I Want My Zodiac SE
Dear Paramount,
It’s time for you to give up this HD-DVD exclusivity nonsense. I don’t know how much Microsoft is paying you, but to paraphrase the Big Lebowski “Your revolution is over, Mr. Gates. Condolences. The bums lost.” Sack up and make the switch.
You see, 6 months ago, I didn’t give a rat’s ass about your HD-DVD copy of Sahara or your Tomb Raider. Sewage is sewage in any resolution. The thing is, now you’ve now got this sweet new
2-disc director’s cut of Zodiac and that changes everything.
Zodiac is a movie that begs to be seen in high definition. The problem is, in the infinite wisdom of the bean counting douche bags who run things (this includes you. I don’t know your names, but don’t believe for a second that you’re not among the guilty), there are still two competing HiDef DVD technologies.
This is the height of greed and stupidity which is compounded by the fact that you only support one technology and I just happen to own the other. That’s right, I have Blu-Ray. It came with my video game system and I’m not forking over the money for a 2nd player that will play HD-DVD.
I’m also not buying Zodiac until you come to your senses.
You’ve already dropped the ball on this movie once when, in a flash of scheduling brilliance, you dumped it like a bastard from a basket in the movie-going arctic desert of March. It’s one of the best movies of the year and you know it. Now is your chance to atone for your sins. All I ask is that, for once in your lives, you look deep inside yourselves and stop being assholes.
Seriously. Do the right thing.
In the words of another Coen Brothers film: “You can’t stop what’s coming.”
Think about it.
Respectfully yours,
Craig Kennedy
Filed under: Opinion
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Hehe, well, as blu-ray seems to be on the winning hand, you probably made the right choice. But yeah, it’s annoying that there are two competing formats. I don’t have enough money to buy either, so I’m just waiting it out. I somehow don’t think we need an improvement on DVD, but I’ve been told seeing it for myself will blow my mind. On my big, but old-fashionedly bulgy TV, I doubt there would be that much difference.
Zodiac is growing on me, incidentally. I almost bought it on DVD today (my train arrived before I could make up my mind), and every time I see a screen shot from it the whole mood of it comes back to me.
I wasn’t prepared to commit either way (and frankly I was happy with standard DVD) but then they dropped the price on Playstation last summer so I figured “what the hell?”
Glad to see you warming up to Zodiac a little bit. Not that your initial reaction was wrong or anything, but I do think it’s one of those movies that improves with repeat viewings. I say that only having seen it twice and not for many months, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Those damn running-on-time snelle treinen! You should try Amtrak trains - you’ll always have an extra 15 minutes to make up your mind when waiting for them.
Man, you bloody foreigners always bagging on the US! (heh heh)
It’s not easy adapting to third world standards :-)
Aahahahah.
haha, well, considering the train is the mode of transportation I use most - after biking, of course- I’m kind of happy that they run on time. That, and the chain they have in stations is… well, they have cheap stuff. But they might just as well be selling bread or underpants, that’s how much love for and knowledge of their product they have.
I’m opening a new store called “Bread ‘n’ Underpants”
It’s going to be HUGE. Look out Walmart.
Honestly, I don’t mind that Zodiac was released in March. Bravo, Paramount. Though it was probably unintended in this case, I think great movies should be released throughout the year. Spread the wealth around. People (not me) fork up money for Wild Hogs and its ilk because there wasn’t anything better playing at the time. There’s no good reason for the best films to be dumped in the month prior to Christmas, while the rest of the year is basically a wasteland.
Now, if only we could get some quality programmers/star vehicles/genre flicks, maybe every time of the year could be a good one for movie lovers.
I have no vested interest in either HD format as I have better things (like college tuition) to spend my hard earned bucks on than technology that will be antiquated in 6 months.
WJ, yeah, I tend to agree. Why is Winter the time when movie theaters overflow with crap but run dry of quality? I’m assuming far smarter folks with MBAs and slide rules already determined that beyond a shadow of a doubt, Jan-Mar is a dead zone but why can’t they turn that around?
There’s only basketball as a major American sport to compete. Network TV is very hit and miss in Winter and most consumers have nothing better to do than curl up in a theater.
They made the weeks between Memorial day and July 4th hot for popcorn the month of December awards fodder time. Why can’t Winter be a time for some good movies (and I’m not talking about the foreign/indie awards fodder that only ends up in 2nd and 3rd tier markets like mine well after the New Year).
It’s somewhat shameful that a marketing machine as saavy as Hollywood has thrown up their hands over Winter.
At least the Trailblazers are doing well.
I’m all for great movies the year round. I would’ve seen it whenever it came out, but I’m pretty sure Paramount wasn’t interested in expanding the movie release window. They were dumping it because their tiny little minds couldn’t grasp what they had on their hands.
Jeez, what’s with the bug up my ass this week? Next week I promise it’ll be all Rainbow Brite and Care Bears.
Those bugs are using you as a transmitter.
Zodiac may have been a better Oscar contender if Paramount waited until later to release it, but I doubt it would’ve made much more than $50 million. Even Sweeney Todd, with deceptive marketing, Johnny Depp, and it’s musical following is hardly a box office winner. With the overall quality of films this year, Zodiac may not have even benefited too much on the Oscar front by a late release.
Regardless, everyone loses by a release schedule where the best films are packed in at the end. If a film is good enough and marketed correctly (another area where Paramount dropped the ball with Zodiac), it can become a hit at any time of the year.
I don’t think there’s any way Zodiac was every going to be some kind of blockbuster, but it should’ve done better than $33 million.
Oscars are a tougher call because it’s a crowded year…of course they could’ve released it in December 06 like they’d originally planned.
You’re right though, having all the good movies at the end of the year is bogus. Unfortunately, as long as Oscars are a key marketing tool for quality movies and as long as the studios think the Academy has no memory, nothing is going to change on that front.
It would help if there weren’t a dozen movies coming out every week, meaning that only a handful of films survive in theaters for more than 6 weeks if they’re lucky. The system punishes anything that isn’t easily explainable or digestable. True, a movie like Zodiac wasn’t going to burn up the box office but if it had the room to breathe it might have developed an audience.
Course, now I’m dredging up the corpse of my favorite horse to beat this year: Why the Media Buggered the Box Office on Assassination of Jesse James or How I Learned to Stop Loving the Traditional Tiered Release System of Film Distribution and Be Cranky About It.
It’s a wonderful tirade but I’ll spare you and say: thank F’ing god for DVD.
I actually wish HD-DVD and Blu-Ray would go away.
I have an HD-DVD player and HD enabled TV, but only the crappy films are released in SA as HD-DVDs, and I have too many normal DVD’s [which are more than good quality anyway] to care for buying HD anything.