I first started watching movies at home in the 1980s. In those days there was a great big battle raging between three different systems: VHS, Sony Betamax, and Philips as to which one would finally corner the market in movie viewing at home. In the end as we all know, VHS won out, although many experts thought the Betamax was better. But such is the nature of the market place. I can remember thinking how fragile a video tape seemed to be and how it would last a lifetime as it would need to do. Well, as it turned out, the video cassette did not need to last a lifetime, since it was very soon superseded by the dvd. Finally it seemed that you would no longer have the problem of going to the video store to get a video tape that then jammed or did not play back properly.
I remember when we first saw dvds. It seemed incredible that the picture could be so clear and realistic! And there was virtually no background hiss. This was due to the revolutionary digital playback method. However there was still the problem that you had to trudge over to the dvd store to get your dvd to rent or buy. And once dvds started to get a bit old, we discovered that careless use by a previous renter could cause scratches which made the picture skip. Also you might find that the movie of your choice was not available or was not in stock at your local store.
Renting or buying dvds on the internet from Amazon or one of the large supermarket chains that are sent to you through the mail seemed to provide the solution to some of these problems. You could sit at home with no hassle and your movies would come to you. But this time, although you always get a vast range to choose from, the problem is that you do not get the movie right away you have to wait for the postman to bring it to you. By that time you might not be in the mood for that movie!
But now it really does seem like ALL the problems have been solved.
Now you can download movies, with perfect picture quality, delivered instantly. And you can watch them right away. You only have to make sure that the website you obtain them from is operating legally, but apart from that, it is the most hassle free method of watching movies that we have seen in all of history!
The Movie Download Revolution
How to Download Movie Rentals Directly to Your TV
By Bob Barlowe
With today's advancements in technology it's just a matter of time before the internet can completely replace DVD's as the delivery method of choice for movie rentals. What you might not know is that the ability to download movie rentals on demand is already being offered by some DVD rental companies. In this article, we will talk about who offers these cutting edge services and how you can legally download movies anytime at the click of a mouse using the web.
The rising costs of movie theater outings and a bumpy economy has lead more Americans to consider in-home entertainment in lieu of going out. Not only is is more convenient to stay at home, but you can save a bundle this way as well. The ability to download movie rentals gives customers the choice and flexibility to make the most out of their movie watching time.
There is one major player who offers popular feature films for streaming download to their members. This company is NetFlix and they made their debut almost a decade ago with their revolutionary dvd by mail rental service. Always an innovator, NetFlix has recently been hard at work building and releasing a working movie download on demand service that uses the internet and a separate device called the NetFlix player to stream movies right to your tv.
At this time, Netflix has over 10,000 movies and TV episodes available on their service for download. All of these are legally licensed, so you never have to fear winding up in trouble. The Netflix service that you must maintain to access these downloads is affordable enough for all budgets. The device that you need for this is called the Netflix player and it runs $99 at the time of this writing. The Netflix player is not like a DVR and contains no actual hard drive, so you are not able to store the movies that you download but just access them in real time with the standard stop, fast forward and rewind functions.
The only downside is that it is taking awhile for Netflix to release the newest movies to downloadable format. If you have a burning desire to watch this weeks newest release, you are going to have to do it the old fashioned way and have them send the DVD. As the service becomes more popular this will become less of an issue. Netflix is perfectly poised to expand this in to the ultimate destination to download movie rentals whenever you want right to your TV or home theater.
For special offers and information on the Netflix service and other online DVD rental services, check out my dvd rental reviews site.
Remakes - Hollywood Gets Lazy
By Andrew Hawnt
Checking my various feeds each day, along with the biggest movie related websites, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain interest in the product of Hollywood. Where once there was a sense of excitement and anticipation when a new project was announced or leaked, be it via internal spies or intentional viral marketing, now there is a sense of dread. I head to the feeds wondering which classic film is next up for the shabby remake treatment.
Of late, there literally is not a day goes by without another much loved film being remade, and it really is a worrying trend. Instead of coming up with new ideas, or optioning the thousands of books, comics, stories, spec scripts and more that they have at their disposal, studios big and small are languishing in a creative limbo and just rehashing old material in order to cash in on brand familiarity.
This is a terrible trend, as it breeds apathy towards the medium and suppresses creativity. If people are content to pick up DVDs of films they already have (just with a different, lesser cast and better effects), then there will be less chance of truly original films being made by big studios. Smaller studios may well be producing derivative work in all genres, but they are still managing some originality in there too. It is understandable if the films that are being remade really weren't that convincing the first time around, or if a series really needs a reboot (Batman, for example), but remaking everything in sight is only going to annoy your audience in the long run.
Good examples of remakes working are films such as the 1986 version of The Fly, or John Carpenter's version of The Thing, both of which took the premise and did something new and interesting with it- those films carry the same stories but told in such a manner that they feel fresh and compelling in their own right. The current upsurge in 'That was popular, lets do a cheapo remake quick' attitudes in la-la land seems to bypass the notion of originality altogether.
The stores (both physical and digital) are absolutely bursting at the seams with content as it is- nobody needs or wants most of these remakes/reboots/reimaginings, and the audiences are starting to get a little fed up with the same old things being offered time and again. We didn't need an Omen remake. We never asked for A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th to be remade, and we certainly never entertained the thought of remaking Hellraiser or Highlander, and yet they're all being produced. All that happens is the films end up as bargain bin DVDs and the reputation and appreciation of the original films is tarnished by the new incarnations, which are rarely a patch on the real thing. Hell, even Poltergeist and The Creature From The Black Lagoon are being regurgitated into substandard popcorn fodder as we speak.
Put down that stack of films you want to cash in on and go and read some of your slush piles. In those piles you'll find more originality that we have seen onscreen in a decade. If you must, simply MUST make something that already exists, then adapt a book or a graphic novel or even an anime series. Don't keep plundering the vaults for classics to ruin.
What happened to you Hollywood? You've never had the best ideas in the world, but at least you had ideas at all.
Andrew writes for the pop culture/memorabilia site starstore.com and its popular blogs, covering the latest and greatest in film, TV, music and comics merchandise and collectibles.
The Academy Award for Best Loser
Author: Patrick Omari
The Academy Awards, more commonly known as the Oscars, are the highest accolade for directors, actors and writers to achieve. The outrageously glamorous ceremony is held each year to much fascination, excitement and media clamour. With regular viewing figures of over 30 million people, the Oscars are the most-talked about film event in the world.
Winners are lauded with praise as Earth's film fans watch the emotional speeches about who helped them along the way. But what about the winners that never were? Those that managed to slip through the net of glory, as a less-deserving winner stole the prestigious statuette.
As the friends and families of losers all over the world have said at one time - 'somebody has to lose'. To lose is not a pleasant feeling for anybody, but a to have a deserved victory snatched from one's grasp is a devastating blow. Just ask Martin Scorsese, who until 2007 failed to win the Academy Award for Best Director despite a succession of fantastic films.
Scorsese, since his directorial debut in 1963, had managed a massive 59 Oscar nominations prior to the release of The Departed. Five of these nominations were for Best Director, for film classics such as Raging Bull, The Aviator and Goodfellas.
Film fans all over the world will be aware that Goodfellas was nominated for six Academy Awards, with Joe Pesci scooping the film's only gong for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Despite the Academy's apparent failure to praise the film adequately, many other polls and award ceremonies were more just in their decisions.
Various film awards were presented to the film, its cast and of course the film's director Martin Scorsese. Fifteen years after its release, in 2005, Goodfellas was named the greatest film of all time in a popular movie magazine poll. This celebrated, commercial and critical success had lost out at the Oscars to Dances With Wolves and Kevin Costner. Ridiculous.
Scorsese is not the only director to have been senselessly ignored for the big prize, history is filled with nearly-men and also-rans. Quentin Tarantino burst onto the scene in 1992 with his heist-movie Reservoir Dogs, an independent film that would become a critical success. Tarantino was the seen as the 'next big thing' in Hollywood and when his next film arrived, the anticipation was more than warranted.
Pulp Fiction smashed every other film of 1994 out of the water with its rich dialogue, clever use of a nonlinear narrative and some fantastic performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and a dramatic comeback from john Travolta. However, at the Academy Awards it won only one of its seven nominations - the Best Original Screenplay Award.
The winner of Best Picture, Best Director and four additional Oscars in the year of Pulp Fiction was Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump. A fun, jovial trip through 20th century America, Forrest Gump was a commercial and critical success (six Oscars and 677 million dollars gross revenue) but surely cannot be considered in the same breath as the work of Tarantino.
Tarantino is yet to repeat his Oscar win in 1994, and will undoubtedly avoid the Best Director award with his controversial subject-matter and violent films. However, if the likes of Mel Gibson's Braveheart are picking up Best Picture and Best Director, maybe it's for the best that Tarantino goes unnoticed by the Academy.
There have been some embarrassing decisions at the Oscars in its history, with films like Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey losing out to Oliver! for Best Picture and Best Director. The strange choices are not consigned solely to the films but have always appeared in the awards for actors and actresses.
Tom Hanks winning the Best Actor Award for Forrest Gump may have been a reasonable choice, but when you look at the nominations there could have been a more worthy winner. Films like Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption were in the running, yet the sentimental movie took most of the plaudits in 1994.
In 1976, Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver) and Sylvester Stallone (Rocky) were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor but lost out to Peter Finch for his performance in Network. Now, Finch was impressive in the role but is it possible that De Niro didn't win because of the violent film for which he was nominated. Scorsese's film would receive a total of four nominations and would win none.
Controversy will always surround the decision of the Academy, with so many films, actors and directors fighting for the coveted titles. With so much acclaim attached to a single award, it is unsurprising that the competition is so tough and contested.
Decisions are made, arguments ensue and film fans everywhere will be asking the question as to why their favourite was unsuccessful. There have been some strange, and even unbelievable results that have left the critics and fans equally bemused.
So, after 44 years of trying, Martin Scorsese picked up his massively overdue Best Director Award for The Departed. If this is anything to go by, Quentin Tarantino may get the recognition for his work by about 2038, as long as he tones down the violence and swearing a little.
About the Author:
Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest is in Stansted Parking, Heathrow Hotels and Stansted Hotels.
Comedy Movies - a Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Author: virgilio vallecera
Online movies shops provide innumerable movies CDs and DVDs almost immediately. Going to a theatre and standing in long queues is quite tiresome. At the same time online movie stores have a wide range of movies to choose from. You can see different categories of movies like science-fiction, comedy, horror, adventure, crime, thriller, documentary, cartoons, etc. You can explore reliable online movie stores, browse through and look at movies that you want to watch from the comfort of your home. Purchase different movie VCDs, DVDs and CDs or download it directly.
Online movies stores remove the hassles like making enquiries and standing in long queues. You just have to Sign up and select the movie. The online shopping portals provide you with better categorisation to provide the movie you want to watch. You will not be restricted to watching one movie as in theatres and can select different movies.
What do you like to watch the most? If you are looking for comedy movies, simply search any of the online movie stores. Choose the one you would like to buy- you will be able to download it directly into your computer. See the latest comedy movie CDs by new directors. Enjoy the movies with your friends and family. Search the best movie to add to your favourite collection. Go through the reviews of some of the comedy movies. You will be surprised to see some of the oldest comedy movies online. These online stores are copyright- free and let you discover some special movies.
You can buy new comedy movies CDs and watch digital quality contemporary masterpieces. The online movie stores provide different special movie offers on special occasions. Watch the movies CD and get impressive quality similar to home theatre at cheaper prices. These movies will bring a smile on your face and make you laugh. Choose one from the different comedy movies and laugh out loud.
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Wedding Movies to Watch Together
By Thomas M Miller
There are two words that make most men cringe:Wedding Season. Why is that? Is it a fear of commitment? Is it a desire to avoid the battle between Bridezilla and Momthra? We're not entirely sure, so we put together a list of movies that you and your guy can watch together. They prove that weddings aren't necessarily the beginning of the end, and they can even be fun.
In order to make the list, the movie had to be mostly about a wedding (or series of weddings), it can't just have a tacked on wedding at the end (like the latest installment of certain adventure-archeology series). Also, the movie has to be something that a guy would watch with one of his buddies (buffer seat optional).
5) Honeymoon In Vegas
Before there was Indecent Proposal, Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker were approached with an offer they couldn't refuse. Cage stars as a commitment-phobe who gets browbeaten by SJP into a Vegas wedding (hmmm, sounds familiar . . . ). From there things go sideways, James Caan winds up winning SJP for 2 days, and Mr. Miyagi runs interference while Cage tries to get her back. Nic ultimately triumphs with the help of the Flying Elvises, Utah Chapter and a lil' Nevada wedding chapel. Weird that a Nicolas Cage movie ends up with hundreds of Elvis impersonators. Or in Las Vegas, he just can't escape that place.
4) Father Of The Bride
Sure, it's hard to call any movie featuring Diane Keaton dude-friendly (except The Godfather) but Steve Martin gives a fantastic performance as a man (George Banks) dealing with his mortality vis-à-vis his kids growing up. George eventually comes around, but not after fleeing from attack dogs, wearing a blue Armani tux, and letting his preteen son (Kieran Culkin) drive a car. On his path to breakdown, he lets the audience in on the collusion between the hot dog companies and the bun companies. Diane Keaton even manages to give some reasonable advice, plus Martin Short turns in one of his best performances as a wedding planner named Franck.
3) The Wedding Singer
It was the late 90's and everything Adam Sandler touched was gold. Instead of playing a rage-filled simpleton, Sandler stretched it to play an affectionate wedding singer that just wanted a wedding of his own. After getting left at the altar, Sandler decides that "love stinks, yeah, yeah" and doesn't get out of his funk until he falls in love with Drew Barrymore (does she ever age?) before she becomes Julia Guglia (pronounced goo-lea). Good showings from Christine Taylor and Billy Idol in this one. The movie was set in 1985, so there are a lot of those 'if we knew then what we know now moments' involving Van Halen and CD players. Evidently, someone liked this movie enough to put it on Broadway. Totally awesome edition.
2) So I Married An Axe Murderer
OK. This one is really more about the relationship between Mike Myers and Nancy Travis but the wedding is fairly important. Myers started his penchant for playing multiple characters in this movie. His beat poet character, Charlie, was always coming up with reasons to break up with the women he dated. And then he met Nancy Travis, whom he later suspected of being a black widow, "Jane, get me off this crazy thing called love." The wedding's reception feature's Myers as Charlie's Scottish dad belting out Rod Stewart hits until his bagpiper passes out. We also learn that the world is run by a group called the Pentavirate and that Colonel Sanders puts an addictive ingredient in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly.
1) Wedding Crashers
How can you have a wedding movie list for dudes without Wedding Crashers? This flick hit the theaters and launched the so-called Frat Pack into superstardom. And made guys realize, 'hey, I can totally get laid at that wedding, sweet.' Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn were perfectly cast as 2 charming lotharios out to crash 1,000,000 wedding and rock them all. This one has too many quotes to even mention and Will Ferrell's appearance may be one of the greatest film cameos of all time. The deleted scenes feature an incredible karaoke version of Nena's '99 Red Balloons.' And, yep, a little poetry courtesy of Sarah McLachlan. This movie went on to make 285 million bucks in the theater which places it just behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding as the best selling wedding movie of all time. Enjoy, you motor boatin' son-of-a-gun.
Tom Miller is an actor, writer, and general manager at Tango. For more smart talk about love, sex, and relationships visit http://www.tangomag.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_M_Miller
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Formulaic Cinema
Basically you need a hero/heroine, some sort of plot, a climax and a moral. That's the basis for most recipes as far as screenwriting goes. The problem is some do it better than others.
Sometimes it's painful watching such movies. The moment you realize you can predict every major step along the way, the movie loses part of its charm (unless that's what it intended) and you end up either walking out (though I've personally never done so) or trying to find the good in all the rest: camera work, soundtrack, acting, etc.
There are many, many rules, and following them is something nonconformists in Hollywood adore. Whether it's the token black guy dying (there was a brief period of time when he was allowed to live, maybe even be the hero - see Deep Blue Sea, House On Haunted Hill), or the innocent girl who survives (see most slasher movies) horrors have done it over and over again, yet people still go see them (apparently hope dies last). The bad boy reformed story is as old as time (A Walk To Remember), so is the good boy gone bad, then repenting one (see 21 most recently). And don't get me started on the Chosen One plot. Every martial arts movie out there has something of the sort, so do most comic books (Wanted is the latest one), though I am partial to it, and sometimes, just sometimes we get something different (even if it's a parody - Kung Fu Hustle). I'm not going into teen comedy teritory. Apart from horrors those are the most formulaic of all. Romantic comedies are also right up there, break up to make up plot included. Even the send offs are pretty unoriginal (it's a TV movie, but still - Romantic Comedy 101). Sci-fi is possibly the most original of them (not denying it follows some of the basic themes of adventure, but then again, we're not talking about themes here).
And it doesn't really stop with scripts. Directors are often easily influenced. Roger Ebert, in his review of Battlefield Earth(which uses ) stated the director "has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why". The unnecessary use of CGI is also quite an issue. Just because someone else does it, it doesn't mean you need it.
You might say it's hard being original, the old "it's all been done before" excuse. But as I've already stated, do it well, and people will overlook cliches, familiar storylines and the likes. Citizen Kane is considered the best movie ever made because it was the first one to use certain camera techniques or tell a certain story. I'm certain Welles wasn't the first to make his camera look up at characters, but he did it with purpose, and it worked. It's because of this (revolutionary) understanding of cinema that his movie still reigns. http://popculture4fun.com
Pop culture for all it's worth
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The Movie Download Revolution
Watching movies at home has come a long way since those early days of VCRs in the 1980s, but surely the advent of movie downloads is the greatest revolution we have yet seen?
I first started watching movies at home in the 1980s. In those days there was a great big battle raging between three different systems: VHS, Sony Betamax, and Philips as to which one would finally corner the market in movie viewing at home. In the end as we all know, VHS won out, although many experts thought the Betamax was better. But such is the nature of the market place. I can remember thinking how fragile a video tape seemed to be and how it would last a lifetime as it would need to do. Well, as it turned out, the video cassette did not need to last a lifetime, since it was very soon superseded by the dvd. Finally it seemed that you would no longer have the problem of going to the video store to get a video tape that then jammed or did not play back properly.
I remember when we first saw dvds. It seemed incredible that the picture could be so clear and realistic! And there was virtually no background hiss. This was due to the revolutionary digital playback method. However there was still the problem that you had to trudge over to the dvd store to get your dvd to rent or buy. And once dvds started to get a bit old, we discovered that careless use by a previous renter could cause scratches which made the picture skip. Also you might find that the movie of your choice was not available or was not in stock at your local store.
Renting or buying dvds on the internet from Amazon or one of the large supermarket chains that are sent to you through the mail seemed to provide the solution to some of these problems. You could sit at home with no hassle and your movies would come to you. But this time, although you always get a vast range to choose from, the problem is that you do not get the movie right away you have to wait for the postman to bring it to you. By that time you might not be in the mood for that movie!
But now it really does seem like ALL the problems have been solved.
Now you can download movies, with perfect picture quality, delivered instantly. And you can watch them right away. You only have to make sure that the website you obtain them from is operating legally, but apart from that, it is the most hassle free method of watching movies that we have seen in all of history!
Cloverfield Kept Secret Better Than Area 51
by dror klar
Everyone knows just how secretive film studios can be with their properties. They usually just release a still photo of filming, or a shot out of the movie and call it a teaser poster and then give a very vague description of the plot.
Then, within four months of release time (perhaps even longer), they release a full length trailer and by then so many websites have spoiled the movie for everyone that people only see it to know whether or not it lives up to the hype. In early 2007, J.J. Abrams, creator of the hit television program Alias, announced that he was working on a new movie.
And that is all that was revealed. At the time it seemed like no big deal. Just a project that would probably be announced in a week or so. But, no announcement came. Here and there people were reporting that casting was underway for the new film. But no one knew what it was.
There were no script leaks, plot speculations or anything. The only thing anyone was capable to find out, and even then it was heavily unconfirmed, was that a possible false title that it would film under was Cloverfield.
In the summer of that same year, in the previews of the movie Transformers, a very interesting movie trailer was shown before the beginning of the movie. The trailer consisted of an apartment party where a person is walking around with a video camera.
Suddenly the very loud sound of an animal war is heard and the apartment begins to shake. The partygoers run outside and see a large explosion followed by part of the Statue of Liberty being thrown at the partygoers. From there the trailer ended with no title. Only the Bad Robot studio logo was present. The Cloverfield phenomenon was officially underway.
J.J. Abrams finally came forward and told that the movie would be a monster movie unlike anything the world has seen. When asked why he chose to work on a monster movie his response was that he had taken a trip to Japan and walked into a toy store with his son. He looked around the store and noticed that the majority of toys were Godzilla related.
To which he added that he felt it was time that there was an American equivalent to Godzilla. Now, with less than three months until the much publicized release date, we know little more now then we did at the beginning. This has led many to wonder whether or not this is a healthy marketing campaign, seeing as how a large portion of the film's awareness was spread through word of mouth. However, producers are confident that it is the same word of mouth that will make the movie a rousing success.
Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of news, movie reviews and celebrity information. If you are in the market for DIRECTV or Dish Network
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He offers the Best Deals including Texas High Speed Satellite Internet.
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Juno And The Restless Virgins
by Stuart Nachbar
Since I wrote a novel based around sex education, I've tried to pay attention to other books and movies that do the same. I reviewed Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This time, I'm reviewing Juno, a movie I enjoyed so much I saw it twice, the first time with my wife, the second time alone, so I could take a more insightful look at the story.
Juno is the story of a pregnant teenager who is trying to make sense of her difficult circumstances. Ellen Page, who plays Juno, makes the movie. She's not only funny, but she appears wise without taking things too seriously. Juno is the geeky guy's best friend, someone you can talk to, jam with, but you'd forget she was a girl unless she reminded you - and that's how she gets pregnant. She reminded the cheese on her macaroni, before he ever knew he was.
I enjoyed Juno because it was different; it was not a formulaic high school drama of fill-in-the-blank (studs, geeks, misfits, beauty queens, etc) against the cliques or the teachers. Nor was the movie a preachy lecture where everyone in one person's life imposes values and passes sentence. Juno was not held up as a poster child for teen sex gone wrong. That would have lost the teen/college audience for sure.
Instead, Juno is a movie that a father and teenage daughter can watch together, and share laughs at each other's expense after it ends. Election (1999), which starred Matthew Broderick, and was based on another Perrotta best-seller, is the only other high school based movie that comes close to the same achievement. No surprise; I saw both movies in person and they played well to all ages.
I could open my old high school yearbook, or anyone else's for that matter, and probably find one girl like Juno, maybe two, but certainly no more. She's noted as an oddball, but doesn't stand out in any special way — except for her wit — and her untimely pregnancy. During a rare scene in school, pregnant Juno attracts silence and stares as the crowds allow her to pass undisturbed, although it is clear that she has been branded a marked woman.
But Juno is remarkably poised for her age; she's thought through what she wants to do — put the baby up for adoption - and she's handling the pain with surprising humor. Juno is the bravest girl in school, and she's considered the freak. It's unclear why that happens; Juno's boyfriend/best friend's mother was the only person who had given Juno a reputation. Maybe Juno's classmates are afraid, not for her, but themselves.
Maybe the movie's writer's have left that for us to figure out.
It's good meat for a father-daughter talk after the movie's over.
After seeing Juno for the second time, I picked up a book, Restless Virgins, a non-fiction story about teenage hook-ups at a nationally respected New England prep school. This was a rare opportunity to take a back-to-back look at a movie and book along similar themes.
The authors of Restless Virgins, Abigail Jones and Marissa Miley, both graduates of the school, told a true story that appeared to be more like the formulaic high school movies: take the social cliques of the school, peer pressures, and mix them in with a scandal reminiscent of the Duke Lacrosse case. Only this time, the boys are expelled while the girl's reputation is embarrassingly showcased in court. The school is spared no embarrassment as well; a headmaster is forced to concede that hooking up has been par for the course for some time.
I understand why a publisher took on Restless Virgins; the school is one of the nation's elite and its' students considered among the best of the best at gaining admission to the most selective colleges. We expect to be surprised when they behave just like "public school kids" who lack the same advantages. We expect them to abide by a code of conduct, inside and outside school, for the good of the institution, and for the sake of tradition.
But Restless Virgins showed me that the elite are just like anyone else, except that they can afford better lawyers. All high schools, public or private have their cliques and they change, while the traditions that should probably die take a long time to go away. This came out quite strongly in Virgins. The students were ready to ignore, or let go of the school's past, while the administrators were asleep at the switch, incapable of cleaning up the mess.
Unlike Juno, there were no pregnant young women in Restless Virgins. But Juno MacGuff didn't see sex as a game, or something she had to do, but something she wanted to do, with a guy she really cared about. The fictional Juno was far more mature, and also far more interesting, than the real-life cast in Restless Virgins.
Stuart Nachbar has been involved with education politics, policy and technology as a student, urban planner, government affairs manager, software executive, and now as author of The Sex Ed Chronicles. Visit his blog, Educated Quest
Article Source: ArticleRich.com
Most Wanted Movie Download Sites From The World Wide Web
by Isaiah Henry
Before we go into finding out free movie download sites, is there any one who does not like movies apart from the usual interests? My guess is may be a handful across the globe.
If you are reading this and do not like movies, you never know you may be mesmerized by the magic of movies, a world filled with love, passion, action and ultimately the good defeating the bad; taking you away from the cruel real world where you see in most cases good being defeated by the bad. Now, some of you may dispute this but it means I got your attention in any case.
To find the right website which meets your criteria you have to search using a search engine, as there are hundreds of websites offering movie downloads. You can search using the phrase �free movie downloads� for a list of good websites. Some websites offer free downloads and others charge a nominal fee that could be a monthly, quarterly, half yearly, yearly or may be even one-time payment. You get anywhere from limited number of movie downloads to unlimited movies for the rest of your life. Of course the most value for money is offered by yearly or lifetime ones and best savings are from free movie downloads.
Downloading movies from Internet is become very easy these days the only thing is that you should be aware of the sites that provide legal download. If you have to download once or twice then you might not face any problem but if you regularly download movies you should be careful and choose only those sites that allow legal movie downloads.
Everyone and anyone can choose from these sites, a lot of choice is available to choose from. And most of us are so excited if we get anything from free, but getting access to free entertainment if absolutely thrilling. And so the next time you stop at a store to purchase a movie, think twice. Is it really necessary, when you can get it free from the comfort of your home and does not require too much of effort or time on your part.
Some of the sites might ask for a small fee and that too one time when you register yourself on the site. Then you can access as many movies you want for lifetime. Now you don�t have to waste your time on the retail shop in search of your favourite movies.
The question of the legality of the site arises when one comes to know of this type of sites. But most of the sites have their legal agreements displayed on the home page and even provide a free spyware and adware program so that you can scan the movie of any virus and then download it. You will also be provided with software so that you can make back up copies of the movies easily.
Free movie download sites are really bliss for the movie lovers. Once you get the site with the help of search engines, select a movie of your choice and click to download.
Isaiah Henry is a movie downloads site reviewer for MoviesandDownloads.com, which offers its visitors free tips, comparisons and other resources on movie services, such as RealNetworks.
Article Source: 1ArticleWorld.com
Exposing Kids To Black And White Films
Author: Dror Klar
There are so many new and different kinds of movies that we watch today. We have so many different venues in which we can watch them. We can still go to the theatre and see them when they are first shown. We can wait until they come out on video and rent a copy at the local video store. We can rent a viewing for our television through our satellite, cable, or even our computer or telephone. It is all so amazing.
Even with all these options available to us, still one of the best ways to see an older movie is to simply catch it playing on television on one of the movie channels like Turner Classic Movies. This is one of the best channels to watch if you are an old movie buff. Of course there are other channels like the Family Channel and others that show plenty of old movies too.
The way that movies are made today is so much different than yester years. Kids today barely even know what a black and white movie is. If you ask my grand daughter, who is six, she would tell you that they are also grey. I ask her what she meant and she explained to me that those old movies were also grey. An amazing observation, why were they not ever called black, white, and grey movies?
The movie making special effects combined with all the computerized and digital technologies that is used to make them now is wonderful. It is easy to understand why kids might think watching the old classics a little boring. The new visual effects are so mesmerizing, but when you are watching a grand old classic like The Grapes of Wrath, is it any better or is it just different?
It is very important that young people do not miss seeing some of the great black, white, and grey films of the past. There is so much to be learned from some of them. Movies like To Kill a Mockingbird depicts an era gone by and the innocence of kids in that time. The Wizard of OZ is one of the greatest films ever made for kids and it is great in the color version, but many older people prefer the original black, white, and grey version.
The next time you have a Saturday or Sunday afternoon free, try to get your kids to sit down and watch whatever classic black and white film that might be on television. You will probably not have to worry about inappropriate language or content, and perhaps you can introduce them to an era of film making that no one should miss being exposed to.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/movies-articles/exposing-kids-to-black-and-white-films-298606.html
About the Author:
Dror Klar offers The Cheapest Dallas Direct TV, Dish Network and
Texas High Speed Satellite Internet
on the web.
Fantastic Movie Websites
by Isaiah Henry
The bootlegging process produces a great loss in revenue and distributes pirated copies all over the world. With the advent of the internet, these illegal copies reach millions of people easily, and most often, at no cost. It goes without saying that people should avoid online bootleg movie download to support and respect the concern of legal authorities.
You've read and heard about everybody downloading movies on the internet, and you want to try it out as well. But in addition to all the hype about downloading movies off the net, you've heard some scary things. Spyware, illegal, bootleg, pirated and some of the not so good things associated with a movie download, and most definitely, these are things that you don't want to get involved in. But your friends have convinced you that you don't need to worry about such things and if you go to the right sites you won't have a problem. The only thing is they have not mentioned what are the 'right sites'. So you decide to try it on your own. Very innocently, you type in 'movie download' on your yahoo search site and you�re hit with around ten thousand odd responses. So, what do you do next? Go to each site? Not a chance....but going through the first couple of sites is not a bad idea, that'll give you time to understand how things work and what to look for.
Online bootleg movie downloads are considered to be one of the greatest Internet evils and they are a major source of trouble for entertainers. Bootlegging is when audio or video content is leaked to the Web before its official commercial release. Bootlegging leads to enormous losses for producers and distributors because millions of people get the content for free and this undermines the producers� profits. Needless to say, you should keep away from bootlegging because this way you stay on the legal side of movie downloads.
Top movie downloads sites include Cinemanow, Movielink, Unbox, Vongo and some other less popular sites. The good thing about these sites is that they are reliable. They might not offer free movies but in return you gain peace of mind because you know you are not doing something illegal.
If you still have doubts whether to pay for a download subscription or not, read some reviews of these web sites. You will see what frequent users of these sites have to say, no matter if their feedback is positive or negative. User comments give an idea what the site can offer. But don�t take everything you read as the ultimate truth because some users might not be honest in their reviews.
There is one more thing to take into consideration, when choosing a movie downloads site � your Internet connection speed. If your Internet connection is often down or it is not fast, downloading even from the best site will be a pain. And this won�t be a fault of the site, right? One more thing you have to take into account is storage place. Since movie files are very large in size, you should make sure that you have enough space to store them.
These are some of the tips you should keep in mind when you decide to download movies from the Net.
Isaiah Henry is a movie downloads site guru that works for MoviesandDownloads.com, which gives its visitors useful unbias information, such as Vongo review.
Article Source: ArticleRich.com
