Comments on: Clearplay: Watching movies on your own terms

Like movies but don't want to have to see "that one scene?" Clearplay provides a way....

[athensa]

Wow, it's pretty impressive that The Matrix: Reloaded was able to take 28th place on a Top 25 list.

[jacobbandr]

You guys on cnet have another very good article on how to watch movies for free.

There are so many legal and not so legal options out there on the internet to watch movies instantly, whenever and wherever you want, and free. This must be the future. Nothing else can work.

After you've tasted ambrozia, you're not going to go back to sugar.

Some great places to watch online free: Hulu, Fancast, Sidereel, TV-Links.eu, Surfthechannel, Tvshack, FlickPeek, Watch-movies.

Use them. Good day.

[sm5574]

First of all, I heartily advocate artists being free to present their work in such a way as they want, and telling the public to take it or leave it in its entirety. I produce art to express myself, not to give you pleasure.

Second, you might want to try a more accurate list of top-grossing films -- one that adjusts for inflation. When taking such things into consideration, I think you will find that about 10% of the top grossing movies have been rated R.

Third, your logic is faulty, as the vast majority of films on your list would have been released recently, but the number of R-rated releases has decreased dramatically since 1990. So of course there will be fewer on the list.

But hey, if your tender mind needs to see a G-rated version of The Godfather...whatever.

[pdskep]

'I heartily recommend the service to anyone who wants to watch movies on their own terms, not someone else's."

You mean the director? Thanks for creating a post clearly showing what a pu$$y you are. How anyone can take you seriously now is a mystery.

BTW, it's clearly obvious why R-rated movies makes less money. The target audience is smaller. Yes some people choose to make art that emulates life..all of it and can still make a handy profit. What's next, putting covers on nude statues? Hell is the day I have to live in the sanitized 'Beaver Cleaver' world of Matt Asay.

[The_Decider]

Your brain dead business pedigree is showing.

Some films are not made to be blockbusters(most of them are extremely insulting movies), some are made for the sake of the artistic vision of the filmmaker. Sometimes that vision warrants an R rating. Money is what gives us so many craptastic movies.

Speaking of The Matrix, I always have felt it deserved a PG-13. There is nothing all that graphic in the movies, and the star wars movies had way more violence yet were rated PG. At any rate, only the first one was worth watching.

[mraardvark]

Why is it that people get so worked up when other people don't want sex, vulgarity, and violence rammed down there throats. No one is suggesting censors running into your home and confiscating porn collections. Rather it lets people who's vocabulary extends beyond fours letters, have sex lives of there own, or don't pine for the gruesome spectacles of the Roman Colosseum, skip the uninteresting bits, which they're already doing.

[richardkmiller]

Matt,

I can't believe you'd endorse equipment for altering my artistic creation in the privacy of your own home.

Likewise, I do not support your use of the fast forward button on your Tivo. Advertising executives produce ads to express themselves, not to give you the pleasure of skipping them.

I do not support your use of the rewind button. If you don't catch my artistic subtleties the first time around, I don't want you going back to figure them out.

I do not support your use of the pause button. Please get your popcorn and take your bathroom breaks before watching my movie in your home. The pause button breaks the flow of my artistic creation.

You just don't get it.

Why can't we go back to the 50's (the Beaver Cleaver era) when these technical improvements weren't available?

Love,
Hollywood

P.S I have some suggestions on parenting for you...

[ecyph]

Matt:

you sir, are a dork.

If you don't want violence, sex or whatever you find offensive, don't watch the offending piece of creative material. Or... you can wait for it to come on ABC Family channel like every other adult dork.

I'll admit, the network edited version of Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a work of genius... Lines like "Hope you had a helluva **** Arnold" being dubbed with "Hope you had a heckuva break Arnold" don't really change the movie, do they? Changing the graffiti on the wall from "Big Hairy *****" to "Big Hairy Beard" doesn't change the comedic effect of the film at all. And now, you don't even have to worry for your kids to see a movie that has a ***** in it at all... gratuitous or not.

I sit and watch every show with my kids at least once. I might not stick around for the endless repeats, but I've seen 95% of what they have, and explain carefully and unendingly what's happening to them so they don't turn into mindless idiots.

I dunno Matt... your normally lucid column has taken a turn down a weird road.

Maybe you need glasses to walk through a museum, and they can automatically cover the naked chicks in paintings and sculptures with clothes.

Shielding yourself from what you perceive as gratuitous is fine, but it reeks of avoidance and sugar coating reality.

good luck

[richardkmiller]

I'm calling BS on the museum comments. I'll guess that most people who make this an issue of "censorship of fine art" haven't been to a museum since their middle school field trip. Insisting that everyone adhere to your own low standard can't possibly be an enlightened mindset. It's not censorship if Matt chooses it for himself.

[Matt Asay]

I actually knew that a vocal minority (majority?) would start the name calling and "censorship" remarks on the blog. I don't care. It's unclear to me why they do, either. No one is forcing you to edit your movies. I'm certainly not. I simply posted on a service that lets those of who want to do it, do so in a legal and easy manner. The service works. It lets me see movies that I otherwise wouldn't. Why is this a bad thing?

When I couldn't get edited movies for years, I simply didn't watch them. My life was no worse. But now I can watch movies and it gives me something else to do with my spare time. I'm not sure why anyone would find this offensive. I certainly don't mind when people opt not to read this blog because they don't agree with the point of view. Why would anyone worry about whether or not I'm seeing those naughty bits of a movie?

These comments prove my implied point about Hollywood. It's not business sense that drives the inclusion of gratuitous sex and violence. It's the same elitist attitude that people are displaying in these comments. One of my all-time favorite movies is Rushmore - I've never seen it unedited. Guess what? I don't care. Neither should you. It's still a great movie without the profanity and vulgarity. Perhaps I even think it's a better movie without it.

[The_Decider]

What got people irate is not your prudish views. I don't care what you choose to see and what you don't. It is crap like:

"Indeed, within the top-25 highest grossing films of all time, only one rated-R film even makes the list, The Matrix: Reloaded at number 28"

or

"So why are more and more movies (perhaps intentionally) laced with content that guarantees an R rating and poor attendance?"

The first quote shows how little thought went into your writing.

The second shows how amazingly greed-centric your mindset is. Let me guess, you have an MBA, the lowest common denominator of degrees.

[sm5574]

I think you should take a closer look at who started the name calling.

[sm5574]

I think I may have added a comment to this blog a minute ago that was a mistake. I thought I was reading a different blog. Please disregard. :)

[pdskep]

Matt,

"No one is forcing you to edit your movies. I'm certainly not."

No, but you're advocating Hollywood should make movies only for the sake of money and the artistic vision of the director should be ignored.

If your post had omitted the first four self-righteous and arrogant paragraphs I wouldn't have had any problem with it. Just because you want yourself and your children to be sheltered from the world around you, doesn't mean the rest of us do. I shouldn't be surprised, since many if of not most of your blog posts exhibit this lack of awareness. Plenty R-rated movies make A LOT of money. That you ignore this only proves my point.

[bbbb2008]

My word!...every one of these commentors are so threatened. What's up with that? I just had to write to let Matt know that I appreciate the REVIEW of the product and how it works. Now how I CHOOSE to use it remains up to me. All you creepy little creatures that don't want to give people a simple choose...just crawl back into your little holes! Ughh!!

[The_Decider]

You know what is creepy?

Trolls with no reading comprehension.

[neilellis]

Matt you might want to read this URL (http://savingtheinternetwithhate.com/), because if I was in your shoes I'd be downright sick of people giving insults to you in public. This is pathetic, when people talk about freedom of spech they forget that it means that Matt has the right to say things without being abused for his views in such a way. I don't always agree with Matt; but why on earth would anyone want to make such personal attacks - and personal they are.

Freedom on the internet has just become a euphamism for childish self-centred uncontrolled behaviour.

It sickens me to read the comments to this blog entry.

Matt you have my sympathies; and I for one am glad for you that you choose not to fill your mind or that of your children with purile images in the name of entertainment - good for you - that's your CHOICE.

[matt_ryan]

Matt,

You asked: "So why are more and more movies (perhaps intentionally) laced with content that guarantees an R rating and poor attendance? I don't know." Fact is, those things are put into movies to make them addictive. I don't buy the whole artistic integrity argument. I think in truth the creators of movies know that adding that type of content will compel more people to watch even if the actual plot and theme are garbage.

It really is surprising the revolt you get for daring to imply that you might wish to enjoy your version of the movie. That's akin to saying you shouldn't use OpenOffice.org unless you plan to use all of the features or that you shouldn't buy a CD if you plan to ever skip any of the tracks.

Makes me wonder if, when the emperor paraded about in his "new clothes," whether the people ostracized the child for declaring that the emperor was naked. Or whether they would have, if the child had in fact been an adult. Kudos to you Matt, and to Clearplay.