Film Strip

We’re going to try a new Friday Blog segment here at Film Strip. I’m tentatively calling it, “What’s Friday’s Entertainment?” The basic premise is that we will look at 1) What movies are coming out, 2) What movies are tops in the box office, 3) What DVD/Blu-Ray might be better, or 4) a Wildcard of my choosing.

So here we go!

1) What movies are coming out?

• Limitless
• Paul
• The Lincoln Lawyer
• Win Win (limited)

2) What’s tops at the box office?

1. Battle: Los Angeles
2. Rango
3. Red Riding Hood
4. The Adjustment Bureau
5. Mars Needs Moms

3) What DVD/Blu-Ray might be better?

• (Pretty much anything)

4) Wildcard!

• March Madness

This week is a no-brainer for me. I think we’re in a calm before the Summer Blockbuster Storm for movies in the theater right now. The new releases aren’t that great looking, and you can watch any number of older movies that would be better than the tops at the box office. Plus we’re in the middle of the first weekend of March Madness, also known as the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament.

Even if you’re not a college basketball fan, which I do not necessarily protest to be as evidence by the fact that I might watch 5 regular season games a year, you have to love March Madness. I seriously watch more games during the tournament than I do in the regular season.

It’s fun, it only happens once a year, and I promise the movies will get better in the coming weeks.

So along with canceling the Cable after a long personal struggle, I also subscribed to Netflix!

“Whoa Brian. Don’t you create a comic and blog about movies? How are you not already a Netflix subscriber?”

Good question…for which I do not have a good answer. I guess it’s just been perceived value pared with a former need to own things.

What do I mean by that?

Well, as long-time readers know, I used to have a problem with buying movies. for some reason, I thought I needed to have and own all the movies that I thought were good. Soon that turned into a lot of movies on a DVD shelf that I wasn’t watching. I just had them. Many unopened!

At the time when I made the decision to diminish my home video collection, Netflix wasn’t the same service it is now. The instant streaming wasn’t as robust as it is now, and I had heard that mailing times weren’t as good as they are now. Plus, there was Blockbuster Online to consider.

That has all changed. Blockbuster is on it’s last leg. Where it was once the giant that killed local video stores, it has now been backed into a corner by the new heavy-weight that is Netflix.

Also, Netflix’ instant streaming is pretty awesome. I can watch movies on my Mac, through my PS3, and on my iPhone. When I finally realized that I could do that, and when I saw the instant streaming selection, it was a no-brainer.

Some people may complain that the instant streaming doesn’t have all the new movies, but to tell you the truth, for my purposes of searching the recesses of my past movie knowledge for comedic purposes, being able to stream Romancing the Stone is amazing.

I don’t want to gush too much because I know there are many out there who know all about Netflix and think I’m dumb for waiting so long, but with my recent transition of canceling Cable and subscribing to Netflix, I feel like I have been liberated.

I should also mention that Netflix has those TV shows that I had given up with Cable. And remember back when I made this post about Lost? Well I’ve discovered this show for myself, and I’ve been hooked for weeks!

So much for canceling Cable to become more productive…Stay Tuned!

That’s right Film Strippers, I finally cancelled my Cable.

I’m no longer a slave to the horrible time-sucks that Cable TV has to offer such as Jersey Shore and sporting events involving teams I don’t care about. Sure Cable has a lot to offer, but in my situation, I neither wanted it anymore, nor did I need it.

Personally, I run a website promoting a comic about movies. Any time spent watching unimportant TV shows is a complete time-waste for me. I should be cartooning, which, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve dropped the ball on more than once over the last year.

I choose to blame Cable.

Yes, there is some excellent programming on Cable TV, but it’s nothing I can’t watch by multiple means on the internet either through Hulu or even the network’s own website. (And don’t even mention Facebook. If their On-Demand service turns out to be the predominant way we view our entertainment, then the world is in store for much bigger problems.) While I was once hesitant about streaming video and On-Demand services, I’ve come around to seeing this as the way we will all be viewing TV and movies sooner rather than later. Who can sit around and wait for scheduled time-slots put in place by the stations? Anyone who’s had a DVR for more than a day knows that watching TV on someone else’s time-schedule is a thing of the past.

I also have another personal problem with Cable TV, and that’s Comcast. Comcast is my local provider, and I’ve had others in the past like Time-Warner and AT&T U-Verse (U-Verse was the best by far), and I must say that Comcast is horrible. I don’t care what they say about this new Xfinity junk. It’s just the same junk with a new name. The menu’s are slow, the remote is unresponsive, and the signal is less than reliable. All-in-all, I’ve had Comcast at three separate residences, and I’ve come to despise the service every time. So, there’s a little of that going into my decision to cut the Cable.

Also, for some reason not everyone knows that you can still get free network TV with an antenna. Plus, it’s broadcast in HD. And not only is it HD, but it’s better picture quality than any Cable company can provide. Imagine that.

So long story short, the Cable is gone, I’ve okayed it with my wife, we’ll still be aware of pop-culture and TV shows, but hopefully I’ll have more time to bring you top-quality movie-related comics!

…Oh, and we finally got Netflix 🙂

(Stay tuned!)