Spotted by one of our customers the other day….. a commuter getting off the train at Fairfield running into APPLEBOX, grabbing his DVD and getting on the next train to Clifton Hill. He got his DVD without having to get in the car. We are so green! So all you Clifton Hillians come on down and see what all the fuss is about.

GREAT Australian film. Funny, surprising standout performances from the younger cast. Brenda Blethwyn is not playing her usual self (I am not a huge fan). Frankie J Holden wonderful. Great art dept, you will laugh your head off and shed a few tears at times. A well crafted film that will appeal to all. Emma Booth who has mainly had TV roles (The Circuit, All Saints) is a name to keep an eye on, outstanding newcomer to our screen and I can’t wait to see more of her work.

Judy Dench playing the most complex character I have ever seen her play, INCREDIBLE performances. Cate Blanchett what can you say? Quite a devastating film, controversial and original, if you are in the mood for something rich & heavy this is for you. Great script, want to read the book now.

If you are looking for a film that will satisfy the adults and the kids this is perfect. I had a 40 year old and a 9 year old guest and they both enjoyed it. Great film, fantastic performances and well written. 4 apples from me.

I picked this up via techcrunch: The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reports that 15% of the global market for music sales is now download. This has risen from zero about 5 years ago. Servicing this market are 500 online legal download sites worldwide.

It’s an interesting stat because it shows you how far behind the movie downloads market is today. I’d say the % of legal movie downloads within the DVD retail market is effectively zero. Lets track forward 5 years … I’d hazard a guess it might be approaching 4, maybe 5%. In 10 years? Now that’s when it will get interesting.

Movie downloads (for sale or rental) have huge challenges to overcome. Bandwidth, studio support, content availability & playback issues all make it hard to execute well in this area. iTunes for movies is the latest attempt to kick start this market… all eyes will be on Apple to see how it goes!

In the meantime, the humble DVD will kick on strong. Long live the DVD!

Dear customers,

To celebrate Australia Day/Invasion Day or whatever you want to call it day we at Applebox are keen to promote our Aussie product. So come on in and hire any Australian movie for $2 for the whole weekend.

We are proud to be a 100% Australian made Australian owned company (100% Fairfield/Northcote made and owned at that!)

So spread the word, support local product……. support APPLEBOX. Make sure your neighbours, friends and just about anyone you run into knows about us. APPLEBOX is growing and only doing so through you and your word of mouth. Thanks for all the great feedback and support so far.

Cheers and don’t forget to watch an aussie flick this weekend!

Sarah

Behind the scenes, Domenic Carosa continues to grow his empire. Destra is pushing forward as a broad ranging content and advertising provider, positioned for a future of digital, digital, digital. His latest acquisition in this space is Mess+Noise.

I hadn’t heard of M+N, so always great to discover another Australian venture (and even better, they’re Melbourne based). M+N started in 2005 - so 3 years of hard work has led to hopefully a nice pay day. And I don’t see that as a sell out, rather a point of equilibrium. There’s only so long a startup can function before the load needs to be lifted from it’s founders. Proper funds must be injected to take it to the next level.

So congrats to founders Danny Bos and Kristy Milliken of M+N!

This 2007 film follows the commercial success of the Broadway musical and is a remake of the 1988 cult classic of the same name. The original, brought to us by the incomparable godfather of bad taste- John Waters, starred Rikki Lake as full figured teenager Tracy Turnblad. We see Tracy win a spot on a TV dance show, and teach those around her a few important lessons about diversity and acceptance.

This new incarnation is a musical, whereas the original film was not, and incorporates elements of both the film and the Broadway show. Tracy Turnblad is played by Nikki Blonsky, who does very well as the irrepressible, dance crazy protagonist. Set in the early 60s and combining social justice and a teenage dancing contest, this satire stands up for fairness and equality while embracing materialism and superficiality.

Made with Water’s blessing, (and you can see his cameo as the flasher in the first scene) Hairspray has an all star cast including Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah and of course, John Travolta as Edna Turnblad. In the original, transvestite performer Divine was cast in this role, but Travolta’s gender bending turn in this version didn’t work quite so well. That said, it is in the spirit of Water’s original to be slightly bizarre and off-putting, and he did do well to dance in a fat-suit. After all, no one can really compare to Divine.

Comparisons aside, Hairspray is a lot of fun, it will definitely have you tapping your feet. There is plenty of dancing, and a song on average about every thirty seconds, which was a few too many for me - the bursting into song thing starts to wear a little thin, when a character cant say more than a few lines and the intro music for the next song starts to play..

Anyway, it was very entertaining, which is all I think it was aiming for – an over the top, upbeat, all singing, all dancing dose of glitter and polyester - a chance to see a few big names ham it up and twist and turn, not to mention see Travolta back on the dance-floor, this time in drag.

See it, and check out the original too. 3/5

Simon Hodge has now assumed the role of Quickflix Managing Director, and Stephen Langsford (previously MD) is now an executive director. You can read more about it here.

We’re quite fond of Stephen Langsford here at APPLEBOX! Stephen has stepped up and commented a couple of times on our blog. So best of wishes to Stephen in his new role.

Tim Pethick is interviewed here, by Smart Company. Tim started Nudie Juice but is now the Australian MD for ?What If!, you can read more about Tim here.

In the interview Tim talks about innovation, and if you haven’t done so by the time the market turns, watch out! This is pretty relevant for DVD rentals as the market has matured and is starting to slowly contract. It’s the Video Ezys of this world that are going to feel the heat as their business fixed costs remain unchanged since the hey day of 5+ years ago. We’ll see them downsize, but that reduces their stock holding and to a degree, their ability to service their membership (this is a problem APPLEBOX doesn’t have).

It’s good to see Red Room DVD pursing a different model, but they are using automation (via vending machines) which I think is a false economy. e24 look to be another vending machine outfit who are trying to get a foot in (and I am sure there are others).

But there are 1300 stores out there (with the majority owned by large franchises) who haven’t changed their model in 20 years. As Tim says when the market wobbles “we will get the next wave of start-ups who will eat the lunch of the incumbents”.

I hope so! APPLEBOX along with Red Room DVD are part of that next wave …

In any case, I had never heard of ?What If!, but it looks like they partner/consult to promote innovation where they can. Which is great! We need this sort of support in Australia.