movies

A Couple of Raves
04-15-2010

Two pieces of technology I wanted to gush about for a few minutes.

First, Skype. I feel like the last guy getting on the Skype train. The last hold out. Listen. It’s not worth it. The holding out part, I mean. Skype is pretty fantastic!

We just had a baby, yadda, yadda. My Mom was in town for a few weeks to help us get settled. Having her go home was a big, big change in our little guy’s life. But check this out. Two days later, Evan got to see and hear his Grandma again. Even better, he also got to see and hear his Nanna; and his cousins Kali and Kaitlyn got to see and hear Evan for the first time.

You can only say so much about the video phone concept, and I was still on the fence until we actually tried it. I’m sold. It is intoxicating.

Second is Netflix, again. I’m an old school Netflx subscriber. I left for a while, but came back for lots of reasons. I was bummed for a while that the Watch Instantly feature wasn’t available for Macs for a long time, but they finally came around.

So, last Tuesday I got a surprise Netflix disc in the mail. When put in my Wii, I get to watch all this stuff instantly on my TV. All this content right there to browse and watch. I’m a Dish Network subscriber and have a few minor complaints. The On-Demand stuff is slow; the broadband connection has never worked right with multiple customer service calls. In general we’re happy, but the Netflix/Wii system worked flawlessly within 5 minutes of the disc being taken out of the mailbox.

The timing of these is great, what with the baby leading to us continuing our homebody trend for a bit longer.


lechtanski, movies, technology, tv
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Is there life after Terminator 2?
04-16-2009

As a huge fan of The Terminator, an old school Guns N Roses guy and a hater of Terminator 3, I was initially excited about the Sarah Conner Chronicles. The first season was good, but I’ve been slowly falling out of love with the Fox series. Frankly, I’m having a hard time paying attention.

However, the best line of the entire series passed with what I thought was very little fanfare.

Shirley Manson plays the T-1001 Terminator Catherine Weaver on the show. She is always quite awkward with her host’s daughter, Savannah. In last week’s episode, Savannah is missing her deceased father, because he used to sing some song to her to make her feel better. Shirley, the singer for the band Garbage, reassures her inherited daughter: “I’ll sing the song with you.”

And Savannah deadpans to her professional singer/actress of a mother: “But you can’t sing!”

Exactly my style of humor.


movies
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Worst Actor Ever
08-21-2008

Worst Actor EverThere are certain things that just aggravate me on sight. Clog dancing for one. I can’t tolerate it. The smug, yet stilted movements. Ugh. But even worse is Giancarlo Esposito. He has got to be the absolute worst actor ever. Maybe it’s not that simple. How about the least deserving successful actor ever. He is so bad it is almost painful. I kind of feel like a dick for feeling so strongly about this, because I’m sure he’s a nice guy. He’s just so bad.

He has polluted many a show that I like: New Amsterdam, Law & Order, Homicide, Kidnapped, even the movie The Usual Suspects! The moment he comes on screen, his ridiculous over-acting, over-pronunciation and faux-aggravation takes over. He ruins entire evenings for me, because he keeps getting jobs. Even in commercials for shows that I will never watch (South Beach, CSI,…), his ridiculous acting is apparent. I just don’t understand the attraction.

It’s not as if there is a mandate that this guy get a set number of jobs per year. Stop hiring him. Please? Maybe he’s smart with numbers and could go into accounting or something. I find faux irritation in accountants quaint.


movies, tv
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Movies I’d Forgotten About
03-28-2008

Recently, I have really started loving political thrillers from the 60s and 70s. I’m talking about those Redford, Hoffman and Beatty movies like the Parallax View, Marathon Man, Three Days of the Condor and, of course, All the President’s Men.

These are movies born from an era of an intense suspicion of the government. I’m a little young to remember it all (born in ’72), so I make a few suppositions: Vietnam, Nixon, the Kent State killings, MLK, JFK, RFK, Malcolm X, the Chicago Seven, theories that the US was behind a spat of coups around the world. The secrecy brought to light within the government, essentially confirmed people’s suspicions about other possible wrong doings by people in power. That in due time their other evil ways will be known.

The country was being run by this white male corporate/industrial/military power structure, and a class of younger white men made these great grainy movies. Everyone in the government is bad. The CIA, FBI, NSA, Congress, Wall Street… bad, bad, bad. The movies were mostly rated PG, but had a tiny bit of skin and swearing (there was no PG-13 rating, yet).

There’s a saying that historical movies aren’t about history, they’re about today. Conversely, these movies remind me of the ridiculous, secretive and bizarro-conservative administration we’re facing right now. They’re a sure reminder of the cyclical nature of government, culture and entertainment.

The modern equivalents would be Conspiracy Theory, Enemy of the State or, maybe, Michael Clayton. The government is an easy target. It’s hard to prove you aren’t hiding something.

My Favs:

I know Network is supposed to fit in here, but that one bugs me a little. Am I missing any others?


movies
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The Entertainment Future is Now
07-20-2006

So, news this week has brought us two reports of convenience trouncing quality. Following the MP3 over SA-CD consumer choice, we’ve got movie downloads being introduced at the same time that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray technologies are struggling to stay in the news/consumer’s mind. As I have said, never mind the Coke vs. Pepsi style blue ray technology battle trying to form in the media. Blue-ray technology is too expensive, and it will remain that way for a couple more years. It will take off when it breaks $100 and is seamlessly coupled with current DVD technology. But even then, Blue Ray recorders will be used to save downloaded movies from places like CinemaNow and MovieLink, not to rebuild movie archives in prerecorded HD-DVDs.

Convenience is going to win, as it usually does. How do I know? I’m lazy, too.

But what of iTunes, I might ask. What with the current Video iPod and the forthcoming, “true” video iPod expected now in the first quarter 2007. Will iTunes do for movie downloads what it did for music and music video downloads? It is going to let us rent movies over iTunes. But, I’m beginning to have my doubts.

Here’s why: the primary use of movie downloads will not be viewing on a 2-inch, 3.5-inch or 5-inch screen. Listening to music is generally something people do alone. Movies, on the other hand, are usually watched in a group. The video iPod is great for people to watch old episodes of Rocketboom or last night’s Daily Show during their daily commute, but a 120-minute movie is a little too long, unless you’re on an airplane. And most won’t crowd around something the size of your palm. The primary viewing locations are going to range from 42-inch plasmas to 12-inch in-car DVD systems.

Even still, movie downloads are going to take off when the link from the computer to the TV is just as rote as connecting the DVD player. So satellite companies and digital cable companies already have a big headstart, since their machines are already plugged into the TV. Where Apple or another computer hardware company might make this happen is with a wireless connection, ala Wifi. See: Airport Express. I fully expect Apple next generation Airport Express to include a video output, letting my plug into the S-Video or HDMI port of my 37-inch LCD.

Keep in mind, sometimes the secret to the general population excepting a technology advance is by bringing a new piece of hardware into the house. It seems counter-intuitive that you can do great new things like buy movies over the Internet, with the same old stuff you’ve always had. So make it a new piece of hardware that’s affordable, aspirational, technical and easy (Refer to the iPod in 2001).


movies, technology
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