This is seriously Crack Team:
$1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera – Lose The Tripod – video powered by Metacafe
All posts by archangel
Blu-ray Becomes a Death Ray for HD-DVD
The high def disc battle was supposed to go on for years. Sony, Disney, Fox, and Lionsgate backed Blu-ray. Paramount, Dreamworks, and Universal backed HD-DVD. And Warner Bros. backed both (it goes both ways), making it the deciding factor. If it backed Blu-ray, it could be over quickly, and if it backed HD-DVD the sides would be even and the war would rage for years with everyone buying two players or multi-players.
A week ago, Warner Bros. decided to back Blu-ray exclusively. The war is over. Condolences to the mourners.
Paramount actually had an escape clause in the event this happened, and Universal announced it will no longer be HD-DVD exclusive. There will be some cleanup, commitments fulfilled, but in the meantime, feel free to buy a Blu-ray player. Newline is also backing BR, as is the increasingly irrelevant Blockbuster.
It’s been an interesting ride. Including the BR player in the PS3 caused delays and cutbacks, and inflated the price. It was selling pretty poorly because of this and a fairly crappy game selection. But this past holiday season it sold 1.2M units1.
This change in the film industry should fuel PS3 sales. From what I’ve read, it’s not the highest quality BR player out there. But unlike many standalone players for your home theater, it supports all of the special interactive features the discs have. This is mainly through Blu-ray Disc for Java (BD-J), which is a form of Java ME. Already a number of titles have been enhanced with BD-J, although it seems mostly limited to enhanced menus. Over time, this could lead to some pretty cool hacks and features, esp. with players that are Internet enabled.
Overall, I’m not terribly happy Sony won, but it is nice that a format has been chosen. Using Java for interactivity is another bonus.
- Still way behind the Wii, which sold 3 times that. [↩]
Benny Lava!
I thought this was hilarious. It reminded me of when MST3K provided translated lyrics for the Jet Jaguar theme song. And in looking for the lyrics for that, I found the original. Ain’t YouTube great? Here’s both:
IMDB’s Best and Worst of 2007
Going through 2007’s list of films, it looked pretty good. However, I note that some stinkers still managed to land themselves on the IMDB’s Bottom 100 list:
| Rating | Title |
|---|---|
| 1.4 | Who’s Your Caddy? |
| 1.7 | Daddy Day Camp |
| 2.0 | The Perfect Holiday |
| 2.3 | Epic Movie |
| 2.3 | The Comebacks |
That rating is out of 10. But not bad, considering 2006 had 12. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news, new entries into the Top 250:
| Rating | Title |
|---|---|
| 8.6 | No Country for Old Men |
| 8.3 | There Will Be Blood |
| 8.2 | Ratatouille |
| 8.2 | The Bourne Ultimatum |
| 8.1 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street |
| 8.1 | American Gangster |
| 8.1 | Taare Zameen Par |
| 8.0 | Grindhouse |
| 8.0 | Juno |
| 8.0 | 3:10 to Yuma |
| 8.0 | Hot Fuzz |
| 7.9 | Atonement |
Pretty good! Most of these are in the running for my personal top 10 list. I still need to see Sweeney Todd, Taare Zameen Par (an Indian film that I did not know existed until just now), Juno (which I’m super stoked to see), and Atonement. So no spoilers, please!
Have You Seen This Film? (2007 ed.)
Once again I’m preparing to make my top 10 film list for last year. So far, it looks great, way better than 2006. Again, I’m using the list of films eligible for an Oscar. Below are the ones I have not seen yet. Feel free to shout out ones you think I am stupid for not seeing already, or stupid for even speculating that they might be top 10 material. Thanks!
Note: please forgive the caps. I cut and pasted from the oscars.org list, and I’m too lazy to retype them.
ATONEMENT
BLACK BOOK
DEATH AT A FUNERAL
DEDICATION
EAGLE VS. SHARK
GOYA’S GHOSTS
THE GREAT DEBATERS
THE HOAX
HOT ROD1
THE HUNTING PARTY
INTERVIEW
JUNO2
THE KINGDOM
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
LUST, CAUTION
MARGOT AT THE WEDDING
RESURRECTING THE CHAMP
THE SAVAGES
STARDUST3
SWEENEY TODD THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET4
TALK TO ME
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY
WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY
Peter Jackson Won’t Direct The Hobbit
Some backstory: Peter Jackson had been battling Newline in court because he felt he was owed a lot more money for Lord of the Rings. Newline had the rights to The Hobbit, but didn’t want Jackson to direct until the lawsuit was settled. It started to get ugly. Also, their option1 was expiring and would be given to another company. So they were making plans to find another director, which got fans and Jackson upset. It looked like the movie would be made without Jackson directing.
Well, Jackson and Newline made nice. But the bad news is, Jackson is now too busy to direct! Sam Raimi (Spiderman, Army of Darkness) will direct with Jackson producing2. So Jackson will still be involved, and they’ll almost certainly film in New Zealand and use the f/x company Jackson set up for LOTR, preserving the look of LOTR. Overall, I’m expecting it to be a good film, although I’d still rather Jackson direct. But let’s face it: if it was directed by McG or Michael Bay and starred Rob Schneider as Bilbo Baggins, you’d still go see it.
Journeyman Canceled
As a long time couch potato and fan of brilliant but short lived series, my spidey senses are well honed to detect cancellation. I knew it wasn’t a good sign when two new episodes of Journeyman were being aired two days apart. I just finished it watching the latest (now last 🙁 ) episode, which had all sorts of closure points, and then did the dreaded web search for the words in this post’s title. Sadly, I came across this confirmation at the Journeyman blog.
If you didn’t watch it1, you can catch several episodes free online at NBC. It was a great show, especially with Kevin McKidd leading the charge. I hope he gets a new show soon.
- and I hear I’m to blame as well, since the rumor is that NBC was looking only at live viewings, not those from DVR/Tivo or online. [↩]
CW HD (Finally!) Arrives at TWC
This is the story of a Christmas miracle.
One of the great cable company mysteries here in Southern California was, “why doesn’t Time Warner Cable offer the WB (Warner Brothers) in high definition?” It was very frustrating for me, as the two shows I most wanted to see in HD were Smallville (for high def Lana Lang, whose super power is to withstand extreme closeups with her flawless features) and Enterprise (for high def Sub-Commander T’Pol, who never actually commanded a sub, but did run around in skimpy clothes whilst applying sparkly creams [NSFW]). Alas, Enterprise got canceled, and UPN merged with the WB to become CW1, and still no HD!
Well, last night I was pleasantly surprised to discover that CW (aka KTLA) is now available in HD on channel 405! I went to change all my series recordings on my DVR and was reminded that Smallville is still the only show I watch on that network. [EDIT: How could I forget about Reaper? It’s got Missy Peregrym [sexydesktop.co.uk] who’s also a babe, and also appeared in Smallville (and Heroes, as the incredible changing hottie).]
Fortunately, Kristin Kreuk is still flawless.
- Named, of course, for CBS and Warner Bros. And no, I’m not joking, it’s a 50/50 ownership split. [↩]
Dave Attell and Louis CK
Just a quick recommendation for two hilarious HBO comedy specials: Dave Attell: Captain Miserable and Louis CK – Shameless. Attell’s special just aired and will be in reruns for a while. Shameless came out almost a year ago, but I think it’s still available on HBO On Demand. If not, you can rent it on DVD.
I’m not sure I’d call this filthy comedy, but after watching them you’ll never look at whale semen or duck vaginas in the same light… On second thought, it’s filthy.
DM of the Rings
I’ve been really enjoying the web comic DM of the Rings by Shamus Young. It tells the tale of a dungeon master leading a group of typical players on a Dungeons & Dragons adventure based on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Only the players have never heard of LOTR, much less MERP1.
Yes, a little far fetched considering D&D stole heavily from LOTR, and I can’t imagine a gamer who hasn’t seen the LOTR movies. But no matter, the comic is very funny, and the actions of the players are uncannily similar to every group I’ve ever gamed with.
The real ingenuity is that it’s “illustrated” using only screencaps from the films with some occasional Photoshopping. The looks on the characters’ faces is often priceless. By the time you’re halfway through the series, you’ll be convinced Viggo Mortensen went through the whole trilogy with a blank stare.
- I actually owned MERP some years ago, but never got around to playing it, or meeting anyone else who had. [↩]