Hacker Cinema
Zookeeper
2011 · Film · 102 min
Directed by Frank Coraci
Kindhearted Griffin Keyes is one of the best-loved caretakers at the Franklin Park Zoo, but he's more comfortable with the animals than with females of his own species as proven by his failed marriage proposal to the self-absorbed Stephanie several years ago. The animals have listened to Griffin pine over her for years and, after she reappears in his life, they decide to help Griffin rekindle the relationship and become the alpha male she wants him to be. They inadvertently reveal their secret ability to talk and, after Griffin's initial shock, teach him the rules of courtship, animal-style. Surprisingly, the animals' advice really works and Griffin is about to get everything he's ever dreamed of--or is he?
1 negative2 neutralfrom 3 commenters
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3 comments on Hacker News
I think this causes further problems as well. These big companies know they can easily be listed at the top of Google, and therefore they pump out low quality articles for every popular key phrase. They can write a "Top 10 X of 2023" list and bring in lots of traffic and referral sales, while a smaller site has no chance of doing the same. Then, the big site takes all that income, and pumps out more low quality articles. It's a rich get richer scenario.
If I search, "The top 10 movies on Netflix", I get sent to this page...
https://decider.com/list/top-10-movies-on-netflix-most-popular-right-now/
The top 5 movies above are...
1. The Boss Baby (2017)
2. The Angry Birds Movie (2016)
3. We're the Millers (2013)
4. Zookeeper (2011)
5. Mean Girls (2004)
Is this really the best the world has to offer for my search query? I could spend a week putting together a far better page for that query, but what's the point? It's not going to rank anywhere notable in the Google results. There's no incentive for me to produce that quality content.
I want to share my results of a tertiary topic on this thread: Adam Lipsius claiming that hundreds of thousands of pirated copies of "16-LOVE" had destroyed his chances of profiting from the film.
A Google of Adam Lipsius returned his IMDB page, his Facebook page, a few videos about 16-LOVE, and no Wikipedia article. I followed his IMDB page and discovered he has participated on the producer + director level of several films. He is said to be 'known for' The People vs. Larry Flynt and Men in Black, but was involved only in the sound of those films.
16-LOVE produces similar results: virtually nothing on Wikipedia or IMDB. Its IMDB article says it is similar to films such as "Zookeeper", and is rated at around 5 stars. Completely distinct from the IMDB results, RT claims it is 100% fresh with 39 reviews. It was directed by and produced by Mr. Lipsius.
Conspicuously absent in my searches were any torrent offerings.
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Here's what I think:
I think 16-LOVE was not a popular film, and just plain didn't do well. I don't think piracy had anything to do with it.
My opinion is that generally you will find the noisiest, most entitled, belligerent users amongst the ranks of the free. They didn't pay for it, and so there is literally no skin in the game to persuade them to like it.
I contend that if, indeed, hundreds of thousands of people had illegally downloaded this film, there would be much, much more evidence of its existence available through Google - the same exact route I would have found torrents, by the way.
I think it was just an unknown film, with no publicity, and maybe - hell, probably - it would have done far better if it had been offered through a more direct, easily-accessible avenue.
Who will miss Mission Impossible 4, when the alternative is something new? Hollywood killed the art in most of his movies already. Think about this Viacom coolness-metric-optimization-crap and stuff like Zookeeper.
People like Nolan will still make gigantic hits with decent movies.