Yeah, Yeah...I Know...It's Late...

Before you say anything, I know. It's late. But it's OK. Honest. I've been busy, you know, working and watching movies, and traveling all over western Canada. But now I'm back, and I'm writing (well, by the time you're reading this, I've technically written...but I'll forgive it if you will)...

Anyhow, onto bigger and better things than pointing out the obvious.

Last week, I discussed the late, great Owen Hart, and I'll just offer a brief update this week. Owen's funeral was held hear on Monday, and about 1,500 people turned out outside the funeral home where his services were held. I didn't watch CNN or any of those broadcasts, so I don't know if they covered it, but it was the top story for the local broadcasts. Regardless, Owen's wife offered a very touching eulogy, and I was impressed that so many people showed up to say goodbye.

One other thing I'd like to touch on is the WWF's handling of the situation. I was willing to give the WWF a thumb's up until they played footage from Owen's funeral on Monday Night Raw. Owen's wife specifically asked that this not be shown on any WWF programs because it would be exploitative (and she's right). She specifically told Vince McMahon this ahead of time, and he went ahead and did it anyhow. For years I've watched wrestling deteriorate, and I think I've finally had enough. I won't be tuning into another WWF broadcast until after Vince McMahon is gone. The man is a sleazeball, no more, no less.

OK...on to some DVD related stuff for a change.

I received an email from some of the people over at Sharpline Arts, who produce supplemental materials for DVDs (documentaries, et al). Anyhow, they're most recent work has just been released in the form of the Alien special edition DVD, and the controversial "fifth disc" that goes along with the Alien Legacy four pack.

The disc is controversial not because of its content, but instead for the fact that it's only available to purchasers of the entire four pack, and that it was initially intended for inclusion directly on the Alien disc. Suffice it to say, given the multitude of extras on the disc (including a Sharpline Arts produced audio commentary with director Ridley Scott), there wasn't enough room, so the documentary was shifted to a fifth disc which can only be ordered by mail. While I'm not terribly happy with Fox for their distribution method, there are two good things about it. One, the documentary is being released (after all, they don't HAVE to release anything), and two, I believe in rewarding people who make bigger purchases, and Fox has done this by offering the fifth disc only to those people who purchase the entire Alien Legacy series.

Fox was supposed to have sent me screener copies of the DVDs, but I haven't received them as of yet. If I don't get them by Friday, I'm going to assume I was lost in the shuffle and just buy the four pack. If I end up with two sets, I guess we'll just give one set away on the site - damn you lucky readers.

Sharpline Arts also has some other material out there in the form of the outstanding special edition DVD of The Thing. I haven't had opportunity to thoroughly peruse this disc as of yet, but once I do I'll be sure to post a review.

And one more upcoming Sharpline Arts project, The Last Starfighter DVD. A lot of people I know aren't big fans of this film because the CGI effects work is obviously very early. I'm a huge fan for exactly the opposite reason. The Last Starfighter represented (to me at least) the turning point when special effects were not limited by what you could build as a model. I'm really looking forward to Sharpline's work on this disc, since I've read that the included documentary goes into great detail on how the effects were accomplished at the time the film was made. I've requested a screener from Universal, and Catherine S. Pierce (no relation) over there at Sharpline has offered to bully the appropriate people if necessary...

As a last Sharpline Arts note, once I've had a chance to better peruse their materials, I've arranged to do an interview with David C. Fein who is the producer of the special edition content on the Alien DVD (among other things). I plan on really grilling him about what goes into these supplements (so be prepared, David!). Hopefully I'll be able to arrange the interview for sometime next week (I'll make sure to warn you all when it's coming).

I notice that Jeffrey Wells made mention of this site over in his column at mrshowbiz.go.com. Thanks Jeffrey! We appreciate the exposure. I've mentioned Mr. Wells' column here before, but just let me reiterate. He offers a wonderful alternative to the "happy" entertainment journalism out there. It's almost a gossip column, but it's gossip about the business rather than the people (i.e. you'll read about production problems on the latest Universal flick, but not about how Tom Cruise likes to prance around naked in his back yard). Ironically enough, now that I've said that, Wells' editorial at this point mentions how disgustingly saccharine all the entertainment television (i.e. Entertainment Tonight, Showbiz Today, et al) is. I have to concur. I've been known to vegetate in front of ET from time to time, but I think it has more to do with Mary Hart's voice temporarily lobotomizing me than anything else (same thing happens to me whenever I flip past Baywatch). Anyhow, for those of you who are entertainment junkies like me, I'd highly recommend Jeffrey's column. It's published twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays usually...or maybe it's early Wednesday and Friday mornings...I can never keep track. It doesn't really matter, though, because Mr. Showbiz is easily the best resource on the web for entertainment news and should be checked religiously at least five times a day.

Another feature Jeffrey's been running as of late it a series of short mentions called "Very Bad Things" where he covers moronic clichés in movies. He's covered cats who yowl for no reason (he's obviously never met my two cats...), and clip on earrings among other things. There are a number of things like this in flicks, and lots of them do no less than absolutely piss me off.

Working in the computer industry, one of my major pet peeves would be almost anything written about computers in screenplays. From moronic techno-gibberish to computers being taken hostage from remote locations, the majority of computer-related plotlines in movies are just dumb. My best example of this...the end of Jurassic Park, "this is UNIX...I KNOW this." UGH!

I also hate the fact that every single secure building in a movie has a vent which can be used to enter an exit any portion of the building. Want to escape from Alcatraz? Use the air conditioning system. Want to break into the Pentagon? Use the air ducts, you fool!

I could go on for days about this kind of thing, though, so I'll leave that to Jeffrey (but I think I will email him the air duct thing...).

Now, to go from talking about Jeffrey Wells to lifting shamelessly from him. The quote of the week.

Nobody got last week's quote, which surprised me. I figured it was pretty obvious.

The quote is from The Cable Guy starring Jim Carrey. The wench is played by none other than Janeane Garofalo, who is one of the best comediennes of our time. I picked the quote because my wife and I actually ate at Medieval Times when we were in LA. My quick restaurant review? The food was no hell, but the entertainment was great (and yes, they serve Pepsi).

This week I'm going to go with a quote from a new DVD release which I just finished watching. It's a comedy, starring a very famous Canadian who has a bit of a Peter Sellers side to him. As usual, email me the name of the movie as well as the actors.

Tony: Excuse me sir, I'm with the San Francisco police department, this is official police business. I would like to commandeer this vehicle!
Driver: No.
Tony: What do you mean, "no"?
Driver: I happen to know for a fact that you have no right to commandeer my
vehicle.
Tony: Please, can I commandeer this vehicle?
Driver: No.
Tony: You're just not going to bend on this commandeering thing are you?
Driver: No.

That's it for this week...but the nice about having to wait this long is it's not that long until next week! Until then...



Hart Broken

I realize this week's column has pretty much nothing to do with DVD, but as our regular readers know, I have a tendency to write what I'm feeling at any given moment rather than what might be considered "on topic" sometimes. I think after reading what I've written below, you'll have a better understanding of where I'm coming from.

Growing up in the interior of British Columbia like I did, weekends almost invariably involved hearing the sound of Ed Whalen's voice blaring through the television at us..."In the mean time, and in between time, that's another edition of Stampede Wrestling!" Every now and then, we'd get really lucky and the Stampede Wrestling crew would be on the road and come to our small town, putting on a show for a few hundred people in the gymnasium at the high school. We all knew the matches were rigged, but anyone who's ever put their best friend's little brother in a full nelson also knows that some of their moves can be incredibly handy to a ten year old kid. Nobody can deny that these guys are great athletes and great performers.

Also each week, the Stampede Wrestling crew invariably involved some kind of match between one of the eight Hart brothers and some big galoot. The Harts had been (and still are) a staple of wrestling, ever since the great-grand-daddy of Harts, Stu Hart entered the ring so many years ago. Stu's wife always said that she never wanted her boys involved with such a barbaric sport, and that she didn't want her daughters involved with wrestlers. In typical Hart fashion, all eight boys grew up to be wrestlers, and all four girls married wrestlers. It must be in the blood. A number of years back, Stampede Wrestling (and it's stable of Harts) was bought out by Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation, and the Harts hit the big time. This was a proud time for everyone in western Canada (and especially Calgary), as the Harts were easily showing the rest of the world how it was done.

This past Sunday night, one of the greatest professional showmen of our time passed away after an accident in the ring. Owen Hart died after a fifty foot fall from a rigging which was supposed to mark a grand entrance to one of his wrestling matches.

Owen was a consummate wrestler, and a great showman, as his many fans here in Calgary and around the world are aware. When he left Stampede Wrestling and entered the WWF, he first did it as "The Blue Bomber", but was immediately recognizable to Stampede Wrestling fans as Owen Hart. He was incredibly acrobatic, and brought an incredible amount of energy to his performance each night. He wrestled because he loved to entertain people, and quite frankly, he was very good at what he did.

My wife and I were shocked to hear that he had died in the ring last night (we were visiting relatives in British Columbia, not far from where I saw some of the Harts wrestle as a kid). When we finally made it back home tonight we sat down and watched WWF RAW on TSN. Tonight's matches were played in tribute to Owen, and his contribution to sports and entertainment. Between the wrestling matches, which were kept very short, a cavalcade of wrestlers were brought on camera and asked their memories of Owen. None of these fellows were "in character" when they poured out their heartfelt memories of Owen the prankster, the joker, and the entertainer. People whose characters were at each other's throats stood side by side and said nothing but nice things about Owen. The whole thing was incredibly classy and incredibly understated. Especially when you consider that we're talking about the WWF here.

I saw Owen's brother Brett "The Hitman" Hart on the news tonight, doing an obviously difficult interview. Brett was talking about how he and Owen both agreed that wrestling was going downhill. It's become less about "sports entertainment", and more about sex and violence and everything which kid's entertainment shouldn't be. Owen's family has asked that in lieu of flowers people make a donation to the Alberta Children's Hospital. A very fitting way to make a wrestler's career mean something to kids, especially kids who could use something light and entertaining in their lives.

To put the Children's Hospital into perspective for all you readers outside Calgary, this is a hospital which has done everything it can to not be like a hospital. When you walk in, everything is geared toward having fun while still offering the necessary treatment. A few years back, our provincial government used the Children's Hospital as a pawn in a huge game of political bait and switch. They announced it would be closed due to "budget cuts", and of course a great public cry was heard across the land. This hospital has never had an easy time, and has relied more on public support than anything else to keep running over the years. I also have a personal connection to this hospital, since the staff there saved the life of one of my best friend's children only a few years ago. The poor little guy (he was only a few months old at the time) couldn't breathe, and the wonderful people there saved him.

The entire Hart family have always been great supporters of the Children's, and I must say that if anything good were to come out of this tragedy, a boatload of money for this hospital would be it.

For those of you who are wrestling fans, and who are outside Calgary, I would encourage you to make a small donation in Owen's name to: The Alberta Children's Hospital1820 Richmond Road S.W.Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2T 5C7Or to the children's hospital in your area.

I would hope that the WWF would learn the lesson from this tragedy, and install safety devices for the stunts their performers are asked to do. Certainly hind sight is 20/20, and given that their performers are essentially professional stunt men, I can see the appeal in letting them handle their own jumps and falls. What I would like to see, though, is better safety measures taken when these performers are using elaborate riggings to enter the ring. I can understand the need to enter "with a bang" as it were, but you can do that and still enter safely.

I was hoping that I would have a nice light column this week, and maybe write a little bit about Star Wars' opening weekend and what not, but sadly that isn't the case. Owen Hart's funeral will be held here in Calgary next week, and I'll probably take some time off work to stand with what will undoubtedly be thousands of fans to pay my last respects. My thoughts are with Owen's wife and two small children at this time, and I hope they can take comfort in the huge outpouring of sympathy from the public. To help lighten things up a bit now, I'll cover last week's and this week's quote.

Last week's quote was answered correctly by a fellow Calgarian, Kwasi Chan. The quote was from, of course, Jackie Chan's movie Rumble In The Bronx (or for those of us who recognized the locale, Rumble in Vancouver). I thought this tied in nicely to my comments about running into Jackie last week, and was surprised more people didn't get it.

This week, I'm going to quote a line from a movie which involves one of Jackie's co-stars in Shanghai Noon (which he's currently preparing to shoot here in Calgary).

The line is not SPOKEN by Chan's co-star, and in fact, he doesn't even appear in the scene, but it ties in nicely because of the six degrees of Jackie Chan connection, and because when I was in LA we ate at Medieval Times (I'll post a very funny picture soon).

Wench: There are no utensils in medieval times, thus, there are no utensils AT Medeival Times. Would you like a refill on that Pepsi?

In the mean time, and in between time...



LA Story

Well, I just flew back from Los Angeles on Saturday night (I flew out there on Wednesday), and I must say that four days there is not enough. The city is great, the weather is great, the people are awesome and the atmosphere is incredible. My only complaint is the driving...too much traffic and too great of distances, but what are you gonna do? Definitely my kind of town.

I had the pleasure of taking in a number of the sites of Los Angeles while I was there, including Disneyland (yes, I know, technically that's Anaheim...) and Universal Studios Hollywood. I also went on the backlot tram tour at Universal, and had the opportunity to see the special effects stage for the new Grinch movie starring Jim Carrey, as well as some set pieces for the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie starring Robert DeNiro. I have some pictures I'll be sure to post up as soon as I get them developed, including a great one of the front of RBTV (Rocky & Bullwinkle TV), with Robert DeNiro's face (as Fearless Leader) on the façade of the building.

We also took the time to have dinner at Planet Hollywood in Beverly Hills, and ran into a few celebrities there. Most notable were Quake designer John Romero, who was there with a huge entourage of people swallowing up almost half of the lower level of the restaurant, and Rob Schneider, who was there with a bachelor party taking up the entire upper floor of the restaurant. Schneider was surprisingly short (I knew he wasn't tall, but I didn't realize how short he really is), and looked pretty greasy...of course he may have just been hung over.

Of course, you can't go into Beverly Hills without having a look around, and it's a pretty amazing neighborhood to say the least. One minute you're driving through super plush streets with incredible landscaped lawns (and a brand new Lamborghini being delivered to its new owner!), the next you're in a slum with garbage (and people) pouring off the sidewalks into the streets.

For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to visit the LA/Orange County area, I'd recommend spending only one (full) day at Disneyland, unless you have kids. Universal Studios is the place to be! There's an amazing array of shops there, along with of course some great rides (including Jurassic Park and the newly opened Terminator 2: 3-D ride). Disneyland may be a little more interesting in 2001 when the new expansion opens, but for now it's a little too kid-friendly for my tastes. Also, you absolutely must spend a few hours driving through the residential districts in Beverly Hills, then head down Sunset and up Wilshire for some amazing sights. The Ferrari dealership is worth a look as well, what with the Ferrari F40 sitting the showroom.

We also went into a few CD and video shops while we were there, and it's pretty obvious that DVD is big in LA. Being from Canada, I had never seen a Circuit City ad before, but it's worth noting that the CC ads I saw while in LA made no mention of (the dreaded) Divx at all. In fact, the only thing in the full page ad for Circuit City which I saw in the LA Times was DVD, DVD and more DVD. Their DVD prices seemed OK, but when I did the currency conversion I determined I can get the same thing marginally cheaper here.

Before I went to LA, I figured it would be "too big" a town for me. After visiting, I can definitely see the appeal. The place is beautiful, and really buzzing with activity all the time. Definitely a place I could live. My only concern would be, of course, earthquakes (and there was a 5.0 while we were there...we slept through it).

As a nice side story to this whole little jaunt into La-la land, on our flight back into Canada we were blessed by the company of none other than the inimitable Jackie Chan. We had a nice little chat with Jackie, and he very graciously posed for a photo with us. Hopefully I'll be able to bring you some more information on the new film he's shooting here in Calgary soon. It's called Shanghai Noon, and it's a Kung-Fu/Western/Comedy/Action movie. Sounds like fun, and knowing Jackie, it'll have some amazing stunt work. The film also features Owen Wilson (Armageddon) and Lucy Liu (Payback). Anyhow, like I said, I hope to have (much) more information on that one for you very soon.

Gary Hatch was the first person to correctly identify last week's quote as being from Chevy Chase's classic comedy, "Fletch". On the subject of comedy, Very Bad Things comes out on DVD this week. For those of you who haven't seen it, you haven't seen a black comedy until you've seen this one. I laughed for days afterward, and I'll be one of the first in line to buy it (like there'll be a line...it made what, about $40 at the box office?).

Also out this week in the theaters is the one, the only, Star Wars: Episode I, of course. I have my tickets already, do you? I'll be there opening night, but because I was on a plane when tickets went on sale, the earliest show I was able to get tickets to was 11:10PM. No biggy, at least I'm seeing it on opening night (and I'll be there EARLY). It's worth noting that The Coliseum (Calgary's biggest movie theater) is showing the film starting at 12:01AM on Wednesday, and it's showing on at least four screens. There's a show once an hour over a twenty-four hour cycle, so by my calculations (given that the Coliseum can hold 600 people in each theater), that theater alone should be bringing in around a quarter of a million dollars on the first day alone. Yikes! This movie's gonna be bigger than big, at least for the first while. It's staying power lies, of course, with audiences.

This week I thought I'd reach into (what should be) a classic action movie for the quote of the week. Here goes...

"I hope next time we meet we will be drinking tea."

The quote isn't obvious, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.

Until next time...line up for Star Wars!



Star Wars Over-Hyperdrive...

Now that Star Wars is a mere week away, it seems that the hype machine has kicked into overdrive even without George Lucas' minions doing a lot of work. Personally, I haven't seen the Star Wars trailers for weeks, and I haven't seen hide nor hair of the fabled Star Wars TV spots which are supposedly airing now (maybe they're only on US TV?). Regardless, the hype continues because of a deluge of early reviews, both positive and negative, regarding this film.

The interesting thing to me is that everyone seems so genuinely surprised at how mixed these reviews are. This is part of the Star Wars tradition. The critics trash the movie, the fans scream a collective "screw you!", everyone sees the movie a dozen times and Lucas makes a lot of money.

The complaints I've heard about the film are pretty bizarre, too. It plays young? Well, duh! The first three Star Wars movies (err...last three...whatever...) also skewed young, especially Jedi, and Lucas wants to keep it that way. We all became Star Wars fans more than two decades ago, when we ourselves were kids. Lucas already has us in his addictive Star Wars grip, he's going for the next generation of Star Wars fans now, and he'll get them. The film is way too CG? Hmmm... the way I see it, the film is probably pretty close to the leap in special effects technology that the first film was. Everyone was wowed by Star Wars when it came out twenty-two years ago, and the critics complained that it was all flash and no substance (and to a degree, they were right...Star Wars has never been about complex characters or huge epic storylines, it's about space battles and light sabre duels, and ultimately, having a good time). Even after all this time, Star Wars looks pretty freakin' amazing, and I suspect The Phantom Menace will be the same.

Imagine, if you will, that George Lucas has started a whole new way of filmmaking. Virtual sets, virtual actors, virtual crowds. We're all accustomed at this point to seeing static backgrounds in large epic movies. The backgrounds are cheap to make, and they generally look good. But do they reflect reality? Not really. If you take a look at any large landscape, there is an incredible amount of movement and detail to it (of course...it's reality!). Lucas is developing technologies which will allow filmmakers to repeat reality on the screen to such a degree, that it looks fake because it looks too real (if that makes any sense at all). As time goes on, we'll see Lucas' techniques copied and improved upon, in the same way that happened with the original Star Wars, to the point where it will all look "right". And when we go back and look at The Phantom Menace again twenty years from now, it will look somewhat primitive, but (and this is the phrase we'll use), "given the time it was made", it's still pretty impressive.

Now, I can't say that I'm defending the criticisms of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I'm not. I haven't seen the film, and thus have no opinion of it. It just seems that the criticisms I've seen are pretty obvious backlashes at the film from people who are sick of the hype. I can't blame people for being tired of Star Wars this and Star Wars that, I can just say that people should view the movie as what it is. A movie. A Star Wars movie. And the first new Star Wars movie we've seen in about 16 years.

OK...onto Lucas' DVD answer. One quick comment about the possibility of Star Wars DVDs not arriving for another six or seven years. Lucas has been known to give misinformation before...primarily in an effort to get people to leave him alone. Personally, I'm less worried about the Star Wars DVDs then I am about the Indiana Jones trilogy. With the possibility of another Indy Jones being in the pipe (provided three VERY busy people's schedules can get together), it may be a while before we see Indy in all his DVD glory. I'm hoping for a theatrical re-release of the first three to whet people's appetites, then a video/DVD release of the remastered trilogy. I guess we'll all have to wait and see.

Last week's quote was answered correctly by Charles Key, and was of course from another classic sci-fi/action film, Terminator. At least this one is available on DVD.

Charles sent in another quote with his email, so I figured I'd use his quote this week. As usual, email me your guesses at ken@dvdfuture.com. Here's the quote:

Male: I'm John
Female: Oh, John. John who?
Male: John Cock...tos...ton.
Female: That's a beautiful name.
Male: It's Scotch/Romanian.
Female: That's an odd combination.
Male: So were my parents.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to welcome our new sponsor, Divadee.com to the page. I wish you guys all the best in success in the DVD market. Some people may take exception to adult material being available on DVD, but if you're gonna watch porn it might as well be good quality, right? Besides...nobody I know has never seen a porn film, so obviously there's a market for it. And we're all aware that adult films are what caused the VHS market to take off in the early eighties, so maybe the same thing will happen with DVD in the early 21st century? Who knows...sex...everyone does it, nobody talks about it. What a screwed up society we live in.

A last bit of news for the week, I see that the Back to the Future trilogy (including the Special Edition of BTTF part I) is back on the schedule at Universal. Bravo, guys! I hope we actually see this on DVD soon. My wife and I are huge fans of these films, and have been holding off on buying the VHS editions because we knew the DVD would be coming before long. Another quick note to Universal (and someone there must be reading, because I ended up on their mailing list...), great job on the Mummy! The film was a blast.

Until next time...go stand in line for Star Wars...or watch the Mummy instead...



The Blockbuster Theory...

I thought this week I'd actually get back to topics related to DVD...

As you are all well aware by now, I live in Canada. In Canada, there are two major video rental chains (by major, I mean there are at least three within five minutes of my home), one is Roger's Video, a subsidiary of the Canadian cable giant and the other is video rental staple, Blockbuster.

Now, here in Calgary, Roger's Video rents DVD movies. The selection for rent isn't great, but since there are three stores within five minutes of my home, and all three carry a different selection of DVDs, it makes for easy rental of most major titles. If I'm looking for something a little more obscure, then I have to drive downtown to Video & Sound, easily the best DVD rental shop in town (I think they literally have a copy of everything for rent).

Still, though, we all know that DVD will not take off as a rental format until Blockbuster commits to it in a big way. As it sits, they have "select" stores renting DVD, and quizzing the money-takers at the counters in stores which don't rent them results in either non-answers ("in the future we will be renting DVD") or answers which are uninformed - to put it nicely ("as far as I know, we don't ever plan to rent DVD").

The real question becomes, why hasn't Blockbuster really committed to DVD rental yet? Other chains like Hollywood Video and Roger's have had great success with DVD rental, and quite frankly, DVD and adult films are what allow smaller independent stores to survive these days.

There are some simple answers, but perhaps some more complex ones as well. The simple answer is that the DVD market isn't big enough. I would've bought this answer back when there were only half a million DVD players out there. Now, though, we're faced with the prospect of more than three million DVD players in homes by the end of this year. This is starting to become a significant portion of the market. It doesn't make sense for Blockbuster to ignore the DVD market when this is where the growth is going to be over the next few years.

Another answer is the cost of investment for renting DVDs. They basically have to buy a bunch of DVDs and put them on the shelves. It's not cheap, but it's not that expensive either. To put this in perspective, Blockbuster started renting Playstation games when there were around half a million systems out there. Playstation games cost Blockbuster around $40-60 (Canadian funds). This means that in order for Blockbuster to pay for a rental copy of a Playstation game, they have to rent it ten to 15 times. DVDs should by all rights, cost Blockbuster around C$15-20. It's not hard to see that they don't need to rent a DVD that many times before it's paid for (at most, five rentals...it could probably be paid for in a week). With over a million DVD players out there right now, it's obvious that the marketplace is big enough to support rentals.

A more complex answer comes in the form of the scourge of DVD, Divx. Divx offers a pay-per-view system which is in direct competition with Blockbuster's bread and butter, rentals. Of course, if Divx were to take off (which it won't), Blockbuster could hone in on this market very quickly AND (here's the key), very cheaply. If the discs are retailed to consumers at around $5, that means that Blockbuster wouldn't be paying much more than $3. Of course, they wouldn't get anything other than the initial sale in this case, but a one time chunk of change is better than no chunk (which is what they're facing with their other life-threatening and potentially successful competitor, Pay Per View). Also, Blockbuster could easily get in on the back end by making a capital investment in Divx. It's not secret that Blockbuster was looking at this option not too long ago, and backed out because the market wasn't there. If Armageddon were to come and Divx actually took off, expect Blockbuster back at the negotiating table very quickly.

There's one last answer which most people seem to have overlooked. The last major Hollywood studio to back DVD was Paramount Pictures. Paramount is a subsidiary of Viacom, as is (you guessed it!) Blockbuster. Now, Paramount will eventually be sold off by Viacom, as will Blockbuster, (Paramount's been sold more times than a cheap hooker on a Saturday night) but while they're both under the same umbrella, it makes sense for their "corporate visions" to be in unison. Also, Paramount is one of the biggest promoters of Divx. It's no secret that they like to have absolute control of their content. They like the idea of them being able to control if you can watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on Divx a week before Star Trek XVIII: Who Took My Geritol? comes out, and to be able to cash in on each and every viewing of one of their pictures. This is an idea that all the studios like, but most are smart enough to realize consumers won't swallow. It's quite likely that we won't see a firm DVD commitment from Blockbuster until Divx's corpse begins to cool (which will be sooner than anyone expects). In the meantime, we have all those great independent video stores to carry us, and they'll be able to take a bite out of Blockbuster's ass. Of course, should that bite start to be too large, expect Blockbuster to make a giant corporate about-face and pretend that nothing unusual happened.

The irony to me is that by refusing to rent DVD in a major way, Blockbuster is simply helping their competition creep up on them. If they begin to rent DVD, it builds consumer confidence, which sells more DVD players, which means more people to rent DVDs to, etc. etc. The big advantage of DVD over Pay-Per-View (and Divx) is extra features. People aren't renting just the movie, they're renting the special content. Director's commentaries, behind the scenes featurettes, DVD-ROM content, etc. These are things which PPV (and Divx) don't offer. They're also renting incredible picture quality, and incredible sound. Pay Per View offers these features, but not with the selection Blockbuster can offer. Quite frankly, DVD is the last bastion of hope for the rental market. If Blockbuster can't stop people from renting movies with their remote control at home, they don't stand a chance.

Now, there is something else that really irks me about Blockbuster's DVD policy. While they refuse to commit to rental in a big way, they seem to have committed to DVD sales. This in itself is not a bad thing (in fact, it's a great thing). What pisses me off is their pricing policy. The average price of a DVD at Blockbuster is around C$10 higher than other stores around town. Now, they do have their "buy eight DVDs, get one free!" policy, but this means that I'm paying an extra $80 for a "free" DVD - to put it simply, get bent. I'm much happier to buy my DVDs at Future Shop, or A&B Sound or even Roger's Video (where the price is only $2-3 higher than mass market retailers). Hell, at Roger's I can even RENT the movie on DVD and see if it's worth owning - what a novel concept.

By keeping their DVD prices high, and not renting DVDs, Blockbuster has completely shut themselves out of the DVD market. People interested in renting movies before making a purchase can't rent at Blockbuster, so they go to a local independent store or Roger's or whoever, but not Blockbuster. By pricing their DVDs so high, those people interested in purchasing DVDs go to anyplace BUT Blockbuster. And because they don't rent DVDs, they won't even get the "impulse purchase" from someone who stopped by to rent.

If anyone at Blockbuster is reading this, and can offer some further enlightenment, I'd be delighted to update our readers. Quite frankly, right now you're leaving yourself out of the fastest growing market in home entertainment.

OK. On to the regular weekly stuff...

Last week's quote went unanswered. Either nobody's reading, or I'm making them too difficult. It was from, of course, "A Bug's Life", and if you haven't seen the film I heartily recommend checking it out. Very funny stuff, and not just for kids.

This week, I have a quote from a classic sci-fi film. Name the film and the actor, the character name is unnecessary (and if you get the quote, you'll know what I mean)...

---- Customer: The .45 Long Slide, with laser sighting. Clerk: These are brand new; we just got these in. That's a good gun. Just touch the trigger, the beam comes on and you put the red dot where you want the bullet to go. You can't miss. Anything else? Customer: Phased-plasma rifle in the forty watt range. Clerk: Hey, just what you see, pal. ---

I'll probably rent Babe: Pig In The City tomorrow night on DVD, if it makes it up here...sometimes the Universal DVDs seem to take an extra week to get to Canada. If I rent it, I'll be sure to post a review. I'm a fan of the original, and I missed the sequel in theaters (as did everyone else, I think). I also plan on purchasing the X-Files movie tomorrow. Fox DVDs seem to get here on time usually (and cheap, too!). I also have reviews brewing for some smaller pictures, a review of the VHS edition of Last Night (which I found out American viewers will be able to see in theaters this fall, courtesy of Lion's Gate Entertainment), the VHS edition of another Canadian film, Cube - one helluva freaky psychological horror. I'll also be posting reviews of the DVDs for Pleasantville, Die Hard I and III, Pulp Fiction (Canadian edition), Trainspotting (Canadian edition) and City of Angels once I get around to writing them.

Until next time...