On Demand Weekly

"My primary motivation behind buying a car, despite the scarcity of my funds, was that I refused to be driven around town in a car with red and blue lights on top. Nothing slows down traffic like a cop."

- Bella Swan, Twilight

The top ten video on demand (VOD) movies for the weekend ending October 18, 2009 are:

10. Twilight

9. Dance Flick

8. Adventureland

7. Away We Go

6. Fighting

ODW rounds up stories affecting the VOD Industry.

Twilight reclaims position as Top VOD Rental (Video Business)

Top 10 Stickiest Shows (Rentrak)

Why you'll leave the lights on after House of the Devil (Sci Fi Wire)

Twilight reigned as top Verizon FiOS VOD renter

Even some of the fourth quarter’s biggest releases weren’t enough to knock Summit Entertainment’s Twilight out of the top spot for video-on-demand release of 2009 on Verizon FiOS...(Video Business)

Comcast 'Police Blotter' VOD Has Nabbed 90 Fugitives To Date

“D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, "This creative partnership between the Metropolitan Police Department and Comcast will give District residents the unique opportunity to take action and work together with law enforcement to help reduce crime."  (MultiChannel News)

The decade in television: Cable, the Internet become players

One thing, however, will remain the same: There's no such thing as a free program. People who think otherwise, who think they'll be able to see any show they want without watching ads or forking over some fee, are kidding themselves. You'll pay for shows in the coming decade, or you'll no longer have them....(USA Today)

Hot Movies On Demand – The Top Ten VOD Movies of 2009

Walt Kowalski: "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone."

-       Gran Torino

The top ten video on demand (VOD) movies for 2009 are:

10. 17 Again*

9. The Proposal

8. Knowing*        

7. Yes Man*              

6. Four Christmases*

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: THE MOTH DIARIES (IFC Films).

THE MOTH DIARIES

By Sky McCarthy

Since the explosive success of vampire culture brought on by the TWILIGHT phenomenon, you may think you’ve seen it all. Vampires seem to be everywhere today but THE MOTH DIARIES explores a new side of the teen horror genre that is more subtle and perhaps more powerful than gnashing fangs and battles with werewolves. Director Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO) takes viewers into the world of an exclusive all-girls boarding school where the dynamics of adolescent female friendship are pushed to the brink of destruction.

Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) is returning to Brangwyn College after losing her father to a tragic suicide. While her depression is not evident in every scene, Rebecca is deeply consumed by the incident. Her best friend is Lucy (Sarah Gadon), an ethereally beautiful and athletic companion who represents the girl everyone wants to be. While Lucy and Rebecca share an intimate closeness, it is clear that Rebecca has developed a dependence on Lucy to fill the void left in the wake of her fractured family life.

The girls share a close circle of friends who gossip about boys and occasionally party after “lights-out” in their dorms. But when a dark and somewhat cryptic new classmate, Ernessa (Lily Cole), enrolls at Brangwyn, mysterious events threaten to crack even the closest relationships. At first sight, Ernessa takes an intense and obsessive liking to Lucy and, as they become closer, Rebecca feels cast aside.

As her worst insecurities come out, Rebecca begins to suspect that Ernessa is behind the strange new occurrences but friends cast her suspicions aside as jealousy. With clever storytelling ability, Harron taps into the audiences’ potential doubts as well. We know Ernessa is creepy but, like Rebecca, we are never witness to any of her evil doing. It is later revealed that Ernessa also lost her father to a suicide and the similarities in their lives continue to haunt Rebecca’s dreams. The line between reality and imagination become increasingly blurred as Rebecca’s obsession with catching her new enemy magnifies.

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: BEL AMI (Magnolia).

BEL AMI
By Amy Slotnick

Paris in the 1890’s was the Belle Epoque, and all about aristocrats in lush, satin dresses and top hats, dancing at arms length while teasing sexual innuendos from beneath their corsets. Or at least this is how it is portrayed in BEL AMI, the new period drama based on the novel by Guy de Maupassant.

This is the setting where we find Georges Duroy (Robert Pattinson), who recently returned from serving the military and now longs to be part of the rich life. Though he is without any money or talent, he does have the good looks needed to propel him to at least get a job as a journalist. Never mind that he can’t really write and is lazy about doing work. He soon realizes he is exceptionally good at something even more valuable – seduction.

Each rich (and married) woman he encounters, becomes his for the taking. He makes his way into the bedrooms of three main characters played by Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas. One steamy sex scene after the other, results in each woman falling in love with him with Georges unwilling to return much emotion. When he learns Thurman’s husband is ill, he strategically puts himself at the deathbed’s side, ready to propose marriage the moment her husband croaks. As the marriage and story progresses Georges becomes darker, jealous and more heartless, but still lustful and vain.