The Interview Bombs In US, Kills In China, Threatens N. Korea 288
First time accepted submitter twitnutttt (2958183) writes "While it has been broadly panned in the U.S. as not very funny, The Interview is surprisingly getting good reviews in China. And the North Korean government's fears of the threat posed by this movie are apparently merited: "It is powerful because it depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood. The people around him have all the signs of fear you might expect with a despot — they second-guess his likes and dislikes. Maybe he — and they — were right to fear the film. North Korean defectors sometimes smuggle USB sticks with films and soaps into the closed-off country, and there is a view in the south that these are a particularly powerful means of undermining the regime in Pyongyang. If that's so, The Interview might be a good candidate for inclusion."
If you've seen the movie, and have your own reactions, please label any real spoilers out of courtesy.
Bombs in the US? (Score:5, Informative)
It may be an unfunny movie, but reports are that in the limited number of theatres it has been relieased in, the shows are sold out.
That's hardly "bombing".
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Bombing relates to how much money a movie takes, not how well it does in n cinemas. It can sell out in 100 cinemas for weeks but still bomb.
Re: (Score:3)
Meh. I'm waiting for their next comedy movie, "Life of Mohammed" (working title). Should be a blast.
Re: (Score:3)
Based upon actual behaviour that would have to be a porn flick and even worse not only would it get banned but it would be a criminal act to own a copy, not because of any insult to religion but because of the child porn aspects of it. Seriously the Koran itself should be banned as should the bible or the Torah for any criminal actions it promotes and most definitely none of them should be given to minors until such time as they are edited and the criminal aspects removed.
Re: (Score:2)
It may be an unfunny movie, but reports are that in the limited number of theatres it has been relieased in, the shows are sold out.
That's hardly "bombing".
And there is more to come. I haven't seen it yet but I will make sure I see it (legally, not pirated) when I can. I'm sure most of the sales in America are coming from people with the same thought.
Re:Bombs in the US? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bombed with critics...
Meaningless when talking about Seth Rogen movies. The "critics" are not who goes to his movies. People who laugh at fart jokes go to his movies.
Re: (Score:2)
People who laugh at fart jokes go to his movies.
There's a reason why fart is an anagram of frat...
Re: (Score:2)
People who laugh at fart jokes go to his movies.
There's a reason why fart is an anagram of frat...
And "raft" but I'm not sure I see either your or my point, unless you're confusing coincidence with reason.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
You can expect to hear a raft of fart jokes at a frat party.
Re: (Score:2)
>>That is the dumbest thing I read all morning
Then get hold of some of the script for this movie, your superlatives are about to be reset.
Can't say I didn't laugh, but I felt I was watching The Two Stooges Play James Bond in North Korea.
Re: (Score:2)
And there ain't nothing wrong with that.
Bombed? (Score:2)
Really? I thought it was really funny. Most of my friends rented it on release day, and most of them thought it was at least kinda funny. No one thought it was bad.
Re: (Score:3)
By fart of course, you mean, Fucking Art.
Re:Bombs in the US? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm more curious about how North Korean defectors are smuggling things into the country.
The same way they got out? A little help on the inside? Helium-filled balloons are all the rage [wsj.com]:
South Korea’s military said North Korean firing was first heard Friday afternoon, directed at balloons carrying anti-North Korean regime propaganda launched by South Korean activists.
Activists frequently launch helium-filled balloons carrying thousands of leaflets with pro-democracy, anti-North Korea messages, as well as DVDs and other items. Many North Korean refugees say access to outside media motivated their escape from the country, but critics say the balloons contribute to inter-Korean frictions.
North Korea has repeatedly demanded that South Korea prevent the launches and threatened to fire at the balloons, but it had never previously done so.
"The leaflet-scattering operation, part of the psychological warfare targeting [North Korea], can never be overlooked as it is a deliberate and premeditated provocation," North Korea’s state media said Thursday.
South Korea sometimes intervenes to prevent launches when there are complaints from local residents worried about the North’s retaliation.
The North’s firing appeared to be aimed at balloons launched by a group headed by North Korean defector Lee Min-bok, who said no one in the group was hurt. Late Friday, Mr. Lee said he was looking for new locations to launch more balloons.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, the least annoying fanatics are the ones who leave you alone, but they are also, at best, hypocrites.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe. Mormons always confused me. They come to your door and try to get you to convert, but they also believe that heaven only has room for 5000 people. So wouldn't you be better off keeping it to yourself?
It turns out that God gives you afterlife credits for every unbeliever you convert. So it's important to convert a bunch of people so you can hopefully slip into one of the limited spots. Ahead of everyone you converted (and most of your co-religionists) presumably.
Logical, non-hypocritical, but kin
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course this raises the question of how people too poor to eat can read a USB stick. Perhaps the average N. Korean owns a computer?
Re: (Score:3)
Me too. It was certainly funny enough. It was one of the funnier movies I've seen in a while. Excellent pacing too.
What did you expect (Score:4, Funny)
This ain't charlie chaplin folks, it's a guy who built a career on man-boy humor and dick jokes. The fact that North Korea is so offended by this only confirms how absurdly immature their fearless leader really can be. A chubby Jewish guy almost toppled the whole charade with toilet humor.
Oh yeah, it's "bombing" in the US alright... (Score:5, Informative)
'The Interview,' Greeted By Sold-Out Shows, May Net Millions This Weekend [npr.org]
'The Interview' Opens to Singing, Sold-Out Crowds as Sony CEO Explains His Decision to Show Film [go.com]
'The Interview' Draws Sell-Out Crowds After Sony Flips On Release Cancellation [huffingtonpost.com]
New York showings of âThe Interviewâ(TM) sell out [washingtontimes.com]
Oh yeah, it's "bombing" in the US alright...
Re: (Score:2)
You know, if it wasn't for the Slashdot boycott of Sony, the take would be at least double.
Re:Oh yeah, it's "bombing" in the US alright... (Score:5, Informative)
That doesn't mean it's a good movie. Most of the sold out showings are because of the hype surrounding this incident. The reviews are pretty uniformly bad.
People aren't flocking to it because it looked good, or because it is good. They're going mostly to spite the group that hacked Sony and North Korea.
Re: (Score:2)
"That doesn't mean it's a good movie."
What's that got to do with bombing? Nobody cares if a movie is any good; the people who make it only care about return on investment, then making a profit, and people who like it will like it regardless of other people's opinions.
Not a single teenager READS REVIEWS!!! (Score:2)
Do you reviewers understand!?
If buying a $40 3DBluray sure, but $5 movie, no.
Teens use their friends as guides, "Hey I saw this, you gota see it", or "X was so so sad, dont waste your money"
So they're actually getting dumber? (Score:2)
When I was a kid, we read reviews, we had a free paper and we used it. Now you have so many options for free reviews that the hardest part is deciding which one you like the best, and kids don't read reviews any more?
Either you're off your nut, or kids are actually getting dumber.
Re: (Score:2)
That doesn't mean it's a good movie. Most of the sold out showings are because of the hype surrounding this incident. The reviews are pretty uniformly bad.
People aren't flocking to it because it looked good, or because it is good. They're going mostly to spite the group that hacked Sony and North Korea.
The way you say "hype" makes it sounds like advertising. I suspect this isn't people saying "let's go see what all the hype is about", it's Americans saying "we're going to reward Sony for releasing the film despite Kim's hissy fit, and we're going to make it clear to Kim that you can't mess with Americans and their right to free speech.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Originally, it was to open in 3000+ theaters and gross 20-25 milions over the weekend. It's now projected to be about 2-3 million. And once all the Seth Rogen fans, and morons that think going to this shitty movie and giving their money to a corporation is an act of patriotism, or some act in defense of free speech have seen it, it will likely migrate to the bargain theaters and dvd very quickly since its unlikely for the big chains to show it having missed out on opening day receipts. Yeah, its a bomb.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Bombing means not selling tickets, it has nothing to do with the quality of the movie (other than indirectly).
Though it'll bomb due to the limited release, but now Sony has an excuse...
Re: Oh yeah, it's "bombing" in the US alright... (Score:2)
They still have a long way to go to break even, even with Hollywood's underhanded accounting.
Re: (Score:2)
They still have a long way to go to break even, even with Hollywood's underhanded accounting.
Not "even with" but "especially with". You can make a movie for $30M and it grosses $300M and that'll still be a "loss" on the books if anyone is due points on profit.
Re: (Score:2)
You're a little screwed up there. Hollywood accounting is used to "prove" a movie DIDN'T make money, not that it did. It means they don't pay out the percentages of gross that big money actors are paid.
Not very funny? Is anybody surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)
You want a good movie mocking a dictator?
Duck Soup. It's like a thousand times as good as the Interview.
Re: (Score:3)
I'd say Last King Of Scotland but that's hardly a comedy...
relevance to Slashdotters: Dana Scully is in a supporting role! :)
Its not a good film (Score:3)
and acting was pretty bad although it was funny 1/3 of ht show. Basically it was border line Borat style shock comedy. The guy playing Kim Jong did the best acting vs the main stars.
Re: (Score:2)
Part of the problem is the length. If they had cut out twenty to thirty minutes it would have been better. There is a tolerable 90 minute movie sitting there.
Why? (Score:2, Informative)
Why do I keep seeing news agencies and the like reporting that The Interview is being "broadly panned" when it's not?
http://www.metacritic.com/movi... [metacritic.com]
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/... [rottentomatoes.com]
The consensus seems to be that while it's a mediocre film it's good for a few laughs.
Nobel? (Score:5, Interesting)
"It is powerful because it depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood. The people around him have all the signs of fear you might expect with a despot â" they second-guess his likes and dislikes. Maybe he â" and they â" were right to fear the film. North Korean defectors sometimes smuggle USB sticks with films and soaps into the closed-off country, and there is a view in the south that these are a particularly powerful means of undermining the regime in Pyongyang. If that's so, The Interview might be a good candidate for inclusion."
If nothing else, it's rather sad that Seth Rogen and James Franco are able to have a bigger impact on North Korea than sanctions and every diplomat and US president since the end of the Korean War.
This sounds like Nobel Peace Prize buzz to me. ;-)
Re:Nobel? (Score:5, Insightful)
This.
I was watching the news the other day. They were reporting that the UN was considering what to do about Kim Jong Un and his horrid regime's human rights violations, in the wake of the Sony cyber-attack.
The first thing that crossed my mind was: the only thing that prompted the UN to start worrying about the poor North Koreans is essentially a computer attack on some big corporation, and the damage it did to its bottom line. Before that, they really didn't give much of a shit, did they?
The UN was really crass, both with their response and with their timing, and if it doesn't show you with glaring clarity whose interests they really have at heart, nothing else will.
Re:Nobel? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's utter BS. The UN released a report on human rights violations months before The Interview became a big issue. You should read it. The treatment of political prisoners (and christ, even unlucky bastards who happen to be distaff kin) is so harrowing that the only thing that really does come close was the Nazi death camps.
Re: (Score:2)
It's very nice that they released a report. Maybe the next move will be a very strongly worded letter!
Re:Nobel? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
If nothing else, it's rather sad that Seth Rogen and James Franco are able to have a bigger impact on North Korea than sanctions and every diplomat and US president since the end of the Korean War.
This sounds like Nobel Peace Prize buzz to me. ;-)
It's been given for less.
Counter-culture in full effect! (Score:2)
So many people are panning this movie. Have you guys posting negative comments actually seen it, or are you just reacting to the press?
I mean, I get it -- there's bound to be some sort of automatic counter-culture response to defend against the massive amount of press talking about how controversial and important it is.
Yes, it's a little controversial to target an actual country and an actual leader so directly. But you know what, their message while embellished for comedic effect isn't really far off base.
Meh (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a movie that includes Seth Rogen!
What did you expect? A new Schindler's List?!?
Re: (Score:2)
It's a movie that includes Seth Rogen!
What did you expect? A new Schindler's List?!?
Well at this time of the year you should always check your lists twice.
wow, it's not even Jan 1, let alone April 1 (Score:2)
the movie has been sold out in limited theaters
the most pirated movie of christmas (this should be a slashdot money shot)
the movie is funny as hell.
I hope this article is meant to be satire
Culture and information matter. (Score:5, Interesting)
The North Korean regime's survival depends on keeping its people completely uninformed. Here's an article about how even a little bit of information about the outside world can destroy the carefully constructed myths that sustain North Korean society: http://articles.latimes.com/20... [latimes.com]
"About two years ago, a North Korean who worked in the state fisheries division was on a boat in the Yellow Sea when his transistor radio picked up a South Korean situation comedy. The radio program featured two young women who were fighting over a parking space in their apartment complex.
A parking space? The North Korean was astonished by the idea that there was a place with so many cars that there would be a shortage of places to park them. Although he was in his late 30s and a director of his division, he had never met anyone who owned their own car.
The North Korean never forgot that radio show and ended up defecting to South Korea last year."
The article is old, but I don't think things have changed much in North Korea.
Re: (Score:2)
The North Korean regime's survival depends on keeping its people completely uninformed. Here's an article about how even a little bit of information about the outside world can destroy the carefully constructed myths that sustain North Korean society: http://articles.latimes.com/20... [latimes.com]
"About two years ago, a North Korean who worked in the state fisheries division was on a boat in the Yellow Sea when his transistor radio picked up a South Korean situation comedy. The radio program featured two young women who were fighting over a parking space in their apartment complex. A parking space? The North Korean was astonished by the idea that there was a place with so many cars that there would be a shortage of places to park them. Although he was in his late 30s and a director of his division, he had never met anyone who owned their own car. The North Korean never forgot that radio show and ended up defecting to South Korea last year."
The article is old, but I don't think things have changed much in North Korea.
They have. When I was there earlier this year, we got stuck in legitimate traffic jams a couple of different times. There are about 10 times as many cars on the road as there were just 5 years ago, according to the (Australian) tour guide. It is the single biggest and most visible sign of change he had seen.
Re: (Score:2)
If North Korea tries to prevent people from seeing it, it may convince those who do see it that all the implicit criticism of the regime is based on reality. (Which I suspect it largely is.)
Re: (Score:2)
Historically speaking, defectors from the Soviet Union were most utterly shocked and amazed by grocery stores.
The idea that there could be SO MUCH FOOD that people could browse around, pick and choose, pass up fruits or vegetables as not quite pretty enough, and that the stores would routinely throw out unwanted food was simply unfathomable.
Re:Culture and information matter. (Score:5, Insightful)
Because you can't check alternative media sources in the United States. No sirree, there's only one state broadcaster that plays nothing but pro-US government material all year long...
Fucking hell, you fucking moron. There's lots to condemn the US over, but I'd say it would be hard to think of a country with more diversity of voices, to the point of a loud braying cacophony.
It's even funnier (Score:2)
When retards make a comment like that on a public site, hosted in the US, viewed primarily by US citizens. You would think they could see the inherently contradictory nature of such a thing but no, they are convinced somehow that the US government clamps down on information like a repressive regime, yet somehow managed to miss this, and the millions of other, sites hosted in its borders.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Culture and information matter. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It keeps its people *largely* uninformed. Any attempt to completely cut off reliable information would trigger push back and be counter-productive. Actually, they seem to have found a very good balance where for minimal effort the people keep themselves mostly uninformed.
Completely uninformed, however, is flat-out wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I'm not a righty.
Re: (Score:2)
Anybody who honestly thinks Libertarians are tools of the Right is too ignorant to be dangerous.
And anyone who thinks Ted Cruz is a Libertarian could probably learn a lot from a school of those trout.
It had some funny bits (Score:4, Interesting)
But not enough to justify a pair of full-price tickets. I will give it this; it was better than any Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey movie I've seen.
Re: (Score:2)
The movie "Click" was a good reminder to me to not let work-related worries cause me to miss my childrens' childhoods.
Re:It had some funny bits (Score:4, Informative)
You might want to reconsider Jim Carrey. The Truman Show, Man On The Moon and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spottless Mind are quite good movies.
what China should do is (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:what China should do is (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
China should do lots of things. I'm not hold my breath on China doing any of them.
I could say the same about a lot of countries and quite a few corporations.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is then they would own North Korea.
North Korea still exists because it is a mountainous wasteland that nobody particularly wants. It does not have a rich cache of resources, and can't even grow enough food to feed its people.
China likes the buffer to South Korea. South Korea looks at all the money they'd have to spend to uplift North Korea and says, "We'll pass".
Re:what China should do is (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
What South Korea should do is invade North Korea, topple their government, depose their "glorious leader", disarm their military, and then hand it over to China, saying "you're the ones who propped up their insane government and made all this mess, you get to deal with all the consequences."
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
For a country where Kim Jong UN (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
If it gives people a shared experience of criticizing or at least questioning their leadership -- well, lots of revolutions started with less.
The only negative reviews are coming from... (Score:2, Troll)
... either people that don't like slapstick comedy or people that don't like the political message of the movie.
Actually read the bad reviews. They're like reading bad Amazon reviews... "This 20 dollar jack is no where near as good as my 400 dollar jacket... 1 star!" Or "I can't recharge my computer with this USB cable... 1 star!"... They're fucking stupid.
They keep saying stuff like "the humor is crude"... really, you complete waste of human life? That is fucking shocking. It is a stupid screw ball comedy,
Re: (Score:2)
So, you're saying you have to be intelligent to appreciate movies like this?
That's a rather, er, unusual point of view.
Or perhaps the critics are the wrong kind of idiot?
Re:The only negative reviews are coming from... (Score:5, Informative)
I don't like most childrens movies because I'm an adult and I find them childish. But if somebody was paying me to write informative reviews and I had to review a kids' movie, I wouldn't spend a lot of time bemoaning the simplistic plot line, limited charater development or overly bright color pallette. Complaining that the latest Disney Princess movie didn't have the same set of elements that made No Country for Old Men appealing sort of misses the point. It's not even sensible enough to be considered wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
Anyway, you just need to filter the idiot reviewers from the ones that understand what genre they're reviewing.
You mean, movies for idiots. Which suggests the question, who are these movies for? I mean, if you have to be an idiot to enjoy them, but idiots are panning them...
As others have said... (Score:2)
Low-key, subtle humour (Score:2)
Submission Title (Score:5, Insightful)
depiction (Score:2)
"It depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood..."
Yeah, I highly doubt he gives a shit about being misunderstood. The rest of it is spot on.
A review from someone who's actually seen it (Score:2)
I saw it earlier today via YouTube. It certainly wasn't great, and it can't be compared with classics like "The Great Dictator" or "Duck Soup", but I was surprised how much I liked it. It was much more entertaining than either the trailer or the reviews suggested. The story was reasonably engaging, there were some good gags, the actors weren't bad, and it even had a few points to make. I always count my yawns during a movie, and FWIW, it ended up getting my highest rating of zero yawns - go figure.
My maj
Re: (Score:2)
The movie you are looking for is Student Bodies [imdb.com].
Blockbuster? Bomb? (Score:3)
I've never understood this one, a blockbuster is a great movie while a bomb is a bad one. But a blockbuster [wikipedia.org] is a bomb. WTF?
Funny at moments. (Score:2)
It's very Seth Rogen driven comedy, funny at moments but most part of it smells a little like US propaganda. It depicts a smart, maniac and manipulative Kim Jung Un. Funny enough, we know CIA it's capable of trying to murder a foreign leader.
Re: (Score:2)
First Seth Rogen movie for you? I thought it was one of his better ones, though I still think it sucked. Still, despite all the schlock, it did make the important point that North Korea is a vile regime that condemns millions to near-starvation conditions while the elite live in astonishing luxury. It paints with a broad brush to be sure, but beneath it all there is a true chord playing.
Re: (Score:2)
Or someone who is aware that that audience exists and is fairly large. I'm not part of it but I don't have to be to know it's size is significant.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't see why only disliking stupid jokes is a liberal-only thing. It seems more like what is and is not funny is subjective.
Re: (Score:2)
"Liberals" could mean just about anyone, but the very vocal SJW crowd are famous for being humorless, prudish buzzkills. What used to be the case for the right wing religious whackos is now true of the left wing SJWs: they lay awake at night worrying that someone, somewhere might be having a good time. No more representative of the mainstream left than the televangelists were of the mainstream right, but boy are they vocal. Heck, some of them are probably the same people, just with a new excuse for moral
Re: (Score:2)
You keep speaking of "liberals" as if they're a hivemind, much as some speak of "conservatives" as if they're a hivemind. You're just making hasty generalizations.
Looks like you've been duped into believing the left vs right/liberal vs conservative false dichotomy scam.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
While I'm almost embarrassingly rich thanks to a wealthy family, I've never understood the US obsession with wealth as an indicator of anything except... that a person has cash or other material assets. There are many ways to become rich, and almost none of them involve much productivity, let alone effort.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the head explosion scene was pretty anticlimactic. If you're going to make this kind of movie, why tuck your balls away at the climax?
Re: (Score:2)
It's North Korea. They spend half their time proclaiming how they're going to wipe out their enemies. They're media is in a constant state of hysteria.
Re: (Score:2)
The real highlight came with the "I'm gay" Eminem interview at the beginning. My hats off to Marshall Mathers.
The next 105 minutes was a bit of a let down.
Re: (Score:2)
Me neither.
"Steaming" would be more appropriate for this turd...
Re:Why would I buy it when... (Score:4, Insightful)
When you can download or watch it for free. I have never gotten the people around here who say piracy doesn't hurt sales, of course I am going to seek the cheapest method possible to get it. I don't give a shit about DRM/IP/etc.. I am cheap and not some evangelical mission.
Because you wouldn't have bought it anyway, duh.
Mod parent up. Piracy has always been a non-threat. Pirates don't buy. They're never a missed sale, they're simply a no-sale.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
"Pirates" are not definable in absolutes like that. Some studies have shown they are the biggest consumers of both paid and "stolen" media.
Saying they are simply a non-threat/no-sale is just as intellectually dishonest as when the RIAA/MPAA claim every pirated copy is a fully lost sale.
Re: (Score:2)
"Piracy" is a propaganda term. Copyright infringement is a non-threat because, even in the event of a "lost sale" (you can't truly lose sales because you never had them in your possession), you still lose nothing; you merely don't gain.
Re: (Score:3)
Hardly. They obviously believe the product has some value or they wouldn't have stolen it.
Worth downloading != worth paying money for.
Re:Why would I buy it when... (Score:4, Interesting)
Piracy is convenient.
Downloading - a few minutes of my time to start the download. Then after it finishes (which is very fast usually), I can watch the movie on whatever device that has enough processing power and a screen, at any time having full control of it.
Going to the cinema (in general) - need to drive to wherever the cinema is, at a specified time, watch it with a bunch of strangers (that may include screaming children), no control whatsoever - cannot pause the movie to go to the toilet, cannot rewind a few seconds to rewatch a scene I missed, cannot increase or reduce the sound volume, cannot even have a conversation with whoever I came to watch the movie (assuming I did not come alone) during a boring part. Forced to watch ads before the movie. Cannot bring the food that I want (that is not sold (at high prices) in the cinema). The movie has to be recent enough to still be showed in cinemas.
Going to the cinema (this particular movie) - All of the above but include traveling to the US, getting a hotel room etc.
Buying a DVD/Bluray - Better than going to the cinema, but still have to go to a store that sells them, have to sit through a bunch of unskippable ads.
Time from "Hey, let's watch a movie! Which one? [googles some previously unheard of movie] This one." to actually watching it:
DVD: 30 minutes - 1 hour (assuming the store is open), days (if the store is closed).
Cinema: 30 minutes - 3 hours (assuming the movie is being shown in cinemas and the cinema is open), days (if the cinema is closed), undefined (if the movie is not shown in cinemas).
Download: 5 - 30 minutes (my internet connection is up to 500mbps).
Oh, and Netflix is not available in my country in case you were going to suggest it.
So, see, even if the tickets for the movie (or the DVDs at the store) were given away for free, downloading would be the preferred option.
Re: (Score:2)