Movies

Take.fm – a cross between Netflix and The Pirate Bay

One of the websites that helped me change my opinion on movie piracy recently was Take.fm . Something tells me that it will be shut down and humiliated by authorities when it will grow, but for as long as it is open, I think that it is a good example of how movie access should be.

Take.fm is a cross between the famous American video-on-demand service Netflix and the well-known pirated content exchange website The Pirate Bay. Take.fm brings the best of both worlds. Netflix, from what I hear, has an excellent selection of content and very user friendly interface. Too bad it is not available outside of the United States. And unfortunately to some – it is a commercial service. The Pirate Bay, on the hand, is free and offers pretty much the same content. However, most of this content is buried in tonnes of noise, porn, SPAM, and such. It’s not easy to find what you want, and when you get it, nobody can guarantee you the quality of the downloaded material.

Take.fm has a very easy, straight-forward interface. You can browse or search for movies. Poster thumbnails are a great help. Once you find something interesting, you can check IMDB rating which is integrated with the website (finally, somebody did it!), select your option for either DVDRip or BDRip (yes, Bluray), and click “Download Torrent File”. I don’t see how it could have been simpler, really.

While the selection of titles might be not as great as you’d find on Apple TV or Netflix, there is enough for everyone. They have new releases, old movies, and classics. They have movies in all genres. The quality of downloads is awesome. And the download speeds are amazing. At least my ADSL line is maxed out every time I get something from there. And the best part is that you don’t even have to register. You can, but you don’t have to. I, for one, am not registered yet.

If the movie industry wants me to change my opinion back, they have to come up with something as good or better as Take.fm – an excellent example to follow.

Men in Black II

Just a couple of weeks ago I posted a trailer for “Men in Black II” and said that I somehow missed it this movie altogether. And here I am, holding a copy of “Men in Black II” in my hands. Not that I was looking for it in particular, but I got it via a concerned reader of this blog. Thanks Alex.

The film is a sequel to the first part and is very similar in a lot of ways. It is a light entertainment with a few bits of sci-fi in it. Both Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are in it. With quite a few aliens and big guns.

This part however is not as good as the original movie. It tries to be, but it’s not. It is entertaining and funny sometimes. But it’s much weaker in every way – less action, simpler story, etc. I still enjoyed watching it and it also made want to watch the first film again.

Overall, 3 out of 5. Watch it if you have nothing else in your queue, but don’t spend any time looking for this movie. Don’t expect much either, and you’ll probably enjoy it.

Toy Story 3

Pretty much every Pixar animation release is an event for our family. This time it was even a bigger one than usual. “Toy Story 3” was the first 3D for Maxim. All three of us went together – Olga, Maxim, and myself. While Maxim can sit through a full length feature with no problem, we were worried a bit that he could get distracted by the glasses a lot. So we went for the both parents combo, just in case. Gladly, we were able to enjoy it from beginning to end with no interruptions. Maxim did experimented with the glasses for a bit, putting them on and off, but eventually he settled and started watching.

We were actually waiting for this movie to come out. Maxim is a big fan of the previous two parts, which we have on DVD, and which he watched more than a trillion times by now. He also owns at least Buzz Lightyear toys, one Woody toy, and a bunch of other accessories. And, of course, he quotes both animations quite a bit.

As with many other Pixar works, this one was even better than we expected. Even with raised expectations. Everything was awesome – the story, the animation, the score, the voices, the attention to each and every tiny detail. As always, there was a good combination of action, comedy, and morale, engaging both kids and adults.

The 3D was great! Unlike other 3D titles which flood the movie industry these days, this one is an animation. Which means that it can be rendered to quality 3D much easier, than re-shooting the film.

Overall, all three of us enjoyed it quite a bit, and I am sure this is not the last time we saw it. So I’ll give it a 5 out of 5. This is a must see family entertainment.

P.S.: Traditionally, Pixar opens its features with a short animation. This time it was “Day & Night” and it was awesome too!

My new stand on movie piracy

I have changed my opinion on movie piracy during the last few days.

Until recently I was strictly anti-piracy. Maybe not strict enough, but stricter than anyone I know personally. I wasn’t downloading movies from the Web. I was buying DVDs. I was renting DVDs. I was a frequent movie-goer. I was advocating people against movie piracy. I was wrong.

I am tired of being the “last samurai” pain in the butt. Nobody cares anymore. And the worst part, is that movie industry doesn’t care. Why should I then?

There is no way anymore for me keep watching movies, while staying an anti-pirate. I cannot rent a legitimate DVD anymore – everyone is using pirated and copy-pasted disks. I cannot share films with my friends, most of who are downloading them from the Web. There is no video-on-demand service around here, like Netflix in the USA. Our home ADSL speeds aren’t in the AppleTV ranges yet. And I can’t stay up-to-date using only cinemas, because all of the cinemas in Cyprus belong to the same people, they show the same movies, and they bring only about one new titles a week.

There is an option of buying DVDs from Amazon, but the prices (including shipping) are prohibitive, and, as I was reminded with my recent DVD player change, I have to pay attention to the regional encoding. Otherwise the DVDs that I bought won’t play at all. Oh, and, of course, if they play, I will have to go through a gadzillion of un-skip-able ads, trailers, FBI and CIA warnings, and the like. I am tired of this crap.

So, from now on, I won’t be paying much attention to all the movie anti-piracy noise. I will still try to get the movie legally – in the cinema or pay-per-view somewhere online, or whatever option will be available. But if everything fails, as it often does now, I will download and watch the pirated version. I have tried it recently, and it is a pleasure, indeed. It’s easy to find the film I want to see, it takes minutes to download it (compared to days or weeks waiting for it in the cinema or for a shipping delivery), I can talk about it with my friends again, and I can move on spending times on the things that I worth spending time on.

I tried my best and failed miserably, annoying a lot of people on the way. I won’t do it anymore.

P.S.: I won’t be producing or commercially distributing any pirated materials.

P.P.S.: The above opinion change for now only applies to the TV and movie industry. Software industry is different and I still stand strict on the anti-piracy stand there.

P.P.P.S.: If you were annoyed by my anti-piracy rants over the years, please excuse me. You should know how passionate and stubborn I can get, often for no reason.

Apocalypse Now

The last time I saw “Apocalypse Now” was probably back in high-school, and it was with the Russian translation. So I think it’s fair to say that I haven’t seen this movie until now. I saw parodies, some scenes, and heard a lot, but I never actually sat down and watched it from beginning to end. Until yesterday.

What can I say? There’s probably nothing that I can say that haven’t been said about this movie already. It is, after all, a classic. And it’s even better in the version that I watched – digitally remastered director’s cut, lasting 3 hours and 22 minutes.

Two things that I liked about watching old films are actors and music. Who even remembers any actors from this film, except for the Martin Sheen, who plays the main character? He wasn’t alone there, was he? Of course not. Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford, and even a very young Laurence Fishburne are there as well.

As for the music, it was an interesting contrast. Some pieces sound as good now as they did back then. These include tracks by The Doors and The Rolling Stones. Others, mostly background loops and orchestrated pieces, stand out and awake you from the view, reminding that many years passed since it was released, and that things are done differently now.

Surprisingly, the special effects, costumes, and the make-up stuff still looks nice. There is not much action in this film, so maybe that’s why those background explosions and shooting don’t attract too much attention.

Overall, as I said, the film is a classic and a must see for anyone interested in great actors and directors, movie history, or the genre of war drama. 5 out of 5.