Sky Movies (Sky Movies)

Member Name: Anfisa

Product:	Sky Movies
Date:	11/11/09 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Expensive, repetitive, narrow selection, poor quality

Once upon a time (before April 2007, to be precise), the Sky Movies package was great. The channels were not split up according to genre and the same movies were not shown ad nauseam; unique films ran non-stop so on any one channel you could watch 12-15 different movies in a day.

Then the powers that be had a brainwave and revamped the package - the result is a mediocre product that is definitely not worth the money and that offers a very narrow range of movies that makes the local Vue multiplex edgy and adventurous by comparison.

The backbone of the package (ignoring the HD frills) is made up of Movies Premiere and Movies Premiere +1 (which is essentially the same channel) Comedy, Action & Thriller, Family, Drama, Classics, Sci-Fi & Horror, Modern Greats, and Movies Indie.

The first major drawback is that the movies are repeated over and over again. And again. And again. In the past week, for example, the third instalment of the "High School Musical" has been shown at least 4 times (that I've counted). If you don't want to watch 30-year-olds pretend they are still in high school, you could watch them pretend that they are at uni in the "College Road Trip". That's been on 5 times. And it's the same story across every genre channel; the Movies Premiere is even worse - it seems to be repeating the same 5 movies for the past fortnight!

The second drawback is that the new genre system designated the Movies Indie channel as a junkyard for anything foreign, non-mainstream or low-budget. Which basically means that you are not going to see a French comedy on the Family channel or a Pedro Almodóvar's drama on Modern Greats - being foreign they are designated to the indie channel, even though there is nothing indie about French slapstick. Thus, the movies on offer across all the channels are mainstream, and of the worst kind - does anyone really care about the Flintstones prequel with one of the Baldwin brothers??

Which brings me to my final grievance - the quality of the movies is atrocious. Sky invests mainly in numerous sequels (the third Shrek, the third Godfather and the second Hellboy are all playing at the moment) and cheap comedy trash that was slaughtered by the critics (10,000 B.C., Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans and Superhero Movie all come to mind). There is no accounting for taste and we are all free to watch what we like, but it's unfair to cater only to the teenage segment of the audience, particularly when it's the adults who are footing the bill.

Overall, if you are a movie buff, or just looking for good quality entertainment, I strongly advise you from wasting your money on this Sky rip-off. It's better value to buy all the movies you could possibly want on eBay, or to borrow them from one of the many cheap online rental shops.

Take care and have a nice day :)

Summary: Bad movies are repeated over and over again