- The Nines (AppleTV) *****
- Resident Evil – Extinction (AppleTV) **
- Beowulf (AppleTV) ****
- CSA: The Confederate States of America (AppleTV) ***
By far, The Nines was the best of the bunch.
Jun 14
Movies I watched in May 2008
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Jan 05
Next week, a corporate neighbor of mine will be trekking up 45 miles to San Francisco to make some pretty big announcements. That neighbor is Apple; the announcement is Macworld 2008, which starts in a little over a week.
It is rumored that CEO Steve jobs will announcing some new laptop computers – and possibly a re-vamp and upgrade of his company’s AppleTV product line.
Apple TV Rumors:
- The product will have a built-in Blu-Ray high definition disc player. (New York Times)
- People will be able to not only purchase, but to “rent” high-def movies by download from the iTunes store directly to the AppleTV from their HDTV set. No more need to return movies to Netflix – or worry your DVD is scratched when it arrives. (BusinessWeek)
How I would change AppleTV:
I would make AppleTV a real TV. Look, Apple already makes some nice big monitors. And Apple already is expert at making all-in-one computer-in-monitor combos. Is it really much of a stretch for Apple to produce a big screen HDTV – and pack in the components of the Apple TV into the case? Think of it: a TV that you plug into the wall and viola – instant wireless access to your iTunes videos. No plug-in box needed.
- Yes, add that Blu-Ray player. I’d also make it be a CD/DVD burner that allowed you to store those purchased downloads for later retrieval. And I would use Apple’s DRM so you would be able to take that burned DVD to a friend’s AppleTV or Internet-connected Blu-Ray player (like a Sony PS3) and play it at their house – after entering your iTunes user name and password.
- AppleTV should have a CableCARD slot to allow you to use it as your primary cable or satellite TV decoder – to allow you to eliminate one more box from your entertainment center.
- Finally, the cable/satellite-controller AppleTV should be a full-fledged DVR with a bigger hard drive. Already, there are more AppleTVs in people’s homes than TiVos. It would make sense to take this step and make the AppleTV a fully-functional part of the entertainment center.
Then again, I usually ask for way more than I’ll ever get.
Jan 03
Scrapbook: I Am Legend ticket stub – 2007
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I saw this movie, I Am Legend, with Laura Straub. Rich was put off by reviews that called it a zombie movie. His loss. This was one of the best films I saw in 2007.
Dec 28
Review: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem
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Move along. Nothing original to see here…
I honestly didn’t think I’d pay to see a movie worse than Spider-Man 3 this year. I was wrong.
I plopped down $10.25 to see a little gem (if by “gem” you mean load of crap) called, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (or “AVPR,” for short).
Now, I have to say despite its many, many flaws, I still found myself amused – slightly. The film almost walked the line between campy spoof humor and kick-butt action. The special effects and the art direction were top notch. The cast was good – sometimes very good.
But, the main problem was that the sub-plot of humans in danger and the dialogue writing sucked big time.
Here, the main characters that draw the audience into the theatres are the acid-blooded Aliens and techie-savage Predators. The problem, neither of these characters talk – the most noise either of these makes is a clicking growl or screech.
This means the supporting humans must have interactions and dialogue worthy enough to draw in the audience enough for it to suspend disbelief in what is a pretty unbelievable concept. That just doesn’t happen.
[NOTE: Matters don't get much better when the plot holes are so big that it's hard to follow the story because the audience is talking out loud asking valid questions such as, "now why didn't they just drive away in the tank?"]
With not-so-witty banter such as, “You’re too stupid to talk, shut up!” and “People are dying; we need guns,” screenwriter Shane Salerno is living up to his track record of writing really bad movies. He’s responsible for two other piles of bad dialogue in 2000’s Shaft remake and 1998’s Armageddon. I seriously wonder how he continues to dupe movie studios into paying him money to write.
It’s a shame.
The Alien franchise is one of the best in science fiction horror history. But now it has devolved to the level of self-aware bad camp. Sad.
Final rating: Horrible. 1 star out of 5.
(It gets the one star instead of zero for three reasons: 1. they avoid the save-the-babies for no apparent reason cliche of most horror films, 2. A laugh-out-loud scene when Daddy is telling his little girl there is no such thing as monsters, and 3. the creators put in little non-subtle but amusing nods to just about every famous horror movie made in the past 50 years.)
Dec 24
This is the ticket stub from the film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, that I took Rich to go see for his 39th birthday.
Dec 17
Scrapbook: Golden Compass ticket stub – 2007
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This is the ticket stub to the film The Golden Compass. I saw it with Rich and Laura Straub. We three liked it, but were amazed at the sparse attendance in the theatre. We also were amazed at the ticket price: $10.25 for an adult ticket. Ouch.
Dec 15
(No Spoilers)
Every so often a film comes along that pushes boundaries, breaks molds and succeeds in becoming a classic despite itself – and despite mixed reviews. The new Will Smith film, I Am Legend is destined to become one of those films.
Here, you have a film that uses the strengths of science fiction to their best – set in the near future, Legend serves as a herald warning cry of what could happen if a supposedly beneficial scientific breakthrough goes horribly wrong.
The best part of this film is that it has a very strong story and the producers have cast an actor who is working at the top of his game … and pulls it off quite well. In what is basically a desert island cast-away story about a man and his dog, Will Smith succeeds in a way that few other actors could.
Then there is the suspense/terror element of this film. This movie is frightening on a level that was refreshingly unexpected. The film is scary for what it doesn’t show, like a Hitchcockian masterpiece, director Francis Lawrence (Constantine), uses our innate fear of the dark to trick our minds into imagining horrors not shown on the screen. He is emerging as a master of dark, brooding and intelligent genre film making.
One minor and annoying drawback of this film is that some of the computer-generated special effects are just a little too unbelievable to be taken seriously. But that one slight flaw is far overshadowed by the writing, acting and other dazzling special effects and art direction that left the audience bathed in an otherwise shockingly believable future apocalypse.
The tone of this film runs the gamut of from thrilling chases, to utter loneliness and heartbreaking despair to the hope for the promise of redemption. It is a thoughtful and thought-provoking work that tends to linger in the mind of the viewer long after the final frame has finished.
Although it is based on science fiction/dark fantasy legend, Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name – which has been remade into a handful of movies (The Omega Man, to name the most notable of the bunch), the 2007 film stands on its own. It is a masterful re-imagining of the mid-20th century story for an early 21st century audience.
TRAILER:
Nov 06
New film from the creator of Donnie Darko set to open November 14: Southland Tales. Below is the trailer.
Nov 04
Looks like Amazon.com’s Internet Movie Database (IMDB) finally clued in that science fiction fans are likely to be big Internet users. The website launched a searchable Sci-Fi Movies section this past weekend. Included is a science fiction-themed message board.
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