Sodapop Journal - Latest Comments

Re: Bye Bye Birdie: the ultimate cinematic time capsule

Craig Thom — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 22:25:19 -0000

But it was never really like this, even then. The Brady Bunch showed the same kind of happy life, and it was during the height of the Vietnam War.

Look at Rebel Without a Cause. Look at the Graduate (the movie was made later, but the book was written, and the movie was set, before JFK's assassination). Read On the Road.

Bye Bye Birdie is as much a fantasy as Avatar.

Re: G.I. Joe: Retaliation leads weekend box office and clowns North Korea, North Korea apparently not feeling it

chillout — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:09:21 -0000

I noticed it too, what a coincidence. Did the korean leader watch the movie before it release or what?

Re: TMZ gets Terrence Malick on camera, doesn’t realize it

Robert Cortez — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:07:12 -0000

You must've missed this: https://vimeo.com/29349952

Re: A History of Skrillex and Electonica Dance Music

Ethan Jessop — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:10:11 -0000

This needs more info

Re: A History of Skrillex and Electonica Dance Music

Ethan Jessop — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:00:49 -0000

this is dumb

Re: Frank Darabont reveals his original Walking Dead season 2 opener

Beau Rosser — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:05:11 -0000

Yeah, that would have been bad ass. I'm enjoying Season 2, and can't wait for it to start back up again.

Re: The Greatest Studio Ghibli Film You’ll Never See

Kayla.... — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:35:48 -0000

That's funny. I've seen Porco Rosso and Whisper of the Heart (and The Cat Returns, for that matter...) but I've never seen Spirited away or my neighbor Totoro. Weird.... I just never got around to it.

Re: The Problematic Promotion of Prometheus

Michael Rank — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:57:26 -0000

I made the same comment earlier in the week when the first trailer for a trailer popped up. That level of forced hype promotion can only damage the end result, because unless the trailer is mind blowing, you're going to get a lot of, "That was it? What's the big deal?"

And having just watched the trailer, that's actually how I feel. Cool shots of space and drama in space, but nothing amazing. And the slow reveal of Prometheus was actually distracting from the images themselves.

Re: Remake Rewind: The Thomas Crown Affair

Bond Caroline — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:38:16 -0000

If there will be a sequel for this film... RUSSO>BROSNAN"S TEAM will still be the one!!

Because of them, I feel so hungry for this film. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

Re: X Marks The Rot

TacoExistential — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:01:58 -0000

I usually agree with most everything Scott says. But I'm going to be honest here, I think this is a bit of an over reaction. In the end, it's just a singing contest. One that I think does it better than the blandness that AI has become.

Re: 63: Curse You, Salinger!

TacoExistential — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:41:31 -0000

Good Times. Good Times. I still have a DVR packed full of goodness to catch up on.

Re: Top 10 Musical Artists of the Aughties

Whoistheroach — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:55:48 -0000

Linkin Park.

They get overlooked by the likes of Linkin Park; you won't see any of their albums or songs on recent lists from Rolling Stone, for example. But they're not interested in gauging the expression of the pulse of a generation; I take it that they're more trying to point out interesting artistic developments, even if they're from not-very-mainstream bands like Wilco or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But just look at how many views Linkin Park has on YouTube, and you can figure out whom Gen-Y-ers are viewing.

Of course, many of the things they watch on YouTube are rather shitty or sensational, from Justin Bieber to Rebecca Black. But with Linkin Park there is truly something that expresses the heart of a generation. Cynicism, frustration, angst, but activism and awareness.

Re: It’s All About Leverage

Teen Wolf — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:18:03 -0000

With that logic, AMC would be nothing without Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, either. They'd be an Encore subchannel. Tomorrow night their primetime consists entirely of the movie Swordfish.

Re: New Decemberists Video Recreates Scene from Infinite Jest

Mormonrage — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:06:53 -0000

You should also watch their video for "Sixteen Military Wives." It's thematically similar, and pretty darn funny.

Re: What Was Your Shameful First Album Purchase?

Paul Starr — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:23:22 -0000

Ha ha, glad to hear I'm not the only one with a humiliating christian music memory.

Re: What Was Your Shameful First Album Purchase?

Teen Wolf — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:47:27 -0000

WOW I like how Prince described Carmen Electra's work the way you would an alien invasion.

Paul, my friend and I were listening to the radio and talking on the phone one night when my mom called for dinner. I thought the song that was playing was awesome and asked my friend to tell me what it was the next day. I saw him that morning and he started laughing in my face. That song was DC Talk's "Jesus Freak".

Re: Comic-Con 2011

TacoExistential — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:02:08 -0000

I envy you to no end. I've tried for years to get a ticket to get into Comic-Con to no avail. Nice read.

Re: Netflix-ocalypse: Still A Bargain

Teen Wolf — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:34:14 -0000

The fact that you're making better arguments for Netflix's position is the biggest problem here. They have continuously acted like a monolith that doesn't listen or respond to customers' concerns, and this is the most egregious example of that. This is flat-out awful business and public relations. If you're going to raise prices, you don't do it with a single paragraph declaration that your prices are now 60% higher. You ease prices up gradually. You give incentives elsewhere. You tell people what they're getting for their higher prices. You don't say, "Our biggest competitor just got sold in a bankruptcy auction, so we're now taking the liberty of making your fees by 2/3."

You get their business position. But obviously a lot of people don't. That's why they had to shut down their blog after immediately getting 5000 angry commenters. That's why their stock dropped 5% today. And that's why I think they're about to lose a large amount of subscribers over a PR nightmare. You're totally right on the hard economics of what's a bargain and what's not, but the perception is unmistakably "Netflix is screwing their customers". I don't see them doing anything to counter this.

Also, I know they're in a precarious position, but I haven't seen such horrible negotiators since Obama folded on health care reform. Every market analyst agrees that they grossly overpaid for the Epix catalog ($1 billion for outdated Viacom titles). They grossly overpaid for the Fincher/Spacey series. They grossly overpaid for Starz content, where they just doubled how much they were paying and lost a lot of content (including all original series). They grossly overpaid for NBC Universal content, where they just doubled how much they were paying and lost a lot of content (including all original series). They rolled over on the 28 day window delaying new titles, something none of their other competitors have done. This is why prices just went up.

By every indicator, Netflix is being run badly.

Re: Netflix-ocalypse: Still A Bargain

Robert Cortez — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:08:23 -0000

You've seen Iron Man two billion times. Really.

Yes, they're venturing into new areas (I agree with you on the series, by the way) and incurring more operating costs, and yes, they need the extra cash, but that's a part of doing business. How else are they supposed to grow? The home video industry is changing in some incredible ways and I see it as Netflix doing what they can to not become the next Blockbuster.

And is the Netflix service really that bad? So you had an anomalous experience, but how many discs have you checked out since you joined? What's the ratio there? With a service that ships thin plastic discs in paper sleeves through the postal service, I'm surprised they actually managed to turn that into a business, much less make it work for over a dozen years now. Before I went streaming-only, I had bum discs turn up in the past but hardly felt like it was ever a monumental disservice. I suspect that goes for most people.

On the other hand, the complaint about the selection of streaming content is something that comes up over and over. Now, if people don't think it's worth their money, they won't have to pay for it at all and can receive only discs instead. Where's the downside to that?

Re: Netflix-ocalypse: Still A Bargain

Teen Wolf — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:26:53 -0000

I agree that it's still the best deal out there, especially for people like me who want a lot of movies that aren't in their streaming library, BUT any way you slice it, a 40-60% price increase is always a bad move. I think their reasoning is more because of bad business decisions than the logic you're laying out; their streaming licensing costs are going from $100 million for 2010 to $2 billion next year, and for that gigantic amount of money they got rights to hot new titles like Iron Man that we've all seen 2 billion times. They're also about to start financing a TV series, which probably isn't what Netflix should be doing, and they just expanded worldwide, an expensive move that has so far been met with a resounding thud.

Obviously they need more subscriber cash to finance these ventures, but they've handled it in such a sloppy way with such bad public reasoning behind it that I'm betting they lose 10% or more of their subscribers. People are increasingly frustrated with their Netflix service (lack of Blu-ray availability, long waits for new titles, I recently got the same cracked disc after sending it back FOUR TIMES), and now they're telling their subscribers to pay quite a bit more for service they were already pissy about. After putting Blockbuster out of business, it looks like Netflix is starting to make the same arrogant, monopolistic moves that sunk them.

Re: Netflix-ocalypse: Still A Bargain

Ind1fference — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:15:00 -0000

I agree wholeheartedly. All the whining is so pointless, especially from people I know who don't get DVDs.

Re: 59: The Search Is Over?

Dennis — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:18:06 -0000

I liked the Boston Office joke, Scott. And hope they actually make that spin-off. Couldn't be any worse for Shatner than Shit My Dad Says. I have a feeling they'll go with Catherine Tate, provided she can unschedule her "scheduling conflicts." The writers have been eyeing a lady boss since that season they momentarily considered a spin-off which seemed like just "The Office... with a lady boss" and just decided to do Parks & Rec instead.

Re: 59: The Search Is Over?

Robert Cortez — Fri, 20 May 2011 21:41:44 -0000

Scott, that's some interesting perspective on The Office. I'm one of those people who stopped watching a long time ago, and I only seem to ever hear overly negative things about it, but your take on it "just being there" is how I imagine most viewers feel.

And I didn't know James Spader was going to appear on the show! As much as I think he could have fun as a creepily-inappropriate boss, I don't think that'd happen since he already did it on The Practice/Boston Legal. Besides, we all know Creed gets the gig.

Re: 57: Summer is Coming

Dary Patten — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:51:15 -0000

The journey from winterfell to kings landing takes more than a month. Catelyn gets there a lot faster because she takes a ship but that isn't stated in the show.

Re: 5 Telltale Trends for the 2011 Pilot Season

Emma — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:50:46 -0000

Sadly, "Chicks and Dicks" has already been renamed "The New Girl".

If it has to be altered, I vote for "Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apt. 23" to make the move to "Don’t Trust the Snitch in Apt. 23". It might necessitate a genre shift, but I'm sure Krysten Ritter is up to the challenge.