Just read an article called File-Sharing and Copyright by Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf. Interesting.
While the article seems biased in favor of file sharing, it stops short of claiming that file sharing doesn’t have an impact on content creation.
I quote:
As our survey indicates, the empirical evidence on sales displacement is mixed.
While some studies find evidence […]
News
Mar
16
Does File Sharing Negatively Impact Content Creation?
≡ Category: Loose Talk, News | ≅ Leave a Comment ≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus
Jul
29
Just Heroes - An Off Day For John Woo
≡ Category: Action, Bullet Ballet, Drama, Hong Kong, Movie Reviews, Not Worth Your Time | ≅ Leave a Comment ≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action/ Bullet Ballet/ Drama
Director: John Woo
Year: 1989
Rating: 
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
Just Heroes plays like a dress rehearsal for John Woo’s bullet ballet melodramas like A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled. The elegant camera movements, slow motion, balletic gun-fu, heroic bloodshed, and male bonding are certainly all in evidence. Too bad it sucks balls.
I’m not sure what went wrong. The story had potential if it had been told in a lean way, but Woo drowns it in flashbacks within flashbacks. The story frequently makes no sense. Individual images and sequences are stunning, but the film doesn’t cut together worth a damn. Just Heroes is only 1:37 minutes long, but thanks to the lethargic pacing, it seems like an eternity. Despite all the killer action scenes, I was so bored, I was glancing at my watch every five minutes or so.
That’s why it’s such a surprise that Just Heroes isn’t early John Woo. It actually comes right between two of his masterpieces, The Killer and Bullet In The Head.
I really don’t understand. By this time, John Woo had shown over and over again that he was a competent storyteller, but you couldn’t prove it from Just Heroes.
Seriously, how hard could it be? Someone murders the dai lo. Suspicion falls on several people. Who is the betrayer? Woo should have been able to direct this in his sleep. Then again, maybe he did.
Unbelievably, even the Foley work is botched. Let me tell you what I mean. In some early scenes, it’s pouring rain, but behind the dialog in the scene, it’s just dead air. It’s crazy. Just Heroes is stuffed with stars: David Chiang, Danny Lee, Wu Ma, Ti Lung, Shing Fui-On, Chen Kuan-Tai, Stephen Chow, and Ku Feng all make appearances, but Woo didn’t have enough time or money to do the Foley work properly?
Woo has gotten charismatic performances out of his stars time and again, but this time out, his actors are stranded by poor pacing and editing. If you’re going to do a homoerotic, ultra-stylized action movie, you shouldn’t give your audience time to analyze what you’re doing. During Just Heroes, I had time to write grocery lists in my head between scenes. I actually laughed out loud during one scene in which Danny Lee and David Chiang blew beer foam in each others faces. It would be impossible to be more gay than that.
If you’re a casual fan of Hong Kong action movies, avoid Just Heroes like the plague. The only people who should see this are serious fans of hyperkinetic action sequences. The gun battles, choreographed by Yuen Bun and Lau Kar-Wing, and lovingly lensed by John Woo, kick some serious ass. Just make sure to keep your remote control handy. You’ll get carpal tunnel syndrome from pushing the fast forward button so often.