April 18, 2018

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Today in Movie Culture: James Bond and Jason Bourne vs. John Wick, Why We Love Dwayne Johnson and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Mashup of the Day:

StryderHD imagines John Wick: Chapter 3 bringing in James Bond, Jason Bourne and more iconic action heroes to take on John Wick:

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Video Essay of the Day:

Speaking of James Bond, here’s a video by Rossatron that looks at why On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is maybe the best 007 movie:

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Camera Angle of the Day:

The shot type known as the Dutch Angle can be seen in so many movies now, but when was it first done? Now You See It examines its origins:

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Movie Song of the Day:

Auralnauts shares a weird retro-sounding Star Wars song set to the Sarlacc pit sequence in Return of the Jedi (via Geekologie):

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Rick Moranis, who turns 65 today, with director Frank Oz and co-star Ellen Greene on the set of the 1986 musical Little Shop of Horrors:

Actor in the Spotlight:

For Fandor, Jacob T. Swinney highlights the career of Dwayne Johnson and explores why he’s such a beloved movie star:

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FX Breakdown of the Day:

Weta Workshop’s Leri Greer shares a look at how he designed the kaiju of Pacific Rim: Uprising in this behind the scenes effects showcase:

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Movie Comparison of the Day:

Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast seems like an exact re-creation of the animated version, but Couch Tomato found 24 ways they’re quite different:

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Cosplay of the Day:

Adam Savage showcases some scary versions of Minions in this video interview with effects artist Pat Magee at Monsterpalooza 2018:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 45th anniversary of the release of Soylent Green. Watch the original trailer for the sci-fi classic below.

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Long Kept Secret, Amazon Says Number Of Prime Customers Topped 100 Million

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says more than 100 million people around the world pay for Prime membership.

Leon Neal/Getty Images

For years, this has been one of Amazon’s biggest secrets: how many people pay for the Prime membership.

A big round number appears to have prompted CEO Jeff Bezos to finally lift the veil: “13 years post-launch, we have exceeded 100 million paid Prime members globally,” he wrote in this year’s letter to shareholders.

He added that in 2017, more new members joined Prime than in any other year. The membership generally costs $99 a year in the U.S. and lures people in with free two-day shipping and access to video and music streaming. Last year and earlier this year, Amazon added discounted Prime rates for recipients of Medicaid and government assistance programs.

Prime subscribers are known to be more lucrative to Amazon, estimated to spend twice as much money every year than non-members, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Analysts have been projecting the number of Amazon’s paid subscribers as around 65 million to 85 million, while the company had historically just referred to “tens of millions.”

In a letter to shareholders released in 2016, Bezos wrote: “We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member.”

Annual letters from Bezos to shareholders are a popular read in the business world. In this year’s note, he muses about the value of setting the highest standards (“I believe high standards are teachable”), the art of great memos (“They simply can’t be done in a day or two”) and the human nature of ever-rising customer expectations (“We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied”).

Wednesday’s letter, in running through Amazon’s recent milestones, highlights the sheer scope of the company’s reach: its massive cloud-server business, smart assistant Alexa and the Alexa-powered home devices, award-winning TV and movie production, streaming deals with cable and TV networks, a recent push into fashion, the launch of a cashierless store in Seattle and the blockbuster $14 billion acquisition of Whole Foods.

Not mentioned were Amazon’s relatively nascent push into home security with the purchase of smart-doorbell maker Ring and the company’s for-now vague plans in health care, which had spooked the industry. In Wednesday’s letter, Bezos said Amazon employs more than 560,000 globally.

Amazon has also dramatically grown the number of small businesses and other third-party sellers who compete alongside Amazon’s own retail business on the shopping platform. In the letter, Bezos said 2017 marked the first year when more than half of the goods sold on Amazon worldwide were from third-party sellers.

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The Wednesday News Roundup

Most Recent Shows

Wednesday, Apr 18 2018Former [First Lady Barbara Bush died Tuesday](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/barbara-bush-matriarch-of-american-political-dynasty-dies-at-92/2018/04/17/200bfaee-40de-11e8-bba2-0976a82b05a2_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3b5642fe4b46). She was 92. After several hospitalizations, Bush opted to begin receiving “comfort care” earlier this week, according to a statement from the family.…

Wednesday, Apr 18 2018A new podcast called “Buried Truths” tells the story of a man who lost his life for voting.

Wednesday, Apr 18 2018You read that right.

Tuesday, Apr 17 2018You’re getting smarter, stronger, kinder …

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