AMC's YEAH! augments your film viewing experience

Posted Thursday, August 21, 2014 at 4:58 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, August 21, 2014 at 5:10 PM Central

by John Couture

If I were to say AMC to you, there's a pretty good chance that you'll mention The Walking Dead or Mad Men. The network that revolutionized how we watch TV is turning its sights to films.

Earlier this year, AMC debuted its YEAH! streaming service, but instead of just giving you access to films on demand, YEAH! strives to give you a little more. That little bit more is an interactive experience that will educate you and test your knowledge on your favorite films.

The service is available via their website and an iPad app and it truly revolutionizes the way you view films. AMC Networks curates 300 to 400 factoids per film and they show up under the video window as the film plays. Within certain factoids, there are links to the IMDb and other sites to help augment the film.

The interactive part comes in the form of quizzes and polls that also show up occasionally under the video window. The quizzes and polls are updated in real time so you can see how your stack up against other YEAH! users.

I was able to check out the YEAH! service and I must say that as a die-hard film nut, it's a nifty app that really creates a new way to experience a film. Naturally, the service works best for cult classics and films that you've seen a bunch of times, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that one of the films I put to the test was Clerks.

Given my complete reverence for all things Kevin Smith and Clerks in particular, I was skeptical that I would learn anything from the experience. Much to surprise though, there were a few factoids that even a super-fan like myself never knew.

For instance, I never knew that Rick Derris and Jay were intended to be brothers and that Kevin had a movie in mind that would explore them in more detail.

I also found these two factoids interesting. I never knew that George Lucas actually addressed the contractor situation on the Death Star that Randal and Dante debate in Clerks.

I knew that Harvey Weinstein had walked out of his first screening of Clerks, but I wasn't aware why. Thankfully, YEAH! has the answer.

Clerks also has interstitials that pop up every now and then with large words on them. If you don't have a dictionary handy, YEAH! will help you out.

It's not all hard facts either, it's pretty obvious that the people behind YEAH! have a good sense of humor. In fact, they get in a nice dig at Netflix.

There are couple downsides to the service though. The number of films available with the "YEAH! treatment" is only 33, but they promise to add new films each week. Naturally, it would be great to have this treatment available for more films, but obviously it takes a lot of work to have this sort of attention to detail. So, that will fix itself as the service takes.

Also, you have to rent films individually which can get costly at $4.99 a pop. It would be nice if they offered a monthly subscription that would allow you unlimited watching. As it stands, there is a bit of hesitation when it comes to picking and choosing films.

In order to whet your appetite, YEAH! is offering you a free film this weekend to check it out for yourself. In celebration of the 27th anniversary of Dirty Dancing, they are offering up the YEAH! treatment of the film from August 22-24. As if you needed another reason to check this out, I also took Dirty Dancing for a spin and the results were very interesting as I didn't know that film as much as I know Clerks.

The questions are interesting and tie into the present.

You can pick and choose quizzes and polls aside from the film or go through them organically as they pop up during the film.

This iconic scene was filmed during a freak cold streak which probably made this scene even harder to film.

Apparently, there is a more explicit sex scene out there somewhere. Just when you thought all of the lost footage is on the DVD or Blu-ray, there's hope for a special, special-edition some day.

Even the most die-hard Patrick Swayze fan will be impressed with the amount of facts on the actor.

AMC Networks is also giving you other special goodies for the promotion and you'll have to tune in tomorrow to check them all out, but one special thing is a chance to win a Google Chromecast.