May 2012
7 posts
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"PS3, I Want to See Other Gaming Consoles." -... →
When the Playstation 3 and Amazon Instant Video started dating, it was a mutually beneficial relationship - Sony got to claim it had the only gaming console that carried Amazon Instant streaming services and nerds who used their Amazon Prime account to purchase used copies ofDevil May Crywalkthroughs got to stay up to date withFringe. But recently, the fire has gone out in their relationship and...
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Jim Reviews 'Chernobyl Diaries' for The Script Lab →
If Parker were a director of any less talent, the film would entirely resemble straight-to-DVD dross. A lot of that has to do with an unremarkable script written by Peli, and Shane and Cary Van Dyke. If the names of the brothers ring a bell, it’s probably because you spend way too much time subjecting yourself to cinematic atrocities like Titanic II, Transmorphers: Fall of Man, and The Day...
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Listen to Kevin Smith Talk Even More on Hulu →
Original programming is all the rage these days with the kids streaming services. With Netflix and Amazon offering exclusive streaming content from both acclaimed filmmakers and guys or girls you probably dumped in high school, there’s an onus on Hulu to keep up with the competition. Some of the ways Hulu has tried to do this is with the docu-dramedy Battleground and by getting in bed with...
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Jim Reviews 'The Dictator' for The Script Lab →
Cohen has made a name for himself irritating America’s political and social conservatism through his fish out of water characters and The Dictator, though still conceptually in line with past titles like Borat and Bruno, is actually hindered by its narrative obligations. With Borat and Bruno (less so with the latter), the pleasure was derived from the people’s reactions that would...
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"You Guys Want Blu-rays to Load Slower, Right?" -... →
You know how Geoff is always talking about how streaming video is better than physical media and that he doesn’t believe that zippers exist and some other stuff I don’t know I don’t pay attention most of the time when he talks.
Anyway, as if instant availability on multiple services and increasing image quality in streaming video weren’t helping his cause enough, the U.S....
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Pay-TV Subscriptions as Dead as Paul McCartney →
The reasons that cable networks are fighting Aereo so hard and moving towards authentication with Hulu is because they’re trying to stay relevant in a day and age where TV viewers are actively and regularly moving toward cutting the cord from pay-TV subscriptions. Seeing as you can catch practically any TV show from either Hulu, Amazon Instant or its respective network’s website,...
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Jim Reviews 'The Avengers' for The Script Lab →
These moments are born out of Whedon’s understanding of the characters, but he should be lauded for more than just his ability to assemble previously fleshed out characters into a solid blockbuster. There’s a real sense of love and appreciation that permeates The Avengers in the individual moments of achievement they’re all given and the amount of time they all get to kick...
April 2012
2 posts
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Jim Reviews 'The Cabin in the Woods' for The... →
On a superficial level, most may be satisfied with the jump scares, the flesh and Marty’s oafish nature, but the ones who’ll really flock to this film, the ones who’ll spread the word and watch it over and over again on DVD, are the horror fanatics, the ones who know the formulas and can appreciate deviation or deconstruction of them. In the 80s, these folks saw through the...
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Jim Reviews 'The Hunter' for The Script Lab →
“When Dafoe is on his own trekking through the Australian wilderness, Nettheim uses the opportunity to explore the geography expansively. The locales, which range from rushing rivers, to claustrophobic forests, to snowy mountains, are gorgeous and seemingly infinite, casting an awesome dichotomy between the insignificance of one man and the significance of permanently losing a piece of...
March 2012
12 posts
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Episode 3 - "DOUBLE STUF AEREOS" →
Jim & Geoff return from covering the Oscars (and hunting for Nazi gold) for an extended edition of Queue The Day. We discuss the predictable legal battles over Barry Diller’s Aereo streaming service, catch up on what we’ve been watching, and then dig in to our favorite (and least favorite) adaptations.
Direct link to this week’s podcast (mp3).
Subscribe to Queue The Day in...
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Jim Reviews '4:44 The Last Day on Earth' for The... →
“Mankind’s existence is perpetuated on the idea of building toward the future. Just take a look at the things you own and pause for a minute to realize how many purchases you’ve made and actions you’ve taken to ensure that some situation will be handled should it come up in the future. You buy a new car because you know you’ll need to get somewhere. You buy food...
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Eli Roth's Return to Directing Will Be Netflix... →
Eli Roth, who has apparently been licking his directorial wounds sinceHostel: Part IItanked in 2007, is shaking off the rust to direct the pilot of a Netflix exclusive series “Hemlock Grove,” which he will also be executive producing.
The series, based on Brian McGreevy’s gothic horror novel, has been described as “a sly blend of J.D. Salinger and Mary Shelley” by...
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Dear Subscribers, You Can't Sue Us Ever for... →
If you’re like me, then none of you ever read the terms & conditions for anything. Netflix knows this and loves you for it because they’re counting on your apathy to overlook their new terms of service, which will ask that you surrender your right to sue them for anything. Ever. Including murder [Editor’s note: That last part is 100% speculative].
I’m no legal...
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To Fox, PBS and Univision, Barry Diller Is a Boy... →
If you’ve been paying attention to our podcast for the last few weeks, you should be familiar with the hullabaloo surrounding the launch of Aereo supported by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp., the subsequent lawsuits launched by companies who feel their copyrights and have been infringed, and the even more subsequenter counter suits that Diller filed against ABC, CBS, NBCUniversal...
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Jim Reviews 'Jeff, Who Lives at Home' for The... →
“It’s funny to me that Jeff, Who Lives at Home will only be theatrically accessible to those in major metropolitan areas because the film deals so heavily, even if not explicitly, with the theme of suburban malaise. From the mundane task requiring Jeff’s purchase of wood glue, to the cramped quarters of Pat and Linda’s second floor apartment, to the colorless drudgery of...
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Jim Reviews 'Silent House' for The Script Lab →
“Folks with a proficiency for screaming futile advice to horror film protagonists would do best to avoid Silent House as the camera’s relentless shadowing of Sarah’s every move essentially turns the entire film into one 85-minute long “don’t go in there!” sequence. Completely unhindered by any (visible) edits that would pull us out of a scene or release any...
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UltraViolet Overexposure Coming Courtesy of... →
Statistics tell us that the majority of us still buying DVDs are doing it at Wal-Mart, which accounts for up to 40% of the physical media sales in the U.S. It only makes sense then that studios hoping for a boost in the sales of UltraViolet, which stumbled out of the gate for a launch last fall, would partner with the corporate giant in an effort to push the technology.
UltraViolet, for those...
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Netflix Plays Nice with Cable Companies →
It’s long been thought by cable companies that Netflix’s streaming services combined with the advent of producing their own original content is a threat to the cable business. However, should a deal develop out of the talks currently taking place between Reed Hastings and executives at “some of the largest U.S. cable companies,” then Netflix will no longer be considered a...
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Jim Reviews 'Project X' for The Script Lab →
“The found footage genre is one that’s quickly wearing out its welcome on paper, so the idea of applying it to something other than a horror story is a way to inject life into the tired formula. But the reason found footage is so conducive to horror is because the technical and narrative limitations of such a filmmaking technique enhance the tense, mysterious atmosphere of the...
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Jim Reviews 'Gone' for The Script Lab →
“I’d imagine that by introducing the possibility of Jill being mentally unstable so early in the film, screenwriter Allison Burnett (Untraceable, Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight) assumed that this would cast of a shadow of doubt over all of the protagonist’s subsequent actions. However, in order to buy into such a hypothetical, we as audience members must accept two...
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OMG! PayTV VOD Advertising Revenue is MIA →
We at Queue The Day have a love/hate relationship with video on demand henceforth to be referred by its more easily recognized acronym, VOD. While VOD is a blessing in that it lets movie fans watch the most recently mainstream and indie releases before venues like Netflix and Redbox get them - sometimes even while they’re still playing theatrically - it’s also a curse in that the term...
February 2012
13 posts
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“She’s still confused. She thinks this is like home where one can choose from a...”
– - Rhone, Patric. “TV Is Broken”. Minimal Mac.
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Comcast Moves to Make Netflix Even Less Relevant →
With the recent announcement that Redbox will be teaming up with Verizon to institute its own streaming services, one can’t help but wonder how much business and relevance Netflix will subsequently lose. Well, when it rains it pours and the storm clouds don’t seem to be clearing up with Reed Hastings and co. anytime soon as Comcast has announced plans for Xfinity Streampix (thank God...
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Episode 2 - "NORM ANDY BEACH" →
The second episode of America’s favorite new podcast (among males with Netflix subscriptions and no jobs), Queue The Day. Featuring special guest host (and former fate-judger of your returning hosts Geoff Gresh and Jim Rohner) Andy Beach of The Video Uprising. This week Andy tells us about a new streaming service called Aereo that has its sights set on uprooting basic cable & local tv,...
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Add it Up: Crunching Numbers for Apple, Amazon,... →
“Netflix CEO Reed Hastings just tweaked a slideshow the company uses to explain its business to potential new hires. The whole presentation offers a remarkable overview of the transforming landscape of digital media today, from streaming companies like Netflix to TV networks, device makers and telecoms. In the slideshow, Hastings also announces a stunningly ambitious goal for Netflix: 60 to...
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Jim Reviews 'Safe House' for The Script Lab →
Washington’s force on screen even elevates the performance of Reynolds by contrast. Frost, we’re meant to believe, was once the ambitious and willing agent that Weston is, but decades of service in a line of work rife with conspiracies, half-truths and moral ambiguities have jaded him. Weston is the potential, Frost is the result and combining that with an already admirable...
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Episode 1 - "KNEEL BEFORE VOD" →
The premiere episode of a new podcast recommending the best in streaming video content. There are things on Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Beeblebrox, Balrog, and all the other streaming services that you should be watching. We help you queue the day. See? Hosted by Jim Rohner (@nolanfixesteeth) and Geoff Gresh (@geoffgresh). Visit us on the Internets at http://queuetheday.com.
Direct link to this...
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Our awesome theme song, custom made by robots and...
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Jim Reviews "The Innkeepers" for The Script Lab →
While we’re on the topic of said dark basement, the fact that the characters progress to a point where the motivations behind entering the unholiest of unholy horror locales is a logical progression of the narrative as opposed to genre obligation speaks volumes of West’s intelligence as a writer and director who knows that every false jump scare and every unsettling revelation...
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Redbox Looks to Challenge Netflix by Instituting... →
It’s no secret that Netflix’s stock has been dropping fast and that DVDs are qwickly becoming relics of the past (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!?). But while companies like Redbox and Blockbuster are besting Netflix in the realms of convenience (no shipping) and new releases (no 30 day waiting period), one area that Netflix has reigned supreme, and indeed, the area in which they’re...
“Although multiplatform distribution deals continue to be announced, it’s...”
– Ted Leonsis: Why Sundance Tells Us Digital Distribution is the Future | Indiewire
January 2012
9 posts
4 tags
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Suspects 'DVD... →
“Hastings told the L.A. Times, following a report that saw another 2.76 million subscribers abandon the DVDs-by-mail plan during the last three months of 2011. And while some might have chalked that up to disgruntled customers refusing to pay nearly double their membership fee just for the privilege, rather than some larger commentary on the viability of physical media, Hastings sees ...
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Jim Reviews 'Haywire' for The Script Lab
“Soderbergh has said that before there was even an idea for a Haywire script, he knew he wanted to make a movie built around Gina Carano, and it shows - she’s in every scene, she’s given the best clichéd action quips, and there’s no shortage of sequences that show off her ability to serve opponents a healthy portion of ass whooping. Haywire particularly revels in the...
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GigaOm: Netflix, Hulu and the golden age of... →
gigaom:
Hulu’s move toward original content follows similar announcements by Netflix, which is going to launch its first original series this spring as well. For both companies, going into original content is in part a reaction to the threat of being locked out of deals for popular TV shows. But it’s also part of a larger movement toward a new Hollywood, where content is produced for online-only...
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Hope: A Response to 'For the Bible Tells Me So'
This blog was originally written for Tyler Smith over at More Than One Lesson, but due to amicable differences over our interpretations of the Bible’s stance on homosexuality, it was not posted. It would’ve been simpler, I suppose, to be vague about the blog for which it was written to avoid knee-jerk assumptions about Mr. Smith or myself from readers, but I think it important to be...
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Jim's Ten Best Films of 2011
In the interest of full disclosure, I feel somewhat ill-equipped to create such a list seeing as I have not partaken in many of the films that are/will be appearing on the plethora of critics’ “Best of” lists in which the Internet is mired - Beginners, We Need to Talk About Kevin, War Horse, A Separation, Tyrannosaur, Take Shelter and Shame were all films I had intended to see,...
November 2011
1 post
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