Sorry for the rant, but here goes: So, The Maltese Falcon came out on Blu-Ray on Tuesday and I called my local Best Buy to make sure they had it in stock (by local, I mean 35 minutes away). The lady, who was very helpful, put me on hold and came back and said that none of the stores in the district carry it and it's an online only movie. I said something like 'huh, that's weird'. and then she gave me this: 'We only have limited space and so we carry mostly movies that are new to Blu-Ray and this movie came out in 1941.' So after a moment of stunned silence I pointed out they didn't have blu-ray in 1941 and this was indeed new to Blu-Ray. It came out on Tuesday. She said 'oh, yeah.' So then she gave me this: 'Well, as far as old movies go we only carry classics, like the Wizard of Oz, Casablanca or a few (my emphasis) HUMPHREY BOGART movies.' After I explained that Humphrey Bogart was in the Maltese Falcon, and that I'd also bought African Queen (another Bogie movie) at their store .... well, she was in a hurry to get off the phone. So was I. Unbelievable.
I saw the title of the thread and knew what was coming and it still pissed me off just to read it. Life with nothing but the big box stores serving our every desire, as long as our every desire corresponds with the lowest common denominator. Spiffy.
I know it's not possible for everybody but this is one of the reasons I frequent local stores or order on-line.
In the last month the two Best Buys closest to me basically cut their DVD sections in half. Even mainstream recent stuff is going to be harder to find in the future.
+1 I remember one of the first arts history lessons we had in HS, we discussed what types of movies we all watched. Roughly half of the class admitted never to watch any "old" movies. Old was everything made before 1990 (this was in the mid 90s). The mind boggles!
So I was looking for some Sundanese music on Amazon. Couldn't find what I was looking for. The guy that used to run the cool music store near where I lived and could have told me where I might find what I was looking for, and would have been willing to talk to me for half an hour? Since his store was put out of business by Amazon, I got no idea where he is. I use Amazon a lot, but it isn't what it's replaced.
In 1992 I was subsituting in HS for a Maryland's Tomorrow teacher (a class for at risk students) and I was left Batman to show the kids. These were mostly 10th graders, I was showing an R rated movie without parental permission (maybe why they were classified at risk) and you would not believe the bellyaching I got for showing such an old movie. My mind doesn't boggle anymore.
it was cheaper at BestBuy.com and i wanted to see if I could pick it up in store, save a few bucks since I was going to be in the area anyway. but yes, I did eventually buy it on Amazon. just trying to get the best price i could.
As much as I love Amazon, I have to admit, I miss the old payday ritual of going to the local CD/DVD/book store and picking up something that I could play or read as soon as I got home. I know with iTunes and Kindle instant downloads it's almost a moot point, but I'm not getting the physical version of it.
I've always had issues enjoying "old" movies although I would probably say anything before 1965 or 70 is what I would consider "old". I just cant stand the rough picture, the audio, and I find the acting to be unwatchable even in movies that most people would consider classics. I've tried watching many of them and can't seem to make it through most of them.
My girlfriend and I were just talking about this the other day-- going to an actual brick and mortar to buy cds and rent movies. There was this video rental store by my house that, besides the popular releases, stocked a huge selection of classic, foreign and otherwise hard to find movies. They even had a lot of them on VHS. I loved going to that store, browse around, sometimes discuss movies with a couple of pretty knowledgeable people that worked there, and then taking home a classic or a movie that I had never heard about. Movie night was actually pretty cool. About 4 years ago that place went out of business and soon after was replaced by a Blockbuster. I don't think that I went to that Blockbuster more than 2 or 3 times. They finally closed for good earlier this year.
i think he's got a good point .... i was/am the same way. some movies I find unwatchable because of this and some I like despite this. they're not for every taste.
The acting in older movies seems to lack a lot of emotion IMO. But, it can be said that a lot of acting today consist of overacting. I have just seen a lot of older movies and the characters were just bland and not convincing.
Which movies are you referring to? and from what decade? Are you just talking about Hollywood movies? If anything, movies from the 30's and 40' tend to overact. They still carried that from the theater.. I definitely wouldn't say bland.
this was always my thought. it seemed like some of them were overacting because like they say in theater you're not just acting for the people in the front seat, you're also acting for the people in the back row.
indeed.... in the last month alone i watched "THe Third Man" "Make way for tomorrow" "Ikiru" ..... movies that are not only "old", but made in different nations..Maybe people in general may also not like to read into the movie's period/background....I try to inform myself a bit about the movie before watching so that i can better "understand" it...and maybe decide whether to watch or not then..... but that's me....
several years ago, Al Pacino determined that good acting means you yell. he was rewarded by getting an award for good acting. the movie for which he won the award was made in 1992. maybe we should reward the directors who gave Pacino free rein.