the portability perk in that you can switch the flick over to your iPod and watch it offline… but there seems to be too many cons to the execution of this rental service. First of all, the price is pretty high considering the overhead is lower than in a brick-and-mortar video rental joint. After all, the supermarket down the street has $1/24hr rentals and they’re paying thousands a month in rent and minimum wage and have room for a smaller selection. Secondly, the 24-hour limit is downright annoying. Netflix offers unlimited access to their “Watch Now” feature - though only to PC uses.

It’s hard to tell who will win out this battle. iTunes definitely will attract the Mac users and perhaps the people who only occasionally watch films and don’t want to make the $15/month commitment to Netflix. Apple will have to step up their selection (numbered at 100 flicks right now, with a projected assortment of 1,000 films by the end of February) if they want to compete with Netflix in the race for online rentals, though… Especially if Netflix makes their “Watch Now” feature available to Mac users as planned.

Since I got a chance to test out Netflix’s online rental service on a PC over winter break, I may be posting a review of the feature soon… We’ll see.

In a lackluster press conference on NBC last night, the Golden Globe awards were announced. Before I give my reactions, I loved this blurb from the Associated Press:

“I just got off the plane from Los Angeles and I was standing there and it was just perfect. It was perfect to stand there, that was better than being in a proscenium kind of space or at a dinner.” — Julian Schnabel, explaining how he learned he had won the best director Golden Globe for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” by watching a television monitor in the baggage claim area at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Others learned about their wins at hotels, at shady bars in the Meatpacking Distrction, and my favorite - David Duchovny didn’t watch it at all.

I decided not to watch last night because the idea of Entertainment News hosts announcing anything made me a little nauseous. When I check the wins this morning, there definitely quite a few surprises. My thoughts are after the jump:

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Apparently WGA strike casualties are more germane to the contents of blog posts than real-life casualties, so I guess I’m obligated to point out what everyone already knows: the Golden Globes award ceremony is the latest TV even to kick the bucket as a result of the striking writers. Or as Variety phrases in such an unbiased fashion, it is the latest “victim” of the WGA strike.

I thought this would be a perfect moment to acknowledge the other casualties of the war on contracts:

• The integrity of new Family Guy episodes. (I know, I know… that implies that the show had integrity to begin with, which goes against its very nature.)
• Greg Daniels’ sexy air of mystery pre-strike videos.
• Nikki Finke’s anonymity.
• Laughter in general.
• Some movie written by some guy we’ve never heard of that we’ll now probably never see.
• My plans to woo and marry John Krasinski. (I’m not going to marry somebody unemployed. Jeez.)
• Your brother-in-law’s pilot episode that he swears ABC was close to funding before the strike. Dude, they even had a meeting with him. A meeting!
• David Letterman’s beard.
• Kevin McKidd’s career.

Let’s have a moment of silence for those lost in this terrible struggle. And let’s not forget the biggest loss of all: Thursday night Pizza-and-Laughter-via-The-Office with my roommate.

Any other casualties you can think of?

Ok, ok, it’s just a secret dream of mine that my favorite web comic, XKCD, be made into an animated series. Think about it… It would be just about the easiest animating job ever, what with the simplicity of character design and the brevity of storylines.

My new favorite is #366. Behold, the wonders of modern society as represented by stick figures:

Well, here I am in post-finals bliss. (They explain the lack of posting, by the way.) In celebration, I’m kicking back old school with some goldfish and a glass of rootbeer.

I went to see Juno last night. Like any self-respecting 20-something film student who doesn’t have her head stuck in the sand of Neo-Realism, I thought this was a great indie flick with a strong script and some amazing performances. Most of what other reviewers have found as flaws (awkward moments, a few flat jokes, the feeling the audience gets of “I don’t remember being that cool when I was a dork in high school”) I have seen as amazing translations of the adolescent experience (awkward moments, a few flat jokes, the feeling you get of “Man, I may just be the coolest dork in high school”).

My itemized thoughts (hey, I’m too tired from papers to continue with this paragraph nonsense):

• OMFG!!!!!1 DWIGHT!
• “Hey, is that the lady from Drop Dead Gorgeous? I think it’s the lady from Drop Dead Gorgeous. OH MY GOD, SHE TOTALLY IS THE LADY FROM DROP DEAD GORGEOUS!!!” (stares from the crowd ensue)
• Mike Cera deserves a hug for his performance. Does the academy gives hugs? It sure would make the Oscar ceremonies a lot more warm and cozy.
• Ellen Page and J.K. Simmons had amazing comedic chemistry on screen. Their scenes together (especially when Drop Dead Gorgeous Lady - ok, ok, Allison Janney - was there) were some of the best in the film. I’ve always found Simmons to be the one redeeming part of all of the Spiderman films… He nails the vaudeville-esque banter perfectly.
• Of course, Ellen Page herself was amazingly dynamic for such a young actress. I don’t know how, but I believed both the snarkiness and the vulnerability her character exhibited even though they happened within seconds of each other.
• It’s about time The Moldy Peaches got some extensive screen time (and yes, I know that it was the female member’s solo stuff for most the movie… but the one TMP song was awesome). Their song (I won’t name for spoilers’ sakes) made the ending perfect.
• Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman’s relationship and on-screen dynamic was incredibly believable. Bateman didn’t beat the whole “I’m not ready to be a dad yet” thing to death from the first few scenes, but rather played it with such subtlety that the audience felt the same ambivalence that he did.
• This film deserves every Oscar it will get nominated for and not receive.

Well, that’s my incoherent thoughts on the whole shindig. Now I’m off to put in ear plugs as my tone-deaf neighbor from the next apartment over now tries to learn banjo.

He’s already failed at guitar, drums, piano, and tuba.

I just realized that Jack White and Jack Black are appearing in Walk Hard together. My excitement is only tempered by the thought that they might disappear upon meeting each other, neutralizing each other’s existence.

My hope, however, is that they have a celebrity death match. (Points to anyone who can find the clip for me to post.)