Blood, Gore & Porn Movies--You'll find them all here.
Written: Apr 22, 2003 (Updated Jun 27, 2003)
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There’s another online movie rental store to consider—this one allows you to download or stream videos directly to your computer, it’s not a replacement for the local rental store, but it will do in a pinch if inclement weather has you stuck inside or you’re miles from a video store and itching for a new release. Play on your computer screen or your TV (additional cable required and our TV & Computer must be in the same location-- I’ve not tried it myself so I can’t comment on the quality of the picture when done this way).
They boast over 900 movies on-demand. My favorite online vendor is still MOVIELINK—I don’t think they have the selection, but then a great many of these 900 are porn movies.
WHO IS CINEMANOW.COM
According to their site, ” CinemaNow was founded in 1999 and its investors include Lions Gate Entertainment, Microsoft and Blockbuster.” They own the rights to over 3,000 feature length films from studios such as Lions Gate Entertainment, Vanguard Cinema, and Warner Brothers.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
• 56K modem or higher. Broadband connection preferred. 100k minimum recommended
• Windows Media Player 7 (Sorry MAC users, you can’t use this service) Be warned—they’ve “personalized” the Media Player for their site so some of the feature you normally have aren’t there—like keeping the screen on top while you browse.
• Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher and Windows 98, 2000, or higher preferred.
HOW IT WORKS & COST
They offer just two plans and all movies on the site are labeled—because of rights, the two passes are not interchangeable.
Premium Plan --You can watch as many movies labeled “Premium” in the month as you can stand--these movies can be streamed (this means you watch them directly from the net so you must be connected to the internet the entire length of the movie) or downloaded (because of licensing you still must be connected to the Internet but the quality is dependant on your computer, not your internet connection as it is with streaming).
Each movie is labeled so you’ll know which format you’ll be viewing in. Even 10-year old full-length movies don’t qualify for the Premium Pass, but movies such as, ”BACKYARD FIGHT CLUBS VOLUME I- self explanatory” and ”CRASH ENCOUNTERS--From motorcycles to boats to cars, this movie assembles the most spectacular accidents and incidents from the most popular categories of motor sports” do.
I waded through the A-F listings and never saw one movie I’ve ever heard of. I did finally find a movie to watch (see below). There are also X-rated movies that are part of this package. The Premium Pass is $9.95 monthly—once started, they will continue to bill your credit card until you cancel it, whether you use the service or not.
Pay-Per-View is available whenever you’re in the mood—no monthly fees. Pay & play! These movies are downloaded to your hard drive and you have 24 hours to watch them. This is where all the "regular" movies are. All movies are clearly marked with their price on the individual film page—they range from $2.99 for older films and $4.99 for new releases. If you choose an X-rated Pay-Per-View movie your credit card will not show the movie title—thought you might find that important information.
WHAT’S MISSING
There isn’t any information on what happens to the files you’ve downloaded after their 24/48-hours are up on their site. I contacted their customer service department by e-mail, it turns out that the files stay on your hard drive until you remove them—these are HUGE files so it won’t take long for your hard drive to start suffering. A reminder to remove them would be helpful. If you try to play a downloaded movie after its rental period is over it will reconnect you to the Internet and charge you again.
Also, MovieLink checks your system before it even lets you browse its site to be sure you’ll be able to use their service. With this one there’s no way of knowing (unless you’re a technophobe) until you start trying to download/stream.
RATING SYSTEM
They have a very rudimentary customer rating system in place—not many have taken the opportunity to rate the movies and those that have leave short single sentence messages like, “cool movie”. Not really helpful.
PARENTAL CONTROL
They have a clumsy system in place for allowing you to mark movies you don’t want your children to be able to watch—seems like it should be the other way around. There are so many unrated movies, XXX-rated movies, and R rates movies it would take HOURS to mark them all. I wouldn’t let children wander in here alone. All that separates them from TONS of NAKED women is a small button that by clicking you agree to be old enough—yea, like any 15-year old boy isn’t going to click on the YES button!
CATEGORIES
They offer new arrivals, action, animation, comedy, documentary, drama, family, foreign, horror/sci fi, shorts, and after dark (more X-rated movies than even Adam Corolla can watch!). While there are some mainstream movies there are also many movies you won’t see in most video stores. There’s a massive amount of blood, gore, crashes, and yuck.
WHAT SUCKS—THE NAVIGATION/SEARCH FUNCTIONS!
Trying to find a movie is ridiculous! After finally finding the “Premium” movies, I was presented with an alphabetically list movies to a screen, with no way to jump more that one page forward or one page backward at a time. To do a search means getting both Premium and Pay-Per-View in the same results—very disappointing if you’re only looking for Premium. Their navigation needs a serious upgrade! When all else fails, I’ve resorted to the “A to Z Movie Listing”. Nice, but you have to click on each title to find out whether or not you can watch it if you only have a Premium Pass—a small symbol next to each title would have made it much easier.
PAYMENT
Credit card only
PRIVACY POLICY
Their Privacy Policy is written in an interesting style. VERY informal, I guess it’s the crowd they’re trying to attract. I found this one statement very interesting, ” We know you realize this but, just in case anyone's asleep at the switch (or too hung over to have thought about it), if you buy something from our web site, well, we are going to know who we ship it to, where it gets shipped to, and the credit card number used to pay for the goods. We really hope that this isn't a surprise to anyone.” I guess I’m not in the demographic group because I found it to be a bit unsophisticated.
STORE
Yes, they sell their movies as well—you’ll find such classics as ”Beverly Hills Vamp” here. A VHS of this movie is $12.99 (no really, I’ve never heard of it or half of the movies on this site—for some that’s a plus!). Nothing impressive in the store.
MY EXPERIENCE
I tried to watched “F.A.R.T. THE MOVIE” by the Farley Brothers—heck, I’m 41 but I still like the Farley Brothers. This isn’t the format for the cinema purest—the streamed videos show their compression but for the casual viewer/surfer this is an adequate way to watch/listen. Premium movies are easy—find one, click on “Stream” and wait for the viewer to pop-up. If you don’t already have the Windows Media Player 7 you’ll be prompted to download it. Quality will depend greatly on your internet connection (I have DSL 640.0 kbps) and your computer speed (Pentium 4). Older machines and dial-up users would probably find this service very frustrating.
I haven't finished viewing the movie yet and I need to remember to cancel my "Free" trial--forget to cancel and they'll start automatically billing you.
RECOMMENDATION
If you like off-the-wall movies and have been searching all over for “Backyard Fights this might just be perfect for you! You can always try the free 7-day trial—just remember to cancel before the end of the free trial or you’ll continue to be charged. If you’re easily offended, this isn’t the place for you. X-rated movies, blood & gore, and more are here. Me? I’m going back to MOVIELINK, but it was nice to try someone else so I can be assured of the quality of my first choice.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: Connie Ott
Location: USA
Reviews written: 255
Trusted by: 189 members
About Me: Owner of Princess Time Toys and professional mom blogger at MiscFinds4u.com
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