Looks worth checking out, but the premise seems more of a series-type thing than a movie. Maybe this is a stealth pilot. It sure won't be in movie theaters anytime soon.

$2 matinees is the road to extinction. Theaters have all the expenses of a brick & mortar business: rent on the property, salaries for the employees, etc. They are competing with Netflix and Amazon, which have few employees and no facilities requiring rent, power, popcorn, etc. They will always be able to undercut…

Or think of it this way: Disneyland has crazy lines and charges over $100 for admission. Yet people put up wth it. Why? Because that sort of experience is worth it.

You can get the IMAX/3D/VR/whatsit experience bigger, better and badder at movie theaters vs. home.

Theaters want to innovate, so they can hang onto their audience and survive. Right now, they are surviving because Disney franchises put butts in seats. Otherwise, the industry is crashing and burning around them. Nobody seems to bother with theaters unless it's Star Wars or DC/Marvel. Even big budget action movies…

Netflix is making (well, funding really) their own movies now. So what you see in a movie theater will be a different type of movie from what Netflix/Amazon offers. For big sensory overload Disney brand name franchises, go to the movie theater. For something like Manchester by the Bay, stay at home and stream it.

That may be a joke, but I could see a day when theater goers are basically jacked in to their own immersive VR environments. They'll wander around and explore "Pandora" in movie theaters because that's where the state-of-the-art equipment will be. If they just want to watch a story being told, they might as well stay…

Movie theaters will need to innovate to survive. Just consider the trend lines of movies (the kinds that still make money in theaters, that is). They're big, sensory-overload experiences with visual eye candy, chases and explosions. Characters, story and theme don't matter. People are motivated to bother with movie…

People voted for that because the nerds who disproportionately vote in stuff online love any sort of sci fi. But it was pretty rough. Best it never went to series.

This is not the sort of show I usually go for, but I voted it thumbs up (oh right, that's Netflix) in the hopes that it'll get a series. It's one of the best pilots I've ever seen out of Amazon. The first 40 minutes is setup, so be patient.

I'm still waiting for that one about old timey Hollywood from LAST year! I need to gaze into Matt Bommer's blue blue eyes

I don't think you have anything to fear. The ratings for this one are higher than any Amazon pilot I've ever seen (even The Man in the High Castle a few years back):

The only way you're seeing something like that is if you never rated anything to tell Netflix what is a two star and what is a five star. Thumbs won't help. You gotta give Netflix input.

No, I'm sure that was Dr. Samuel Johnson. Why are you denying it Dr. Johnson?

You know what happened here? Netflix noticed that most people were too lazy to rate stuff and those who did rate stuff were fibbing too much. So we are being punished for our lazy fibbing by having our stars taken away!

Maybe for a given person, The Godfather and The Avengers are exactly the same rating. If it's different for you, then rate them differently. You won't be in the same group as the people who think they are equal so your predictions won't be based on their opinions.

It was accurate for me, too. But a while back I realized I was fibbing in my ratings, rating things four or five star that I wasn't actually coming back to finish because in my heart of hearts, I found them boring even though I was "supposed" to like them.

What that means is, Netflix should stop asking for input altogether. If somebody watches something once (all the way through, one sitting) that sounds like a four star experience to me. Only if they do that and then rewatch it does it deserve a five star. From there you can figure it out - watch it all, but not in one…

The first five minutes are a good trailer. If it doesn't sell you in that amount of time, move on.

I work in market research and I'm very familiar with the problem Netflix faces, that if you ask people to predict their behavior or even just tell you what they think, they will often LIE. And not because they are consciously lying. They are lying to themselves.