Netflix's $12M Gamble on “Beasts of No Nation”

I would hardly categorize Daniel Craig's refresh of Pierce Brosnan's Bond interpretation as "simple replacement." I think each new Bond actor has great potential to bring their own unique artistic interpretation to the role and to make it work for them.

I'm kind of willing to give the Bond franchise a pass on this front. It's been a brand, if not its own mini-genre, for longer than I've been alive. And it's not like Hollywood is performing brand necromancy on it; it's been active for a good bit of that time. It's more like Doctor Who and less like Charlie's Angels.

That is actually speculation that there are two more films. He's only contractually obligated to one more. But things could change.

Daniel Craig is no more culturally Scottish than Idris Elba.

Idris Elba was born, raised, and educated in England and is as entitled to play the role of James Bond as any Briton, though none of that should matter. By your logic Pierce Brosnan's (Irish) turn as Bond was an even larger case of cultural misappropriation due him not being a Briton.

Black people first came to the British isles during the Roman occupation.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/

No, but I also am not surrounded by unfamiliar people talking and texting and even chewing and getting up randomly at my house.. Oh, also being able to pause a movie if needed would be nice

A decent setup can actually be better than a theater. It's not about the size of the screen but the angle of view, which you can achieve at home with either a large TV or certainly with a projector. And these days, a couple going to the movies 20 times (and buying popcorn, drinks, snacks) will easily pay for a big TV or projector plus nice surround system. And you have the benefit of being able to replay scenes, take breaks, turn on subtitles if you can't understand something, not be subjected to 20 minutes of pre-movie advertising, etc. Not to mention those $50 in snacks you can buy yourself for $5 and put the savings you accumulate over time towards improving your home theater setup with better seating, sound and light proofing, etc.

It's a matter of perception. Sitting closer to a smaller 4k screen will give you a better experience than the big badly dimmed screen at the movies. A good pair of quality headphones ($300+) will also sound better than the often too loud sound system in the cinema. I can also set my own EQ and add sound compression to movies where the music, dialogs and special effect are badly balanced.

As for the snacks, they charge double or triple the price of everywhere else on the planet.

The only reason I go to a theater is out of nostalgia. For a while, I thought that 3d would give me a reason to go the the cinema, but I've yet to experience 3d in a satisfying way.

Each to their own.

The cinema experience: get dressed then travel to movie theatre, line up to get expensive ($8-$10 per person) tickets, optional purchase of exorbitantly-priced junk food, try to find good seats (not too close to screen or too near aisle), put up with 20-30 minutes of ads, deal with unwanted noise/light from others, then afterwards file out of theatre and go home.

Streaming experience: Pay $5 for everyone, eat/drink whatever you like, pause whenever you like, no risk of distractions from others (choose friends accordingly), comfy and clean seats.

Even with my relatively modest setup (50" 1080p television and 2.1 sound), I'd go with the latter option almost every time.

My home cinema system (Onkyo amp, B&W 68X series speakers and Rel Quake sub, 40" flatscreen - sorry, slight brag there) is a far superior experience compared to any of my local cinemas. I've stopped going to the cinema because they mostly sound and look awful and the stuff I want to see is always on the smaller screens anyway. Add to that, I also broke my coccyx which never healed properly so I find sitting on cinema chairs deeply uncomfortable after about an hour.

Also my snacks are way better, you don't get to munch on a curry and wash it down with a nice Chilean Malbec in the multiplex :)