Netflix Co-Founder apologizes for being a dick. Majority of Netflix’ers don’t buy it.

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Denise

Photo: SpinSucks

I love Netflix.  Not only to I like to turn to it in order to write articles, I turn to it when I want to watch something other than the usual dreck on tv.  But Netflix is changing, and not for the better, according to many of it’s customers.  Their decision to split the company in two entirely separate entities  — a DVD company called Qwikster and it’s streaming service Netflix — has caused  customers already fed up with a 60% price hike to re-evaluate how much they need this service.  And with Hulu, Amazon, Redbox and many more services out there, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings decided to try to save the brand and apologize.  Kinda.

Here’s his post, which was shortened when it was sent out to customers this morning, but here in it’s entirety:

***

I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. I’ll try to explain how this happened.

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) because they are afraid to hurt their initial business. Eventually these companies realize their error of not focusing enough on the new thing, and then the company fights desperately and hopelessly to recover. Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.

When Netflix is evolving rapidly, however, I need to be extra-communicative. This is the key thing I got wrong.

In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success. We have done very well for a long time by steadily improving our service, without doing much CEO communication. Inside Netflix I say, “Actions speak louder than words,” and we should just keep improving our service.

But now I see that given the huge changes we have been recently making, I should have personally given a full justification to our members of why we are separating DVD and streaming, and charging for both. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.

So here is what we are doing and why:

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD, plus lots of TV series. We want to advertise the breadth of our incredible DVD offering so that as many people as possible know it still exists, and it is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection on DVD. DVD by mail may not last forever, but we want it to last as long as possible.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently. It’s hard for me to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary and best: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”.  We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, and now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. Another advantage of separate websites is simplicity for our members. Each website will be focused on just one thing (DVDs or streaming) and will be even easier to use. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated. So if you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or email address, you would need to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn’t show up on Netflix, and vice-versa.

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). Members who subscribe to both services will have two entries on their credit card statements, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as the current charges.

Andy Rendich, who has been working on our DVD service for 12 years, and leading it for the last 4 years, will be the CEO of Qwikster. Andy and I made a short welcome video. (You’ll probably say we should avoid going into movie making after watching it.) We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready. It is merely a renamed version of the Netflix DVD website, but with the addition of video games. You won’t have to do anything special if you subscribe to our DVD by mail service.

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that distinctive red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be the same for many of you. We’ll also return to marketing our DVD by mail service, with its amazing selection, now with the Qwikster brand.

Some members will likely feel that we shouldn’t split the businesses, and that we shouldn’t rename our DVD by mail service. Our view is with this split of the businesses, we will be better at streaming, and we will be better at DVD by mail. It is possible we are moving too fast – it is hard to say. But going forward, Qwikster will continue to run the best DVD by mail service ever, throughout the United States. Netflix will offer the best streaming service for TV shows and movies, hopefully on a global basis. The additional streaming content we have coming in the next few months is substantial, and we are always working to improve our service further.

I want to acknowledge and thank our many members that stuck with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully yours,
-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments.
***
Do businesses have a right to raise prices?  Absolutely; they’re out to make a profit after all.  Are they above board when they restructure?  No question whatsoever; sometimes you have to shift things around in order to do what’s best for your customers and your shareholders.  But this “apology” has the stink of bottoming-out stock prices to it.  Plus, there seems to be no real interest in keeping current customers in both plans.  Here’s the info, here’s what we’re doing, and now that you know it you can suck it if you don’t like it.  Oh, and please dont’ dump our stock, kthxbye.

Sadly though, with his “let’s help you idiots get what we’re doing here” tone, he comes off sounding even more arrogant in this message.  Plus, he’s incorrect when he says that there will be no more fee increases; if you’d like to rent games along with DVD’s, that is.  On his blog, he answers a customer’s question about adding games to Netflix/Qwikster’s service by saying there will be an additional fee if you want to rent games along with DVD’s (although as of right as I’m tapping this out there is a possibility that he has decided not to charge any additional fees, but there’s nothing definite yet.)

What was once the top of the DVD rental foodchain has turned into a company that is scrambling to hold on to it’s piece of the pie.  A piece it had firmly in hand until it started messing around with fees and reorganizations.  I can only think that this latest change is to make their DVD side easier to sell off, since Hastings has said that streaming is his pride and joy.

And let’s see how that pride and joy keeps going once their contract with STARZ ends in February.  With Netfix’s streaming content becoming less and less available even now, the sound coming through your home theater system as you scroll through their offerings may be the sound of tumbleweeds.

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From Atomic Popcorn: In Queue Review — Arthur (2011)

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Denise

Sometimes hitting the multiplex just isn’t in the cards. That’s when cable, the web and streaming step in to provide an instant movie fix. But how to separate the wheat from the chaff? I’m happy to help; every week I’ll pick a flick and see if it’s worth your time. This week it’s the 2011 remake of “Arthur”.

The Story: Okay, so there’s this crazy-rich wealthy dude who hasn’t grown up even though he’s in his 30’s. He’s got a hella drinking problem that causes his family no end of concern. Solution? Marry the guy off to a straightlaced gal, and tell him if he doesn’t go for it he’s cut off. But then he meets the fantastic girl…and it sure ain’t the one mummy picked.  Sound familiar? Of course it is; this is the remake of the super-popular 1981 romantic comedy/drunk-dudes-are-loveable film of the same name. Swap English dude Dudley Moore with English dude Russell Brand…and you have a surprisingly well-done movie that keeps the drunken lout just as loveable as when we first met him all those years ago, but moves him into the 21st Century.

The Good: This isn’t the role Russell Brand was meant to play — that’d be Aldous Snow from Get Him to the Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall — but damn if he doesn’t make a fine drunken rich bum. He’s got the childlike quality of Moore’s drunken rich bum, but a bit more charisma and a certain je ne sai slacker that’s perfect for today’s modern lazy-ass 30-something. Helen Mirren doesn’t slide into Sir John Gielgud’s shoes as much as she re-defines the character of Arthur’s nanny/chaperone/conscience and completely owns it. Jason Winer’s ability to take all-out-crazy scenes and make them play like just another day is obviously a skill he honed on Modern Family, and one that can’t be overemphasized. This film could have easily slipped into needless slapstick, but even at it’s craziest the situations ring true. Bonus points for the touching shout-out to Steve Gordon, the director of the original Arthur, who died of a heart attack at age 44. This Arthur’s father shares a similar fate.

The Bad: As much as I wanted to love Jennifer Gardner’s whackjob golddigger Susan, it just doesn’t play true. But Gardner gets mucho bonus points for going for it with gusto, and for so obviously enjoying herself in the role. (You haven’t lived ‘til you’ve seen her meow like a kitty.) I couldn’t help but agree with Susan on one topic; how in the world could a man that is poised to take the reins of a multi-national business not have even the slightest idea of how to handle himself in the business world? It plays for laughs, sure, but when Arthur tries to work and fails ever so miserably, it’s pushed a little too far. Speaking of miserable, the remake of “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” feels insipid and dull now. It just doesn’t fit the goofy, manic pace of this film. Luckily it only plays at the end credits.

The Everything Else: This go-round tones down the drinking a bit; instead of Arthur staggering around and passing out in churches, we have him throwing rowdy parties where he picks up all sorts of women (and according to Hobson, all sorts of diseases if he doesn’t hurry up and wash his winky). To keep things a bit more realistic, our modern-day Arthur does dabble with recreational drugs, but not onscreen. But all the scenes of his opulent wealth, and the ways in which he uses it, have a lovely, childlike grandeur about them, and that keeps our new Arthur and his lady love fresh, fun and fabulous in this new century.

Here’s the breakdown:
Would I watch it again?: Why not? It’s cute, it’s funny and it could turn into a drink-along-with-Arthur game with a handful of friends.
Should you see it?: If you think remaking the original is outright blasphemy, probably not. But if you’re open to a new drunk in town, this film is a good time even if you don’t have a magnetized bed.
Netflix average rating: 3 ½ Stars
My rating: 4 Stars

Originally Posted September 14, 2011.  Click for original article.

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Mel Gibson = Jewish hero? Are we being punked?

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Denise

Heard the latest?  Mel Gibson is planning on making a film about Judah Maccabee for Warner Brothers.  Is he crazy?  Uh, yeah; he pretty much confirmed that awhile back.

Luckily, the Jewish Powers That Be aren’t stupid, and they’ve jumped on this.

The cherry on top of this shit sundae?  Joe Eszterhaus is jumping in to help.  Am I the only one thinking that this will do for Hanukkah what Showgirls did for Elizabeth Berkley?

The only way this dumb-joke-made-real could be even halfway decent is if Gibson casts someone other than himself as the lead, lets someone else direct and keeps a low profile as executive producer.  But hey, Mel ain’t exactly known for keeping out of the spotlight.

Sigh.

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From Atomic Popcorn: Monday Rewind — September 12, 2011

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Denise

Too busy last week recovering from Labor Day & commemorating September 11th to keep up with the latest in entertainment news? Here’s a look at some of my favorite stuff from the news and my twitter feed so you can catch up!

* Box Office Top 5: Contagion infected the top spot (yeah, I had to go there), but The Help is close behind at number two. Warrior enters the list at number three, with The Debt and Columbiana rounding out the top 5. (Thanks Box Office Mojo!)

* The 20 Worst Lines in Movie History! Yay!!! (?)

* All the zombies, plagues and Acts of Whomever scare the body organs outta you? Wanna know how to survive the end of the world? The Baltimore Sun’s Jordan Bartel breaks it down for you. And we thank you, Jordan!

* From HufPo: Netflix shares drop after Starz decides it may not re-up their contract with the stay-at-home streaming co. And I gotta say that I feel really good about that. You double my fees and cut my service, Netflix? I blow my nose at you!

* A first-look at American Reunion! What a perfect teaser; I can’t wait for this to hit theaters next year!

* Trailers? You betcha!

The Amazing Spiderman:

And…The Avengers trailer, just in case you need it again for comparison:

Finally, a trailer for a movie that opens this year! Well, this December. Behold Justin Timberlake & Amanda Seyfried in…In Time!

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From Atomic Popcorn: Movie Review — Contagion

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Denise

Zombies are the big thing nowadays.  But what if the world went out with a whimper instead of a bang?  What if it went out with a cough?  It may not have the cool kids cachet of the stumbling dead, but Contagion‘s well thought out scientific underpinnings make it a compelling thriller for the brainy set, those who are aching for a different kind of action movie, or anyone who has a love affair with medical procedural shows.

As the film starts, you hear a cough.  Then another, and another.  Beth Emhoff, a businesswoman who is returning home to the States from a trip to Hong Kong, isn’t looking so good.  That’s pretty damn serious, considering she’s played by Gwyneth Paltrow, a woman that would look good after a 3-day cheesecake and whiskey bender.  Anyone who has seen the trailer for this film knows that Beth isn’t recovering from this business trip bug, and quickly other people come down with the illness.  Before long, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are racing against time to stop the pandemic before it’s too late.

The beginning of Contagion is much like the start of Stephen King’s novel The Stand in how it shows just how easy it is to pass along a virus.  We see Beth pick up a drink, then put it down.  The busboy picks up the empty glass, he grabs onto a bus rail on his way home…and suddenly millions of people are dead or dying.  But this film plays down the horror aspect, going instead for a fast-paced thriller focused on how to find a cure while the world is falling apart.  Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Syriana) uses his skill working with an ensemble cast to show many different points of view; from CDC doctors and WHO officials to janitors and families in far-out villages, there is hardly a social demographic that is missed.  Writer Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum) amps up the audience’s adrenaline by crafting scenes that show how government, big business and the blogosphere all strive to come out of this smelling like a rose, regardless of the toll it takes on humanity.  Meanwhile, humanity ain’t exactly holding hands singing Kumbaya, and scenes with crowds of frightened people pushed to their limits have a frightening ring of truth.

Yes, there are themes here, but they don’t beat you about the head to get you to submit, they slide into your conscious bit by bit as the action progresses.  They’re also grounded in common sense; think for yourself, take care of yourself and those you care about, take care of the world.  It’s easy to see why H2O Africa Foundation co-founder Matt Damon signed onto this project; it’s a wake-up call cunningly disguised as an action-packed thriller.  It’s also easy to see how this film attracted it’s all-star cast, as Soderbergh’s deft touch with subject matter that shoots off in many directions at once, and Burns’ ability to craft a thriller that takes time to let you care about the folks in the thick of it, was probably catnip to these stars.  Everyone rises to the occasion, giving performances that are believable in their humanity.  Bonus points for getting Dr. Sanjay Gupta to play himself in a cameo piece.

There are problems with any movie that tries to cover such a broad scope, and Congation isn’t immune.  Although Paltrow’s character isn’t on screen — alive, anyway — for long, the connection audiences build with her after her Psycho-esque early end gets shattered by a revelation that is wholly unnecessary.  And Lawrence Fishburne’s Dr. Ellis Cheever puts himself on the line for someone, and we find out after this storyline is almost entirely played out that someone is Cheever’s wife.  But for these flaws there are many more positives.  Jude Law’s blogger Alan Krumwiede, who is trying to do the right thing but can’t seem to help being a dick about it.  Matt Damon as Beth’s husband, who will stop at nothing to keep his daughter safe.  Marion Cotillard as WHO official Dr. Leonora Orantes, a woman that gets a first-hand look at how things are going outside of the big cities.  Not everyone lives, but not everyone dies either, and that gives viewers the hope they need to keep rooting for the world to survive.

With cold and flu season hitting us right about now, I’m sure there will be quite a few people who will be a bit more careful this season after seeing this film.  Meanwhile, I picked up a bug at the screening, and can’t seem to shake this sore throat.  I’m trying not to freak out about it, but after seeing what can happen if a bug gets nasty?  I think I’ll be staying in to rest this weekend.

(Posted on Atomic Popcorn 9/9/2011: Original Post)

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From Atomic Popcorn: In Queue Review — The Inheritance

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Denise

Sometimes hitting the multiplex just isn’t in the cards. That’s when cable, the web and streaming step in to provide an instant movie fix. But how to separate the wheat from the chaff? I’m happy to help; every week I’ll pick a flick and see if it’s worth your time. This week it’s “The Inheritance”.

The Story: Oh look, it’s a family reunion.  The young twenty/thirty-somethings of the families all meet up at a huge house in the middle of nowhere.  What to do?  The cousins drink a little drink, smoke a little smoke, and meet their whacked-out “elders” who make booze & weed look like little kid stuff.  All thanks to Pazuzu Zuul Fred Chakabazz, a demon that is obviously pissed off because of that hideously stupid name.  So over the centuries the elders of these families have gotten together to decide who gets an “inheritance”.  Wanna know what the rest of the crew gets?  Well, it’s not a set of steak knives.

The Good: At the beginning of The Inheritance, I hoped this would be an interesting, rip-roaring ride with an African-American history backdrop, with an almost all African-American cast; a rarity in this genre.  The idea of how slaves came to their new world, and what they had to do to survive would make for a very interesting horror movie.  Get your scare on, learn a little something, and get to see the horror genre go in a direction that hasn’t been done to death.  Nice….

The Bad: But The Inheritance fails on all levels.  This film takes an interesting premise and uses it to crank out a horror movie that’s only scary when you think about the time you’ve wasted watching it.  There’s no real discussion as to how the families have fared since their humble beginnings, only that they “have money” now.  Their “chosen one” is so obvious from scene one that it kills any sense of suspense.  And the elders don’t look scary once it all goes down, they look silly.  By the way, how does the family survive when each generation needs to go through a weeding-out process that kills every member of that generation but one?  More importantly, how do I get back to the home menu on my Roku?

The Everything Else: The special effects are cheap and done with cutaway shots and haphazard editing.  And when the characters get bumped off one at a time it’s no great shame, since all we know about them is that they’re kinda related-ish.  The moral of the story is a tough one to decipher, since the story is so weakly drawn that it’s not worth following.  Maybe “be scared of wealthy old people”?

Here’s the breakdown:
Would I watch it again?: Not for love or money.  Well, maybe for money; that way I could pay for the therapy I’d need to get over re-watching this dreck.
Should you see it?: No.  Nup.  Nyet.  Try to track down The Legacy, the movie The Inheritance so obviously tried to rip off.  Or Tales from the Hood, a fun anthology of urban horror.  Or…just about anything else in your queue but this.
Netflix average rating: 2 ½ Stars
My rating: 1 Star (and that’s pushing it.)

(Originally posted to Atomic Popcorn 9/7/2011.  LINK TO THE ORIGINAL PIECE: Clicky!)

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Hellooooo, Cleveland!

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Denise

Or Baltimore, whatevs.

Since I write for several different sites, and since a few of  ’em are either going through some changes (or have changed a hiccup ago), I figured a spot on the interwebs all my own would be A Very Good Thing.

Plus, here I can go all psycho on a bitch without anyone saying anything.  Y’know, because who reads this?  Hello?  Bueller?

Alrighty.  So there’s my first blog post.  Or blop, as I like to call it.  Because it sounds stupid, and that appeals to me.

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