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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: Bubble: the new Steve Soderbergh film theatrical and DVD release
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 01-29-2006 06:19 PM
quote: Darryl Spicer
There is just no guarantee that the DVD you get from a rental store is going to play correctly. When you bring it home and it is scratched or has finger prints all over it, it will not play correctly.
That is the truly irritating thing about renting DVDs. So many in the general public are disgusting, uncaring pigs when it comes to handling DVDs. They need the taste slapped out of their mouths for their inconsiderate behavior.
Naturally, no such justice will happen. I'm just surprised the video stores don't have some kind of accountability applied to customers who ruin discs. Back in the 1980s I remember some video stores actually checking the condition of returned tapes and billing for damages. Today, uncaring renters ruin discs with impunity. Like I said, they need a smack.
OTOH, some video stores have really stupid methods of packaging their movies, thus damaging the movies through their own volition.
Our local Hastings Music Books and Video has by far the best selection of DVDs to rent. However, some complete irredeemable fucktards in the company to this day still insist on only using plastic single disc jewel case sized containers to hold all releases. 2 disc release? They always cram both discs into the single disc case, expecting them both to stay put on that tiny spindle. They ruin the discs almost immediately. After a single week's worth of rentals you will find all copies of a 2 disc movie with one disc secured on the spindle and the other one loose in the container. I have written Hastings about this numerous times and they have never responded back or changed their packaging. Fucktards, I say! Fucktards!
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
So, whenever a 2-disc DVD is released that I want to rent, I usually have to visit Hollywood Video or Blockbuster and then hope there is a widescreen copy available. 95% of what they put on their shelves is idiotic fool-screen versions.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 02-01-2006 05:05 AM
Well here's a telling tidbit....there are a bunch of pirates who sell their bootleg ware on the corner of Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues in Brooklyn. They have almost ever current title that are in theatres. I once called the cops to ask them what's being done about that kind of thing. The sergeant who answered the phone was very polite, but he said that kind of thing was handled by a special unit that worked in conjunction with the FBI and they don't do anything unless the FBI directs them. I didn't press it -- his tone had an unspoken statement (hear between the vowels) that said: "Are you kiddin, Bub? Our guys are out their fighting muggers and rapists." Anyway, that's not the point, the point is, I went over to this bootleg guy's array of first run DVDs all sprawled out on the sidewalk along with CDs as well and I looked for BUBBLE (not in 3D) and didn't see it. I figured, surely THIS title would be right there seeing as how it wouldn't even take the time to get a camcorder into a theatre to record it -- all they needed to go was buy it and make as many perfect copies as they needed and with no audience noise like the rest of their bootleg copies (which this guy claims is a PL:US -- his DVD give you the "audience experience, just like you're in the theatre). So I asked him "Do you have BUBBLE." His answer was, "What?" "BUBBLE," says I. "Never heard of it," he replies.
So much for where this Soderbergh "experiment" is going. I have a friend who works for TLA a DVD retailer. In a week or two I'll find out what kind of sales it's doing.
Has anyone seen ANY advertising campaign on this thing?
Below is an imaginary telephone conversation I had yesterday when I saw the ad that TLA bulk emailed to me:
In theatres 4 days ago. On DVD today.
Own Steven Soderbergh's Bubble
for just $19.99 at TLA Video!
BTW, It's only playing on ONE screen at that Landmark and nowhere in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island or Bronx, which are all more populated parts of New York City than Manhattan. Not exactly "at a theatre near you" (well, not near me, at any rate).
Imaginary phone call:
Hello, Landmark? Can I speak to the Manager please? pause
Hello, are you the manager?
Can I reserve the theatre for a showing of BUBBLE?
I can?
Good, we will have about 100 patrons coming. We are willing to pay full ticket price, it's just I want to be sure we will have that many seats available in one theatre.
No problem? Oh excellent.
This Thursday for the 8pm show. I'll come buy with cash to purchase tickets in advance if that's ok. I want to avoid having everyone needing to pay at the door.
Wow, really? Free small popcorns for each in the party?
Thank you; that's very nice of you.
Sure, I would be glad to write a letter of commendation to your home office about our experience after the film.
Goodbye.
10 minutes later:
Hello....you are the gentleman who I just spoke to about the party of 100 for a screening of BUBBLE?
Hello again. Listen, I feel really bad about this, but we are going to have to cancel that party of 100 for BUBBLE
That's right.
Well, you see, BUBBLE is already out on DVD and our film club has our own new DLP projector -- isn't that just like the DLP projectors that they use in the theatres now?
Not the same?
Well anyway, we never go to the theatre to see a film that is already out on DVD. We just show it at Gena's finished basement....with the projector on a big screen. It actually is better than in the theatre....it's digital you know.
Perhaps you should write to you home office and ask them why they would play a movie that is already out on DVD.
Oh, I AM sorry, you sound depressed. If you like, I can still write to them to tell them what a very nice phone manner you have.
Well, thanks for your help. Goodbye...Oh wait, do you think we can come buy and pick up those free popcorns you offered?
Hello?
Of course I would never do this to a fellow theatre operator, tempting as it is. And just in case any of you are wondering about the quality of this Soderbergh "film," I give you:
REVIEW
A short-film idea interminably stretched to (barely) feature length, Bubble is a half-assed "experiment" from director Soderbergh that fails in both ambition and execution. It tells the story of workers in a small-town doll factory on the West Virginia border, specifically handsome Kyle (Ashley) and dowdy middle-aged Martha (Doebereiner), who have formed a special bond of friendship. When sexy young jailbait Rose (Wilkins) joins the staff, a love triangle of sorts rears its head, and is the possible cause of an ensuing murder. All this, including the police procedural that follows, is filmed flatly...and acted that way as well by the non-professional cast. The end result is a lot like Full Frontal without the starpower. Soderbergh makes the additional mistake of underdirecting his non-actors, who recite the bland, improvised dialogue with even less impact than one would expect. Bubble was somewhat heralded as the first film (albeit shot on video) to be released in theatres and on DVD simultaneously; it will be forgotten just as quickly.
-- David Gorgos
To be perfectly honest, this sounds EXACTLY like the kind of "film" that they release DIRECTLY to DVD without any theatrical release. They have been doing this rip-off for years, even back in the days of VHS....you would see them on the rental store shelves and wonder what the hell is THAT title. They put more money into the graphics on the box than into the film. That was the trick....make the box so eye-catching and with such exciting plot summary text, in other words make it so much a look-alike as a REAL film that someone is a liable to pick it up and buy or rent it thinking it WAS a real movie that they must have somehow missed when it came around the theatres. Clever these charlatans; not much difference between them and the street corner bootleggers....both selling junk disguised to look like the real thing.
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Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002
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posted 02-01-2006 07:25 PM
To be fair, Gorgos' review is oversimplified. The film's plot is very much rooted in those bad direct-to-video genre cliches, but the other elements, such as acting, sound design, and photography, go completely in the other direction, creating this huge contrast between the two. It has a very complex structure with many many layers. It's also unfair to say that the concept is half-assed. This format is something that Soderbergh's been playing with here and there since TRAFFIC. The other five films that he's releasing under this deal will all be made in a similar fashion, with local non-actors, available light, etc.. That's a pretty big commitment to something so experimental, especially when he could be doing something "safe" like OCEAN'S THIRTEEN.
I'm not saying that most people will like the movie, and I totally understand why they wouldn't. But I don't think it can be dismissed as something that was just thrown out there to make a quick buck.
Jon, how did it look on 35mm?
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