Google+ meet your new best friend—the Verizon Coinstar mashup. Coinstar of course owns Redbox, you’re favorite grocery store DVD distributor. The two together are offering…something. They’re not Neflix—the other convenient way to watch movies. Thus far, they really haven’t promised much of anything.

The announcement may be sort of a premature statement as shown by the lack of news. But two things are clear: the merger will happen and it will offer streaming. It sounds more like a pain than a blessing. The Verizon/Coinstar merge is likely based on a point system. Without knowing what that means, it sounds both tricky and difficult. Groan. Right? Twelve easy steps to watch one Ron Schneider movie. Lucky us.

So where does the problem lie? Well, Netflix found out last year that breaking up the streaming and DVDs is a big no-no. Amazon and iTunes charge too much, but you can grab episodes of television shows and movies pretty easily. Where else is there to go with this merge? Yes, both companies are big deals, and credit where credit is due. However, just because they are good in their respective fields does not mean coming together to produce something no one was looking for is a good idea.

Unless they’re going to produce something mind blowingly new, I have a feeling they’re kicking a dead horse.

Michael Dowse’s Take Me Home Tonight, starring Topher Grace, Anna Faris, Dan Fogler, and Teresa Palmer, comes out in theaters on March 4th. I’m excited to see how such a fun cast and story comes together later this year. Read on for a synopsis of the film, the trailer, poster, stills, and more:

Download the trailer, poster, and/or stills here! :

To find out more, visit the official site or follow Take Me Home Tonight on Facebook and Twitter!

Recently I wrote about how Paranormal Activity released their teaser trailer for the sequel and have begun another campaign to push word of mouth of the new movie.  Well that is continuing more so, and it looks like they are taking things to the next level to get people talking about it all over the internet on Facebook, Twitter, and of course blogs like I am doing here.

Cinemark is reportedly pulling the Paranormal Activity 2 trailer from several of its theaters in response to multiple complaints from moviegoers in Texas.

Our friends at Screenrant released the story saying that the World Health Organization (WHO) ordered theaters to release a warning for the trailer that it could be harmful and dangerous.  This is extremely all ridiculous, but apparently some teens who were watching Eclipse saw the teaser trailer and freaked out, stirring all this up.  How much of a degree did little Jacob fans go crazy?  Who knows, but from a business standpoint Cinemark has to do what they have to do to cover their butt.

I wonder if the studio behind the sequel is behind this at all and influencing this.  Or is this just the perfect coincidence that the movie needs to begin the viral buzz?  The fact that the trailer is SO SCARY that it needs to be pulled, makes it that much more intriguing, and something I can see the studio playing off on future commercials and tag lines.

“The movie that had its trailer pulled cause it was too scary.”

This could not be more perfect for the makers behind Paranormal Activity 2, and not more perfect for anyone who likes to see Twilight fans freak out.  That’s not right, but true.

Do you think the studio was behind this at all?  Do you think that this will push the online buzz of Paranormal Activity 2?

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Gone With the Wind, Titanic, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings are some of the biggest money making movies of all time.  In a very short time span, one movie proved that it belongs at the top of that list, and no shocker…..it’s Avatar.  The 10 year James Cameron sci-fi epic is going to surpass Titanic in ticket sales to become the biggest movie of all time.

Who the hell is this James Cameron guy everyone talks about?  Oh yea, I think he had some small cameo in Entourage and convinced Vinny Chase to do Aquaman, which became the biggest selling movie of all time.  This guy cannot be stopped, even in a fictional movie he manages huge success.  This guy is a directing legend.

But Avatar did have some help to push it to become #1 of all time, even help that wasn’t around for Cameron’s predecessor Titanic 10 years ago in 1999.

This movie was made in 3D, a technology that was not around 10 years ago.  Now it is becoming the standard but growing up 3D was a cheap gimmick that was cool to see on rides at Disney World, not something you thought would enhance your standard flick.  Besides the fact that movie tickets are at an all time high, 3D tickets are usually at least $2 more than a standard movie ticket.  this obviously helps out the box office numbers especially when 80% of US gross and 65% of overseas grosses are from 3D box office sales.

Social Media is no longer a gimmick and trend but an automatic strategy for a movie when it comes out.  It’s guaranteed that there will be online promotions for it.  To capitalize on the success of past movies with their online campaigns, Avatar hit the web in full stride and utilized multiple social media channels to promote the movie.  There was even a chat with James Cameron and some of the actors through Facebook, a live streaming video of the red caret event, and massive amounts of blog posts, contests, and tweets that were generated toward Avatar.  The build up worked like a science and when it went viral online it stuck because people have the ability to share things with others through links, multiple social networks, and good old fashion email that you can’t do with traditional advertising.

Even in 1999 with Titanic, the web was still a baby with social networking.  Things like Facebook and Twitter did not exists yet and blogs were in their infancy.  Imagine if Titanic came out now, or Star Wars?  The online promotion and buzz potential is endless and sci-fi movies seem to do a great job of establishing and building viral buzz online.  Maybe that’s because the geeks who are active on the internet (banterers included) are the main demographic who see these sci-fi movies to begin with.  There is no on reason but probably a combination of a few that will lead Avatar to surpassing Titanic to become the biggest movie of all time.

Do you think social media played a large role in Avatar’s sales or would it have been as successful prior to Facebook, Twitter, and social networking?

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The second movie in the Stephanie Myers Twilight series Twilight: New Moon was released at midnight today to an alarming amounts of fans and groupies a like.  The movie looks to set all sorts of holiday records and already surpassed both The Dark Knight and Harry Potter in midnight sales, which means….cha-ching!

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Only Angels Have Wings divx The box office isn’t the only place where the New Moon mania is.  Besides the inside of middle school lockers, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and gang are being mentioned everywhere on Twitter.  And in the masses.

Twilight has been getting about 81,000 tweets per day on Twitter making it one of the most trended topics on the popular social network.  Insanity….yes.

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I read and saw the first Twilight and really didn’t think either were that good, much less Backstreet Boy band crazy.  Granted I am not a middle school girl despite how people think I act at times but it’s crazy to see such alure for the teeny bopper vampire saga, especially when there is so much out there, and frankly so much better.

Maybe I am just not up for Twilight but I am a vampire fan.  I loved the Swedish Let the Right One In and am a huge fan of the HBO show True Blood.  Maybe I have matured to a high school girl’s status to some, who knows.  But either way the reality is that this is big and growing.  The movie may set some holiday records and will only make the hype for the remaining sequels grow even more.

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Suffice it to say, stare out at the sky tonight because we got ourselves a New Moon Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade .

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Will you be seeing New Moon?

for some to get their inside information regarding the latest movies that come out.  No shocker either as a lot of these reviews come out directly after people leave the theater, almost getting instant reviews on the latest flicks.

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TwitCritics Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story dvd tries to organize all of the movie buzz for you.  We all know that Twitter can have a true influence both positive like the viral buzz that spread with Inglourious Basterds as well with the negative for summer dumps like Bruno.  TwitCritics takes the flow of the reviews

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that are generated and chart it based on various categories for you in one centralized place.  Now you can see the relative percentage of all the tweets that have been broadcast about the various movies that are playing in theaters.

TwitCritics gives you the most popular movies in order based off of the movie tweets that are referenced with it and by clicking on the movie you will be sent movie details and the poster as well as the most recent tweets about it.  Now you can find up to date reviews about a movie you may be checking out.  It’s not perfect of course but they are improving it every day.

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Being a Twitter fan and a movie buff I think this is a Zach and Kelly pairing all over it, too perfect.  A lot of times I find out about reviews first from other movie buffs I interact with on Twitter or from popular blogs who review movies.  I go there first because I connect with them and trust their opinion and with up to date reviews I always know what they think right after they see the movie.  And as a whole the collective group is usually right with the popularity ratings.  This is a smart feature, something I may not use on a regular before deciding on a movie but interesting the least to see the percentage of people’s thoughts.  Usually just one or two reviews from trusted sources or people is enough to please me but this is a nice way to get more information if you are looking.

What do you think of TwitCritics?

Twitter has been a force to to reckon with for some time now and is like a steam train building momentum with its impact on America.  As a place where those interact and connect with one another, the “What are you doing?” question it ask users to respond to has taken multiple paths in its usage for everyone.  No, I don’t care what you ate for lunch, or the fact that you have more writing to do at work.  But I do want to be informed about great articles that may interest me, some breaking news, and whether or not I should see the brand new movie.

Twitter has led to box office success for the movie Inglourious Basterds.  The viral buzz for Inglourious Basterds was basically all positive over the course of the weekend on Twitter

steadily continuing late into the weekend.  This real time information helped a lot of users decide to see Basterds.  The movie stayed in the top trends area for Twitter adding to the buzz and allowing more people to notice it to talk about it, sending links to positive reviews as well as their own thoughts in real time.  This added to more conversations, and the whole shabang.  This is Twitter social media marketing to a “T.”

Twitter has been a marketing force for movies lately and I don’t see this stopping any time soon.  It hurt the movie Bruno The Fourth Angel movie download
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because a lot of people in real time were talking negatively about the movie, and Saturday’s number dropped a lot compared to Friday’s when the movie was released.  A lot of that had to do with people talking about how the movie was the same as Borat and just wasn’t that good.

On the other end, positive Twitter talk helped District 9 out.  Now all critics reviews and our District 9 review were all positive but it still probably had an affect.  What’s made the Basterds affect more obvious regarding Twitter is the face that there were mixed reviews from critics going into the opening release.

How much of an affect did Twitter have?  There is no way to determine the exact dollar figure but it clearly is something that may help or hurt a movie, especially a smaller one.  It’s the type of service that can easily give a cult movie big time status.

I think Hollywood studios are going to directly be marketing through Twitter to generate viral buzz.  There are going to be more movie campaigns directed towards users on Twitter to get the real time talk going hopefully driving links, retweets, and positive comments.  Contests will pick up and already you have a few studios on Twitter showing their faces and interacting and connecting.  This is smart by the studios and will continue to grow, as they Twittercraze and potential buzz grows.  Costing relatively nothing to set up a campaign on Twitter could lead to huge profits.

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Tons of Actors both higher profile and not, have taken to the whole social media Twitter craze.  If you haven’t seen it enough on CNN, you’re going to read about it here.  The 140-character based messages have been blowing up faster than a scene in a John Woo movie, and celebrities, athletes, and your basic chumps like myself have taken to it.  Now movie directors are on Twitter.

Yes I am a Twitterholic and am proud of it.  I want everyone to know what I am doing exactly at every point of the day.  Nah, it’ not like that at all, it’s actually great for networking, especially with this blog.  I connect with tons of other awesome movie bloggers out there.  But that’s another post.

Now there are a handful of directors who are on Twitter which you can follow and check out how their upcoming filming shoots are going along and what not.  No they won’t get back to you, but still pretty cool to get the inside scoop about their movies or other movie related dealings they got going on.  Or if you are a real creeper and actually care what sandwich they had for lunch.

John Favreau

@john_favreau

Director/actor/producer and overall lovable fun guy most know for Swingers, Made, and a favorite of mine The Replacements.  If you really know your stuff you will know he was the tutor in Rudy (where he first met Vince Vaughn).  He is the director of Elf and Iron Man and currently directing Iron Man 2.  All around good guy seems very regular.

Kevin Smith

@thatkevinsmith

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King of the 90’s indie comedies with ‘Clerks,’ ‘Mallrats,’ ‘Chasing Amy’ and creator of the great on screen duo Jay and Silent Bob (he plays Silent Bob).  He also directed the awesome action movie ‘Enemy of the State’ and the recent ‘Zach and Miri Make a Porno.’  Seems like a good dude, he has had Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in movies and is currently filming “A Couple of Dicks.”

Jason Reitman

@jasonreitman

He directed ‘Juno’ and ‘Thank You for Smoking’ with some smaller stuff as well.  He really likes taking the simple concept movie and putting this style of humor in it.  He also tends to make the beginning of movies long and different to have the audience ease into their movie.  Currently directing ‘Up in the Air.’

This is a handful of especially the more popular ones I think you would enjoy following.  There are smaller directors as well who can be fun to follow.  And I guarantee there will be more to follow real soon.

Check them out and let me know what you think?

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Twitter is the hottest thing since Denise Richards and Neve Campbell had their lesbian make-out scene in Wild Things.  Everyone is talking about it and everyone is on it these days.  You can find the small time nobodies mingling with the big time stars all in one platform and community that can bring fans, groupies, weirdos and more all together.

For whatever reason you use twitter, it is a great source of information.  Most of the time you can find breaking news information being tweeted about before checking a news source like CNN.  Well now for you movie fans there is another way to get your movie information even faster.

Flicktweets

is a twitter account that is strictly set up to have users dish out the latest movie news, reviews, gossip and more.  It is an all in one movie review query engine that anyone can access and discuss anything movies related.  Basically like a movie banter

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juiced up on steroids in Twitter form.

If you like user generated reviews or bantering about movies as much as we do, this may be a cool thing to check out if you are a Twitter addict like myself.  What’s great about this like Twitter as a whole is the character limit is at 140 so whatever people say good or bad, it’s short and simple.

Checking out movie reviews and creating some of your own have never been so easy.