W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

I don't know if it's because they're losing money on me or if they're changing everyone, but they just made Moviepass untenable for me. My plan was:

-1 movie per day
-See each movie only once
-2D movies only
-$30 a month

Now I can choose between:

-6 movies a month max
-3D included
-$50 a month

or

-one movie a day
-3D/"Larger format" included (we don't have any IMAX or BigD or whatever within an hour of here)
-$99 a month

I'll probably go with option C: buy AMC gift cards off of resale sites and see noticeably fewer movies. I could do as high as $70 a month and it'd be worth it, but jacking up prices more than triple is crazy even if you do include 3D (which is like a $2 charge here).
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by silversurfer19 »

That seems insane. Here in the UK I currently pay £16 ($22 even with the current crash!) for as many films as I want in a month. I can see as many as I want per day and that includes 3D movies after a year of membership. Even before the first year the 3D upgrade is only a couple of dollars per movie. It's been a while since I went to a US cinema but doesn't it generally cost about $15 per movie, so at $50 per month and just 6 movies that's like $8 per movie, not that much of a saving really. I only need to see two movies a month to make my cost worthwhile.

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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Buscemi »

I've got $36 in unused AMC gift cards. I might do an Independence Day/The Shallows double bill on Sunday (it's been a while since I've seen two in one day at a theatre).
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

My theater is typically $9.99, $12.99 for 3D that I almost never go to. Tuesdays are $4.99 if you're a member of AMC's loyalty program ($12/year). I go on Tuesdays a lot since my kid is with her mom that day. So the 6/month may even be more than just paying the theater.

I don't know who's going to pay $1200 a year for this and it makes almost no sense to go with the $50 option unless you're in a major (read more expensive) city. They're based in NYC, so maybe they're basing everything on how expensive it is there. I just bought $100 in AMC credit for $70 off of eBay, so I'll just cut the cord come July.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Geezer »

Our AMC is $11.49 for a matinee, $12.99 at night for a non-3D movie. 3D is $16.99. IMAX 3D is $18.99 (which is insane because its just a converted IMAX, not a stand-alone real IMAX theater.) So those prices would still be a major savings at our prices. Our theater is also recently completely renovated with leather reclining seats that make for a pretty great theater experience, so it's kinda worth it to pay the prices (plus its the only theater in town.) The best thing they offer though is their morning prices. If you can get into a show before noon, a standard movie is only $6.49, but you usually have to get tickets a couple days in advance (which is fine for me, I tend to do this on days I have off, and there's no convenience fee for online ticketing for Stubs members, which I am.

Just thought I'd pass that info along.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Buscemi »

The AMC (an 11 screen) here has like $4.50 shows before noon and IMAX 3-D (in an auditorium built with IMAX in mind) is about $12. And it's almost always busy (lots of sellouts, I've told the story about how it took three attempts to see Paddington there) as they've got the recliner seats (installed before AMC bought the theatre so they're black instead of red) in all auditoriums but the IMAX. The theatre does so well that another theatre here (a 16 screen) is closing because of the competition (well, that and they don't want to spend money to improve the theatre).
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by BanksIsDaFuture »

W wrote: I just bought $100 in AMC credit for $70 off of eBay, so I'll just cut the cord come July.
All in one gift card? That's a helluva find!
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

Yeah, if you wait for Cardcash or someone to have a sale or eBay to have a $x off $x promo, you can hit around this price.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by transformers2 »

W wrote:Yeah, if you wait for Cardcash or someone to have a sale or eBay to have a $x off $x promo, you can hit around this price.
Holy shit that's incredible. I'm going to have to try and do that asap.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

Umm... I'm fairly sure I was targeted for actually using the service. It still says Moviepass is $30 on their website and it allowed me to renew it for the original $30. So, let's keep this party train rolling.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Geezer »

That's absolutely insane. You should look into it. Maybe they were just testing the waters on a price increase and got tremendous blowback? If they were singling you out that has to be illegal.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

That was my thought. They told me they were "rolling it out slowly" ant that it would affect everyone eventually on the customer service chat, but the main page still says $30 a month. They're not big enough that I'd be able to cause any kind of hubbub that'll affect anything. And they're still advertising $30 a month and they're still replying to blogs/Twitter users saying "I save thousands a year." I don't know what I could have done if they weren't such idiots in the way they went about it.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

Well I haven't been to the theaters much the past month or so because the Moviepass upcharge stuck (until September, I guess, but new members are able to sign up for between $40 and $50 so someone tell me they weren't singling people out...), I've out of town nine days, and AMC changed their pricing for Stubs members on Tuesday touting it as "$2 off" instead of $4.99.

I saw six and they've all been letdowns, except the one that I thought would be a complete letdown (go figure).

Free State of Jones 7/10: I really like historical films like this and this was ok but it was overly long and had a subplot they kept cutting to set eighty (or so) years in the future that really should have just been a couple of lines on the screen ("where are they now format").

Independence Day: Resurgence 4/10: You know how if you make a copy of a copy of a copy it starts to become illegible and blurry? That's kind of like this movie. They just did everything the first movie did, but bigger and somehow less well at the same time. Out of the three main cast of the first one, the charming centerpiece skipped out, the witty scientist was relegated to secondary duty, and the president that gave a speech helping cause world peace barely got out of bed until the last second. Don't worry, the two actually in the film were able to do exactly what they did at the end of first one. They replaced one of the best trios in any action/sci-fi film with people you'd more realistically see in a Divergent movie. So at least there's that.

The BFG 6/10: I probably would have like this a lot more if I were ten. I always thought this would be an excellent book to adapt. I don't really know what my problem was with the movie, but I just didn't get into it as much as I'd have liked.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates 6/10: You expect very little substance and crude humor and it had that. It was just a bit of a letdown for me. I was hoping for a surprise like when I went to The Hangover knowing very little and the whole theater crying laughing. I guess I'll probably be chasing that dragon the rest of my life. I like the main cast separately, but for some reason they just didn't gel as much as I'd like. It was ok and you'll have fun watching it, but it's nothing special.

Ghostbusters 5/10: I didn't understand the hate this one got when it was optioned, when it chose a director, when the director said they were going female-centric, when the cast was revealed... But this was not a good movie in any sense of the word (though my ten year old liked it). When the trailer was revealed I wasn't stoked that the only black Ghostbuster was "street," but that really wasn't the problem and neither was the cast. The cast tried damned hard and with a different script and maybe a different director they could have done something better. Maybe it wasn't the director, but the giant budget that made him follow studio rules or something, I don't know. It just wasn't funny or charming and it didn't have that ad-libbed feel that a Bill Murray brought to the original. I had some weird experience in the theater. I've never seen a movie where everyone was laughing but me. Typically I'm busting a gut and no one else gets it. And it was brought to my attention that they literally bust one ghost (until the end where they use the car)... and they let that one go. It may deserve a lower rating now that I think about it.

The Legend of Tarzan 8/10: Waltz was at his Waltziest and SLJ was at his SLJiest in this pretty entertaining action-adventure film. I went into this thinking it was going to be horrible, but at the time had nothing else I wanted to see on so I figured "What the Hell?" It was a pretty nice surprise. They did it in an "English historical" genre and got rid of the pet monkey and the "Me Tarzan, You Jane" mentality as well. It was a nice uptick from the crap I have been watching lately.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Buscemi »

You know that theatre near me that I mentioned was closing? I found it's going to become the world's largest Alamo Drafthouse (though it will lose two screens to allow for a kitchen) and will reopen in January. Now I don't have to go three hours to watch a movie in the hippest chain there is (and Drafthouse plays day-and-date movies so there should be more selection than "every studio release and religious movie").

And I know how it feels to be the only one not laughing during a movie. Just as strange is to be the only one laughing (seems to happen with Wes Anderson and Alexander Payne movies, though my experience with Nebraska is one of my favorites as everyone was into that movie).
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

Next batch:

The Secret Life of Pets 8/10 - Inferior to Zootopia, but a solid animated film. Zootopia felt like they wanted to make a good movie to appeal to kids rather than a kids movie that was punched up well, if that makes any sense. I love the casting of pretty much everyone here. Hopefully Jenny Slate becomes a staple in voiceover. She was great in Parks and Rec (as was almost everyone), which is the only other thing I've seen her in.

Star Trek Beyond 7/10 - Better than Into Darkness, worse than the original reboot. It was utterly ridiculous, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. It didn't seem to stay true to the original (I don't think Kirk would ever give up command). I liked the new girl that played Jaylah, Bones and Spock's relationship, Scotty, and Chekhov. Everyone else I could really take or leave this time. All in all, you could do a lot worse this year for a big budget popcorn flick, but you could do better as well. Pretty well meh.

Suicide Squad 8/10 - This movie was extremely flawed in many ways. Many, many ways. But it sure was a hell of a lot of fun. I know a little about Harley and Killer Croc mostly from the Arkham trilogy of games, so I went into the film pretty uninformed on how the characters typically are and that's probably for the best from what I understand. It set up things that really didn't need set up and it showed you things you've already seen. They could have cut multiple squad members and nobody notice. The music wears you thin extremely quickly. I'm convinced that there's a great movie it there, though, and am hoping that the obvious "ultimate cut" will be it. I'm fine with Jared Leto at the moment, though he was a little overdone visually. Margot Robbie and Will Smith were the best parts of the movie and it's good they focused on them the most. The villain really wasn't great. After how well the Nolan trilogy went, did they really have to introduce the magical elements into the stories this quickly? The Joker would have been a much better bad guy. I think they were going for their version of Guardians of the Galaxy mixed with Deadpool and applied way too many of the wrong lessons.

Bad Moms 5/10 - It had a few funny parts in there, but really just bored me to death. I'm sure I wasn't the target audience/gender as I heard a lot of laughs from women in the theater. It was going for Bridesmaids, but didn't even come close.
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