Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
IMDB iPhone App
Avatar Formula
Dances with Wolves for its obvious plot similarities, The Abyss for its spectacular visual otherworldness, Starship Troopers for the obvious plot similarities, and Gorillas in the Mist for the anthropological side story (and, of course, for Sigourney Weaver)
I really liked Avatar, but it didn't live up to the hype. There's probably no way that it could have. I thought that it was visually spectacular, but it spent too much time dwelling on the (spectacular) Pandora visuals, and too little time on character and relationship development. I didn't necessarily believe the relationship between the leads. The Norm/Jake dynamic went back and forth without any explanation. Plus, maybe the "performance capture" technology would've been cooler if the performances themselves (Sam Worthington, in particular) were better?
Monday, December 21, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-12-21: Mag+ Magazine Reader Prototype
Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.
Via Dave and Popular Science
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Trailer for Iron Man II
FX look great. Downey and Rourke look pretty good too.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Google Gouges Greatest GMail Gap
via Hector Castro
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Gadget Puns
Monday, December 14, 2009
Hotcha Zimzam 10: Google Sees All
Thought Google was Big Brother before? Check out what my buddy Dave has to say about that.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-12-08: Google Goggles
Funny Games Formula
That movie was like torture porn for people who consider themselves intellectuals. The Crash reference just refers to a film that was good, but was unworthy of the Oscar acclaim that it received. Substitute American Beauty or Shakespeare in Love or another film of your choice for that value in the formula as you see fit.
For the record, I haven't actually seen Saw, and I never will.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Ooops
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Ashamed!!!
This business card scanner purports to enable you to create new contacts on your iPhone by taking a photo of a business card and using OCR to "read" the data and create a contact from it. I have tried to get a halfway decent result using many business cards and even with the clarifi camera-enhancing case and under various lighting conditions.
You judge the results for yourself. Here is the original iPhone photo and a screen capture of what this app "read"--they only got the word "highway" and the zip code right. This example is by no means unique, though I admit the lighting conditions are obviously marginal at best. I had the same results under bright halogens as well. Stay away from this app at any cost.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Lockjaw Sufferers Avoid this Movie List
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-11-23: Lost Night in Bangkok
via watchlosttvshowonline
Monday, November 16, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-11-16: Kurt "Han Solo" Russell?
Monday, November 9, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging
Monday, November 2, 2009
Google About to Kill Garmin & TomTom
Google Shrinks Another Market With Free Turn-By-Turn Navigation - O'Reilly Radar
Vid of Week 2009-11-02: Mind Blowing Avatar Trailer
I cannot wait for December 18.
Via Yahoo.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Gleedon!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-10-19: Photosketch
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Surrogates Formula
I wonder if the producers pitched Surrogates to the studio by saying, "It's like Minority Report meets Hudson Hawk!"? Hudson Hawk, by the way, is #32 in sales for Bruce Willis movies on Amazon. I am guessing that after Surrgoates is released on video and sales numbers settle, it will be positioned somewhere between The Fifth Element and The Jackal. Wow. Even though I love Willis in Die Hard, and 12 Monkeys and The Sixth Sense are among my all time favorite films, he has really made some spectacular bombs.
Monday, October 12, 2009
300 Commandments?
Monday, October 5, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-10-5: Gleeful
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-09-28: Good Hair Trailer
What else would you expect from Chris rock?
See it in theaters on October 9 (limited release).
Via Movie Pundit.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Nature of the Lost Island
My dreams are always stream-of-consciousness and never involve a linear time line or narrative structure (sounds like Lost, right?). Suffice it to say that I was on the island myself, and I was living out the Season 5 finale as an observer. Then, of course, in my dream I saw what happened next. At that point everything became too psychedelic for me to adequately describe in this post. There was a giant drain involved with water flowing down and a set of hands glowing white...
In my dream, the cloaking system simply fails. The island is visible to the outside world, though it (and our heroes) maintain many of its strange properties since not all of the device is destroyed by the detonation. Because the destruction of the device was incomplete, our heroes will have some strange experiences, making their season 6 mission clear--destroy the rest of the energy devices so life can return to normal.
As is typical with dreams for me, this all seemed clearer when I woke up than it does now as I try to explain this post. I'm also no Lost scholar, so I am sure that there are myriad reasons why my theory can't possibly be true (it doesn't explain the smoke monster, for one). I guess I'll have to order extra habneros next time and keep my laptop powered up on my nightstand.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-09-21: I Recommend Let the Right One In
Monday, September 14, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-09-14: Rage
via straight2dvdmovies.com
Monday, September 7, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Disney Schmizney! Marvelites should LOVE Pixar!
Vid of Week 2009-08-31: Ford Family Follies
via /Film
Monday, August 24, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-08-24: Insanely Great Trailer
I can't believe that this never made it to the theater! Aside from the cast, this looks like it would be 1,000 times more fun than Snakes on a Plane.
UPDATE: It looks like you'll be able to see this on SyFy
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Ludicrous Sequels
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Awesome AAA Assistance App
Monday, August 17, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-08-17: Apple "Share"
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
District 9 Formula
5 * (1/Independence day) +
2 * (1/V) +
SQRT(The Office) +
SQRT(The Fly) +
(1/Battlestar Galactica^2)
Thursday, August 13, 2009
My District 9 Impressions
In my opinion, District 9 (written and directed by Neill Blomkamp) is the best, most original science fiction film I have seen since Blade Runner. The story, the style, the characters were unlike any film I have ever seen. In the tradition of Battlestar Galactica (the next generation), Dune (the book), and other groundbreaking science fiction, District 9 has a clear social and political message. In this case, the message was directed at Apartheid and the Iraq war. Like other great science fiction, it doesn’t beat the audience over the head with that commentary by taking you away from the core story with pace-stealing exposition. Instead, it was just part of the backdrop, seamlessly interwoven with the story. And what a great story! Despite the politicizing, the story had me riveted to my seat, alternately appalled at the indignities, ineptitude, immorality, and outright criminal behavior of the characters, cheering for intense action sequences, feeling tight with tension at the action sequences, and heartbroken. It was the first film that I have seen in a long time that kept me guessing what would happen next. Wow. My favorite movie of 2009 thus far, and hopefully it will earn one of those 10 best picture Oscar nominations.
Just because it is the most original science fiction film I have seen in a long time does not mean that it doesn't borrow from other films that came before it, most obviously Independence Day. In fact, the premise of the film is like a bizarro-Independence Day. The alien invasion setup is the same, but the invasion starts in South Africa, not New York or Washington (not a spoiler--this happens in the first three minutes of the film). The protagonist, Wikus Van De Merwe, played wonderfully by Sharlto Copley is not a traditional action hero fighter pilot or inspirational leader. He is much closer to Ricky Gervais’ David Brent from The Office than Will Smith or Bill Pullman. This was probably furthered by the Office-esque documentary style storytelling technique employed by the director. Many of the visuals were clearly borrowed from Independence Day, yes. I enjoyed Independence Day, but District 9 is clearly not a product of the Hollywood summer blockbuster factory that created that film. It is much more human, much more gritty, and as such hits much harder.
Incidentally, audience members for the screening had to undergo a thorough security check by several burly gentlemen, presumably to block pirating. We had to submit to having bags searched, turn in our cell phones, and be scanned with a metal detector. During the screening, the security folks walked up and down the aisles, clearly looking for people who might be engaging in pirating activities. It was a bit surreal, and strangely paralleled some of the themes in the film.
UPDATE: I went to District 9 with my friend Noz. He wrote a pretty good, though not quite as glowing analysis of the film on his blog, with more insights on what films influenced it. Definitely worth a read.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
What's Better Than Chocolate & Peanut Butter?
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Flickchart - Crack for Movie Buffs
Remember the site Hot or Not? Well Flickchart is Hot or Not for movies. Thanks to Dave for the monstrous time suck.
My complete rankings are here, but here are the top 20. Not sure I agree with the exact rankings, but all are in the right ballpark.
- Annie Hall
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- The Godfather Part II
- The Godfather
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars
- GoodFellas
- The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
- There Will Be Blood
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Citizen Kane
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Raging Bull
- This Is Spinal Tap
- The Sixth Sense
- Chinatown
- The Lord of the rings: Return of the King
- Casablanca
- The Deer Hunter
- The Princess Bride
Monday, August 10, 2009
iPhone Banking
via the New York Times
Thursday, August 6, 2009
iPod > Zune HD
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Bad Marketing?
The Lovely Bones
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Funny/Informative Lost Videos from ABC
Monday, August 3, 2009
Snow Leopard on Amazon
Snow Leopard (aka Macintosh OS X 10.6.5) is now available for preorder from Amazon.com for $29. Not surprisingly, it is already Amazon's top selling item in Software. |
FCC Investigates Apple/AT&T
Vid of Week 2009-08-03: Pixar Ads
Via /Film. Check out their post to see more Pixar-produced commercials.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Apple Fail
I would never have predicted it a month ago, but I am considering iPhone alternatives.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Movie Karaoke
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone
Monday, July 20, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-07-20: Google Voice Info
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Emmy Good Emmy Bad
- Lost could have earned acting nominations. WTF? No love for Michael Emerson?
- Battlestar Galactica only 1 nomination for Best Directing. That's just not right.
- Rescue Me had a major resurgence this year. Only Michael J Fox got nominated for guest star, but Dennis Leary should have been and the show should have been in the best dramatic series category, IMHO.
- Big Love • HBO
- Breaking Bad • AMC
- Damages • FX Networks
- Dexter • Showtime
- House • FOX
- Lost • ABC
- Mad Men • AMC
- Battlestar Galactica •SciFi
- Breaking Bad • AMC
- Rescue Me • FX Networks
- Dexter • Showtime
- House • FOX
- Lost • ABC
- Mad Men • AMC
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Jackie Chan Wax Off
Monday, July 13, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-08-13: Office 2010 The Movie
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Pandora Payments
Microsoft and Apple About to Get GoOSed
Here's also some interesting commentary from The Silicon valley Insider.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Oh, the Irany!
Iran Tries to Pacify Protesters With Lord Of The Rings Marathon // Current
10 Best Pictures?
Monday, June 22, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Another Reason to Love Pixar
Thursday, June 18, 2009
If You Can't (Re)Boot 'Em, Join 'em
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A-List and Sequel-Free?
Monday, June 15, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-06-15: What do the iPhone 3GS and Tyler Durden Have in Common?
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Hannibal the Jedi Knight?
Monday, June 8, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-06-08: HD Video from Nikon/Canon DSLRs
via engadget
Friday, June 5, 2009
Johnson Blooming as Director to Watch
Want to hear more about Rian Johnson and The Brothers Bloom? Riann did great interviews on the Filmspotting podcast and Elvis Mitchell's The Treatment on KCRW.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Up Earns $68.2 Million, Tops Weekend Box Office
Via Cinematical
Vid of Week 2009-06-01: Green Lantern Trailer?
Monday, May 25, 2009
Vid of Week 2009-05-25: Michael Bay Fan Video
Breakfast As Directed by Michael Bay -- powered by Cracked.com
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sherlock Holmes Trailer
Thanks to Dave for forwarding this along.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Blu Ray Bandwagon
Of course, my first order of business was to upgrade my Netflix account to Blu-Ray. The whole process was pretty painless, aside from the arguably justifiable but real cost. Enable upgrade to Blu-Ray on your account, and all of the movies in your queue that have Blu-Ray offerings are switched. Of course then I shuffled my queue significantly to push many of the Blu-Ray titles to the top. Can't wait to try it out. I'll post my impressions.
Vid of Week 2009-05-18: New Notebook Technology!
Noteboek from Evelien Lohbeck on Vimeo.
via Gizmodo
Friday, May 15, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
IMAX Pimping Their Name?
Star Trek Impressions
****SPOILER ALERT HAVEN'T SEEN IT? READ NO FURTHER*****
What the heck was it with the insane coincidence where young Kirk meets old Spock in a cave? That was just simply too unbelievable a coincidence. Running into one another was necessary for the story, I get it, but together in some random cave? At least they could/should have run into one another in the Federation base on the same planet.
OK, so many of you non-sci fi fans are probably laughing at me at this point. Kirk meeting Spock in a cave was unbelieveable? How about the weird "red matter" that can create black holes and all of the other Trek-isms like warp speed, transporters, etc that are simply accepted? All I can say to that is that Trek assumes that technology is far advanced, and the audience has to accept that in the world of this film. Wild coincidences are not part of the Trek wold, it is just bad storytelling.
Furthermore, that whole ice planet scene annoyed me beyond just that coincidence. Old Spock spending 5 minutes narrating a backstory with a few visuals was just another chunk of lazy-ass story telling. Why not tell the back (future) story in a full-fledged flash-forward? It would have been better storytelling and given underutilized Eric Bana and Leonard Nimoy more to do. If budget or running time was an issue, we certainly could've done without the whole ice monster chase sequence which, though exciting, did not serve the overall story in the slightest. Kirk had already repeatedly demonstrated his exceptional survival skills.
So in other words, excellent movie. Could have been perfect if director JJ Abrams had cut the 10 minutes of ice monster sequence/Spock narration and inserted some kind of flash-forward with more Leonard Nimoy and Eric Bana instead. Kudos JJ!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
JJ Abrams, Mes sci-fi a?
That being said, I haven't seen any of the three yet. I'll be seeing Trek, Fringe and Lost over the next few days. I'm eager to see just how mind blowing JJ can be. I have a feeling that this week will cement his place TV/Film history for the ages with the likes of Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock.
OK, so I posted this before, but I leave you with Abram's talk at TED.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Trek Lost Connections
Monday, May 4, 2009
Star Wars Ignorance
Vid of Week 05-04-2009: Plug-In Wind Power
Friday, May 1, 2009
How Will Lost End?
There’ll be people who love it, there’ll be people who hate it. There’ll be people who’ll be confused by it, there’ll be people who love being confused. It’ll end on its own terms.Even though the thought of Lost ending makes me want to cry, I am just so happy, knowing how this season has unfolded and hearing what Lindelof had to say. I am certain that we are in for a blowout.
Read the full New York Times article and the rest of what Lindelof had to say.
Speaking of how Lost ends, DarkUFO has an interesting theory that he offers in his recap of "The Variable"--I think that he could have described the perfect Lost ending. If you don't like to be spoiled, read at your own risk.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Kimmel Gets Lost
See these videos and a couple more from Jimmy Kimmel via SI-Lost
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Open letter to TiVo via Engadget
Via Engadget
Monday, April 27, 2009
CDC using Twitter for Swine Flu Information
Vid of the Week 2009-04-27: Kill Bill in 1 Minute, One Take
Thanks to /Film
Sorry I'm late today...
Friday, April 24, 2009
Robert Rodriguez Requisitioned for Reboot
via Variety
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
2009: The Year of Streaming HDTV
"Owners of TiVo HD/Series 3 DVRs, the Roku Digital Video Player, the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link, and Panasonic VieraCast TVs (and, presumably, VieraCast-enabled Blu-ray players) will be the first to enjoy Amazon's content in HD (software updates to enable HD viewing on those products should be available imminently). Likewise, Windows and Mac users will also get access to HD video content via Amazon's Web site."
With HD streaming supported by Netflix, iTunes (via engadget), and Amazon, 2009 is turning out to be the year of HD streaming, as I predicted! It is wonderful to be alive.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Smart Strip Revolution Starts Here!
It shuts down all power to selected items plugged into it when the main item is turned off. For example, it shuts down my speakers, external hard drives, printer, etc when my computer is off, but leaves on my DSL modem and wireless router for my wife to use. It works for me as advertised--I shut down my PC and all of my external peripherals (monitor, hard drives) power down. It costs the same as a typical power strip ($30-$40).
Monday, April 20, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
ByEvite
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Lord of the Blu Ray
via Filmonic
Uncomfortable Movie Plot Summaries
via postmodern barney
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Do I Quit my Job?
These Podcasts Rock and Engross
Coverville is a music podcast hosted by Brian Ibbott that is dedicated to playing songs that are recorded by artists other than the original artist (aka, cover songs). I have been listening to this podcast for 6 months now and I love it. It is one of the first podcasts that I listen to every week, and I consistently discover new artists through listening to it. Each show has a particular slant, whether it be songs covering a particular artist, requested covers, or some particular topic like summer, geographic location, etc. Coverville has also been cited by iTunes in its Best of 2007 and Best of 2008 Podcast lists, so I am clearly not alone in my adoration here. With over 550 episodes, I am not able to go back and listen to the entire Coverville back catalog, but I definitely have had a great time downloading the "cover stories" of some of my favorite artists. The Peter Gabriel and Billy Joel cover stories and his recent all A Cappella epsiode were particularly noteworthy, in my opinion.
Radio Lab is a production of WNYC and NPR. It is an educational science-themed show for non-scientists. Unlike the podcasts from Scientific American and "Science Friday", Radio Lab does not rely on a pure interview format that inevitably descends into technical minutae that goes over people's (my) heads. No, Jad Abumrad (host/producer) and Robert Krulwich (cohost) don't delve into the esoteric and alienating technical details of science. Rather, they tell incredibly compelling stories about the world with a brilliant inter meshing of entertaining music, interviews, and sound effects. The shows are incredibly fascinating to listen to for the content alone, exploring the nature of humanity, the world, and the universe. Add the incredible production value and the shows are completely engrossing and headphone-worthy. I got hooked on this podcast a few months ago and I have spent those last few months downloading and listening to their entire back catalog. I am finally caught up now. Looking for some good examples? Try their episodes on diagnosis and morality.
Definitely check these two podcasts out.