The Video Game Critic

[QUOTE=ActRaiser]So, no one else brings a backpack with a 12-pack to the theatre to share with friends?  Seriously, Borat was hysterical under those conditions.  Of course, Beaches would probably have been just as funny under those conditions...though not necessarily for others in the audience, but I digress.[/QUOTE]

Wow, that reminds me of the time and some friends went to see ARMAGEDDON (the Bruce Willis asteroid movie) opening night.  Unknown to me they brought a couple of two-liter bottles of Coca Cola mixed with Smirnoff and passed them around (I don't drink so I was spared).  Needless to say an hour into the movie these guys were hammered and started talking back at the movie.  The theater was packed but, rather than get angry at my group for talking, the paying patrons actually enjoyed my drunken friends' trash-talking because as one the entire paying audience had already made up their mind that this Jerry Bruckheimer movie was utter crap.  When the movie ended people came up to us (including me, who hadn't said a word during the flick) and thanked us for making a bad movie enjoyable.  I doubt these folks didn't get a whiff of the strong aroma of booze mixed with Coke coming from my friends' mouths.

So the short answer is no, experiences like that cannot yet be fully replicated on a home theater yet.  Bringing friends and relatives home to get drunk while watching a movie will probably result in something like the brawl on "The Sopranos" last Sunday when they were gathered around playing Monopoly.

I just saw Grindhouse today at a 12pm matinee (wasn't sure I'd like it, was pretty sure I'd hate half of it--turns out I was wrong).  The whole theater and it was me and five other people.  That's all.

There are some movies you just have to see in the theater to truly enjoy.  The re-releases of the Star Wars films is an excellent example.  Independence Day was another.  The Perfect Storm was *only* enjoyable on The Big Screen.  The aforementioned Grindhouse only makes sense in a theater (the first half, Planet Terror, anyway).  I'd really like to see Blade Runner in the theater.

But when it comes to movies you're watching for ambience and plot, movies like Breach (which I saw in the theater but didn't have to) or The Departed or Other Peoples' Lives, they're better seen at home.  The quiet parts aren't ruined by the crackling of cellophane wrappers.  Subtle dialogue isn't ruined by jackasses on cellphones.  The dramatic silence isn't spoiled by some guys up front talking about how Chris ought to be here, man, he'd really dig this flick, hey remember that time we saw Alien vs Predator, man Chris was cracking wise the whole time, you should call him, what's his cell number again...  Additionally, I hate being elbow to elbow with someone I don't know, and civility has long since gone out the window since the rise of the ME generation.  I saw some college-aged punk smart off to and swear at some woman one time because he kept talking and she politely asked him to pipe down.  No one could do anything.  I'd like to have a security guard sit in the theaters to remove such irritants.

But theaters are doing what they can to survive.  They're investing heavily in technologies that will make movie experiences at the theater incomparable to what is available at home.  Imax is one example of such a technology.  They're also working on a new kind of 3-D, which should be neat.

But me, I'd just as soon have dialogue, characters and plot.  Special effects have their place, but you can't just churn out film after film built around increasingly larger explosions.  (The race to one-up the previous film is part of what made T-3 such an abominable train wreck.  I think it was when the third helicopter crashed into the mountain cave toward the end that I thought, "You know, sometimes more is just... more.")

Actually, I am saving up money, little by little, and setting up the back room of my garage as a retro-arcade room. I want to pick up six arcades, a pinball machine, and a jukebox. I plan on coloring the entire room in neon colors: neon green for the bottom half, a lightning bolt through the middle and blue for the top half. Whatever I do, I want to surround the room in blacklights, possibly even set up some strobe lights. The arcades that I am considering are:

1). Galaga
2). Super Street Fighter 2
3). Time Crisis
4). Mortal Kombat 2
5). A sit down Pac Man machine
6). Double Dragon
(this is just a few games out of dozens I would like to have)

...and any pinball machine.

You see, who cares if arcades are dead? That's like being bummed out that bowling is not the hot hobby that it used to be. It had it's moment, the same way that Atari had it's moment. You can still enjoy arcades but it will cost you. The days of crowded arcades is dead and isn't coming back. It's just not practical to spent the money to build technology around an arcade cabinet when you can put that technology into a console. Any thoughts?

My prediction is whoever wins the HD format war, that will probably be the last physical format released for video.  We will probably go the way of XBOX360 where you download movies at home via broadband, watch them for 24 hours and thats it, no trip back to the videostore or having to wait for someone to return a high demand movie that's been rented out.

I can see Tivo taking the lead on this, coming out with a Terabyte HDD and offering Premium movie content.

Kroozer, I REALLLY doubt DVDS are going to be Ethernet only someday, because you are forgetting DVDs are not just movies. For movies, sure, it makes some sense but...

1) DVD COLLECTIONS. This would be hard for a "phone in" company, to have ALL collections of old shows available. Sure, they might have STAR TREK and LOST, but ALL IN THE FAMILY? I DREAM OF JEANIE ( I never liked barbra Eden btw)? MAVERICK? There are a zillion old show collections out there- I have Star trek, next gen, DS9, South Park,Family guy, Mash, and X-files- that most people prefer to have on hand in physical form.
2) Porn. Gotta mention this. I of COURSE never look at porn, I am a complete ANGEL! ..but for dirty old men that do, they want as few people to know they do as possible. Plus, what big "net" video place would CARRY Debbie Does Dallas?!

[QUOTE=Alienblue]Kroozer, I REALLLY doubt DVDS are going to be Ethernet only someday, because you are forgetting DVDs are not just movies. For movies, sure, it makes some sense but...

1) DVD COLLECTIONS. This would be hard for a "phone in" company, to have ALL collections of old shows available. Sure, they might have STAR TREK and LOST, but ALL IN THE FAMILY? I DREAM OF JEANIE ( I never liked barbra Eden btw)? MAVERICK? There are a zillion old show collections out there- I have Star trek, next gen, DS9, South Park,Family guy, Mash, and X-files- that most people prefer to have on hand in physical form.
2) Porn. Gotta mention this. I of COURSE never look at porn, I am a complete ANGEL! ..but for dirty old men that do, they want as few people to know they do as possible. Plus, what big "net" video place would CARRY Debbie Does Dallas?![/QUOTE]

I'm not saying that DVDs are going to go away, but as far as newer formats coming out, what is out now will pretty much be the standard on the consumer level (we don't need a gazillion GB disc for a 2 hour movie, no matter how Hi Def it is).

Now if they come out with  totally new movie format, like 3D Virtual Reality (lets see how much of an angel you are when this comes out for porn) Then I can see them coming out with Holo-cubes.

Audio CD's have been out for over 25 years now and SACD's never really caught on.  Most folks just download MP3's anyway.  i can see this happening with standard format movies and eventually games.

[QUOTE=Alienblue]
2) Porn. Gotta mention this. I of COURSE never look at porn, I am a complete ANGEL! ..but for dirty old men that do, they want as few people to know they do as possible. Plus, what big "net" video place would CARRY Debbie Does Dallas?![/QUOTE]

On the issue of porn and how it relates to dvds. The average joe doesn't want anyone to know and that's exactly the reason they don't want to buy dvds.More and more guys are switching over to Video on Demand websites.

 In this case a person fires up their computer watches some streaming content then shuts off the computer and it's not there anymore... as long as they clear their cookies/cache. This is opposed to downloading the content and leaving it there on the computer.

Collecting porn is a real niche market and most don't do it strictly with dvds.

Personally I'm worried that the rest of the entertainment business will one day follow suit and things will go mostly digital. Granted the dvd/movie collector will still be around and perhaps some physical format will stick around because of them. However it might become a sort of niche market with unfortunately expensive prices to go along with it.