Antichrist seems harsh. Apocryphal, maybe. A heresy at worst. I feel like we should reserve Antichrist for, I don't know, YouTube videos where some guy just tells you the plot of the movie or something.
Dec 12, 2023·edited Dec 12, 2023Liked by Eric Pierce
Perhaps we reserve it for people who use phones in cinemas. Still, Eric is well aware of my views on this subject, and I feel this story grants me some serious I-told-you-so points. I've been banging on about the dangers of streaming for years. Like bloody Cassandra. :)
I remeber the early days of Netflix streaming, where studios just dumped their whole back-catalogue of films we hadn't seen since 90's network broadcasts of them. Films that never had DVD releases, or were long OOP. It's how it all began. But then, of course, it worked, and networks took back their catalogues, made their own streamin services, and have proceeded to...not release most of what they own, once again. There's been a lot of talk about physcial media vs. digital, and somehow we're pretending that all these movies were readily avaialble on physical media back in the day, year in and year out, rather than most films disappearing, never to return, a few years later. Rental stores would have some, but it was a crap shoot. And at least you can still buy a LOVERBOY DVD on Amazon for $5-$10 or so. The digital equivalent of that being buying a VPN and seedbox service and torrenting that shit. There's even a 1080p digital rip available that way.
I don't know what I love more about this: that you suggested a torrent (which I briefly considered) or that you've already scoped it out. Bravo!
Stuff like this does throw the digital vs physical divide into sharper focus. I'm very pro-digital for reasons of convenience (read: laziness) and also less clutter. But betting on the streamers also is a sucker's bet. They don't have our best interests at heart.
100% on streamers not giving a toss - I'm not anti-physical or necessarily pro-streamer, I think a blend of the two is actually working really well. Specialty phsycial companies like Criterion, Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, etc. are doing the lord's work in remastering and re-releasing worthwhile films that aren't popular enough for a mainstream group to make enough money off of. And then there's streaming for most everything else. It'll never be everything, everywhere, AAO of course. But it's more than we've ever had at our fingertips before.
So it's been bizarre to me, all this hand-wringing over some titles not being on streaming at all times, and that this is somehow an issue streaming has brought into existence. Streaming is definitely not living up to it's full potential, but the physical media era was vastly worse about this. Not just titles going OOP, but I also long ago invested in multi-region player, because remember how everything was region locked, and there was even freakin VHS vs PAL when it was the pre-DVD era? And that companies claimed it was illegal to tamper with players to unlock them? The collective amnesia on this is baffling to me.
But anywho, love your sense of humor and write up here. I think I'm gonna enjoy sifting through your archives! Soon as I take a break from streaming all the things anyway. ;P
Everything you said is 100% accurate. I just think myself and a lot of other people expected all content at all times, even though it's never been promised. Previously, physical items presented physical challenges. Now that movies can be digitized, it feels odd that we still don't have all the access.
There's going to be a point soon when I go back to buying movies and TV shows that I like. I buy physical copies of books, I have a pretty good collection of vinyl. Movies are the last frontier.
Wilford Brimley FTW! I loved him as Shannen Doherty's grandpa on Our House. My cousin was even wearing a T-shirt with Wilford Brimley's face and "DIABEETUS" on it for our family Thanksgiving.
P.S. *I* want to watch Kids again! And Twin Town with Rhys Ifans and Dougray Scott, it's a cult classic but not available anywhere 😭
I read your subtitle and thought you were talking about the Canadian rock band Loverboy from the 1980s (of "Working For The Weekend" fame), but obviously not.
Given that the film was a TriStar picture, it might be on Sony's streamer Crackle, since they own the Columbia and TriStar archives. But I imagine you investigated that.
Streaming services do suck, and they make investing in DVDs an ever wiser decision-I know that still my preferred medium for watching films. And sites like Oldies.com are great for checking out DVDs on sale- Warner, for example, has an excellent multi-studio collection of vintage films in their Archive collection. We just need to get the studios to keep that excavation stuff going.
But the only streaming service I can think of that takes movies seriously is that of the legendary Criterion Collection, and they typically shun low-brow stuff like "Loverboy"...
Netflix promised us "the long tail," and even touted it as the reason why they were a superior option to video stores. That tail is barely a nub at this point. I'd stopped buying physical media about 10 years ago, and even, regrettably, sold some of my DVDs, but I started buying Blu-rays and DVDs again about two years ago. There is zero guarantee that even titles available to stream today will be there in a decade's time, so I'd rather be safe and own a copy.
I think I could easily compile a list of 100 or more films that I'd like to watch that are unavailable to stream anywhere. Sadly, many are also nigh unto impossible to find on physical media, or if you can find them they are home-made copies created from a source of such low quality that it is barely watchable, and sometimes unwatchable.
Three points to make on this:
1) I told you so.
2) I told you so.
3) I told you so.
As far as home viewing goes, physical media is the true faith. Streaming is the Antichrist.
Even in light of this, I remain a streaming fan. There's no world in which I would've owned Loverboy anyway.
I'm buying a copy, just because I can. As for the streamers, all I can say is, one day they will have to answer to God.
Antichrist seems harsh. Apocryphal, maybe. A heresy at worst. I feel like we should reserve Antichrist for, I don't know, YouTube videos where some guy just tells you the plot of the movie or something.
Perhaps we reserve it for people who use phones in cinemas. Still, Eric is well aware of my views on this subject, and I feel this story grants me some serious I-told-you-so points. I've been banging on about the dangers of streaming for years. Like bloody Cassandra. :)
I can absolutely get behind that. Active phones in a theater are a blight.
And I love a good "I told you so", especially when delivered with such obvious affection. :)
I remeber the early days of Netflix streaming, where studios just dumped their whole back-catalogue of films we hadn't seen since 90's network broadcasts of them. Films that never had DVD releases, or were long OOP. It's how it all began. But then, of course, it worked, and networks took back their catalogues, made their own streamin services, and have proceeded to...not release most of what they own, once again. There's been a lot of talk about physcial media vs. digital, and somehow we're pretending that all these movies were readily avaialble on physical media back in the day, year in and year out, rather than most films disappearing, never to return, a few years later. Rental stores would have some, but it was a crap shoot. And at least you can still buy a LOVERBOY DVD on Amazon for $5-$10 or so. The digital equivalent of that being buying a VPN and seedbox service and torrenting that shit. There's even a 1080p digital rip available that way.
I don't know what I love more about this: that you suggested a torrent (which I briefly considered) or that you've already scoped it out. Bravo!
Stuff like this does throw the digital vs physical divide into sharper focus. I'm very pro-digital for reasons of convenience (read: laziness) and also less clutter. But betting on the streamers also is a sucker's bet. They don't have our best interests at heart.
100% on streamers not giving a toss - I'm not anti-physical or necessarily pro-streamer, I think a blend of the two is actually working really well. Specialty phsycial companies like Criterion, Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, etc. are doing the lord's work in remastering and re-releasing worthwhile films that aren't popular enough for a mainstream group to make enough money off of. And then there's streaming for most everything else. It'll never be everything, everywhere, AAO of course. But it's more than we've ever had at our fingertips before.
So it's been bizarre to me, all this hand-wringing over some titles not being on streaming at all times, and that this is somehow an issue streaming has brought into existence. Streaming is definitely not living up to it's full potential, but the physical media era was vastly worse about this. Not just titles going OOP, but I also long ago invested in multi-region player, because remember how everything was region locked, and there was even freakin VHS vs PAL when it was the pre-DVD era? And that companies claimed it was illegal to tamper with players to unlock them? The collective amnesia on this is baffling to me.
But anywho, love your sense of humor and write up here. I think I'm gonna enjoy sifting through your archives! Soon as I take a break from streaming all the things anyway. ;P
Everything you said is 100% accurate. I just think myself and a lot of other people expected all content at all times, even though it's never been promised. Previously, physical items presented physical challenges. Now that movies can be digitized, it feels odd that we still don't have all the access.
There's going to be a point soon when I go back to buying movies and TV shows that I like. I buy physical copies of books, I have a pretty good collection of vinyl. Movies are the last frontier.
Something Wicked This Way Comes isn’t available anywhere and it makes me very angry. Thanks for this read.
Wilford Brimley FTW! I loved him as Shannen Doherty's grandpa on Our House. My cousin was even wearing a T-shirt with Wilford Brimley's face and "DIABEETUS" on it for our family Thanksgiving.
P.S. *I* want to watch Kids again! And Twin Town with Rhys Ifans and Dougray Scott, it's a cult classic but not available anywhere 😭
"It's not your moment, doctor."
Friends forever
All I've ever wanted.
I apologize; Criterion is very snobbish.
I read your subtitle and thought you were talking about the Canadian rock band Loverboy from the 1980s (of "Working For The Weekend" fame), but obviously not.
Given that the film was a TriStar picture, it might be on Sony's streamer Crackle, since they own the Columbia and TriStar archives. But I imagine you investigated that.
Streaming services do suck, and they make investing in DVDs an ever wiser decision-I know that still my preferred medium for watching films. And sites like Oldies.com are great for checking out DVDs on sale- Warner, for example, has an excellent multi-studio collection of vintage films in their Archive collection. We just need to get the studios to keep that excavation stuff going.
But the only streaming service I can think of that takes movies seriously is that of the legendary Criterion Collection, and they typically shun low-brow stuff like "Loverboy"...
Low-brow? How dare you, sir! 😆
Netflix promised us "the long tail," and even touted it as the reason why they were a superior option to video stores. That tail is barely a nub at this point. I'd stopped buying physical media about 10 years ago, and even, regrettably, sold some of my DVDs, but I started buying Blu-rays and DVDs again about two years ago. There is zero guarantee that even titles available to stream today will be there in a decade's time, so I'd rather be safe and own a copy.
I think I could easily compile a list of 100 or more films that I'd like to watch that are unavailable to stream anywhere. Sadly, many are also nigh unto impossible to find on physical media, or if you can find them they are home-made copies created from a source of such low quality that it is barely watchable, and sometimes unwatchable.