The Bodyguard, Netflix, and Your Right to Access Promised Content

UPDATE:  Check with TechDirt for a significant correction on this story. Apparently this video was removed from the streaming catalog before Whitney Houston’s death.  While that does mean Warner Brothers did not behave as cynically as I believed, the fact that that there was confusion about the date really rather supports my point.  If you expect a video to be in the catalog, you expect it to find it.  

If you were planning to watch The Bodyguard on Netflix, you’re out of luck. According to this post on TechDirt, it’s been pulled. Unless you’re a huge Whitney Houston fan, you probably won’t notice. It’s not a good movie and you probably weren’t planning to watch it. It’s got some great music, but the soundtrack is available separately. If you were planning to watch it, you are probably really annoyed and need to make other plans. I feel your pain, because I’ve been there. It happens far too often, digitally distributed media has a tendency to just disappear, usually due to rights issues.

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Making Bad Movies Fun

The Razzies are annual awards saluting the worst Hollywood has to offer.

I saw a really bad movie on Friday. Never mind which. One of the things I enjoy about writing this blog is that I get to be a critic without being critical, so I generally only write about works of art that I’d like to endorse. My mom would be proud that I am following her injunction to refrain from saying anything at all if you can’t say anything nice. So never mind the title. The point is that for two hours I was in a theater watching a movie that, had I know better, I would not have watched, let alone paid $12 for!!

The way I see it, when you are in that situation, your options are limited. You’ve paid a significant amount of money for a ticket. Which is more of a waste: losing the time you will spend watching a movie you aren’t enjoying, or losing the money you spent on the ticket? Theaters do not refund the ticket price because you didn’t like to movie. Moreover, its not always a straight-forward choice. For example, maybe you are at the theater with friends who want to stay.

Well, there is a third option.
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The Weary Kind

Ok, so maybe I’m just a little bit obsessed with this guy’s music, but I’ve got to share this video with you. This is “The Weary Kind“, written by T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham, and performed by the latter. Ryan Bingham is just amazing, but I’ve said that in this blog before. This song is one of his best. It’s haunting in itself, but I can’t imagine many people with a voice better able to convey to lyrics and sentiment in them than Bingham. But I don’t have to describe it, do I? Give it listen. Then rush on over to this page in Amazon.com where you can hear more samples and buy the music too. I suspect you will want to.

Having a work ethic that matches the corporate culture will help the graduate integrate into the company quickly. 3- Having a Positive Attitude cialis cheap generic – Having a positive attitude is very important in business today. In order to minimize the risks associated with the intake of the pill are headache, nausea, 100mg viagra for sale constipation, drowsiness etc, but these fade away without the need of any other medication. This anti-impotency drug is helpful for the entire period of sexual intercourse. purchase levitra online These online assessment sites aren’t connected online levitra with online drug stores to keep the opinions biased-free, honest, and reliable.

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Justin Timberlake to Play Social Networking Entrepeneur

There have been a lot of reports about a new movie about the beginning of Facebook, most of which have focused on the film’s star. I’m more intrigued by the writer. Sports Night, The West Wing, even the ill-fated Studio 60, Sorkin has given us a lot of good entertainment.

BBC News reports:

Film trade paper Variety said the singer would play Sean Parker, who became Facebook’s founding president.

David Fincher is directing The Social Network, which was scripted by The West Wing‘s Aaron Sorkin.

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The movie will focus on the overnight success of Facebook, which was created in 2004 on the campus of Harvard University.

Sean Parker

Sean Parker

Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake



Opening sequence from the first episode of the first season of Studio 60 Live from the Sunset Strip. Small wonder the show didn’t last on network tv.

Julie and Julia, a near perfect film

I wanted to post this review on Flixster, but it got too long, so here it is in its entirety.

I was bowled over by every aspect of Julie and Julia. It was masterfully directed, well staged, well costumed, well lit, etc. Meryl Streep at her worst is pretty damn good and in this she is at her best. It is great fun to see her play Julia Child, such a larger than life personality. The rest of the cast turns in rather outstanding performances as well. Jane Lynch is brilliant in her brief appearance as Julia’s sister.

That said, what I really want to talk about here, is the narrative. The biographical narrative of Julia Child is definitely the more engaging story, but it weaves together nicely with Julie Powell‘s story and the film becomes a nice study by contrast of both characters.

Though she embarks on her project several decades later, Julie is essentially a foil for Julia. I don’t know whether it made me appreciate Julia’s perseverance even more or it just made me marvel at just how spoiled, self-indulgent and impatient Julie, and let’s face it, her generation, present company included, is.

Julia is an older woman taking years to realize the dream of publishing a cookbook, one that had phenomenal cultural impact, to be sure, but she didn’t know that at the time. Julie also publishes a book, but she does so by literally following the directions set down by Julia. Both began their quest because they had reached a point where they were floundering and bored with their careers. Both succeed with the support of patient, loving husbands, but Julia spent years trying to convince publishers her project was valid. Her fate was in the hands of others. Julie picked up a computer and started a blog. The public decided its validity.

So Julie’s quest takes only a year, yet even then her frustration level is so high she almost gives up over something as simple as a dropped dish. The crises Julie encounters are small, mole hills made into mountains. Julia’s crises are mountains but she treats them like mole hills. She has breakdowns, but those that she has are over major traumas, such as the realization that she won’t be a mother in spite of her deepest desires. And yet her reaction on screen looks very much like the reaction Julie has over a ruined dish.

It is such an unbelievably poignant moment because we sense that her heart is cracking, but that she is bearing it stoically, pulling it back together like the omelet in the scene so often shown in the previews for the movies. These are private crises, shared only by her and her husband. They are the only ones in the kitchen and only they will know what happened!

So many critics have been critical of the film because they find Julie’s story less compelling than Julia’s and thus that the film is slower and less fun in those parts. I share that assessment. But I don’t think the sole purpose of the film is to entertain. Nora Ephron twined the stories together that way for a reason and it is part of what makes the film so compelling. Julie Powell knew she was following in Julia Child’s footsteps, and that is why she made the butter offering to the portrait of Julia in the end.
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