Lazy Curious

When it comes to downloading content from the Internet, I stick to music. I find movies take too long to download and then are far too memory-consuming to be worth the effort. However, I do realize this opinion puts me in the minority. A lot of people have no such issues with getting a movie off the Internet. That was made clear while cruising through the web this afternoon, when I came across an article which listed the top-10 most illegally-downloaded movies ever. Not surprisingly, they were all movies which had been released in the last few years. ("The Departed", which came in at #8 on the list, was the oldest movie having been released in 2006.) Much in the same way that every movie that comes out now rockets up the 'highest grossing movies of all time' list, this list should probably be taken with a grain of salt. Technology has come a long way in the last couple of years and we should all recognize that these numbers have to be adjusted for some type of inflation. Clearly this list can't account for the number of times movies like "E.T." were illegally copied and sold on the streets during the days of VHS.

It shouldn't come as a shock to see that "Avatar" has the top spot as the most pirated movie ever. They way the studio hyped that film when it came out made it a huge target for people looking to sell bootlegs. Normally I would say that I feel bad for everyone who lost money in that deal, but James Cameron seems to be doing alright for himself, so my compassion is a little lacking right now. Also, it is far from surprising that the rest of the list is filled with other sci-fi movies like the "Star Trek" reboot (6th place), "Transformers"(#3), and "The Dark Knight" (#2). Comic book guys love their technology just as much as they love their comic book movies. (Frankly, it is the only way to explain a terrible flick like "The Incredible Hulk" showing up on this list at #9.) Since you have to watch it 12 times just to understand the plot, I can see why so many people needed to get a copy of "Inception" for reviewing purposes (#4). A couple of the other spots were filled with box-office smashes, "The Hangover" (#5) and the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie (#10). Not a ton of surprises on this list. Except one.

Clocking in at #7 was the film "Kick-Ass". For those of you who have never seen it (and given it's modest success at the box office I'm guessing that would be a lot of you), the movie centers around a teenage kid who decides to become a superhero. He is joined by a young, foul-mouthed girl and her ex-cop father, played by Nic Cage (doing his best to keep it together until the check clears) and the kid who played McLovin'. The movie is filled with some really graphic violence, meaning critics hated it and that is what I assume makes it so appealing to the kind of people who know how to find and illegally download movies from the Internet. I've seen it and while the extreme, almost-cartoonish violence didn't phase me, I didn't enjoy it enough to think it would have been so popular online. This has lead me to one conclusion: "Kick-Ass" fell into a category I like to call "lazy curious."

I've talked before about how whenever I go shopping I always weigh how much I like something against much it costs. I might like that shirt, but not for $25. Movies can be the same deal. I might want to see a movie, but not so much that I'm willing to pay $12 (plus snack money) to see it in the theater. Sometimes I'm not even interested enough to pay the Red Box fee and wait until it show up on cable or as a NetFlix option. But that is only because I'm not adept at finding reliable copies of movies online. If I knew right where to go to get good copies of new releases my attitude might be different. That is what I think happened with "Kick-Ass". People were slightly interested in the movie didn't feel like seeing it in a theater and probably didn't feel like renting it, but if they could click a few buttons and it would be delivered to their home for free, only then would they watch it. (And their interest was probably increased by the movie critics who hated the violence. When are people going to learn that saying something is too violent or has too much profanity just grows the audience?)

Basically, this is the new way to build a cult-classic. You put it out there, wait for the bootlegs to start getting passed around, hope word of mouth is good and sit back as the demand slowly starts to spread. You may not make any money from the original, but if enough people talk about how not-bad your movie was you can still get a sequel approved. (Seriously, they're about to release a "Footloose" remake. Clearly, Hollywood is desperate.) That is why, as I was checking to see how "Kick-Ass" did in the theaters, I was not surprised to find several items about a sequel which could potentially be in the works. I guess I should confess that I probably won't see the sequel in the theater either. Anyone know a good site where I could download a copy when it comes out?