By Alton Jerome McFarland
Cinemapop (located at www.cinemapop.com)
is a site featuring streaming feature-length live-action movies. The
site offers a variety of movies that anyone can watch for free, as
well as an added selection of movies that only registered members
can access. To become a fully registered member one must pay a $4.95/month
membership fee.
The idea of putting full-length movies online seems like a good one.
As the speed of internet access increases, there is no reason why
more and more content should not be placed on the web. Sites like
Cinemapop are pioneering the area of what amounts to online movie
rental. Along with its full-length movies, Cinemapop also offers some
short films. The focus of the site, though, is obviously on its feature-length
selection. The problems with Cinemapop are the quality and quantity
of its content. There aren't nearly enough movies available to justify
paying a monthly membership fee. Also, for the most part, the movies
offered aren't very well known. I'm an avid movie-watcher and while
browsing through Cinemapop's selection, I only recognized about one
movie in every three. Most of the movies available are also relatively
old and many are old and obscure. The problems inherent in setting
up a way to distribute more recent movies on the web are very daunting.
It would be hard for any one site to obtain the rights to feature
even a small number of recent films. What seems more likely is that
movie studios will begin offering such "virtual rental"
capabilities themselves.
In the meantime, one can visit sites like Cinemapop for a quick hour
or two of diversion. The site also offers reviews of its movies to
aid you in your selection. There may not be a large selection, especially
for non-members, but the ability to be a click away from multiple
movies more than makes up for it. Sites like Cinemapop seem to be
poised to disseminate the next generation of internet content. Streaming
technology may one day be unnecessary, but for now it is being utilized
effectively to allow for the uninterrupted display of longer-length
content. At Cinemapop, the backbone for such offerings is there. The
site just needs to be fleshed out with more and better content.