TychoCelchuuu Posted June 17, 2014 I switched my default search engine over to Bing a month ago and I'm earning enough Bing reward points to get me infinite free Hulu+ subscriptions for an indefinite period of time. (If you're interested in this, let me know and I'll give you a referral link.) Our beloved podcast is also advertising Hulu+ subscriptions, including 2 weeks free if you use the promo code Thumbs or whatever when you sign up. Plus some of you probably have Hulu+ already. So what I'm saying is, there's the potential for a serious Hulu+ contingent around here. And this means access to a shitton of Criterion collection films, aka many of the best films ever made, plus Armageddon. (Actually Armageddon is one of the Criterion films NOT available for streaming on Hulu+. Jake and Co. are definitely lying to you when they say Hulu+ has all the Criterion films. It has like, way fewer than that.) There's some seriously good seriously classic shit there for the watching. Cría cuervos, Stranger Than Paradise, The Wages of Fear, Wings of Desire, Woman in the Dunes, Harakiri, Andrei Rublev, Ashes and Diamonds, Au hasard Balthazar, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Cure, Drunken Angel, La haine, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie... I could go on and on with dozens of other movies that are absolutely tremendous and that also make you feel bad for not having seen or even heard of them because you're not as much of a film snob as you wish you were. But we can fix that! We can watch these films! I'm going to be watching a fuckton of films over the summer, because this summer is my "become more cultured" summer. I'm also reading a fuckton of books but unless you can read novels at the rate of one every few days or faster, you likely can't keep up with me, so instead of a book club I'm thinking film club. Anyone interested? We'd watch, like, a movie a week, picked from the list of Criterion films that Hulu+ has available. Then we'd discuss the movie. Pretty straightforward, no? Are you with me? Check out this website to see what is on offer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patrick R Posted June 17, 2014 I cannot afford Hulu Plus but I will do this regardless (I have access to a lot of DVDs via a great local video store I have an account with). We should probably figure out how the films will be selected. I can definitely recommend a lot of these, but most have reputations that speak for themselves. Maybe rotate by decade, country, genre, a mix of all these? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted June 17, 2014 I might be in for it! We should put up some sort of schedule, or have at least one overseer for this project to decide which films to watch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
prettyunsmart Posted June 17, 2014 I'm in. I'd probably get DVDs from the library rather than Hulu plus, but film club generally sounds fun. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dibs Posted June 17, 2014 Lordy, going through their list the only ones i've seen are the Wes Anderson ones and a few select others. I'd be up for tracking these down perhaps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Merus Posted June 17, 2014 Hulu Plus does not operate outside the US; I've got a tunnelling solution that's good for a few videos but probably not a whole movie. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted June 17, 2014 If anyone wants free Hulu+, you can sign up for a free two weeks via the Idle Thumbs promotion, and in the meantime do the Bing thing, and by the end of two weeks you should basically have enough points for a free month, and then you can keep doing the Bing thing forever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
graddy Posted June 17, 2014 Do the Bing rewards work with chrome as your default browser? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted June 17, 2014 Yes, pretty much any browser. You just change your default search engine to Bing (or laboriously go to Bing.com each time...) and away you go. Use a referral link if you want, although I guess I don't need the points and I'm not sure if it boosts your account at all. I've found Bing to be almost as good as Google - if you fuck up your typing and enter every litter one to the left on accident or something, Bing isn't smart enough to figure it out, and those weird queries like "movie 90s pizza land shark" work better on Google than on Bing, but aside from that I've had no problems swapping to Bing and the free Hulu+ is pretty nice. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
prettyunsmart Posted June 17, 2014 So, any thoughts on when to get started, and what film to start with? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted June 17, 2014 Not really. It sounds like we have four people at least which is pretty good but I want to wait a little longer to see how many we have because that will probably determine how we go about picking films and stuff. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patrick R Posted June 17, 2014 The way I see it we can either come to a consensus on every film or we can take turns choosing for the group. I prefer the latter, so no one feels like they're not getting to watch movies they want to. The list Tycho linked to allows you to sort by year, director, and country, so even if you haven't seen any of these you can still be like "I'd like to know more about Japanese crime movies from the 60's" and pick one with a synopsis that sounds good to you. Or we can just watch The 400 Blows, Rashomon, The Rules of the Game, and Breathless over and over and over again. Really recreate that film school experience. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
prettyunsmart Posted June 17, 2014 Or we can just watch The 400 Blows, Rashomon, The Rules of the Game, and Breathless over and over and over again. Really recreate that film school experience. Well, they may be over-done, but all four of those are really fantastic. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patrick R Posted June 17, 2014 Absolutely. But the FIVE classes (in the 4 total semesters of college I've had) where I had to watch Rashomon kinda sapped out my enthusiasm for it. I would not want this club to be a perfunctory journey through established film canon. The breadth of Criterion (even limited to what's on Hulu Plus) is so much grander than that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coods Posted June 17, 2014 I am incredibly out of my depth here but this sounds awesome so I'm up for anything. Will probably be amazed by any film we watch regardless. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
prettyunsmart Posted June 17, 2014 Absolutely. But the FIVE classes (in the 4 total semesters of college I've had) where I had to watch Rashomon kinda sapped out my enthusiasm for it. I would not want this club to be a perfunctory journey through established film canon. The breadth of Criterion (even limited to what's on Hulu Plus) is so much grander than that. OK, that's pretty rough. I get why it happens (mostly that they're all really good films for teaching some basic film theory stuff), but you'd hope you'd get some variation in five different classes, even if it is a different Kurosawa film. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted June 17, 2014 It's not like film history isn't FILLED with hugely interesting movies... turn around, step on another classic. Besides which, The Rules of the Game is overrated, watch Last Year at Marienbad instead. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patrick R Posted June 17, 2014 The Renoir devotee in me is clutching his pearls at that last statement. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted June 17, 2014 Resnais > Renoir! FIGHTTTTTTTT!!!! TO EL MUERTE!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted June 17, 2014 Yes, pretty much any browser. You just change your default search engine to Bing (or laboriously go to Bing.com each time...) and away you go. Use a referral link if you want, although I guess I don't need the points and I'm not sure if it boosts your account at all. I've found Bing to be almost as good as Google - if you fuck up your typing and enter every litter one to the left on accident or something, Bing isn't smart enough to figure it out, and those weird queries like "movie 90s pizza land shark" work better on Google than on Bing, but aside from that I've had no problems swapping to Bing and the free Hulu+ is pretty nice. I don't think I'll participate because I'm horrible at keeping up with this kind of stuff, but I will put in an endorsement for Bing Rewards as well. I've used it for about 1.5 years and I've gotten $45 worth of rewards (mostly $5 Amazon GCs, also a couple 400 MS Point cards while that was still a thing). And in exchange, Bing really isn't noticeably worse than Google except when you really would prefer Google results. So, don't search for a video that you want to watch in YouTube on Bing, search for it on YouTube. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
agorman Posted June 17, 2014 I like this! Id definitely be up for this! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bjorn Posted June 18, 2014 I signed up for Hulu Plus tonight to try it out, and promptly watched the cinema classic Cronos (not really a classic, but certainly interesting). I'm somewhat shocked at the diversity of stuff that is in the Criterion Collection, I guess I hadn't ever taken a good look at it before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Professor Video Games Posted June 18, 2014 I need peer pressure to make me do things, so I'd be in. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sleepdance Posted June 18, 2014 I'd be totally up for this. It also be a nice way to come back into this forum thing after some time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
N1njaSquirrel Posted June 18, 2014 Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what the heckins is The Criterion Film Collection? When I first heard the thumbs mention it I thought some people had made a Burnout movie. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
