l to r: Peter Berg, Paul Rudd and Jon Favreau are having fun talking about movies
One of the best shows on television in recent memory is Dinner For Five, where writer/actor/producer/director Jon Favreau calls up four actors he knows and they all go to a nice restaurant and talk about show business and drink and smoke cigars. When I originally heard about the show it sounded like the most boring thing I'd ever heard, but Favreau gets interesting combinations of actors together and they all have fun stories about stuff. It's a pretty great show; it beats Leno any day. Any show that can pull off putting such varied and diverse talents as Rob Zombie, Bruce Campbell and Roger Corman at the same table gets my vote.
Anyway, IFC is showing the final episode online today, and it will air tomorrow. It features Favreau's pal Vince Vaughn, Keir O'Donnell from Wedding Crashers, Justin "I'm a Mac" Long and producer Peter Billingsley, who is probably best known as the kid from A Christmas Story, but is now Favreau's producing partner. It's pretty good, check it out here.
Note: if these pictures are too small in your browser, click them and they will miraculously become larger. This is not called magic. It is called technology.Toothpaste For Dinner is a webcomic updated daily by Drew. Drew is pretty cool. The drawings he makes are amusing and he frequently captures concentrations of clinical-strength awesome in his single black & white panels.See, it works! I thought it was funny.I just had pretty much exactly the first half of this conversation with someone about six months ago! WHAT ARE THE ODDS
Anyway, I like this site so I thought I would share it with you guys because if you're like me (and I know I am), you like a good webcomic.
From Garth Jennings, director of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, comes this most excellent film that is sure to be awesome.I've been waiting for this to come out since forever. This has been sitting on a shelf since Sundance last year, I guess because they wanted to capitalize on the recent Rambo film; I don't really think they're targeting the same markets, though. Son of Rambow hits theaters in limited release on May 2.
Guys, when Amy Winehouse first came out I seriously thought she was one of those Dame Edna-style drag queens. I thought that maybe she was some kind of sick joke foisted upon us dumb Americans by a British tabloid press who grew tired of entertaining themselves with promiscuous, camcorder-happyPage Three girls and royal scandals. Because let's face it, Amy Winehouse wears a whole lot of makeup. I mean come on, a lady doesn't need to wear THAT MUCH makeup, right? And that's some crazy, kitchy beehive hairstyle. But then I found out that no, she's actually a lady for reals.
I'm still not sure I believe it.
Either way, I hope she feels better, she's pretty talented. Completely out to lunch, but talented.
No, I'm not going to pontificate about the breakfast miracle that is bacon (as much as I'd like to...mmm, bacon); this is about Kevin Bacon.
Many people have played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but the interweb plays it better, mostly because it's a computer and therefore it can cheat.
The Oracle of Bacon was developed by Brett Tjaden at the University of Virginia using algorithms that pull information from the Internet Movie Database to tell you exactly how many degrees a given actor is from Kevin Bacon (this is known in the Baconology community as the "Bacon number").
Through toying with the Oracle, I found that most actors seem to have a Bacon number of 1 or 2. I was only able to find one at 3; however I have a life and only tried about 20 or so names before I had actual things to do.
Also of note is the Center of the Hollywood Universe, as Kevin Bacon is not actually it. Mathematically speaking, he is currently ranked 1,049th! Currently topping the list is actually Rod Steiger, and in the top ten are predictable names like Christopher Lee, Michael Caine, Martin Sheen, Donald Sutherland and Max von Sydow. So Kevin Bacon is far from the Center of the Hollywood Universe, it's just that he seems ubiquitous.
So here's one more thing to do if you get bored: see if you can find anyone with a Bacon number above 6! I totally dare you.
I hate hippies as much as the next guy, but this movie looks pretty neat. Chicago 10 follows Abbie Hoffman and his hippie pals and their defense attorneys as they are tried for inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Basically the film is a combination of archival footage and animated depictions of audio recordings and courtroom transcript reenactments performed by a number of actors including Hank Azaria, Jeffrey Wright, and Dylan Baker.If the Writers' Strike gets settled in time, Steven Spielberg will be making a dramatic film based on this story with Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman and maybe even Will Smith will be in it. Will he play Bobby Seale, the Black Panther founder who got four years for contempt of court? We shall see.
The music industry doesn't seem to be churning out quality stuff like it used to...30, 40 years ago. But there is a steady stream of AWESOME new DVDs for you to watch! Not really.
MUSIC
Beck - Odelay (Deluxe Edition) This landmark album is being rereleased with a second disc containing some awesome previously unreleased tracks and remixes from notable figures like UNKLE and Aphex Twin. It's difficult to overstate Odelay's importance. Odelay is the cornerstone of any alternative music collection. Well, okay, really I guess Odelay, Ten, OK Computer, Tragic Kingdom and Nevermind are the cornerstones to any alternative music collection, which I guess means that if alternative music was a building it would have a lot of corners.
DVD
Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 6 If you like Seinfeld but wish the characters were less likeable and more edgy, check out Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David is quite possibly the most entertaining schmuck in television (maybe The Office's David Brent beats Larry David, I'm not 100% sure). Reading this link will help you to see if you would find this show humorous. You know it's good because Steve Coogan shows up in Season 6! Also released is a Seasons 1 - 6 bundle, so you can get all your Curb together at once for angst-laden hilarity.
Monty Python's Life of Brian (re-release) Not sure what's new in this latest dip of Life of Brian on DVD (is this the third or fourth DVD version? I lost count), but the film itself is a wicked satire of (your pick): Christendom's inability to use basic logic and reasoning, humanity's tendency toward a lemming mentality, petty infighting of militant spilnter groups, or the speech impediments of ancient Romans. Yeah, the film is blasphemous...if you're a retard.
Groundhog Day (re-release) I think we all can agree that this is Bill Murray's best film. There's nothing really new on this DVD except a few deleted scenes that aren't worth the upgrade if you already own it. But if you don't have it yet and you're still buying standard DVDs, why not pick it up? Also: worst Photoshopped DVD cover ever. But character actor Stephen Tobolowsky wants you to buy it, so whatever.
Right At Your Door I posted the trailer for this here and it was crazy. I haven't seen it and frankly, it looks like a real gut-wrencher. But all indications are that it's pretty good, and Rory Cochrane from A Scanner Darkly is in it, so I'm pretty sure it's a well done film, I'm just not sure I can deal with it. All the drama, I mean. The terrorism, fine. The wife trying to get in the house, not so much.
Also available: If you're into movies where Michael Douglas wanders around a Costco with a huge beard looking for treasure, you can try King of California; if you're trying to kill yourself but can't quite find the spark you need to finally pick up that razorblade and hop in the tub, you can try The Comebacks, The Invasion, or Lake Placid 2 (who's bright idea was that?); and Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. faces his worst fears and goes where even Eddie Murphy would not dare to tread in the epic horror film Daddy Day Camp.
This sort of thing is slowly killing me. When I talk about Death By Pop, this is kinda what I mean:Yes, Meet the Spartans beat out the new Rambo film (a phrase I never thought I'd have to type [on so many different levels]) as number one at the box office over the weekend, which proves that there is no hope for mankind and the apocalypse is imminent.
Get your canned food now, there won't be time later.
These movies are tired, lazy, and stupid, and they make plain the fact that the lowest common denominator has sunk to new and alarming depths. Also, based on these opening weekend receipts, there are sure to be more of these vile concoctions of pop culture regurgitation.
This potentally hilarious British comedy stars Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) and Dylan Moran (Black Books). Also, it is directed by David Schwimmer of Friends; a person who I cannot stand, to be perfectly honest. But it really doesn't matter because this film has Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran being silly, which can't possibly go wrong. Can it?Run Fatboy Run hits theaters March 28, and will probably leave theaters March 29.
Ryan North over at Dinosaur Comics is pretty good about recommending other webcomics. Also, he has good taste. He recently recommended The Abominable Charles Christopher, and it does not disappoint. Then again, he also likes Super Mega Comics, which I'm really not a great fan of. But that's okay, Ryan's percentage is still pretty high.
The story (updated every Wednesday) mostly follows the titular Abominable Charles Christopher and fellow denizens of the forest. Like all great works, it is in turns funny, sad, poignant, and true. Also, it is very well drawn. Karl Kerschl, who has done work for DC Comics, does an amazing job. For a sample, please click on the strip below, or put a magnifying glass up to your monitor or something:The Abominable Charles Christopher is hosted by Transmission X Comics, who have a bunch of other interesting comics you can check out and, apparently, a bandwidth problem at certain times of the day. Oh well.
Well, for whatever reason I can't find one of these trailers without Portuguese subtitles. Sorry. Also, I guess in other lands Get Smart was called Agente 86. Otherwise, this trailer looks pretty not bad. I mean, you have Steve Carell being stupid, Anne Hathaway being supercute, and lots of fun Get Smart dialogue like "Missed it by that much!" I am cautiously optimistic.Get Smart hits theaters on June 20.
Heath Ledger apparently overdosed on sleeping pills yesterday.
This is tragic on any number of levels, but when I found out my first thought, callously, was "Did he finish his work on The Dark Knight?"
I am such a tool.
The answer, for the record, is yes. He was moving on to Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus immediately after Dark Knight, so he made sure all of his Joker work was in the can. Where this leaves Gilliam's film is unknown, but I'm sure Gilliam is just tearfully adding this to the monumental list of production problems he's experienced in his career.
Yeah, we liked to make fun of him for the whole Brokeback Mountain thing, which actually looked like a really tough role, but I'm pretty sure all of us shut up real quick when we saw the trailer for The Dark Knight, because it was clear that Heath had the goods. He always took the challenging role over the average Hollywood sewage. He was great in The Patriot, and made 10 Things I Hate About You tolerable.
Hopefully, by the time The Dark Knight comes out we'll all be used to the idea that he's gone and it won't lessen the enjoyment of his final performance, which looks like nothing short of brilliance.
Heath Ledger was 28 years old, and leaves behind a 2 year old daughter.
For a while, there have been rumors about Marvel's film division putting together an Avengers film. And while it sounds like a great idea to put Earth's Mightiest Super-Heroes together on the big screen, it seems like a monumental task.
For example, look what happened to the Justice League film that recently fell apart. I gave it very little (if any) coverage here, because I was hoping it would die. DC has done a lot of right things with their superhero films (the new Batman alone gives them a lot of credibility with me), but this JLA film was just going in a bad direction. For a superhero team featuring Superman and Batman, one would think it would be key to get Brandon Routh and Christian Bale to reprise their roles. Well, they weren't going to even try that. Which was fine with Bale, especially since he felt that they had a long way to go with the Batman character in his stand-alone franchise before they could start teaming him up with people, and I fully agree. At any rate, director George Miller (Mad Max) was set to cast a bunch of no-namers, but (thankfully) he thought the script needed work so the film is now shut down for the duration of the Writers' Strike.
Marvel, whom I have been critical of late for their absolutely dire filmic depictions of the Fantastic Four and some kind of abomination known as Disco Spider-Man (though I place blame at the feet of the directors and studios producing those films, not Marvel itself), are using Iron Man and the Hulk to bring things together. Their respective films are being produced by Marvel themselves, and they are putting these films together with a plan.
Marvel is committed to keeping character continuity within the Marvel (film) Universe as much as possible. For instance, Incredible Hulk co-star William Hurt let slip in an interview that (highlight text to reveal possible spoilers!) Tony Stark (as portrayed by Robert Downey Jr.) will appear in a scene with Hurt's General Thunderbolt Ross. It is also heavily rumored that Samuel L. Jackson will be appearing in both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk as Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and that Fury's involvement will lead to an eventual Avengers film.
Pipe dreams on Marvel's part? Possibly, but they're really setting the stage for something here. Currently, Matthew Vaughn (Stardust) is in pre-production on a Thor film, and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) is working on getting an Ant-Man film off the ground. A Captain America film has also been rumored. Iron Man director Jon "Foggy Nelson" Favreau has gone on record saying that he would like to direct the Avengers film. He explained that Marvel has told him that "they're pretty clear on wanting to do it with the actors who’ve established the roles or to not do it at all." He continued, "I think it’s a good idea if you use the characters established in the other franchises that then come together for an event."
You know what? This will never work because Marvel's whole plan just makes too much sense.
This week is really light on new releases. They do this so you can save your money. That way, when they put whole bunches of stuff out at once, you can afford them! What a concept!
There is some stuff coming out this week, but unless you're an obsessive Barney Miller, Torchwood, or ER fan, there's not much hitting the streets. Unless you want to see The Rock embarass himself in The Game Plan. So, since this week has no NOTABLE new releases, I will leave you with this video.Scary.
Congratulations to the New England Patriots, who inexplicably left their "A" game safely at home as they beat the San Diego Chargers to win the AFC Championship (again) and will now go on to smother their opponents in the Super Bowl in an effort to go 19-0, which is insane. You get the sense that those cocky jerks don't even care about winning the Super Bowl so much as seeing how many consecutive wins they can string together.
Facing the Patriots will be the New York Football Giants, to whom congratulations are also in order. The Giants (narrowly) beat the Green Bay Packers at frigid Lambeau Field to take the NFC title for the first time in a while. The Giants didn't play the flashiest game ever, but some poised work from Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress running 154 yards, and an overtime field goal from Lawrence Tynes helped the Giants pull out a win. That, and Brett Favre throwing two interceptions and both teams taking a bunch of penalties all helped as well. The game was kind of ridiculous. Also, it was cold.
My opinion is not a professional one, but, having watched some of the Patriots game and all of the Giants game, I didn't think any of the teams playing yesterday were incredibly impressive, especially "perfect" New England. Mostly I felt bad for the Packers and Giants because they had to play in -4° (-24° with windchill), which is insane. How do you even concentrate?
The Giants are clear underdogs. They didn't start the season all that well and they have had to overcome a great deal of adversity, but they seriously almost beat the Patriots to close the season, so they will be coming into the Super Bowl as a very hot team with something to prove.
Unfortunately, the Giants' unlikely playoff run will probably be spoiled by the aforementioned Patriots, who seem to be playing at another level entirely from the rest of the NFL. I mean, if Tom Brady can throw three interceptions and still win the game, I mean, that's ridiculous. I hope Brady gets sacked a lot at the Super Bowl. That would be neat.
So. The wait is finally over. After like a year of hype, viral marketing techniques that worked too well, and entirely too much speculation, Cloverfield was finally released.
Man, was that ever some crazy stuff.
While advance word has been greatly positive, I actually read one or two bad reviews of the film. These people are toolsheds who were expecting a Godzilla-style monster film. That is not Cloverfield. Cloverfield is about the huddled, screaming masses just trying to get out of harm's way. We don't get the President declaring Manhattan a disaster area. We don't get the exozoologist that just might have the answers. We don't get Will Smith going, "Aw, hell no!" and making wisecracks while delivering the killing blow to the monster.
This is not that kind of film. Know that and you will not be disappointed.
The film starts with about 20 minutes of exposition so that you can get to know the people you'll be seeing tortured for the next hour or so. There's this guy Rob, who's going to Japan, and his friends throw a going-away party for him. Rob likes this girl Beth, and maybe they were even going to get together for reals, but I guess he screwed it up and now they are on uncertain terms. Beth shows up at the party, awkwardness ensues, and she goes home. All this is captured on a home video camera by Rob's friend Hud (I see what you did there), who has been pressed into service as party documentarian for the evening and uses most of the camera time hitting on this girl Marlena who is completely disinterested.
At around the time when pretty much the whole audience begins thinking that this is far too Thursday Nights On The WB for them, there is a slight earthquake, the head of the Statue of Liberty lands in the street outside the party, and chaos ensues. Rob gets a call from Beth, who is at home and is apparently in some kind of situation, and Rob must get to her. (This is where that exposition stuff comes in handy.) The trek begins uptown, which also happens to be where most of the chaos is ensuing. There are escalating levels of chaos throughout the film and it is all completely off the hook.
There is a monster. I refuse to discuss what the deal is with the monster, except to say that it defies description. It's as if H.P. Lovecraft got over his Cthulhu tentacle fetish but decided to start on a steady diet of mescaline, bathtub gin and pulled pork sandwiches. Many reviewers have also mentioned the smaller monsters, so I don't feel too guilty about spoilers at this point. They are a bit more normal (at least in comparison to the big monster; I don't think anything in this film is really "normal"), but the sounds they make are creepy and they are pretty messed up.
The main conceit of the film is that it is all unedited amateur handheld footage, and as such, it's pretty jittery. I'm told people have gotten motion sick from it, but I and those I saw the film with didn't seem to have any issues. Most of the time I just found myself trying to figure out exactly where I should be looking (people often don't realize how directed professional films are), or tilting my head to match the angle or something otherwise ridiculous. The camerawork was very effective in creating a feeling of immediacy and was definitely the best way to go to tell this kind of visceral story. Pun fully intended.
Cloverfield certainly taps into the zeitgeist of this post-9/11 world. It's tough to avoid, really. Godzilla was a reaction of Japanese culture to the atomic bomb; one could argue that Cloverfield works in a similar way. But to read too much into it does the film a disservice; it's not trying to tackle any Big Issues, or even provide some kind of catharsis, it's just trying to follow a bunch of people who look like they stepped out of a Gap ad as they make a perilous trip to Columbus Circle by way of the seventh circle of Hell.
Due to the single-plot nature of the film, there is ample opportunity to carry Cloverfield on into a sequel, at the very least. There are so many unanswered questions: Where did the monster come from? What happened after the events of the film? There's great potential for a President-on-the-phone, exozoologist-with-the-answers, Will-Smith-wisecracking film that would answer all the questions that Cloverfield raises, but maybe it's best if these questions remain unanswered. I mean, the last time we got all our questions answered we found out that Darth Vader was a whiny jerkface before he got horribly burned and went "Nooooooooo". Sometimes imagination is better, is what I'm saying.
Anyway, I thought Cloverfield was a very enjoyable ride and so far it's the best film of the year. I know that's not saying much since it's January, but I fully believe that it will still be in my top ten when the year is up. If you like movies where crazy stuff happens, this movie may be for you. If you're like me (and I know I am), you'll probably like Cloverfield.
While it's true that Guinness is, inexplicably, a low-calorie beer (its 198 calories per pint are less than an equal serving of skim milk, orange juice, or even light beer), there is now further evidence that it is the best thing you can possibly drink.
The antioxidants in Guinness slow the deposit of cholesterol on artery walls. Alcohol thins the blood. Between the two, your entire circulatory system should be awesome in no time!
These results come from the University of Wisconsin, who I trust implicitly. However, a spokesman for Brewing Research International, which conducts research for the industry, said she would be "wary" of placing the health benefits of any alcohol brand above another.
She said: "We already know that most of the clotting effects are due to the alcohol itself, rather than any other ingredients. It is possible that there is an extra effect due to the antioxidants in Guinness - but I would like to see this research repeated."
I think you'll have no shortage of human test subject volunteers for that particular project.
While doing research for my Blade Runner DVD review (yes, I do research), I stumbled upon just the awesomest thing.Yes, an umbrella with an illuminated tube. A simple concept, so why has it taken so long for them to get made? I don't care, because it's here now. This is step one in living in the Blade Runner universe. Hopefully they'll get those replicants on the market soon.
I wanted to wait. I really did. I thought I could wait till the whole format wars were finished and I could pick up the five-disc Blade Runner briefcase set. But even though it looks like Blu-ray blew up HD DVD's Death Star and is going to win the war, there's the possibility that Toshiba might pull a rabbit out of their hat, so I'm still holding off on converting to Blu-ray full time until these guys have their Battle of Endor-style final showdown.
But Blade Runner is still out there. AND I NEED IT.
So I compromised and got the four-disc set. It's pretty amazing.
I reviewed the unfiltered awesomeness of the Final Cut in an earlier review, so I won't foam at the mouth anymore about how awesome the movie is. I'll just foam at the mouth about how awesome the extras are.
Disc 1 contains the Final Cut version of the film, with three feature commentaries: an informative and insightful Ridley Scott track; a track featuring producer Michael Deeley and production executive Katherine Haber, along with screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, wherein the writers spend most of their time trying to credit the other for every bit of smart dialogue, which was somewhat entertaining; and a track with "visual futurist" (read: awesome designer guy) Syd Mead, production designer Lawrence G. Paull, art director David L. Snyder, and special effects gurus Richard Yuricich, David Dryer, and The Man himself, Douglas Trumbull. That's a whole lot of commentary, but I still would like to have seen a track with some of the actors. I'm just saying. Disc 2 is the 3-and-a-half hour, incredibly comprehensive documentary on the making of the film, Dangerous Days. For those who have read the book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, much of this will at times seem to be familiar territory, but the production of this film was so eventful that Dangerous Days could have been eight hours and still not covered everything. Myths are debunked, reputations cleaned and polished, regrets expressed. I was surprised at some of the people who participated in the documentary; not only Harrison Ford and the entire cast (with the exceptions of William Sanderson and the late Brion James), but black-hat bad guys like financier Jerry Perenchio, who had long blocked Scott from releasing a Final Cut DVD. By this action he is clearly a jerk, but he seems like a nice enough guy in the documentary. It's as if they interviewed every living person who worked on the film right down to the guy who made the coffee. We even get to meet Nina Axelrod, who was almost cast as Rachael, and Stacey Nelkin, who was up for the part of Pris, got the part of Mary, but her character was cut from the script just before shooting began. Mark Kermode did a documentary on Blade Runner a few years back for Channel 4 that was pretty definitive, but I think it's safe to say that Dangerous Days is now the standard.
Disc 3 has the Theatrical Cut, International Cut, and the previously released Director's Cut, so now you can compare and contrast them and decide once and for all whether you like the film better with or without the commentary. For the record, a lot of people absolutely hate the commentary but Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo Del Toro prefers it. Personally, I think it adds to the noir feel, but is jarring in spots. Your mileage may vary.
Disc 4 is the Enhancement Archive, with a lot of featurettes dealing with the works of Philip K. Dick, audio interviews with the author, comparisons between his book and the film, the legacy of the film, the question of whether or not Deckard is a replicant, Nina Axelrod and Stacey Nelkin's screen tests, in-depth looks at the costumes, effects and production design, and a retrospective on the single greatest cinematographer of our time, Jordan Cronenweth. Aside from the Cronenweth piece, I think my favorite part is in the discussion of whether or not Deckard is a replicant, where Edward James Olmos slips up and calls replicantsCylons, then catches himself. I found it hilarious. Is that sad? The Deleted/Alternate Scenes were a bit anticlimactic and, I know for a fact, somewhat incomplete. Oh well. This set is so awesome I'm not going to complain.
All in all, there's more Blade Runner here than anyone can possibly handle. I can only guess as to what treasures the five-disc briefcase set contains. Wow.
We all remember the Black Plague, right? Killed millions in the Middle Ages? Really bad stuff. Well, it's not like there was some Jonas Salk-type that found a cure for it, so it never really went away. It's killed about 100 - 200 people in the last hundred years, which is pretty good statistics in my opinion, considering the death toll back in the day, but now it looks like it's making a comeback.
Predictably, the source of these reports is in Africa, where I just want to drop a whole drug store on top of every warlord and therefore solve most of their problems. Plague is one of those things where if you don't get antibiotics within a few days, you're a goner. With these African cases on the rise, and inadequate medical facilities to treat outbreaks, we could be seeing a greater spread of the illness in the future. Yay.
What's also just great is the idea that plague can be weaponized fairly easily - they've been doing it for thousands of years by catapulting corpses over castle walls, dumping bodies in a city's water supply, etc. These days all they have to do is aerosol the bacteria. WOULDN'T THAT BE WONDERFUL
The upshot of all that is that doctors will get to walk around in those awesome Plague Doctor outfits again like they did back in the Middle Ages, with the hat and the stick and the gloves and that totally awesome mask. What I'm doing here is trying to find a bright side to an epidemic of plague enveloping the planet. And I think I'm succeeding, to some small degree.
So watch out for rats and fleas and people expectorating all over the place, because plague isn't a very cool thing to get, guys.
Dozens of people in the Stephenville, Texas area have seen a UFO. And not just any UFO. This is like the UFO to end all UFOs. It is scaring people. Why do you have to scare people, UFO?
According to eyewitness accounts, it's a mile long and half a mile wide, flying at an altitude of about 300 feet. This seems...unlikely to me. That's kinda big, you know? Like, maybe it would be on the news or something.
Then again, they say everything's bigger in Texas.
The Air Force is 90% sure that what people saw was actually an airliner, which is a pretty neat trick to make an airliner that's a mile long. But I think this is just the Air Force not wanting to investigate this stuff anymore because they're tired of dealing with crackpots and whatnot.
I wish I could remember who made this point, but someone once said that they didn't believe that there's any kind of government conspiracy covering up UFOs, because if the government couldn't break into a hotel room without bringing down a presidency, they certainly couldn't hide UFOs from a populace demanding to know what the deal is. I think this is a valid point.
On the other hand, I'd like to know what exactly it is that these people in Texas are seeing.
Kind of a slow week for releases. As always, if you want to purchase any of this stuff, you'll have to find it yourself on the intertubes.
MUSIC
Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996 - 2006 If all you know is "Novacane For The Soul", or the Mark Romanek-directed video that became an MTV sensation catapulting them to "one-hit wonder" status, you owe it to yourself to give these guys a second look. For serious.
Sing Like Neil Ever wanted to sing like Neil Diamond? In this day and age, with "Sweet Caroline" becoming an inescapable part of any public intoxication experience, the skill of singing like Neil Diamond will only grow more important with the passing of time. I think it's probably a good idea if we all get started now.
DVD
Family Guy - Blue Harvest Love Family Guy or hate it, you have to admit that Blue Harvest is hilarious, though the pedophilic Obi-Wan Kenobi was pretty creepy. I certainly never expected Adam West to ever play Grand Moff Tarkin. And the bit with the couch was classic. And Quagmire with the dot-matrix printer. And the Death Star Gunner wanting a railing. And Stewie as Darth Vader questioning the thermal exhaust port. And John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Yeah. It was pretty funny.
Extras - The Complete Series Ricky Gervais. Stephen Merchant. More celebrities than you can count. Who can forget Patrick Stewart's superpower obsession? Or Harry Potter picking up chicks? Or David Bowie's "Fat Man" song? Or Ian McKellen's acting lessons? Or Orlando Bloom's narcissism? Or the crappy sitcom When the Whistle Blows? "Are you having a laugh? Is he having a laugh?" Essential viewing for those who like things that are funny.
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin If you had one of these demonic little pieces of machinery as a child, you may wish to take a stroll down memory lane with these episodes from the Teddy Ruxpin half-hour television commercial- er, I mean, cartoon. Or maybe you'd rather not relive your foulest nightmares, I don't know. Just the thought of children tucking into bed at night with that piece of felt-covered artificial intelligence gives me the heebie-jeebies. That was like the creepiest toy evar. Reading stories to the kids. DEMON STORIES.
Henry Rollins - Live In The Conversation Pit He's not as mean as he looks. Rollins is always good for a laugh in his "spoken word" (read: stand-up comedy) performances, but be careful - in between his tales of life on the road and doing bit parts in crappy movies, you might actually learn something.
That's it for this week's notable new releases. Join us next week when Saw IV comes out and we don't even mention it because it's useless non-scary, non-suspenseful torture porn.
Hollywood's latest attempt to drain the last ounce of life from an 80s franchise is this new Terminator show. I watched the pilot episode and it wasn't as bad as I expected (I expected it to be pretty bad). Here are some things I observed:
- If you are being shot at, the best cover is probably your beat-up 1970s recliner. According to the show, Terminator bullets will apparently not be able to penetrate its incredible combination of foam padding, springs, and frayed brown fabric.
- John Connor is really smart. He knows that his life is in danger in his past, so he sends his teenage self a super-advanced Terminator robot that looks like an incredibly cute young lady. Wouldn't you?
- This is the second time in as many weeks that I've been subjected to a piece of entertainment where the protagonist is impossibly, uncharacteristically stupid for no other reason than to serve the plot. Of course Sarah Connor would change her alias when moving to a new place. I figured it was a given. Why wouldn't she? Because the writers were being lazy? I don't know. At least Cameron calls her out on it, because that was seriously dumb.
- The bad Terminator is named Cromartie, and at one point he poses as a school teacher. Hahahahaha!
- Back in the 20th century, if you wanted action you had to get a muscleheaded ex-bodybuilder/wrestler/martial artist/etc. Now, we live in the 21st century, where we know better. We are more enlightened. Now, all we need is attractive ladies with guns and moody lighting and fans so their hair blows around alluringly during their slow-motion death-dealing sequences.
- Linda Hamilton was more believeably off-her-gourd in Terminator 2 than Lena Headey is on this show. Also, Linda Hamilton looked like she could conceivably kill Arnold Schwarzenegger with her bare hands. Lena Headey looks like she just walked off the set of One Tree Hill. Get to the gym!
- If this show lasts more than one season, it will be less because of hot chicks with guns (that only goes so far) and more because of Richard T. Jones and his ad-libbing FBI agent. He's on a totally different show, and if the rest of the cast got on his track it might be a lot better.
- You're telling me Robert Patrick wasn't available?
It’s been twenty years (can you believe it?) since The Princess Bride, and I think another stab at the romantic-fantasy-comedy genre was probably overdue. Apparently director Matthew Vaughn agreed, and he took time out of his busy schedule of making babies with Claudia Schiffer to direct Stardust.
Stardust is based on the book written by the literary genius Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess. Vess’ illustrations were not really used a whole lot in the production design, but I think the spirit of it is still present in the frame. Vaughn adapted the script with Jane Goldman, who is quite skilled and has impossibly red hair. The script snaps, crackles, and pops, presenting as modern a sensibility as The Princess Bride did in its time. Where The Princess Bride was whimsical, Stardust is a bit more sardonic. You could compare the two films endlessly, but ultimately they are different films and should be looked at separately.
There is your inevitable Princess Bride/Stardust comparison. Now that’s over with, let’s get on to the review proper.
Stardust is the story of young Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox), a square peg living in the town of Wall, England 150 years ago. The reason why Wall is named such is because there is a wall. On the other side of this wall is the mystical kingdom of Stormhold, which is probably as magical as a 21st century fantasy film is going to get. Tristan is trying to get with the local vapid hottie (Sienna Miller), who is a total jerkface, when they see a shooting star. Tristan pledges to get the star and bring it to her.
This star, however, has a name. She is Yvaine (Claire Danes, in a serviceable British accent), and she would like to go back to the sky except Tristan finds her and they are pursued by other parties that are after Yvaine for their own nefarious ends.
These include three decrepit witches, led by Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), who wish to cut out the heart of the star to keep them looking young and pretty; and the sons of the King of Stormhold, led by Septimus (Mark Strong), who are constantly killing each other in an attempt to gain the throne. As the film begins, some of them are already ghostly specters who have been killed by the other brothers; they will only disappear when the rightful King of Stormhold is found, and that will only happen when one of the living heirs retrieves the stone that Yvaine has round her neck.
There is much chasing around in beautiful locations that are actually in Britain and Ireland and Iceland. Eventually, Tristan and Yvaine seek refuge with Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro), a lightning-bottling sky pirate with a terrible secret. Eventually, there are climactic showdowns, Tristan becomes a hero, gets a girl, and they all live happily ever after.
Newcomer Charlie Cox has enough chops to carry the film. I’m sure it was a gamble to go with an unknown, but in this case I think it was the right decision, lest a more bankable actor bring some baggage with him. He does a fine job. Claire Danes is as luminous and intelligent as always. How does one play the physical embodiment of a star? I don’t know, but her interpretation just works beautifully. Michelle Pfeiffer is simply incredible. On the other hand, Robert De Niro continues to confound me. His career trajectory over the last 10 years or so has been just weird. I’m all for expanding range and trying new things, but…I dunno. Every movie I see him in, I'm just like, "What is this?" Maybe he should direct another movie.
To me, the biggest revelation here was Mark Strong as the villainous Septimus. Every time he showed up I was like, “Who is this guy?” in a way I haven’t done since I saw Jason Isaacs and Tom Wilkinson in The Patriot. Septimus’ brothers, a wraithlike peanut gallery of comic relief, were played by unrecognizable Rupert Everett and Jason Flemyng, and a bunch of British comic actors like Little Britain’s David Walliams and Green Wing’s Julian Rhind-Tutt. They are funny, but not overly so. Ricky Gervais shows up in what is basically an extended cameo, and he does his usual shtick to good effect, especially when up against De Niro.
It occurs to me that we as a culture are starting to run out of creative ideas. For a fantasy film, there are only a few truly fantastical elements that aren’t just some other fairy tale concept turned slightly askew. Captain Shakespeare’s airship was pretty neat, and its harvesting of electricity was something I’d never seen done quite that way before. One thing that I though was really cool was during Tristan and Septimus’ sword fight at the end; there was a very interesting element to it that I will not reveal due to spoilers, but it was pretty cool and must have been difficult from a stuntwork perspective.
All in all, I liked Stardust, but there is an element to it that is missing. I’m not sure what it is, but I think there’s a timelessness that the best fairy tales have and Stardust almost has, but not quite. So yeah, I thought it was okay, but it wasn’t as spectacular as I hoped it’d be. But if you're interested in seeing a romantic fantasy with some comedy and you've seen The Princess Bride so many times you can recite the whole thing, I'd say you should give it a shot.
Easily the creepiest picture of the cast of Deep Space Nine. (l to r) Top: Michael Dorn (Worf), Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir), Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax). Middle: Armin Shimerman (Quark), Ciroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O'Brien). Front: Nana Visitor (Major Kira), Avery Brooks (Ben Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo).
So after I finished with Star Trek: Enterprise, my so-called "friend" Jman tells me that now I have to watch Deep Space Nine.
Sigh.
Okay, fine. But this is the last time.
When it was initially televised, I used to watch it once in a while, but after a few years I lost the thread entirely and, I dunno, discovered girls or something. Whatever happened, I stopped watching the show. So I was somewhat familiar with the characters, and fully prepared to deal with the tedium that I vaguely recalled.
Surprisingly, I found the show a bit more engaging than I expected.
Avery Brooks stars as Commander Benjamin Sisko, a widower with a precocious teenage son and a new job running a space station for the Federation. This space station is important because it’s been abandoned by the Cardassians (hence its funky architecture); it orbits the planet Bajor (which may someday join the Federation, but not yet); and, as we learn in the pilot episode, there is a wormhole nearby connecting the area to the distant Gamma Quadrant. Because of all the traffic this generates, suddenly DS9 becomes strategically important, and suddenly Sisko’s crappy desk job in the middle of nowhere becomes the most high-profile job in the Alpha Quadrant.
Previous Trek shows have employed a "planet-of-the-week" style, but due to the stationary nature of the location, DS9 depends heavily upon character development and recurring themes. The show is helped by having a core of interesting characters: the dangerous but cute Major Kira; the wet-behind-the-ears Doctor Bashir; Quark, the Ferengi bartender who always runs afoul of the stern changeling security officer Odo; the obligatory familiar face in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Chief O’Brien.
One of the more interesting characters is that of Jadzia Dax. Her character is a Trill, a complicated combination of a slug named Dax who lives inside a cute science officer named Jadzia. Dax’s previous host was this old party animal diplomat guy named Curzon, who happened to take a young Starfleet officer named Ben Sisko under his wing many years before. So Dax and Sisko are back together again, and their relationship is mostly the same; they like to hang out and talk about old times and whatnot, since Dax is Dax no matter who the host is. So that was an interesting dynamic to watch.
The show’s secret weapon is its recurring characters. Most notably is Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo), the former commander of Deep Space Nine while it was under Cardassian control. The guy is a charismatic menace, a gleefully maniacal egotist who is as much fun to watch as he is a pain the neck of Ben Sisko.
The casting directors raided the world of 1970s film villains and found Andrew Robinson (the Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry) to play the shifty Cardassian tailor/spy(?) Garak, and Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) as the Bajoran religious leader Winn Adami. Garak is probably the best character of the entire series, in my opinion, and Winn is to me the most annoying (but that’s good, since she’s supposed to be).
Here is an exchange that encapsulates Garak pretty well: This is basically how the show was. There'd be a scene like this, something would blow up, then some more talking, Sisko would get indignant, more stuff would blow up, Odo would turn into a pool of slime or a duck or something, Dukat would show up to taunt everybody and leave, O'Brien would fix the flux capacitor just in time, and that would be the end. Rinse, lather, repeat. I'm oversimplifying and using hyperbole, but it's like that.
Over time, more side characters pile in like Quark’s brother Rom and nephew Nog, the Ferengi Grand Nagus Zek, and late-arriving characters like Klingon General Martok, Dominion diplomat Weyoun, and Cardassian officer Damar, all really strong characters played by great actors (especially J.G. Hertzler's Martok and Jeffrey Combs' Weyoun). Sometimes the scenery chewing gets over the top, but for my money that’s the best possible problem to have.
The first few seasons of the show were not spectacular. They weren’t as bad as, say, Enterprise, but you could sort of tell that the writers didn’t have a specific direction for the show. TNG was full of self-contained episodes where nothing permanent really happened to the characters, they’d just show up somewhere, fix a problem, and leave. Maybe someone would learn a lesson about life or Data would muse about humanity and feed his cat, but that’s about it. On DS9, there’s not so much intergalactic traveling (there is some, especially when producers realized it was a problem and invented the Defiant, a battleship for blowing up the bad guy of the week), so the show really is forced to develop characters and eventually to serialize plotlines. The most far-reaching of these involved The Dominion, a political entity from the Gamma Quadrant who doesn’t much care for all the traffic coming through the wormhole and decides to conquer everybody on the other side – the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, everybody.
I guess the ratings weren’t great because around Season 5 they brought in Lt. Worf from TNG. I’ve never been a huge fan of Worf, he’s just clueless unless he’s fighting somebody in glorious battle. I don’t think his addition was really necessary, but it brought some new dynamics to the show, particularly his relationship with Dax. His character certainly became more complex through his run on DS9, which is a testament to the writers that they could infuse such a dim-bulb meathead with as much complexity as they did. Don't ask me how they reconcile continuity between the show and his concurrent appearances in the TNG films, because I don't know. The fact that I would even ask that question shows me to be far more geeky than is healthy.
Like most Trek shows, things occasionally get bogged down in technical jargon, "checking the fargenblargen on the spatenheiser" or whatever. This is one of the things I hate about Trek, but I guess it’s unavoidable. Poor O'Brien and Dax were saddled with most of this stuff. I've seen Colm Meaney a few times in work other than Trek, and he's a pretty good actor. Despite the writers' famous attempts to make his character suffer on a seasonal basis, I don't think we ever saw what Meaney could really do to the fullest.
One of the things that surprised me is how far from Gene Roddenberry’s vision the show drifted. His corpse wasn’t even cold yet, and they were doing stuff like having an attempted military coup by Starfleet Command, Starfleet officers defecting to join terrorist groups, Starfleet officers fabricating evidence Colin Powell-style, and even introducing a rogue organization within Starfleet Intelligence that engages in "any means necessary" type tactics. My theory is that Section 31, which is something Roddenberry would have definitely been against, was such a secret organization that it was even kept from Roddenberry himself. I guess. It’s interesting conceptually, so I think it works as an idea; but while Roddenberry’s ideas in this day and age are quaintly naïve, they are at the core of what Star Trek is, so can you really call it Star Trek if it clearly isn’t conceptually Star Trek?
As the show progressed, it got better and better, and by the time the Dominion War is in full swing in Season Six, a handful of episodes are actually pretty awesome. But like any serialized, character-based show, much of the viewer’s enjoyment of the show depends on having watched all the previous episodes, being familiar with the characters, etc. So it’ll take up a lot of time to watch the whole show (it took me like 3 or 4 months mainlining the DVDs), but if you like a lot of strong acting (and occasionally glorious overacting), some good writing, and can deal with Trek-style sci-fi, DS9 might be worth your time.
Paul Karason thought it might be cool to supplement his diet with a cocktail of silver and distilled water. Now his skin is blue, and doctors say it will never turn back. Karason doesn't seem to mind too much, I mean he went on the Today show yesterday to talk about it. He says he won't stop taking the silver supplements due to the many positive side effects, like, I dunno, his skin turning blue forever??
Not sure I see a lot of upside here, even if the dude's arthritis is gone.
The doctors want him to get a blood test for heavy metal content and check out his liver and kidneys, but Karason was like "whatever".
How is this guy not working as an actor in in science fiction? He could be Grand Admiral Thrawn's dad, or Wilford Brimley's cousin, or Papa Smurf in a live-action film adaptation. I don't know.
Replacing Today's Video in the recurring article department is New Release Tuesday, where we run down the list of notable music and movies coming to your local physical and/or online retailers and/or rental outlets. We're not going to tell you where the best prices are because noboody's paying us to, and also we don't actually know. Shop around; we can't do everything for you.
MUSIC
Reverend Horton Heat - Hi-Fi Stereo The Rev goes down a different road this time with the addition of a Hammond organ to the band! Weird!
Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight/In The Garden/Peace/Revenge/Savage/Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)/Touch/We Too Are One These Eurythmics albums are being re-released in time to brighten your January doldrums!
DVD
3:10 to Yuma I missed this when it was in theaters, but I don't suppose you can go wrong with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe in the same film. Also, James Mangold (Walk the Line, Identity) directed, and he's pretty reliable.
Sunshine Cillian Murphy in a film about people on a spaceship trying to stop the sun from dying, directed by Danny Boyle? Sounds pretty good. I missed this one too. I can't see everything that comes out, people.
Lovejoy - The Complete Season Two Long before he was Al Swearingen on HBO's Deadwood, Ian McShane played puckish antiques dealer Lovejoy on the British mystery series. Or is it a comedy? I don't know. It's British.
Two and a Half Men - Season Two One of television's best sitcoms. Which isn't saying much. Get it for your parents? They like this sort of thing. At least, most parents do. It's got Duckie, so it's not that bad, I guess.
I think this kind of weekly fixture is important, since Rivers Cuomo put out his collection of demos as Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo and it has the demos from Weezer's never-finished Songs From the Black Hole album and it came out in December and I DIDN'T FIND OUT ABOUT IT UNTIL YESTERDAY. So we're going to keep tabs now, because that's just ridiculous. How did I miss that?
I really wasn't too enthused about seeing I Am Legend, mostly because Will Smith always plays the same guy, and he always finds a spot in the movie to make cute comments and punch aliens in the head and when things go bad he always goes "Aw, hell no!" Once in a while he does okay, but most of the time he's WILL SMITH as WILL SMITH in a WILL SMITH film: WILL SMITH: THE MOVIE, usually featuring ONE OF WILL SMITH'S KIDS as ONE OF WILL SMITH'S KIDS. So I'm just kind of like, whatever.
Also, it annoys me that he ruined I, Robot (or, as I like to call it, Hey, Yo Robot! Why You Trippin'?).
Asimov spins in his grave.
Smith makes a lot of money for the studios and puts butts in the seats, so he will continue to get work for the forseeable future.
To me, I look at I Am Legend as something of a studio experiment in Star Power. You have a film with an awkward title, that's been made twice already (The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man) but not for many years, and has been thematically run into the ground over the last ten years (zombie-ish infected people running around trying to eat people) - will it work at the box office if we throw a star like Will Smith into the mix?
Judging by the incredible stacks of money the movie is pulling in, I'd say it's successful. But I'm trying to figure out why it's doing quite so well.
The film isn't horrible; it's kind of meh. On the plus side, you have New York City as a post-apocalyptic wasteland, complete with weed overgrowth and wild animals. The first third of the film isn't very quickly paced, which is a good thing in this instance because the real star of the film is in fact not Will Smith, it is Empty New York City, and director Francis Lawrence seems to understand that. He takes his time in establishing the setting, and I'd almost rather have a whole movie of Will Smith hunting deer through the tall grass in Times Square than the eventual plot we get.
Will Smith takes it easy on the cute stuff and plays it straight for the most part. Sam the dog was easily the best character in the film. I also read that Mike Patton of Faith No More did all the screaming voices of the infected people, so that's pretty cool too.
Most of the complaints I've heard about the film are in regards to the bad CG of the infected people. It is really unrealistic. Director Lawrence was going to go with people in make-up, but during filming he realized that their look wasn't menacing enough. Well, real actors may not have been menacing enough, but it's much less scary if the eye immediately rejects these creatures as being unrealistic. Maybe CG enhancing some real people would have been better? I don't know.
The other complaint many have had is with the weak third act. I agree that the third act is not only weak but also baloney; things start happening that are annoying, ridiculous and stupid. But I think it's the only way to end the story semi-happily without cheating. The real problem (without getting into spoilers) lies in Smith's character reading a situation uncharacteristically incorrectly (he's supposed to be a very smart guy) and the consequences of this mistake. This event is the catalyst of the plot, and it's probably not a good thing to base your plot on an event that depends upon character inconsistency. There's nothing more annoying than watching people in a movie have all kinds of problems that could easily be avoided if they JUST REALIZE SOMETHING THAT 50% OF THE AUDIENCE FINDS FAIRLY OBVIOUS. It's just frustrating. The result is that the screenwriters have to follow through on it, requiring them to just take the script and go off the rails entirely. As an occasional screenwriter, this is the point where I shred the script and start over. Screenwriting isn't easy, but come on guys, this was lazy.
There is also a subplot involving Smith's character being a huge Bob Marley fan. At one point, he shows a character a Marley CD and claims it to be the best album ever. The album he cites is Legend. GET IT? Also, Legend is a greatest-hits compilation, which, if you agree with the Monarch's Henchman #21, makes him a total poser.
You don't make the kind of money I Am Legend is making without repeat business, but I can't figure out why anyone would go back and see this again, especially with all the Oscar-bait films that have been released concurrently. It's not like there's a revealing twist at the end that changes everything. The only thing I can think of is that there's a scene where Will Smith is doing pull-ups with his shirt off and he looks all jacked and maybe the ladies keep going back to see it? I am at a loss.
All in all, I Am Legend was okay. I don't feel like they stole my money, but it wasn't anything spectacular either, and it ends retardedly. Maybe the last act is actually an elaborate dream sequence? Yes?
SIDE POINT People need to use some courtesy in the movie theater. Last week, it was people with cell phones. Guys, when the room is dark, those screens are VERY BRIGHT AND DETRACT FROM THE MOVIEGOING EXPERIENCE. This time, we had people with noisy potato chip bags, choking(!) on said potato chips and soda, and a couple in front of me constantly talking. Loudly.
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO FOLLOW THE NARRATIVE OF A TRADITIONAL HOLLYWOOD FILM, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD WAIT FOR THE DVD SO YOU CAN DISCUSS IT AT HOME. BETTER YET, DONATE YOUR BODY TO SCIENCE BECAUSE YOU ARE USELESS.
Anyway, these factors detracted from an otherwise halfway decent movie that I can highly recommend if you like to watch Will Smith try to pick up mannequin chicks at the video store in an attempt to fend off insanity.
After Death By Pop's latest poll - in which a record 32 users participated (and this number is surely not inflated at all), we finally get a realistic look at the home video market.
Not really.
It's telling that more polled readers are Amish (12%) than still use a VHS player (0%). Also, you Amish guys had better get away from the computer before you get in trouble. Thanks for reading, though!
One brave soul admitted to downloading movies off the interwebs illegally, and this person has already been arrested by the authorities. Keep a firm grip on that soap, guy.
Not surprisingly, traditional DVD was preferred by a whopping 50%. Many of us, including myself, are waiting for the format wars to sort themselves out before getting on board. The latest news on this front, however, is that despite HD DVD leading Blu-ray by a healthy margin in the poll, it looks like Blu-ray may actually win the war.
Following the holiday shopping season, Warner Bros. was expected to make a decision as to which format they would back exclusively. Up to now, they've been producing both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. After seeing the market results, Warner had this to say:
"The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers."
- Barry Meyer, CEO of Warner Bros.
This will go into effect on June 1. Warner will continue to produce HD DVDs until then. With the loss of Warner Bros., only Universal and Viacom (Paramount, Dreamworks) are still producing HD DVD, and Blu-ray now controls 70% of the market. Couple that with the fact that a Playstation 3 is also a Blu-ray player, and the fact that Blu-ray makes up 80% of high-definition discs sold internationally (though 75% of foreign studios back HD DVD), and I'm really not sure how HD DVD producer Toshiba is going to recover from this.
I wouldn't run out and get a Blu-ray player just yet, but it's looking like eventually it might be the way to go.
So I changed the color scheme on the blog. I don't know if it'll stay this way, but I think it looks cool. I don't know. I don't think Captain Picard likes it too much.
One new change is that there will be no more of the Today's Video feature. There will still be videos, though. Just not daily.
l to r: Peter Berg, Paul Rudd and Jon Favreau are having fun talking about movies 
