The Fall of MoviePass

By Paul Anthony

When things seem to be too good to be true then they probably aren’t true and that is the case with MoviePass. I have to admit I always wanted to try MoviePass since it seemed to be a good deal for someone who loves a lot movies like I do but for the actually service review check out the blog by Justin, this blog is going to be about how this once great idea is now failing and I would be shocked to see if it is still around by next summer.

In 2011 they came with this idea and took years to catch on, the plan was simple, it was 15 dollars a month and you see any move you wanted, one film per day. Then they decided last fall to drop the price and people jumped on board, they went from 20,000 subscribers to two million in just a few weeks, business was booming but a lot of good things always come to an end and this is the start.

Recently they annouced that the prices would be going up which wouldn’t hurt anyone then they had a blackout and noone could  see anything and the reason behind this blackout? well they ran out of money and needed a loan, so now they are in debt which never a good thing. Now they are forgiving custombers who owe them money, basically giving everyone a clean slate. When the blackout ended there was no doubt they needed a better plan and forgiving people isn’t it. When they cameback, their new plan is only three movies per month for 15 dollars and certain films for example any summer block buster. You will have pay a fee or wait for the film to be in only 1000 theaters which could be weeks. Now if you are a movie nerd this where you will most likely will jump off the band wagon because you are not going to wait weeks to see a movie you wanted to see badly.

If you can handle the delay then good for you and still three standard screen movies is a deal but this plan shoud have been their plan to begin with and then they would have actually made a profit. I will explain, this plan eliminates the hardcore movie fans now its aimmed at people who might only go to  like two movies a month during bargain days just to get out of the house and right there you could easily make 5 dollars a month in profit right there and over time that adds up but they are doing this now but the problem is it’s just too late and they are in debt and most likely lose some customers.

It’s not rocket science this could hurt them and as I stated I don’t see them making it passed next summer.

 

 

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China’s Ban on Movies!

By Paul Anthony

When movies are made, often studios will review it and decide which scenes or parts needs to be taken to reach a certain rating or to please a certain age range or audience. However when a family movie is being made, there is not much to get cut or scenes to be changed. Here in the United States movies are hardly ever banned but in other countries that is a different story.

China recently announced that they would not be playing the movie Christopher Robin. Now we all know this is a Disney movie, and if you don’t know it’s basically a Winnie the Pooh movie. No harm there right? well we are wrong because China put a banned on that film and you would never believe why. Please understand this isn’t a knock against China by no means and often China saves certain films from being flops and often they save Disney films, sadly this is not the case.  When China said they wouldn’t show this movie, I had to ask why and I got my answer. The party that is trying to take control of the president’s office likes to mock the president and they use a teddy bear that looks like China’s president and Winnie the pooh looks like the teddy bear.

Now I know that might sound confusing so to make it sweet it comes down to Winnie the pooh looking like the president. Now to me I think they are going overboard in this case. We are talking about a CGI character that has been around for a long time. Disney never wanted to mock their president and China knows Winnie the pooh isn’t here to mock them.

At this moment I don’t know what else China has banned and I am assuming they pick what films they allow their people to see without actually having guidelines to give them a reason to banned the film.

The movie no doubt is taking a hit from this as the film is produced on a 75 million dollar budget and only made around 64 million so far and currently sitting at number three in a slow box office month. China could easily put this film right around 120 million marker and make this film a modest success. I doubt this film will ever see China unless it is bootlegged. There is nothing Disney can do in this case about this film banned. No one could come up with the idea of this film ever get banned for this reason. They can’t and won’t change Winnie the Pooh!

The Meg movie review

By : Justin Hopkins

For someone who came into this weekend excited to see The Meg. Have to admit, quite shocked but how well it actually did the the box office. Bringing in 45 million dollars at the box office, taking the top spot in the box office, and was thrilled to see it succeed. The Meg was better then expected and gave us a true rarity in the form of a good shark movie.

The movie takes place largely in an underwater research center called the Mana One. Hoping to discover if the bottom of the area was in fact a thermocline. Meaning it would be deeper then the Mariana Trench. Once the the person team made it through were attacked by something huge. Trapping them there. Much to the chagrin of Dr. Heller played by Robert Taylor. They bring in Jonas played by Jason Statham, to rescue them. Heller and Jonas having an issue from a rescue that went wrong five years earlier. During his rescue of the crew this time, is where they show the massive Megladon for the first time around, and although he gets 3 of the 4 safely back. They disrupt the thermocline enough to let the Megladon out and becomes a race against the clock to stop it before it does to much destruction.

What seperated The Meg from all the other shark movies that we have been bombarded with throughout the past few years, was that it wasn’t a senseless shark eat’em up movie. The shark while rampt up was just a large shark. Didn’t stalk them throughout the movie but sought after food. Even when attacking swimmers. Went after frantic ones first and when it saw bigger food options. Swam away. While the science was off more then once. It wasn’t too zany or cartoonish. They stayed close to the lines where if one didn’t know it, might be passable.

The cast brought this all together so well. Making the film funny with one liners and jokes during the period where the Megladon was not around. Jason Statham stepped out of his normal role and was fantastic. Playing off everyone so well that you wanted to see what happened. Li BingBing was tremendous as Suyin. Suyin didn’t want to sit by and watch, but was right in the line of fire and was quick witted to boot, and Shuya Sophia’s Merying stole allot of the scenes she was in. They were able to being out various emotions on top of the main threat and was never really a back stab set up nor a sabotage situation. You even end up like Rainn Wilson’s and Robert Taylor’s villain characters who are made to be eaten. Only small issue is they don’t really show enough of Ruby Roses Jaxx character. Who seemed like she had more to bring to the table.

Go see The Meg in theaters. Don’t go expecting a scientific accurate or academy award winner, but go see this fun shark movie, with a great ensemble of actors and actresses on the big screen, because it’s exactly that; a fun movie.