Watching movies on blu-ray vs streaming

[BillTre]

 

[Bystander]

Not going to pay through the nose, but once it's out on blu-ray, yeah.

 

[BWV]

but once it's out on blu-ray, yeah.

do people still watch movies on plastic discs? A few years ago I had someone visit me from the future and tell me about streaming and warn me not to waste any more money on CDs and DVDs ;)

 

[BillTre]

If you got them, they are nice to use, assuming you are still able to easily do that.
I have some disks. They are easier for me to find what I have on disk and watch, than watching on a lot on line sources.

Buying them new now, they might be more expensive.
New ones, that are old and in bins in stores, I'm guessing, probably a good deal.

My visitor from the future wanted to take my disks back as antiques or archeological relics and sell them.
Our descendants had evolved to a different species by then.

 

[Bystander]

A few years ago I had someone visit me from the future and tell me about streaming and warn me not to waste any more money on CDs and DVDs ;)

Yup, of course "that" depends upon streaming sources that don't go bankrupt, or that don't bankrupt you with "fees, excise taxes, and other surcharges."

 

[DennisN]

Thanks for the info!
I didn't know there was a new Terminator movie. I'm definitely going to see it. I've actually enjoyed the sequels, at least more than I have done with the Alien franchise.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I haven't seen one since T2!

 

[BillTre]

I have seen all of the T's, I think.
I've seen the last few only on cable, places like HBO.
They were not all great as their antecedents.

Seeing them on cable is a lot cheaper, but you loose the quality of the presentation that you get in a theater. (small screen, possibly many distractions around you at home)

This matters more with some films than with others.
Some films are more cinematic.
A theater should provide this, plus they have several features that that make their presentation more appealing.
These include:
a sophisticated sound system
everything else is darkened out, so one's focus is entirely on the screen
Some films might use a wider screen ratio (wide screen) to provide visual inputs from more peripheral areas of the visual field, for some reason dramatique (foreboding?).

I'm not convinced this would have saved the last few T's (probably ≥3) would have been saved (for me) by seeing them in a theater.

I saw part of T2 getting filmed and didn't know it!
I was in a lab that moved to Berkeley. For a while I commuted back a forth between Berkeley and San Jose (some inlaws had a room we could stay in for a while). For a while, alongside the mass commuter road (660? 880? I forget) there was this really lite up, shiny building and its very well illuminated parking lot. They did that for a few days (I drove by there once at dusk/night). Then they had a helicopter hovering over it one day. Then we didn't see it any more.
Figured it out after seeing the movie.

 

[dLouie]

Thanks for the info!
I didn't know there was a new Terminator movie. I'm definitely going to see it. I've actually enjoyed the sequels, at least more than I have done with the Alien franchise.

I like the series as well, good twists on the last installation, Genisys. Expecting more from this new movie.

 

[pinball1970]

I like the series as well, good twists on the last installation, Genisys. Expecting more from this new movie.

The Sarah Connor chronicles? I thought that was really good and they canceled it.

 

[dLouie]

The Sarah Connor chronicles? I thought that was really good and they canceled it.

Yeah, Sarah Connor chronicles could have been a good series.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Why can't this series get it's act together? It hasn't been good since T2 and the story material seems interesting. Every movie seems to be the same plot.

 

[BillTre]

Why can't this series get it's act together? It hasn't been good since T2 and the story material seems interesting. Every movie seems to be the same plot.

Well now that you mention it...

Origin stories are almost always better than those that follow.

T1 was a kind of origin story and T2 had: A) quite different new T plus B) Arnold as a friendly.
T2 also had a lot of humor which was used in character development of T2 and Arnold, such as Arnold in the bar, Wolfie, and various gruesome physical humor type jokes.

It might be interesting to compare a couple other well known series:
Alien 1 & 2 were both good but in different ways. A1 was an ultimate example of of a suspense type monster film. A2 was an ultimate run and gun film. Both of them used a lot of small humorous events in charactor development of of minor characters. A1 had a lot of really great actors. Big plus.
Later Aliens not so good in my opinion. Too serious (as I recall)

Predator 1, which I liked, also had a lot of humor (I don't have time to bleed) and a bunch of good actors.
P2 was different, not as good (IMHO) and I don't recall as much humor or interest in minor characters.
Recent predator films (didn't really like the predators vs. aliens) are interesting cases.
The remake of Predators (on another planet) not so good and I don't recall much humor.
The recent remake of predator, on the other hand, I really liked. It had a lot of humor used to develop interesting minor characters that you cared about.

Among the Marvel movies, I kind of stopped seeing a lot of them, but I really like Ironman 1, lots of humor, and major character development of Ironman.
I also like films where Loki gets a lot of screen time. I find mischievous characters entertaining.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Origin stories are almost always better than those that follow.

What I want is a movie series that revolves around the beginnings of the machine apocalypse, those scenes and story seem really intense and maybe humanity is not totally doomed (also a Matrix beginnings would be great). THAT is interesting. We've already seen movies where the Terminator has to go back in time to kill someone who might change history. That has been done every single movie.

 

[gmax137]

I went to the theater with a (female) friend to see the first Terminator, when it first came out. She didn't really want to see it. About halfway through she asked "why didn't you tell me this was a love story?"

As far as I can tell that angle was washed out of all the sequels. Too bad.

 

[gmax137]

do people still watch movies on plastic discs?

I do, the RedBox movies are less than $2. At that price, I'm willing to take chances and rent movies with cool cover art.

 

[pinball1970]

What I want is a movie series that revolves around the beginnings of the machine apocalypse, those scenes and story seem really intense and maybe humanity is not totally doomed (also a Matrix beginnings would be great). THAT is interesting. We've already seen movies where the Terminator has to go back in time to kill someone who might change history. That has been done every single movie.

You really haven't seen past T2?
There is a big drop from 3 to 2 but T Genisys was good.

I went to the theater with a (female) friend to see the first Terminator, when it first came out. She didn't really want to see it. About halfway through she asked "why didn't you tell me this was a love story?"

As far as I can tell that angle was washed out of all the sequels. Too bad.

Yes T1 had absolutely everything, it was sci fi, a thriller, action at parts horror and also quite beautiful at times, a tragedy.
'I came across time for you Sarah, I love you and I always have.'
Top 5 movie for me and I think I have cut across 3 threads with this post.

 

[russ_watters]

View attachment 252111

Evidently the "I'm here to stop you from seeing it" group won -- it's on pace to lose money.

 

[russ_watters]

do people still watch movies on plastic discs? A few years ago I had someone visit me from the future and tell me about streaming and warn me not to waste any more money on CDs and DVDs ;)

Maybe deserving of its own thread...

What do you do about the problem of lack of recent movies or other content with streaming services? It's like you have to subscribe to every service and then check which ones have deals with which production companies and even then I'm not sure every new movie is available. Worse, it changes over time (there's actually frequent news articles and even a website dedicated to the issue). To me its a dealbreaker and why I will continue to use Netflix primarily for the physical discs; you can get everything.

 

[BWV]

can rent most anything online through Amazon or my cable company

 

[russ_watters]

can rent most anything online through Amazon or my cable company

You have to pay individually for the cable company rentals don't you? And last I checked (I'll check again), the selection on Prime was very thin.

 

[BWV]

Yes and pay individually for Amazon rentals (not the stuff free on prime) but it’s cheaper and more convenient than buying a dvd that gets scratched and becomes unwatchable