Blogs
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Amazon ‘Thursday Night Football’ – Spanish, British English and Women
Lost in the all-day Congressional spectacle involving U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was the first NFL regular season TV broadcast ever exclusively called by women. Veteran sports reporters Andrea Kremer and Hannah Storm called the Sept. 27 “Thursday Night Football” featuring the Los Angeles Rams’ 38-31 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Amazon Prime … Continue reading “Amazon ‘Thursday Night Football’ – Spanish, British English and Women”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Man Who Cheated Himself’
The Day of the Jackal Street 9/25/18 MVD/Arrow, Drama, $39.95 Blu-ray, ‘PG.’ Stars Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig. 1973. Adapted from Frederick Forsyth’s fictional novel dealing with a paid assassin’s attempted 1962 assassination of French president Charles De Gaulle, an outstanding screenplay delineates a lot of complex material in ways that always keeps us … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Man Who Cheated Himself’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘The Last Hunt’
My Man Godfrey Street Date 9/18/18 Criterion, Comedy, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars William Powell, Carole Lombard, Gail Patrick, Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette. 1936. With My Man Godfrey’s light-touch treatment of a serious underlying subject (the Depression) and a cast of characters that “loopy” doesn’t even begin to describe, there are about a dozen … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘The Last Hunt’”
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Here Today, Gone Tomorrow …
The impermanence of the digital world struck home last January when we launched Media Play News and the owners of Home Media Magazine shut down that property’s website. All of a sudden, 17 years worth of stories — dating back to 2000, when what was then Video Store Magazine first appeared on the Internet — … Continue reading “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow …”
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Amazon ‘Thursday Night Football’ – Spanish, British English and Women
Lost in the all-day Congressional spectacle involving U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was the first NFL regular season TV broadcast ever exclusively called by women. Veteran sports reporters Andrea Kremer and Hannah Storm called the Sept. 27 “Thursday Night Football” featuring the Los Angeles Rams’ 38-31 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Amazon Prime … Continue reading “Amazon ‘Thursday Night Football’ – Spanish, British English and Women”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Man Who Cheated Himself’
The Day of the Jackal Street 9/25/18 MVD/Arrow, Drama, $39.95 Blu-ray, ‘PG.’ Stars Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig. 1973. Adapted from Frederick Forsyth’s fictional novel dealing with a paid assassin’s attempted 1962 assassination of French president Charles De Gaulle, an outstanding screenplay delineates a lot of complex material in ways that always keeps us … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Man Who Cheated Himself’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘The Last Hunt’
My Man Godfrey Street Date 9/18/18 Criterion, Comedy, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars William Powell, Carole Lombard, Gail Patrick, Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette. 1936. With My Man Godfrey’s light-touch treatment of a serious underlying subject (the Depression) and a cast of characters that “loopy” doesn’t even begin to describe, there are about a dozen … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘The Last Hunt’”
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Here Today, Gone Tomorrow …
The impermanence of the digital world struck home last January when we launched Media Play News and the owners of Home Media Magazine shut down that property’s website. All of a sudden, 17 years worth of stories — dating back to 2000, when what was then Video Store Magazine first appeared on the Internet — … Continue reading “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow …”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’ and ‘Village of the Damned’
Tucker: The Man and His Dream Lionsgate, Drama, $14.99 Blu-ray, ‘PG.’ Stars Jeff Bridges, Martin Landau, Joan Allen, Frederick Forrest. 1988. Aptly and often characterized as a screen biography with direct applications to its director’s own life and psyche, Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream feels totally fanciful, but a consistent directorial … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’ and ‘Village of the Damned’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Never So Few’
Trapeze Street 9/25/18 Kino Lorber, Drama, $19.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida, Katy Jurado, Thomas Gomez. 1956. Trapeze was a big deal at the time for boomer kids who wanted to see real stars, plus kinetic scenes where the mechanics of flying are explained. Extras: Includes a very strong … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Never So Few’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Irma La Douce’ and ‘Strait-Jacket’
Irma La Douce Kino Lorber, Comedy, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi. 1963. As both the most commercially successful movie Billy Wilder ever enjoyed and, paradoxically, the last box office hit of his career, Irma La Douce seems like something of a benchmark oddity when viewed from 55 years of perspective. Extras: The … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Irma La Douce’ and ‘Strait-Jacket’”
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Big Data, Content and the Human Touch
The concept of data analytics isn’t new. Businesses have been collecting and interpreting data for years, with the intent of spotting trends and adjusting their business models accordingly. Back in the early days of home entertainment, when thousands of video stores were renting movies on videocassette to consumers, retailers as well as studio executives were … Continue reading “Big Data, Content and the Human Touch”
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MoviePass 1st Birthday: Who’s Celebrating?
The day after posting more than $100 million in quarterly losses and telling investors its ability to continue as “going concern” is in doubt without additional funding, Helios and Matheson Analytics essentially threw a birthday party – for itself. In an era of fake news, why not a disingenuous press release touting 21 self-serving milestones? … Continue reading “MoviePass 1st Birthday: Who’s Celebrating?”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘I, Jane Doe’ and ‘Black Peter’
I, Jane Doe Kino Lorber, Drama, $19.95 DVD, $24.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Vera Ralston, John How. 1948. Even by the standards of shaky ‘A’-picture melodramas, Republic Pictures’ I, Jane Doe is a whopper packed with wall-to-wall coincidences and improbabilities right up to its final courtroom histrionics. Read the Full Review Black … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘I, Jane Doe’ and ‘Black Peter’”