Movie and TV trivia nuts got a mad rush of good news this week. Things started out with Amazon announcing it was expanding its X-Ray service to include TV shows. Then Google, refusing to let Amazon bask in the glory of being first, announced the introduction of Knowledge Graph into Google Play movies, which uses facial recognition to help you identify just about any actor – even that random guy playing the clerk behind the counter who, naturally, gets needlessly killed in a robbery. Now AMC, clearly unimpressed with either service, has decided to get all medieval on the both of them with a new movie watching platform called YEAH!
No, that isn’t us just getting excited. That’s really the name. YEAH!
Available as an web-based streaming service only at this point (which means that it only works on your Mac or Windows-based computer), YEAH! promises to take useless movie trivia to a whole new level. A tablet version for the iPad is forthcoming in 2013 but AMC has not given a firm date on its release.
YEAH! is a new online movie site that takes your favorite movies – movies you know and love – and dissects them in ridiculous detail, surrounded by factoids, secrets, brand new interviews, quizzes, polls, and more. A quick look at the initial releases shows a heavy focus on Quentin Tarantino, and cult classics such as Blade Runner, Clerks, and the Exorcist. Before you dismiss this as extras from Blu-ray discs being recycled as cool bonus content, it needs to be pointed out that the content is actually new; some films have hundreds of bonus items including interviews done exclusively for the site.
YEAH! charges $5.00 per viewing for films that are shown in Y DEF, and once you’ve rented your movie, you’ve got 30 days to watch it, and 48 hours to finish it once you’ve started.
The site also has dozens of other films that have not yet been converted and only charges between $2-$4 per viewing under the same rules. AMC plans on releasing one new film per week in Y DEF and while it’s far too early to tell if movie geeks will buy into the service, it does deserve some points for originality.
