Over the last year I watched an interesting mini-social experiment play out: my sixty-something parents trying out Netflix.

The company’s now-famous little red envelopes first gained fame around the time the dot-com boom went bust in early 2000. Video rental behemoth Blockbuster, reeling from a catastrophic bleeding of market share to this wily challenger, entered the rent-by-mail fray in 2004, but it soon became apparent that they were going to get their hats handed to them. An even younger upstart, Redbox, began as a subsidiary of McDonald’s, and by 2007 its kiosks has spread across the fruited plains of America like wildfire, in the process putting the final nails in Blockbuster’s coffin.

My folks watch a lot of flicks, either at the theater or at home, so there’s always opportunities for improving the experience — the Great TiVo Immersion Program of 2005, masterminded and forced upon them by moi in the face of strenuous objections, turned out to be life changing. So after years of watching them drive out in the early evening to various video stores, I bought them a year-long Netflix subscription in Christmas 2009, and waited to see how it played out.

To my surprise, they hated it. For a year they bemoaned that Netflix never seemed to have the newest titles already available at the local rental shops. Even when using the service to queue older titles, they never got used to having to wait a day or two for DVDs that they could have in fifteen minutes by driving down the street. Eventually they settled in to using Netflix only for older or obscure films, things they otherwise wouldn’t have rented at all, and of course taking chances on such films was more of a hit-or-miss proposition than using Redbox to rent new movies they were jazzed to see. Meanwhile Netflix’s newest innovation, streaming to computers and TV, went entirely unused. (more…)

This week in the Daily Variety there was an article by Ted Johnson entitled “Biz Need Louder Voice to Fight Piracy.”  In that article Mr. Johnson makes a case that the entertainment industry needs to be stronger and more vocal in its fight on the piracy issue.  His point is made almost entirely based upon a speech given by President of the DGA Taylor Hackford at the “Content Protection Summit.”  To quote Mr. Hackford from the article:

Our industry doesn’t get it at all. And I am talking about top executives down to secretaries.  I am talking about directors to craft service people.  Unfortunately, this is our (DGA) No 1 priority…But within our own members, they just don’t quite understand how serious this is…Hollywood is filled with very famous and successful people…And, we are really famous for our causes.  We care about things.  We step out, and we have our pet causes…The point is when we care about things, we back it with our money and we speak out.  The problem is nobody in this community speaks out about the threat that is actually happening in our community.  And, if we let this threat continue, they will not have the money to contribute to these causes.

The remainder of the article is mostly dedicated to the proposition that the problem stems mostly from the internet.  Mr. Johnson states that government should control the internet to protect the business models of the content providers.  He feels that the bill passed in the Judiciary Committee giving the Justice Department new powers to shut down “rogue” web sites is a good thing. (more…)

When growing up in Los Angeles, a singular delight was getting the TV Guide in the Sunday paper and scouring it, pen in hand.  My movie search.  In the sixties, Los Angeles had the greatest number of TV channels in any city: 2-4-5-7-9-11-13.  In trips to San Diego, the Mid-West or anywhere else, you’d be lucky to get two, maybe three channels.  And not very good ones.

Some years ago, my daughter asked: “…so in the olden times, Dad, when did you see movies?” Hmmmm.  Olden times.  As if the wheel, the pen, writing, music, and entertainment were invented with her generation.  I explained that there were two places to see movies.  Theaters and Television.  That was it.  No DVD, VHS, iPod, or Hulu.com.  My TV Guide search was essential to find the right movies and straighten out my schedule for the week by circling and grading the films.  After all, if a movie came on at 11 p.m., you’d be up for two hours to “The End.”

But each week, when I got the TV Guide in my young hands, it was like opening a present.  Before the internet, I explained to my daughter, we had this ancient forum called a “library” where you could get books on movies and famous actors.

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An extraordinary film just came out on DVD which couldn’t be more timely.  It’s about a fiercely outspoken, beautiful woman trapped in a country rapidly descending into socialism, with the government steadily ratcheting up control over all aspects of life.

No, it’s not The Ann Coulter Story.

The movie is We The Living, based on the Ayn Rand novel of the same title.  Rand said that We The Living “is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write.”

Conservatives and libertarians have long lamented the scarcity of movies that depict the evils of communism.  Let’s see, there’s Doctor Zhivago, The Killing Fields, The Lives of Others, and… and, well, now there’s We The Living — a long-lost classic filmed in 1942, and now available on DVD for the first time ever.

WTL takes place soon after the Bolshevik takeover of Russia (which Rand experienced as a young woman).  The stunning Alida Valli plays Kira, a fiery college student who detests the communists ruining her country.  (Valli is perhaps best known to American audiences for her indelible performances in The Third Man and The Paradine Case.) (more…)

A while back, I authored a post here on Big Hollywood about the movie industry’s battle against RealDVD, an innovative technology that, if permitted to exist, would allow DVD owners to make personal “backup” copies of their movies, while simultaneously adding an encryption to discouraging piracy.

In September of 2008, calling it “StealDVD,” the big Hollywood (no pun intended) studios filed suit against RealDVD.

And this past Tuesday — as PC World wrote – RealDVD was dealt a “devastating blow” when U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel “granted a preliminary injunction against sale of RealDVD, pending a trial over copyright infringement.”

It’s too soon to know what will happen, but it appears the movie industry has the upper hand. But is it a victory they cannot afford to win? (more…)

As is sadly the case for all good things, the video website Hulu.com may well come under attack by the government, specifically in the form of antitrust action by the Obama administration.

Socialism’s great horde of media apologists has begun a strong drumbeat calling for the U.S. government to go after Hulu, the immensely and increasingly successful source of online streaming media content.

Cord Blomquist of the Competitive Enterprise Institute documents the socialists’ campaign for a government attack on Hulu in an excellent article at the Technology Liberation Front website. “Many media commentators are already using the kind of language we associate with past media antitrust cases,” Blomquist notes. (more…)

I never imagined I’d say it, but I’m beginning to identify with Barack Obama.  I’m certainly not referring to his politics or his narcissism, but it seems that both of us really suck when it comes to gift giving. 

First, he gave Prime Minister Gordon Brown some DVDs that were incompatible with English electronics and then he gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod that contained his speeches.  Well, I hate to admit it, but I can empathize.  Shopping for a prime minister has got to be hard enough, but trying to shop for a woman who has her own country would give me the mother of all migraines.  Frankly, I’m surprised he didn’t just fall back on that old reliable.  When in doubt, I say, you can’t go wrong giving cash.  Which, by the way, seems to be one of the things, as opposed to bowling and speaking without a TelePrompter, at which the president seems to be quite adept.  And, best of all, the cash, unlike the iPod, would be a personal gift because the Queen’s picture would be on it. (more…)

President and Michelle Obama have just visited the Queen of England.  Of course, such a State visit demands a gift befitting her royal status and our First Couple has deftly fulfilled that lofty obligation with something that so exemplifies the greatness of America, it surely made Her Royal Highness swoon with delight.  Yes, the Obama messianic magnanimity is not fettered by mere earthly limitations and the gift he presented her rivals in grandeur and thoughtfulness to the finest Faberge Egg.  It is exactly what the Queen has been dreaming of possessing from the moment she saw candidate Obama deliver his blindingly brilliant speech to the massed multitudes in Berlin. 

Ah yes… I can see it now… bedtime at Buckingham Palace…  The Queen emerges from her powder room after her nightly ablutions and gently pads across the oriental carpet in her pink, fuzzy slippers to the edge of her royal bed.  She calls to her maidservant, “Fatima, my dear, before I retire would you fetch me my video iPod?  Not the old one, but the new one I just got from Barry and Michelle.”  “Of course, your Highness,” she replies, quickly exiting the Royal Suite.  Moments later Fatima returns, reverently cradling the radiant object in her hands.  Tenderly taking it from her, the Queen puts in the royal iPod ear buds.  Then, Fatima helps her out of her slippers and into the massive bed, making sure that the goose-down pillows are properly fluffed.  Finally, Fatima places the Royal night-cap on the Queen’s head, and, as the Queen snuggles further into her down comforter, Fatima bids her a pleasant “Good night.”   (more…)

Last week, I took a little bit of heat for calling David Letterman a hack (and also dashed any remaining hopes I had for ever appearing on his show).  Just in case there’s any doubt of my allegation, I present to you the following videos. Here’s a clip that ran on Wednesday June 11, 2008:

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 Now here’s a segment that ran just this past Wednesday, March 25, 2009 (Please note, that the man making his bracket picks, was far too busy to pay any attention to the stock market; and couldn’t find the time to shop for an appropriate gift for the British Prime Minister — or at least get DVDs that work in the UK):

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