Random Comments on Streaming Media

I haven't been on hbogo for awhile because truth be told they have a certain amount of content and once you go through that, you're done, for awhile anyway. Besides Bill Maher.

They do change out movies, and sometimes bring back shows, but there's no guarantee they will be good. And they sometimes produce new movies. Lately they've produced some pretty mediocre stuff, one about Liberace, and another goofy comedy starring Larry David doing Larry David schtick.

If nothing else they always have "The Sopranos", a series I recommend that everyone watch at least three times all seven seasons. It's the only show I've ever watched that, on the third watching, I still kept having the feeling that I was seeing episodes I hadn't seen before. It's that intense.

But I loaded it up because I wanted to skip through "Cloud Atlas" again, and see some of the more amazing scenes, like "New Seoul", and others that are just outrageous.

But it's gone now. I guess the license they had was limited.

If you still want to see it--and it is truly visually unique, the only independent movie ever made with a budget of $100,000,000--you can purchase it on Amazon for $9.99 in HD, including a bunch of special features. (You can also get it in SD, and without the features, but strangely it still costs the same, so if you do you might as well get HD plus features. They didn't have the features on hbogo, so that at least would be something, maybe more interesting than the movie in some ways.)

(If you watch it using an app, you must purchase content through the web site, and then it will show up in your app. Otherwise, they have to pay Apple a cut, and that violates licensing agreements. People have been badgering Apple to change their "in-app purchase" rules to accommodate this, but they won't, so far. Thus they put you through this awkward process. If you don't buy things on the site, all you can see in the Amazon app is "Prime" stuff--if you pay for Prime. It is undeniably a weird business model: pay a yearly fee for "free" overnight delivery PLUS streaming video content..it's like paying for a massage and getting a free wheel of Jarlsberg cheese or something. Bizarre.)

It's a mostly confusing mash of different stories in different timelines with characters played by the same actors, which can be unfortunate because one of them is Tom Hanks, and to me he just totally sucks out loud in this, which is bad bc he plays like five different roles. But the visuals in almost every scene are just so lush and detailed it nearly beggars the imagination. It's worth seeing if for nothing else than the pure spectacle of it. If I hadn't seen it, I'd pay for it.