The Big Screen vs The Small Screen

[bendk]

I am curious, do you still go to the theater to watch movies or do you stream them or watch them on dvd? How many times do you go to the theater in a month or a year? How do you get information on movies that you may potentially enjoy?

I used to go to the theater a couple of times a month, but this has decreased over the years. The only movie I have seen at the theater in the last three months was Ben Wheatley's Free Fire, and I had to make an effort to see that. I drove about 25 miles to a theater not-so-near-me in order to watch it. I am an admirer of his work. I enjoyed the film, although it isn't The Kill List.
I depend mostly on the library and Netflix for my movies. The recommendations from Netflix have worked out pretty well. I also look for recommendations from TLOers.
The only movies that I foresee going to the theater for this summer are Alien: Covenant and maybe Guardians of the Galaxy. I think both of those viewing experiences would be heightened by seeing them on the big screen.

[Speaking Mute]

My girlfriend and I used to go see a lot of movies in the theater, but over the last few years we've maybe only seen four or five - Phoenix Forgotten, of all films, being the one that somehow lured us back since It Follows.

I've never watched much regular or cable TV - I subscribe to Shudder, which in the last two years has been 75% of my viewing. Shudder has a pretty wide range - speaking of Wheatley, I recently watched both Kill List and A Field in England through them - and unlike its rival Frightpix doesn't have the commercials, which I think is well worth the six or seven bucks a month:

https://www.shudder.com/


I find Netflix's recommendations useless - given the complete disconnect what I actually watch and rate on Netflix and what Netflix recommends, I'm either an outlier for their algorithm or the entire setup is just a marketing ploy. That said, I do like Stranger Thing and the reboot of MST3K, and did recently watch The Windmill there, although I only discovered it through scrolling looking for a throw away slasher.

[waffles]

I rarely go to a movie theater anymore. My misophonia has gotten so bad that I can't focus on the film with all of the slurping and chomping and texting going on around me. I only go to a theater if it's a weekday and I can sit in the last row.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I mostly buy discs. Couldn't do without my multi-region dvd player but a multi-region bluray player is outside my price range right now. Youtube is helpful for what I can't get on disc, including tons of European animation.

It's quite rare there's anything I want to see at the cinema. Maybe like 3 to 5 films a year.

I've had a few good film guide books that got me watching a lot. I've trawled imdb and rateyourmusic film lists and reviews a lot.

The Bedlam Files | Adam Groves reviews horror, sci-fi, cult movies and books.
This site is very helpful, it used to be called Fright Edge but it moved.

Trailers From Hell on youtube is a great channel to be subscribed to. Most of the film's aren't great but it's a good way to learn about b-movies and oddities of film history. It's always someone talking during a trailer to give you background of the films.

[Severini]

Since I don´t have a blu-ray player, I watch a lot of films on VOD.Most films I am curious about only can be watched this way in Brazil.I only go to the teather when it is a big release that I pretty much can´t wait any minute to watch it.The last one was "Captain America:Civil War".

[Severini]

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

I've trawled imdb and rateyourmusic film lists and reviews a lot. The Bedlam Files | Adam Groves reviews horror, sci-fi, cult movies and books. This site is very helpful, it used to be called Fright Edge but it moved. Trailers From Hell on youtube is a great channel to be subscribed to. Most of the film's aren't great but it's a good way to learn about b-movies and oddities of film history. It's always someone talking during a trailer to give you background of the films.

thanks for the links!

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Looking through Trailers From Hell again, it's a lot more varied than I said above, there is quite a number of classics in there too. Here's two videos just to give an idea of what they do, including the Robert E Howard film.

Bernard Rose on THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD - YouTube

Larry Karaszewski on OUR MOTHERS HOUSE - YouTube

[Ibrahim]

Ah, films. Even the best of them are often loud, manipulative, forceful, propagandistic.
They always turn out to have made more of an impression on me than i thought they would, because of that.
And all of it, small screen or big, eats into reading time/drawing time.
Just like this Internet right here.

"nice noisy toys to scare the ghosts away"

[Raul Urraca]

I'm both cheap and a shut-in, so I rarely go to the theater. I go maybe once a year with my family, and we usually see something bad. I'm not big on movies or tv anyway, so I watch less than a dozen unfamiliar films each year, all of which I obtain by DVD or streaming.
I get all of my film recommendations via the internet (googling around and whatnot).

[GirlyGirlMask]

I have a four year-old son who loves superhero films, so I reluctantly go three or four times a year so that he can get his fix. I normally take a nap.

Alamo Drafthouse here in Kansas City recently screened most of David Lynch's filmography and I went for that. It was incredible. I still think the best way to see a film is in a dark theater with sound loud enough to tear your face off. But there aren't many films worth finding the time for anymore, at least not the ones at the Cineplex. I've recently noticed I'm watching fewer films and reading more, or working on my own projects.