A reminder from last night

[jducoeur]

I want to see more movies in 2011. I realized last night that I'd seen none of the nominees except Toy Story 3, and the latter we saw only because it was playing on shipboard when Jane's health prevented us from getting out-and-about as much as we'd intended on the cruise. (I confess that Deathly Hallows managed to go past without my even realizing it was in the theaters, because the past year has been so distracted. I do want to get to it, if only as prep for the second half -- arguably the only part of the HP series that was clearly *written* for cinema.)

Jane and I have gotten to very few movies in recent years, due largely to stay-at-home apathy, but the fact is that I am quite fond of movies as a medium. Not everything, mind -- I'm not much of a one for weepies or dumb buddy-bonding flicks, and do demand at least a modicum of plot in my action movies -- but my tastes are pretty broad, ranging from romcoms to blow-em-up science fiction to indie-thinkie fare.

All of which boils down to: when there are movie outings, please keep me in the loop, and I may foment some myself. My schedule's kind of crazy right now, but it's mostly voluntary-crazy, so planning for a movie trip isn't hard.

And that further reminds me: who'd be interested in the occasional movie night? I've got this big great room, and now I've got the big TV set to go with it; sometime soon I'm planning to pick up a Blu-Ray player and a Netflix subscription. I've missed *so* many movies in recent years that I'd like to catch up with, but I instinctively rebel at watching a movie on my own, so having folks over every few weeks for movie-watching sounds like fun...

Comments

[tpau]

i am interested in movie nights.

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I would be interested once things settle down.

Amazon Prime also just started free unlimited streaming for their customers, if you have that.

[jducoeur]

I'm definitely considering streaming, but need to examine the video quality. Last I looked into it, many of them were streaming "HD" formats that weren't really true HD, and now that I've got the super-crisp TV, I'd kind of like to push its limits.

(Streaming is an Amazon Prime benefit? Potentially fascinating, although a somewhat weird non-sequiteur -- I think of that service entirely in terms of saving shipping charges. OTOH, I *have* it, so I should look into it...)

[jducoeur]

(Having now gone and looked at it:) Okay -- the benefit is sort of weird, but does look potentially useful. The selection's a bit small (only 5000 titles, and doesn't appear to include the really new stuff), but it *somewhat* undercuts a Netflix subscription. Probably not enough, but it's worth trying out sometime...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I would be interested in attending from time to time.

Note that Netflix has a Blu-ray option - for $2 more per month, they'll send you the Blu-ray version if they have it instead of the regular version. This is for real discs, though; the HD streaming versions of things on Instant either exist or they don't and you don't have to set up anything special in order to see them.

We have a queue for physical discs that is 215 slots long, and of those, 26 are available in Blu-Ray.

[jducoeur]

Yeah, I don't expect everything to be available in Blu-ray. But the *new* stuff (especially the fancy blockbusters that I've missed) tends to be, so that's interesting. And at least in theory the movie nights would be occasional enough that waiting for a hardcopy disc is reasonable...

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in movie nights. I'd love to see Memento or District 9 (as I missed both of those)

[jducoeur]

*Blink*. Are you local currently? I haven't seen you around lately, so I'd assumed you were living Elsewhere.

Anyway -- yes, both are on my list of to-sees (especially since I'm currently working at a company *named* Memento), and I'd love to have you over...

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

Don't forget your local library - DVDs are free or $1/week (depending on your library's policies), and they are buying everything on Blu-Ray as well as standard DVD.

[jducoeur]

True. I go into Burlington's library so rarely that I honestly have no clue what their selection looks like...

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun, we'd just have to work it around kids.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Movie nights could be cool...

[jducoeur]

We do seem to be getting up to critical mass. Anything you've been hankering for an excuse to watch? I should start thinking about candidate movies...

[la-peregrina.livejournal.com]

I confess that Deathly Hallows managed to go past without my even realizing it was in the theaters, because the past year has been so distracted.

I had the same thing happen to me with Avatar.

I wish you good catching up, friend.

[serakit.livejournal.com]

I'll do movie nights if they're happening in the summer when I'm home, at least presuming whatever summer job I find isn't another get-up-at-six-AM one.

[jducoeur]

Hokay, cool. I suspect that it'll be a sort of once-a-month thing, so hopefully still happening once you have some Life available...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I might be able to give you rides, I work on the Newton/Watertown border.

[mindways]

I am interested in principle, both because I also often miss movies in the theatre and for the social aspect. In practice, movies and TV shows are often the first things I drop from my life when scheduling gets overbusy. But I'd still enjoy knowing about them. :)

(Why my brain considers reading-written-stories not merely acceptable but important, but watching-video-stories something requiring non-trivial justification to bother with, I'm not entirely sure.)

[jducoeur]

Not totally astonishing -- we each attach "important" to media in our own ways. For me, in practice, I wind up attaching more importance to TV than I really want to; that may wind up adjusting now that I don't have the right social context for it. That is, watching TV with Jane was fun, and helpful social lubricant. On my own, it's vastly less interesting, but the habit is strong in some cases...

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Depending on when they are, yeah, count us in for movie nights.

[jducoeur]

Is cool. I expect to mix up the timing a bit, so that different folks have a chance to come, at least at first...

[damascene.livejournal.com]

Also interested in movie nights!

Chip and I added a copy of The Secret of Kells to our dvd library last year; it's gorgeous and had utterly inadequate cinema distribution; I'd be glad to lend it for a movie night on a good big screen... (For that matter, I'll email you our dvd list if you want it, we also own 9, and if you haven't seen How to Train Your Dragon you've missed some great fun.)

[jducoeur]

Intriguing -- yes, all of those might prove good candidate movies at some point. Thanks...

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Movie nights. That takes me back. Yeah, I might be interested.

[jducoeur]

I'll bet -- yes, you remember the original Fenhaven Film Fests, with the lot of us crammed into Alexx' and my apartment...

[cellio]

I'm too far away to participate, but I look forward to reading about what you're watching.

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

On the subject of SCA-oid movies, I'm still trying to get my hands on a copy of Faintheart. It's a UK movie that was in theaters here briefly but never seemed to make it to DVD stateside.

Picture two walls of the finest-dressed heavy list fighters, shields in hand, facing each other about to square off... and then someone's cell phone rings...