Sex and horror have long been cinematic kindred spirits for decades now, whether you're talking The Phantom of the Opera, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, the Hammer horror films of the 1970s, the Friday the 13th franchise or Re-Animator. And in today's crowded media marketplace the dual themes seem to have become even more prevalent — and graphic. The last 24 hours have seen the release of two film clips that mix gore and sex in memorable ways. Check it out: more »
In Tuesday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, the actor who played George Jefferson has died. Russell Crowe will direct a film about a cult comedian. Disney is moving a 3-D re-release to the holidays; NATO is taking donations for Aurora shooting victims and Netflix sees its shares dive.
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Also in Thursday's round-up of news briefs, the Toronto International Film Festival unveils plans for an Asian film summit with some high-profile guests. Senator Patrick Leahy boards Batman pic; Netflix touts record viewership and British comedian Eric Sykes passes at 89.
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"Screw Netflix!!!!!!" "Don't be stupid!!!!!!" And with one final missive taped to the shelf between copies of Syriana and Shoot 'Em Up, another doomed Blockbuster store fell to the tyranny of Netflix's superior business model. Might as well screw Netflix with three months' free rental, eh Blockbuster loyalists? (What about those Redbox bastards, with their $1.20 rentals?) All is not lost, indeed.
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Quick quiz: If you were made to wait two months in order to rent say, Final Destination 5, are you going to be more likely to purchase the DVD, or is it more likely you will forget it was on the saturated home-video market? An easy enough answer, maybe, but not for some of Hollywood's major studios. They continue banking on the former scenario, despite your continued insistence on renting movies at affordable rates. As it turns out, a number of Hollywood’s companies are trying to revitalize their revenues and expand their scope -- but those plans are getting screwed up by your viewing and spending habits.
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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings probably wasn't prepared for the earful (or Internetz-full) he received last month when he announced plans to spin-off Netflix's DVD rentals into a new company called Qwikster. "It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult," he wrote in a blog post today. "So we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs." Read on for more flip-flopping, and rejoice?
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Late Sunday night, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings took to the company's official blog to explain further the recent news of Netflix's streaming-DVD service split and pricing changes with yet another announcement: Within a few weeks, Netflix will split into two companies, keeping its name for streaming-only services and separating DVD rentals into a new separate company called Qwikster.
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